Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 17, 2023

For example, if you have a proven product, real revenue, a big potential market, and are ready to scale up the business, every investor will be interested. On the other hand, if you are a new entrepreneur, still in the idea stage, professional investors will only tell you to come back later when you have traction (customers and revenue).

Angel Investor 313

Angel Investor Intellectual Property Investment Bankers Private Equity 313

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 4, 2018

Most of these rhyme with what we’ve said in the past, but some have also evolved to fit the changing landscape and our own convictions about what really matters for founders and their investors at the seed stage. However, our overall goal is to invest in the full spectrum of seed. Belief #1: The best time to invest is early.

North America 120

North America Seed Stage Early Stage Lead Investor 120

View from Seed

JANUARY 27, 2021

In our first two funds, we’ve been fortunate to seed five unicorns ( Attentive , Whoop , Grove Collaborative , Skillz , and TripleLift ) and 10 companies with $100M+ exits or recent valuations. Thirteen of these 15 companies were seeded pre-revenue, and many were at concept stage or had rudimentary early products.

LP 411

LP Early Stage Seed Stage Venture Capital 411

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 22, 2020

For example, if you have a proven product, real revenue, a big potential market, and are ready to scale up the business, every investor will be interested. On the other hand, if you are a new entrepreneur, still in the idea stage, professional investors will only tell you to come back later when you have traction (customers and revenue).

Angel Investor 370

Angel Investor Intellectual Property Investment Bankers Private Equity 370

K9 Ventures

JUNE 5, 2015

Almost two years ago, in a private/closed meeting with K9 Ventures’ LPs only, I claimed that: What was being referred to in the press as the “Series A Crunch” was not because fewer Series A deals were being done, but because there were too many Seed deals being done. The risk here is what I refer to as the curse of over-capitalization.

Seed Stage 48

Seed Stage Venture Capital Early Stage Valuation 48

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 16, 2010

One is the “denominator problem&# which says that if an LP invests X% (the denominator) into “alternative investments&# such as venture capital and if their total amount available to invest (the numerator) goes down by 30% then the amount they allocate to VC will by definition need to go down by 30% to stay the same percentage.

LP 311

LP Technical Review Early Stage Silicon Valley 311

Feld Thoughts

NOVEMBER 2, 2016

This quarter they interviewed me as part of it on Quarterly VC Update: Brad Feld on the State of Venture Capital Investing. So – for early stage companies (Pre-Seed, Seed, Series A), the terms tend to be clean and simple, and valuation is in a modest range that probably has a median around $5m.

Venture Capital 70

Venture Capital Private Equity Early Stage Valuation 70

thebarefootvc

JANUARY 27, 2014

From my perspective it’s a great time to be investing at the post-seed stage – lots of great entrepreneurs looking for smart capital to help them accelerate growth. Demand for late stage VC-backed companies. Economics Entrepreneurship Startups Technology Venture Capital bubble economics startups valuation'

Technical Review 63

Technical Review Valuation Venture Capital Investment Bankers 63

K9 Ventures

JUNE 12, 2012

While it it may not feel that way, the data suggest that there is indeed too much capital in the system — especially so at the seed stage, with more and more individuals and larger funds trying to invest in companies at this stage.). For most venture capital funds money is a commodity. It is a tool.

Venture Capital 117

Venture Capital Silicon Valley Founder Seed Stage 117

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 19, 2018

For example, if you have a proven product, real revenue, a big potential market, and are ready to scale up the business, every investor will be interested. On the other hand, if you are a new entrepreneur, still in the idea stage, professional investors will only tell you to come back later when you have traction (customers and revenue).

Angel Investor 184

Angel Investor Intellectual Property Investment Bankers Private Equity 184

Rob Go

SEPTEMBER 4, 2018

Most of these rhyme with what we’ve said in the past, but some have also evolved to fit the changing landscape and our own convictions about what really matters for founders and their investors at the seed stage. However, our overall goal is to invest in the full spectrum of seed. Belief #1: The best time to invest is early.

North America 36

North America Seed Stage Early Stage Lead Investor 36

K9 Ventures

APRIL 28, 2010

I’m pleased to announce the formation of K9 Ventures, L.P. – a seed-stage fund. K9 Ventures, L.P. is a $6.25M fund that is designed to do concept and seed-stage investments in technology companies. Direct Revenue : The company must have a direct revenue model.

