Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 30, 2016

conversation literally every week with startups. How much you raise determines valuation I know it sounds crazy but at the earliest stages of a company your valuation often is determined by how much money you raise. These types of firms may see your follow-on financing as a chance to “buy up ownership.” million or $4 million.

Pre-Money Valuation 292

Pre-Money Valuation Valuation Early Stage Startup 292

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 26, 2016

The key to being able to run a business that isn’t yet profitable (on operating margin) is availability of capital to finance losses and preferably at a cost that isn’t too punitive to the founders and employees. So it might actually be more productive for you to improve your conversion than to improve your ad buying, for example.

Metrics 150

Metrics Cost Acquisition Startup 150

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 24, 2014

Working with early-stage teams : coaching, mentoring, setting strategy, rolling up sleeves: 9/10. Helping companies get to next financing round successfully: I was just beginning this phase in Sept 2010 and said so. I’ve now been involved with many other successful foll0w-on financings. Since then? ” Yup.

Los Angeles 387

Los Angeles Intellectual Property LP Venture Capital 387

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 14, 2017

As an early-stage VC I love this phase. This financial leader could well have come through the finance org at another startup or at a larger company but they often also can come from strategy consulting (Bain, BCG or McKinsey) or through investment banking (Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, etc.).

Operations 286

Operations New York City Technical Review Startup 286

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 16, 2010

But my conversations in the private corridors on Sand Hill Road in Silicon Valley is that many fund sizes will be smaller going forward. There is also True Ventures that does early stage, seed investments. This is producing a “boomlet&# or a bubble in early-stage investing. Others will, too. That’s OK.

LP 311

LP Technical Review Early Stage Silicon Valley 311

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 29, 2013

If you track the venture capital industry it would be hard to miss the conversation going on this week over AngelList “Syndicates.” It should help some entrepreneurs to better access early-stage capital and should allow some angel investors better access to deal flow. For starters, what is AngelList Syndicates?

Syndicate 356

Syndicate Syndication Cofounder Early Stage 356

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 10, 2021

And the loosening of federal monetary policies, particularly in the US, has pushed more dollars into the venture ecosystems at every stage of financing. What Has Changed in Financing? The biggest change for us in early-stage investing is that we now need to commit earlier. Of course we can’t.

Pre-Money Valuation 471

Pre-Money Valuation Valuation Venture Capital Early Stage 471

David Teten

JANUARY 19, 2021

Yes, via conversion rights at a valuation cap. Yes, via conversion rights at a valuation cap. Seed-stage compatible: Like traditional equity VC investors, Flexible VCs accomodate early-stage investment risk within their portfolios better than a traditional RBI funder. Flexible VC: Compensation-based.

Cofounder 78

Cofounder Technical Review Equity Dividend 78

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 11, 2021

Trust, which today has announced a $9 million financing (Upfront is an investor), is a platform designed to help make the most of marketing investment by providing both analytics and a community of likeminded executives to share what’s working, and what’s not, across platforms. join the Trust waitlist here.

Founder 424

Founder Product Cofounder Acquisition 424

Gust

DECEMBER 6, 2022

Convertible notes are a great tool for venture financing. They are primarily used for early-stage financings, but they are also a good solution for a bridge round when a company isn’t quite ready for the next equity financing round.

Early Stage 91

Early Stage Equity Finance Conversion 91

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 23, 2014

The more data I collected and the more conversation I had with GPs and LPs the more I realized that there was another major factor at play in the concentration of capital in larger funds – many traditional VC firms were now setting up “opportunity funds” or “growth funds.” more than 5 years ago?—?and

Technical Review 398

Technical Review Venture Capital Valuation Pre-Money Valuation 398

View from Seed

FEBRUARY 23, 2021

For early stage VC ‘s, Syndication is the process of sharing investments with other potential co-investors. These forces result in most early stage rounds being composed of investors that are already hanging around the hoop. The old process of syndication inevitably took several weeks in the past.

Syndicate 207

Syndicate Syndication Term Sheet Cofounder 207

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 13, 2011

I have this conversation with every startup that comes to see me and has a CEO & a COO. They will often run all of the daily reports into them covering off for finance, sales, marketing, biz dev & HR. In an early stage start I believe it’s the CEO’s job to manage these functions.

