View from Seed

MAY 19, 2015

To me, the most exciting (and most perilous) times in a company’s lifecycle are the early first stages when it is just getting off the ground. At the seed stage, the founder’s or co-founders’ role in the company is essential and therefore carries a great deal of risk for missteps. And then some.

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage Liquidity Event Cofounder Startup 120

Agile VC

DECEMBER 13, 2011

I looked at this founder’s prior startup, which ultimately had a successful exit, and then was happy to connect with him again as he launches a new project. In NextView’s case that’s seed stage internet and software companies. I co-founded NextView Ventures , a seed-stage VC firm based in Boston, in 2010.

Seed Stage 185

Seed Stage Silicon Valley Cofounder Technical Review 185

View from Seed

APRIL 16, 2015

An easy way to think about it is that value over time doesn’t go up and to the right in a straight line like this: Instead, it’s more of a stair step like this: So, what are the value inflection points that create the stair steps, and how does one think about it at the earliest stages? These might include: Bring on a technical co-founder.

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage Cofounder Early Stage Startup 120

Agile VC

APRIL 17, 2011

Kayak was started here in my backyard of Boston… co-founder & CTO Paul English and the product/engineering team is based here in Concord MA. Co-founder & CEO Steve Hafner and the business team are based in Norwalk, CT. What They Do: Travel search engine. Founding Date: 2004.

Pre-Money Valuation 113

Pre-Money Valuation Liquidation Preference Dividend Common Stock 113

David Cohen

AUGUST 29, 2013

We arrived at the address only to find that it is a co-working space. It is coming from a seed stage VC and suddenly the amount of that investment has a range. A month later, we’d seen or heard from the founders of the top-billed startup exactly zero times and there had been exactly zero sessions for learning.

Cofounder 134

Cofounder Technical Review Vertical Programming 134

Agile VC

JANUARY 4, 2012

Founders Hardi Meybaum and Indrek Narusk originally started building the company in their native Estonia before moving to Boston to join the hub of SaaS / CAD software companies located here. In addition to compelling founders, we were drawn to the company by their vision for a professional community for mechanical engineers and designers.

Community 100

Community Estonia Syndicate Syndication 100

View from Seed

JULY 17, 2019

Although you still hear stories of investors that require founders to move to SF, it’s more likely these days that investors see a winning business outside of the Bay Area as a positive, given the costs and competitive pressure in that local market. How should a founder go about it? But doing this takes extra work.

San Francisco 243

San Francisco Cofounder B2B Seed Stage 243

Agile VC

MAY 26, 2011

Many assume it was a cakewalk, based on the success LinkedIn has enjoyed over time and the current stature of our founder/CEO Reid Hoffman (now Chairman). Yes… he was a very successful PayPal exec and previously co-founder & VP Product of SocialNet. But keep in mind at this point Reid’s a first-time CEO.

Term Sheet 178

Term Sheet Silicon Valley Technical Review Social Network 178

YoungUpstarts

MAY 8, 2018

Seriously consider these seven tips before any deal reaches the negotiating stage. Use your network to search out CEOs funded by any investor you are considering. All entrepreneurs want to demonstrate that they’re competent, courageous, and bold, however, always take a co-founder or trusted advisor along.

Seed Stage 133

Seed Stage Due Diligence Cofounder New York 133

Agile VC

JUNE 5, 2011

Even for those who don’t care to dive into the numbers, it’s worth a quick glance because co-founder/CEO Andrew Mason wrote a letter which forms the preamble of the full document. I co-founded NextView Ventures , a seed-stage VC firm based in Boston, in 2010. Filed under Uncategorized. Read More ».

North America 100

North America Chicago Boston Silicon Valley 100

techcrunch.com

APRIL 26, 2013

Co-founder Naval Ravikant explains that 18 pilot companies in the program, including Transcriptic, Double Robotics and Tred, received $6.7 Investors included Founders Fund, 500 Startups and Marc Cuban. This is just the next phase of AngelList’s evolution into a one-stop shop for seed-stage companies and their backers.

SEC 61

SEC Accredited Investor San Diego New York City 61

View from Seed

JANUARY 11, 2017

One of our prior investments was an e-commerce company that grew primarily through organic search. We recently led a large seed round for an autonomous vehicle company called Optimus Ride. Normally I would counsel seed stage companies not to take strategic investment but that wasn’t the case here.

