Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 20, 2019

just having a sparring partner with a vested interest in your success can be useful. The Limited Partners (LPs) who back funds don’t expect their dollars to be passive. For starters, the incoming CEO will demand between 4–6% of the company so shareholders will immediately face dilution.

Venture Capital 236

Venture Capital Startup Angel Investor Silicon Valley 236

The Startup Magazine

FEBRUARY 2, 2021

Many academic labs are less interested in market trends and largely ignore competitive landscape and market demands. This unique business model is proven to secure strategic and non-dilutive capital as part of a business model. As a result, research funding is not met with a reasonable return on investment.

Technical Review 115

Technical Review Syria Developer United States 115

YoungUpstarts

OCTOBER 16, 2016

We witness so many of the subtle gains of our labor – ideas made real, people turned passionate partners and the prospects of inching ever-closer to a long-term future rather than the great likelihood of total business failure. Re-set the vendor and partner paradigm. Expect it, plan for it and don’t apologize for it.

Cofounder 100

Cofounder Balance Sheet Small Business Administration Technical Review 100

David Teten

JANUARY 19, 2021

(co-written with Jamie Finney, Founding Partner at Greater Colorado Venture Fund. From RBI, Flexible VCs borrow the ability to reap meaningful returns without demanding founders build for an exit. Capacity Capital, Greater Colorado Venture Fund, Indie.VC, Reformation Partners, UP Fund, Versatile VC. Of the Inc. return cap.

Cofounder 78

Cofounder Technical Review Equity Dividend 78

The Startup Magazine

AUGUST 9, 2022

The company partners with artists, labels and publishers to make their music accessible for use in ads/content, all while helping artists monetize their music while doing what they love – making great music. One of the most underrated jobs of a leader in a scaling organization is making sure the culture doesn’t get diluted.

Cofounder 145

Cofounder Founder Miami Marketing 145

Austin Startup

JULY 6, 2018

Ask the Users Startup Accelerators: Bundled and Unbundled Over the past several years, accelerators have emerged as a powerful filtering and signaling mechanism in early-stage startup ecosystems, allowing high-potential young startups to connect with investors, advisors, and other strategic partners far faster and more efficiently than before.

Dilution 48

Dilution Startup Technical Review Equity 48

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 6, 2020

Growth entrepreneurs quickly find themselves removed from day-to-day operations, and become more and more occupied by transactions with lawyers, investors, and potential acquisition partners. Once you accept equity investor money, or go public with stockholders, you won’t believe the things they demand, and the legal rules you have follow.

Small Business 311

Small Business Small Business Administration SBA Equity 311

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 12, 2014

All the confusion you hear from friends or read in the press is related to this nuance that early investors demand prorata rights and sometimes fight like hell to maintain them (Facebook problem) and sometimes prefer not to take them (overvalued company that they perceive isn’t doing as well as new investors coming in think).

Technical Review 336

Technical Review Later Stage Early Stage LP 336

Feld Thoughts

MARCH 24, 2017

Lindel joined Foundry Group as a partner to lead the fund investing activity of Foundry Group Next. We’ve had the opportunity to work with Founder Collective’s partners – David Frankel, Eric Paley, and Micah Rosenbloom – over the years on several companies. But they didn’t take advantage of that demand.

Founder 75

Founder LP Technical Review Seed Stage 75

View from Seed

OCTOBER 28, 2019

In other words, the goal of a pre-seed round isn’t to subsequently raise a Series A (which these days requires both product-market fit and meaningful evidence of strong market demand), but to raise another round of seed financing. It really does depend from startup to startup.

Seed Stage 247

Seed Stage Finance Dilution Early Stage 247

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 10, 2019

Don’t wait for the harsh reality of the demanding business world to start thinking about these tradeoffs. The downside is loss of control and financial dilution. Old co-workers or new friends with complementary skills usually make the best partners. That’s not an attractive statistic if you crave control and power.

Hockey Stick 243

Hockey Stick Cofounder Liquidity Event Startup 243

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 2, 2019

Many busy new venture owners believe they have heard it all before, so they tune out of conversations, or revert to multi-tasking, thus diluting their leadership. Your words are important in garnering the trust and loyalty of your team, your peers, and partners. Practice active listening and full attention to those present.

Leadership 244

Leadership Dilution Metrics Demand 244

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 26, 2019

People need coaching to weather setbacks and surprises which can dilute their confidence, and take away their ability to experience their full potential. Only hire and partner with people who have a positive outlook. Good coaches prepare for each session and follow up. Coaching is not casual conversation, or for off-the-cuff comments.

