Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 21, 2023

Negotiate an advance from a strategic partner or customer. These are professional investors, like Accel Partners , who invest institutional money in qualified startups, usually with a proven business model, ready to scale. This is the primary source of non-personal funds for very early-stage startups.

Equity 266

Equity Startup Small Business Administration SBA 266

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

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

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 29, 2020

Negotiate an advance from a strategic partner or customer. These are professional investors, like Accel Partners , who invest institutional money in qualified startups, usually with a proven business model, ready to scale. This is the primary source of non-personal funds for very early-stage startups.

Equity 436

Equity Small Business Administration SBA Syndicate 436

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 “ . See my summary on how lead investors think about building out their syndicate. . Another critical design consideration is your tech stack. 5) Manage deal flow.

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 “ . See my summary on how lead investors think about building out their syndicate. . Another critical design consideration is your tech stack. 5) Manage deal flow.

Technical Review 60

Technical Review Private Equity Management Cap Table 60

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 27, 2021

Groups of angels may syndicate multiple individual amounts, but if your total request exceeds $1 million, you need to focus on the venture capital alternatives. Early stage research and development won’t excite angels. Look to grants and strategic partners for seed funding.

Search 317

Search Accredited Investor Angel Investor Venture Capital 317

Hunter Walker

NOVEMBER 20, 2013

So far most of the top funded AngelList Syndicates look, well, not surprising. Additionally, funds such as Foundry Group and Google Ventures have taken their own approaches – the former creating a separate early stage entity , the latter encouraging their seed stage partners to create standalone personal syndicates.

Syndicate 98

Syndicate Syndication South America Seed Stage 98

YoungUpstarts

JANUARY 21, 2014

2014 will be a formative year for new business owners and early-stage entrepreneurs. And finally, in Darwinian fashion, competition for market share amongst the venture capitalists as a result of increased numbers of angel investment syndicates will clear the decks of the low-value add venture capital dollars.

Entrepreneur 210

Entrepreneur Startup Balance Sheet Non-Compete 210

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.

North America 36

North America Seed Stage Early Stage Lead Investor 36

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

View from Seed

JUNE 10, 2020

But the emphasis of our program is the direct one-on-one interaction with NextView partners to help push the company forward. The partners at NextView hold sessions more than once per week to push the participants’ thinking and actions to strive towards making significant advances finding true-product market fit.

Cofounder 177

Cofounder Syndicate Syndication Alabama 177

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. But in many situations my partners and I ask ourselves, are folks here acting out of either fear or greed?

Term Sheet 149

Term Sheet Syndicate Syndication Early Stage 149

View from Seed

APRIL 30, 2015

Use good judgment, talk to your co-founders/investors/lawyers, and partner with a bank that values transparency and relationships such as SVB.]. Especially in the early stages, so much about the company may change in how they think about product or go-to-market — and change multiple times — before raising an institutional round.

Term Sheet 120

Term Sheet Equity Startup Seed Stage 120

thebarefootvc

MAY 8, 2012

If there is an opportunity to bring in a syndicate partner that will add exponential value, it would be foolish to not include them. It is the downturns and bumps that separate the dedicated, long-term investors from passive ones — and entrepreneurs should keep this in mind as they build out their syndicates.

Venture Capital 78

Venture Capital Syndicate Syndication Bandwidth 78

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. What we have taken on is hard enough. Rangrut.com.

Silicon Valley 114

Silicon Valley Technical Review Startup Early Stage 114

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

Feld Thoughts

OCTOBER 1, 2013

This morning my partners at Foundry Group and I announced that we are going to make 50 seed investments of $50,000 each on AngelList between now and the end of 2014. Foundry Group ) can create the syndicate in the future, at which point we’ll move the activity over to there. When we learn, we’ll share what we learn.

Syndicate 164

Syndicate Syndication Early Stage Portfolio 164

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 10, 2018

Negotiate an advance from a strategic partner or customer. These are professional investors, like Accel Partners , who invest institutional money in qualified startups, usually with a proven business model, ready to scale. This is the primary source of non-personal funds for very early-stage startups.

Entrepreneur 240

Entrepreneur Equity Small Business Administration SBA 240

This is going to be BIG.

DECEMBER 3, 2020

The partner at the fund, the VC, gets to do the fun part—the meeting with founders, vetting deals, negotiating, helping, etc. Access to the partner. If you’ve put money into a fund, I think it’s reasonable to expect that partner to check out the deal flow that you find on your own, and let you know what they think.

Portfolio 134

Portfolio Syndicate Syndication Deal Flow 134

Rob Go

APRIL 19, 2017

Recently, I’ve been spending a fair bit of time with a number of the new early-stage investors in Boston. As more early-stage investors emerge in Boston, some folks have asked me whether I feel any discomfort around the many new “competitors” on the scene. There are a lot of new folks in the space.

