Both Sides of the Table

JULY 22, 2010

Back in 1999 when I first raised venture capital I had zero knowledge of what a fair term sheet looked like or how to value my company. Due to competitive markets we ended up with a pretty good term sheet until we needed to raise money in April 2001 and then we got completely screwed. No hidden terms.

Valuation 405

Valuation Liquidation Preference Pre-Money Valuation Term Sheet 405

David Teten

SEPTEMBER 6, 2015

She had so much insight to share that we broke the interview into two parts, 1) Corporate Venture Capital and more broadly, 2) How the Fortune 500 Can Buy, Invest and Partner with the Innovation Economy (coming soon). . Are they good sales people? The advice is to put venture people on those boards.

Venture Capital 60

Venture Capital Balance Sheet Technical Review Portfolio 60

Tim Keane

JANUARY 12, 2010

Term-sheets and Valuations: Thinking about Negotiations. Please see later version of this post on May 16, 2010 Entrepreneurs are often not experts in the area of term-sheet negotiations and all of the surrounding issues.   Investors sometimes “present” the terms they’d like and expect the entrepreneurs to react.

Term Sheet 68

Term Sheet Valuation Dividend Liquidation Preference 68

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 18, 2014

On the phone … Me: So, you raised venture capital? Him: But it’s much cheaper to just use the Series Seed term sheets that every law firm has put out so convertible notes make more sense because they’re cheaper and easier. Him: But then what if people don’t want to pay that price?

Venture Capital 417

Venture Capital Liquidation Preference Valuation Term Sheet 417

www.quora.com

JANUARY 16, 2011

Find Questions, Topics and People Add Question Add Question Venture Capital Venture Capital Term Sheets Startups Term Sheets What are examples of good startup term sheets? Ycombinator open source term sheet is a good start for Seed deals. org/2009/02.

Term Sheet 41

Term Sheet Startup Angel Investor Wiki 41

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 25, 2010

These are the people who make the early commitment to you to fund your round before having any social proof. You should seek to get people who are respected by others in your field and who will therefore make it easier to raise the rest of your angel round.&#. We both believe in rewarding different investors at different prices.

Finance 286

Finance Term Sheet Technical Review Warrant 286

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 25, 2010

We had many term sheets (it was 1999 and we had a pulse) and we were deciding which one to take. We were trying to optimize around a few criteria: price, size of round, number of syndicate partners and, of course, terms. We ended up agreeing a term sheet for $16.5 We ended up agreeing a term sheet for $16.5

Technical Review 301

Technical Review Term Sheet Due Diligence Venture Capital 301

abovethecrowd.com

NOVEMBER 28, 2022

Filling a board with people who lack experience in private company development (i.e., As the bull market raged on from 2015 to 2022, it became quite trendy for venture capitalists to wave the requirement for an annual audit which is embedded in almost every standard Series A term sheet. Theranos) is another.

Venture Capital 113

Venture Capital Non-Compete Government Delaware 113

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 13, 2011

Yeah, that was when I changed for me…” “…there was so much positive feedback on demystifying this one element of venture capital. Very few people can do a good job with a presentation that is emailable.”. Brad’s start in Venture Capital. Is that when it became big? This time frame – 2005/2006 – web 2.0

Technical Review 288

Technical Review Venture Capital Silicon Valley Software Review 288

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 20, 2019

But people are still begging for more technology or laws, often to protect them from themselves. Here someone who is not a registered financial broker contacts you on the Internet, tells you about all the people they know with money, then turns around to ask for a “retainer” or fee to cover their time and efforts. Delete the message.

Technical Review 228

Technical Review Non-disclosure Agreement Due Diligence Term Sheet 228

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 19, 2009

My blog linked to Brad Feld’s blog because I was so grateful for his series on term sheets and he was one of the biggest reasons that as a VC I felt compelled to blog. On December 3rd Brad Feld wrote a one paragraph blog post titled “ Raising Venture Capital &# in which he linked to my blog. Tempus Fugit.

Venture Capital 274

Venture Capital Term Sheet San Diego Viral 274

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 24, 2018

In any event the process is you meet a partner (whether you went direct or first built support from an associate) and that partner decides whether to bring you to meet more people and eventually to a “full partner meeting” which in most firms is on Monday. This is critical to build a cohesive venture capital firm.

