View from Seed

DECEMBER 8, 2015

We have a bias towards very early stage investing for a bunch of reasons, but it’s not easy. It’s often a good idea for founders to find a way to build something and get some early market validation before raising outside capital. I think this stage, more than others, is very dependent on the individual investor.

Product 120

Product Startup Early Stage Seed Capital 120

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 11, 2019

Pre-launch customer development data is another way, sometimes in the form of user surveys for consumer companies or interviews with potential beta customers for B2B businesses. One of our portfolio investments, a B2B SaaS company, was a pre-product startup at the time of the seed round. B) Post-Product Companies.

Seed Stage 149

Seed Stage B2B Seed Capital Revenue 149

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 26, 2009

The companies I spoke to all agreed that the community there was extremely supportive, especially in the critical ulta-early-stage. Then, create an encouraging environment for early-stage companies. You dont need massive amounts of capital available for VC investment - modest amounts will do.

San Francisco 113

San Francisco Silicon Valley Startup Continuous Deployment 113

Steve Blank

JUNE 11, 2013

If you’re a scalable startup, you want to spend small amounts of money (seed capital) as you run experiments testing your hypotheses. And at this early stage you’ll be giving up a larger percentage of your firm to investors. Why small amounts? No startup ever spends less then it raises.

Venture Capital 333

Venture Capital IRR Liquidity Event Business Model 333

Steve Blank

JUNE 11, 2013

If you’re a scalable startup, you want to spend small amounts of money (seed capital) as you run experiments testing your hypotheses. And at this early stage you’ll be giving up a larger percentage of your firm to investors. Why small amounts? No startup ever spends less then it raises.

Venture Capital 225

Venture Capital IRR Liquidity Event Business Model 225

maplebutter.com

JANUARY 8, 2013

When it comes to early stage investing – it’s all gut. Does it make sense to spend this time speaking about your early stage start-up when your product has not even entered Alpha testing? Only if you’re doing it with the intention to learn about the market and customers. A few nuggets. 1) Hire A’s.

Technical Review 44

Technical Review Startup Cofounder Software Review 44