View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 4, 2018

Although we had a busy summer, I was fortunate enough to take a bit of time off as well, and to step back for a moment and reflect on Nextview’s strategy and market position going forward. . It’s been an interesting several years in the early stage venture eco-system, and the sands have shifted considerably.

North America 120

North America Seed Stage Early Stage Lead Investor 120

YoungUpstarts

MAY 1, 2020

Given that mindset, it’s only natural that most entrepreneurs jump at the first chance they get to secure early-stage startup funding. Most startups will need a viable product and proof of credibility before they can expect early-stage investors to really bite. Test the investor market.

Early Stage 165

Early Stage Security Angel Investor Lead Investor 165

View from Seed

FEBRUARY 9, 2022

You have an edge in the highly competitive world of early stage investing that comes from some combination of your experience, industry knowledge, and personal network. NextView is a thematic, seed-stage VC firm focused on the Everyday Economy with $500M+ of capital under management. You act as an “ invited guest.”.

Technical Review 156

Technical Review North America Seed Stage Bandwidth 156

VC Cafe

SEPTEMBER 2, 2022

This may vary from fund to fund, but in general here is the top level criteria VCs would use to check initial fit: Stage – is the startup raising a round which is within the range of the fund (pre seed, seed, series A, early stage, growth, etc.). Why us”/ “Team Slide” unclear or non-existent.

Technical Review 166

Technical Review Early Stage Cofounder Portfolio 166

ReadWriteStart

MAY 22, 2023

The Metaverse, a virtual universe where people can interact with each other in a 3D environment, is rapidly gaining traction as an emerging market, attracting businesses, investors, and talent from all over the world. The post Challenges and Opportunities for Europe’s Metaverse Market appeared first on ReadWrite.

Finland 187

Finland Europe Estonia Silicon Valley 187

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. A seed-stage “super angel.”

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage Finance Early Stage Startup 120

Haystack

AUGUST 18, 2019

If you’ve been following my tweets lately, you’ve read some of my quick musings on the state of the seed market this summer. years of investing in the seed stage, I have never seen activity levels like I’m seeing today. We know private markets hold the key to 100x or even 1,000x multiples.

Seed Stage 108

Seed Stage Cap Table Early Stage Malaysia 108

View from Seed

JANUARY 13, 2021

But in the grand scheme of things, 10 years is a blip, and one that had a continuous bull market in tech. Like a number of funds of our era, early fundraising was not terribly easy. But what has also happened over the last 10 years is the massive expansion of the series A and lifecycle fund market. There are a few reasons.

Dilution 399

Dilution Later Stage Portfolio Technical Review 399

View from Seed

FEBRUARY 8, 2017

Although Ginny is new to the team, she has many connections to the NextView family, as she started her career at our portfolio company Shareaholic , and worked closely with both Jay Acunzo (our first head of platform) and Joe Chernov (the VP of Marketing at our portfolio company Insight Squared ). Establishing an excellent early team.

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage Boston Early Stage Portfolio 120

View from Seed

FEBRUARY 8, 2017

Although Ginny is new to the team, she has many connections to the NextView family, as she started her career at our portfolio company Shareaholic , and worked closely with both Jay Acunzo (our first head of platform) and Joe Chernov (the VP of Marketing at our portfolio company Insight Squared ). Establishing an excellent early team.

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage Boston Early Stage Portfolio 120

Hunter Walker

AUGUST 31, 2023

HW: Your role as VP, People combined a number of different responsibilities – some of them more market-facing than the traditional person in your seat. Some people claim ‘culture and employee engagement’ are luxuries you can focus on in good times but during market downturns they should be subjugated to business KPIs.

Employee 113

Employee Startup Vertical Leadership 113

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 17, 2023

The key is understanding how potential investors see you, and especially how they view the maturity stage of your startup. For example, if you have a proven product, real revenue, a big potential market, and are ready to scale up the business, every investor will be interested. Future opportunity size doesn’t count in the early stages.

