Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 21, 2023

One of the most frequent questions I get as a mentor to entrepreneurs is “How do I find the money to start my business?” If you have the urge to be an entrepreneur, I encourage you to think seriously about each of these, before you zero-in on one or two, and get totally discouraged if those don’t work for you.

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Equity Startup Small Business Administration SBA 266

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 29, 2020

One of the most frequent questions I get as a mentor to entrepreneurs is “How do I find the money to start my business?” If you have the urge to be an entrepreneur, I encourage you to think seriously about each of these, before you zero-in on one or two, and get totally discouraged if those don’t work for you.

Equity 436

Equity Small Business Administration SBA Syndicate 436

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 27, 2021

Most entrepreneurs have found by now one or more of the many popular crowdfunding sites , and have the name and contact information for at least one of the big venture capital firms. Each has met legal securities minimums for net worth and professionalism, to reduce the risk to entrepreneurs. Most share expertise as well as money.

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Search Accredited Investor Angel Investor Venture Capital 317

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 10, 2018

One of the most frequent questions I get as a mentor to entrepreneurs is “How do I find the money to start my business?” If you have the urge to be an entrepreneur, I encourage you to think seriously about each of these, before you zero-in on one or two, and get totally discouraged if those don’t work for you.

Entrepreneur 240

Entrepreneur Equity Small Business Administration SBA 240

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. See Why Are Revenue-Based Investors Investing in Women & Diverse Entrepreneurs? Less established regulatory framework. . Short track record.

Cofounder 78

Cofounder Technical Review Equity Dividend 78

View from Seed

AUGUST 13, 2014

Doing so can help entrepreneurs not only secure funding in general but better recognize the pros and cons of taking money from certain types of individuals. They will have the ability to “see” the opportunity that the startup is going after unlike anyone else — aside from the entrepreneur — because they inherently get the space.

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Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 12, 2014

One of the most frequent questions I get as a mentor to entrepreneurs is “How do I find the money to start my business?” If you have the urge to be an entrepreneur, I encourage you to think seriously about each of these, before you zero-in on one or two, and get totally discouraged if those don’t work for you.

Entrepreneur 283

Entrepreneur Startup Equity Small Business Administration 283

Rob Go

SEPTEMBER 4, 2018

It occurred to me that although we mentioned our new thematic approach when we raised our last fund in 2017, we haven’t really shared a broader manifesto about how we are approaching the early stage market. It’s been an interesting several years in the early stage venture eco-system, and the sands have shifted considerably.

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North America Seed Stage Early Stage Lead Investor 36

David Teten

MARCH 14, 2018

– Build out low-cost force multipliers such as scouts , Advisors, Entrepreneurs in Residence, Venture Partners, and so on. Coinvestors need to figure out ways to prioritize themselves in a VC’s preference stack for syndicating opportunities. – Syndicate Special Purpose Vehicles (“SPVs”) for specific opportunities.

Private Equity 60

Private Equity Venture Capital Equity Cofounder 60

View from Seed

APRIL 30, 2015

From a company milestones perspective, entrepreneurs who take on venture debt are almost always thinking about raising that next round of capital from other institutions. GM: The model is more about the relationship with the entrepreneurs, the investors, and us as the bank, as opposed to cash flow or fixed assets to lend on.

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Term Sheet Equity Startup Seed Stage 120

thebarefootvc

MAY 8, 2012

As an entrepreneur at heart, I often innately grasp the potential of entrepreneurs and ideas that I meet with. These days, I am seeing a large number of first time entrepreneurs with great ideas, which is fantastic to see. There is inherent risk taking when you haven’t done it before, which often leads to true innovation.

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Venture Capital Syndicate Syndication Bandwidth 78

Genuine VC

FEBRUARY 12, 2012

Addressing both of those issues can stem from the motivations as to why someone would want to put their hard-earned cash into a risky early-stage startup in the first place. PROS: Industry-insider who serves as a validator for the rest of the investment syndicate, extremely helpful advice and network connections.

