View from Seed

OCTOBER 5, 2016

Whether an entrepreneur is raising a smaller (pre-)seed round entirely from individuals or she has a seed-stage or larger VC firm involved in (leading) the seed syndicate, it’s somewhere between necessary and optimal to have multiple individual angel investors involved. This stage is an art more than a science.

Angel Investor 332

Angel Investor Boston Seed Stage Syndicate 332

Reid Hoffman

AUGUST 6, 2020

At the seed stage, we have backed very non-obvious, non-pedigreed entrepreneurs, in spaces that weren’t obvious, who ended up being amazing. HOW DOES GREYLOCK EVALUATE COMPANIES AT THE SEED-STAGE? If you already have customers, it makes it easier to validate your value prop and initial product.

Technical Review 69

Technical Review Seed Stage Software Review Early Stage 69

Mucker Lab

OCTOBER 10, 2023

If there are inbound leads, the situation is different; hiring an AE might be suitable if these leads align with the ideal customer profile. The content also presents industry benchmarks from a 2023 report, comparing the top 20 percent of B2B tech companies with the bottom 60 percent in terms of revenue.

Early Stage 78

Early Stage Sales Developer Development Team Review 78

David Teten

MARCH 18, 2021

A typical VC thesis: “we invest in tech startups in Europe at an early stage” However, our experience shows that in many cases: . “Tech” means B2B Saas/Fintech or Consumer apps. For example, Point Nine Capital focuses on B2B SaaS and marketplaces at the seed stage, across many industries.

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Cofounder Venture Capital Deal Flow 78

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 11, 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. Now it’s time to set the stage with the early traction you have. Seed stage VCs are realistic about how much traction a very raw company might have. B) Post-Product Companies.

Seed Stage 149

Seed Stage B2B Seed Capital Revenue 149

Agile VC

OCTOBER 27, 2011

I’m not the first person to describe this trend, and my prior background has been primarily as a consumer web guy more than in B2B companies. But in the next 5 years the web and mobile app stores will increasingly be a force in selling and customer acquisition for busines software. The lessons learned from consumer Web 2.0

Software 100

Software B2B Silicon Valley Acquisition 100

Agile VC

FEBRUARY 5, 2014

But B2B startups need to take a different tack. We invest in internet enabled companies at NextView and our portfolio is roughly equally split between consumer and B2B businesses. Business facing companies typically provide software or an online service for which their customers pay a fee.

Revenue 234

Revenue Product B2B Marketing 234

Mucker Lab

AUGUST 27, 2014

My partner Erik Rannala has had a similar experience, having worked as a VC at Harrison Metal before moving down to LA to co-found our seed stage venture firm. Oftentimes they see a market need and simply want to serve those customers. That number in the Valley might be closer to 10%.

Los Angeles 138

Los Angeles Southern California Silicon Valley Technical Review 138

View from Seed

JULY 17, 2019

Your company is likely both one step removed from many brand name B2B customers and a step removed from reporters and press that are excited to tell your story. One approach that we’ve seen work with a number of B2B businesses is to spend a disproportionate amount of effort in telling a momentum story about your company.

San Francisco 243

San Francisco Cofounder B2B Seed Stage 243

VC Cafe

MARCH 22, 2021

Although this has been known for years for B2C companies, it is interesting to see B2B companies realizing the importance of marketing early on, as well. . These steps are vital to securing initial funding and attracting pilots, design partners, and customers. . Part time CMO for B2B and B2C startups. Hila Shitrit Nissim.

B2C 145

B2C Marketing Stealth 145

Hippoland

FEBRUARY 12, 2018

I’ll give you an example with my own startup LaunchBit and how our understanding of the problem and the customer became more refined over time: V1: Helping online marketers get customers profitably. V2: Helping online marketers who have previously bought ads in email lists get customers profitably. But the execution is hard.

Seed Stage 48

Seed Stage Business Model B2B Email 48

Hippoland

FEBRUARY 12, 2018

I’ll give you an example with my own startup LaunchBit and how our understanding of the problem and the customer became more refined over time: V1: Helping online marketers get customers profitably. V2: Helping online marketers who have previously bought ads in email lists get customers profitably. But the execution is hard.

