Rob Go

SEPTEMBER 4, 2018

Lead investors are few. Leads that are true force-multipliers are exceedingly rare. Although seed funding has exploded since we started Nextview, we continue to hear the refrain from founders that there are tons of investors that will pile-in on a round that is coming together, but that lead investors are few and far between.

North America 36

North America Seed Stage Early Stage Lead Investor 36

David Teten

SEPTEMBER 6, 2018

HOF Capital has stitched together our workflow across Google Suite , Slack , Airtable , Asana , Copper , and some other tools (leveraging Zapier for basic 3rd party integration, in addition to custom development for certain other integrations). See my summary on how lead investors think about building out their syndicate. .

Technical Review 60

Technical Review Private Equity Management Cap Table 60

David Teten

SEPTEMBER 6, 2018

HOF Capital has stitched together our workflow across Google Suite , Slack , Airtable , Asana , Copper , and some other tools (leveraging Zapier for basic 3rd party integration, in addition to custom development for certain other integrations). See my summary on how lead investors think about building out their syndicate. .

Technical Review 60

Technical Review Private Equity Management Cap Table 60

YoungUpstarts

MAY 1, 2020

Most startups will need a viable product and proof of credibility before they can expect early-stage investors to really bite. The most common fundraising mistake I see is when early stage entrepreneurs focus all their attention on trying to secure a $1 million check from a lead investor. How to Secure Money to Ensure Success.

Early Stage 154

Early Stage Security Angel Investor Lead Investor 154

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 15, 2016

I know it sounds obvious but just so you understand: There are more capital sources available for earlier-stage capital, the information on which they are evaluating the investment is less (it is almost certainly just team and product) and the risk of the investor getting things wrong is diminished.

Burn Rate 150

Burn Rate Cap Table Valuation Software Review 150

Gust

SEPTEMBER 27, 2014

As such, your public profile should include everything non-confidential about your business that may attract the interest of potential investors, and your private profile should contain complete, accurate information about all the details of the business that will lead investors to request an in-person meeting with you.

Angel Groups 159

Angel Groups Elevator Pitch Software Review Deal Flow 159

Hunter Walker

SEPTEMBER 12, 2022

Which is why it was refreshing to be asked by Ethena’s CEO to do something publicly that investors normally aren’t interested in rehashing: discuss why we passed on leading the seed round for her startup. Now, the situation here that enabled such a frank discussion is a bit atypical.

Cofounder 96

Cofounder Lead Investor Founder Restful 96

A Crowded Space

OCTOBER 3, 2018

Very shortly after I joined, Greg Gretsch (now my partner at Jackson Square Ventures) co-led oDesk’s Series A along with Venky Ganesan (partner at Menlo Ventures and lead investor in Rev.com). I would frequently sign up and test out the new services as one of a startup’s first customers.

San Francisco 60

San Francisco Bangladesh Ukraine Philippines 60

ReadWriteStart

JULY 18, 2011

feedback from early users/customers (qualitative and quantitative) that's meaningful and in the target demographic. Unit economics to look at are comparable companies, the lifetime value of a customer, revenue per active daily user, rough acquisition costs per channel (search engine marketing, Facebook campaigns, pay per install).

Investment Bankers 153

Investment Bankers Technical Review Cofounder Due Diligence 153

David Teten

SEPTEMBER 5, 2014

Over the past 15 years we’ve built this amazing membership to serve our core clients – leading investors, corporations, consulting firms, and nonprofits. Prabhdeep Singh: GLG Share works in concert with the startup’s investors and VCs however we can. It’s an organic part of the system, and looks different in each case.

New York 114

New York Technical Review Networking Advisory Board 114

Hearpreneur

AUGUST 27, 2023

This person conducts regular one-on-one meetings with the chairman and lead investor. This method allows us to delve deep into the intricacies of our operations and the ergonomic industry, leading to well-informed decisions and a competitive edge in the market. #6-

Entrepreneur 99

Entrepreneur Australia Lead Investor Management 99

View from Seed

AUGUST 12, 2015

But the reality often is that investors don’t pass because of market size. They pass because of doubts about customer adoption. It’s not a question of “are there a lot of potential customers for this?” It’s more a matter of, “I don’t really believe that lots and lots of customers will buy/adopt this.”

