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. Yet, knowing this distinction is important.

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage Finance Early Stage Startup 120

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 10, 2018

Most metropolitan areas have groups of local high-net-worth individuals interested in supporting startups, and willing to syndicate amounts up to a million dollars for qualified startups. A good place to start looking is Grants.gov , which is a searchable directory of more than 1,000 Federal grant programs. Fund your startup yourself.

Entrepreneur 240

Entrepreneur Equity Small Business Administration SBA 240

Feld Thoughts

JANUARY 20, 2017

A key ingredient of Techstars accelerator programs is our experienced and engaged mentor community. Our first two pilot funds will be the 2017 city programs in Austin and Boston, launching on January 23rd. At Foundry Group, we learned a lot by running our own FG Angels syndicate.

Syndicate 70

Syndicate Syndication Seed Stage Vertical 70

OnlyOnce

FEBRUARY 9, 2022

On the heels of the announcement we made last month about our Series B financing , we are now announcing the launch of a new program called Bolster Prime and a new venture capital fund called Bolster Ventures. worked as advisors and mentors to numerous early stage founders and startups. What about the middle?

Silicon Valley 62

Silicon Valley Venture Capital Cap Table Early Stage 62

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). then we integrate loyalty programs, CRM, etc., link] dazhi chen.

Term Sheet 178

Term Sheet Silicon Valley Technical Review Social Network 178

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 12, 2014

Most metropolitan areas have groups of local high-net-worth individuals interested in supporting startups, and willing to syndicate amounts up to a million dollars for qualified startups. A good place to start looking is Grants.gov , which is a searchable directory of more than 1,000 Federal grant programs. Fund your startup yourself.

Entrepreneur 283

Entrepreneur Startup Equity Small Business Administration 283

David Teten

JUNE 12, 2012

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

Private Equity 133

Private Equity Syndicate Syndication Angel Investor 133

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

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 25, 2016

Most metropolitan areas have groups of local high-net-worth individuals interested in supporting startups, and willing to syndicate amounts up to a million dollars for qualified startups. A good place to start looking is Grants.gov , which is a searchable directory of more than 1,000 Federal grant programs. Fund your startup yourself.

Equity 120

Equity Small Business Administration SBA Syndicate 120

ConversionXL

MAY 27, 2022

Demand generation combines marketing tactics, strategies and programs to create awareness and drive interest in your products or services. Only around 10–15% of B2B leads turn into paying customers, and it’s because tactics optimizing for the early stages of the funnel only cater to early-stage goals.

Demand 95

Demand Management B2B Campaign 95

View from Seed

OCTOBER 21, 2014

As the seed-stage startup fundraise process has received more transparency in recent years, ranging from published advice on how to raise seed capital to increased availability through AngelList, Funders Club, and various accelerator programs, I’ve noticed another trend emerging.

Valuation 336

Valuation Founder Seed Stage Angel Investor 336

Austin Startup

FEBRUARY 28, 2019

Find out what the buzz is all about and make valuable connections with local investors who you can syndicate deals with. You can see a list of the 70+ investors and other partners who have signed on to participate in local programming at the bottom. Capital Factory is the most active early stage investor in Texas since 2013.

Texas 50

Texas San Antonio Houston Dallas 50

Hunter Walker

JULY 19, 2017

.'” Yup, after Sequoia and a few others funds debuted a ‘Scouts’ program several years back, many firms have lined up their version. As Tomio Geron wrote in this week’s WSJ , At Homebrew , we don’t currently use Scouts, but generally welcome any investors into syndicates who can provide value to the founders.

Founder 69

Founder Silicon Valley Cap Table LP 69

Feld Thoughts

MAY 8, 2012

Our strategy is “early stage” – so we are comfortable with seed investments, first round investments, and what might in the past have been called Series B investments if the company hasn’t raised much money to date (less than $3m). This translates into about a dozen new investments a year plus or minus a few.

Seed Stage 138

Seed Stage LP Warrant Syndicate 138

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 3, 2010

The problem with VC Seed Funding – Chris is right to raise the issue with entrepreneurs because there have been instances where large VC funds have set up seed programs where the investments have been used as “options.&# There are many problems with this. Let me explain: 1. Bandwidth and hosting charges were expensive.

Venture Capital 265

Venture Capital Term Sheet Early Stage Silicon Valley 265

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 1, 2010

There is a structural reason that VCs are investing at early stages, 2. Like Brad Feld I’m syndication agnostic but I have a slight preference toward working with others. I’ve written about it myself (Is VC Seed Funding Dead?) and (Is There Really a Signaling Problem with VC Seed Funding?).