Angel Investor 313

Angel Investor Intellectual Property Investment Bankers Private Equity 313

View from Seed

FEBRUARY 18, 2016

From the public markets to the private markets, everyone is feeling valuations and optimism contract. As startups raised more capital and needed to compete for the best talent, they’ve been forced to give both real equity and pay market rates. Expect to see a lot of below-market subletting.

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage San Francisco Startup Valuation 120

YoungUpstarts

JUNE 20, 2019

Over the years, the Truss team has worked with several early-stage startups, and noticed a consistency in inter-series problems (regardless of the industry). Specifically, there are five challenges that emerging business typically put on the backburner between funding rounds: Seed to Series A: Customer Testing.

Technical Cofounder 113

Technical Cofounder Burn Rate Seed Stage Cofounder 113

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 16, 2010

But VC is an “illiquid asset&# so funds didn’t disappear quickly - In 2000/01 the stock market quickly adjusted punishing investors in the NASDAQ and in individual public technology stocks. The VC industry in shrinking – Paul Kedrosky was early on the scene with this prescient prediction that the industry would shrink.

LP 311

LP Technical Review Early Stage Silicon Valley 311

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 6, 2015

*. If you are a 20-something tech entrepreneur you could be forgiven for thinking that seed-stage investors, Angellist Syndicates and widely available angel money always existed. I was out to raise my first seed money in my second startup of $500,000. I was out to raise my first seed money in my second startup of $500,000.

Seed Stage 150

Seed Stage Silicon Valley Syndicate Syndication 150

View from Seed

MARCH 11, 2020

Seed stage companies will mostly face questions around the team and market. If you are an early stage company, this is particularly sensitive, so good investors tend to do this late in a process. This could look somewhat different depending on the maturity of the business. Talking to your customers.

Technical Review 279

Technical Review Due Diligence Term Sheet Seed Stage 279

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 1, 2016

At the Upfront Summit in early February, we had a chance to have many off-the-record conversations with Limited Partners (LPs) who fund Venture Capital (VC) funds about their views of the market. I suspect those days will end soon, and 61% of LPs polled said they felt VCs were coming back to market too quickly.

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital LP Silicon Valley Marketing 150

View from Seed

JANUARY 27, 2021

. $100M is a meaningful increase from our $50M third fund, though it’s still quite small in the grand scheme of venture, especially amid the recent wave of late stage financings and SPACs. We believe that this fund is the perfect size for us to be the best possible partners to early-stage entrepreneurs today.

LP 411

LP Early Stage Seed Stage Venture Capital 411

View from Seed

JANUARY 13, 2015

“As a seed-stage investor, should you pay up for team or traction?” And as a firm, we generally believe that there isn’t a “sub-prime” market for VC. And as a firm, we generally believe that there isn’t a “sub-prime” market for VC. The Case for Traction.

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage B2B Distribution Early Stage 120

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

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 11, 2022

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 271

Due Diligence Intellectual Property Entrepreneur Preferred Stock 271

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 22, 2020

The key is understanding how potential investors see you, and especially how they view the maturity stage of your startup. For example, if you have a proven product, real revenue, a big potential market, and are ready to scale up the business, every investor will be interested. Future opportunity size doesn’t count in the early stages.

Angel Investor 370

Angel Investor Intellectual Property Investment Bankers Private Equity 370

K9 Ventures

OCTOBER 21, 2023

I describe this to K9 LPs as this is my opinion and feelings based on what I see from my vantage point as a pre-seed/seed stage investor. Even though the “venture market” might be in a tough spot, there are still incredible opportunities to innovate and create value. It’s never going to be easy.

Seed Stage 80

Seed Stage LP Early Stage Founder 80

View from Seed

MAY 2, 2019

As the seed stage that atomized and series A rounds have become larger and more traction based, the paths to series A have changed. 500K in angel or pre-seed funding -> Raise a $2–3M institutional seed -> Raise an A. This is the logical path that one would think is pretty “standard” for early stage companies.

