Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 15, 2020

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. Organizations are assigned value by how well they take advantage of the best technology, and turn information into action.

Valuation 311

Valuation Technical Review Due Diligence Leadership 311

The Startup Magazine

SEPTEMBER 15, 2020

It is not always a financial transaction; sometimes it comes in the form of managerial or technical expertise. It is possible to attract a venture capital partner with an idea for a business, but most deals are closed after the business has a founding team , a minimum viable product or MVP, and customers. Understand VC Term Sheets.

Venture Capital 144

Venture Capital Technical Review Software Review Security 144

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 18, 2023

Every startup founder loves to prompt for questions from investors and potential key team members about their vision, and the huge opportunity that can be had with their disruptive technology. Early stage burn rates over $50K per month, or a runway of less than six months may indicate an inefficient or desperate startup.

Sweat Equity 207

Sweat Equity Burn Rate Technical Review Intellectual Property 207

VC Cafe

FEBRUARY 27, 2023

For the past 10 years, with interest rates near zero, VC investors plowed record amounts into tech startups and enjoyed a seemingly ‘easy’ investing environment. From a technology point of view, new tech tools like generative AI means that tasks can be accomplished with fewer resources and at a higher speed.

Venture Capital 215

Venture Capital Technical Review LP Institutional Investors 215

SoCal CTO

MARCH 9, 2010

In my post, Technology Roles in Startups , I described some of the different ways I engage with startup companies such as CTO Founder , CTO , Part-Time CTO , Acting CTO , Consultant, Advisor and Advisory Board Member. Now, most often technical advisors are part of a broader advisory board. In Why assemble an advisory board?

Technical Review 150

Technical Review Advisory Board Technology Fractional CTO 150

YoungUpstarts

OCTOBER 25, 2018

Today, Mark Attanasio gets to flex his full range of expertise and interests as co-founder and Managing Partner of Hillcrest Merchant Partners, a Toronto-based merchant bank focused on early stage and mid market growth companies. Even better, Attanasio says, is if they have done extensive due diligence first.

Partner 113

Partner Technical Review Management Due Diligence 113

The Equity Kicker

SEPTEMBER 24, 2014

We see this all the time at Forward Partners where we invest right from the idea stage and most of the companies get a first version of their product live for less than £30k (that generally includes founder salaries and time spent doing customer research). Forward Partners and Crowdcube are both attacking elements of these problems.

Early Stage 119

Early Stage Development Team Review Technical Review Software Review 119

The Startup Magazine

NOVEMBER 28, 2018

The FUND Conference brings together over 100 startups to present their early-stage products and pitches in front of hundreds of investors and industry leaders. I work in technology where the dress code is relaxed, but an executive woman my age can wear neither a hoodie nor a stuffy suit.).

Technical Review 154

Technical Review Software Review Illinois Due Diligence 154

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 20, 2011

You need to convince them that you have been working on this vision for a long time, and have done the “due diligence” on all the potential knockoffs. In high technology, this is called “release early and iterate,” which allows you to make corrections as you go, as well as adjust for the market changes. Don’t be one.

Early Stage 247

Early Stage Technical Review Elevator Pitch Due Diligence 247

NZ Entrepreneur

AUGUST 4, 2021

Byron van Vugt from NZ Growth Capital Partners explains. Again, use this as an opportunity to pique their interest – and ultimately, land follow-up meetings or enter due diligence. Due diligence, information memorandums & data rooms. Byron van Vugt is a senior investment analyst at NZ Growth Capital Partners.

Technical Review 61

Technical Review Software Review Founder Due Diligence 61

VC Cafe

SEPTEMBER 10, 2021

At Remagine Ventures we like to say that “we invest in technologies that change how people spend their time and money”. Advancements in technology and changing cultural behaviour are big drivers of this trend and Covid-19 was like pouring gasoline on fire. . *by Kevin Baxpehler. Enter Toya . My Farm by Toya.

Technical Review 178

Technical Review South Korea Due Diligence IP 178

YoungUpstarts

NOVEMBER 20, 2019

by Lu Zhang, founder and managing partner of Fusion Fund. Competition from other startups and established incumbents, constraints on time and capital, and limited access to talent and technology resources are just a few of the hurdles nearly every first-time founder faces while trying to build a business. Be ready when it counts.

