Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 19, 2011

He is very hands-on and helpful – especially for any company looking into customer acquisition. Called Tim Spicer (c-companies partner) and he told him matt, they only want one thing, more warrant coverage!!! Passion: Have to be able to motivate people, customers, team, yourself. And he said ok got it. we both love Jason).

Acquisition 304

Acquisition Warrant Customer Term Sheet 304

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 24, 2018

VC Partnerships Start by understanding how many partners are at the firm you are approaching. It’s pretty easy since nearly every VC lists its partners on the website. Some firms are trickier since they artificially call everybody “partner” but they’re not all “investment partners.” How many partners are there?

Technical Review 314

Technical Review Due Diligence Partner Term Sheet 314

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 10, 2014

Investor due diligence on a startup is not a mysterious black art, but is nothing more than a final integrity check on all aspects of your business model, team, product, customers, and plan. To get the terms you want, it’s better to start with your own term sheet. Know your partner well before you get married.

Technical Review 257

Technical Review Due Diligence Term Sheet Offshore 257

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 5, 2009

Chasing funding versus chasing customers and a repeatable and scalable business model, is one reason startups fail. Chasing funding versus chasing customers and a repeatable and scalable business model, is one reason startups fail. Are there customers for what you are building? How many are there? Can it scale?”

Customer Development 262

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 262

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 29, 2009

You finally get your first term sheet. They’re giving me 48 hours to sign the term sheet or it expires? Will they really pull the term sheet if I don’t sign? Will they really pull the term sheet if I don’t sign? First, every term sheet has an expiration date in it.

Term Sheet 197

Term Sheet Technical Review Due Diligence Venture Capital 197

View from Seed

MARCH 11, 2020

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. This includes things like: Making intros to portfolio companies that are potential customers. Talking to your customers.

Technical Review 279

Technical Review Due Diligence Term Sheet Seed Stage 279

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 5, 2023

Let me be a bit more specific on how follow-up trumps ideas for success in the key challenges of a startup, or any small business: Networking with investors, partners, and customers. Tailor investor proposals and term-sheets. Customer acquisition, retention, and support. Productivity and time management challenges.

Cofounder 389

Cofounder Startup Term Sheet Acquisition 389

Genuine VC

OCTOBER 2, 2012

After completing a long process identifying the right venture firms to pitch, running an exhaustive fundraising process, finding a mutual fit, and successfully negotiating terms… at last, the term sheet is signed. The two- to six- week time between the signing of the term sheet and closing is “venture limbo.”

Term Sheet 162

Term Sheet Founder Vesting Due Diligence Syndicate 162

David Teten

AUGUST 19, 2019

John Borchers, Co-founder and Managing Partner of Decathlon Capital, claims to be the largest revenue-based financing investor in the US. John Borchers defines RBI as, “anchored around a model for providing long-term growth capital to a company that is paid back over time in the form of a modest, fixed percentage of monthly revenue.

Revenue 60

Revenue Term Sheet Founder Technical Review 60

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 27, 2016

Investor due diligence on a startup is not a mysterious black art, but is nothing more than a final integrity check on all aspects of your business model, team, product, customers, and plan. To get the terms you want, it’s better to start with your own term sheet. Know your partner well before you get married.

Technical Review 120

Technical Review Due Diligence Term Sheet Offshore 120

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 19, 2009

I had really positive experiences such as working with Greg Gretsch at Sigma Partners where he championed us to a partners’ meeting where we sort of got crucified. We made changes and Greg was a gentleman throughout the process rather than berating us for our performance (it was our first partners’ meeting).

Venture Capital 274

Venture Capital Term Sheet San Diego Viral 274

Agile VC

MAY 26, 2011

This also appears as a guest post at Fortune’s Term Sheet. At the end of the process, which ran into the fall of 2003, we received term sheets from two firms and had a third which expressed interest in participating though not leading the round. We three partners are working hard. May 26, 2011. It was a $4.7M

Term Sheet 178

Term Sheet Silicon Valley Technical Review Social Network 178

View from Seed

AUGUST 17, 2021

It’s by far the longest time I’ve spent working on any one thing, and I feel very blessed to have been able to work with my partners, colleagues, founders, and collaborators. My partners will tell you that I am an incredibly impatient person. You want someone who will challenge you and be an intellectual sparring partner.

