Gust

DECEMBER 13, 2011

I’ve recently taken a look at seed stage funding by venture capitalists (VCs) and angel investors over the past five years. For VCs, I chose to look at all seed stage VC deals (from MoneyTree©) as well as those in five of the most active regions in the country. All Seed-VC. million in seed stage deals in 2010.

Seed Stage 162

Seed Stage Southern California San Diego Silicon Valley 162

VC Cafe

FEBRUARY 26, 2023

The company has grown rapidly and achieved a valuation of over $7 billion by delivering a product that is both intuitive and powerful. Also, you don’t need to reach a billion dollar valuation to be a “Super Founder” in my view.

Founder 88

Founder Cofounder Seed Stage Valuation 88

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 6, 2015

*. If you are a 20-something tech entrepreneur you could be forgiven for thinking that seed-stage investors, Angellist Syndicates and widely available angel money always existed. I was out to raise my first seed money in my second startup of $500,000. Some quick highlights include: The Role of a Seed Stage VC.

Seed Stage 150

Seed Stage Silicon Valley Syndicate Syndication 150

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 23, 2014

The rise of “micro VCs” or seed-stage funds. We are in a bubble (with so many private $1bn+ valuations). ” The new narrative is “will my seed funds be able to fund the prorata of their winners?” ” Stated simply – if you seed funded Uber at $4.5m

Technical Review 398

Technical Review Venture Capital Valuation Pre-Money Valuation 398

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 12, 2010

Specifically we talked about Slide having gotten a $550 million valuation before being sold to Google for $182 million. Dan makes a point that you shouldn’t be telling everyone about your valuation as Slide did. He said it’s best to talk about valuation only when you sell (if at all). Minutes 4 – 8.

Seed Stage 232

Seed Stage Valuation Private Equity Venture Capital 232

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 17, 2023

Investors call this the seed stage , where money is required to build a market and a real product. Another good indicator of your real stage is the valuation you can set for your company at any given moment, to determine what portion of your equity an investor will expect of his money.

Angel Investor 313

Angel Investor Intellectual Property Investment Bankers Private Equity 313

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 11, 2022

Non-credible funding request or unreasonable valuation. Future unproven projections don’t set today’s valuation. They are not interested in research and development, or funding at the idea stage. For seed stage funding, entrepreneurs should be looking to friends and family, crowd funding, and relevant institutions.

Due Diligence 271

Due Diligence Intellectual Property Entrepreneur Preferred Stock 271

Hippoland

JULY 24, 2016

Valuation is a nebulous topic amongst early stage startups, so I thought I’d really spell it out in detail. In short: Valuations for seed stage companies are fairly arbitrary and driven solely by supply and demand. Your startup’s valuation is not based on a proforma of your revenue.

Seed Stage 48

Seed Stage Valuation Vertical Demand 48

Hunter Walker

JUNE 9, 2023

My friends at Weekend Fund recently put out a round-up newsletter of some investor responses to the question “ Do Valuations Matter? They view valuation as an important guardrail in evaluating an investment opportunity. Like NEA, Homebrew takes an ownership-driven approach to investing.

Valuation 68

Valuation Seed Stage Portfolio Framework 68

View from Seed

MARCH 31, 2015

Editor’s note: Unlike the Ubers and Airbnbs of the tech startup world, seed-stage companies don’t typically have the valuations, awareness, or traction typically associated with press coverage. That said, coverage is important, and early-stage companies would be wise to work with local press in addition to national.

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage PR North Dakota Startup 120

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 13, 2018

Over the past five years, we’ve witnessed an Atomization of the Seed Stage. Early fundraising is no longer a one-and-done fundraise of a single round of Seed capital subsequently followed by a Series A 12–18 months later. Effective) post-money valuation. Seed stage startups are now graded on a curve.

Seed Stage 136

Seed Stage Post-Money Valuation Valuation Startup 136

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

MARCH 8, 2016

Jesse recently sat down with NextView (I assume he was sitting anyway — we spoke on the phone) to talk seed-stage company branding, building a startup identity, and some of the most common mistakes founders make when establishing a name for their companies. Iteration seems to be an important concept.