Seed Stage 48

Seed Stage Business Model B2B Email 48

VC Cafe

MARCH 31, 2021

VC Cafe: What’s the best advice or practical tips you have for founders with regards to marketing and branding at seed stage? This can be really hard for early stage startups, but it means the difference between being good or being great. And running fast as an early stage start-up is so important. Bring value.

Marketing 179

Marketing Early Stage Seed Stage 179

Rob Go

SEPTEMBER 4, 2018

Most of these rhyme with what we’ve said in the past, but some have also evolved to fit the changing landscape and our own convictions about what really matters for founders and their investors at the seed stage. However, our overall goal is to invest in the full spectrum of seed. Belief #1: The best time to invest is early.

North America 36

North America Seed Stage Early Stage Lead Investor 36

View from Seed

AUGUST 2, 2017

There are countless B2B startups that are enabling this digital transformation and how consumers experience the Everyday Economy. For example, Upserve , a NextView portfolio company, is an all-in-one tech platform (POS, payments, CRM/loyalty, BI) to help restaurants better serve their customers.

Seed Stage 273

Seed Stage Portfolio Cofounder B2B 273

View from Seed

NOVEMBER 18, 2014

For B2B startups especially, this is the best signal of product-market fit – a sign that the company is investable. Rather, the conclusion is that it’s best to explicitly define what the fundraising milestone strategy is during the seed stage. Generate Real Revenue. Craft a Small Scale Machine.

Syndicate 333

Syndicate Syndication Seed Stage Startup 333

YoungUpstarts

MAY 1, 2020

When raising your pre-seed round (usually $250,000 to $750,000), you’ll want to focus your outreach on active angel investors and the new generation of small fund managers, often called micro venture capitalists, whose fund sizes are usually less than $100 million. Sterling Road is a venture fund focused on pre-seed B2B companies.

Early Stage 165

Early Stage Security Angel Investor Lead Investor 165

View from Seed

JANUARY 10, 2022

Pre-seed & seed-stage startup teams who could benefit from capital and engaged, hands-on mentorship from the NextView partnership & extended advisor network. Consumer and SaaS B2B companies located anywhere, but should be focused on redesigning the Everyday Economy within the U.S. Applications are officially open.

San Diego 156

San Diego San Francisco Alabama Valuation 156

View from Seed

JANUARY 11, 2023

Weekly, bespoke programming : As opposed to the typical ‘one-size-fits-all’ structure you see across most other programs, our weekly programming will be customized to fit the needs of the cohort we assemble come launch day. We would love to hear from you, and hopefully, work with you to build something amazing. Let’s do this! . Who You Are.

Programming 156

Programming Sacramento San Francisco Founder 156

Version One Ventures

JANUARY 4, 2017

If you think you might be paying too much for your service and don’t feel like dealing with Comcast’s customer service, let Trim’s robot give it a shot. This seed-stage fund is named 50/50 since Frank + Oak plans to grant 50 percent of the fund to female entrepreneurs and 50 percent of the fund to male entrepreneurs.

Seattle 130

Seattle Portfolio Seed Stage Canada 130

Agile VC

AUGUST 12, 2011

But unfortunately there’s no magic formula… not getting X million users if you’re a consumer facing startup, or Y customers if you’re B2B SaaS startup, or Z revenue, or whatever. And there are some common precepts seed stage companies can follow. Author howerl. Filed under Uncategorized.

Seed Stage 113

Seed Stage Silicon Valley B2B Acquisition 113

BeyondVC

FEBRUARY 12, 2014

BOLDstart helps founders at the seed stage accelerate their growth from idea/ alpha phase to product market fit and successful Series A round. helps founders at the seed stage accelerate their growth from idea/ alpha phase to product market fit and successful Series A round”. As they say, the rest is history.

Seed Stage 110

Seed Stage Agile Viral API 110

Agile VC

MAY 16, 2012

At NextView we’ve intentionally taken an approach which combines both thematic and opportunistic investing for a couple reasons: 1) Our Overall Strategy is Highly Focused - We’re a dedicated seed VC fund, so we invest in startups exclusively at the seed stage. Pingback: watch inception online. Pingback: [link].

Seed Stage 124

Seed Stage Silicon Valley B2B Syndicate 124

View from Seed

JULY 9, 2015

And given my marketing background (Google, Dailybreak Media, HubSpot), I often get this question directly: When should startups announce seed funding? . This recently came up for debate inside NextView HQ as we talked through the go-to-market plans of one of our unannounced seed investments. Why is that important to remember?

