Steve Blank

MAY 9, 2017

The founders were simply wrong about their assumptions about customer needs. It turns out the term “visionary founder” was usually a synonym for someone who was hallucinating. Founders Need to Run the Company Longer. So, almost like clockwork 20 th century startups fired the innovators/founders when they scaled.

Restful 222

Restful Silicon Valley Puerto Rico San Jose 222

YoungUpstarts

JUNE 15, 2015

by Andrea Martins, co-founder of GreenSocks. He may have been named by Silicon Valley thought leader Paul Graham as one of the five most interesting startup founders since 1979, but Sam’s curious penchant for wearing t-shirts over long-sleeve shirts suggests that he’s definitely too young for me. Lecture 3: Before The Startup.

Cofounder 100

Cofounder Delaware Startup Technical Review 100

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 4, 2013

What stage? Should I trust my instincts for founders and products or should I be more focused on the market size or business plan? When you are raising a large, later-stage round given by this time you’ve likely got a fairly large business to run. What kind of deals should I be doing? What price? I love complexity.

Early Stage 361

Early Stage Deal Flow Investment Bankers Technical Review 361

Reid Hoffman

JUNE 11, 2020

My Blitzscaling co-author and friend Chris Yeh helped me record a Greymatter podcast episode where I share some of the great memories of and learnings from working with Jeff. Why do you call Jeff a co-founder of LinkedIn, even though he joined when the company was already five years old?

Cofounder 36

Cofounder Leadership Metrics Later Stage 36

Duct Tape Marketing

JULY 27, 2023

He is the founder of Nudge, an analytics company, that was a commercialized product from his agency. Prior to Nudge, he co-founded an agency in New Zealand that was the 8th fastest-growing business at the time. He's the founder of Nudge, an analytics company that was started as a commercial venture or product from his own agency.

Cofounder 57

Cofounder Artificial Inteligence New Zealand Analytics 57

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 24, 2011

Gogii came in my office in 2009 with three of the most talented founders I had seen. Scott Lahman , Zack Norman & Austin Murray were the three co-founders of JAMDAT, the most successful mobile 1.0 I’m on record all over place saying that 70% of my investment decision is the team & 30% is the market.

Later Stage 310

Later Stage South America Mobile Silicon Valley 310

Agile VC

OCTOBER 5, 2012

One of the most common questions I get is “What’s the best career path to becoming a founder someday?” ” The very short answer is that most people who are ultimately founders (or usually co-founders ) of a company “tack” towards that goal in a series of career steps.

Founder 217

Founder Cofounder Later Stage Operations 217

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 4, 2013

What stage? Should I trust my instincts for founders and products or should I be more focused on the market size or business plan? When you are raising a large, later-stage round given by this time you’ve likely got a fairly large business to run. What kind of deals should I be doing? What price? I love complexity.

Deal Flow 347

Deal Flow Early Stage Investment Bankers Technical Review 347

View from Seed

MAY 18, 2016

The purpose of a board is not simply to be the founders’ friend… it is to help govern the company and provide input into its strategic direction. And various stakeholders (investors, early founders no longer operationally involved, etc.) Decided to proactively add one or more independent board director is useful as well.

Seed Stage 216

Seed Stage Cofounder Later Stage Government 216

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 30, 2016

I have been evangelizing to founders for years to be more thoughtful about how startups update investors and run board meetings so I would be pretty hypocritical if I wasn’t willing to try and be more effective myself. And of course we put a few portfolio companies on stage each year to present to us and inspire us.

Community 150

Community Los Angeles LP Portfolio 150

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

View from Seed

APRIL 30, 2015

What is it, and how should founders think about it? note: We’d like to be extra clear that founders should not take on venture debt if they don’t have 100% visibility into repaying the loan, as banks that need to recoup their loan my force the company or you as the guarantor into liquidation or bankruptcy.

Term Sheet 120

Term Sheet Equity Startup Seed Stage 120

The Next Web

JULY 29, 2013

Editor’s note: This is a guest post by Christian Reber, CEO and co-founder of Berlin-based 6Wunderkinder. When I started my first company in Berlin, I lived and worked in my apartment with one of my co-founders. Co-Up , mobilesuite , Raumstation. You can follow him on Twitter, where he is @ChristianReber.