Dilution 229

Dilution Agile Developer Demand 229

The Next Web

SEPTEMBER 13, 2013

In India, the leading firms are slightly more concentrated with Sequoia India , Accel Partners , and Nexus Venture Partners being a cut above the rest. This is driven both by supply and demand. Finding the right partner is a much bigger win than the extra cash or minimizing dilution. Thus, VCs have the upper hand.

Asia 132

Asia Silicon Valley India Term Sheet 132

Version One Ventures

FEBRUARY 6, 2019

This aggressive ownership target is one reason more and more founders are looking for capital from IT/tech VCs who don’t demand as much equity. Then, the revenue you earn from these partners/customers can cover your operating costs while you develop your own drug to bring to market – which is where the most value is captured in biotech.

Dilution 132

Dilution Artificial Inteligence IPO Valuation 132

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 17, 2017

Is the revenue dependent on a concentrated set of distribution partners or platforms that put future revenue at risk? They hired a biz dev team to work on deals where their product could be embedded in other people’s products as a way to increase customer demand. Stock option grants dilute your ownership in the company.

Stock Options 227

Stock Options Startup Dilution Venture Capital 227

View from Seed

MAY 2, 2019

The challenge with pre-seed rounds is that pricing will sometimes be pretty dilutive. My experience is that YC partners tend to encourage founders to hold off on taking more money shortly after getting into YC, arguing that their value will increase significantly in just a few months. The Pre-YC Pre-Seed.

Early Stage 214

Early Stage Dilution Valuation .Net 214

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 6, 2021

In reality, too many choices actually dilutes customer interest in your existing market, and makes your job of production, marketing, and support much more complex. Ongoing momentum requires a move to mainstream, or even late adopters, who demand simplicity in your base function. Focus first on finding more of the right customers.

Technical Review 400

Technical Review Technical Cofounder Advisory Board Cofounder 400

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 29, 2018

Now is the time to talk to a qualified attorney, and get some discipline in place for the following strategies: Manage founder’s shares like gold with partners. Even though initial stock has no market value today, it is extremely valuable in dividing equity ownership between co-founders, investors, and early partners.

Stock 129

Stock Vesting Preferred Stock Cofounder 129

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 18, 2015

It’s disconcerting for most to realize that these shares are initially worth nothing, and the challenge is to get that value up as quickly as possible, without losing it just as quickly to investors, lazy partners and taxation. This is called stock dilution control. Minimize your own loss of ownership as major investors contribute.

Stock 120

Stock Vesting Common Stock Founder Vesting 120

David Teten

SEPTEMBER 2, 2017

It’s hard enough to get a job at a venture capital or private equity firm; it’s even more complex to join as a Partner. Sean Seton-Rogers, Partner, Profounders Capital, breaks the conversation into three areas: Control: voting/veto for new deals, share of management company. So assessing fit is critical. What should the firm do?

Private Equity 60

Private Equity Venture Capital Equity Partner 60

YoungUpstarts

MARCH 1, 2019

Small businesses in particular may find it difficult to keep up with the new demands of customers shopping online, including the expectation of free, fast shipping. Retailers can utilize load boards to speed up the process, helping get orders to customers quickly without taking additional time to find a shipping partner elsewhere.

Matching 113

Matching Dilution Small Business Partner 113

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 14, 2014

Don’t wait for the harsh reality of the demanding business world to start thinking about these tradeoffs. The downside is loss of control and financial dilution. Old co-workers or new friends with complementary skills usually make the best partners. That’s not an attractive statistic if you crave control and power.

Hockey Stick 268

Hockey Stick Cofounder Entrepreneur Liquidity Event 268

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 30, 2018

If a VC prices a flat or down round it means that management teams are often taking too much dilution. How you talk about valuation will of course depend on how well your business is performing and how much demand you have from other investors. But there is also another very rational reason.

Valuation 324

Valuation Post-Money Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Cofounder 324

Up and Running

MAY 27, 2014

You should think of choosing an investor the same way you consider choosing a business partner, because after you take their money, they become a partner in your business. And if you choose a partner based on money alone, you’re going to find yourself in trouble. (It Every time an investment is made, everyone dilutes!).

Angel Investor 119

Angel Investor Dilution Accredited Investor Due Diligence 119

Startup Company Lawyer

MARCH 14, 2010

I was actually somewhat surprised that the following investors have agreed to use the Series Seed documents in certain of the their deals: Baseline, Charles River Ventures, SV Angel (Ron Conway), First Round Capital, Harrison Metal Capital, Mike Maples, Polaris Venture Partners, SoftTech VC and True Ventures. Anti-dilution protection.

