YoungUpstarts

OCTOBER 12, 2017

No entrepreneur wants to think that their business won’t last, but as they burn cash in the developing years they need to consider future implications — particularly funding. Many startups and early-stage companies fear that having a going concern paints their company in a negative light, which may therefore turn off potential investors.

San Francisco 133

San Francisco Forecast Early Stage Term Sheet 133

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 26, 2013

This was the fault of my cofounder since he was in charge of game development, it was the engineers who bailed on me, it was the sales and marketing people who didn’t tell me how bad the games were, it was the VC’s who refused to put any more money in the company, it was Sega’s fault for making a bad gaming platform…. Lessons Learned.

Redemption 330

Redemption Cofounder Silicon Valley Burn Rate 330

View from Seed

OCTOBER 24, 2019

The reality is that if a founder raised every one of these rounds, and lead investors always got their “target” ownership, the level of dilution would be ridiculous. As seed rounds have atomized, it’s not uncommon for founders to raise 3 or even 4 rounds prior to a series A.

Dilution 149

Dilution B2B Burn Rate Early Stage 149

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

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 26, 2013

This was the fault of my cofounder since he was in charge of game development, it was the engineers who bailed on me, it was the sales and marketing people who didn’t tell me how bad the games were, it was the VC’s who refused to put any more money in the company, it was Sega’s fault for making a bad gaming platform…. Lessons Learned.

Redemption 222

Redemption Cofounder Silicon Valley Burn Rate 222

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

The Next Web

DECEMBER 4, 2012

AppDirect , the cloud-based services marketplace company, has set up a Developer Incubator program in order to help it staff up, but also to give engineers an opportunity to get some entrepreneurial experience without risking their paycheck. ” Dare to take the risk, but with a bit of comfort? To date, AppDirect has raised $11.75

Incubator 119

Incubator Engineer Developer San Francisco 119

Berkonomics

JANUARY 25, 2024

Board members or lead investors as coaches If you take smart money from a good angel or venture organization, the lead investor usually becomes your board member and has a vested interest in your success.

SBA 62

SBA Warrant Stock Options Vesting 62

The Startup Magazine

AUGUST 18, 2017

The opening keynote session will define directions on Aligning the Role of Government Policymakers, Incumbent Banks, FinTech Innovators, Investors, Multilateral Agencies, MNOs and the Private Sector to Create a Dynamic Ecosystem for FinTech in Africa.

Africa 62

Africa Ethiopia Elevator Pitch Technical Review 62

This is going to be BIG.

MAY 17, 2012

For web development, usually it's pretty much the same across the board, but if you're making jewelry in China, it's going to be hard to get much done with a 500k seed round. That means investors are going to buy that much of your company at a time. Sometimes, this also relates to capital requirements of what the team needs.

Venture Capital 116

Venture Capital Framework Dilution Equity 116

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 23, 2019

In short, sharing pricing expectations early with potential lead investors fundamentally potentially qualifies your conversations, but it also runs the risk of prematurely losing a potential financing partner, or even reduce options to maximize your fundraise outcome.

Cap Table 211

Cap Table Seed Stage Valuation Dilution 211

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 7, 2015

I love how open Danielle has been throughout the development of her startup Mattermark including honest reflections of when she has changed her opinion. They now have a strong VC lead from Foundry Group and from experience when you get advice from Foundry it comes with authority, experience, empathy and the right amount of straight talk.

Cap Table 150

Cap Table Cofounder Silicon Valley Startup 150

View from Seed

FEBRUARY 23, 2021

The classic scenario is when a VC has a signed term sheet to lead a round, but has left room open for another meaningful investor. At this point, the investor and the entrepreneur work together to develop their perfect list of potential partners, and then do targeted outreach to try to bring this investor into the round.

Syndicate 207

Syndicate Syndication Term Sheet Cofounder 207

Hearpreneur

AUGUST 27, 2023

In the dynamic landscape of organizational development, creating a conducive environment for thoughtful contemplation, strategic planning, and sustainable growth is paramount. 4- By delegating authority Photo Credit: Kenneth Nielsen In our 121 structure, we have a designated individual responsible for strategic development.

Entrepreneur 106

Entrepreneur Australia Lead Investor Management 106

techcrunch.com

APRIL 26, 2013

First, AngelList Invest is available to any company on AngelList that has a top-tier lead investor. And the lead investor has to be putting in at least $100,000 in capital, says Ravikant. Using today’s data on AngelList, that includes 300 startups. Other criteria include that the startup needs to be U.S.-based,

SEC 61

SEC Accredited Investor San Diego New York City 61

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). As I grew to understand the careful and strategic practice of recruitment, I developed an ability to make tough decisions quickly.

San Francisco 60

San Francisco Bangladesh Ukraine Philippines 60

Pascal's View

JULY 9, 2017

At its core, this issue points to the lack of understanding about the importance of post-money valuation by both entrepreneurs and investors. Company Y receives an offer from an angel or ‘unsophisticated’ smaller VC fund that is unwilling to lead and price the equity but wants to ‘invest now’.

Post-Money Valuation 49

Post-Money Valuation Valuation Cap Table Covenant 49

www.xconomy.com

JUNE 9, 2012

VP of Strategic and Emerging Business Development, Microsoft. Founder, DEKA Research and Development Corporation. Correlation Ventures is tied to a different legacy—HNC Software, which was a pioneering developer of predictive software that was used to assess the risk of credit card fraud. President and CEO, Complete Genomics.

San Diego 40

San Diego Venture Capital Technical Review San Francisco 40

View from Seed

JANUARY 7, 2020

Even though the relative shortage of seed firms who lead rounds in NYC represents a near-term opportunity for firms like ours, I do hope that there will be more local lead investors in this market as the ecosystem continues to develop and mature.

