View from Seed

DECEMBER 4, 2014

Editor’s note: Understanding how to divide founder equity at a startup can be tricky, even to the point of reaching emotional riffs between founders. I like to say that “there are only co-founders” — it’s extraordinarily rare for a successful business to have just a sole founder.

Equity 315

Equity Founder Sweat Equity Cofounder 315

View from Seed

MAY 14, 2019

A number of blog posts recently have mentioned this, but we seem to be experiencing a rise in repeat founders starting new businesses and raising seed capital. We’re also seeing a wave of folks who were not founders, but were star players among the first 25 folks at a unicorn company also starting new companies.

Founder 256

Founder Agile Cofounder Seed Capital 256

View from Seed

MAY 5, 2015

During the preceding pitch process, even founders who are highly transparent, honest folks try to put their startup in the best possible light for a new investor, so it’s only natural that a more complete picture of a company’s situation (warts and all) sometimes comes into focus after the round is closed and board meeting scheduled.

Seed Capital 120

Seed Capital Seed Stage Cofounder Founder 120

Genuine VC

OCTOBER 19, 2015

Now Boston’s largest regular tech conference, every few months it draws hundreds of attendees from the entrepreneurial ecosystem – including founders, software engineers, startup executives, and investors. Accelerators, incubators, and co-working spaces have proliferated in Cambridge and Boston.

Boston 100

Boston Cofounder Seed Capital Software Engineering 100

YoungUpstarts

FEBRUARY 20, 2015

Neil Blumenthal , the youthful cofounder of Warby Parker, a disruptive company that transformed the conservative eyewear industry by creating affordable, stylish glasses for people across the world, defined a startup as “ a company working to solve a problem where the solution is not obvious and success is not guaranteed. “

Cofounder 100

Cofounder Montana Startup Seed Capital 100

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 11, 2019

But the CEO was able to talk not only about his co-founders and vision in his pitch, but also presented detailed pre-launch interviews with a handful of prospective customers who indicated they’d participate in a paid beta once the product was ready. B2B companies can often be post-product and pre-revenue for an extended period.

Seed Stage 149

Seed Stage B2B Seed Capital Revenue 149

View from Seed

NOVEMBER 18, 2014

Once a startup has raised seed capital, plenty of theories and advice exist on how to successfully raise a Series A. Of the NextView-backed founders have have tried to raise this round, over 70% have done so (compared to a mean success rate in the industry of around 27%, according to some sources ).

Syndicate 333

Syndicate Syndication Seed Stage Startup 333

Scalable Startup

AUGUST 9, 2018

Raising seed capital is a tricky business. Most are making major mistakes in their approach when seeking capital. In their quest for sustainable growth, the elusive dream for most first time founders is that first funding. High growth startup companies need seed money to get things going.

Technical Cofounder 20

Technical Cofounder Silicon Valley Early Stage Cofounder 20

YoungUpstarts

APRIL 12, 2016

by Anand Srinivasan, founder of LeadJoint.com. Most businesses – online or offline, need seed capital to get established and without access to these funds, launching a business can seem like an improbable dream. Unless your business idea is to launch an oil rig, you do not need huge capital investments.

Cofounder 100

Cofounder Sweat Equity Startup Seed Capital 100

YoungUpstarts

MARCH 13, 2013

Other investors in this financing round include SPRING Seeds Capital , Clearbridge BSA and Lu Yoh Chie of Biosensors International , and existing shareholder BioVeda.

Singapore 228

Singapore Intellectual Property United States Cofounder 228

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 8, 2014

The seeds planted by those who came in the 90′s have begun to blossom 15 years later literally into seed capital, blossoming new entrepreneurs and an ecosystem of experienced operators that powered LA 1.0 Many of the early winners sold for north of a half a billion dollars. Success begets success. and are guiding LA 2.0.

Los Angeles 376

Los Angeles Silicon Valley Entrepreneur Seattle 376

YoungUpstarts

MAY 3, 2015

muru - D will be hosting a roadshow in six Southeast Asian cities, including Bangkok, Hanoi, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Manila and Singapore, and selected startups will receive S$40,000 in seed capital, space in muru - D Singapore’s central business district office and as well as introductions to world-class mentors, coaches and investors.

Singapore 100

Singapore Asia Charlotte Silicon Valley 100

Genuine VC

MARCH 24, 2014

In the past four years since we’ve been investing together at NextView, 70%+ of those companies in our portfolio which have made attempts at raising full-fledged multi-million dollar Series A after their Seed round have been able to successfully do so (with another additional cohort raising new capital subsequent to seed but not bona fide Series A).