Angel Investor 257

Angel Investor Syndicate Syndication Early Stage 257

ReadWriteStart

NOVEMBER 19, 2010

I have seen this criticism at various places where this recap is syndicated on a weekly basis, as well as in certain random forums on the internet. Well, I have coached early stage entrepreneurs for a couple of years now - diligently, patiently - and have learned a few things. Please try to understand why.

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Silicon Valley Technical Review Startup Early Stage 114

Haystack

JULY 15, 2018

I understand entrepreneurs would like to know the outcome of a decision at a meeting or soon thereafter — and sometimes that can happen — but sometimes it takes a while for things to take shape. Occasionally here, I’ll make a smaller investment to start and help syndicate. So, now, what happens in the actual meeting?

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Founder Syndicate Syndication Deal Flow 60

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 5, 2015

I challenge any entrepreneur, for example, to define the difference between "seed-stage" and "early-stage" financing. Asking for early-stage money before you have customers and revenue will likely kill your credibility with real investors. Yet, knowing this distinction is important.

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Seed Stage Finance Early Stage Startup 120

Feld Thoughts

OCTOBER 1, 2013

We’ll be doing this via AngelList’s new Syndicate approach through an entity called FG Angel where we will create a syndicate of up to $500,000, allowing others to invest $450,000 alongside anything we do. Foundry Group ) can create the syndicate in the future, at which point we’ll move the activity over to there.

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View from Seed

AUGUST 16, 2019

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. Because of that fact, perception is reality.

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Term Sheet Syndicate Syndication Early Stage 149

Rob Go

OCTOBER 1, 2013

Which is why I’m pretty psyched about Angelist syndicates, especially in relation to the Boston startup community. It’s a pretty high bar for most people to be putting $500K – $1M to work in early stage startups each year. Enter Angelist Syndicates.

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Syndicate Syndication Boston Community 64

View from Seed

JUNE 10, 2020

As we’ve shared, we intentionally wanted to flip the traditional Accelerator model on its head and offer a unique offering for entrepreneurs at the earliest of stages. We proactively look to build friendly syndicates for our Seed investments, and welcome collaborating to build together.

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Cofounder Syndicate Syndication Alabama 177

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. Of course these are great places to network with other investors, meet great entrepreneurs and keep your connections strong with senior execs at larger companies like Yahoo!, And there’s conferences. Oh, the conferences.

Cofounder 374

Cofounder Syndicate Syndication Early Stage 374

Up and Running

JUNE 14, 2010

VCs needed to invest hundreds of millions of dollars every couple of years, and liked to go into groups and syndications, which meant they wanted deals for a few millions dollars. But entrepreneurs, meanwhile, were looking for a lot less. Then came the big recession, and everything got crazy. Trends were broken.

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Disintermediation Venture Capital Angel Investor Seed Stage 66

David Teten

SEPTEMBER 23, 2017

In venture capital in particular, early-stage companies are often operating in frontier industries, where the rules are unpredictable and conventional analytic frameworks may be misleading. The Pocket Negotiator is very early-stage attempt to aid in the negotiating process itself. . 3) Originate investments.

Private Equity 60

Private Equity Venture Capital Equity Technical Review 60

Agile VC

DECEMBER 19, 2013

Angel investing, particularly for entrepreneurs and others who’ve chosen a startup career path, can be rewarding in many different ways. 2) Gain Market Insight – Another reason to invest in early stage tech startups is to gain additional market insight and connections to the entrepreneurial community.

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Agile VC

MAY 26, 2011

I also joke with Reid Hoffman that this was back in the days before he was “Reid” Reid’s an incredible entrepreneur, startup investor, and human being. It’s truly a privilege to have known him for more than a decade as my mentor, boss, and friend going back to the early PayPal days. link] leehower.

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Term Sheet Silicon Valley Technical Review Social Network 178

Genuine VC

FEBRUARY 12, 2012

Addressing both of those issues can stem from the motivations as to why someone would want to put their hard-earned cash into a risky early-stage startup in the first place. PROS: Industry-insider who serves as a validator for the rest of the investment syndicate, extremely helpful advice and network connections.

