David Teten

DECEMBER 2, 2019

I’m now researching non-dilutive funding for Action Tank , a startup I’m gestating to “Make America Functional Again”. I worked with outsourced research firm Wonder * to identify all of the institutions we could who support tech impact startups with cash and community, and in many cases without dilution. SEIF Awards Tech for Impact.

Technical Review 60

Technical Review SBIR Dilution Silicon Valley 60

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 12, 2014

These tensions seep out in some angels or seed funds publicly or semi-privately deriding later-stage VCs for their “bad” behavior. I have seen bad behavior from later-stage VCs, believe me. But I have seen equally bad behavior from super early stage investors. As always a balanced perspective is in order.

Technical Review 336

Technical Review Later Stage Early Stage LP 336

David Teten

JANUARY 19, 2021

(co-written with Jamie Finney, Founding Partner at Greater Colorado Venture Fund. Similar to the explosion of seed funds in the past decade, we (and some limited partners too ) believe these Flexible VCs are on the forefront of what will become a major segment of the venture ecosystem. Of the Inc. 5000 companies, only 6.5% return cap.

Cofounder 78

Cofounder Technical Review Equity Dividend 78

The Next Web

OCTOBER 7, 2013

However, at the very early stage, they are taking as much risk with their future as the founders. Every time a startup raises capital, all common shareholders are diluted. In a CTO Salary and Equity trends report by Safire Partners, it finds non-founder equity compensation to settle out below 2 percent. Engineer #1?

Engineer 129

Engineer Dilution Option Pool Vesting 129

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 10, 2021

And the loosening of federal monetary policies, particularly in the US, has pushed more dollars into the venture ecosystems at every stage of financing. What Has Changed in Financing? The biggest change for us in early-stage investing is that we now need to commit earlier. Of course we can’t.

Pre-Money Valuation 471

Pre-Money Valuation Valuation Venture Capital Early Stage 471

David Teten

AUGUST 19, 2019

Since 2017 we’ve managed $3 million in revenue-based financing, which helps cash-strapped technology companies grow. In 2019 we partnered with several revenue-based lending providers, effectively creating a marketplace. “. Benefits: Non-dilutive, flexible credit offerings that fit SMB or enterprise SaaS. Bigfoot Capital.

Revenue 60

Revenue Technical Review Software Review Equity 60

Startup Company Lawyer

MARCH 14, 2010

After the recent announcement of the Series Seed Financing documents by Marc Andreesen, Brad Feld points out that there are now four sets of “open source&# equity seed financing documents: TechStars Model Seed Funding Documents (by Cooley). Y Combinator Series AA Equity Financing Documents (by WSGR). under $500K).

Finance 70

Finance Software Review Term Sheet Liquidation Preference 70

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

www.seriesseed.com

MARCH 2, 2010

SeriesSeed.com Series Seed Financing Documents Blog Home Documents Blog Archives Subscribe 09/02/2010 Version 2.0   That said, I think this quote accurately captures the life-cycle of creating a simple set of documents for early stage investment. price based anti-dilution). Then they laugh at you. Then you win.”

Finance 58

Finance Term Sheet Equity Aggregator 58

View from Seed

OCTOBER 28, 2019

Over the past few years, “pre-seed” as a distinct category has emerged within the early stage fundraising landscape. But this financing contour description is just a proxy for underlying business metrics. It really does depend from startup to startup.

Seed Stage 247

Seed Stage Finance Dilution Early Stage 247

The Equity Kicker

MAY 14, 2012

Twice in the last week I found myself coaching founders on how to build a financing plan around value creation milestones so I thought I would share what I said here. Given that the valuation of a startup increases when milestones like these are hit it makes sense to build a financing plan based on when they are likely to come in.

Finance 118

Finance Valuation Venture Capital Dilution 118

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 5, 2016

Investors expect nothing less than a full-time commitment, even in the early stages when the business model has not yet been proven. Keep later critical financing needs viable. Don’t let early funding increase risk and dilute your potential. For aspiring entrepreneurs, a fallback plan is always good.

Bootstrapping 120

Bootstrapping Entrepreneur Startup Exit Strategy 120

David Teten

AUGUST 21, 2019

Revenue-Based Investing (“RBI”) is a new form of VC financing, distinct from the preferred equity structure most VCs use. Less or no dilution. 2) To sell their businesses when they want – early, mid term, or never.” . When you raise early stage VC, you can’t sell early because the VCs won’t agree to it.

