Gust

OCTOBER 8, 2014

Cautionary note: No competent VC is actually fooled when you show up after raising $6M in seed financing and say you’re now raising an A! 5 million was always the classic definition of an A-round between the late nineties (crazy financings aside) and say 2007. It is less about actual money and more about structure of your Cap Table.

Cap Table 136

Cap Table Silicon Valley Term Sheet Non-Compete 136

View from Seed

OCTOBER 15, 2014

This is pulled from NextView’s board deck resource, which was compiled using a combination of real startup board decks and input from NextView’s founding partners: Rob Go , David Beisel , and Lee Hower. Finance is mission critical, for instance – it just appears on a recurring basis.

Seed Stage 331

Seed Stage Cap Table Metrics Burn Rate 331

www.informationarbitrage.com

FEBRUARY 24, 2010

Home About Press IA Capital Partners Archives After 17 years in M&A, Derivatives and Trading, Im spending my time with young entrepreneurs in and around financial technology and digital media. So why do inexperienced (as entrepreneurs), ultra-skilled CTOs fall into the trap of engaging a business partner too early? Lack of confidence?

CTO Hire 40

CTO Hire Founder Cap Table Vesting 40

OnlyOnce

FEBRUARY 9, 2022

On the heels of the announcement we made last month about our Series B financing , we are now announcing the launch of a new program called Bolster Prime and a new venture capital fund called Bolster Ventures. The one our team was particularly excited about was a concept we were calling at the time “Venture Acceleration Partners.”

Silicon Valley 62

Silicon Valley Venture Capital Cap Table Early Stage 62

genylabs.typepad.com

SEPTEMBER 24, 2011

Steve and Carolyn are partners at Emergent Research and Senior Fellows at the Society for New Communications Research. I wont bother going into details on start-up financing terms ( see this post for an overview of typical VC terms) except to say if you dont know and understand: the firms cap table and valuation.

Equity 40

Equity Technical Review San Jose Stock 40

This is going to be BIG.

DECEMBER 3, 2020

The partner at the fund, the VC, gets to do the fun part—the meeting with founders, vetting deals, negotiating, helping, etc. Access to the partner. If you’ve put money into a fund, I think it’s reasonable to expect that partner to check out the deal flow that you find on your own, and let you know what they think.

Portfolio 134

Portfolio Syndicate Syndication Deal Flow 134

Feld Thoughts

SEPTEMBER 7, 2010

Last week I spoke with a partner at a large VC firm whose firm has been around for a long time. The partner that I talked to told me that they are doing 30 seed investments out of their newest fund. The partner that I talked to told me that they are doing 30 seed investments out of their newest fund.

Cap Table 134

Cap Table Reputation Finance Programming 134

Hunter Walker

AUGUST 26, 2022

My boss, Jen Grant , was an incredible manager, and Aaron Levie, the co-founder and CEO, was a fantastic partner on all things communications. The first was in July of 2014, when we made the unusual move of raising and announcing another round of private financing while on file to go public. Two additional moments stand out to me.

IPO 91

IPO Cofounder Early Stage Portfolio 91

Hunter Walker

NOVEMBER 20, 2013

Additionally, funds such as Foundry Group and Google Ventures have taken their own approaches – the former creating a separate early stage entity , the latter encouraging their seed stage partners to create standalone personal syndicates. While these are all credible let’s be honest – it’s a little boring.

Syndicate 99

Syndicate Syndication South America Seed Stage 99

David Teten

DECEMBER 3, 2019

But in business, you want a lot of partners. In liquid markets, most of the calories expended on technology and analytics are focused on trade selection, or “ origination ”. In the private equity universe, most Partners have primary training as deal-makers, not as managers. 2) Market . 1) Manage the firm .

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Software Review Analytics Private Equity 78

David Teten

AUGUST 21, 2019

Revenue-Based Investing (“RBI”) is a new form of VC financing, distinct from the preferred equity structure most VCs use. A company with that mindset is dramatically less risky, because it’s not dependent on the financing markets for continued viability. But should they? May make it harder to raise traditional equity VC.