IRR 205

IRR Dilution Founder Portfolio 205

YoungUpstarts

SEPTEMBER 20, 2019

It’s often more all about fearing how tough VCs are going to be with their term sheets and ‘standard’ clauses. Wouldn’t you like more loyalty and trust from your investors, board members and business partners? Not compared to potential customers or lenders. As well as how to work with pre and post-money valuations.

Technical Cofounder 127

Technical Cofounder Entrepreneur Cofounder Post-Money Valuation 127

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 4, 2018

That said, we tend to be very flexible on syndication to bring on great partners, and have collaborated with terrific partners like our most frequent co-investors Founder Collective, Accomplice, LHV, Softech, and others. Despite these shifts, the core principles of our approach and the ethos of our firm has remained the same.

North America 120

North America Seed Stage Early Stage Lead Investor 120

View from Seed

AUGUST 17, 2021

It’s by far the longest time I’ve spent working on any one thing, and I feel very blessed to have been able to work with my partners, colleagues, founders, and collaborators. My partners will tell you that I am an incredibly impatient person. You want someone who will challenge you and be an intellectual sparring partner.

IRR 156

IRR Dilution Founder Portfolio 156

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 17, 2015

For the elite startups and entrepreneurs who manage to attract the investor they dream of, and survive the term sheet negotiation, there is still one more hurdle before the money is in the bank. Visit reference customers, partners, and vendors. My best advice is to stick to the middle ground. Traction in the marketplace.

Technical Review 120

Technical Review Due Diligence Startup Term Sheet 120

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 13, 2011

If you are going to do the tour up and down Sandhill Road to try and raise your 1st round of financing you need a pitch deck because the vast majority of those meetings you are going to be sitting around a table and you will be presenting to one or more partners and that is going to be your first engagement.”. Is that when it became big?

Technical Review 288

Technical Review Venture Capital Silicon Valley Software Review 288

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 26, 2015

Often if it’s a bigger firm (say 4 partners or more) and it’s a super small investment for their fund size (let’s say $250-500k when they normally invest $5-7 million) they will just require 1 or 2 partners to decide. What happens next feels like a black box to outsiders. ” Some firms are collegiate.

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital Detroit Early Stage Partner 150

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 5, 2020

Let me be a bit more specific on how follow-up trumps ideas for success in the key challenges of a startup, or any small business: Networking with investors, partners, and customers. Tailor investor proposals and term-sheets. Customer acquisition, retention, and support. Productivity and time management challenges.

Entrepreneur 307

Entrepreneur Cofounder Term Sheet Acquisition 307

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 17, 2009

Ability to Pivot – I don’t like to invest in people that I’ve never met before who come through my office wanting to have a term sheet within 30 days. Yes, there is the mythical company you all heard about that walked into Sequoia and had a term sheet 24 hours later. I’m sure that happens.

Entrepreneur 291

Entrepreneur Term Sheet Early Stage Affiliate 291

View from Seed

AUGUST 17, 2021

It’s by far the longest time I’ve spent working on any one thing, and I feel very blessed to have been able to work with my partners, colleagues, founders, and collaborators. My partners will tell you that I am an incredibly impatient person. You want someone who will challenge you and be an intellectual sparring partner.

IRR 136

IRR Dilution Founder Portfolio 136

View from Seed

MAY 17, 2019

There are two distinct chapters to venture fundraising – the first is entrepreneurs pitching their startup to multiple firms to generate interest and ultimately secure a term sheet; then, the period after a term sheet has been signed progressing to close. The good news is that these scenarios don’t happen often.

Term Sheet 149

Term Sheet Reputation Security Conversion 149

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. Encyclopedic knowledge of term sheets and startup buzzwords can be quickly learned, trained, and packaged.

Los Angeles 138

Los Angeles Southern California Silicon Valley Technical Review 138

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 8, 2009

Traction can simply mean showing that you’re making progress with customers, product development, channel partners, initial revenue as a proof point, attracting well-known angel investors, winning industry awards / recognition. It’s marketing 101 for tech companies in terms of how you market to customers.