Technical Review 325

Technical Review Startup Cofounder Due Diligence 325

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 11, 2016

Importantly, we recently announced a $30 million financing that gives us the resources we need to build a global enterprise software company. It’s the executives who trust you to join the early-stage startups you’ve funded. It has grown recurring revenue by more than 500% and deal-size by 276%.

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital Fractional CTO Cofounder Early Stage 150

David Teten

APRIL 1, 2021

As an agenda for each meeting, I suggest: – How can we most add value, in addition to helping with financing? Real Ventures , an early-stage, Canadian-based fund, runs a two-day Founder Camp every six months. This is an open-ended query and the most important question.). – What are your fundraising goals?

Private Equity 78

Private Equity Venture Capital Portfolio Equity 78

YoungUpstarts

OCTOBER 28, 2015

This article highlights their advice on issues ranging from financing to patent trolls: While startups may believe lawyers are too costly, working with one early on avoids potentially serious problems later. ” The Cost of Financing. Investors’ fees are capped, which influences what a startup will pay its own lawyers.

Convertible Security 100

Convertible Security IP Technical Review Software Review 100

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 29, 2009

We’re clearly in the early stages on Twitter monetization but let me offer some views on why we find Ad.ly Turns out everybody likes to produce content and take part in the “conversation.&# Massive uptake of user-generated content including blogs (e.g. Image courtesy of Bernhardt Haussner.

Technical Review 286

Technical Review Advertising Early Stage Internet 286

Haystack

JULY 4, 2019

Most folks who are not close to early-stage startups and new company formation would be surprised to discover that a high number of companies, after receiving funding from individuals or institutions, do not send updates to their investors. For me, I am pretty zen about this after six years of early-stage startup investment.

Early Stage 167

Early Stage Deal Flow Finance Metrics 167

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 11, 2018

Kabam, the mobile gaming company, hit a major stumbling block in its early days when its financing was lost due to the 2008 financial collapse. It not only survived but was sold nine years later for $1Billion. Co-founder Holly Liu will walk us through the the decisions that led to that outcome.

Lean 103

Lean Las Vegas Cofounder Startup 103

Hunter Walker

JULY 22, 2014

Hey founders, want to hear something incredibly frustrating about seed financing? Revenue runrate that you believe is required to raise additional financing. Since most of Homebrew’s investments are in early stage companies, we get to experience “first forecast” with almost all of them. Yeah, that one.

Forecast 96

Forecast Early Stage Seed Stage Startup 96

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 19, 2013

His vision for social analytics and tracking the conversion funnel was better than any I had heard at the time (or since). ” Somebody who had lived with the marketing consequences of trying to track online conversion from websites, google, mobile and social. We set out to find Jonathan’s “co-founder.”

Technical Review 303

Technical Review Cofounder Analytics Founder 303

Startup Company Lawyer

AUGUST 31, 2012

Over the past few years, convertible debt has emerged as a quick and inexpensive method for startup companies to raise money from angel investors and early stage venture funds. ” As a result, Ted introduced the Series Seed preferred stock documents as an alternative to convertible debt for early stage investments.

Convertible Security 73

Convertible Security Equity Security Preferred Stock 73

Gust

SEPTEMBER 29, 2011

It should therefore come as no surprise that an asymmetry of information exists, mostly gleaned from experience, between founders and investors in a venture financing deal. A term sheet for a convertible note deal may run two or three pages, versus 8-10 pages for a typical Series A Preferred Stock financing.

Finance 178

Finance Term Sheet Preferred Stock Bridge Financing 178

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 22, 2020

Offering debt is better than offering direct equity, especially in early stages when you have no valuation for setting equity percentages. Many use a convertible loan note that may be converted into equity upon the closing of the first formal angel or VC round of financing, with a more realistic valuation.

Management 308

Management Cram Down Angel Investor Equity 308

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 5, 2011

I have conversations with entrepreneurs and other VCs on a daily basis about fund raising, the prices of deals, how much companies should raise, etc. That’s the deal you get when you’re raising in a good market for startup financing. I thought I’d post on one of the topics before hand. That’s fine.

Pre-Money Valuation 336

Pre-Money Valuation Valuation Silicon Valley Stock 336

Austin Startup

MARCH 20, 2017

Since the field’s estimated beginnings in 2009 , subsegments like “feminomics” and “inclusive finance” have spun off, but at it’s core gender lens investing is: incorporating gender as a factor to guide investment strategies. The movement’s objective is to look at the entire financial and social system, not just at women.”

