View from Seed

MARCH 11, 2020

Seed stage companies will mostly face questions around the team and market. Due diligence may seem like a drag, but partnering with an investor is a serious commitment, and you want to make sure that whoever you work with has built real conviction about you and your company. Talking to your customers.

Technical Review 279

Technical Review Due Diligence Term Sheet Seed Stage 279

Reid Hoffman

AUGUST 6, 2020

As the Greylock team has learned after decades of partnering with early-stage founders, the best approach is establishing a core set of fundamental questions that can be tailored to each individual company, rather than looking at a rigid set of metrics. HOW DOES GREYLOCK EVALUATE COMPANIES AT THE SEED-STAGE?

Technical Review 69

Technical Review Seed Stage Software Review Early Stage 69

View from Seed

APRIL 16, 2015

Often, when I speak to very early-stage founders, the conversation around value focuses on achievements. Get three paying customers. When Fred Shilmover started InsightSquared , he essentially sold an Excel model to his early customers that showed what their ultimate product would do. Get a working version of the product.

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage Cofounder Early Stage Startup 120

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 26, 2020

You (think) you have product-market fit with real customers and real revenue and need money to grow and expand. What most founders don’t realize is: Every stage of a startup requires a different set of metrics and milestones and founder skills. Better answer, “Because I’m the customer.”) Team is just what it sounds like.

Cofounder 429

Cofounder Seed Stage Valuation Metrics 429

View from Seed

APRIL 2, 2015

These all serve as doorways to different but important audiences that a founder needs to impress, ranging from investors to target customers or users to potential new hires. Something NextView partner Rob Go said the other day really stuck with me: “A little design goes a long way.” appeared first on The View From Seed.

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage Design Startup Early Stage 120

Hunter Walker

AUGUST 31, 2023

The flipside, of course, is that the more transparent and direct you are with your employees, the more they’ll trust you to tell them the truth (even when it’s tough), the more reassured they’ll feel that you are actively monitoring the situation, and the more empowered they’ll be to partner with you on the solution.

Employee 113

Employee Startup Vertical Leadership 113

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 17, 2023

On the other hand, if you are a new entrepreneur, still in the idea stage, professional investors will only tell you to come back later when you have traction (customers and revenue). Thus your startup maturity and growth stage is the primary key to success with potential funding sources.

Angel Investor 313

Angel Investor Intellectual Property Investment Bankers Private Equity 313

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 9, 2019

*This post is part of our “pitch deck” series where we dissect the seed stage pitch deck and discuss the ideal flow for a pitch. is an education technology company that partners with top colleges & universities to bring their degree programs and credit-bearing courses online.”. What does your company actually do?

Southern California 159

Southern California Phoenix Technical Review Seed Stage 159

Mucker Lab

OCTOBER 10, 2023

If there are inbound leads, the situation is different; hiring an AE might be suitable if these leads align with the ideal customer profile. Additionally, exploring competitors and partners on LinkedIn provides avenues to connect with potential candidates. Sally's wisdom sheds light on this dilemma.

Early Stage 78

Early Stage Sales Developer Development Team Review 78

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 30, 2014

With plenty of resources available for entrepreneurs about how to craft an effective pitch deck for raising seed-stage capital from VCs, often what’s left out are some of the tactical components of an initial meeting. Different partners in a VC firm are different. Mistake #3: Not knowing who you are talking to ahead of time.

Technical Review 308

Technical Review Entrepreneur Due Diligence Seed Stage 308

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 20, 2019

just having a sparring partner with a vested interest in your success can be useful. As per the chart above, I highly recommend keeping a founder dominated board at the seed stage. Whether the seed investor gets a permanent seat or a temporary seat will largely depend on: The size check they wrote (If it’s a $1.5m

Venture Capital 236

Venture Capital Startup Angel Investor Silicon Valley 236

View from Seed

FEBRUARY 25, 2015

A few weeks ago, we launched two startup pitch deck templates for raising seed capital — part of NextView’s platform of exclusive startup resources. 5 Surprising Mistakes Found in Seed-Stage Startup Pitch Decks. #1: THIS is why customers will care.” Why will your customers care about your company?

Technical Review 120

Technical Review Seed Stage Boston Startup 120

View from Seed

DECEMBER 6, 2018

And seed VCs, especially as new firms were being established, were eager to encourage their portfolio startups to plant that flag in the ground publicly. It seemed like every other TechCrunch post was announcing a startups’s new seed financing round. Seed stage companies just aren’t announcing their rounds anymore.

