YoungUpstarts

OCTOBER 12, 2017

To outside investors, the future of early stage and startup companies can be murky. Many of these companies are pre-revenue and in the cash burn stage as they try to establish their technology and market. However, as a condition of financing they may require annual audited financial statements.

San Francisco 133

San Francisco Forecast Early Stage Term Sheet 133

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 5, 2012

My initial reaction to Adeo when we spoke was that while it may have solved some issues (debt versus equity) it didn’t solve the ones that I’ve been warning entrepreneurs about most loudly. Was Paul Graham right in his “high resolution” financing post? But entrepreneurs – convertible notes have no MINIMUM!

Ratchet 354

Ratchet Liquidation Preference Equity Stock 354

www.quora.com

JANUARY 16, 2011

Find Questions, Topics and People Add Question Add Question Venture Capital Venture Capital Term Sheets Startups Term Sheets What are examples of good startup term sheets? Ycombinator open source term sheet is a good start for Seed deals. Brad Feld does the best blog term sheet series.

Term Sheet 41

Term Sheet Startup Angel Investor Wiki 41

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 13, 2011

There was a lot of consumer internet activity again…resurgence of things, but it was still mysterious, venture capital was still kind of closed, 1st time entrepreneurs had a lot of questions that were unanswered, and there was still some sort of hand waiving around all the financing stuff and so we took it on….”.

Technical Review 288

Technical Review Venture Capital Silicon Valley Software Review 288

David Teten

JANUARY 19, 2021

Long-term alignment : Many Flexible VCs retain a small residual stake in the company after the return cap is reached, driving alignment well beyond the horizon of the revenue share, similar to the long-term orientation of equity VC. See Why Are Revenue-Based Investors Investing in Women & Diverse Entrepreneurs?

Cofounder 78

Cofounder Technical Review Equity Dividend 78

View from Seed

FEBRUARY 23, 2021

For early stage VC ‘s, Syndication is the process of sharing investments with other potential co-investors. 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.

Syndicate 207

Syndicate Syndication Term Sheet Cofounder 207

Gust

DECEMBER 27, 2012

It sounds obvious, but the majority of entrepreneurs who pitch me have obviously never thought through many of the major issues surrounding their companies. This person will be critical in rounding up other investors, drafting a term sheet, and generally getting the deal done. Understand your business.

Software Review 164

Software Review Term Sheet Technical Review Angel Investor 164

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

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. Then they laugh at you. Then they fight you. Then you win.”

Finance 58

Finance Term Sheet Equity Aggregator 58

Berkonomics

MAY 15, 2014

A good example was during the negotiation of a term sheet. These usually involve a handful of angel investors, and a few entrepreneurs, who all want to build the very best term sheet for their exciting nascent enterprise. Basil Peters is perhaps the best known name in the world of early stage company exits.

Term Sheet 91

Term Sheet Angel Groups Angel Investor Deal Structure 91

YoungUpstarts

OCTOBER 28, 2015

This past summer, the Lightspeed Summer Fellowships program invited selected guests to provide aspiring entrepreneurs a perspective into all aspects of starting a new company. The program provides entrepreneurs the resources and mentoring they need to build their companies and develop their skills. ” The Cost of Financing.

Convertible Security 100

Convertible Security IP Technical Review Software Review 100

reidhoffman.org

NOVEMBER 12, 2013

. × At Greylock , my partners and I are driven by one guiding mission: always help entrepreneurs. It doesn’t matter whether an entrepreneur is in our portfolio, whether we’re considering an investment, or whether we’re casually meeting for the first time. Entrepreneurs often ask me for help with their pitch decks.

Entrepreneur 111

Entrepreneur Revenue Viral Networking 111

ReadWriteStart

OCTOBER 6, 2011

Sramana Mitra is the founder of the One Million by One Million (1M/1M) initiative, an educational, business development and incubation program that aims to help one million entrepreneurs globally to reach $1 million in revenue and beyond. She is a Silicon Valley entrepreneur and strategy consultant. What makes 1M/1M unique?

Silicon Valley 118

Silicon Valley India San Francisco Entrepreneur 118

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 31, 2019

The reality today is that capital is more available than ever and entrepreneurs have become more sophisticated, so founders are looking for more than just cash from their venture backers. You've seen how venture capital works from both sides--as an entrepreneur and a venture capitalist.

