David Teten

MARCH 18, 2021

However, we’d argue that for most smaller managers who are not brand names, it’s better to be highly identified in your niche than being a generalist. Alpha Partners and Proof provide capital when their partner VCs don’t have pro rata, and share the economics on the investments. Most LPs we speak with agree. .

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Cofounder Venture Capital Deal Flow 78

ReadWriteStart

SEPTEMBER 2, 2011

If you're earlier in the process, a small angel round or partnering with an accelerator may be the best approach. Next if you are going to raise a round, find one or two partners to do it with. Remember, once you screw up your Cap Table it's really hard to go back. Tip 2: Have a "real" lead.

Cap Table 125

Cap Table Term Sheet Liquidation Preference Technical Review 125

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 7, 2015

All of my partners at Upfront do. After they see a name they trust, everybody wants to invest” It’s called “ social proof ” and it’s a good thing for entrepreneurs. But we’ve gotten the point where ENIFA and they will invest with no information based solely on the name of who else has invested.

Cap Table 150

Cap Table Cofounder Silicon Valley Startup 150

David Teten

DECEMBER 3, 2019

But in business, you want a lot of partners. In the private equity universe, most Partners have primary training as deal-makers, not as managers. See Bessemer Venture Partners’ A comprehensive guide to security for startups. Cobalt for General Partners helps GPs to optimize their fundraising strategy. 1) Manage the firm

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Software Review Analytics Private Equity 78

This is going to be BIG.

OCTOBER 22, 2014

You''ll get a venture capital analyst from a brand name firm who has just recently taken his job talking about what makes a company successful. Analysts support deals, but they don''t really vote on a deal in a way that carries the same weight as a partner. They definitely weigh in on whether they like the management team.

Venture Capital 140

Venture Capital Cap Table Startup Early Stage 140

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 19, 2018

Your historical trading information including financials and a “customer file” which shows the history of your transactions so that investors can run “cohort” analyses Customer reference, personal references, key team members, compensation, cap table, stock option plan, etc. Some people find this elitist?—?I Entrepreneur : “Sure.

Cap Table 336

Cap Table Due Diligence Forecast Churn Rate 336

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 23, 2019

For example, stating “angels” is fine, and even highlighting notable names can be useful, but it’s unnecessary to share an exhaustive list. Previous venture firms’ specific involvement on the cap table should be noted here, though. My partner Rob has previously written some thoughts on how to approach that conversation.

Cap Table 211

Cap Table Seed Stage Valuation Dilution 211

The Next Web

OCTOBER 7, 2013

Cap tables sound intimidating. In a CTO Salary and Equity trends report by Safire Partners, it finds non-founder equity compensation to settle out below 2 percent. From the perspective of my outside friends, why are employees that so clearly impact the growth trajectory of a company look like they’re getting screwed?

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

David Teten

DECEMBER 12, 2017

(written by Philipp von dem Knesebeck , Managing Partner, Blue Future Partners (bluefp.com, @bluefutureteam ), and David Teten ). Based on this paper, Blue Future Partners and PEVCTech recently completed a large-scale survey to find out which tools are most commonly used by venture capital firms.

Early Stage 60

Early Stage Technical Review Software Review Venture Capital 60

VC Adventure

JULY 27, 2011

My partners and I all have blogs which I think are good indications of our varied personalities, but we also provide a list of references (CEOs, other portfolio execs, other people who know us well) for them to look into how we really are to work with. Aren’t there lawyers involved? How could they let this happen?

Technical Review 120

Technical Review Due Diligence Cap Table Portfolio 120

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 21, 2010

Focus on the partner you would be working with. One issue he talked about was working with partners. I also like to work with partners. But I also know it’s not realistic for the partners to do all of the work. In every firm there are A, B and C players. Good people and evil people. Get to know them.

Southern California 318

Southern California Silicon Valley IP Stock Options 318

www.readwriteweb.com

DECEMBER 29, 2011

If you're early in the investment process, a small angel round or partnering with an accelerator may be the best approach. Next, if you are going to raise a round, find one or two partners to do it with. Remember, once you screw up your cap table it's really hard to go back. Tip 2: Have A Real Lead.

Cap Table 47

Cap Table Term Sheet Liquidation Preference Technical Review 47

YoungUpstarts

JUNE 26, 2014

It allows you to truly focus on your product/idea instead of cap tables and keeping investors happy. If you lack a key component to running your business, consider finding a partner to handle that aspect. Consider working part-time as a transition into entrepreneurship. Have an original idea.

Cap Table 162

Cap Table Bootstrapping Naming America 162

David Teten

SEPTEMBER 23, 2017

PEVCTech is partnering with Blue Future Partners to run the first large-scale survey of VCs’ technology stack. Johann Kratzer of Blue Future Partners , a fund of funds, observed, “The majority of the hundreds of funds we’ve diligenced rely predominantly on their relationships to source deals. Greylock Partners.

