Both Sides of the Table

MAY 28, 2018

Let me check my plan.” There are many things a VC is looking for in reviewing your business plan but beyond things the like the quality of revenue, margins, OPEX and CAPEX there’s a really simple rule I call, “Cash In, Cash Out, Milestones Achieved.” Every VC knows that the amount you raise is often a proxy for your valuation.

Burn Rate 247

Burn Rate Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Dilution 247

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 4, 2016

He nails the current key startup parameters, including the following: Crafting a lean business plan as your road map. The days of lengthy, text-heavy, business plan documents prepared by expensive experts are behind us. Angel groups, accelerators, and incubators are pervasive.

Intellectual Property 120

Intellectual Property Startup Angel Groups Social Media 120

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 18, 2020

Most new teams are geographically dispersed these days anyway, so paying rent for an office should be differed to later stages when revenue is plentiful. Self-sustainability, independence, and real fun requires paying customers, profitability and an early cash-flow-positive business plan.

Hockey Stick 423

Hockey Stick Bootstrapping Sweat Equity Intellectual Property 423

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 29, 2020

In my role as an angel investor to startups, I’m struck by the broad variety of advisor strategies I see in investor presentations and business plans that cross my desk. If you have more, they better be major investors or partners who will likely be part of your formal Board of Directors at a later stage.

Advisory Board 310

Advisory Board Angel Investor Later Stage Stock 310

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 4, 2013

Should I trust my instincts for founders and products or should I be more focused on the market size or business plan? Otherwise you’re a stock picker, which in this business isn’t a good thing. When you are raising a large, later-stage round given by this time you’ve likely got a fairly large business to run.

Early Stage 361

Early Stage Deal Flow Investment Bankers Technical Review 361

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 4, 2013

Should I trust my instincts for founders and products or should I be more focused on the market size or business plan? Otherwise you’re a stock picker, which in this business isn’t a good thing. When you are raising a large, later-stage round given by this time you’ve likely got a fairly large business to run.

Deal Flow 347

Deal Flow Early Stage Investment Bankers Technical Review 347

Up and Running

SEPTEMBER 15, 2014

And most venture capital wants to invest larger amounts in later-stage startups. Don’t think for a minute that any serious investor would ever read a summary memo, or watch a pitch, much less read a business plan, when it looks like it’s being sent in bulk to multiple investors. Are you still with me? Not any more.

Software Review 124

Software Review Due Diligence Elevator Pitch Venture Capital 124

Gust

JANUARY 4, 2012

What kind of risk do we run of being put out of business by others’ IP rights ? Later stage companies have some additional concerns: What favorable impact could IP have for PR, marketing and investor relations purposes, or as an attraction to potential acquirors? Creating product mock-ups , wireframes, etc. trade secret).

Intellectual Property 143

Intellectual Property IP Startup United States 143

David Teten

MAY 9, 2012

VCAP© finalists will be announced Monday, June 18th and will present their business plans to HBSAANY angel investors at a Pitch Night in New York on Wednesday, June 27th. Founded in 1970, NAIC firms invest in venture (early stage/later stage) and private equity (growth/buyout/mezzanine/distressed/secondary funds).

Venture Capital 154

Venture Capital Programming Accredited Investor New York 154

Gust

SEPTEMBER 27, 2014

One excellent way to do this (with a good bit of help from the experts), is to create a draft business plan using LivePlan from Palo Alto Software. Gust is used by over 1,000 angel investment groups, accelerators, business plan competitions and support programs to manage their applications.

Angel Groups 159

Angel Groups Elevator Pitch Software Review Deal Flow 159

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 6, 2016

In my role as an angel investor to startups, I’m struck by the broad variety of advisor strategies I see in investor presentations and business plans that cross my desk. If you have more, they better be major investors or partners who will likely be part of your formal Board of Directors at a later stage.

Advisory Board 151

Advisory Board Angel Investor Later Stage Stock 151

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 12, 2013

See how many you have personally experienced already, or are currently mentioned in your business plan: Crowd-sourcing equity. See how many of the following “new” entrepreneur concepts you recognize, and can explain in terms of impact and value to your startup. Startup accelerator.