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage Marketing Angel Investor Term Sheet 120

View from Seed

AUGUST 12, 2015

But the reality often is that investors don’t pass because of market size. They pass because of doubts about customer adoption. It’s not a question of “are there a lot of potential customers for this?” It’s more a matter of, “I don’t really believe that lots and lots of customers will buy/adopt this.”

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage Marketing Angel Investor Term Sheet 120

This is going to be BIG.

FEBRUARY 27, 2011

In straightforward businesses like ecommerce, you’ve got a lot of logistics to manage to get a product in someone’s hand, not the least of which is inventory control, customer service, wholesale buying, and negotiating better shipping or credit card authorization fees.

Dilution 104

Dilution Equity Hiring Partner 104

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 29, 2016

You need to convince family and friends, in terms they can relate to, that your idea makes logical business sense, and you have done your homework on real customers, competitors, and costs. Just like professional investors wait for friends and family to go first, friends will wait for you to show “skin in the game.”

Elevator Pitch 151

Elevator Pitch Exit Strategy Angel Investor Equity 151

www.paulgraham.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

In the future, angel rounds will less often be for specific amountsor have a lead investor. forstartups was to find one angel to act as the lead investor. Youdnegotiate a round size and valuation with the lead, whod supplysome but not all of the money. Then the startup and the lead wouldcooperate to find the rest.

Startup 93

Startup Valuation Non-Compete Deal Flow 93

David Teten

SEPTEMBER 6, 2015

Access to the corporate investor’s ecosystem can open up great opportunities from technology validation to customer and partner development. But most commonly these are customer relationships: the operating unit becomes one of the startup’s first or largest customers. Some corporate funds now lead rounds.

Venture Capital 60

Venture Capital Balance Sheet Technical Review Portfolio 60

Growthink Blog

NOVEMBER 8, 2010

Since 2005, they have been the two leading investors in Africa, investing $31 billion and $16 billion on the continent, respectively. How easy / possible is it for global customers to buy your product – to purchase your service? • IPO by far this year will be the government ward General Motors. Your India strategy? •

Africa 104

Africa Brazil China India 104

The Equity Kicker

DECEMBER 3, 2012

Too often the finance lens leads investors to jump on bandwagons and invest in sectors which are hot and where companies look like they will be able to pull in hot money at big valuations and get premium exits, even when the underlying product proposition isn’t very strong. Are customers ready to buy the product?

Finance 116

Finance Valuation Lead Investor Startup 116

Feld Thoughts

MAY 3, 2010

All of the conversations about customer are really about how the customer uses the product and the value the product brings the customer. Over the next six months we interacted regularly about the product and when he was ready to start fundraising, I quickly made him an offer and we became the lead investor in the round.

Product 148

Product Cofounder Lead Investor Software 148

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 13, 2018

If you’re raising a round where a new lead investor would invest $5 million the VC fund must have no less than $100 million and if you’re looking for them to write $15–20 million as the lead their fund realistically should be at least $400 million. As dumb as it sounds, this is a very common playbook for entrepreneurs.

Term Sheet 332

Term Sheet Due Diligence Campaign Sales 332

BeyondVC

SEPTEMBER 13, 2006

Make sure your basic finances are in order and that all customer contracts, employment-related documents, financing paperwork, etc. It is quite simple to overlook this aspect of your business but taking care of your company and keeping your house in order is easy to do, especially if you start from Day 1. is all stored properly and securely.

Technical Review 60

Technical Review Intellectual Property Cofounder Due Diligence 60

The Startup Magazine

MARCH 1, 2021

By interconnecting the design, procurement, and construction process into a single software platform, we provide customers with an “aggregated source of truth” for their projects delivering a unified offering to them that streamlines the entire process. We feel that it’s important to ask questions, instead of just pitching to customers.

Technical Review 110

Technical Review Founder Saudi Arabia Cofounder 110

Babbling VC

DECEMBER 5, 2010

Unfortunately I made the mistake of thinking I knew the customer or user. Unfortunately, when the products were launched, we had realized that they really weren't our customers. Running around Europe trying to find lead investors for these businesses was priority number 1. I should of cut the cord much earlier.

Technical Review 76

Technical Review Europe Portfolio Germany 76

Hunter Walker

JANUARY 10, 2022

It takes a tremendous amount of effort to remain customer focused — something we often struggled with. The needs of the lead investor for ownership? A round that is most accommodating for the existing investors while allowing you to get new people involved? Is it driven by size of round you want to raise?