Seed Stage 61

Seed Stage San Francisco IP Portfolio 61

K9 Ventures

JUNE 12, 2012

While it it may not feel that way, the data suggest that there is indeed too much capital in the system — especially so at the seed stage, with more and more individuals and larger funds trying to invest in companies at this stage.). For most venture capital funds money is a commodity. It is a tool.

Venture Capital 105

Venture Capital Silicon Valley Founder Seed Stage 105

Entrepreneurs-Journey.com by Yaro Starak

AUGUST 19, 2021

Elizabeth Yin is the co-founder and General Partner of a venture capital firm that, and I quote from their website, invests in “hilariously early startups” Hustle Fund typically invests $25,000 as a starting point into startups that have yet to show any revenues.

Founder 98

Founder Partner Venture Capital Cofounder 98

VC Cafe

FEBRUARY 27, 2024

A founder asked me what makes a $2M round “pre-seed”? especially if the startup already has a product and revenue? And why do we still sometimes hear about pre-seed rounds that look more like a series A in pricing and size? So far there’s not much that has changed, so why should pre-seed look any different in 2024?

Valuation 186

Valuation Software Review Generative AI Technical Review 186

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 4, 2014

For example, if you have a proven product, real revenue, a big potential market, and are ready to scale up the business, every investor will be interested. On the other hand, if you are a new entrepreneur, still in the idea stage, professional investors will only tell you to come back later when you have traction (customers and revenue).

Angel Investor 232

Angel Investor Intellectual Property Investment Bankers Private Equity 232

Genuine VC

JANUARY 3, 2013

According to all of the blogosphere chatter over the past month, seed-funded internet startups are entering this year gearing up for the now-near-infamous Series A Crunch. The nuance which isn’t being recognized is that most of the companies of this latter profile, while viable businesses, aren’t venture-scale businesses.

Seed Stage 166

Seed Stage Venture Capital Audience New York 166

The Next Web

FEBRUARY 27, 2014

As an example, a new restaurant may get valued at 3-4x EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) and a hot dot com business with meteoric traffic growth could get valued at 5-10x revenues. Sophomores are beta site to full production site with initial users (seed stage angels—raise $500K to $1MM).

Valuation 167

Valuation Forecast Seed Stage .Net 167

Steve Blank

JUNE 15, 2011

Long before others, they saw that these applications could have hundreds of millions of users with “off the chart&# revenue and profits. The awareness phase is where other later-stage investors start to notice the momentum, bringing additional money in and pushing prices higher. Filed under: Venture Capital.

Silicon Valley 327

Silicon Valley Stealth Valuation Mississippi 327

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 13, 2016

For example, if you have a proven product, real revenue, a big potential market, and are ready to scale up the business, every investor will be interested. On the other hand, if you are a new entrepreneur, still in the idea stage, professional investors will only tell you to come back later when you have traction (customers and revenue).

Matching 120

Matching Angel Investor Intellectual Property Investment Bankers 120

K9 Ventures

APRIL 9, 2014

Instead, it was more of a result of over-funding at the seed stage. There was simply too much money coming in to the seed stage, which increased the supply of companies at the seed stage. Threshold for an IPO is higher Ten years ago, if you had $20M in revenue you were ready to go public.

Mezzanine 134

Mezzanine Seed Stage Early Stage IPO 134

BeyondVC

JANUARY 3, 2019

The 10 year bull market where every company’s revenue chart is up and to the right is over. On the seed side, we are seeing more firms focus on smaller and more concentrated portfolios instead of a spray and pray mentality. Consider this a back to basics approach the way VC used to be in the Arthur Rock days.

Stealth 79

Stealth Advisory Board Cloud Virginia 79

This is going to be BIG.

MARCH 16, 2020

As a seed stage investor, I know the math. Leveraging up a company with venture dollars in an attempt to grow to a national or world class brand can be a risky proposition. They decided to raise venture capital money in order to build a factory, open new stores, and take advantage of their newfound fame to go into wholesale.

Bankruptcy 95

Bankruptcy Private Equity Seed Stage Dilution 95

The Equity Kicker

APRIL 21, 2016

But it got me thinking about the trade off between short term clarity and long term upside in seed stage investing. Every business that’s successful raising venture capital has a plan that gets them to a massive exit, or at least that’s the way it should be. Not when they’re at the seed stage.

Seed Stage 60

Seed Stage Venture Capital eCommerce Partner 60

K9 Ventures

OCTOBER 10, 2017

You see, Dan knows more about venture than most people; and if Dan isn’t aware that “pre-seed is a thing,” then I haven’t done a good enough job of explaining to the world what I and K9 do! So, I took it upon myself as a challenge to put together the definitive “ Pre-Seed FAQ.” Q: Why haven’t I heard of Pre-Seed rounds before?