Technical Review 314

Technical Review Due Diligence Partner Term Sheet 314

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 26, 2021

On the other hand, when negotiating a financing for your company, you should never present your term sheet first. Do your homework on the Internet and through contacts to find out their strengths, weaknesses, biases, curiosities, and insecurities, Knowledge is power, and that can be used for leverage.

Term Sheet 328

Term Sheet Bootstrapping Finance Startup 328

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 12, 2023

Too many entrepreneurs tell me they are looking for an investor, and can’t differentiate between venture capital (VC) investors versus accredited angel investors. The amounts from angels start as low as $25K, while minimum venture capital amounts usually start in the $2M range. In fact, the reality is quite the opposite.

Angel Investor 246

Angel Investor IRR Venture Capital Valuation 246

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 28, 2011

In this three-part series I will explore the ways that the Venture Capital industry has changed over the past 5 years that I would argue are a direct result of changes in the software industry, not the other way around. So it’s unsurprising that typical “A rounds&# of venture capital were $5-10 million.

Venture Capital 334

Venture Capital Software PHP Open Source 334

Genuine VC

MAY 20, 2013

Compared to most other areas of finance, venture capital is practiced as more of an art, as opposed to a science. The art of venture capital also means that for entrepreneurs raising it, there isn’t one definitive playbook which can be used as a guide. MYTH: Goal of entrepreneur’s VC fundraising is a term sheet.

Venture Capital 244

Venture Capital Cap Table Portfolio Early Stage 244

Berkonomics

MAY 15, 2014

A good example was during the negotiation of a term sheet. These usually involve a handful of angel investors, and a few entrepreneurs, who all want to build the very best term sheet for their exciting nascent enterprise. Very often, the initial opinions of the people around the table are radically different.

Term Sheet 91

Term Sheet Angel Groups Angel Investor Deal Structure 91

Feld Thoughts

FEBRUARY 14, 2010

Over the years my partner Jason Mendelson and I have heard from numerous people that they’ve been exposed to our Venture Capital Term Sheet Series as reference material in a college course. Tags: Term Sheet Venture Capital. So – I’m writing with a simple request.

Term Sheet 102

Term Sheet Venture Capital Programming Partner 102

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 18, 2017

But people are still begging for more technology or laws, often to protect them from themselves. Here someone who is not a registered financial broker contacts you on the Internet, tells you about all the people they know with money, then turns around to ask for a “retainer” or fee to cover their time and efforts. Delete the message.

Technical Review 120

Technical Review Non-disclosure Agreement Due Diligence Entrepreneur 120

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 13, 2020

Too many entrepreneurs tell me they are looking for an investor, and can’t differentiate between venture capital (VC) investors versus accredited angel investors. The amounts from angels start as low as $25K, while minimum venture capital amounts usually start in the $2M range. In fact, the reality is quite the opposite.

Angel Investor 314

Angel Investor Entrepreneur IRR Valuation 314

www.xconomy.com

JUNE 9, 2012

New San Diego VC Firm Emerges as ‘The Moneyball of Venture Capital’. Here’s some big news for San Diego’s innovation economy: There’s a new venture capital firm in town—and its investment methodology represents a fundamentally different approach to the conventional business model for venture investing. Hacker News.

San Diego 40

San Diego Venture Capital Technical Review San Francisco 40

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 26, 2013

But people are still begging for more technology or laws, often to protect them from themselves. Here someone who is not a registered financial broker contacts you on the Internet, tells you about all the people they know with money, then turns around to ask for a “retainer” or fee to cover their time and efforts. Delete the message.

Technical Review 202

Technical Review Non-disclosure Agreement Due Diligence Entrepreneur 202

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 23, 2017

People who do that are the ones who struggle. The best sales people never give up and they are politely persistent in finding new ways to get in front of target buyers. The biggest surprise to meet in watching people fund raising is how few of them follow up. Or ask anybody who has had a VC pull a term sheet for whatever reason.

Burn Rate 238

Burn Rate Term Sheet CTO Hire Fractional CTO 238

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 8, 2009

But many Series A firms tell people they have a “revenue rule&# and then you look at their portfolio and see many exceptions. Over deliver - The people who get funded are the people who actually get things done. I know that in a booming market people fund quickly. Neither is the norm.

Technical Review 309

Technical Review Term Sheet Venture Capital Revenue 309

This is going to be BIG.

MAY 5, 2023

It will be the 105th deal out of Brooklyn Bridge Ventures, the firm I started back in September 2012, and it will be the last deal I’ll be making out of my third fund. It will also be my last venture capital deal. For me, I don’t mind sharing how I think about it. No new investments. No more responding to fundraising decks.

