Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 10, 2018

The next default of waiting until later is equally bad, since partners who bow out early will still expect an equal share of that first billion you make later. That way, if one of the partners disappears, or their role changes, a portion of the equity can be re-captured and reallocated to the other members.

Equity 238

Equity Cofounder Technical Cofounder Intellectual Property 238

Version One Ventures

FEBRUARY 20, 2024

At Version One, we are strong believers that early-stage investing is best done by small teams that are aligned around a differentiated investment thesis and are investing with high conviction. We’re on our fourth fund and second opportunity fund , and we are looking to add a third partner over the course of the next year or so.

Partner 60

Partner Early Stage Angel Investor Differentiation 60

The Startup Magazine

APRIL 14, 2022

While certain aspects of setting up a startup can be exhilarating, especially in the early stages of the business, there are also plenty of bumps along the road, big and small. If the name is already taken, add an adjective or verb to differentiate it from other similar names. Image Source.

Startup 144

Startup Early Stage Naming Public Relations 144

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 6, 2014

I think that mindset is useful to remind entrepreneurs that it is a shared journey and capital (whether active or passive) is a part of your success and your ability to access it when you need to and for the amounts you need is a very critical differentiator between successful companies and unsuccessful one. how to evolve our management team.

Technical Review 325

Technical Review Early Stage Software Review Los Angeles 325

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 26, 2013

Every early-stage startup should explore this new funding alternative. New “up-and-comer” VCs focus on early-stage companies. VCs are finding that they don’t need the “large” funds of $100M to $500M to support a portfolio, if they focus on early-stage startups.

Angel Investor 231

Angel Investor Entrepreneur Early Stage Silicon Valley 231

The Startup Magazine

SEPTEMBER 12, 2019

While the rewards may be a boon to their company in the short term, the consequences of accepting outside funding too early can be debilitating. There’s a reason why I refer to early-stage VC funding as vulture capital, and to be honest it’s pretty accurate. Money in Exchange for Control.

Early Stage 85

Early Stage Venture Capital Bootstrapping Pre-Money Valuation 85

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 4, 2014

The next default of waiting until later is equally bad, since partners who bow out early will still expect an equal share of that first billion you make later. That way, if one of the partners disappears, or their role changes, a portion of the equity can be re-captured and reallocated to the other members.

Cofounder 261

Cofounder Stock Founder Technical Cofounder 261

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 24, 2014

It turns out it actually takes time to build a high-growth business with differentiated intellectual property and roll out large, enterprise-class marketing solutions. Working with early-stage teams : coaching, mentoring, setting strategy, rolling up sleeves: 9/10. 5 years ago. Sourcing high-quality leads : 9/10.

Los Angeles 387

Los Angeles Intellectual Property LP Venture Capital 387

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 11, 2016

We help founders through difficult moments, we help coach, we act as sparring partners, we help them resolve conflicts when they’re fighting with co-founders and we help them deal with adversity as well as successes. The role of VC is sparring partner. It’s the executives who trust you to join the early-stage startups you’ve funded.

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital Fractional CTO Cofounder Early Stage 150

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 4, 2015

For early-stage startups, the goodwill component can easily exceed the size of all the financial elements together, or can just as easily mark a company with good financials as not investable. In the investment community, these leadership elements are often called “goodwill.” Focus on talent and people growth.

Leadership 120

Leadership Technical Review Due Diligence Valuation 120

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 24, 2016

The next default of waiting until later is equally bad, since partners who bow out early will still expect an equal share of that first billion you make later. That way, if one of the partners disappears, or their role changes, a portion of the equity can be re-captured and reallocated to the other members.

Equity 120

Equity Cofounder Technical Cofounder Intellectual Property 120

David Teten

APRIL 1, 2021

Dan Kozikowski, Partner and Head of Platform, First Mark Capital , said to me, “Firms should match services to the stage-specific needs of companies. For example, recruiting writ large is useful at all stages of development. Real Ventures , an early-stage, Canadian-based fund, runs a two-day Founder Camp every six months.

Private Equity 78

Private Equity Venture Capital Portfolio Equity 78

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 27, 2013

Understanding where your VC partner sits in their respective fund and where their fund is in the cycle of its investment lifecycle will help you understand your VCs behavior. I would say the norm for many early-stage companies is somewhere between 6-10 in-person meetings per year. What Rob wrote in his post is right.

