Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 20, 2019

Statistica reports that almost 20 percent more companies went public in 2018 versus 2017. Funding for early-stage startups is more available than ever. The median deal size is back over $100 million. Last year 300,000+ American angels invested an estimated $25 billion in more than 70,000 startup deals.

North America 320

North America Incubator Initial Public Offering Exit Strategy 320

Austin Startup

MARCH 1, 2018

framework for both presenting and analyzing early stage venture investment opportunities. We will select 6 startups to pitch for 3 minutes each in front of a panel of VCs and early stage investors. Are you being asked to invest in, or raise money for one? In this session, we will share and discuss a simplified?—?and

Technical Review 89

Technical Review Austin Texas Cofounder 89

YoungUpstarts

AUGUST 26, 2020

Over half a million new businesses got started per month in 2018 alone, and the advanced technologies and resources of the modern era provide so many ways for new businesses to find success, connect with customers, and build their brands. In short, do whatever you can to spread the word.

Technical Review 255

Technical Review Early Stage Social Media Cost 255

Hippoland

JANUARY 23, 2018

I thought it might be useful to do a high level overview of what fundraising in 2018 looks like at the pre-seed / seed stage. This means that traction bar has gone up for both pre-seed and seed stage companies. In the late summer / early fall of 2017, we were investing in companies that were quite early.

Early Stage 48

Early Stage Convertible Security Seed Stage SEC 48

Hippoland

JANUARY 23, 2018

I thought it might be useful to do a high level overview of what fundraising in 2018 looks like at the pre-seed / seed stage. This means that traction bar has gone up for both pre-seed and seed stage companies. In the late summer / early fall of 2017, we were investing in companies that were quite early.

Early Stage 48

Early Stage Convertible Security Seed Stage SEC 48

NZ Entrepreneur

FEBRUARY 27, 2020

While capital to large tech companies is increasing, smaller rounds for early-stage companies is drying up. The data suggests half as much funding in 2018-19 than in the peak time of 2016-17 (Alex McCauley, CEO, StartupAUS, 2019). Capital funding for early-stage companies is drying up and becoming harder to find.

Developer 68

Developer Early Stage Later Stage Acquisition 68

YoungUpstarts

APRIL 22, 2018

This is particularly true in the early stages of a new venture when you may be a solopreneur or working with a very small team. May 10th and 11th, 2018. May 1st – 3rd, 2018. SaaStock 2018. October 15th – 17th, 2018. Boston, USA Oct 1st – 3rd, 2018. Sept 4th – 7th, 2018.

Las Vegas 109

Las Vegas Software Review Affiliate Cofounder 109

crowdSPRING Blog

NOVEMBER 8, 2018

1871 is home to hundreds of early stage, high growth digital startups and offers tremendous resources and programming to entrepreneurs at all stages of their startup journey. The post 10 Best Cities in the United States for Startups and Entrepreneurs (2018) appeared first on crowdspring Blog. Sound good? We think so.

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United States Las Vegas San Francisco Denver 113

View from Seed

DECEMBER 6, 2018

And early stage investing is about finding outliers, which requires some flexibility to stretch beyond your rules to test your beliefs without going too crazy. Early stage investing is much less efficient than you think, so trust yourself! Except… Spotify). There are a few things that don’t change.

Early Stage 120

Early Stage Florida Deal Flow Venture Capital 120

VC Cafe

SEPTEMBER 10, 2021

It takes a LOT of courage to say no to potential revenue, especially in the very early stages of a startup. Between the first quarters of 2018 and 2021, Roblox’s DAUs (daily active users) more than quadrupled from 10.3 Saying “no” can be equally important as saying “yes” to a potential partner or client. . million to 42.1

Technical Review 178

Technical Review South Korea Due Diligence IP 178

Austin Startup

JULY 7, 2019

Funding early-stage resources?—?how The number of female-owned businesses has grown 58% from 2017 to 2018 (compared to 12% increase for all other businesses), and the number of black-female-owned businesses was 3x that (by the way, to add insult to injury they raised only 0.0006% of the total venture dollars pool). Mentorship.

Early Stage 51

Early Stage Founder Austin Conversion 51

YoungUpstarts

NOVEMBER 20, 2019

Among these opportunities, the chance to pitch an investor and secure funding is perhaps the greatest of all — at least in the early stages of your startup career — as it can ultimately determine the long-term fate of your company. Have a reasonable attitude about your early-stage valuation, and don’t get too hung up on it.