Later Stage 218

Later Stage Venture Capital Term Sheet Limited Partner 218

Austin Startup

JULY 22, 2017

The core idea is that startups will pledge to take a few concrete measures in the way they operate their company that should, over time, increase the number of minorities, women and people who identify as LGBTQ in the startup community.

Austin 54

Austin Angel Investor Startup Term Sheet 54

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 31, 2019

He’ll be speaking at this year’s Lean Startup Conference , and also has a new book (for which I very happily wrote a short foreword) coming out next month: Secrets of Sand Hill Road: Venture Capital and How to Get It. What is venture capital, really? And what does a venture capital firm do?

Lean 108

Lean Venture Capital Conversion IPO 108

Steve Blank

APRIL 1, 2020

With millions of people out of work in the next quarter, it’s obvious that discretionary purchases like furniture, fashion, lifestyle will take a hit. If you were expecting angel or venture funding get on the phone to your investor(s). Some VC’s are walking away from signed term sheets. What does your board suggest?

South Korea 333

South Korea Salary Business Model China 333

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 2, 2009

No matter what I say some people are going to believe passionately on the other side of the argument. I think it breaks for most people after 3-4 years. Many term sheets ensued. I had that against the backdrop of several term sheets. I know this is a controversial topic. Two answers from me.

Founder 329

Founder Liquidation Preference Term Sheet Participating Preferred 329

This is going to be BIG.

SEPTEMBER 30, 2012

This is a company that, according to the article, got term sheets from half of the VCs that expressed interest in the company. In 2008, people weren't sure if we were heading into a complete financial collapse. Not a bad close rate, I'd say--and a pretty great pay day. Did I mention it only took the founder a month?

Venture Capital 114

Venture Capital Marketing Term Sheet Software Review 114

View from Seed

FEBRUARY 23, 2016

To do so, Danielle didn’t wait for people to come into contact with Mattermark and enter into the top of their funnel. Instead, the company simply started contacting people directly, sharing real value in the form of useful or interesting content for investors. “If If you’re going to just contact people, what do you have to say?“

Curation 120

Curation RSS Term Sheet Technical Review 120

Reid Hoffman

JULY 27, 2021

You’re going to school with somewhere between 200 to 800 people who are going to be future global business leaders; these relationships can be enormously valuable. Network strength is one of the reasons that people who want to build great software businesses have, and will continue to move to Silicon Valley. In other words, execution.

Silicon Valley 69

Silicon Valley Venture Capital Balance Sheet Cofounder 69

Reid Hoffman

JULY 27, 2021

You’re going to school with somewhere between 200 to 800 people who are going to be future global business leaders; these relationships can be enormously valuable. Network strength is one of the reasons that people who want to build great software businesses have, and will continue to move to Silicon Valley. In other words, execution.

Silicon Valley 69

Silicon Valley Venture Capital Balance Sheet Cofounder 69

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 4, 2018

As the venture capital industry has evolved, more and more seed investors are passing on traditionally “seed stage” startups because there isn’t enough traction. As seed funds have raised larger and larger funds, more have developed the muscle around issuing term sheets and “leading”. And by early, we mean pre-traction.

North America 120

North America Seed Stage Early Stage Lead Investor 120

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 19, 2011

. - Business model: o They bought a lot of ad inventory (banner ads/advertising) driving people to signup forms, converting (fill out form) and sold leads, o Initial strategy was first comparison shopping and then monitoring and upselling on more savings. Mix it up with different agencies, people run out or creativity/contacts.

Acquisition 304

Acquisition Warrant Customer Term Sheet 304

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 11, 2011

If you want a very quick primer on all the stuff nobody ever tells you about raising venture capital check out this video where Mark Jeffrey & I break it down on This Week in VC. Associates are good an important people – I discuss this in the video. Critically at the partners meeting you should have 2-3 people.

Non-disclosure Agreement 340

Non-disclosure Agreement NDA Cofounder Term Sheet 340

VC Cafe

OCTOBER 27, 2011

The post “ What I learned from raising venture capital ” by Gabriel Weinberg , the founder of DuckDuckGo is one of them. WHAT TO DO WHEN RAISING VENTURE CAPITAL. Raise funding after reaching a milestone people care about and not just one that you care about. . Use AngelList.

Venture Capital 109

Venture Capital Term Sheet Angel Investor Due Diligence 109