View from Seed

APRIL 30, 2015

What is it, and how should founders think about it? It can be lower cost and can either buy more time or accelerate growth. It’s generally got a lower cost compared to equity capital and can help support growth. In terms of negotiation, there are always hot buttons. What are some pros and cons?

Term Sheet 120

Term Sheet Equity Startup Seed Stage 120

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 5, 2020

If you or your team sees you as an idea person, your first task as an entrepreneur should be to find a co-founder who can deliver. Finding a co-founder is rarely a bad thing, since two heads are always better than one in meeting all the startup challenges. Tailor investor proposals and term-sheets.

Entrepreneur 307

Entrepreneur Cofounder Term Sheet Acquisition 307

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 17, 2009

With open source software (LAMP stack) and cloud computing infrastructure it just wasn’t that expensive to get your company going and founders just wanted to raise less money. So they set up seed programs that allowed for rapid decisions for $500k or less, often done as convertible debt for both speed and cost reasons.

Software Review 283

Software Review Term Sheet Due Diligence Southern California 283

David Teten

AUGUST 19, 2019

RBI normally requires founders to pay back their investors with a fixed percentage of revenue until they have finished providing the investor with a fixed return on capital, which they agree upon in advance. For background, see Revenue-Based Investing: A New Option for Founders who Care About Control. Capital need of up to $1.5M

Revenue 60

Revenue Technical Review Software Review Equity 60

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 2, 2009

If a company has reached a level of success, has been around for a few years and you believe the company has potential to break out into a much bigger company then you should let the founders take money off of the table. Founders however are asked to take low salaries and never really get back the time they worked for free.

Founder 329

Founder Liquidation Preference Term Sheet Participating Preferred 329

techcrunch.com

SEPTEMBER 6, 2012

It consists of a standard term sheet, automatically generated closing documents, and tools to manage the process including electronic signatures, managing wire information, generating PDFs, and more. AngelList will then automatically generate a term sheet and closing documents.

Term Sheet 70

Term Sheet San Francisco Technical Review Seed Stage 70

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 19, 2009

Another called Parker Harris, the co-founder and CTO. My blog linked to Brad Feld’s blog because I was so grateful for his series on term sheets and he was one of the biggest reasons that as a VC I felt compelled to blog. Reasons: cost of sales executives, long sales cycles, deep functional requirements.

Venture Capital 274

Venture Capital Term Sheet San Diego Viral 274

Austin Startup

JULY 22, 2021

Any software, hardware, or CPG startup in Texas with a female founder or co-founder can apply to participate. Austin based ZPEG developed an upgraded compression algorithm for streaming videos based on an advanced human visual model that reduces streaming costs for 4K streams by 30%. Female Founders! Who Can Apply?

San Antonio 107

San Antonio Dallas Houston Founder 107

Startup Company Lawyer

MARCH 14, 2010

Founders Institute Plain Preferred Term Sheet (by WSGR – disclaimer, I represent the Founders Institute and was involved in drafting this document). This post assumes that you have a basic understanding of Series A financing terms. Co-sale rights. Dividend preference. Voting agreement.

Finance 70

Finance Software Review Term Sheet Liquidation Preference 70

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 5, 2015

Another problem that arises in financings these days is that after a VC submits a $2 million term sheet all of a sudden a large number of “helpful investors” pop up who were waiting for a “strong lead” and now all of a sudden a $2 million round becomes a $2.75m round. Those are the big three.

Pre-Money Valuation 150

Pre-Money Valuation Option Pool Post-Money Valuation Dilution 150

Haystack

FEBRUARY 9, 2019

At the beginning of 2018, we almost invested in a startup with two strong founders. To make a long and private story short, on the morning I was about to call the founders to let them know I was in, they decided to amicably part ways. A few months passed, and we ended up investing in the company with one of the original founders.

Artificial Inteligence 107

Artificial Inteligence Algorithm Term Sheet Cofounder 107

Scott Edward Walker

JUNE 26, 2012

16) GEORGE ZACHARY, Partner at Charles River Ventures “I look for founders at the seed stage and Series A stage who basically can quickly explain to me what it is that they are doing, why it is so important, and in a way that the passion comes from them authentically, not like somebody taught them how to make a presentation.” - George Zachary (p.27)

Term Sheet 72

Term Sheet Technical Review Due Diligence Cofounder 72

Eric Friedman

AUGUST 18, 2021

Dan is the co-founder of Standard Treasury, a Y Combinator backed company. He is also co-founder and Managing Partner of Deciens Capital, an early stage investment fund. I hope you take this as a term of endearment. Fred Ehrsam , his co-founder, is also incredible. On Sushi and VC. Everything we do.