Early Stage 34

Early Stage Boston Artificial Inteligence Term Sheet 34

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. I told my friend that I felt that in 2014 too many new VCs feel the pressure to chase deals, to be a part of syndicates with other brand names and to pounce on top of every startup whose numbers are trending up quickly.

Cofounder 374

Cofounder Syndicate Syndication Early Stage 374

Agile VC

MAY 26, 2011

In another we decended into a debate about our 5 year forecasts (I built the models so fielded most of these questions), and it became clear they probably weren’t the best fit for our Series A round (this group is no longer in the early-stage VC business). We three partners are working hard. Ps check mypicasso.com.

Term Sheet 178

Term Sheet Silicon Valley Technical Review Social Network 178

Agile VC

DECEMBER 19, 2013

If ROI and asset allocation are the sole objective for an angel investor, then they may be best served investing in late stage startups via secondary markets or investing in a VC fund (if they have access to high quality funds) rather than trying to find and pick a bunch of early-stage startups to invest in.

Angel Investor 265

Angel Investor Early Stage Syndicate Syndication 265

Hunter Walker

FEBRUARY 5, 2019

” A great line uttered at dinner last night by one of the senior GPs at one of the best early stage funds. Also, a partner who is transitioning into a non-FT role going forward. Not recruiting new Partners, not chasing LPs so that we can raise several hundred million dollars more next time around.

LP 92

LP Early Stage Syndicate Syndication 92

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 12, 2014

Negotiate an advance from a strategic partner or customer. These are professional investors, like Accel Partners , who invest institutional money in qualified startups, usually with a proven business model, ready to scale. This is the primary source of non-personal funds for very early-stage startups.

Entrepreneur 283

Entrepreneur Startup Equity Small Business Administration 283

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

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

Haystack

DECEMBER 27, 2018

It’s not popular to admit, but I believe there’s really no way for very early-stage investors to control what deals they ultimately see. Luckily for me, it was early and it was a small fund — any mistake in there wouldn’t be a crater.

Portfolio 118

Portfolio Syndicate Syndication Flash 118

View from Seed

OCTOBER 21, 2014

Sharing these pricing expectations early with potential lead investors fundamentally qualifies your conversations, but it also runs the risk of prematurely losing a potential financing partner, or else it can reduce options to maximize your fundraise outcome. And as my partner Rob Go likes to say, “Time kills all deals.”).

Valuation 336

Valuation Founder Seed Stage Angel Investor 336

Feld Thoughts

OCTOBER 1, 2015

At Foundry Group, we’ve experimented with lots of different things around company creation and early stage investment. We’ve made over 60 investments through FG Angels – our AngelList syndicate – and are one of the most prolific investors on that platform. We have a lot of investments in Seattle.

Seattle 70

Seattle San Francisco Angel Investor Syndicate 70

View from Seed

AUGUST 20, 2014

Definition: This is a case where two large VCs partner to take a significant portion of the round together, often leaving only a small piece for value added angels or seed investors. Often, the VC partners have worked together before and both have deep domain experience that is very relevant to the company. The Two-VC-Led Seed.

Startup 301

Startup Syndicate Syndication Boston 301

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. Harvard Business School is featuring an article about the Venture Capital Access Program on the website of the U.S.

Private Equity 133

Private Equity Syndicate Syndication Angel Investor 133

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 25, 2016

Negotiate an advance from a strategic partner or customer. These are professional investors, like Accel Partners , who invest institutional money in qualified startups, usually with a proven business model, ready to scale. This is the primary source of non-personal funds for very early-stage startups.

Equity 120

Equity Small Business Administration SBA Syndicate 120

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 16, 2015

Groups of angels may syndicate multiple individual amounts, but if your total request exceeds $1 million, you need to focus on the venture capital alternatives. Early stage research and development won’t excite angels. Look to grants and strategic partners for seed funding.

Angel Investor 120

Angel Investor Accredited Investor Venture Capital Startup 120

Agile VC

FEBRUARY 28, 2012

Startups in NextView’s portfolio frequently receive inbound interest from other VC investors who are intrigued about what they’re doing, and I often talk with other early-stage entrepreneurs how to approach similar situations. Different VC firms take different approaches to proactive “prospecting” of this sort.

Early Stage 100

Early Stage Syndicate Syndication Silicon Valley 100

David Teten

JULY 10, 2017

Many large corporations face three seemingly disconnected challenges; they want: – Better returns on their balance sheet and underfunded pensions; – Access to the innovation economy to stay on top of the early-stage companies attacking their business; and. Trevor Bond , former CEO of CEO of W.P.

Employee 60

Employee Balance Sheet Syndicate Syndication 60