Genuine VC

MARCH 24, 2014

A couple years ago, my partner Lee penned a blog post about the milestone benchmarks for startups raising a Series A round of financing. This strategy is particularly helpful if the primary question of a Series A investor will be, “Is the (potential) market of this venture big enough?” Generate Real Revenue.

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Seed Capital Metrics Cofounder Revenue 212

View from Seed

OCTOBER 22, 2015

We’ll need your contributions and your knowledge around categories like Product & Design , Marketing & Growth , Hiring & Talent , Fundraising , and more. – NextView blog. – Checklist: Critical to-do’s immediately after raising seed capital. – Should startups blog?

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Seed Stage Seed Capital Syndicate Syndication 120

K9 Ventures

JUNE 5, 2015

So I mostly kept my opinion within a small closed group and let my LPs know that K9’s strategy was to *not* change our strategy despite the pressures of the market. When I first started using the term ‘pre-seed’ in 2013, it was almost as a joke since I wanted to make a point that K9 was investing super early. Stop living in denial.

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Seed Stage Venture Capital Early Stage Valuation 48

View from Seed

NOVEMBER 18, 2014

Once a startup has raised seed capital, plenty of theories and advice exist on how to successfully raise a Series A. In a past blog post, I characterized four winning strategies which startups could employ to successfully raise a Series A. They may not raise Series A quicker, but they’re more likely to raise more dollars.

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Syndicate Syndication Seed Stage Startup 333

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 26, 2014

Contrary to popular opinion I actually believe crowd-funding is best used after seed capital or venture capital. It’s why in this article I advise that people “market today not futures” because you don’t want your playbook in the hands of the competition.

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PR Venture Capital Hiring Seed Capital 319

View from Seed

OCTOBER 21, 2014

As the seed-stage startup fundraise process has received more transparency in recent years, ranging from published advice on how to raise seed capital to increased availability through AngelList, Funders Club, and various accelerator programs, I’ve noticed another trend emerging. Lower-Than-Market Value.

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Valuation Founder Seed Stage Angel Investor 336

Gust

SEPTEMBER 27, 2014

In order to be competitive, a company needs to have just about everything in place, from its product to its team to market traction, before it is ready to seek funding. With that background, here are 30 tips to help you make the most of Gust: Subscribe to the Gust Blog , and go back and read the past posts.

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Angel Groups Elevator Pitch Software Review Deal Flow 159

VC Adventure

APRIL 22, 2014

I love this trend and have a longer form blog coming on the subject – which I think is massive positive force in the startup ecosystem. Your job is to put in seed capital. The company’s job is to grow the business and find new capital. But this post is much shorter and to the point. You should be in love.

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Seed Capital Portfolio Startup Marketing 93

Business Plan Blog

DECEMBER 12, 2013

Some groups will select the markets of the group member’s expertise to invest in, whereas other groups will have a market focus on a specific industry. Download our free Raising Capital from Angel Investors eBook. This guide will walk you through the process of obtaining seed capital for your startup.

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Angel Groups Angel Investor Software Review Accredited Investor 40

YoungUpstarts

APRIL 12, 2016

Almost each one of us reading this blog has a business idea that we are convinced can be the next big thing. Most businesses – online or offline, need seed capital to get established and without access to these funds, launching a business can seem like an improbable dream. That seems like a lot of capital.

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Cofounder Sweat Equity Startup Seed Capital 100

View from Seed

MARCH 29, 2018

We wanted to learn more about the nuanced industry market forces before applying the same hands-on investing model we do with tech startups in other verticals. We don’t seed companies that are developing drugs or medical devices that will require FDA approval. It’s a world that doesn’t fit our seed-focused model and fund strategy.

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Vertical Stealth Portfolio Seed Capital 120

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 26, 2009

Provide early seed capital, and be the ones to make those introductions. Get in touch: Twitter Email Facebook Linkedin Additional resources Startup LessonsLearned, All Seasons : Every post from the blog, in one 600+ page PDF. Startup Lessons Learned season one : Every post from the blogs first year in print form.