New York 207

New York Boston Marketing Aggregator 207

ReadWriteStart

JULY 18, 2011

He says that one is too lonely, two is good and three is a great number if they can combine their skills to cover design, development and distribution. Money man and pundit Paul Kedrosky also spoke at the International Startup Festival and offered humorous, blunt advice about how to get what you want from investors and investment bankers.

Investment Bankers 153

Investment Bankers Technical Review Cofounder Due Diligence 153

This is going to be BIG.

FEBRUARY 27, 2011

Even if your business is completely digital, like Twitter, scale brings complexity when it comes to strategic issues—like creating a claims process for trademarked domains, managing inbound business development opportunities, or keeping spam at bay.

Dilution 104

Dilution Equity Hiring Partner 104

Hunter Walker

JANUARY 19, 2023

But three years later, the organization changed into a for-profit , albeit one with capped upside for investors ( 100x cap. The rationale was that the costs of development — talent and especially processing capability — was going to be substantial and OpenAI would need millions and millions of dollars to achieve their technology goals.

Naming 62

Naming Lead Investor Distribution Technology 62

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. In fact, some VCs have developed technologies to give portfolio executives searchable access to their Linkedin and CRM, similar on a small scale to what GLG offers.

New York 114

New York Technical Review Networking Advisory Board 114

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. Corporate venture investors are well versed and well connected in their respective industries and can facilitate connections for their portfolio companies.

Venture Capital 60

Venture Capital Balance Sheet Technical Review Portfolio 60

SiliconHills

OCTOBER 30, 2015

The Austin-based startup received the funds from lead investor Austin Ventures and other investors. The company plans to use the money for research and development and sales and marketing. Edgecase, which provides data and analytics for e-commerce sites, announced this week it has received $7.5 million in venture capital.

Venture Capital 48

Venture Capital Austin Lead Investor Analytics 48

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 14, 2010

Lead investors and follow investors can both win equally but in each case you know why you personally are writing the check. I know you have good knowledge of how the Internet is developing and have good intuition of what drives viral adoption, what local services are needed, what API’s need to be developed, etc.

Angel Investor 288

Angel Investor Deal Flow Viral Algorithm 288

Berkonomics

DECEMBER 7, 2017

If you take smart money from a good angel or venture organization, the lead investor usually becomes your board member and has a vested interest in your success. And some will willingly work for stock options, an amount to be negotiated based upon time spent and stage of corporate development.

Warrant 97

Warrant Stock Options Vesting Equity 97

SiliconHills

JULY 18, 2012

The Keiretsu Forum’s members gave $3 million as the lead investor on a Series B round for Savara Pharmaceuticals. Savara is developing pulmonary drugs to treat serious and life threatening conditions.

Accredited Investor 54

Accredited Investor Lead Investor Technology Developer 54

ReadWriteStart

MAY 9, 2018

The company’s growth is largely thanks to its collaborators – Travelport, its first investor and incubator, lead investor 7 Gate Ventures, and Real Venture. Recent funding is being used to develop its product using predictive booking pattern algorithms and to expand its sales and development teams.

Widget 64

Widget France Canada Aggregator 64

The Startup Toolkit

NOVEMBER 4, 2011

Regarding structure, the first deal is a rolling round with committed lead investors. The latter means products, analytics, optimisations, and developers. Next, we check that we’re safe from any particularly onerous terms like participation preferred. Looks good. If you under-perform, then you don’t get your money.

Term Sheet 31

Term Sheet Dilution Participating Preferred B2C 31

View from Seed

JANUARY 11, 2021

How quickly would deals move through the funnel, what new checks and balances were required to arrive at an outcome, and how could founders effectively build momentum to help investors develop confidence during the fundraising process? How have you built confidence, without having met teams in person?

Venture Capital 350

Venture Capital Cofounder Early Stage Seed Stage 350

BeyondVC

SEPTEMBER 13, 2006

Typically most companies have their employees and particularly technical personnel sign an assignment of inventions and confidentiality contract where any product or patent developed while working for your company is owned by the company.

Technical Review 60

Technical Review Intellectual Property Cofounder Due Diligence 60

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 30, 2018

If you are aware you may have some issues or if you are constantly getting feedback that you may have issues then it’s a smart strategy for you to develop a set of talking points to get in front of the issue when asked. Many investors can also be the opposite situation where you’re so successful that everybody wants to invest.

Valuation 324

Valuation Post-Money Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Cofounder 324

The Startup Toolkit

NOVEMBER 4, 2011

Regarding structure, the first deal is a rolling round with committed lead investors. The latter means products, analytics, optimisations, and developers. Next, we check that we’re safe from any particularly onerous terms like participation preferred. Looks good. If you under-perform, then you don’t get your money.

Term Sheet 20

Term Sheet Dilution Participating Preferred B2C 20

This is going to be BIG.

JANUARY 20, 2014

As the lead investor in the company''s seed round, you''d think I''d be really bullish about the connected home, especially after their record Indiegogo pre-sale netted them almost $2 million in purchases. It came up at the Canary board meeting the other day. We don''t use the Yahoo!

Venture Capital 104

Venture Capital Cloud Internet Web 104

Scott Edward Walker

AUGUST 9, 2013

Rather than have Board meetings, seed-stage companies should develop a “routine of monthly check-ins” with their lead investor. There are some discreet areas where an investor can and should be really helpful – around recruiting, certainly around financing, and then a bunch of soundboard-like feedback.”.

Seed Stage 53

Seed Stage Entrepreneur Dilution Valuation 53