View from Seed

JANUARY 13, 2021

It turns out capital is not a weapon, especially in the early stages of building a business, and even experienced founders who can raise huge sums often realize this and right-size their asks. First, the winners in most portfolios don’t often have a true recap round. There are a few reasons. I think this is a real issue.

Dilution 399

Dilution Later Stage Portfolio Technical Review 399

David Teten

JULY 25, 2017

As I’ve worked to build out HOF Capital ’s portfolio acceleration platform , the #1 question I think about is: how do we scalably support our companies? Many VCs offer (or strive to offer) a bundle of levers and support structures to help their portfolio companies. We have lower AUM, therefore lower management fees.

Portfolio 60

Portfolio Technical Review Private Equity Database 60

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 8, 2011

The tech market is filled with many stories of early-stage funding. That’s why I’m proud to announce today that HealthDataInsights (founded by Victor Chaltiel), where GRP Partners was a 30% owner, has been acquired for $400 million. These are industries in which our partners have focused for the past 15-20 years.

Partner 285

Partner Las Vegas San Francisco Baltimore 285

View from Seed

APRIL 27, 2020

We can stay busy by expending time and effort supporting the existing portfolio, which is the right thing to do and a good use of time. Like most VC’s, we’ve been engrossed in helping our portfolio company founders navigate these challenging times while thinking through how we will approach this market going forward. Wait and see.

Cofounder 194

Cofounder Software Review Portfolio Technical Review 194

Steve Blank

APRIL 23, 2014

The Innovation Portfolio. Companies manage these three types of innovation with an innovation portfolio – they build innovation internally, they buy it or they partner with resources outside their company. What can companies learn from others’ failed efforts to integrate startups into large companies?

Acquisition 332

Acquisition Intellectual Property Silicon Valley Startup 332

Genuine VC

JULY 9, 2013

Recently, we surveyed our Boston-based NextView portfolio Founder/CEOs asking them about which service provider firms they’ve been using. Although these startups are very diverse businesses themselves, they face similar requirements (especially in that they’re currently all in the seed to Series B range of company stage).

Early Stage 246

Early Stage Boston Portfolio Silicon Valley 246

VC Cafe

FEBRUARY 27, 2023

By contrast, they backed 620 funds in the last three months of 2021 First time fund managers hit hard: In 2022, limited partners backed 141 funds run by first-time managers, a 59% decline from the prior year and the lowest number since 2013 How does the constrained LP environment manifest for funds and startups? Luck favours the bold!

Venture Capital 215

Venture Capital Technical Review LP Institutional Investors 215

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

techcrunch.com

AUGUST 12, 2012

Zachary Bogue And Matt Ocko Launch Data Collective, An Early Stage Fund For Big Data Startups. Data Collective has already made 46 investments from its first fund, which it calls “comparable with other seed and early stage funds” (Ocko and Bogue wouldn’t reveal fund size.). Headphones. CrunchBase.

Early Stage 70

Early Stage San Francisco Los Angeles Southern California 70

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 12, 2019

You might like to think that a bunch of savvy venture capitalists saw a market niche for raising smaller funds or perhaps there was a generational shift where disgruntled junior partners spun out of bigger firms to start their own gigs. Well, both of those things happened but they were lagging indicators.

Venture Capital 328

Venture Capital Technical Review Seed Stage IPO 328

abovethecrowd.com

JULY 23, 2014

Today Benchmark announced that Eric Vishria has joined us as a General Partner. Eric is one of the up-and-coming stars in the technology industry, and we are very excited he is becoming our partner. Eric demonstrated a unique passion for startups and entrepreneurship from an early age.

Partner 74

Partner Software Review Technical Review Acquisition 74

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 27, 2013

I am super excited to announce that today is a day of lots of new things for my partners & me: A new fund, a new office and a new brand. Santa Monica is the place where the highest concentration of early-stage startups are created if you consider also the contiguous geography of Venice Beach. What’s up with that?

Los Angeles 343

Los Angeles Las Vegas San Francisco Baltimore 343

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 16, 2010

The VC industry grew dramatically as a result of the Internet bubble - Before the Internet bubble the people who invested in VC funds (called LPs or Limited Partners) put about $50 billion into the industry and by 2001 this had grown precipitously to around $250 billion. Partners leave the industry. Here’s my take: 1.

