Both Sides of the Table
OCTOBER 25, 2009
For example, a recent phone call I had with a young entrepreneur straight out of one of the most prestigious engineering schools in America he asked, “I have an offer for $400,000 in seed money but the VC wants me to agree now to bring in a new CEO.&# This company is doing its SEED round and they already want to bring someone new in.
Both Sides of the Table
JANUARY 5, 2010
Through comment conversations with many of you I tried to emphasize that it isn’t enough to just have one attribute. VCs don’t have the same net worth litmus test and great entrepreneurs have a ton of sources for seed money to get financed very early. Once you’re done raising a fund you’ll hire anybody you want!
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
YoungUpstarts
OCTOBER 28, 2015
Startups need to understand how to manage the seed money they receive from investors and VCs. The primary terms for these types of transactions are the valuation cap and the conversion discount. Debt or convertible securities (e.g., a SAFE or KISS) provide a much simpler transaction with less terms to negotiate.
Both Sides of the Table
JUNE 17, 2017
If you hire 6 senior sales reps in January at $120,000 / year salary then you’ve taken on an extra $60,000 per month in costs yet these sales people might not close new business 6 months. If you don’t have a strong balance sheet and can’t hire more people that’s fine — but understand this may lead to slower growth.
Up and Running
MAY 30, 2018
My first company, Digital-Tutors , grew from a startup in my living room with $54 of my own seed money into a multi-million-dollar business with customers around the world. I was proud of the fact that we never used any outside investment money to grow the company. As leaders, we want to hire great team members to do great work.
This is going to be BIG.
APRIL 16, 2018
You think you're getting this big fat check compared to the seed money you raised, but they're actually doing something more like dipping their toes in the water. Too often, because most investor conversations result in a no, founders start telling themselves all sorts of reasons what caused that result.
Startup Lessons Learned
MAY 31, 2019
First, the introduction of seed money as an institutional form of capital. Before the mid-2000s, we mostly had individual angels writing small checks from their personal capital, but over the last 10-15 years we’ve seen hundreds of new institutional seed funds formed.
Expert insights. Personalized for you.
297 
Let's personalize your content