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San Francisco Silicon Valley Startup Lean 113

David Cohen

JULY 29, 2015

There is four times as much seed capital in the venture market this year as there was 1 year ago. Because of this, it’s easier to attract seed funding than it has been in the past. The founders shut the business down, and either take a job or go out and start a new company with more of that plentiful seed funding.

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Hockey Stick Seed Capital Founder Startup 48

Seeing Both Sides

AUGUST 28, 2017

Note: my blog has moved to www.seeingbothsides.com. Goldman Sachs and CB Insights recently reported that startups have raised over $1 billion in Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) this summer — more than the total amount of venture capital raised during the same period. Need for growth capital.

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Early Stage Equity Venture Capital Government 20

Seeing Both Sides

AUGUST 28, 2017

Note: my blog has moved to www.seeingbothsides.com. Goldman Sachs and CB Insights recently reported that startups have raised over $1 billion in Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) this summer — more than the total amount of venture capital raised during the same period. Need for growth capital.

Early Stage 20

Early Stage Equity Venture Capital Government 20

VC Adventure

APRIL 22, 2014

I love this trend and have a longer form blog coming on the subject – which I think is massive positive force in the startup ecosystem. Your job is to put in seed capital. The company’s job is to grow the business and find new capital. But this post is much shorter and to the point. You should be in love.

Seed Capital 48

Seed Capital Portfolio Startup Marketing 48

Business Plan Blog

DECEMBER 10, 2013

The most important principle of startup fundraising that every entrepreneur needs to know is: raise enough capital to achieve a set of milestones that will allow the company to attract the next round of investment. Market Validation. In your pitch to FFF investors you told them that there was a need for your product in the market.

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Angel Investor Intellectual Property Seed Capital Advisory Board 55

SoCal CTO

NOVEMBER 5, 2009

I can be found on LinkedIn , have a blog Holocognics and my firm’s website is www.SolutionsLLP.com. Today, there is still seed capital to be found, but you have to show the investors (especially very early stage investors) that you have a viable business. What are some good posts that I should check out on your blog?

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Los Angeles Southern California Startup SEO 150

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 15, 2010

It’s always fun chatting with Jason because he’s knowledgeable about the market, quick on topics and pushes me to talk more about VC / entrepreneur issues. We discussed in the video why they don’t price this money but give it as convertible debt) they don’t make announcements to the market. They also avoid Reg D.

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Stealth SEC Advertising Accredited Investor 285

thebarefootvc

MARCH 8, 2012

I saw some specific gaps in the market which I looked to address: NYC: I have been fortunate to be a part of the surge of entrepreneurial activity in NYC over the past several years. While the seed capital gap has closed, there are still only a handful of venture capital firms here in NYC investing in the crucial Series A/B rounds.

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Silicon Valley Ghana Venture Capital India 69

crowdSPRING Blog

FEBRUARY 7, 2014

These posts and videos are about logo design , web design , startups, entrepreneurship, small business, leadership, social media, marketing, and more! Raising Seed Capital – crowdspring.co/MX18CE. don’t return investors’ capital” – crowdspring.co/1dhuwIO. What’s up with the Series A?

Social Media 95

Social Media Small Business Design Media 95

Business Plan Blog

NOVEMBER 6, 2012

Survival or Establishment Stage: Once initial seed capital is drying up and no profit has yet been earned, the challenge for a social enterprise will be to expand the customer base and increase the market penetration while preserving capital.

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Subordinated Debt Seed Capital Equity Finance 45

Business Plan Blog

NOVEMBER 22, 2013

You may have gotten through your FFF round without a business plan, but in order to attract seed investors you will need a comprehensive plan complete with extensive market research and a detailed financial model. Be sure to budget a small amount ($2,500 – $5,000) of your FFF capital to ensure that you legally setup your firm.

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Intellectual Property Advisory Board Startup Seed Capital 55

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. Crisply define when the “real” business started.

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Seed Stage Post-Money Valuation Valuation Startup 137

David Cohen

JUNE 16, 2015

Techstars was helping the ones that were building businesses by growing their networks, providing intense mentorship, attracting seed capital, and scaling up through additional funding. I hope to see you soon at an upcoming event.

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Mongolia Chile New Zealand Startup 48

Growthink Blog

MAY 23, 2011

With this seed capital – more often than not totaling between $100,000 and $1,000,000 - the company accomplishes a number of key technical milestones, gets a beta customer or two, and then goes on a "road show" to venture capitalists around the country for capital to “scale” the business. There are a lot of dark, hard days.