Lean 108

Lean Venture Capital Conversion IPO 108

Mucker Lab

AUGUST 27, 2014

As an entrepreneur himself, founding and operating printed circuit board factories in Taiwan, my father was debating between two places to immigrate to and build his next new venture: Los Angeles (“The Valley” aka San Fernando Valley) and Santa Clara (“Silicon Valley”).

Los Angeles 138

Los Angeles Southern California Silicon Valley Technical Review 138

Gust

SEPTEMBER 29, 2011

The most successful serial entrepreneurs in the world may found three or four, perhaps even eight or ten venture-backed startups over the course of their careers. It should therefore come as no surprise that an asymmetry of information exists, mostly gleaned from experience, between founders and investors in a venture financing deal.

Finance 178

Finance Term Sheet Preferred Stock Bridge Financing 178

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 5, 2009

Unfortunately in early stage startups the drive for financing hijacks the corporate DNA and becomes the raison d’etre of the company. The goal of their startup in this stage becomes “getting funded.” What are Early Stage VC’s Really Asking? How many are there? Is there a profitable business model?

Customer Development 266

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 266

VC Cafe

OCTOBER 23, 2010

B ack in March, Andreessen Horowitz and Fenwick & West, LLP published a series of documents that would help structure early stage investments in startups. Fred Wilson , Paul Graham and Seth Levine all agree that as an entrepreneur one would prefer uncapped convertible debt to equity, but investors typically won’t go for it.

Early Stage 80

Early Stage Term Sheet Preferred Stock Equity 80

Feld Thoughts

MARCH 2, 2010

Y Combinator Series AA Equity Financing Documents (by WSGR). Founders Institute Plain Preferred Term Sheet (by WSGR). Series Seed Financing Documents (by Fenwick & West). I wrote about this in my post The Challenge of The Ideal First Round Term Sheet. TechStars Model Seed Funding Documents (by Cooley).

Finance 133

Finance Term Sheet Angel Investor Early Stage 133

View from Seed

AUGUST 16, 2019

One of the most relevant scenarios that this fear vs. greed lens applies towards is insider-led financings. With the proliferation of multiple seed rounds prior to a Series A, these situations are coming up increasingly in the early stage startup ecosystem. Of course, true motivations cannot be entirely divined.

Term Sheet 149

Term Sheet Syndicate Syndication Early Stage 149

Up and Running

JANUARY 26, 2012

Raising finance is a time consuming process and can also be quite stressful (particularly as time progresses). It is also worth understanding at an early stage how active a role the investor wishes to play in your business. Finally you need to be very clear on the terms of the investment i.e. above and beyond the headline rates.

Term Sheet 94

Term Sheet Exit Strategy Software Review Early Stage 94

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 7, 2014

This is something I think entrepreneurs don’t totally understand and it’s worthwhile they do. 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.). Why the latter?

Cap Table 399

Cap Table Silicon Valley Term Sheet Finance 399

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 18, 2014

At an accelerator … Me: Raising convertible notes as a seed round is one of the biggest disservices our industry has done to entrepreneurs since 2001-2003 when there were “full ratchets” and “multiple liquidation preferences” – the most hostile terms anybody found in term sheets 10 years ago.

Venture Capital 417

Venture Capital Liquidation Preference Valuation Term Sheet 417

Startup Company Lawyer

AUGUST 31, 2012

Over the past few years, convertible debt has emerged as a quick and inexpensive method for startup companies to raise money from angel investors and early stage venture funds. ” As a result, Ted introduced the Series Seed preferred stock documents as an alternative to convertible debt for early stage investments.

Convertible Security 73

Convertible Security Equity Security Preferred Stock 73

David Teten

AUGUST 19, 2019

Since 2017 we’ve managed $3 million in revenue-based financing, which helps cash-strapped technology companies grow. We’re currently evaluating about 20 companies a month and issuing term sheets to 25% of them; those that fit our investment criteria. “ You qualify if you have $5k+ MRR. Bigfoot Capital. Decathlon Capital.