Revenue 60

Revenue Liquidation Preference Equity Cofounder 60

VC Adventure

OCTOBER 24, 2018

These can be event driven – for example discussing an M&A opportunity or an upcoming financing. Or they can be company specific topics, such as a demo of a new product that’s in development or a deep dive into marketing or sales. or get bogged down in things that are ultimately unimportant to the company’s future.

Design 91

Design Cap Table Email Operations 91

The Next Web

OCTOBER 7, 2013

Cap tables sound intimidating. In one post on Ravikant’s Venture Hacks blog called, “ The Option Pool Shuffle ,” it notes market expectations are to set aside 1 to 2 percent for a VP-level hire. In a CTO Salary and Equity trends report by Safire Partners, it finds non-founder equity compensation to settle out below 2 percent.

Engineer 129

Engineer Dilution Option Pool Vesting 129

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 11, 2019

Ann Miura-Ko is a founding partner at Floodgate , a seed-stage VC firm. There were none in the firm, so I remember asking him if he knew of any general partners who were women in the Boston area. In a place where there are many, many venture capital firms, he couldn't think of a single female general partner.

Founder 68

Founder Lean Venture Capital Cofounder 68

Genuine VC

MAY 20, 2013

Compared to most other areas of finance, venture capital is practiced as more of an art, as opposed to a science. VCs who swear publicly that they’ll never make an investment with less than 20% ownership show up on cap tables in the teens… the 20% pronouncements are just posturing for negotiation.

Venture Capital 244

Venture Capital Cap Table Portfolio Early Stage 244

venturehacks.com

FEBRUARY 24, 2010

It’s more important than your product, market, and investors. Two founders works because unanimity is possible, there are no founder politics, interests can easily align, and founder stakes are high post-financing. The best sellers can sell to customers, partners, investors, and employees. Date first. Coincidence?

Cofounder 101

Cofounder Founder Technical Cofounder Technical Review 101

abovethecrowd.com

APRIL 20, 2016

Why the Unicorn Financing Market Just Became Dangerous…For All Involved. All Unicorn participants — founders, company employees, venture investors and their limited partners (LPs) — are seeing their fortunes put at risk from the very nature of the Unicorn phenomenon itself. Once more, the fantasy began to come apart.

IPO 40

IPO Term Sheet Silicon Valley Valuation 40

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 22, 2011

I understand the appeal of having many VC firms on your cap table. You may feel as I did in 1999 that the more smart people around the table the more intros you’ll have, the more sage advice you’ll receive and the more impressive you’ll seem to outsiders. The Perils of Many. But it happens.

Dilution 314

Dilution Cap Table Due Diligence Option Pool 314

Rob Go

FEBRUARY 24, 2014

This tends to make LPs happy and make the lead partner look good among his or her colleagues. It’s also nice to have some other deep pockets beside you in case things go wrong, or markets turn sour. Sequoia essentially paid a very high price for Whatsapp equity with little or no external market validators. in mid 2013.

Cap Table 78

Cap Table Valuation Finance Institutional Investors 78

venturehacks.com

OCTOBER 21, 2010

Reading on, the term sheet states, “The $8 million pre-money valuation includes an option pool equal to 20% of the post-financing fully diluted capitalization.&# Update : Check out our $9 cap table which calculates the effect of the option pool shuffle on your effective valuation. share to $1.00/share:

Option Pool 68

Option Pool Pre-Money Valuation Dilution Warrant 68

David Teten

MARCH 18, 2021

The modal VC thesis is: “We invest in great teams addressing large markets with disruptive solutions” Who invests in lousy teams addressing tiny markets with outdated solutions? Alpha Partners and Proof provide capital when their partner VCs don’t have pro rata, and share the economics on the investments.

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Cofounder Venture Capital Deal Flow 78

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 4, 2021

The company's market cap at the time of their entry into the public markets topped $100 billion dollars. So I've been able to move to another location with my partner and another city, I should say. And of course, I wasn't really interested in the finance side of it to me. I'm curious. ER : I couldn't believe it.

IPO 113

IPO Cofounder Technical Review Government 113