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage Conversion Startup PR 120

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 22, 2020

Investors call this the seed stage , where money is required to build a market and a real product. Another good indicator of your real stage is the valuation you can set for your company at any given moment, to determine what portion of your equity an investor will expect of his money.

Angel Investor 370

Angel Investor Intellectual Property Investment Bankers Private Equity 370

The Next Web

NOVEMBER 20, 2013

If people are funding the business, they should get a premium because at the end of the day, cash funding founders are acting no different than a seed stage investor. So, let’s say that one founder puts in $100,000 in seed capital, that could be worth 20 percent of a seed stage company’s valuation.

Cofounder 136

Cofounder Equity Founder Seed Stage 136

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 1, 2016

LPs See The Over-Valuations and Don’t Like It. LPs have followed the recent press about the over-valuation and over-funding of the startup industry, and they experience these phenomena first hand. The Biggest Area of Concern is Late Stage Investments. Another Area of Concern is in the Seed Investor Class.

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital LP Silicon Valley Marketing 150

Gust

OCTOBER 16, 2012

This summer I conducted our third annual survey of the pre-money valuation of pre-revenue companies recently funded by angel groups in North America. Access to our 2010 and 2011 surveys can be found at 2011 Valuation Survey of North American Angel Investor Groups. 2012 Valuation Survey. pre-money valuation in US$ millions).

Angel Groups 169

Angel Groups Valuation Pre-Money Valuation North Dakota 169

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 14, 2020

Non-credible funding request or unreasonable valuation. Future unproven projections don’t set today’s valuation. They are not interested in research and development, or funding at the idea stage. For seed stage funding, entrepreneurs should be looking to friends and family, crowd funding, and relevant institutions.

Due Diligence 308

Due Diligence Intellectual Property Preferred Stock Startup 308

Hunter Walker

JUNE 22, 2014

I was excited to recently see YC President Sam Altman evangelize for adding an investor or outside Director to a seed stage startup.

Seed Stage 93

Seed Stage Early Stage Metrics Startup 93

Feld Thoughts

MARCH 24, 2017

From those founders, we are aware that FC takes their mission “to be the most aligned fund to founders at the seed stage” very seriously. We know many firms that build portfolios with great logos by buying into companies at later stages and higher valuations. We also know many of the entrepreneurs in their portfolio.

Founder 75

Founder LP Technical Review Seed Stage 75

Version One Ventures

SEPTEMBER 22, 2021

Our returns are obviously very good, but in no way unique in today’s venture markets, especially among emerging managers that invest at the seed stage. The pandemic has reset these expectations over the past 18 months, leading to huge increases in valuations for both public and private tech companies. .

Venture Capital 201

Venture Capital IRR Private Equity Seed Stage 201

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 14, 2021

Or is there a major disconnect between a portfolio’s valuations and the actual dollars returned to LPs? Both early- and late-stage startup valuations are currently elevated. For context, seed-stage pre-money valuations are up 24% from H1 2020 to H1 2021. How have more recent vintages performed?

Valuation 319

Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Distribution Early Stage 319

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 14, 2021

Or is there a major disconnect between a portfolio’s valuations and the actual dollars returned to LPs? Both early- and late-stage startup valuations are currently elevated. For context, seed-stage pre-money valuations are up 24% from H1 2020 to H1 2021. How have more recent vintages performed?

Valuation 295

Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Distribution Early Stage 295

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. Seed stage was super tough. Seed is the New A.

Seed Stage 48

Seed Stage Venture Capital Early Stage Valuation 48

The Equity Kicker

JULY 1, 2015

He used this chart as evidence: Second, I read Josh Kopelman’s/First Round Capital’s Open Letter to Investors from May this year which says that seed valuations are up 3x from 2007-2015 without a corresponding increase in exits. Note that we can see a similar increase in Series A valuations in Fred’s chart above.

Valuation 60

Valuation Seed Stage Partner Marketing 60

Austin Startup

SEPTEMBER 10, 2017

TL;DR: Using a “tiered” valuation cap structure in a convertible note or SAFE can provide flexibility that bridges the gap between (i) what founders expect their company to be worth in the near future, and (ii) what investors are comfortable accepting now. Background Reading: The best seed round structure is the one that closes.