Entrepreneur 274

Entrepreneur Accredited Investor Silicon Valley Angel Investor 274

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 6, 2016

Most new teams are geographically dispersed these days anyway, so paying rent for an office should be differed to later stages when revenue is plentiful. Self-sustainability, independence, and real fun requires paying customers, profitability and an early cash-flow-positive business plan.

Bootstrapping 120

Bootstrapping Hockey Stick Sweat Equity Intellectual Property 120

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 5, 2012

You also will find that the stage your startup is in dictates where you go to seek funding. Funding sources specialize in certain growth stages. Angel investors typically provide early-stage funding, while venture capital firms typically come in at later stages.

Investment Bankers 241

Investment Bankers Venture Capital Startup Initial Public Offering 241

Up and Running

AUGUST 17, 2015

Plus, since you aren’t forcing people to quit their current job to work on the company, you don’t have to immediately formalize the ownership structure of your company during the early idea stages. Instead, you get to work through the business planning and prototyping stages with limited legal structure.

Entrepreneur 60

Entrepreneur Cofounder Angel Investor eCommerce 60

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 13, 2010

You also will find that the stage your startup is in dictates where you go to seek funding. Funding sources specialize in certain growth stages. Angel investors typically provide early-stage funding, while venture capital firms typically come in at later stages.

Investment Bankers 231

Investment Bankers Venture Capital Initial Public Offering Startup 231

The Next Web

AUGUST 26, 2013

Most first-time entrepreneurs write huge business plans, instead of creating a short pitch-deck. Focus on building a prototype, test your business model and create a clear strategy to become a sustainable and scaleable business fast.

Management 120

Management Cofounder Startup Bootstrapping 120

This is going to be BIG.

JUNE 30, 2010

While it has been time-consuming, the market research, retailer meetings and focus groups with consumers has driven us to iterate in this way and we believe we have a much more realistic, and great business proposition in front of us. While we have plenty of materials to show you (including business plan, financials, design mockups, etc.)

Technical Review 106

Technical Review Due Diligence Venture Capital Later Stage 106

Growthink Blog

MAY 10, 2012

You see, equity capital is raised in stages or rounds. The five main stages include the following: 1. Early Stage Investment (Series A & B) 4. Later Stage Investment (Series C, D, and so on) 5. Series B is the round that follows series A in early stage financing. Pre-Seed Funding 2. Seed Funding 3.

Equity 88

Equity Mezzanine Later Stage Venture Capital 88

Berkonomics

NOVEMBER 21, 2013

Early stage investors who take a chance on new businesses, often now plan their investments around the notion – or hope – that they can fund one or two rounds to lead the business to profitability.

Later Stage 83

Later Stage Early Stage Email Revenue 83

Gust

NOVEMBER 22, 2011

You also will find that the stage your startup is in dictates where you go to seek funding. Funding sources specialize in certain growth stages. Angel investors typically provide early-stage funding, while venture capital firms typically come in at later stages. Funding or rollout stage.

Venture Capital 171

Venture Capital Investment Bankers Angel Investor Initial Public Offering 171

Up and Running

APRIL 27, 2011

It almost invariably means being dismissed by arrogant investors who show up a half hour late, totally unprepared and then instead of saying ‘no’ give you non-committal rejections like ‘we invest at later stage companies.’ Tim is the originator of plan-as-you-go business planning.

Oregon 73

Oregon Cofounder Later Stage Business Plan 73

Up and Running

JANUARY 30, 2014

Accelerators focus on early-stage startups, while incubators are geared toward later-stage startups. Starting a Business Writing a Business Plan' They are frequently confused with incubator programs, but the two are technically different. Accelators. What do you think?

Incubator 105

Incubator New York City Venture Capital Startup 105

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 17, 2018

One thing that comes with being a venture capitalist is you see hundreds and hundreds of businesses. You get to have interesting conversations with founders and review business plans and then see how these businesses evolve over the years. Usually a terrible idea as runway extension.

Founder 242

Founder Dilution Software Review Later Stage 242

Up and Running

AUGUST 21, 2017

While a year ago many VCs were planning to cut their pace of investments, now very few are. VCs don’t expect any serious corrections to valuations in 2017 and they seem to be taking financial discipline in later-stage companies more seriously, valuing unit economics over “growth at any cost.”.