Technical Review 309

Technical Review Term Sheet Venture Capital Revenue 309

Gust

NOVEMBER 11, 2011

They’ve heard multiple pitches, poured over business plans, talked to customers, and looked at the legal work. Angel investment events where the group investment is supposed to go to the winner, but the winner ends up hating the term sheet. But before the term sheet is signed, problems come up.

Software Review 79

Software Review Term Sheet Due Diligence Angel Investor 79

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. Luckily, I teach with two great VCs, Mar Hershenson of Pear Ventures and Jeff Epstein of Bessemer Venture Partners who both put together presentations unraveling the mysteries of how and why startups raise money.

Cofounder 429

Cofounder Seed Stage Valuation Metrics 429

YoungUpstarts

OCTOBER 28, 2015

by John Vrionis, partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners. Investors typically negotiate from a term sheet, which if not handled properly can create problems that can hurt or kill the startup’s chances when they do their Series A round of funding. With direct customers, personally identifiable data is of most concern.

Convertible Security 100

Convertible Security IP Technical Review Software Review 100

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 13, 2018

If an investor isn’t engaging then they’re not suddenly going to get a term sheet. If we feel a mutual connection then my goal is to make your life easier by offering you a term sheet before you’re even raising and I’ll spend the time and effort trying to prove that it isn’t worth running a process.

Term Sheet 332

Term Sheet Due Diligence Campaign Sales 332

Austin Startup

NOVEMBER 12, 2017

A frequent metaphor I use in customer acquisition, fundraising, or any kind of deal making is that you as the founder and promoter should present the finished meal on the dining table and not drag your counterparts into the kitchen. Most customers will sell themselves if you just give them half a chance.

Term Sheet 48

Term Sheet Technical Review Due Diligence Merger 48

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 21, 2018

I told him, “I know we don’t yet have a term sheet so you feel you need to listen to everybody’s request. But imagine you were expecting two term sheets imminently. She had emailed with a partner at a big VC fund and he had passed the request to a junior associate. How would you act then? This isn’t rude?—?it’s

Term Sheet 217

Term Sheet Later Stage Demand Email 217

David Teten

AUGUST 19, 2019

In 2019 we partnered with several revenue-based lending providers, effectively creating a marketplace. “. According to Brian Parks, “Bigfoot provides RBI, term loans, and lines of credit to SaaS businesses with $500k+ ARR. At least 12 months of customer history, generally 20+ enterprise customers or 200+ SMB customers.

Revenue 60

Revenue Technical Review Software Review Equity 60

David Teten

DECEMBER 3, 2019

But in business, you want a lot of partners. In the private equity universe, most Partners have primary training as deal-makers, not as managers. See Bessemer Venture Partners’ A comprehensive guide to security for startups. This provides us more time to develop meaningful relationships with prospects and customers.

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Software Review Analytics Private Equity 78

OnlyOnce

OCTOBER 31, 2013

Fred Wilson has been a venture investor and director in Return Path since 2000, first with Flatiron Partners and then with Union Square Ventures. Here are a few tips for ending up with the best long-term partner as an investor. And this is true of any negotiation, not just a term sheet. They’ll get you customers.

Valuation 133

Valuation Term Sheet B2C Security 133

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 16, 2012

And I also now have to raise money myself, but this time from bigger institutions that our industry calls LPs (limited partners). Partners make investment decisions. Also recognize that WITHIN a VC you have partners who focus on different areas. I now observes the fund raising process as a profession. Meet in person.

Developer 366

Developer Silicon Valley PR Las Vegas 366

Austin Startup

JULY 22, 2021

All finalists will receive: A fast track into the Capital Factory portfolio where you will receive opportunities to get in front of potential investors, customers and employees. Any software, hardware, or CPG startup in Texas with a female founder or co-founder can apply to participate. Apply now to be one of five teams selected to pitch.

San Antonio 107

San Antonio Dallas Houston Founder 107

Reid Hoffman

DECEMBER 10, 2020

If I’m going to find out that a set of founders lack integrity, don’t behave like partners, take on unacceptable risks that might harm their customers or society, or simply aren’t the kinds of people I want to spend a decade with, I want to know those facts before I start down the path of evaluating that investment.

Hosting 69

Hosting Hockey Stick IPO Silicon Valley 69