Private Equity 54

Private Equity Venture Capital United States Equity 54

ReadWriteStart

OCTOBER 7, 2010

Bottom line, early stage equity is very, very expensive. So at any point, if you are trying to raise money, and you are hearing from investors that you are too early and have too little validation, it may be a good thing. Then Liana Thompson pitched Trendy Loot , a very early stage deal site for low-end jewelry.

Valuation 119

Valuation Silicon Valley Pre-Money Valuation Bootstrapping 119

Up and Running

SEPTEMBER 19, 2017

million early-stage raise that involved pitching to over a dozen PE firms, which took months to negotiate. A deal was reached after two phone conversations and within three weeks contracts were signed and the investment was funded. His first capital raise was a $2.75

Private Equity 94

Private Equity Pre-Money Valuation Equity Startup 94

Version One Ventures

OCTOBER 29, 2013

For example, NYC-based Union Square Ventures has built up the most experience around “large networks of engaged users”; Berlin-based Point Nine Capital is one of the strongest early-stage SaaS investors; and version one ventures probably has more marketplace investments than most seed funds. Related articles.

Silicon Valley 161

Silicon Valley Global Finance New York City 161

Austin Startup

AUGUST 10, 2017

Although we were studying finance, we were always more interested in tech. Before graduating, I decided to forgo the finance path and instead dove into engineering and later sales and product management roles at VersaSuite (health IT) in Austin. But we never lost the finance bug. We were infatuated with tech.

Technical Review 48

Technical Review Cofounder Technical Cofounder Austin 48

View from Seed

AUGUST 13, 2014

Pros of taking their angel money include the feeder system to venture financing of the next round and the vast network of portfolio CEOs which can be tapped into for connections and help. Cons: Potentially not much value-add beyond initial financing round. The Friends & Family Angel. The Grouped Angels. The Financial Angel.

Angel Investor 334

Angel Investor Syndicate Syndication Early Stage 334

View from Seed

JANUARY 11, 2021

billion across 2,288 deals in Q3, with deal count exceeding Q2’s at nearly every stage. . Early stage deal activity showed real resilience coming off of a slow Q2, with deal count at angel and seed stage in 2020 now about at par with the same period in 2019. Familiar loops offered invaluable, pre-seeded confidence.

Venture Capital 350

Venture Capital Cofounder Early Stage Seed Stage 350

View from Seed

JUNE 10, 2020

of teams’ online pitch decks and recorded videos, as well as loved the dozens of second-round video conversations which we had with Founders working on quite compelling startups. To Participating Founders : To avoid signaling issues, we intentionally will not lead the next round of financing.

Cofounder 177

Cofounder Syndicate Syndication Alabama 177

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 27, 2021

We’ve had two companies where we had to bridge finance them several times before they eventually IPO’d We had a portfolio company turn-down a $350 million acquisition because they wanted at least $400 million. Early-stage venture capital is about extreme winners. It sold to Amazon for > $1 billion.

Bankruptcy 294

Bankruptcy Bridge Financing Portfolio Angel Investor 294

Austin Startup

FEBRUARY 13, 2019

Consider convertible debt Before diving into a seed round, you may want to consider convertible debt over equity financing. You benefit from the capital and investors benefit from a nice discount at conversion, usually in the range of 20 percent. We got back on our feet and successfully pivoted the business.

Strategic Investors 49

Strategic Investors Austin Angel Investor Bootstrapping 49

Gust

OCTOBER 12, 2011

Last week , we took the plunge and began dissecting an example term sheet for a convertible debt financing round piece by piece. In Part II, we looked at the mandatory conversion language that is at the heart of any convertible debt financing. First, a word about the maturity date.

Finance 107

Finance Term Sheet Pre-Money Valuation Early Stage 107

Board Effect

DECEMBER 19, 2019

Boards have a variety of options for metrics to help them monitor different areas of the business including finance, operations, organizational issues, products, sales, marketing, and vendors. These are pivotal events that may provide opportunities for external growth, as well as considerable risks for the company and its shareholders. .

Management 64

Management Software Review Acquisition Merger 64