Technical Review 118

Technical Review Due Diligence Early Stage Differentiation 118

The Startup Magazine

NOVEMBER 28, 2018

The FUND Conference brings together over 100 startups to present their early-stage products and pitches in front of hundreds of investors and industry leaders. We bootstrapped our minimum lovable product and it will launch in December 2018 with eight brands, plus we have more partners in the pipeline.

Technical Review 153

Technical Review Software Review Illinois Due Diligence 153

YoungUpstarts

AUGUST 23, 2019

Early-stage startups might want to consider local opportunities first before plunging into national awards! Dedicated to early-stage companies, there were over 15 categories to choose from in the 2018 edition, including, inter alia: B2B Business of the Year, Crowdfunded Business of the Year and Export Business of the Year.

Technical Review 127

Technical Review Startup Balance Sheet Early Stage 127

Austin Startup

JULY 15, 2019

Capital Factory has been the most active early stage tech investor in Texas since 2013. We did 70 transactions in 2018 alone! Do you have an understanding of venture capital terminology and common structures such as convertible notes, SAFEs, stock options, warrants, and early stage equity transactions?

Texas 56

Texas Technical Review Silicon Valley Venture Capital 56

Feld Thoughts

MAY 6, 2021

The program has been running in Colorado supporting pre-seed to post-seed stage startups at the intersection of conservation and technology since 2018. They have graduated 20 founders (see 2018 class here and 2019 class here ) and are taking applications now through May 12th for their next class.

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Seed Stage Colorado Early Stage Programming 240

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 21, 2018

Funding for early-stage startups is more available than ever. Looking ahead, Investopedia predicts that in 2018 the supply of VC money will continue to grow. The average amount raised also increased to $175 million. Last year 200,000+ American angels invested an estimated $25 billion in more than 71,000 startup deals.

Entrepreneur 166

Entrepreneur Valuation Incubator Initial Public Offering 166

VC Cafe

JANUARY 22, 2021

Amazon Corporate Development – Notable acquisitions include Whole Foods ($13.7B), smart doorbell system Ring ($1.2B, 2018) and autonomous mobility technology Zoox ($1.2bn). AWS Builder Space (Israel) – A non-equity program for early stage startups who are looking to accelerate their speed to market.

Technical Review 174

Technical Review Startup Venture Capital Incubator 174

Austin Startup

MARCH 7, 2018

Date: Fri March 9, 2018 Time: 11:00 AM?—?12:00 Date: Sat March 10, 2018 Time: 12:30 PM? The Food+City Challenge Prize is an international competition among early stage business startups encouraging innovation in the urban food system. Date: Tues March 13, 2018 Time: 9:30 AM?—?10:30

Mexico 48

Mexico Silicon Valley Texas Austin 48

David Teten

AUGUST 19, 2019

Though RBI will displace some traditional equity VC, its much bigger impact will be to expand the pool of capital available for early-stage entrepreneurs. . However, only recently have early-stage companies started to use this model at any scale. . So what is Revenue Based Investing?

Revenue 60

Revenue Term Sheet Founder Technical Review 60

ReadWriteStart

JULY 12, 2019

It shouldn’t be a surprise that the buzz surrounding AI/machine learning and early stage startups peaked in 2018. The ability to automate responsibilities and streamline efficiency makes AI and machine learning an attractive productivity option for businesses.

Artificial Inteligence 132

Artificial Inteligence Technical Review Software Review Startup 132

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 10, 2021

We back very early stage companies and work alongside executive teams as their build their teams, launch their products, announce their companies and raise their first downstream capital rounds. The biggest change for us in early-stage investing is that we now need to commit earlier. Secrets of Sand Hill Road.

Pre-Money Valuation 471

Pre-Money Valuation Valuation Venture Capital Early Stage 471

Hippoland

JANUARY 11, 2018

I am so excited and hopeful for 2018. But one of the things I’ve noticed through investing in seed startups these past few years is that early stage funding is incredibly skewed towards certain types of founders or ideas. This is because these founders didn’t fit what most early stage investors were looking for.

Silicon Valley 48

Silicon Valley Early Stage Startup Cofounder 48

Hippoland

JANUARY 11, 2018

I am so excited and hopeful for 2018. But one of the things I’ve noticed through investing in seed startups these past few years is that early stage funding is incredibly skewed towards certain types of founders or ideas. This is because these founders didn’t fit what most early stage investors were looking for.