Silicon Valley 88

Silicon Valley Venture Capital Cofounder Africa 88

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 15, 2016

If you or your team sees you as an idea person, your first task as an entrepreneur should be to find a co-founder who can deliver. Finding a co-founder is rarely a bad thing, since two heads are always better than one in meeting all the startup challenges. Tailor investor proposals and term-sheets.

Cofounder 120

Cofounder Term Sheet Acquisition Metrics 120

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 31, 2019

The reality today is that capital is more available than ever and entrepreneurs have become more sophisticated, so founders are looking for more than just cash from their venture backers. I’ve seen many founders not fully grasp how the venture capital business works and what incentives investors have.

Lean 108

Lean Venture Capital Conversion IPO 108

David Teten

DECEMBER 3, 2019

To learn more about this space, I suggest join an online community I co-founded, PEVCTech. . Tim Friedman, Founder, PE Stack , said, “If I could offer one piece of advice to today’s managers, it would be to take the time to understand the demands of the modern institutional LP. The 11 Steps of Investing in Private Companies.

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Software Review Analytics Private Equity 78

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 9, 2015

If you or your team sees you as an idea person, your first task as an entrepreneur should be to find a co-founder who can deliver. Finding a co-founder is rarely a bad thing, since two heads are always better than one in meeting all the startup challenges. Tailor investor proposals and term-sheets.

Cofounder 120

Cofounder Startup Term Sheet Acquisition 120

View from Seed

AUGUST 12, 2015

I loved the founder but was struggling because this just didn’t seem “big enough” to me. The game plan is then to show accelerating user growth across a variety of user segments and understandable/declining acquisition costs. Similarly, I remember years ago when I was looking at the series A investment in a company called Lumos Labs.

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage Marketing Angel Investor Term Sheet 120

View from Seed

AUGUST 12, 2015

I loved the founder but was struggling because this just didn’t seem “big enough” to me. The game plan is then to show accelerating user growth across a variety of user segments and understandable/declining acquisition costs. Similarly, I remember years ago when I was looking at the series A investment in a company called Lumos Labs.

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage Marketing Angel Investor Term Sheet 120

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 14, 2012

Strategic must be a hugely defensive move or a move that the management team of the buyer believes could drive a huge increase in future revenue to more than cover the costs of having acquired your company. ” Getting a term sheet on the table is the second most sure way to get a potential acquirer to move faster.

Valuation 316

Valuation Balance Sheet Dilution Term Sheet 316

David Teten

SEPTEMBER 6, 2015

Previously she was Co-Founder and CEO of SNAZZ, a cloud-based event management platform. What are some of the unique benefits and constraints from the point of view of a founder? . However, founders shouldn’t take money from corporate VCs because of an exit expectation. New York Times’ timeSpace is a good example.

Venture Capital 60

Venture Capital Balance Sheet Technical Review Portfolio 60

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 18, 2011

I first met the founder of Pose, Dustin Rosen , when he was a junior person with an LA-based venture capital firm called The Mail Room Fund. Within 48 hours of meeting him we had a term sheet agreeing to fund $1.6 My first two calls were to True Ventures & Founder Collective. Pose is no different. I still do.

Term Sheet 303

Term Sheet Mobile Cofounder Early Stage 303

Cracking the Code

MARCH 28, 2022

The first time I met Matan, Melio's co-founder and CEO, he told me that his mission was simple: he wanted to “help small business stay in business” by making B2B payments fast, simple and flexible. In fact the term sheet was signed the day before the world went into lockdown! But this would need more resources.

B2B 62

B2B Cofounder Small Business 62

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 11, 2010

I’m surprised how few people talk about valuations, term sheet terms, how much to pay recruiters, etc. I once mentioned this idea to a fellow SoCal VC when I told him I wanted a CIC in LA and he said, “Co-location is dead. Uh, I guess he won’t be co-sponsoring a technology lab in LA with me then?