Seed Stage 201

Seed Stage Stealth Seed Capital Later Stage 201

Austin Startup

MAY 11, 2017

We invest in companies that sell to both enterprise/SMB customers as well as direct to consumers. 645 Ventures: A New Era of Venture Capital Investing Arena Growth Partners We help great leaders build great businesses. A New Kind of Venture Firm AutoChrome Autochrome is an inception and seed stage venture capital fund.

Private Equity 48

Private Equity Venture Capital Technical Review Seed Stage 48

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 22, 2020

On the other hand, if you are a new entrepreneur, still in the idea stage, professional investors will only tell you to come back later when you have traction (customers and revenue). Thus your startup maturity and growth stage is the primary key to success with potential funding sources.

Angel Investor 370

Angel Investor Intellectual Property Investment Bankers Private Equity 370

Mucker Lab

AUGUST 27, 2014

For the last couple of years, I’ve been investing in startups as a partner at Mucker, while spending a lot of time in the Valley working with potential co-investors and partners. Oftentimes they see a market need and simply want to serve those customers. That number in the Valley might be closer to 10%.

Los Angeles 138

Los Angeles Southern California Silicon Valley Technical Review 138

David Teten

MARCH 18, 2021

For example, Point Nine Capital focuses on B2B SaaS and marketplaces at the seed stage, across many industries. These firms also sometimes target startups that serve a specific kind of customer (e.g. Alpha Partners and Proof provide capital when their partner VCs don’t have pro rata, and share the economics on the investments.

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Cofounder Venture Capital Deal Flow 78

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 13, 2010

On July 27th, 2001 Accenture IPO’s and many of the partners grew fabulously wealthy. Investment in training, adherence to process, global knowledge sharing systems, quality control / partner reviews and campus recruitment programs that attracted the right talent. The things that always differentiated Accenture?

Turkey 302

Turkey Differentiation IP Technical Review 302

Rob Go

SEPTEMBER 4, 2018

Most of these rhyme with what we’ve said in the past, but some have also evolved to fit the changing landscape and our own convictions about what really matters for founders and their investors at the seed stage. However, our overall goal is to invest in the full spectrum of seed. Belief #1: The best time to invest is early.

North America 36

North America Seed Stage Early Stage Lead Investor 36

The Equity Kicker

AUGUST 8, 2017

For those of you who are time poor here’s the tltr: Forward Partners operates a focused investment strategy because it helps us make better investment decisions and provide better support to our companies. For the three and a half years that we’ve been going, Forward Partners has operated a focused investment strategy.

Artificial Inteligence 78

Artificial Inteligence eCommerce Early Stage Algorithm 78

BeyondVC

JANUARY 3, 2019

We had another solid year filled with learning, growth, laughter, and new projects and partners. Thanks to all of the amazing founders, advisors, co-investors, corporate partners, and others that helped make 2018 an amazing year. First check to seed?—?congrats We are truly grateful for your support. First check to Series B?—?congrats

Stealth 79

Stealth Advisory Board Cloud Virginia 79

Agile VC

MAY 26, 2011

I certainly bear no ill will to the various firms that ultimately passed on our fundraise… as a seed stage VC myself now I can appreciate how hard it is evaluating companies at the earliest stages of development. We three partners are working hard. Great to see you had such a good partner to start with.

Term Sheet 178

Term Sheet Silicon Valley Technical Review Social Network 178

K9 Ventures

APRIL 28, 2010

– a seed-stage fund. is a $6.25M fund that is designed to do concept and seed-stage investments in technology companies. No advertising, content or media businesses which may have a three-way business model, but rather companies which deliver direct value to paying customers. K9 Ventures, L.P.

Seed Stage 61

Seed Stage San Francisco IP Portfolio 61

This is going to be BIG.

AUGUST 22, 2012

It’s basically working with potential outside partners to reach your business goals--which could be revenue, distribution, financing, product development, awareness, etc. So, when you read into it, marketing isn't really selling, it's more of finding and packaging the right thing to sell to the right customers.

PR 144

PR Technical Review Seed Stage Design 144

David Teten

DECEMBER 12, 2017

(written by Philipp von dem Knesebeck , Managing Partner, Blue Future Partners (bluefp.com, @bluefutureteam ), and David Teten ). Based on this paper, Blue Future Partners and PEVCTech recently completed a large-scale survey to find out which tools are most commonly used by venture capital firms.

