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. 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.
SoCal CTO
AUGUST 4, 2011
Almost every day I'm talking to early stage startup founders (see Free Startup CTO Consulting Sessions ) about what they plan to do. Is it pay-to-play? I tend to ask a lot of questions, challenge aspects, make suggestions. But I've often been very surprised by one aspect of these conversations. Discount support?
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SoCal CTO
AUGUST 4, 2011
Almost every day I'm talking to early stage startup founders (see Free Startup CTO Consulting Sessions ) about what they plan to do. Is it pay-to-play? I tend to ask a lot of questions, challenge aspects, make suggestions. But I've often been very surprised by one aspect of these conversations. Discount support?
Startup Professionals Musings
FEBRUARY 7, 2020
Here are a few of my favorites sampling techniques that I have seen work out well over the years: Take a job for a while with an early-stage startup. In all cases, it pays to play to your strengths, and stick to business domains and skills you already know. Adopt the Silicon Valley entrepreneur family model.
This is going to be BIG.
FEBRUARY 7, 2010
About a year and a half ago, I wrote that New York needed more dedicated early stage capital. First Growth Venture Network formed to mentor high potential seed and early stage companies. Well, remember the dust up a while back with the backlash against “pay to play” pitch events where startups had to pay to meet angels?
Both Sides of the Table
APRIL 21, 2020
We spent time talking about why “pay-to-play” deals are back on the table and why these deals happen. Of our early-stage deals we do 33% Seed, 66% A’s) Why recycling is important, but why without exits you might even be forced to stop paying management fees for a while What Will Happen with LPs in this Economic Market?
Both Sides of the Table
SEPTEMBER 15, 2010
In these scenarios angels made great returns precisely because they didn’t need to dip their hands into their pockets a second or third time, their companies didn’t go bankrupt and they didn’t get buried in the cap tables by large VCs who put in “pay to play” provisions in tough times. And the best early-stage investors know this.
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