Seed Capital 212

Seed Capital Metrics Cofounder Revenue 212

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 1, 2014

So today I’m excited to announce that Upfront Ventures is leading an $8 million round with some amazing co-investors including Founder’s Fund, OATV, Lowercase, High Peaks, Collaborative Fund and many great angel investors. After 9 months it was time to raise seed capital and go test drive our new software and processes.

Technical Review 380

Technical Review Software Review Cofounder CTO Hire 380

Steve Blank

APRIL 28, 2016

Ajay Kshatriya , co-founder and CEO of Biota Technology , which applies DNA sequencing technology to the energy industry. Steven Cohn , founder and CEO of Validately , which helps user researchers, product managers and others validate demand or usability for prototypes and live sites. Ajay Kshatriya. Steven : Nope, hubris.

Entrepreneur 120

Entrepreneur Cofounder Seed Capital Texas 120

Steve Blank

APRIL 28, 2016

Ajay Kshatriya , co-founder and CEO of Biota Technology , which applies DNA sequencing technology to the energy industry. Steven Cohn , founder and CEO of Validately , which helps user researchers, product managers and others validate demand or usability for prototypes and live sites. Ajay Kshatriya. Steven : Nope, hubris.

Entrepreneur 120

Entrepreneur Cofounder Seed Capital Texas 120

Hunter Walker

NOVEMBER 16, 2020

So I recently re-shared a 2019 blog post where I’d basically advised founders who’ve raised seed capital to worry less about “how will I raise the next round” and more about “how will I execute my plan?” Have they definitely de-risked every part of their business? Not a chance. HW: All fair points.

Founder 124

Founder Cofounder Metrics Technical Review 124

Feld Thoughts

JULY 29, 2011

Finance Friday’s gets off the ground with today’s post by introducing you to an imaginary startup, the entrepreneurs that we’ll being following throughout the series, and their first challenges: splitting up the founders’ equity and addressing the case where one of the founders provides the initial seed capital for the business.

Equity 137

Equity Finance Pre-Money Valuation Denver 137

YoungUpstarts

JANUARY 15, 2013

Rohan Mathew and Joe Shure, founders of The Intersect Fund. “It became clear that although many of these low-income entrepreneurs have quality business ideas and a lot of motivation, they often lack the business knowledge and seed capital they to get the most out of their enterprises,” they add.

New Jersey 140

New Jersey Small Business Seed Capital Cofounder 140

Austin Startup

OCTOBER 12, 2018

Over 500 tech executives, startup founders, investors and aspiring entrepreneurs came together for an unforgettable day of in-depth discussions, workshops and a $200,000 surprise. On Monday, October 1?—?the the first day of Austin Startup Week ?—?more

Cofounder 48

Cofounder Texas Dallas Seed Capital 48

Haystack

NOVEMBER 24, 2018

The company only raised a bit over $1M as seed capital. Compare that with $3-4M seed rounds today, you could say PlanGrid raised a pre-seed round, but then quickly found their market to target, and were able to finance operations with revenue until Sequoia knocked on their door.

Acquisition 62

Acquisition Artificial Inteligence Balance Sheet Cofounder 62

ReadWriteStart

NOVEMBER 5, 2019

The rounds were conducted from 2008 to 2010, starting from seed capital. After CB Insights’ investigation yielded such an alarming figure of failure, the company decided to compile more than 100 post mortem letters from different startup founders to discover the reason for the failures. Why do so many companies fail?

Venture Capital 77

Venture Capital Cofounder Finance United States 77

The Next Web

OCTOBER 3, 2012

Andrew is the co-founder and CTO of Parse.ly , a technology startup that provides big data insights to the web’s best publishers. He wrote: When startups die, the official cause of death is always either running out of money or a critical founder bailing. Editor’s note: This is a guest post by Andrew Montalenti.

Cofounder 155

Cofounder Technical Cofounder Technical Review Software Review 155

The Next Web

DECEMBER 31, 2013

Dries Buytaert is the co-founder and CTO and Acquia , a venture-backed software company that offers products and services for open source content management system Drupal. Access to capital continues to be a challenge in Europe. Large companies also provide an important ‘exit strategy’ for startups.

Europe 149

Europe Government Silicon Valley Entrepreneur 149

Business Plan Blog

DECEMBER 10, 2013

The most important principle of startup fundraising that every entrepreneur needs to know is: raise enough capital to achieve a set of milestones that will allow the company to attract the next round of investment. Below are the milestones that you will need to achieve in order to attract seed investment from Angels: Business Plan.