Angel Investor 128

Angel Investor Syndicate Syndication Early Stage 128

Feld Thoughts

JANUARY 20, 2017

It’s a chance to learn by teaching, and engage with a new generation of entrepreneurs. Today we’re happy to announce a new partnership with AngelList to offer Techstars mentors and alumni an exclusive opportunity to invest early in accelerator companies. At Foundry Group, we learned a lot by running our own FG Angels syndicate.

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Syndicate Syndication Seed Stage Vertical 70

OnlyOnce

FEBRUARY 9, 2022

worked as advisors and mentors to numerous early stage founders and startups. I’ve never written before about those other “potential business opportunities” that our team was exploring along with our prior investment syndicate, Fred Wilson from Union Square Ventures, Greg Sands from Costanoa Ventures, and Brad Feld from Foundry.

Silicon Valley 62

Silicon Valley Venture Capital Cap Table Early Stage 62

Feld Thoughts

OCTOBER 1, 2015

At Foundry Group, we’ve experimented with lots of different things around company creation and early stage investment. Techstars now owns Startup Weekend and Startup Week, which extend Techstars impact on and support of the Entrepreneurs Journey. We have a lot of investments in Seattle.

Seattle 70

Seattle San Francisco Angel Investor Syndicate 70

David Teten

JUNE 12, 2012

In the article, I discuss why we think that smart early-stage investors should target women and diverse entrepreneurs, and why we think HBS Alumni Angels in particular is well positioned to be very successful. NAIC ‘s involvement in VCAP© insures that a robust pipeline of diverse entrepreneurs will participate.

Private Equity 133

Private Equity Syndicate Syndication Angel Investor 133

View from Seed

AUGUST 20, 2014

It seems like a high-class problem for an entrepreneur to be able to influence round composition, and it is. How should an entrepreneur think about the different types of investors affecting their seed and Series A rounds? Lots of credibility, even at a very early stage. Definition: This is the case when a large VC (i.e.

Startup 301

Startup Syndicate Syndication Boston 301

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 16, 2015

Most entrepreneurs have found by now one or more of the many popular crowdfunding sites , and have the name and contact information for at least one of the big venture capital firms. Each has met legal securities minimums for net worth and professionalism, to reduce the risk to entrepreneurs. Most share expertise as well as money.

Angel Investor 120

Angel Investor Accredited Investor Venture Capital Startup 120

View from Seed

JANUARY 26, 2016

With that in mind, let’s look at an illustration of these trends below, which demonstrates what’s been happening to early-stage financing rounds over the last 15 years or so. Series A investors invested quite early, often before product/market fit.

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Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 25, 2016

One of the most frequent questions I get as a mentor to entrepreneurs is “How do I find the money to start my business?” If you have the urge to be an entrepreneur, I encourage you to think seriously about each of these, before you zero-in on one or two, and get totally discouraged if those don’t work for you.

Equity 120

Equity Small Business Administration SBA Syndicate 120

This is going to be BIG.

JUNE 23, 2014

Sugarcoating isn''t helpful to entrepreneurs. In my mind, uncertainty should never be a reason for an early stage investor to turn a deal down. I''ve been helping to syndicate a few opportunities lately and what has really surprised me was how wishy washy the turndowns were.

Syndicate 133

Syndicate Syndication Venture Capital Early Stage 133

The Next Web

APRIL 27, 2020

Business accelerators are programmes which offer various types of support, including training, mentorship, access to workspaces and investment, to early-stage businesses with the aim of helping them through the fragile early stages of growth. They may play a vital role in post-COVID-19 recovery.

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YoungUpstarts

AUGUST 1, 2018

To help you steer clear of the myths that abound, below are some of the misconceptions when entrepreneurs build their brands. Explore content syndication opportunities to expand the reach of your blog posts. That means you need to be cautious and judicious when choosing the advice you follow. It’s easy to build a brand online.

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Social Media Syndicate Syndication SEO 133

View from Seed

OCTOBER 21, 2014

As the seed-stage startup fundraise process has received more transparency in recent years, ranging from published advice on how to raise seed capital to increased availability through AngelList, Funders Club, and various accelerator programs, I’ve noticed another trend emerging. Lower-Than-Market Value. Above-Market Value.

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Valuation Founder Seed Stage Angel Investor 336