Advisory Board 365

Advisory Board CTO Hire Fractional CTO Los Angeles 365

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 9, 2010

Every early-stage startup should explore this new funding alternative. New “up-and-comer” VCs focus on early-stage companies. VCs are finding that they don’t need the “large” funds of $100M to $500M to support a portfolio, if they focus on early-stage startups.

Technical Review 215

Technical Review Early Stage Venture Capital Startup 215

David Teten

JANUARY 9, 2018

He looked at his resume, and asked just one question: “ What’s your edge? ” My friend got the job because his answer was differentiated, credible, and backed up by a history of investing success. It is unexciting and hard to prove, but in fact “We execute better” is a critical differentiator. – Thesis. – Execution.

Venture Capital 60

Venture Capital Private Equity Silicon Valley Differentiation 60

David Teten

JANUARY 9, 2018

He looked at his resume, and asked just one question: “ What’s your edge? ” My friend got the job because his answer was differentiated, credible, and backed up by a history of investing success. It is unexciting and hard to prove, but in fact “We execute better” is a critical differentiator. – Thesis. – Execution.

Venture Capital 60

Venture Capital Private Equity Silicon Valley Differentiation 60

Austin Startup

MAY 11, 2017

645 Ventures 645 Ventures makes deeply-researched investments in institutional Seed to Series A rounds for exceptional companies who demonstrate stellar early results in the areas of market validation, product differentiation, team strength, and brand narrative. That drives every decision we make.

Private Equity 48

Private Equity Venture Capital Technical Review Seed Stage 48

SoCal CTO

AUGUST 4, 2011

Almost every day I'm talking to early stage startup founders (see Free Startup CTO Consulting Sessions ) about what they plan to do. How will you differentiate from these? I tend to ask a lot of questions, challenge aspects, make suggestions. But I've often been very surprised by one aspect of these conversations.

Developer 396

Developer Founder Viral Oauth 396

SoCal CTO

AUGUST 4, 2011

Almost every day I'm talking to early stage startup founders (see Free Startup CTO Consulting Sessions ) about what they plan to do. How will you differentiate from these? I tend to ask a lot of questions, challenge aspects, make suggestions. But I've often been very surprised by one aspect of these conversations.

Developer 384

Developer Founder Viral Oauth 384

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 1, 2016

At the Upfront Summit in early February, we had a chance to have many off-the-record conversations with Limited Partners (LPs) who fund Venture Capital (VC) funds about their views of the market. I have also heard LPs express concern over the last few years about the seed stage of venture.

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital LP Silicon Valley Marketing 150

VC Cafe

MAY 29, 2022

Building on my post on ‘ Advice for startups in a downturn (May 2022 edition) ‘, this week I continued to follow with interest the impact of the current correction on startups and venture capital, particularly in early stage. The key messages: “This is not a time to panic. Who is actually pulling back from investing?

Venture Capital 184

Venture Capital Early Stage Valuation Startup 184

The Equity Kicker

JANUARY 10, 2020

See below for a good description of what we like to see in deals at Forward Partners and what makes us different from other VCs. An interview with Nic Brisbourne, Forward Partners. I think we differ a little from the rest of the industry, though, particularly with our focus on early stage companies.

Partner 68

Partner Early Stage Portfolio Metrics 68

Duct Tape Marketing

NOVEMBER 2, 2023

02:06] Can you share your experience starting with an early-stage company (Hubspot) that eventually went public? [07:11] 07:11] With so many tools claiming the same space, how does Databox differentiate itself? [08:43] I should have gotten on the partner train. What’s your take on that? So quite an experience.

Metrics 75

Metrics Analytics Forecast Software Review 75

The Equity Kicker

MARCH 17, 2015

As you probably know, Forward Partners bundles help from our startup team, our proven methodologies and office space with our cash investment so I will be talking my own book tomorrow and hence here. I’m writing this post to get my thoughts straight. Over the last fifteen years that has become accepted best practice.

Early Stage 60

Early Stage Venture Capital San Francisco Silicon Valley 60

Hunter Walker

MARCH 25, 2015

At the time, no one was investing in early stage consumer companies — it wasn’t a “thing” yet. HW: Both you and Kirsten have deep strategy/investment experience but less operational experience, at a time when some might claim early stage VC is tilting towards the hands-on model.