Early Stage 60

Early Stage Technical Review Software Review Venture Capital 60

VC Cafe

MARCH 31, 2021

VC Cafe: What’s the best advice or practical tips you have for founders with regards to marketing and branding at seed stage? This can be really hard for early stage startups, but it means the difference between being good or being great. Be customer-obsessed. Stay focused and block out the noise. Bring value.

Marketing 179

Marketing Early Stage Seed Stage 179

Hippoland

FEBRUARY 12, 2018

I’ll give you an example with my own startup LaunchBit and how our understanding of the problem and the customer became more refined over time: V1: Helping online marketers get customers profitably. V2: Helping online marketers who have previously bought ads in email lists get customers profitably. But the execution is hard.

Seed Stage 48

Seed Stage Business Model B2B Email 48

Hippoland

FEBRUARY 12, 2018

I’ll give you an example with my own startup LaunchBit and how our understanding of the problem and the customer became more refined over time: V1: Helping online marketers get customers profitably. V2: Helping online marketers who have previously bought ads in email lists get customers profitably. But the execution is hard.

Seed Stage 48

Seed Stage Business Model B2B Email 48

Gust

OCTOBER 20, 2011

We also have data points for VC investments in seed/startup companies (but not necessarily pre-revenue companies). The following chart from Dow Jones VentureSource shows very little variation in pre-money valuation of VC seed stage deals over the past decade. Other factors (great early customer feedback). 10% max.

Valuation 146

Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Intellectual Property Technical Review 146

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 6, 2010

Everyone has their own definition of momentum (user numbers, revenue, channel partners, biz dev deals, whatever). And VC’s are tough customers. Mostly by early stage investors talking about getting smaller exits. But if you identify investors with whom you’d like to work here’s my advice: 1.

Early Stage 360

Early Stage Startup Venture Capital Seed Stage 360

Tim Keane

DECEMBER 14, 2009

  He is a partner in a pretty much exclusively software seed stage fund, Y Combinator that you can read more about.     We worked all day building market strategies for customers while we tried to embody our expertise on software that would expand the company's reach.  Starting Startups.

Burn Rate 60

Burn Rate Angel Groups Seed Stage Startup 60

Mucker Lab

FEBRUARY 1, 2023

In this episode of Shorthand for Startups , our partner Omar Hamoui shares his thoughts on product velocity and why it can sometimes precede success: "I've been lucky enough to be around quite a number of businesses. One of those precursors is product velocity. Some I've started, some I've been on the board of as an investor.

Product 78

Product Seed Stage Software Founder 78

View from Seed

JANUARY 10, 2022

Our program goes back to basics in the most important, effective, and meaningful ways : weekly one-on-one time with partners, hands-on mentorship from experienced advisors, small and selective cohort sizes, and zero demo days or distracting demo day prep involved. ” – Rob Go, Partner . ~~~. Applications are officially open.

San Diego 156

San Diego San Francisco Alabama Valuation 156

View from Seed

JANUARY 11, 2023

We wholeheartedly believe in the potential of each company we select; the smaller batch size allows the NextView partners, who possess deep operating and founding experiences at companies like LinkedIn, PayPal, eBay, and Blue Apron, the space to spend meaningful one-on-one time with each founder every single week. Let’s do this! .

Programming 156

Programming Sacramento San Francisco Founder 156

Haystack

JULY 20, 2018

Will the next company to raise $100M in financing just poach from decent seed-stage companies and pay triple the amount to lock up talent? I caught a glimpse of this energy during my Venture Partner tenure with the folks at GGV Capital , who’ve been successfully investing exclusively across China and the U.S.

San Francisco 116

San Francisco Silicon Valley Seattle Venture Capital 116

Agile VC

OCTOBER 27, 2011

There’s a couple different forces I see at work: 1) Selling & Customer Acquisition - In the last 5 years, the biggest force in business software was the impact of the cloud as an infrastructure layer and product/service delivery mechanism. I co-founded NextView Ventures , a seed-stage VC firm based in Boston, in 2010.

Software 100

Software B2B Silicon Valley Acquisition 100

View from Seed

DECEMBER 6, 2018

I’ve come to believe a much less cynical view of investment due diligence, that, especially at the seed stage, it’s is best when followed the 80–20 rule. For example, offer to intro the partner to one customer?—?fit Notably, it is a change in the typical rhythm of a day.

Due Diligence 120

Due Diligence Term Sheet Seed Stage Partner 120