Revenue 60

Revenue Liquidation Preference Equity Cofounder 60

David Teten

NOVEMBER 17, 2011

I’ve often found it helpful to have on hand a simple model showing the impact of each financing stages on all team members, suitable for sharing with everyone in the company. In particular, this model is designed to help all team members understand the impact of dilution on their options.

Employee 155

Employee IRR Startup Mexico 155

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 1, 2009

I know this is unconventional thinking but if you want to understand more I cover my rationale on this post about The Most Common Early Stage Startup Mistakes and again in this post covering how to implement startup prenuptials. You don’t necessarily have to have a ying and yang c0-founder.

Hiring 289

Hiring Cofounder Dilution Startup 289

Hunter Walker

FEBRUARY 20, 2018

“Early stage” has been coopted by billion-dollar VCs who try to shoehorn a $10m ARR SaaS company into their idea of risk capital. Of course a CEO should be thoughtful and disciplined when it comes to their cash and early stage startups don’t usually die because of lack of funding but rather lack of ideas and output.

Forecast 108

Forecast Early Stage Dilution Later Stage 108

BeyondVC

FEBRUARY 6, 2007

I can also say that there is a similarly fine line between dilution and delusion but this one is easier to draw. Recently my partners and I were discussing the merits of a term sheet that came in for a portfolio company. The post The fine line between dilution and delusion appeared first on BeyondVC.

Dilution 60

Dilution Term Sheet Valuation Early Stage 60

Gust

OCTOBER 8, 2014

Cautionary note: No competent VC is actually fooled when you show up after raising $6M in seed financing and say you’re now raising an A! There weren’t a lot of seed funds in 2007 so this was often done by angels, funding consortia or sometimes early-stage funds that existed then (First Round Capital, True Ventures, SoftTech VC, etc.).

Cap Table 136

Cap Table Silicon Valley Term Sheet Non-Compete 136

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 22, 2011

Here’s the problem: Let’s say you have 5 VCs (plus angels but let’s ignore that for now) and each one owns 5% so you took 25% dilution to get the round done. Let’s say each of those 5 partners has at least 7 other investments each. The most common case is that the partner who did the deal left the firm.

Dilution 314

Dilution Cap Table Due Diligence Option Pool 314

www.instigatorblog.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

The more that those first employees feel like founders in terms of their ownership, emotional attachment, responsibility and overall understanding of the startup process (including financing , running day-to-day activities, etc.) I do believe that early employees should trade salary for equity. the better the startup will be.

Equity 41

Equity Employee Startup Vesting 41

Rob Go

JUNE 8, 2014

Raising capital is really difficult, no matter what people say about the influx of seed and early-stage dollars into the startup eco-system. You get a large capital partner involved early who is fully committed to your company. Usually, the dilution is in the 25% range, and certainly at least 20%.

Dilution 69

Dilution Early Stage Angel Investor Venture Capital 69

rapidrollout.wordpress.com

JANUARY 15, 2011

Also, working with a consulting CTO will prepare you for finding and selecting a permanent technology partner. And finally, you may be able to avoid diluting your equity. Avoid delay by using a consulting CTO on a short-term basis while you are searching for a permanent technology partner.

Fractional CTO 40

Fractional CTO CTO CTO Hire Fractional VPE 40

abovethecrowd.com

APRIL 20, 2016

Why the Unicorn Financing Market Just Became Dangerous…For All Involved. All Unicorn participants — founders, company employees, venture investors and their limited partners (LPs) — are seeing their fortunes put at risk from the very nature of the Unicorn phenomenon itself. By January of 2016, that number had ballooned to 229.

IPO 40

IPO Term Sheet Silicon Valley Valuation 40

VC Adventure

AUGUST 30, 2010

I think the answer to these questions are that 1) it’s not at all clear that this trend is as definitive as Graham suggests; 2) it’s a mixed bag for entrepreneurs (more positive in the short run, potentially negative in the long term); and 3) it’s clearly not a positive trend for early-stage investors. Has Convertible Debt Won?

Angel Investor 103

Angel Investor Early Stage Equity Valuation 103

Ben's Blog

MAY 24, 2021

Editor’s Note: This testimony was delivered by a16z managing partner Scott Kupor to the U.S. By way of background, I am the Managing Partner for Andreessen Horowitz, a $16.5 billion multi-stage venture capital firm focused on IT-related investments… I also serve on various investment committees, including for the St.