Naming 48

Naming Technical Review Early Stage Green 48

View from Seed

JANUARY 11, 2021

Kent Bennett from Bessemer Venture Partners spoke to this initial slow down: “ We couldn’t do anything until we understood the new normal. billion across 2,288 deals in Q3, with deal count exceeding Q2’s at nearly every stage. . Historically, ‘intuition’ has been a significant driver of early stage venture capital investments.

Venture Capital 350

Venture Capital Cofounder Early Stage Seed Stage 350

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 23, 2014

Limited Partners or LPs (the people who invest into VC funds) have taken notice as 2014 is by all accounts the busiest year for LPs since the Great Recession began. ” The pioneering fund of funds realize that their source of differentiation is much more about the latter than the former.

Technical Review 398

Technical Review Venture Capital Valuation Pre-Money Valuation 398

View from Seed

JULY 19, 2019

All early stage venture firms essentially look at some weighting of team, market, product, and traction. Customers who experience this kind of product can’t help but talk to other people about it, whether it’s friends & family in the consumer segment -or- other business partners & peers in the B2B space.

Boston 149

Boston B2B Early Stage Portfolio 149

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 29, 2014

I quit a very well paid job at Accenture with very little time remaining before making partner and took a risk of having no job security at all. And that’s what differentiates founders and early employees. My starting salary when I joined a VC fund as a partner at the age of 39 (and after 2 exits)?

Founder 409

Founder Salary Startup Early Stage 409

Growthink Blog

DECEMBER 27, 2017

Carefully describe their strengths and weaknesses, as well as the key drivers of competitive differentiation in the marketplace. how it will work, the financial terms, the types of customer leads expected from each partner, etc.). Don’t just list competitors. market research). Demonstrate barriers to entry. Concept vs. reality.

Venture Capital 129

Venture Capital Business Plan Technical Review Private Placement 129

Cracking the Code

JUNE 5, 2019

At VivaTech this year, we were fortunate to be joined in conversation by former Cisco CEO and Executive Chairman John Chambers, who now invests in early-stage tech start-ups around the world. Rule number two is to differentiate an external crisis from internal problems. When a crisis does occur, there are five rules to follow.

Acquisition 48

Acquisition Management Merger Social Media 48

VC Cafe

APRIL 27, 2011

10 things VCs can do to differentiate themselves and provide more value to potential investments – based on feedback from dozens of entrepreneurs. Despite the VC’s obvious disadvantage in the early stages, marketing and differentiation of venture capital funds is limited today.

Venture Capital 90

Venture Capital Differentiation Incubator Angel Investor 90

YoungUpstarts

JUNE 3, 2011

As we know, this space is a very competitive one; Fetch Plus differentiates itself from the rest by targeting companies with holdings, focusing on developing tools necessary for these companies’ holdings to efficiently and effectively build and scale their social media footprint through different networks for engaging fans.

Social Media 187

Social Media Media Management Application Development 187

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 27, 2014

Seed investors are aplenty and of course they need downstream money to fuel their early-stage bets. I guess if you’re in high-volume, low-differentiation mode perhaps this is efficient for you. Inbound is seldom differentiated dealflow. And we live in public so many people are able just to reach out. Pay attention.

Cofounder 374

Cofounder Syndicate Syndication Early Stage 374

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 14, 2009

Differentiate. Make sure these people understand the nature of early-stage angel investing. And just like with VC’s – it is as much the partner your working wit as the group more broadly. One great company, AppFolio , filmed all of this user interaction and made the DVD available to me. Have they added value?

Silicon Valley 291

Silicon Valley Ireland Technical Review Valuation 291

Version One Ventures

SEPTEMBER 8, 2023

I’ve done this by surrounding myself with great friends and co-investors at other funds – a handful of them have become my best daily sparring partners (outside of Boris and Leah at V1). In the early days, I focused on anything data science related, then healthcare, and now I proactively look at climate/energy. Pay it forward.

Cofounder 182

Cofounder Portfolio Capital Gains Vertical 182

Duct Tape Marketing

APRIL 6, 2022

Steve is the CEO of Founders Space, one of the world’s leading startup accelerators with over 50 partners in 22 countries. One of the world's leading startup accelerators with over 50 partners in 22 countries, founder space was ranked number one, the number one incubator for overseas startups by Forbes and entrepreneur magazines.

San Francisco 97

San Francisco Technical Review Incubator Silicon Valley 97