David Teten

JANUARY 21, 2021

This essay is part of a series on alternative VC: I: Revenue-Based Investing: a new option for founders who care about control. II: Who are the major Revenue-Based Investing VCs? III: Why are Revenue-Based VCs investing in so many women and underrepresented founders? IV: Should your new VC fund use Revenue-Based Investing?

Equity 78

Equity Revenue Cofounder Colorado 78

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 13, 2010

Jason Calacanis, a well-known entrepreneur and angel investor, opened the debate about a year ago in a strongly-worded article on his blog which attacked the practice on ethical grounds, and called out popular angel groups charging fees ranging from several hundred dollars to $5,000 or more. Find and fix that first.

Angel Groups 234

Angel Groups Entrepreneur Angel Investor Due Diligence 234

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 24, 2012

But many entrepreneurs don’t realize that Angels are also extremely discerning in the projects that they will invest in, rejecting approximately 97% of the proposals submitted to them, according to the California Investment Network. Don’t expect the pomp and celebrity of the Angels on Shark Tank , but they do ask a lot of the right questions.

Angel Investor 260

Angel Investor Intellectual Property Elevator Pitch Angel Groups 260

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 27, 2012

As a member of the local Angel group selection committee, I’ve seen a lot of startup presentations to investors, and I’ve never seen one that was too short - maybe short on content, but not short on pages! Explain in analogies your mother could understand, and quantify the “cost-of-pain” in dollars or time. Business model.

Elevator Pitch 247

Elevator Pitch Exit Strategy Burn Rate Merger 247

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 10, 2011

As a member of the local Angel group selection committee, I’ve seen a lot of startup presentations to investors, and I’ve never seen one that was too short - maybe short on content, but not short on pages! Explain in analogies your mother could understand, and quantify the “cost-of-pain” in dollars or time. Business model.

Elevator Pitch 234

Elevator Pitch Exit Strategy Burn Rate Merger 234

David Teten

SEPTEMBER 23, 2017

Sources like Crunchbase , Angel List , and Seed Invest even give this data away for free or very low cost. A major angel group used Influitive , an advocate management tool, to track, activate and motivate their members.

Private Equity 60

Private Equity Venture Capital Equity Technical Review 60

David Teten

JANUARY 28, 2019

For instance, Columbia has launched a variety of explicitly interdisciplinary centers in recent years, including the Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute , Columbia Data Science Institute ; the Brown Institute for Media Innovation ; or cross-school courses such as Columbia Business and Engineering’s Research to Revenue course.

Affiliate 60

Affiliate Connecticut Programming Community 60

Gust

DECEMBER 16, 2012

But many entrepreneurs don’t realize that Angels are also extremely discerning in the projects that they will invest in, rejecting approximately 97% of the proposals submitted to them, according to the California Investment Network. Don’t expect the pomp and celebrity of the Angels on Shark Tank , but they do ask a lot of the right questions.

Angel Investor 179

Angel Investor Intellectual Property Elevator Pitch Angel Groups 179

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 19, 2010

As a member of the local angel group Selection Committee, I’ve seen a lot of startup presentations to investors, and I’ve never seen one that was too short - maybe short on content, but not short on pages! Explain in analogies your mother could understand, and quantify the “cost-of-pain” in dollars or time. Business model.

Elevator Pitch 235

Elevator Pitch Exit Strategy Burn Rate Merger 235

Berkonomics

APRIL 4, 2019

Others worry that we will latch onto individual line items within financial data and engage in inquisitions regarding telephone bills, marketing costs and other tactical line items in detailed financial statements. That is one of the many costs of becoming a public entity as many CEO’s have found and dealt with over the years.

Stock Options 48

Stock Options Balance Sheet Stock Common Stock 48

Gust

AUGUST 19, 2012

As a member of the local Angel group selection committee, I’ve seen a lot of startup presentations to investors, and I’ve never seen one that was too short – maybe short on content, but not short on pages! Explain in analogies your mother could understand, and quantify the “cost-of-pain” in dollars or time. Business model.

Elevator Pitch 146

Elevator Pitch Exit Strategy Burn Rate Merger 146

YoungUpstarts

MARCH 31, 2016

If your solution doesn’t help potential customers reduce cost, increase sales, or improve their service to their customers, you don’t have a business anyway. Angel and other seed fund investors fund prototypes. Most VCs don’t invest pre-revenue. Get over it. It depends on the stage of your company.

United Kingdom 100

United Kingdom Entrepreneur Oklahoma Ohio 100

Berkonomics

APRIL 14, 2012

Others worry that investors will latch onto individual line items within financial data and engage in inquisitions regarding telephone bills, marketing costs and other tactical line items in detailed financial statements. That is one of the many costs of becoming a public entity as many CEO’s have found and dealt with over the years.

Stock Options 81

Stock Options Balance Sheet Stock Common Stock 81

Up and Running

MAY 28, 2015

Having said that, if you are, what I see in our group is the lean business plan is initially in the background, it’s your screenplay for your movie. It’s your plan that you go to as you develop summary and pitch, and most important, I see a hundred pitches a year because I do judging for some other angel groups and so on.