Cofounder 89

Cofounder Founder Acquisition Startup 89

Duct Tape Marketing

FEBRUARY 20, 2014

Not Knowing Your Cost Of Customer Acquisition. Knowing how much it costs to acquire a customer is debatably the most important variable in an investor’s equation. Here’s a simple example, if you know how much it costs to acquire 100 customers…. than investors can use this equation: Cost of getting 100 customers = X.

Kansas City 70

Kansas City Due Diligence Arizona Kansas 70

ithacaVC

DECEMBER 9, 2018

Think of top level customer relationships. Sure, the person will ultimately typically need to be mutually agreeable to the lead investor and founders but having the founders source the person strikes the right balance in my opinion. Think of top level exit discussions. These are just examples.

Stock Options 40

Stock Options Salary Lead Investor Founder 40

Gust

DECEMBER 27, 2012

You should know EVERYTHING about your business, product, customers and competition. You should know every metric regarding customer acquisition, conversion and retention. Your goal in all this is to try to find a lead investor. You should have a crystal clear understanding of your business model and your financials.

Software Review 164

Software Review Term Sheet Technical Review Angel Investor 164

BeyondVC

JULY 7, 2010

We did have some large initial customers but quickly realized that we were far from capital efficient in a market crash and that we would have to refocus and restart. We launched an initial prototype, landed a few customers, and brought in Mission Ventures as a new lead investor for the restart of the company.

Portfolio 109

Portfolio Architecture Open Source Database 109

BeyondVC

JULY 7, 2010

We did have some large initial customers but quickly realized that we were far from capital efficient in a market crash and that we would have to refocus and restart. We launched an initial prototype, landed a few customers, and brought in Mission Ventures as a new lead investor for the restart of the company.

Portfolio 109

Portfolio Open Source Architecture Database 109

Austin Startup

OCTOBER 13, 2010

StoredIQ , a leading provider of Intelligent Information Management solutions for eDiscovery, records and compliance management, today announced that it has closed $10 million in new investment financing and expanded its management team in preparation for accelerated growth.

Vertical 59

Vertical Early Stage Cofounder Channel 59

Feld Thoughts

JUNE 2, 2010

I wasn’t able to make it to Boston yesterday for the Angel Boot Camp as I was running around NYC with the CEO of a company I invested in last week introducing him to a bunch of potential customers and partners. My long time friend and co-angel investor Will Herman wrote a post titled Angel Investing that summarized some of his advice.

Angel Investor 167

Angel Investor Boston Due Diligence Cofounder 167

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 14, 2009

That’s what “information rights&# are for and you can promise the investor to meet 1-on-1 on a quarterly basis. The second scenario is where there are too many investors (egos?) These can be competitive threats, customer adoption problems, pricing strategies, senior hires, whatever. in a company.

Advisory Board 215

Advisory Board Strategic Investors Venture Capital Later Stage 215

Austin Startup

AUGUST 16, 2010

We look forward to taking advantage of the insights and know-how of these industry-leading investors.”. Smooth-Stone customers will have new, unseen options as they plan their future server deployments. Power consumption matters more than ever. Our goal is to completely remove power consumption as an issue for the data center.

Syndicate 54

Syndicate Syndication Venture Capital Texas 54

This is going to be BIG.

AUGUST 2, 2010

They skip over “talk to customers” and God forbid, “teach myself to hack together a prototype to see if it works” It’s what I did as an entrepreneur (taking money first) and I can honestly say that we would have been better off vetting the product longer before asking for investor money.

Startup 101

Startup Venture Capital Incubator Programming 101

View from Seed

AUGUST 26, 2015

Favor investment rounds with strong leads that haven’t raised millions of dollars before you. If a company does not have a strong lead investor AND has raised a lot of money before, there is probably some baggage that you may not really be equipped to decipher. Remember the power law.

Technical Review 120

Technical Review Angel Investor Software Review Silicon Valley 120

View from Seed

AUGUST 26, 2015

Favor investment rounds with strong leads that haven’t raised millions of dollars before you. If a company does not have a strong lead investor AND has raised a lot of money before, there is probably some baggage that you may not really be equipped to decipher. Remember the power law.

Technical Review 120

Technical Review Angel Investor Software Review Silicon Valley 120