Strategic Investors 120

Strategic Investors Post-Money Valuation Seed Stage Cofounder 120

Agile VC

JANUARY 12, 2012

When a startup doesn’t match the stage where a particular investor focuses, founders may get a response along the lines of “This is interesting to us, but come back once you get from X phase to Y phase” That could be from seed stage to a larger Series A financing need, or to progress from pre-product to post-revenue.

Seed Stage 100

Seed Stage Silicon Valley Syndicate Syndication 100

Agile VC

JANUARY 18, 2012

Being a startup founder isn’t for everyone ultimately, in fact it probably isn’t for most people. Not everyone has the skillset and experience to be a founder, and many of those that do may not have the risk tolerance. Seven Reasons to Become a Founding Entrepreneur. January 18, 2012.

Entrepreneur 100

Entrepreneur Cofounder Silicon Valley Seed Stage 100

Agile VC

MAY 21, 2012

The expanding universe of potential buyers is a great thing for founders. We’ll see how long they remain exciting, innovative places to work but at least for now I think most founders who contemplate an acquisition would be open to having their company and team be part of a Facebook, LinkedIn, or Zynga. Pingback: this.

Acquisition 162

Acquisition Silicon Valley B2B Seed Stage 162

Agile VC

AUGUST 2, 2011

Or as my friend and mentor Reid Hoffman says being a founder is like throwing yourself off a cliff and assembling an airplane on the way down. I co-founded NextView Ventures , a seed-stage VC firm based in Boston, in 2010. My partner @ LeeHower looks back: [link] 5 days ago Search. Read More ». Previous Entries.

Silicon Valley 113

Silicon Valley Seed Stage Syndicate Syndication 113

Agile VC

DECEMBER 5, 2011

Objective Logistics co-founders Philip Beauregard and Matt Grace sent out this illustration immediately after the round was announced which I think keeps this in perspective nicely. I co-founded NextView Ventures , a seed-stage VC firm based in Boston, in 2010. Author howerl. Filed under Uncategorized. Read More ».

Silicon Valley 100

Silicon Valley Seed Stage Syndicate Syndication 100

Agile VC

APRIL 27, 2012

We try hard to bring our own blank canvas into these meetings so that we can better conceive and appreciate the vision of founders we meet with. I co-founded NextView Ventures , a seed-stage VC firm based in Boston, in 2010. My partner @ LeeHower looks back: [link] 5 days ago Search. Author howerl. Read More ».

Silicon Valley 124

Silicon Valley Seed Stage Syndicate Syndication 124

Agile VC

MAY 16, 2012

At NextView we’ve intentionally taken an approach which combines both thematic and opportunistic investing for a couple reasons: 1) Our Overall Strategy is Highly Focused - We’re a dedicated seed VC fund, so we invest in startups exclusively at the seed stage. Pingback: watch toy story 3 free online. Read More ».

Seed Stage 124

Seed Stage Silicon Valley B2B Syndicate 124

Rob Go

JULY 18, 2019

Although you still hear stories of investors that require founders to move to SF, it’s more likely these days that investors see a winning business outside of the Bay Area as a positive, given the costs and competitive pressure in that local market. How should a founder go about it? But doing this takes extra work.

San Francisco 48

San Francisco Cofounder B2B Seed Stage 48

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 26, 2020

Every year I teach classrooms full of students who leave class understanding the basics of how to search for product/market fit—and thinking their next goal is to “get funded.”. What most founders don’t realize is: Every stage of a startup requires a different set of metrics and milestones and founder skills.

Cofounder 429

Cofounder Seed Stage Valuation Metrics 429

Agile VC

FEBRUARY 28, 2012

If you and all the people around your startup (co-founders, advisors, existing investors) feel strongly that the company A) could benefit from additional equity capital at this time and B) you’ve accomplished value accretive milestones since your last round of funding, then it might make sense to talk with potential new investors.

Early Stage 100

Early Stage Syndicate Syndication Silicon Valley 100

Agile VC

JULY 11, 2012

Some disgruntled younger partners left in the mid-90s… two co-founded Benchmark Capital (Bruce Dunlevie & Andy Rachleff). But eventually some disgruntled younger partners left and two started August Capital (Dave Marquardt & John Johnson) and one co-founded Benchmark (Bob Kagle). But it’s not quite that simple.