Angel Investor 55

Angel Investor Intellectual Property Seed Capital Advisory Board 55

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 26, 2009

Provide early seed capital, and be the ones to make those introductions. ► August (2) SXSW Case Study: SlideShare goes freemium ► July (4) Case Study: kaChing, Anatomy of a Pivot Some IPO speculation Founder personalities and the “first-class man&# th. Instead, focus on getting them ready for that stage.

San Francisco 113

San Francisco Silicon Valley Startup Continuous Deployment 113

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 14, 2014

I had witnessed a number of early-stage tech startups in LA raise seed capital from the Bay Area and relocate. She joined Launchpad as a very non-traditional founder and defied every conventional expectation to build one of LA’s fastest growing companies. We had a specific goal in mind.

Early Stage 290

Early Stage Venture Capital Los Angeles Coder 290

Business Plan Blog

OCTOBER 4, 2013

One recipe for failure (business failure and capital raising failure) is building a lopsided team weighted to one function of the business. If you have a technical background and you are focused on product development, consider a co-founder with a sales and marketing background that can focus on selling your world class product.

Part-Time VPE 79

Part-Time VPE Fractional VPE Cofounder CTO Hire 79

Business Plan Blog

NOVEMBER 22, 2013

The most important principle of startup fundraising that every entrepreneur needs to know is: raise enough capital to achieve a set of milestones that will allow the company to attract the next round of investment. While all of these milestones are vital to the success of raising seed capital, market validation is towards the top of the list.

Intellectual Property 55

Intellectual Property Advisory Board Startup Seed Capital 55

Campus Entrepreneurship

MARCH 8, 2012

Over the past 9 months, The Fort’s co-founders, Jonathon Perrelli and Carla Valdes, have been busy trying to spark innovation in the nation’s capital. The program, which gives founders anywhere from $25,000 to $100,000 in seed capital, was lured to the area from nearby Arlington thanks to a $100,000 grant from D.C.

Arlington 39

Arlington Seed Capital DC Cofounder 39

Business Plan Blog

DECEMBER 31, 2013

You may have the next Steve Jobs as your co-founder, but it is important that every team member is completely dedicated and delivering. Use your co-founder to click through the slides while you are showing the product, or vice versa. Download our free Raising Capital from Angel Investors eBook. Want To Learn More?

Angel Investor 51

Angel Investor Cofounder Distribution Seed Capital 51

thebarefootvc

MARCH 8, 2012

While the seed capital gap has closed, there are still only a handful of venture capital firms here in NYC investing in the crucial Series A/B rounds. In contrast, many Silicon Valley funds are large with much capital to put to work (which is why we are seeing them lead NYC deals at these stages).

Silicon Valley 69

Silicon Valley Ghana Venture Capital India 69

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 15, 2010

StackOverflow – We both have a love fest for Joel Spolsky who also co-founded Fog Creek Software. 5mm in Series A – Investors: GRP (Mark Suster)(lead), Greycroft Partners (Dana Settle), and Matt Coffin (founder of LowerMyBills) – Read more: TechCrunch , SoCalTech. DEAL OF THE WEEK.

Stealth 285

Stealth SEC Advertising Accredited Investor 285

maplebutter.com

JANUARY 8, 2013

Whats is the best way to find a co-founder for your startup? However, one of my co-founders doesn’t seem to be as motivated as the rest of us. As founders invest massive amounts of time into their start-up, how critical is it for them to come out of their “hermit caves” and network?

Technical Review 44

Technical Review Startup Cofounder Software Review 44

Feld Thoughts

JULY 14, 2015

The new money comes in at a pre-money valuation of $100, but includes a complete refresh of founder equity to 40% of the company. So the new investment gets 60%, the founders get 39.9%, and the $1m of seed money gets 0.1%. But in this cycle, I hadn’t seen it in a seed round. Sure – it happens.

Recapitalization 70

Recapitalization Pre-Money Valuation Post-Money Valuation Angel Investor 70

The Next Web

SEPTEMBER 16, 2012

At their heart, seed accelerators are defined length programs (usually 3 months) where early stage startups are provided seed capital, mentorship, co-working space (though not always) and other services in the hope of removing the barriers to startup success… or failure.

Silicon Valley 118

Silicon Valley Australia Cofounder San Francisco 118

mashable.com

NOVEMBER 3, 2010

For the first-time entrepreneur or founder looking for seed stage funding, this circle can be especially difficult to penetrate. Mashable Mashable reached out to angels, seed stage investors and VC firm partners and asked them to share their wisdom with the rest of us.

Angel Investor 80

Angel Investor Startup San Francisco Social Media 80