Seed Stage 82

Seed Stage Finance Later Stage Equity 82

Haystack

FEBRUARY 17, 2019

The company raised a seed-extension round midway through, and was doing well enough to use revenues to keep financing the business to iron out some wrinkles in the business and data model. As the company accumulated leverage, it was able to more or less control the timing in which it accepted Series A capital.

Seed Stage 106

Seed Stage Retention Finance Conversion 106

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 3, 2015

As they say, you only get one chance to make a great first impression, so don’t pitch to a key angel group or venture capital team for practice. Investors are not interested in “mulligans” at this stage, since they don’t expect to provide money for restarts later. Temper your approach based on the stage of your startup.

Cost 120

Cost Angel Groups Due Diligence Silicon Valley 120

techcrunch.com

OCTOBER 13, 2012

He is on the board of the Angel Resource Institute, and is a partner with Montlake Capital (a late stage growth capital fund) and with Revenue Capital Management (a royalty based lender). This is absolutely competitive with venture capital returns. So which is it? Only they’re not. and the U.K.,

Angel Investor 103

Angel Investor Venture Capital Seed Stage Silicon Valley 103

Austin Startup

JULY 29, 2018

Some will invest in a great person with a big idea and others need to see customer traction and revenue first. It doesn’t make any sense to pitch a later stage, “growth” investor with your seed stage idea just like it doesn’t make much sense to pitch a new tech startup to an investor who only does oil & gas.

Angel Investor 59

Angel Investor Technical Review Los Angeles Seed Stage 59

YoungUpstarts

JANUARY 6, 2014

Once I had a few under my belt, I realized I was a start-up junkie, and founded Five Mill Ventures in San Francisco before I was 30. From restaurants to tech companies, I’ve seeded a number of new ventures with my own marketing know-how instead of just cash.

San Francisco 154

San Francisco Business Model Silicon Valley Coder 154

K9 Ventures

JULY 19, 2012

K9 Ventures started investing in 2009 with our first fund, K9 Ventures, L.P., which was a $6.25M fund designed to be deployed over 3-4 years, making initial investments between $100K – $250K in concept and seed stage technology companies located in the San Francisco Bay Area. Not interested in me-too businesses.

Technology 132

Technology Seed Stage San Francisco Limited Partner 132

K9 Ventures

JULY 19, 2012

K9 Ventures started investing in 2009 with our first fund, K9 Ventures, L.P., which was a $6.25M fund designed to be deployed over 3-4 years, making initial investments between $100K – $250K in concept and seed stage technology companies located in the San Francisco Bay Area. Not interested in me-too businesses.

Technology 132

Technology Seed Stage San Francisco Limited Partner 132

BeyondVC

FEBRUARY 12, 2014

BOLDstart helps founders at the seed stage accelerate their growth from idea/ alpha phase to product market fit and successful Series A round. helps founders at the seed stage accelerate their growth from idea/ alpha phase to product market fit and successful Series A round”.

Seed Stage 110

Seed Stage Agile Viral API 110

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 29, 2011

Yesterday I wrote Part 1 of the series on the changes to the software industry over the past decade that has led to changes in the venture capital industry itself. If they hit a product / market fit (meaning you suddenly see a massive uptick in usage and/or revenue) then these companies need to go “fat.&#

Venture Capital 296

Venture Capital Software LP Early Stage 296

SoCal CTO

NOVEMBER 5, 2009

You and I were talking about a startup recently and where they might go for seed stage funding, what is your impression on that aspect here in Los Angeles? We occasionally get involved with very early stage startups. A few years ago “venture capital” was a revenue model. Are you doing much of that?

Los Angeles 150

Los Angeles Southern California Startup SEO 150

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 27, 2010

What do you get when you combine 7 panelist plus one moderator on to a stage for 30 minutes to talk about a serious topic? There are real changes in the venture capital industry and it would have been fun to talk about them. Now we can call you a seed-stage VC or a micro VC. Answer: Not much. It’s a shame.

Liquidity Event 308

Liquidity Event Silicon Valley Seed Stage Finance 308

Bryce Dot VC

NOVEMBER 19, 2012

We’ve been deeply fortunate to have been able to catch the seed stage wave early and work with some of the most dynamic and thoughtful founders in our industry. As a seed investor, we’ve always leaned towards larger rounds in favor of giving our founders at least 18 mo of runway with no revenue.

Seed Stage 61

Seed Stage LP Incubator Venture Capital 61