Silicon Valley 240

Silicon Valley Carried Interest Cofounder Boston 240

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 24, 2009

Seed-stage investors are learning the metrics of traction, and are getting better at identifying those companies that are really achieving validated learning about customers. The problem is that there are no other metrics they can look at to judge the content of a book to know if it’s worth reviewing. ideas (e.g.

San Francisco 113

San Francisco Lean Technical Review Distribution 113

www.paulgraham.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

And since a startup thatsucceeds ordinarily makes its founders rich, that implies gettingrich is doable too. Googles plan, for example, was simply to create a search site thatdidnt suck. They had three new ideas: index more of the Web, uselinks to rank search results, and have clean, simple web pages withunintrusive keyword-based ads.

Startup 105

Startup Cofounder Software Stock 105

View from Seed

AUGUST 2, 2017

For this reason, we’re excited to announce that we have closed on NextView’s $50M third fund, with a mission to champion founders who are redesigning the Everyday Economy. . Innovation in search, social, broadband, and mobile & cloud hasn’t come to an end. Improvement is linear and incremental.

Seed Stage 273

Seed Stage Portfolio Cofounder B2B 273

mashable.com

NOVEMBER 2, 2011

Facebook Co-Founder’s Startup Asana Launches Publicly. Joshua Baer is the co-founder and CEO of Otherinbox , a prolific angel investor and the director of Capital Factory , Austin’s seed-stage incubator. Start by searching AngelList by market and geography. Trending Stories. Fill Out the Round.

Social Media 80

Social Media Startup Angel Investor RSS 80

Agile VC

JUNE 25, 2012

The company has been in stealth mode for the last couple months but I wanted to take this opportunity to talk about NextView’s investment in the company and our enthusiasm to be working with co-founders Dan Foody and Alex Cote. And in it’s raw format, just searching for a contact may not provide much value.

Cofounder 140

Cofounder Stealth Silicon Valley Mobile 140

Agile VC

MAY 10, 2012

seed round today. NextView is thrilled to have co-led this round along with our friends at SoftTech VC and Farmeron’s existing investors 500 Startups, Seedcamp, and TAG. I first met Matija Kopic, Farmeron’s co-founder & CEO, a few months ago. My partner @ LeeHower looks back: [link] 5 days ago Search.

Silicon Valley 223

Silicon Valley Cofounder Seed Stage Syndicate 223

Agile VC

APRIL 13, 2012

I describe this in part as the “Social Network” effect… not just the movie itself but the example of Mark Zuckerberg and many other high profile young founders as role models ( who can forget this image? ) I co-founded NextView Ventures , a seed-stage VC firm based in Boston, in 2010. Read More ».

Silicon Valley 185

Silicon Valley San Francisco San Jose Startup 185

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 6, 2011

I was hanging out the other day with my buddy Jody Sherman, founder & CEO of EcoMom. Co-founded a company in the private jet business – sold to Virgin America. EcoMom Makes a Breakthrough in its Search for Funding. Through this process he raised $2 million. I am impressed with his approach. My Personal Take on AngelList.

Valuation 292

Valuation Deal Flow Lead Investor Cofounder 292

www.paulgraham.com

AUGUST 1, 2008

In the last batch of startups we funded, we had several founders who said theyd thought of applying before, but werent sure and got jobs instead. This is a problem for founders, because it makes raising money take longer and cost more in legal fees. Founders and investors have different attitudes to risk.

Web 54

Web Startup Silicon Valley Technical Review 54

Agile VC

JUNE 12, 2012

Both are building on top of the existing credit card infrastructure because as Swipely Founder/CEO Angus Davis points out, millions of people are walking around with a mobile payment device in their pocket… it’s called a credit card. I’d be happy to co-author with you. Any thoughts? link] leehower. Read More ».

Mobile 250

Mobile Disintermediation SMS Government 250

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. and Path Intelligence.

Angel Investor 80

Angel Investor Startup San Francisco Social Media 80

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

www.vccafe.com

MARCH 11, 2013

Whether you’re wondering what site search you should use or what is the best email marketing tool, knowledge is power. ” 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. Â Search for apps tools.

Software Review 53

Software Review Technical Review Startup 53

pandodaily.com

NOVEMBER 29, 2012

“I wouldn’t expect anyone except seed investors to complain about it,” Graham says. “Founders don’t think their problems are due to trends. And in fact, overall trends are a second-order effect for founders.” Sarah Lacy is the founder and editor-in-chief of PandoDaily. Pando Daily.

Technical Review 93

Technical Review Silicon Valley Incubator Syria 93