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Angel Investor Venture Capital Sweat Equity Cram Down 112

Growthink Blog

MAY 10, 2012

If it's not your plan to get venture capital down the road, then you'll probably stop in Stage 2-receiving enough funding to boost your marketing, sales, and infrastructure to grow organically from there to the point where you are satisfied or ready to sell. Series B is the round that follows series A in early stage financing.

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Equity Mezzanine Later Stage Venture Capital 88

Business Plan Blog

DECEMBER 31, 2013

You want your pitch to make sense and should be a maximum of 15 slides including the following topics (at least) in any order that flows for your story: • Market Opportunity. Distribution and Marketing—Do you have traction; how to build traction? The Market. Is the market large and growing? Problem definition.

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Angel Investor Cofounder Distribution Seed Capital 51

The Next Web

OCTOBER 3, 2012

He blogs at pixelmonkey.org , where this post originally appeared. Your first three years you will get the startup off the ground, establish your core team culture, and fully validate your main product/market through rapid iteration. Editor’s note: This is a guest post by Andrew Montalenti. You can follow him @amontalenti on Twitter.

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Cofounder Technical Cofounder Technical Review Software Review 155

Rob Go

MAY 2, 2016

The actual profile of “seed stage” companies started to vary quite a bit as well. But for the purposes of this post, I’m focusing on true seed-stage companies, which I’d define as ones that are before product/market fit. In the last 12 months though, I have noticed a healthy return to more modest seed rounds.

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Seed Stage Dilution Valuation Seed Capital 28

crowdSPRING Blog

FEBRUARY 17, 2010

These posts and videos are about design, startups, entrepreneurship, small business, leadership, social media, marketing, and more! Startup Marketing Mistake: Losing People Through the Bottom of Your Funnel – [link]. Thought-provoking post by @tdefren on whether PR agencies should blog about their clients – [link].

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Social Media Small Business Design Media 88

www.thestartup.eu

OCTOBER 23, 2010

Posted by Stefano Bernardi On June - 21 - 2010 It’s a known fact that seed capital is very scarce in Italy. They are competing in a very crowded and fragmented market but I’d say that for $10k, they’re off to a good start. TheStartup.eu Meet Tipsandtrip. CEO Marco Magnocavallo.

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Bootstrapping Italy Sweat Equity Europe 49

Business Plan Blog

OCTOBER 4, 2013

Furthermore, when faced with adversity only great teams can respond to competitors, markets, funding environments, staff departures, PR disasters and the like. Rather, give titles such as VP of Engineering, Product/Technology, Sales, Marketing, Finance, etc. Hire based on functionality and avoid having too many C’s. Early Stage.

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Part-Time VPE Fractional VPE Cofounder CTO Hire 79

maplebutter.com

JANUARY 8, 2013

Written By Dan Martell on February 2nd, 2012 | Category: Hiring LeanStartup Marketing Metrics Startup Life | 6 Comments. It’s also a great way to get inspiration for blogging. Take the market and break it down into smaller chunks. I would go back to the blog – it’s the #1 ROI if done right. Why do I do it?

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Technical Review Startup Cofounder Software Review 44

Feld Thoughts

SEPTEMBER 10, 2015

. “I’ve had a few conversations recently about how individual seed investors are getting kind of tapped out – for a variety of reasons, but in general it’s not that easy to find people who are still actively investing. I don’t recall your having blogged about this – are you seeing it too?

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Angel Investor Seed Capital Valuation Demand 70

Start Up Blog

NOVEMBER 21, 2012

The idea creator, versus the coder, versus the salesman, versus the marketer, versus the capital provider… they all have a unique and special relationship with the output that makes them rightly feel as though they are the input that really matters.

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Coder Startup Seed Capital Product 76

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 23, 2010

This is part of my ongoing series on startup advice but also filed under my sales & marketing posts. You’ve invested $1 million in building the perfect application the meet a large market need. Great inches eked out on tech blogs or industry rags. The sales market is as pure capitalism as it gets.

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Channel Startup Sales Partner 293