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Want to Know How First Round Capital was Started?

Both Sides of the Table

They chose the name First Round Capital because they thought capital would be deployed most efficiently at smaller seed stage rounds considering the cost to build an internet business had come down drastically. He also says it is important to be able to participate in follow on rounds so as not to get “crammed down”.

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The Damaging Psychology of Down Rounds

Both Sides of the Table

million and only manage to get $750,000. Often that is a good incentive because it keeps VCs from screwing people over since a bad reputation or bad working relationships could cost you deals in the future. ” What does that mean? It’s far better to be raising $1.5 ” Damaging psychology.

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Why Seed Funds Have Scaled

Haystack

Much has been written about the fact that traditional seed stage funds have grown in size and dollars under management. As valuations have gone up early, the cost of ownership has also risen, and in an early-stage fund where the loss ratio is likely to be much higher, high ownership has been increasingly important to these funds.

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5 Ways to Make Your Startup a Choice Investment

Startup Professionals Musings

I like the work just published by Bob Rice in “ The Alternative Answer ,” which does a great job of summarizing the investment universe, starting with the “conventional” stocks, bonds, and real estate, but moving on through more esoteric alternatives, including hedge funds, private equity, real assets, managed futures, and finally venture funding.

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Startup Fairy Tales and Other Tall Tales That Venture Capitalists Tell

Growthink Blog

Technical progress and market traction are much slower and cost a lot more than anticipated. Management has the wrong pedigree, is geographically undesirable, competes in the wrong industry, and/or has a business model that lacks "scalability credibility" with the venture community. . There are a lot of dark, hard days.

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Does raising money mean you should start scaling?

The Next Web

Howard Marks is a serial entrepreneur and Managing Director of LA tech accelerator StartEngine. Some metrics that I like to look for are: Lifetime value of a customer, average revenue per buyer, cost of a paying customer, registration rates, etc. Before StartEngine, Howard co-founded Activision and founded Acclaim Games. .

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Lean Startups aren't Cheap Startups

Steve Blank

In times when venture capital is hard to get, investors extract high costs for failure (down-rounds, cram downs , new management teams, shut down the company.) Sales people cost money, and when they’re not bringing in revenue, their wandering in the woods is time consuming, cash-draining and demoralizing.

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