Post-Money Valuation 298

Post-Money Valuation Term Sheet Warrant Partner 298

Austin Startup

MARCH 7, 2021

The University of Houston has the number one undergraduate entrepreneurship program in the country and Rice University has the number one graduate entrepreneurship program in the country. Research Institute, Texas Biomedical Research Institute, and several public universities and Department of Defense research and development programs.

Texas 90

Texas San Antonio Houston Dallas 90

David Teten

FEBRUARY 3, 2014

Build a specialized outbound origination program. Investors with dedicated, large-scale sourcing teams are almost all top-quartile performers across stage, vintage, and sector. I’ve shown below a case study of the geographic diversification of the largest late-stage technology venture capital / growth equity investors.

Private Equity 114

Private Equity Venture Capital Technical Review Equity 114

Professor VC

JANUARY 17, 2008

One of my comments was that we would likely see more institutionalization of angel groups and syndication of deals among groups. All recommend this program to effectively advertise on the Internet, this is the best program! My facebook can beat up your facebook. The theme of the event was angel investment trends for 2008.

Pre-Money Valuation 28

Pre-Money Valuation Angel Investor Angel Groups Valuation 28

Feld Thoughts

JANUARY 5, 2016

After two years of a dedicated experiment, we’ve decided to stop making new investments via our FG Angels Syndicate. The Monday after AngelList announced their Syndicate product in September 2013 we decided to to jump in with both feet and start FG Angels. Average syndicate investment amount per deal: $316k.

Syndicate 70

Syndicate Syndication Angel Investor Portfolio 70

mashable.com

SEPTEMBER 14, 2011

In other words, angel investors and early stage venture capital (VC) firms will have different expectations than late stage VC firms. Partners W3 EDGE Concentric Sky Rackspace Intridea Dynect DNS Webtrends Global Syndication Partners ABCNews CNN Metro USAToday Yahoo ©2005-2011 Mashable, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

France 77

France Marketing Social Media Startup 77

mashable.com

SEPTEMBER 12, 2011

No doubt early-stage companies can be started on a shoestring by low-paid entrepreneurs, but when financing a scalable, sustainable product, a free application server won’t make much of a difference. In fact, it’s barely even the beginning for most companies in their seed stage financings. Check out our starter program.

Startup 79

Startup Social Media RSS Social Network 79

mashable.com

MARCH 24, 2011

Thinking of applying to one (or all) of the summer accelerator/incubator/angel/mentoring programs like TechStars , Joystick Labs , or any of those found on this comprehensive list ? That’s one of the things we might develop during the summer program. via 7 Common Mistakes Startups Make on Accelerator Program Applications. [.]

Programming 86

Programming Startup Technical Review Software Review 86

mashable.com

OCTOBER 11, 2011

Not to mention, early-stage startups usually only employ a few people focused on product and development. Programming and Web Development Lists. Global Syndication Partners. Therefore, marketing and public relations are often tackled piecemeal by whomever has time. Mobile Lists. Moms and Family Resource Lists.

PR 103

PR Startup Social Media Technical Review 103

www.paulgraham.com

APRIL 28, 2010

So if youre going to sell cheap stockto eminent angels, do it early, when its natural for the companyto have a low valuation. Some angel investors join together in syndicates. Angels and even VC firms occasionally do this, but they alsoinvest at later stages. The problems are different in the early stages.

Technical Review 76

Technical Review Startup Software Review Angel Investor 76

www.paulgraham.com

APRIL 28, 2010

Mechanics Angel investors often syndicate deals, which means they join togetherto invest on the same terms. In a syndicate there is usually a"lead" investor who negotiates the terms with the startup. Dont feel like you have to join a syndicate, though. This isyet another problem that gets solved for you by syndicates.

Angel Investor 63

Angel Investor Syndicate Syndication Dilution 63

Agile VC

FEBRUARY 9, 2012

There are more similarities with early-stage VC than public investing, but in these asset classes you still see somewhat more uniform access to investment opportunities and less information asymmetry. Also these are typically more mature assets that can be analyzed and understood in broader ways than a de novo startup.

Seed Stage 100

Seed Stage Framework Silicon Valley Early Stage 100

mashable.com

OCTOBER 5, 2012

Naming can be one of the most difficult challenges in the early stages of a startup. Programming and Web Development Lists. Global Syndication Partners. But while many people have written about the topic, few have actually codified the process to help entrepreneurs succeed in the endeavor. Mobile Lists. Movie Lists.

Naming 84

Naming Startup Social Media RSS 84