Startup 120

Startup PR Cofounder Stealth 120

YoungUpstarts

JULY 29, 2013

But they’ll sit up and pay attention when you talk about the customers and revenues of the business. If you are not prepared to do this, and think that you know better than the customer, or that you just want to build it a certain way and damn the feedback, then you’re not going to have much of a business to show on Demo Day!

Asia 207

Asia Singapore Cofounder Incubator 207

mashable.com

NOVEMBER 3, 2010

For the first-time entrepreneur or founder looking for seed stage funding, this circle can be especially difficult to penetrate. Mashable Mashable reached out to angels, seed stage investors and VC firm partners and asked them to share their wisdom with the rest of us. Get Custom Local Business Recommendat.

Angel Investor 80

Angel Investor Startup San Francisco Social Media 80

Rob Go

JULY 18, 2019

Your company is likely both one step removed from many brand name B2B customers and a step removed from reporters and press that are excited to tell your story. One approach that we’ve seen work with a number of B2B businesses is to spend a disproportionate amount of effort in telling a momentum story about your company.

San Francisco 48

San Francisco Cofounder B2B Seed Stage 48

steveblank.com

JULY 8, 2011

signup, upgrade, trial pricing Zuora – online subscription management FeeFighters – find the cheapest credit card processors HealPay – Collections made easy Customer Support Tender – support, knowledgebase tool for your site GetSatisfaction - conversations between companies / customers.

Software Review 110

Software Review Startup Silicon Valley Analytics 110

Rob Go

MARCH 16, 2012

I’m going to focus on B2B” Consumerization of business software is a “hot” meme. Whereas B2B might yield a more predictable customer and real revenue from the beginning, scaling a company selling to businesses happens more slowly. No B2B service has a Draw Something moment.

B2B 46

B2B Seed Stage Viral Early Stage 46

Mucker Lab

APRIL 6, 2023

If you go back to thinking about what kind of company is a great fit for PLG, there are two important criteria: The first one is your target segment, your customer size. Obviously if you target enterprise customers, you usually have a very large ACV (Annual Contract Value) and the product usually is complex. That’s the success.

Product 78

Product CTO Hire Startup Fractional CTO 78

Hippoland

OCTOBER 16, 2016

These are some of the most important criteria to investing in seed-stage teams. These are products that can and should generate revenue right out of the gates in both B2B and consumer ideas. Is the company already in the middle of overcoming regulatory hurdles? Does the team know exactly what they need to do to go into business?

Startup 48

Startup Vertical Early Stage Bootstrapping 48

Up and Running

MARCH 29, 2017

I spent a couple years running a digital agency that built custom software and just dove in head-first, teaching myself to program (which would serve me well later), figuring out how to effectively run a software team, and understanding the landscape of technologies available to entrepreneurs as I helped them make their product goals reality.

Term Sheet 60

Term Sheet Venture Capital Liquidation Preference Valuation 60

Agile VC

MARCH 8, 2012

The secondary wave of VC-backed IPOs has also come to fruition… both consumer facing (Yelp, Demand Media, Pandora, Carbonite, HomeAway, Angie’s List, et al) and B2B (Jive Software, Brightcove, Imperva, Responsys, etc). I co-founded NextView Ventures , a seed-stage VC firm based in Boston, in 2010. Author howerl.

IPO 100

IPO Silicon Valley Revenue Seed Stage 100

www.vccafe.com

MARCH 11, 2013

Startups for startups – the top B2B tools used by Startups – Includes the list of top 50 startup vendors in 2012 by Vendorstack , a reviews and Q&A platform on enterprise vendors for startups and mid-market companies. Steve Blank on Lean Customer Development. Customer service. Google Custom Search Engine.

Software Review 53

Software Review Technical Review Startup 53

Agile VC

JUNE 12, 2012

Like anyone else, they are looking to own the customer data and offer smart loyalty programs. The retailers just hate it when cash kickbacks and air miles go into the customer’s payment card, along with a missed opportunity for customer loyalty (they also hate Shopkick et al. Is that it? Not really. Enough said.

Mobile 250

Mobile Disintermediation SMS Government 250