Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 14, 2020

Getting investors to trust you with their money is always a challenge, and it’s even more difficult in the early stages, where you don’t have a significant revenue stream, a few customers, or maybe even a product yet. At these stages, it’s all about you, and your ability to communicate and execute effectively.

Due Diligence 308

Due Diligence Intellectual Property Preferred Stock Seed Stage 308

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 14, 2021

That’s a bit of a cautionary tale to VC investors today who might think it’s inevitable that the private value they are enjoying in their portfolios will certainly translate to distributions in the near future. Both early- and late-stage startup valuations are currently elevated. The answer is likely a mix of both.

Valuation 295

Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Distribution Early Stage 295

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 1, 2016

LPs have been feeling great about venture capital due to holding valuable paper positions in companies like Uber, Lyft, Airbnb, Dropbox, all of which they feel confident will drive large cash distributions in the future. Another Area of Concern is in the Seed Investor Class. But there’s no doubt, some will make money.

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital LP Silicon Valley Marketing 150

David Teten

JANUARY 19, 2021

Seed-stage compatible: Like traditional equity VC investors, Flexible VCs accomodate early-stage investment risk within their portfolios better than a traditional RBI funder. Early liquidity. Flexible VC creates early liquidity which can be either reinvested or distributed to LPs. Short track record.

Cofounder 78

Cofounder Technical Review Equity Dividend 78

Mucker Lab

AUGUST 27, 2014

My partner Erik Rannala has had a similar experience, having worked as a VC at Harrison Metal before moving down to LA to co-found our seed stage venture firm. It’s probably not too controversial to say that the median level of sophistication of early stage entrepreneurs in Los Angeles is lower than that of Bay Area.

Los Angeles 138

Los Angeles Southern California Silicon Valley Technical Review 138

BeyondVC

JANUARY 3, 2019

While developers can now spin up applications faster than ever before, one of the downsides is the complexity of managing these distributed applications and technologies. Year of HQ2 and Distributed Teams: It was a banner year for non-Silicon Valley cities as NYC and Northern Virginia were selected as Amazon’s HQ2.

Stealth 79

Stealth Advisory Board Cloud Virginia 79

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 14, 2021

That’s a bit of a cautionary tale to VC investors today who might think it’s inevitable that the private value they are enjoying in their portfolios will certainly translate to distributions in the near future. Both early- and late-stage startup valuations are currently elevated. The answer is likely a mix of both.

Valuation 156

Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Distribution Early Stage 156

This is going to be BIG.

AUGUST 22, 2012

It’s basically working with potential outside partners to reach your business goals--which could be revenue, distribution, financing, product development, awareness, etc. When you’ve got two people on the team and you’re going super lean in the early stages, usually your best bet is to have a customer experience person and a builder.

PR 144

PR Technical Review Seed Stage Design 144

Mucker Lab

JANUARY 1, 2014

VC’s start investing in technology-enabled “offline” businesses (distribution, services etc) – most of whom would never have gotten venture money 3 years ago. Google finally fixes the problem with mobile (discovery, search, distribution, tracking, monetization, a/b testing) and races ahead while Apple waxes nostalgically for 2010.

Seed Stage 84

Seed Stage Early Stage Distribution Bootstrapping 84

VC Adventure

MAY 5, 2022

If you abstract this across the venture industry or asset class (seed stage venture in this particular case) you run the risk of having a few outlier valuations driving what appears to be spectacular IRR. Some of those companies will be successful. Many will not. We’ll know eventually. But not now.

IRR 116

IRR Metrics Valuation LP 116

David Teten

DECEMBER 12, 2017

As a globally focused LP in early stage VC funds, we at Blue Future Partners have observed a growing trend of firms investing substantially in software tools, whether developing proprietary solutions or adopting off the shelf tools. But what tools are they using themselves to automate their own processes?

Early Stage 60

Early Stage Technical Review Software Review Venture Capital 60

Mucker Lab

JANUARY 1, 2014

VC’s accelerate investments in “internet of things” except sometime in Q4, wake up and realize it’s no different than “consumer electronics” – and that we still need to innovate around the manufacturing infrastructure, distribution economics, and consumer liability of the consumer goods business to really make this a venture fundable category.

Seed Stage 60

Seed Stage Early Stage Distribution Bootstrapping 60

K9 Ventures

APRIL 9, 2014

Instead, it was more of a result of over-funding at the seed stage. There was simply too much money coming in to the seed stage, which increased the supply of companies at the seed stage. Top engineering talent today has a bimodal distribution. And the hiring costs are higher.