Private Equity 60

Private Equity Venture Capital Equity Technical Review 60

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 4, 2021

Brian Armstrong : My name is Brian Armstrong. So I've been able to move to another location with my partner and another city, I should say. It's kind of like whoever discovered penicillin, you don't need to know their name. You can't even know everyone's name. Here's my conversation with Brian Armstrong.

IPO 113

IPO Cofounder Technical Review Government 113

VC Adventure

JULY 27, 2011

My partners and I all have blogs which I think are good indications of our varied personalities, but we also provide a list of references (CEOs, other portfolio execs, other people who know us well) for them to look into how we really are to work with. Aren’t there lawyers involved? How could they let this happen?

Technical Review 48

Technical Review Due Diligence Cap Table Portfolio 48

David Teten

OCTOBER 1, 2015

Partnering with a source of capital, connections, and expertise for a large equity chunk is often worth it in those scenarios (e.g., I spoke with Thatcher Bell , Managing Partner, CoVenture. We know it’s important to keep the cap table clean, and we want to focus on where/when we add value and then get out of the way.

Software Developers 60

Software Developers Software Development Software Review Technical Cofounder 60

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

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. Invalid URL.

Equity 40

Equity Technical Review San Jose Stock 40

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. And, in each case, his firm had decided not to follow on, took themselves out of the cap table, and the three companies were able to raise additional financing (in one case from a different VC firm.).

Cap Table 134

Cap Table Reputation Finance Programming 134

This is going to be BIG.

JUNE 10, 2016

In fact, the main partner became increasingly difficult to reach, and a junior person started interacting with the company more and more. Reference calls to potential limited partners seemingly have no upside to founders. If you're going to take someone onto your cap table you should talk to other people that VC has invested in.

Cap Table 60

Cap Table Limited Partner LP Reputation 60

This is going to be BIG.

DECEMBER 21, 2017

In fact, I thought we should have named our rounds after ice cream flavors but that was quickly shot down by the lawyers. In AH's case, ultimately, the person we started talking with didn't actually wind up participating, but still remains a valuable contact and potentially a key partner for the future. Who cares what we called it?

Cap Table 90

Cap Table Cofounder Valuation .Net 90

Rob Go

FEBRUARY 24, 2014

This tends to make LPs happy and make the lead partner look good among his or her colleagues. Others grow really quickly out of the gates and fade just as quickly (I could name a bunch of examples, but I don’t want to hurt people’s feelings). Most VC’s like having some leverage on their dollars.

Cap Table 78

Cap Table Valuation Finance Institutional Investors 78

www.paulgraham.com

APRIL 28, 2010

A big-name VC firm will not screwyou too outrageously, because other founders would avoid them ifword got out. When we got into such a scrape, our investorstook advantage of it in a way that a name-brand VC probably wouldnthave. Thats where the name"incubator" comes from. What is an incubator? Im not sure myself.

Technical Review 76

Technical Review Startup Software Review Angel Investor 76

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 9, 2020

A complete collapse of revenue that simultaneously affects your employees and your customers, your partners, your investors, everyone all at once and all the news is bad. Your customers and your investors like partners? And a person I hired named Belinda Johnson, she was my general counsel, then she became my COO, now my board member.

Silicon Valley 60

Silicon Valley Hosting Cofounder Employee 60

This is going to be BIG.

NOVEMBER 16, 2023

That’s how it feels when your hot deal from two years ago winds up running low on cash and gets into a pay-to-play round that wipes out the cap table. Chetan Puttangunta from Benchmark responded by highlighting the sheer effort of one of one of his colleagues: “My partner Peter Fenton is the best board director I’ve ever worked with.

Non-Compete 97

Non-Compete Cofounder Cap Table Reputation 97

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.

Dilution 314

Dilution Cap Table Due Diligence Option Pool 314

abovethecrowd.com

APRIL 20, 2016

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. You can no longer simply look at the cap table and estimate your return. LIMITED PARTNERS (LPS).

IPO 40

IPO Term Sheet Silicon Valley Valuation 40

This is going to be BIG.

FEBRUARY 25, 2019

To me, an angel investor is someone who writes at least $10k checks (if not actually $25k) directly into company cap tables (as opposed to into syndicates or SPVs) and at least has some direct relationship with the founder. Now, everyone’s a partner, blurring the line around who can actually lead an investment and get a deal done.

Syndicate 102

Syndicate Syndication Angel Investor Cap Table 102

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 1, 2011

And entrepreneurs are working hard to make sure they have as many VC names and famous angels on their cap table for signaling value. That’s what they’ll be saying to other VCs or their partners as your company is flaming out. As a result they end up taking money from many firms all at once.

Strategic Investors 312

Strategic Investors Los Angeles Cap Table Startup 312