San Francisco 125

San Francisco Cofounder Germany Europe 125

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

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 28, 2010

Summit is a hugely respected firm in Silicon Valley and a long-term “institution&# but they’re better known as more of a “private equity&# investor meaning that they do later stage investments in much larger companies that are profitable. Obviously they see big things in Wildfire. 4mm in Series A. 13mm in Series B.

Venture Capital 270

Venture Capital Cofounder Spain San Diego 270

Reid Hoffman

MARCH 9, 2021

Looking back, I believe that Jeff is one of most iconic, successful founders and CEOs of all time. Jeff is also one of the few founders I know of who sets OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) for his board members. What I say is only speculative, but hopefully helpful and insightful. You can listen to the entire podcast here.

Leadership 42

Leadership Technical Review Cofounder Later Stage 42

View from Seed

FEBRUARY 17, 2015

Going to business school and becoming a startup founder are often positioned as conflicting choices by the media and startup bloggers. Some go as far as stating, flat out, that MBAs don’t make for good founders. In fact, there are over 250 founders from the HBS classes between 2008 and 2014. Combined, they’ve raised over $2.5

North America 120

North America Founder Cofounder San Francisco 120

The Next Web

AUGUST 26, 2013

Editor’s note: This is a guest post by Christian Reber, CEO and co-founder of Berlin-based 6Wunderkinder. 60-70% for founders. 60% sounds like it’s not a lot, but at this stage, 80% of the company are owned by the team – that’s a fantastic way to start. As a founder you need to develop this skill very quickly.

Management 120

Management Cofounder Startup Bootstrapping 120

David Teten

SEPTEMBER 23, 2017

Even for later-stage companies with predictable financials, the lack of liquidity, audited financials, and standardized metrics creates real challenges to scaling quantitative investing. Signal is a fundraising tool for founders run by NFX Guild, which identifies the most relevant VCs for you. . Pitchbot.vc

Private Equity 60

Private Equity Venture Capital Equity Technical Review 60

Up and Running

AUGUST 19, 2014

The type of deals and industries they invest in, the company stages, and the amount they invest depends on the individual or angel group. I have pitched to hundreds of angel investors over the years as a result of co-founding two tech companies and raising just shy of $1M in angel capital. 51 percent). Tweet This Tip.

Angel Investor 161

Angel Investor Technical Review Due Diligence Startup 161

This is going to be BIG.

SEPTEMBER 30, 2012

Did I mention it only took the founder a month? They're just not very good at raising venture capital--which, in the later stage, has more to do with your own ability to run a sales process. Most founders that get funded know their backers or have close connections to them well before they officially "pitch.".

Venture Capital 114

Venture Capital Marketing Term Sheet Software Review 114

Up and Running

AUGUST 17, 2015

Legal Aspects of Entrepreneurship: While the exact title and contents of this class may vary depending on the business school you attend, as a first time founder, it’s incredibly important to understand all of the legal considerations around starting your own company (e.g., See Also How to Find a Business Partner.

Entrepreneur 60

Entrepreneur Cofounder Angel Investor eCommerce 60

Austin Startup

JUNE 30, 2017

Background / Related Reading: Founder Education Gatekeepers and Ecosystems What is the purpose of universities? And you can verify from certain founders (not pragmatists) that the right accelerators do deliver on that kind of experience; that the accelerator was “ life changing.” It depends on whom you ask.

Curation 48

Curation Startup Cofounder Equity 48

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 30, 2018

I know that some founders feel uncomfortable with this as though they might somehow be sharing something so confidential that it ultimately hurts you. Many VCs will have a distribution curve where they’ll do a small number of early-stage deals (say $1.5–3 Why shouldn’t most founders just name a price? After all?—?we

Valuation 324

Valuation Post-Money Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Cofounder 324

Hunter Walker

SEPTEMBER 27, 2021

VCs With Multiple Stage-Specific Funds Are Likely To Rewrite The Existing Etiquette. And What This Means For Founders. Maybe restrict the conflict to what a company is currently doing now, not what the founder says is on their roadmap five years down the road. So what’s a founder to do?