LP 311

LP Technical Review Early Stage Silicon Valley 311

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 17, 2022

Examples of some leaders in this space include Ron Conway in Silicon Valley and Jeff Bezos , CEO of Amazon, who each may have over 500 startups in their portfolio. They have too many highly paid partners, fat fees, an aging corporate infrastructure and difficulty raising money from institutions.

Angel Investor 342

Angel Investor Venture Capital Silicon Valley Portfolio 342

YoungUpstarts

NOVEMBER 20, 2019

by Lu Zhang, founder and managing partner of Fusion Fund. Among these opportunities, the chance to pitch an investor and secure funding is perhaps the greatest of all — at least in the early stages of your startup career — as it can ultimately determine the long-term fate of your company.

Technical Review 140

Technical Review Due Diligence Early Stage Differentiation 140

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 7, 2023

How do you get your early customers to advocate on your behalf? Most early stage startups don’t have the regulatory domain expertise in-house. Have them tell you how they helped other companies in their portfolio succeed, pitfalls to avoid, and the lobbying resources they can bring to bear.

Washington 280

Washington Government Marketing Silicon Valley 280

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 26, 2013

Every early-stage startup should explore this new funding alternative. New “up-and-comer” VCs focus on early-stage companies. VCs are finding that they don’t need the “large” funds of $100M to $500M to support a portfolio, if they focus on early-stage startups.

Angel Investor 231

Angel Investor Entrepreneur Early Stage Silicon Valley 231

David Teten

FEBRUARY 7, 2012

Before making the decision to join ff Venture Capital , I did some research on early-stage tech investing as an asset class and how it’s evolving. Although any given early-stage company is quite risky, when aggregated across a large portfolio, returns are very attractive. They’re also inflation-hedged.

Early Stage 148

Early Stage Private Equity Portfolio Aggregator 148

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 12, 2014

These tensions seep out in some angels or seed funds publicly or semi-privately deriding later-stage VCs for their “bad” behavior. I have seen bad behavior from later-stage VCs, believe me. But I have seen equally bad behavior from super early stage investors. As always a balanced perspective is in order.

Technical Review 336

Technical Review Later Stage Early Stage LP 336

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 12, 2013

It is with great pleasure that I can finally announce that we have added Greg Bettinelli as a partner at GRP Partners. So I started introducing him to portfolio companies. This is exactly the brand that GRP Partners wants to embody. We knew he had to be an investment partner. You won’t regret it.

Partner 360

Partner Las Vegas Los Angeles San Francisco 360

Austin Startup

DECEMBER 17, 2020

In addition to building transformative companies that we’re lucky to have in the portfolio, Data.World and OJO Labs respectively, they’ve helped with introductions, investment diligence, and broader portfolio support. ai , a Breyer Capital early-stage investment, list on the New York Stock Exchange.

Austin 84

Austin Silicon Valley Technical Review Texas 84

YoungUpstarts

AUGUST 25, 2017

The most pressing advantage for startups, in this, is an increased number of options when it comes to staying alive in the early days of the company. This can even include angel investing, and platforms like AngelList and Crowdfunder have put new vigor – and hope – into early stage startups.

Venture Capital 193

Venture Capital Technical Review Kenya Startup 193

Haystack

DECEMBER 27, 2018

About a year ago, I tracked down a VC who gave a talk I heard about where he referenced the phrase “Your portfolio is your path,” it stuck out in my mind because amid all the noise, it was simple, brief, and yet still open to interpretation. “Your portfolio is your path.” The portfolio is, indeed, your path.

Portfolio 118

Portfolio Syndicate Syndication Flash 118

David Teten

SEPTEMBER 23, 2017

PEVCTech is partnering with Blue Future Partners to run the first large-scale survey of VCs’ technology stack. Johann Kratzer of Blue Future Partners , a fund of funds, observed, “The majority of the hundreds of funds we’ve diligenced rely predominantly on their relationships to source deals. Greylock Partners.

Private Equity 60

Private Equity Venture Capital Equity Technical Review 60

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 11, 2016

We help founders through difficult moments, we help coach, we act as sparring partners, we help them resolve conflicts when they’re fighting with co-founders and we help them deal with adversity as well as successes. The role of VC is sparring partner. It’s the executives who trust you to join the early-stage startups you’ve funded.