Silicon Valley 48

Silicon Valley Early Stage Startup Cofounder 48

View from Seed

NOVEMBER 7, 2019

Secondary transaction liquidity also starts to become a reality for founders and early investors. 2017-2018: Rediscovery of Unit Economics. Snapchat goes public in 2017 and Spotify succeeds with a direct listing in 2018. US VC funding tops the $100B mark in 2018, and over 25% of this goes into $1B+ supersized private rounds.

IPO 202

IPO Early Stage Cofounder B2C 202

The Startup Magazine

JUNE 15, 2018

5th August 2018 – APPLICATIONS CLOSE. 6th September 2018 – PITCH DAY. 24th September 2018 – PROGRAMME STARTS. 14th December 2018 – DEMO DAY. There is a wealth of early-stage companies developing transformative technologies which IAG will embrace as part of Hangar 51.

Technical Review 60

Technical Review Due Diligence Startup Analytics 60

David Teten

DECEMBER 15, 2018

If you can’t find a banker which will buy such an early-stage company (which is likely), I suggest at least mail directly all the likely acquirers with whom you have an existing relationship. Since your early days, hopefully you kept a list of likely acquirers and made an effort to get to know them. Consider a banker.

Startup 60

Startup Later Stage Technical Review Software Review 60

Version One Ventures

OCTOBER 22, 2019

When China banned cryptocurrency exchanges in 2017 and then went after Bitcoin mining in 2018, we saw short-term impacts on the price of Bitcoin, but no lasting effect despite the huge size of the Chinese market for the currency. Wave 2: Disruption of financial markets (early product market fit).

Venezuela 68

Venezuela Argentina China Technical Review 68

SiliconHills

JANUARY 27, 2018

Now the accelerator, based at Galvanize, is accepting applications for its 2018 program, which starts in mid-April. The free program lasts nine months and includes mentorship and help with issues facing early-stage companies. […].

Programming 55

Programming Early Stage Austin 55

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 6, 2019

That’s a reason why some are quick to portend “a new bubble” but this post sets out to show that would be a misunderstanding of the market and in fact by historic levels this may be amongst the best times to invest in seed and early-stage funds. Taken together these “mega rounds” represent nearly half of the funding in 2018.

Venture Capital 292

Venture Capital IPO Mezzanine Early Stage 292

Austin Startup

DECEMBER 17, 2017

None of us can un-ring the bell for whatever happened in 2017, but we can decide now to improve in 2018. We just closed out in 2017 our 10-year early-stage venture fund started in 2000. Just because something didn’t occur as planned last year doesn’t mean that it can’t have a desired outcome in 2018. Think about that.

Silicon Valley 48

Silicon Valley Atlanta Software Review Early Stage 48

David Teten

FEBRUARY 3, 2014

Their late stage deals outside of the venture centers outperform by ~5% vs. those in the venture centers; early stage deals outperformed by ~4%. Our job is to invest in the growth areas of 2018. The people who know the most about the growth areas of 2018 are not VCs (i.e.,

Private Equity 114

Private Equity Venture Capital Technical Review Equity 114

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 14, 2017

As an early-stage VC I love this phase. While early-stage companies have all of their engineers working on product innovation, companies that want to scale realize that you also have to build systems to help with organizational scaling.

Operations 286

Operations New York City Technical Review Startup 286

Up and Running

FEBRUARY 18, 2021

Especially in the early stages of growth, standing up to competition means that your business also needs to minimize the cost of acquiring new customers. Launched at the start of 2018, our affiliate program has been an integral part of our marketing strategy ever since. It’s not enough that your business has product/market fit.

Acquisition 127

Acquisition Cost Affiliate Customer 127

VC Cafe

FEBRUARY 11, 2020

The rise of CVC volume is well documented (see post on VC Cafe), but what’s less discussed is funds started by mature startups or “new corporates” These are funds launched by venture backed companies to deploy capital into early stage startups innovating in their space. “Mature” startup funds.

Balance Sheet 201

Balance Sheet Startup IPO Venture Capital 201

VC Cafe

NOVEMBER 30, 2022

Even, so, the figure of new unicorns in 2022 is bigger than 2018, 2018 and 2020 combined. As an early stage investor, I’m optimistic about the talent that is being ‘released’ from these unicorns with entrepreneurial spirit and a wish to leave their own mark as founders in ‘2nd generation’ startups.

Europe 97

Europe Balance Sheet Valuation 97

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 9, 2020

Some of the readings for this fourth class session included: National Security Strategy , 2018 National Defense Strategy , National Military Strategy Summary, The Age of Great-Power Competition , The China Reckoning: How Beijing Defied America’s Expectations , The Administration’s Policy Toward China , The End of American Illusion.

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Russia North Korea Technology China 326