Technical Review 140

Technical Review Due Diligence Early Stage Differentiation 140

NZ Entrepreneur

MAY 31, 2021

The Angel Association of New Zealand ( AANZ ) is co-hosting with New Zealand Growth Capital Partners ( NZGCP ) a series of workshops on early-stage investment. Jason Graham from Movac provided an early-stage venture capital fund perspective, detailing 35 investments made across 5 funds and 22 years.

Portfolio 81

Portfolio New Zealand Management Technical Review 81

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 8, 2015

Every startup founder loves to prompt for questions from investors and potential key team members about their vision, and the huge opportunity that can be had with their disruptive technology. Early stage burn rates over $50K per month, or a runway of less than six months may indicate an inefficient or desperate startup.

Technical Review 120

Technical Review Due Diligence Sweat Equity Burn Rate 120

David Teten

SEPTEMBER 6, 2018

Just as with any company, the most important issue is the team; see “ How to Negotiate a Partner Role at a Venture Capital or Private Equity Firm “ . Another critical design consideration is your tech stack. On Copper (our deal board), a due date of two business days is automatically set for us to review the opportunity.

Technical Review 60

Technical Review Private Equity Management Cap Table 60

David Teten

SEPTEMBER 6, 2018

Just as with any company, the most important issue is the team; see “ How to Negotiate a Partner Role at a Venture Capital or Private Equity Firm “ . Another critical design consideration is your tech stack. On Copper (our deal board), a due date of two business days is automatically set for us to review the opportunity.

Technical Review 60

Technical Review Private Equity Management Cap Table 60

SoCal CTO

JANUARY 26, 2010

I’ve been having discussions with several people recently about the role of the CTO (Chief Technology Officer) in very early stage companies. However, I’ve now begun questioning how and what an early-stage / startup CTO should be. What are the biggest areas of technical risk? What technologies will we use?

CTO 225

CTO Fractional CTO CTO Hire Technical Review 225

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 9, 2014

The partner most obsessed with the startup lifestyle tests the water by going to work in an early-stage startup, similar to one they might hope to start someday. Typically you can browse them by region or technology to find founders. Kick your networking up a notch.

Technical Review 250

Technical Review Stock Options Due Diligence Silicon Valley 250

David Teten

JUNE 10, 2020

SOP Capital is a new, early-stage, New York-based VC focused on East Coast companies. SOP’s founder is David Teten , previously a Partner with HOF Capital and ff Venture Capital and a serial fintech entrepreneur with 2 exits. As the firm grows, we will need support in origination, financial modeling, due diligence, etc. .

New York 60

New York Venture Capital Technical Review Due Diligence 60

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 14, 2010

I know that sounds trite but that is exactly how my firm talks about things in partner meetings. It becomes a large part of the conversation in our partners’ meeting afterward. We were super excited by their offering – they had patented technology in a field that we believe will continue to grow massively.

Technical Review 284

Technical Review Due Diligence Entrepreneur Early Stage 284

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 13, 2011

Many times they also pick up product and tech, too. In an early stage start I believe it’s the CEO’s job to manage these functions. Often times you find the CEO who really just likes to do product or tech. Similarly I talk to CEOs who can’t do a sales pipeline review with me.

Technical Review 325

Technical Review Startup Cofounder Due Diligence 325

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 1, 2011

Every potential early-stage Venture Capitalist should take a year and do it before he or she makes partner. Over time Venture firms realized that the partners in the firms needs a variety of skills: People skills (ability to recognize patterns of success in individuals and teams). we do not even try to train new partners.

Venture Capital 332

Venture Capital Early Stage Technical Review Startup 332

David Teten

SEPTEMBER 4, 2020

Finance is a new, early-stage, New York-based VC focused on East Coast companies. s founder is David Teten , previously a Partner with HOF Capital and ff Venture Capital and a serial fintech entrepreneur with 2 exits. Company overview. The firm particularly has interest in fintech, edtech, and salestech.

New York 60

New York Venture Capital Technical Review Due Diligence 60

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. Organizations are assigned value by how well they take advantage of the best technology, and turn information into action.

Leadership 120

Leadership Technical Review Due Diligence Valuation 120

David Teten

SEPTEMBER 23, 2017

VCs tout themselves as frontier technology investors, but most are using the same infrastructure tools they have used for the past 20+ years: Excel and recent college grads searching Google. According to Knowledge.VC , under 5% of US VCs have a full-time team member focused on technology. . But we’re doing it slowly.