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital Fractional CTO Cofounder Early Stage 150

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. First Round Capital’s forum for portfolio executives is a powerful example of a scaleable resource. – Hire more non-Partner staff. So we think about scaling a lot.

Private Equity 60

Private Equity Venture Capital Equity Cofounder 60

View from Seed

MARCH 11, 2020

Seed stage companies will mostly face questions around the team and market. Due diligence may seem like a drag, but partnering with an investor is a serious commitment, and you want to make sure that whoever you work with has built real conviction about you and your company. Talking to your customers.

Technical Review 279

Technical Review Due Diligence Term Sheet Seed Stage 279

YoungUpstarts

MAY 7, 2019

If followed, we believe it can help startup teams navigate the critical early stages of development – and avoid joining a majority of early stage companies that end up on the entrepreneurial scrap heap. Read on to discover why successfully traversing the Traction Gap is critical to early stage companies.

Cleveland 217

Cleveland Early Stage Framework Startup 217

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 27, 2021

When you’ve been playing the game a bit longer or when you have responsibilities at the fund level you start thinking more about “portfolio construction.” So if you truly want to be great at investing you need all the right skills and access AND a diversified portfolio. You’re thinking about one bullet at a time.

Bankruptcy 294

Bankruptcy Bridge Financing Portfolio Angel Investor 294

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 19, 2020

Examples of some leaders in this space include Ron Conway in Silicon Valley and Jeff Bezos , CEO of Amazon, who each may have over 500 startups in their portfolio. They have too many highly paid partners, fat fees, an aging corporate infrastructure and difficulty raising money from institutions.

Angel Investor 314

Angel Investor Venture Capital Silicon Valley Startup 314

Steve Blank

JUNE 27, 2017

If they select a business model that targets industry incumbents, they don’t have to worry about upsetting existing customers, partners or distribution channels. But today, as disruption happens faster, and is funded at enterprise scale, companies need to figure how to create a portfolio of innovation.

Startup 282

Startup New York City Valuation Distribution 282

David Teten

JANUARY 19, 2021

(co-written with Jamie Finney, Founding Partner at Greater Colorado Venture Fund. Similar to the explosion of seed funds in the past decade, we (and some limited partners too ) believe these Flexible VCs are on the forefront of what will become a major segment of the venture ecosystem. Of the Inc. 5000 companies, only 6.5% return cap.

Cofounder 78

Cofounder Technical Review Equity Dividend 78

David Teten

JUNE 14, 2011

I am delighted to announce that I’m joining ff Venture Capital as a Partner. In addition, Michael Yavonditte , CEO of Hashable , is joining as a Venture Partner. I’m honored to be the second partner since the firm’s founding. Official blog post and more details here.

Venture Capital 122

Venture Capital Technical Review Early Stage Portfolio 122

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 9, 2010

Every early-stage startup should explore this new funding alternative. New “up-and-comer” VCs focus on early-stage companies. VCs are finding that they don’t need the “large” funds of $100M to $500M to support a portfolio, if they focus on early-stage startups.

Technical Review 215

Technical Review Early Stage Venture Capital Startup 215

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 19, 2015

.” The reason is that at a VC you have a group of partners who often have different focus areas of excellence, each pursues deals in their respective field, each makes investments and sits on boards and each spends their most difficult hours tackling problems at portfolio companies vs. solving the challenges at the VC itself.

San Francisco 150

San Francisco Jordan Los Angeles Technical Review 150

VC Cafe

MAY 29, 2022

Building on my post on ‘ Advice for startups in a downturn (May 2022 edition) ‘, this week I continued to follow with interest the impact of the current correction on startups and venture capital, particularly in early stage. The key messages: “This is not a time to panic. Take look at the data by Crunchbase.

Venture Capital 183

Venture Capital Early Stage Valuation Startup 183

View from Seed

APRIL 2, 2020

That being said, it’s important to note that like us, most VCs are working very closely with their portfolio companies right now. One challenge here for seed and early stage companies is that candidates are probably going to be slightly more risk averse during times like this. The Future of Venture Capital.

Partner 156

Partner Marketing Portfolio Early Stage 156