Silicon Valley 86

Silicon Valley Venture Capital Valuation Later Stage 86

David Teten

DECEMBER 3, 2019

Data companies focused on early-stage startups include Aingel , fundsUP , Preseries , PredictLeads , and Sploda. Later stage investors are using for sourcing private company marketplace services focused on more established companies, listed below under “Step 11: Exit”. They read reviews of the products of target investments.

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Software Review Analytics Private Equity 78

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 12, 2023

Angels are more likely to fund new entrepreneurs, and early-stage or seed rounds, while VCs tend to focus on entrepreneurs with a successful track record, and later stage rounds. If your targeted business plan opportunity is not at least a billion dollars, most VCs won’t even be interested.

Angel Investor 246

Angel Investor IRR Venture Capital Valuation 246

YoungUpstarts

SEPTEMBER 3, 2018

Then, you draft your business model and plan. First you draft an executive summary of your business plan. Then you write down a brief about your company and business model. And lastly summarise all the above points for easy referencing at later stages. Now you design a sales and marketing strategy.

Mobile 104

Mobile Developer Social Media Design 104

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 24, 2017

It’s hard to imagine, but in the 20th century there were no startup blogs or books on startups to read, and business schools (the only places teaching entrepreneurship) believed the best thing they could teach startups was how to write a business plan.

Founder 245

Founder Technical Review CTO Hire IPO 245

Up and Running

AUGUST 19, 2014

If you’re lucky, and an angel’s (investors or groups) interest is piqued by your initial short pitch, they will want to schedule more time with you to get to know you and your team, and to dig deeper into your business plan (i.e. Depending on the venture capitalists, they may want to own the majority of your company (i.e.

Angel Investor 161

Angel Investor Technical Review Due Diligence Startup 161

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 13, 2020

Angels are more likely to fund new entrepreneurs, and early-stage or seed rounds, while VCs tend to focus on entrepreneurs with a successful track record, and later stage rounds. If your targeted business plan opportunity is not at least a billion dollars, most VCs won’t even be interested.

Angel Investor 314

Angel Investor Entrepreneur IRR Valuation 314

www.mint.com

MARCH 9, 2010

Put people to work and go for it… Just think about how you would want to be approached before you drop a poorly worded business plan bomb on a group of Venture Capitalists, hedge fund group, trust and any friendly Angel Investor. People living off the government cannot always buy the cool new products we want to offer them.

Software Review 68

Software Review Startup Post-Money Valuation Technical Review 68

David Teten

FEBRUARY 3, 2014

Summit Partners and TA Associates have leveraged their origination programs to move into later stage buyouts. Targets selected” figure indicates number of business plans received. [v] v] Number of business plans received. I’m looking forward to seeing how they evolve. Corporate Financier, October 2006. [iv]

Private Equity 114

Private Equity Venture Capital Technical Review Equity 114

David Teten

JANUARY 21, 2021

Jonathan Bragdon , CEO, describes Capacity as “a team of founders-turned-funders making non-dilutive, founder-aligned investments of $50-$300k in post-startup, post-revenue businesses planning to 2X revenues in 12-24 months. We plan to raise $2.5m per year and we plan to invest about $100k in 20 startups per year.

Equity 78

Equity Revenue Cofounder Colorado 78

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 2, 2014

Angels are more likely to fund new entrepreneurs, and early-stage or seed rounds, while VCs tend to focus on entrepreneurs with a successful track record, and later stage rounds. If your targeted business plan opportunity is not at least a billion dollars, most VCs won’t even be interested.

Angel Investor 266

Angel Investor Entrepreneur Venture Capital IRR 266

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 5, 2016

Angels are more likely to fund new entrepreneurs, and early-stage or seed rounds, while VCs tend to focus on entrepreneurs with a successful track record, and later stage rounds. If your targeted business plan opportunity is not at least a billion dollars, most VCs won’t even be interested.

Angel Investor 120

Angel Investor IRR Valuation Startup 120

www.paulgraham.com

APRIL 28, 2010

Angels and even VC firms occasionally do this, but they alsoinvest at later stages. The problems are different in the early stages. So while nearly all VC funds have some addressyou can send your business plan to, VCs privately admit the chanceof getting funding by this route is near zero.

Technical Review 76

Technical Review Startup Software Review Vesting 76