Early Stage 115

Early Stage Cofounder Vertical Portfolio 115

This is going to be BIG.

FEBRUARY 21, 2021

I’m a female founder. I don’t have a technical co-founder. These are all of the things I heard from a founder that I recently backed. So what about all of the above statements—things that founders widely hold to be true barriers to fundraising? Nearly half of the teams I’ve backed have female founders.

Venture Capital 162

Venture Capital Cofounder Deal Flow Later Stage 162

David Teten

JANUARY 13, 2015

I’m speaking on a panel this afternoon on fundraising for minority founders at the Rainbow PUSH Wall Street Project. Fundraising is always difficult for all founders; the median PE/VC fund sources and reviews 87 companies before investing in 1. This young, talented girl is given no chance of being the founder of the next Facebook.”. “I

Venture Capital 60

Venture Capital Advisory Board Greece Cofounder 60

YoungUpstarts

DECEMBER 2, 2012

“Vinnie was amongst the most popular and valued mentors on the bootcamp we operated earlier this year,” says Hugh Mason, co-founder and CEO at JFDI.Asia. “Golden Gate Ventures’ links to later stage investors and Silicon Valley can add most value once start-ups launch products and prove market traction.

Asia 162

Asia Singapore Silicon Valley Cofounder 162

David Teten

JANUARY 9, 2018

My experience has been this lever brings three benefits: it lowers origination costs because more founders want to raise capital from you; it enhances your leverage in negotiating with the CEO; and it lowers your failure rate. . – Incubating companies.

Venture Capital 60

Venture Capital Private Equity Silicon Valley Differentiation 60

David Teten

JANUARY 9, 2018

My experience has been this lever brings three benefits: it lowers origination costs because more founders want to raise capital from you; it enhances your leverage in negotiating with the CEO; and it lowers your failure rate. . – Incubating companies.

Venture Capital 60

Venture Capital Private Equity Silicon Valley Differentiation 60

View from Seed

MARCH 19, 2015

Founders laud their own “end-to-end” thinking. He’s dubbed the approach “ pretotyping ,” and it shares many of the same principles as both its similar-sounding (if later-stage) cousin, prototyping, as well as the more well-known lean startup movement.

Product 120

Product Technical Review Marketing Lean 120

YoungUpstarts

MARCH 28, 2019

by Ronald Dod, Chief Marketing Officer and Co-founder of Visiture. Cat food grain-free,” “cat food senior cat formula,” and “cat food for kittens” are all more likely to result in a conversion because these consumers are at a later stage in their journey and have a better idea of what they want.

Audience 164

Audience Algorithm eCommerce Cofounder 164

David Teten

JUNE 22, 2012

In announcing these finalists, David Teten, Founder and Chairman of HBSAANY, and Partner at ff Venture Capital ( ffvc.com ), said “VCAP has introduced us to entrepreneurs looking at opportunities which would otherwise have been invisible to us. We think the potential of the companies we’ve met through this initiative is exceptional.”.

Programming 128

Programming Accredited Investor Naming New York 128

David Teten

JULY 25, 2017

Most importantly, we have regular meetings with later-stage VCs and enterprise clients both in the US and internationally to discuss our companies which fit their investment mandates. Effectively, we are a market maker between our portfolio companies and the late-stage VCs and large enterprises which are our co-investors.

Portfolio 60

Portfolio Technical Review Private Equity Database 60

David Teten

JUNE 22, 2012

In announcing these finalists, David Teten, Founder and Chairman of HBSAANY, and Partner at ff Venture Capital ( ffvc.com ), said “VCAP has introduced us to entrepreneurs looking at opportunities which would otherwise have been invisible to us. We think the potential of the companies we’ve met through this initiative is exceptional.”.

Programming 114

Programming Accredited Investor Naming New York 114

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. Can the founders communicate well?

Venture Capital 60

Venture Capital Balance Sheet Technical Review Portfolio 60

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 3, 2013

I normally look to invest my first money below a $20 million valuation and when deals get to lofty prices I normally bow out to later-stage investors who have deeper pockets. We co-led the A-round with IA Ventures. We co-led the next round with IA Ventures without even asking other VCs to participate so we did an A-1 round.

Iran 358

Iran API San Francisco Nigeria 358