Private Equity 60

Private Equity Venture Capital Equity Technical Review 60

Austin Startup

DECEMBER 17, 2020

End of Year Update After officially announcing Breyer Capital Austin earlier this year after two years of active planning and due diligence, I received a humbling number of gracious emails and messages from Austin-based leaders, entrepreneurs, executives, and investors. Breyer Capital Austin?—?End

Austin 84

Austin Silicon Valley Technical Review Texas 84

Professor VC

JANUARY 27, 2011

How Much Diligence is Due.Or Ive addressed the due diligence question in previous posts, but this came up again in a debate we were having at a recent meeting of the Sand Hill Angels. And in order to increase our groups returns, one of our goals should be to get more people and man hours involved in the diligence process.

Technical Review 31

Technical Review Due Diligence Silicon Valley San Jose 31

David Teten

JANUARY 19, 2021

(co-written with Jamie Finney, Founding Partner at Greater Colorado Venture Fund. Our categorization is not a technical one. Additionally, Flexible VC can accommodate all types of companies, not just asset-lite, tech-enabled companies.”. Novel Growth Partners, Lighter Capital, Rev Up, Corl, Flow Capital. Of the Inc.

Cofounder 78

Cofounder Technical Review Equity Dividend 78

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 18, 2015

The partner most obsessed with the startup lifestyle tests the water by going to work in an early-stage startup, similar to one they might hope to start someday. Typically you can browse them by region or technology to find founders. Kick your networking up a notch.

Technical Review 120

Technical Review Entrepreneur Stock Options Due Diligence 120

Growthink Blog

DECEMBER 27, 2017

Demonstrate your team’s unique unfair competitive advantage, whether it is technology, stellar management team, or key partnerships. Be prepared for due diligence. It’s critical that the data you present is verifiable, since any serious investor will conduct extensive due diligence. Concept vs. reality.

Venture Capital 129

Venture Capital Business Plan Technical Review Private Placement 129

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 10, 2016

Every startup founder loves to prompt for questions from investors and potential key team members about their vision, and the huge opportunity that can be had with their disruptive technology. Early stage burn rates over $50K per month, or a runway of less than six months may indicate an inefficient or desperate startup.

Sweat Equity 120

Sweat Equity Burn Rate Technical Review Intellectual Property 120

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. “. Investment Criteria: B2B SaaS or tech-enabled services with proven, recurring contracts.

Revenue 60

Revenue Technical Review Software Review Equity 60

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 13, 2011

My initial desire to blog came from something that’s always been my approach to investing – I’m a nerd and I love to play with the technology and part of my approach has really been to understand things both at a user level and at a reasonably deep tentacle level. Brad on blogging. How did you start blogging? “My Is that when it became big?

Technical Review 288

Technical Review Venture Capital Silicon Valley Software Review 288

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 3, 2013

You need to convince them that you have been working on this vision for a long time, and have done the “due diligence” on all the potential knockoffs. In high technology, this is called “release early and iterate,” which allows you to make corrections as you go, as well as adjust for the market changes. Don’t be one.

Technical Review 273

Technical Review Entrepreneur Elevator Pitch Due Diligence 273

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 12, 2014

Prorata rights are one of the most important rights of a private market technology investors and yet are seldom fully understood. They often create the biggest tensions between investors who are investing at different stages in the business. I have seen bad behavior from later-stage VCs, believe me. How does this get resolved?

Technical Review 336

Technical Review Later Stage Early Stage LP 336

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 3, 2010

I’m doing due diligence on a company of another entrepreneur in LA whose company was apparently doing very well. My recommendation to our lead partner looking at the deal, “Pass. I know, I know … technically they can be structured as mergers. &# My friend’s company was pre-revenue.

Merger 276

Merger Technical Review Early Stage Dilution 276

David Teten

MARCH 14, 2018

My Partners at HOF Capital are younger than I am, which means that we have a half-century horizon for the franchise we are building. – Build out low-cost force multipliers such as scouts , Advisors, Entrepreneurs in Residence, Venture Partners, and so on. So we think about scaling a lot.

Private Equity 60

Private Equity Venture Capital Equity Cofounder 60