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

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 23, 2019

To provide relevant perspective, listing past convertible note(s) and/or equity financing(s) including total round size and valuation (caps) is helpful. What not to include is directly stating valuation expectations. develop and launch X product, reach Y number of users, generate $Z amount revenue).

Cap Table 211

Cap Table Seed Stage Valuation Dilution 211

View from Seed

APRIL 30, 2015

” Venture debt gives you those options, and particularly for companies that wind up doing well, then on your same cash-out date, you’d likely have achieved a better milestone thanks to fueling your spend, which would translate into a better valuation. Traction and revenue? Business model? Previous capital raised?

Term Sheet 120

Term Sheet Equity Startup Seed Stage 120

View from Seed

NOVEMBER 18, 2020

You can read various articles out there which will give you the cursory facts about Airbnb like their overall revenue or profitability or how their business has faired here in 2020 in the COVID environment. But ops & customer support is another 17-20% of revenue and arguably you couldn’t run the business if you took that away.

North America 401

North America IPO Prospectus Europe 401

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 25, 2019

Something standard like a SaaS company where the exits scenarios and valuations are well-understood may not need a slide here, but the more non-traditional or unique the venture is, the more information which a Founder can fill in the blanks of “what could be” are helpful.

Seed Stage 166

Seed Stage Retention Restful Valuation 166

View from Seed

OCTOBER 15, 2014

Examples of housekeeping include the following list, though not every item will appear every time: Finance: Cash out date, burn rate, 409A valuation, cap table, common/preferred stock dashboard. However, these are important updates for your board to know. The seed stage is all about traction.

Seed Stage 331

Seed Stage Cap Table Metrics Burn Rate 331

View from Seed

FEBRUARY 19, 2015

Rob,” he said, “no offense, but you aren’t going to get a world class, been-there-done-that CEO into a company with less than $1 million in revenue. It’s nice to get great valuations and hire A-players. Over the last year, we finally had a strong revenue base and a great team in place, and I was able to take three weeks of vacation.

Founder 120

Founder Startup Cofounder Business Model 120