SEC 36

SEC Accredited Investor IPO Technical Review 36

Professor VC

DECEMBER 8, 2015

Musk was the early winner taking the CEO role (for a brief period) in the merged company and the largest equity stake as well. Not surprisingly, the merger was highly dilutive, particularly to Confinity/PayPal shareholders. I was a Limited Partner in Angel Investors II (Ron Conway's angel fund) that was an investor in Confinity.

Merger 28

Merger LP IPO Redemption 28

Austin Startup

MARCH 7, 2021

These are all potential customers and strategic partners for startups. In 2019 and 2020, we saw hundreds of millions of dollars in non-dilutive funding go to Texas startups, most of which had never worked with the government before. More than 50 Fortune 500 companies are headquartered in Texas and six of the Fortune 50.

Texas 90

Texas San Antonio Houston Dallas 90

aweissman.com

JANUARY 30, 2010

There is an amazing wealth of innovation around early stage venture financing, most of which developed in just the past few years. If not, the value of the exchange fund is diluted. There is an amazing wealth of innovation around early stage venture financing, most of which developed in just the past few years.

Early Stage 46

Early Stage Entrepreneur Cofounder Framework 46

Scott Edward Walker

SEPTEMBER 21, 2011

David Hornik , a partner at August Capital and a very smart investor, confirms this approach in his interview on Sprouter : So if you are new to the area or to entrepreneurship, how do you get the right. This approach will keep the financing relatively simple and inexpensive and will defer the company’s valuation (i.e.,

Preferred Stock 45

Preferred Stock Angel Investor Entrepreneur Common Stock 45

Professor VC

JANUARY 17, 2008

A partner from the law firm (sponsor, covers the drinks and food) tosses out some softball questions to the panelists, the audience chimes in with Q&A and finally, culminates with the meet and greet where the panelists are flooded with business cards and pitches on the next great thing, which is often very similar to the last great thing.

Pre-Money Valuation 28

Pre-Money Valuation Angel Investor Angel Groups Valuation 28

Rob Go

NOVEMBER 30, 2012

I was surprised to find that it has been more than two years since my post summarizing the state of the seed stage market, and trying to bring a balanced view on the rise of Super Angels and Micro-VC’s. The venture capital market continues to be in transition, and a lot of changes have occurred in the early stages of the market.

Seed Stage 55

Seed Stage Pre-Money Valuation Dilution Early Stage 55

maplebutter.com

JANUARY 8, 2013

What is the best advice you can give for finding a business partner? Don’t quickly choose any business partner. The key is to ask the right people what they think – not your friends, parents or partner. If you believe in it – then finance whatever you can yourself. When it comes to early stage investing – it’s all gut.

Technical Review 44

Technical Review Startup Cofounder Software Review 44

BeyondVC

JUNE 11, 2007

In the last six months, we have augmented some of our existing venture financing with venture debt as the market has become quite competitive which means pricing and terms are getting more attractive for all of us. The trick for entrepreneurs is to look at bringing on debt concurrent or soon after your close of equity financing.

Intellectual Property 60

Intellectual Property Covenant Warrant Equity 60

Seeing Both Sides

JANUARY 13, 2015

Some VCs prefer investing at the earliest stages and then cycle off the board of directors. Others prefer to come in at the later stages, post product-market fit, and not have to deal with the risk and roller coaster of the early stages. Financing: holy crap - we are running out of money in 6 months!

Mezzanine 20

Mezzanine IPO Finance Business Model 20

Up and Running

JULY 14, 2015

Peter: Techstars is probably the most famous accelerator but the idea of the accelerator versus the incubator because there is living field, because there’s this very early stage fields for them both. The cool thing is with the device like, that with the science like that, there’s a lot of early stage proving ground needed.

Incubator 60

Incubator Email Startup Oregon 60

Life Beyond Code

SEPTEMBER 27, 2011

And today, we have a group of early adopter premium members who are making good use of the program. Our community has successfully established a culture of bootstrapping as a counterforce to the compulsive rush to financing that entrepreneurs mistakenly often engage in, only to be rejected over and again by investors.

Programming 116

Programming Silicon Valley Bootstrapping Technical Review 116