Early Stage 214

Early Stage Dilution Valuation .Net 214

Rob Go

SEPTEMBER 4, 2018

Although we had a busy summer, I was fortunate enough to take a bit of time off as well, and to step back for a moment and reflect on Nextview’s strategy and market position going forward. . It’s been an interesting several years in the early stage venture eco-system, and the sands have shifted considerably.

North America 36

North America Seed Stage Early Stage Lead Investor 36

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 23, 2014

The rise of “micro VCs” or seed-stage funds. 15 years ago we were at the peak of Internet hype with the launch of many over-capitalized businesses with a market size & opportunity was limited. The VC market has right-sized (returned back to mid 90′s levels & less competition). Where are we today?

Technical Review 398

Technical Review Venture Capital Valuation Pre-Money Valuation 398

Austin Startup

MAY 8, 2018

Background reading: Founder Compensation: Cash, Equity, Liquidity Fatal Errors in Early Startup Hiring Early Hires: Options or Stock Given how deeply involved we are with early-stage startups hiring their first key employees, I figured it would be helpful to outline a few key principles to help entrepreneurs navigate the topic.

Employee 48

Employee Seed Stage Startup Equity 48

View from Seed

APRIL 30, 2015

In many instances, you raise an institutional round to either fulfill a product strategy or go-to-market strategy or you’re increasing sales and marketing hires, so you have better visibility into what needs to happen in the next six, 12, 18 months. NVV: Let’s talk about the seed stage specifically.

Term Sheet 120

Term Sheet Equity Startup Seed Stage 120

Austin Startup

MAY 11, 2017

645 Ventures 645 Ventures makes deeply-researched investments in institutional Seed to Series A rounds for exceptional companies who demonstrate stellar early results in the areas of market validation, product differentiation, team strength, and brand narrative. We solve problems and dominate critical markets.

Private Equity 48

Private Equity Venture Capital Technical Review Seed Stage 48

K9 Ventures

JUNE 5, 2015

Almost two years ago, in a private/closed meeting with K9 Ventures’ LPs only, I claimed that: What was being referred to in the press as the “Series A Crunch” was not because fewer Series A deals were being done, but because there were too many Seed deals being done. Seed stage was super tough. Implications for Founders.

Seed Stage 48

Seed Stage Venture Capital Early Stage Valuation 48

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 16, 2020

Team: We tend to think of a team similar to the concept of founder/market fit. The second dimension of team/market fit has to do with actual capabilities. A team of great domain experts or very senior team members may struggle mightily when tasked with the early stage challenges of building and selling a disruptive product.

Seed Stage 254

Seed Stage Early Stage Founder Portfolio 254

View from Seed

NOVEMBER 4, 2019

But the way the market values this early work can vary greatly. I’m often surprised by how much effort seed stage teams put into building an early product and how little credit that receives from investors. And the ultimate uncertainties for a seed stage company are around talent and customer demand.

Seed Stage 180

Seed Stage Bootstrapping Demand Early Stage 180

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

David Teten

JANUARY 19, 2021

The value ascribed by subsequent investors (in a secondary); buyers (acquisition); or the public markets (IPO). Seed-stage compatible: Like traditional equity VC investors, Flexible VCs accomodate early-stage investment risk within their portfolios better than a traditional RBI funder. Volatile, uncapped.

Cofounder 78

Cofounder Technical Review Equity Dividend 78

Hunter Walker

JULY 22, 2014

Well, if you’re pre-product/market fit, over-optimizing for “hitting your numbers” can be a false positive if it creates an “up and to the right” graph that actually builds upon the wrong learnings, or masks leaky bucket of customer attrition. Throw it away post-funding. Let’s go!”. Fear not the forecast for it will show the way!

Forecast 95

Forecast Early Stage Seed Stage Startup 95

Haystack

JANUARY 12, 2020

For those following this blog and the seed market over the past decade, you may have noticed that every year, we see increases across the board — more investors, newer funds, and funds that get larger. Much has been written about the fact that traditional seed stage funds have grown in size and dollars under management.

Seed Stage 106

Seed Stage Cram Down Early Stage Cofounder 106