Both Sides of the Table

JULY 25, 2010

Rincon is part of the new breed of Seed Stage VCs and with the leadership of Jim Andelman has charted out the most authentic early-stage investment strategy in Southern California. Any SoCal entrepreneur raising early-stage money should put Rincon on their short list. So what are you waiting for?

Silicon Valley 293

Silicon Valley Technical Review Southern California Angel Investor 293

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 5, 2015

Over the years I’ve written extensively about the downsides of convertible notes for startups such as here , here and here. If you add the pre-money valuation (let’s say $8 million) to the amount of money you’re raising (let’s say $2 million) you get the post-money valuation.

Pre-Money Valuation 150

Pre-Money Valuation Option Pool Post-Money Valuation Dilution 150

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 30, 2018

I thought I’d write a post about how to talk about valuation at a startup and give you some sense of what might be on the mind of the person considering funding you. Of course, unlike cars there is no direct comparison across each startup so these are just some general guidelines to try and even the information field.

Valuation 324

Valuation Post-Money Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Cofounder 324

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 13, 2013

For the past 5 years or so Google, Facebook and a handful of tech industry giants have been quietly buying scores of early-stage startups for their talent. I’m supposed to believe that my best innovation can only come from scores of startup founders who just made millions and have now become CVOs at my company?

Liquidation Preference 357

Liquidation Preference Early Stage Retention Lock-up Period 357

View from Seed

JANUARY 11, 2017

A startup can benefit in various ways from having a strategic investor involved in their company, but there are plenty of drawbacks too, both commonly known and more subtle. On the flip side, simply taking strategic investor capital because it’s there or it’s easier or cheaper than other capital rarely works out well for startups.

Strategic Investors 120

Strategic Investors Post-Money Valuation Seed Stage Cofounder 120

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 18, 2014

If you’re wildly successful early on or if they help you achieve a great valuation they actually pay a significant price for their eventual stock even though they took much more risk than a future investor and backed you early. Startup Lessons' Him: Not so good. Obviously he’d be pissed off.

Venture Capital 417

Venture Capital Liquidation Preference Valuation Term Sheet 417

Agile VC

DECEMBER 6, 2012

A little more inside baseball from the VC biz… why VC’s rarely make “crossover” investments, with capital from multiple funds the VC firm manages invested in a single startup (see note 1). If Acme Ventures III, LP invests in Startup X then typically Acme Ventures IV, LP would not.

LP 178

LP Balance Sheet Differentiation Limited Partner 178

This is going to be BIG.

MARCH 23, 2015

So whereas seed rounds five years ago may have been less than a million dollars on a pre-money valuation of three or four million, today''s seed is up and over a million and usually closer to two million, with post money valuations nearing $10 million. I don''t think early stage investors are taking enough risk.

Post-Money Valuation 60

Post-Money Valuation Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Seed Money 60

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 1, 2010

Short summary of my posts: 1. There is a structural reason that VCs are investing at early stages, 2. If we can’t agree on price I tell entrepreneurs that they can raise money and say “GRP will speak for half of the round.&# Done – the only signal is positive.

Post-Money Valuation 298

Post-Money Valuation Term Sheet Warrant Partner 298

Professor VC

FEBRUARY 12, 2015

I doubt Aileen Lee of Cowboy Ventures believed that a horse with a horn existed when she wrote Welcome To The Unicorn Club: Learning From Billion-Dollar Startups in late 2013, but she probably had no idea that it would become a hot buzzword in Silicon Valley and hit the cover of mainstream business press, Fortune Magazine. igthwghjg2q2g8hu4).

Las Vegas 28

Las Vegas IPO Pre-Money Valuation Valuation 28

www.paulgraham.com

APRIL 28, 2010

When we sold our startup in 1998 I thought one day Id do some angelinvesting. You give a startup money and they give you stock. Thats how you win: by investing in the right startups. In a syndicate there is usually a"lead" investor who negotiates the terms with the startup. Seven years later I still hadnt started.

Angel Investor 63

Angel Investor Syndicate Syndication Dilution 63