Valuation 48

Valuation Dilution Silicon Valley Seed Stage 48

Hunter Walker

SEPTEMBER 15, 2023

Haystack’s Semil Shah wrote up his POV on what this has all meant for the seed market and one point in particular caught my eye. Semil asserts, Seed-stage valuations have generally been left-unchanged, and I could argue even they’ve gone up since the beginning of 2022.

Cap Table 93

Cap Table Valuation Salary Seed Stage 93

thebarefootvc

JANUARY 27, 2014

Do I think we are in a valuation bubble? I think that later stage valuations are frothy (for reasons I explain below) while earlier stage valuations are starting to stabilize from previous highs (with the exception of the superstar serial entrepreneur) - turns out scaling in a sea of competition (both startup and entrenched) is not so easy.

Technical Review 63

Technical Review Valuation Venture Capital Investment Bankers 63

View from Seed

OCTOBER 15, 2014

Over the summer, based on feedback from our portfolio and the broader startup community, NextView created pre-formatted board deck templates for seed-stage startups — part of our Growth Guides series. As Rob Go wrote , board decks and board meetings can waste loads of time at the seed stage.

Seed Stage 331

Seed Stage Cap Table Metrics Burn Rate 331

Agile VC

MAY 26, 2011

I certainly bear no ill will to the various firms that ultimately passed on our fundraise… as a seed stage VC myself now I can appreciate how hard it is evaluating companies at the earliest stages of development. round which closed in November 2003, and the pre-money valuation between $10 million and $15 million.

Term Sheet 178

Term Sheet Silicon Valley Technical Review Social Network 178

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 23, 2019

*This post is part of our “pitch deck” series where we dissect the seed stage pitch deck and discuss the ideal flow for a pitch. To provide relevant perspective, listing past convertible note(s) and/or equity financing(s) including total round size and valuation (caps) is helpful. Here we are, at (one of) the final slides.

Cap Table 211

Cap Table Seed Stage Valuation Dilution 211

Agile VC

APRIL 17, 2011

Post-money valuation probably no higher than $12M (2). Pre-money valuation was initially set higher but was adjusted to match the Ser B valuation. Pre-money valuation was approx. Pre-money valuation was approx. Pre-money valuation was at least $250M (2). liquidation preference, 6% accumulated dividend (1).

Pre-Money Valuation 113

Pre-Money Valuation Liquidation Preference Dividend Common Stock 113

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 12, 2014

” If you invested at $8m pre-money and put $2m in (thus you own 20% of a company at a $10m post-money valuation) and if you put another $2m into a round at a $40m valuation raising $10m ($50m post) you end up with half your money at $8m pre and half at $40m pre thus your average price goes up dramatically.

Technical Review 336

Technical Review Early Stage Later Stage LP 336

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 14, 2021

Or is there a major disconnect between a portfolio’s valuations and the actual dollars returned to LPs? Both early- and late-stage startup valuations are currently elevated. For context, seed-stage pre-money valuations are up 24% from H1 2020 to H1 2021. How have more recent vintages performed?

Valuation 156

Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Distribution Early Stage 156

VC Cafe

FEBRUARY 27, 2024

What’s the difference between an angel round and pre-seed round and why do I believe we’ll see more pre-seed rounds taking place in 2024? While the answers are somewhat semantic, the pre-seed funding round is making a comeback in 2024 startup financing.

Valuation 186

Valuation Generative AI Software Review Technical Review 186

View from Seed

JANUARY 11, 2021

As high-conviction, seed stage investors, we are inherently relationship-driven, and we value meeting exceptional founders face-to-face. billion across 2,288 deals in Q3, with deal count exceeding Q2’s at nearly every stage. . Elizabeth Holmes of Theranos saw a once $9 billion valuation dissolve into 12 felony fraud charges.

Venture Capital 350

Venture Capital Cofounder Early Stage Seed Stage 350

Agile VC

SEPTEMBER 15, 2011

The very strongest companies can still likely get out if they really wanted, but may not command the valuations they hoped for in more bullish times. I co-founded NextView Ventures , a seed-stage VC firm based in Boston, in 2010. The second tier of companies probably have to wait whether they like it or not. Author howerl.

IPO 100

IPO Marketing Silicon Valley Private Equity 100