San Francisco 285

San Francisco Incubator Silicon Valley Startup 285

SoCal CTO

JULY 13, 2010

One of the highlights of my trip was a startup dinner which included Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson, the founders of 37signals. Pivoting - Chris Dixon , June 14, 2010 My Hunch cofounders and I frequently ask ourselves: “If we were to start over today, would we build our product the same way we had so far? The sunk costs trap.

Cofounder 175

Cofounder Technical Cofounder Term Sheet Startup 175

steveblank.com

JULY 8, 2011

Research, Web prototyping, Testing and Building Tools Lists of Tools from Others HBS Startup Tribe Tools List – from Tom Eisenmann at HBS PBworks startup tools List Startup Foundry tools list Small Business tools list Groups Lean Startup Circle – Google Group for startup advice Startup Weekend – Launch a Startup in 54 hours The Lean (..)

Software Review 110

Software Review Startup Silicon Valley Analytics 110

ReadWriteStart

MAY 8, 2012

I did recover from this, but when you start the funding process, evaluate exactly what you need to do to get to the next steps and how much that will cost. Gina Mancuso , Founder and CEO of LoveThatFit. Avichal Garg , Co-Founder and CEO of Spool. Justin Beck , Co-Founder and CEO of PerBlue.

Cofounder 140

Cofounder Startup San Francisco Silicon Valley 140

www.vccafe.com

MARCH 11, 2013

.” Hackernews list of “Tools of the Trade” for startups - includes over 150 SaaS tools used by startups, and over 150 comments with interesting insights from founders. tells you how much adwords cost. hire low-cost international engineering talent. WSGR Term Sheet Generator. Founder Equity Issues.

Software Review 53

Software Review Technical Review Startup 53

reidhoffman.org

NOVEMBER 12, 2013

Put another way, the ideal financing partner is a financing cofounder. What’s more, the sales and marketing costs of acquiring listings are expensive. Since David and the partnership at Greylock knew I had an offer, they gave me a term sheet the day after I pitched them.

Entrepreneur 111

Entrepreneur Revenue Viral Networking 111

www.currentlyobsessed.com

MAY 28, 2010

I have to admit, the light bulb didn’t go off for me until I was negotiating term sheets. Read Terms that Hurt (Venture Hacks). Read up on the “unwritten terms&# in term sheets having to do with exit multiples here For bootstrappers, the math is even easier: 100% of the upside goes to you and your awesome team.

Valuation 42

Valuation Channel Pre-Money Valuation Term Sheet 42

The Startup Lawyer

FEBRUARY 4, 2011

But before your startup signs up and cashes that $[XX,000] check, your startup’s co-founders should sit down and evaluate the incubator’s offer. Most incubators take common stock and sit “side-by-side&# with the founders, but some may want some (weak) preferred stock and/or dilution protection.

Incubator 105

Incubator Pre-Money Valuation Option Pool Advisory Board 105

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 14, 2016

When I was an entrepreneur there was no public information about how term sheets worked or how investors thought. Many founders don’t understand why inside rounds are so difficult. Because we know in tough times we have to count on our co-investors to be good actors. All of these are false.

Valuation 150

Valuation Down Round Startup Later Stage 150

venturehacks.com

OCTOBER 21, 2010

Later that evening you review the term sheet from Blue Shirt. 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.&# Do you mean the shares go to the founders? Or we can just do 10% standard terms.

Option Pool 68

Option Pool Pre-Money Valuation Dilution Warrant 68

venturehacks.com

SEPTEMBER 22, 2011

Consider the opportunity cost of spending shares on employees and investors. Consider the opportunity cost of spending shares on employees and investors. ” You need to consider the opportunity cost when you spend equity. For example, they may give you an exploding term sheet. We have some additional thoughts.

Equity 40

Equity Cap Table Valuation RSS 40

grasshopperherder.com

SEPTEMBER 24, 2011

« Thanks but No Thanks – Things to Avoid When Recruiting Co-founders Why is Cyber Squatter a Bad Word? Some have been as co-founder, most have been as a consultant with the possibility of becoming an paid employee, “as soon as we close our funding round.” The founder is very generous.).

Sweat Equity 41

Sweat Equity Equity Cofounder Non-Compete 41