Revenue 60

Revenue Technical Review Software Review Equity 60

Gust

OCTOBER 12, 2011

Last week , we took the plunge and began dissecting an example term sheet for a convertible debt financing round piece by piece. I’ll continue with more specific terms and wrap up next week with some thoughts about recent changes and trends for the future.

Finance 107

Finance Term Sheet Pre-Money Valuation Early Stage 107

OnlyOnce

OCTOBER 31, 2013

If you’re fortunate enough to have built a really strong early stage company, you will find yourself in the position of being able to pick from a number of potential venture investors. And this is true of any negotiation, not just a term sheet. This is the first one…and Fred’s post on the other side of the topic is here.

Valuation 133

Valuation Term Sheet B2C Security 133

Version One Ventures

AUGUST 28, 2019

The venture capital market has become very noisy over the past few years, especially on the early-stage side. Entrepreneurs have an increasing amount of financing options – that’s good news, but it also makes it harder to choose the right partners for your journey. Not a day goes by that a new fund isn’t being announced.

Founder 109

Founder Term Sheet Early Stage Venture Capital 109

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 5, 2015

I am reminded of this problem every time my firm does a financing where a note went before us but more specifically I was reminded by this great post by Brad Feld to talk about the pre-money vs. post-money conversion issue. So how DOES a VC think about financings at early stages? It’s very simple.

Pre-Money Valuation 150

Pre-Money Valuation Option Pool Post-Money Valuation Dilution 150

Berkonomics

APRIL 3, 2014

We’ve spoken of financing a young company through friends and family, known as “inside angels.” There are three classes of equity investors for early stage businesses that we have not yet considered. You will be given a “term sheet” during the process, calling out the terms proposed for the investment.

Equity 92

Equity Finance Liquidity Event Angel Groups 92

Gust

OCTOBER 5, 2011

Last week , we gave some attention to the “why” behind convertible note financing for early stage startups. In this installment, I’ll dig into the “how” by dissecting an example term sheet based on a real deal. As with so many subjects in law and finance, mastering the jargon is half the battle.

Finance 79

Finance Preferred Stock Term Sheet Early Stage 79

www.seriesseed.com

DECEMBER 9, 2012

Series Seed Financing Documents Blog. I hesitate to use a quote from one of the greatest people ever to grace planet earth, and certainly the question of how to structure early stage investment is a laughable cause as compared to the rights that Ghandi (also a lawyer) fought to advance.  SeriesSeed.com. Blog Archives.

Term Sheet 40

Term Sheet Ratchet Dilution Equity 40

David Teten

DECEMBER 3, 2019

Small investment firms often have interns and entrepreneurs in residence passing through, each of which is a security risk. Chris Dixon, Partner, A16Z, observes , “Success in VC is probably 10% about picking, and 90% about sourcing the right deals and having entrepreneurs choose your firm as a partner”. 2) Market .

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Software Review Analytics Private Equity 78

Genuine VC

MAY 20, 2013

Compared to most other areas of finance, venture capital is practiced as more of an art, as opposed to a science. The art of venture capital also means that for entrepreneurs raising it, there isn’t one definitive playbook which can be used as a guide. MYTH: Goal of entrepreneur’s VC fundraising is a term sheet.

Venture Capital 244

Venture Capital Cap Table Portfolio Early Stage 244

Gust

OCTOBER 21, 2011

This week we move on to something near and dear to the hearts of entrepreneurs and investors alike: The exit, more formally known as a “ liquidity event.” Readers joining this series in progress may find it helpful to download the sample term sheet from my firm’s website and review the earlier posts covering the basics.

Finance 79

Finance Pre-Money Valuation Term Sheet Liquidity Event 79

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 17, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series “ Pitching a VC “ There’s a great meme developing this morning on the need to simplify funding terms and documents. The meme was kicked off by Chris Dixon with this post saying that term sheets need to be simplified and align investor / founder interests. I totally agree.

Founder Vesting 252

Founder Vesting Vesting Founder Term Sheet 252

mashable.com

JUNE 11, 2013

Whatever your companys "fatal flaw" may be, you can likely avoid it in your own venture if you take some advice from people whove gone through the early startup phase before. Young founders tend to complicate things too much, from structuring partnership agreements, financing, leases, etc. Most features/options/buttons/settings/etc.

Cofounder 111

Cofounder Technical Review Startup Software Review 111