Mezzanine 134

Mezzanine Seed Stage Early Stage IPO 134

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 1, 2016

Getting investors to trust you with their money is always a challenge, and it’s even more difficult in the early stages, where you don’t have a significant revenue stream, a few customers, or maybe even a product yet. At these stages, it’s all about you, and your ability to communicate and execute effectively.

Due Diligence 120

Due Diligence Intellectual Property Preferred Stock Seed Stage 120

Startup Company Lawyer

MARCH 14, 2010

In addition, I think that a “peace treaty&# between early-stage investors and startup companies on standard terms (at least at a term sheet level) is a step in the right direction. I suspect that this seems reasonable if there is basically no due diligence due to the early stage of the companies. (By Series Seed.

Finance 70

Finance Software Review Term Sheet Liquidation Preference 70

Gust

OCTOBER 17, 2012

Conventional wisdom dictated that they made reckless investments in very early-stage ventures mostly doomed to fail. Deductions like this are problematic because early-stage venture investing does not happen in an efficient market. The distribution of returns from the different U.S. and the U.K.,

Angel Investor 152

Angel Investor Venture Capital Seed Stage Silicon Valley 152

Rob Go

JULY 17, 2014

NextView Ventures II is $40M, twice the size of our first fund, and we continue to be exclusively focused on seed-stage companies pursuing internet-enabled innovation. We’ve often explained to entrepreneurs that the second fund of a venture firm is very much like the series A for an early stage company.

Seed Stage 69

Seed Stage Early Stage Due Diligence Liquidity Event 69

techcrunch.com

OCTOBER 13, 2012

Conventional wisdom dictated that they made reckless investments in very early-stage ventures mostly doomed to fail. Deductions like this are problematic because early-stage venture investing does not happen in an efficient market. The distribution of returns from the different U.S. and the U.K.,

Angel Investor 103

Angel Investor Venture Capital Seed Stage Silicon Valley 103

View from Seed

JUNE 30, 2015

As a founder, I think it’s easier to talk to potential investors about where they invest across the lifecycle of a company (whether it’s truly early-stage/early lifecycle, for instance), versus round stages like seed, series A, etc. Almost all VCs actually invest across this spectrum.

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage Syndicate Syndication Dilution 120

Ben's Blog

APRIL 7, 2021

As companies and cities wrestle with the future of work, future of cities, and future of tech made possible in a post-COVID future, the question is whether it also impacts — and presents an opportunity to address — one of the greatest problems of our time: the unequal distribution of economic opportunity across the United States.

Silicon Valley 36

Silicon Valley Non-Compete San Francisco Government 36

Steve Blank

AUGUST 27, 2009

We’ll look at the model stage-by-stage. Concept and Seed Stage In the Concept and Seed Stage, founders capture their passion and vision for the new company and turn them into a set of key ideas, which quickly becomes a business plan, sometimes on the back of the proverbial napkin.

Silicon Valley 260

Silicon Valley Product Startup Product Development 260

The Next Web

NOVEMBER 20, 2013

which will help with recruiting employees, finding the best partners, fast-tracking distribution in key countries, and landing marquee customers. Thus, there is going to be a bit of tightening within the early stage VC space in India over the next couple of years. There are a ton of seed-stage financing options available here.

Asia 123

Asia Silicon Valley India China 123

Agile VC

JULY 11, 2012

How do you deal with a severely uneven distribution of investment success between individuals or groups of partners? Here’s a slightly perverse scenario… Acme Ventures starts out as an early-stage VC investing in US-based IT companies. I co-founded NextView Ventures , a seed-stage VC firm based in Boston, in 2010.

Silicon Valley 240

Silicon Valley Carried Interest Cofounder Boston 240

This is going to be BIG.

JULY 30, 2015

so that's what I said my exits would be as a seed stage fund. Distributions can actually be drawn out over an extended period of time, but for the purposes of this exercise, I just kept the fund to 11 years. Not unicorns necessarily, which require the suspension of reality to believe you can consistently pick them.

Venture Capital 60

Venture Capital Pre-Money Valuation IRR Valuation 60

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 26, 2020

For startups the early stage funding landscape looks like this: Step 1: The Pre-seed round – you raise $100-$750K. Step 2: The Seed round – you raise $1-$3M (in some cases even $2-5M). Pre-seed Round of Funding. In the pre-seed stage, a startup is searching for product/market fit.