Finance 70

Finance Software Review Term Sheet Liquidation Preference 70

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 19, 2017

Don’t wait for the harsh reality of the demanding business world to start thinking about these tradeoffs. The downside is loss of control and financial dilution. Old co-workers or new friends with complementary skills usually make the best partners. That’s not an attractive statistic if you crave control and power.

Hockey Stick 144

Hockey Stick Cofounder Entrepreneur Liquidity Event 144

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 5, 2016

Many aspiring entrepreneurs jump ship from corporate environments, complaining that they want to be their own boss, only to find that investors are more demanding bosses than the ones they left. Don’t let early funding increase risk and dilute your potential. A limited budget makes for a better business plan.

Bootstrapping 120

Bootstrapping Entrepreneur Startup Exit Strategy 120

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 19, 2013

Don’t wait for the harsh reality of the demanding business world to start thinking about these tradeoffs. The downside is loss of control and financial dilution. Old co-workers or new friends with complementary skills usually make the best partners. That’s not an attractive statistic if you crave control and power.

Founder 245

Founder Hockey Stick Cofounder Liquidity Event 245

99u.com

DECEMBER 22, 2012

Assuming no dilution (which is not a good assumption), this means you need to sell for $200 million. If tenths of a percent of options for an advisor causes too much dilution, then youve failed anyway. Jeffrey Bussgang General Partner at Flybridge Capital Partners, Author of "Mastering the VC Game ". Fred Wilson.

Turkey 40

Turkey Dilution Portfolio Exit Strategy 40

The Next Web

FEBRUARY 27, 2014

George Deeb is the Managing Partner at Chicago-based Red Rocket Ventures , a startup consulting and financial advisory firm based in Chicago. Supply and demand. To start, let’s not forget about the obvious: the natural economic principles of supply and demand apply to valuing your business. The more scarce a supply (e.g.,

Valuation 167

Valuation Forecast Seed Stage .Net 167

Babbling VC

OCTOBER 3, 2011

For those of you not in the know, they are one of the largest limited partners ( LP's : investors in venture capital funds) in Europe and are basically in almost all the funds throughout the market. Hypothesis 9: The problem is on the demand side . Fortunately, for those of us in the market long enough, it's actually good news.

LP 82

LP Europe Germany Venture Capital 82

rapidrollout.wordpress.com

JANUARY 15, 2011

He or she might call himself a “consulting CTO,&# “freelance CTO,&# “on-demand CTO,&# “CTO on call,&# “CTO for hire,&# or just a “technology strategy advisor.&# Also, working with a consulting CTO will prepare you for finding and selecting a permanent technology partner.

Fractional CTO 40

Fractional CTO CTO CTO Hire Fractional VPE 40

Rob Go

AUGUST 29, 2016

If there is a fixed post money on say, a $5M series A round, if the founder decides that they want to take on a bit more new capital, the existing shareholders eat all of the additional dilution. In the old world, this additional dilution would end up being shared, since the pre-money was fixed.

Post-Money Valuation 52

Post-Money Valuation Valuation Cap Table Term Sheet 52

David Teten

JANUARY 21, 2021

(co-written with Jamie Finney, Founding Partner at Greater Colorado Venture Fund. Jonathan Bragdon , CEO, describes Capacity as “a team of founders-turned-funders making non-dilutive, founder-aligned investments of $50-$300k in post-startup, post-revenue businesses planning to 2X revenues in 12-24 months. 20% initial ownership.

Equity 78

Equity Revenue Cofounder Colorado 78

Lightspeed Venture Partners

OCTOBER 22, 2012

As you may have already seen , I’ve been breaking down the pitches on this season’s Shark Tank while wearing my work hat as a Managing Director at Lightspeed Venture Partners. The founders have more demand than they know what to do with, and want to raise $55k for 5% equity in the company to buy a second truck. Freaker USA.

Pre-Money Valuation 101

Pre-Money Valuation Valuation Dilution Differentiation 101

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 25, 2011

The founders could reinvest this in growth (0% tax, focus on future equity growth) or take the profits of $12 million and divide amongst the founding partners. You end up needing to add staff and take on more risk without knowing what your future demand will be. That is $12 million in profits over 3 years.

Silicon Valley 332

Silicon Valley IP Dividend Finance 332