Lean 60

Lean Business Plan Video Software Review 60

Tim Keane

JANUARY 12, 2010

.   For individual angels and others investing their own money, this may be more fluid than for someone with responsibility for a managed fund. For angel groups, the distinction between groups and VCs on this issue is dwindling, especially as angel groups do bigger rounds of financing.

Term Sheet 68

Term Sheet Valuation Dividend Liquidation Preference 68

Up and Running

APRIL 8, 2013

The key thing is that the estimated return on the project must meet or exceed the cost of the external capital; otherwise the project is not worth undertaking. Equity investments are taking the most risk, but receive the highest return (cost to the company) in exchange. or greater.

Equity 82

Equity Covenant Venture Capital Finance 82

ReadWriteStart

FEBRUARY 10, 2011

Google PPC is a key channel for customer acquisition for many e-commerce and online businesses, yet keywords have become quite competitive, and the costs of campaigns for certain keywords tend to be extremely high. Also, Kimbra Orr with Kimbra Studios presented an interesting business selling photo jewelry that is already at $750k revenue.

PPC 114

PPC Entrepreneur Silicon Valley Incubator 114

ReadWriteStart

MAY 6, 2011

For perspective, I also joined a $1,000/month CEO-roundtable group, with professional speakers and full day, once-per-month meetings. At 1/12th the cost, 1M/1M provides far more value.". Dan spent $12,000 a year on a subscription to Vistage, a CEO mentoring program, and says, "The value of your program is amazing.

India 115

India Vertical Entrepreneur Connecticut 115

David Teten

DECEMBER 3, 2019

A major angel group uses Influitive , an advocate management tool, to track, activate and motivate their members. Investors are also mining for leads such sources as: – product crowdfunding sites ( Indiegogo *); – tech communities ( Producthunt ); – angel group platforms ( Gust ); – expert networks (e.g.,

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Software Review Analytics Private Equity 78

Up and Running

AUGUST 19, 2014

The type of deals and industries they invest in, the company stages, and the amount they invest depends on the individual or angel group. They should also show that they have measured the cost of reaching that market by comparing a customer’s lifetime value (LTV) to the customer’s acquisition cost (CAC).”.

Angel Investor 161

Angel Investor Technical Review Due Diligence Startup 161

Austin Startup

JUNE 26, 2019

You might notice what’s not on that list above: revenue, investors. No revenue isn’t always a problem for venture-style businesses; no investors + no revenue = challenges for most founders without tremendous self-funding. I recruited a top-flight engineer and serial entrepreneur to build our MVP, on equity?—?and

Silicon Valley 54

Silicon Valley Startup B2C Sweat Equity 54

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 12, 2012

We are talking about angel investors here, meaning people who invest their own money in early-stage startups for a share of the equity. Angel groups almost never supply financing for real estate purchases, or personal loans. Early-stage these days means early customer revenue received, and early product in the market.

Angel Groups 237

Angel Groups Angel Investor Early Stage Startup 237

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 14, 2011

We are talking about angel investors here, meaning people who invest their own money in early-stage startups for a share of the equity. Angel groups almost never supply financing for real estate purchases, or personal loans. Early-stage these days means early customer revenue received, and early product in the market.

Angel Investor 217

Angel Investor Angel Groups Early Stage Startup 217

www.paulgraham.com

APRIL 28, 2010

There never has to be atime when you have no revenues. Infact, the more prominent the angel, the less likely they are tobelong to a group. Some angel groups charge you money to pitch your idea to them.Needless to say, you should never do this. Deal terms with angels vary a lot.

Technical Review 76

Technical Review Startup Software Review Angel Investor 76

Gust

JULY 1, 2012

We are talking about angel investors here, meaning people who invest their own money in early-stage startups for a share of the equity. Angel groups almost never supply financing for real estate purchases, or personal loans. Early-stage these days means early customer revenue received, and early product in the market.

Angel Groups 143

Angel Groups Angel Investor Early Stage Startup 143

Business Plan Blog

DECEMBER 26, 2013

Establish a group of angels who have indicated an interest in investing the opportunity to form an angel group. Ensure that speak with all the angel group members and have guarantees on the amount they want to invest. Nominate one lead angel to lead the group. Professional fees and costs.

Angel Investor 51

Angel Investor Due Diligence Pre-Money Valuation Angel Groups 51

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 3, 2010

We are talking about angel investors here, meaning people who invest their own money in early-stage startups for a share of the equity. Angel groups almost never supply financing for real estate purchases, or personal loans. Early-stage these days means early customer revenue received, and early product in the market.

Angel Groups 121

Angel Groups Angel Investor Early Stage Later Stage 121

Up and Running

MARCH 11, 2015

This includes again another acronym I’m going to share, CAC, the cost to acquire a customer, the customer acquisition cost. You want to make sure that you understand, does it cost $10 to get a customer? If you’re a physical brick and mortar store, what does it cost to get someone in the door? You’re muted.

Technical Review 60

Technical Review Software Review Due Diligence Exit Strategy 60

David Teten

NOVEMBER 23, 2020

One of the impact initiatives I’m proudest of is founding Harvard Business School Alumni Angels of New York , a nonprofit and now the East Coast’s largest angel group. When we launched in 2010, I saw a white space: a burgeoning NY tech ecosystem, but only one angel group regularly writing checks. Why is that?

Venture Capital 60

Venture Capital Partner Technical Review Cofounder 60