Cofounder 429

Cofounder Seed Stage Valuation Metrics 429

Gust

OCTOBER 20, 2011

million, indicating a somewhat normal distribution. We also have data points for VC investments in seed/startup companies (but not necessarily pre-revenue companies). We also have data points for VC investments in seed/startup companies (but not necessarily pre-revenue companies). million to a high of $3.4

Valuation 146

Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Intellectual Property Technical Review 146

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 29, 2011

With new micro VC entrants into to early-stage investing plus increased competition from angels, incubators and the like – traditional VCs have taken notice. So VCs spent a couple of years experimenting with earlier-stage investing, which is OK. The Explosion in Early-Stage Innovation. There are also others.

Venture Capital 296

Venture Capital Software LP Early Stage 296

ReadWriteStart

JANUARY 28, 2022

They need to ensure that the shares are distributed productively. Therefore, valuation is essential for entrepreneurs since it assists them in deciding how much ownership they must give up in return for money received from a seed investor or angel investor. Distribution Channel. Equity for Co-founders.

Valuation 108

Valuation Equity Warrant Common Stock 108

View from Seed

MAY 27, 2015

But we noticed that while the information in these podcasts is interesting, many are often far removed from the actual day-to-day challenges of very early stage founders that are just trying to go from nothing to something. Using some brute force tactics to get early growth isn’t scalable over time, even if they work early on.

Cofounder 120

Cofounder Early Stage Non-Compete Silicon Valley 120

Rob Go

AUGUST 21, 2013

Product / Distribution Fit. My friend Brian Balfour wrote a blog post yesterday about emerging distribution channels and how they impact innovation. One point he makes is that in even established vertical, new companies tend to rise on the back of new distribution channels. Seed stage founder heuristics.

Distribution 48

Distribution Founder Product Seed Stage 48

mashable.com

SEPTEMBER 12, 2011

No doubt early-stage companies can be started on a shoestring by low-paid entrepreneurs, but when financing a scalable, sustainable product, a free application server won’t make much of a difference. In fact, it’s barely even the beginning for most companies in their seed stage financings.

Startup 79

Startup Social Media RSS Social Network 79

Seeing Both Sides

SEPTEMBER 15, 2015

Understanding the market and establishing product/market fit is a critical seed-stage milestone. When Udi Mokady and Alon Cohen launched CyberArk — the darling of the cybersecurity industry, with a market capitalization of nearly $2 billion — the founders abandoned the local strategy early on. Partner with Foreign VCs.

Cofounder 20

Cofounder Technical Review United States 20

Rob Go

MAY 27, 2015

But we noticed that while the information in these podcasts is interesting, many are often far removed from the actual day-to-day challenges of very early stage founders that are just trying to go from nothing to something. Using some brute force tactics to get early growth isn’t scalable over time, even if they work early on.

Cofounder 28

Cofounder Early Stage Non-Compete Silicon Valley 28

Rob Go

MAY 27, 2015

But we noticed that while the information in these podcasts is interesting, many are often far removed from the actual day-to-day challenges of very early stage founders that are just trying to go from nothing to something. Using some brute force tactics to get early growth isn’t scalable over time, even if they work early on.

Cofounder 28

Cofounder Early Stage Non-Compete Silicon Valley 28

Reid Hoffman

AUGUST 6, 2020

The term “early-stage” covers a lot of territory in venture investing, from incubating a brand-new idea, to investing in a Series A. At the seed stage, we have backed very non-obvious, non-pedigreed entrepreneurs, in spaces that weren’t obvious, who ended up being amazing. We can also help evaluate the market.

Technical Review 69

Technical Review Seed Stage Software Review Early Stage 69

Hunter Walker

MAY 1, 2016

Anneke Jong: I’ve talked to and advised many seed stage startups, and I find they often have an awesome high-level pitch, but if you start asking questions just one layer deeper, most of the answers are, “Errrr, um….we Culture is important everywhere, but at a startup, particularly one with distributed teams, it’s paramount.

New York City 48

New York City New York Los Angeles Startup 48

Hunter Walker

MAY 1, 2016

Anneke Jong: I’ve talked to and advised many seed stage startups, and I find they often have an awesome high-level pitch, but if you start asking questions just one layer deeper, most of the answers are, “Errrr, um….we Culture is important everywhere, but at a startup, particularly one with distributed teams, it’s paramount.

New York City 48

New York City New York Los Angeles Startup 48