Pascal's View

JULY 9, 2017

Andrew Krowne and I recently co-wrote an article in Tech Crunch , Why SAFE Notes Are Not Safe for Entrepreneurs. This is a fundamental issue that does, indeed, boil down to understanding the post-money valuation of a company. Many entrepreneurs lose track of what they have been cooking up in the cap table.

Post-Money Valuation 49

Post-Money Valuation Valuation Cap Table Covenant 49

View from Seed

JUNE 10, 2020

As we’ve shared, we intentionally wanted to flip the traditional Accelerator model on its head and offer a unique offering for entrepreneurs at the earliest of stages. The dynamics for participation in the next round’s fundraise syndicate is complex, and many accelerators (and VCs) obfuscate their intentions for self-serving interests.

Cofounder 177

Cofounder Syndicate Syndication Alabama 177

Genuine VC

NOVEMBER 12, 2012

Dharmesh Shah had a great post up last week about the lessons learned from raising a mezzanine round of financing. It’s really interesting, but perhaps only applicable to a more limited set of entrepreneurs. In contrast, valuation always has room to move up.

Finance 128

Finance Mezzanine Valuation Seed Stage 128

Genuine VC

MAY 29, 2014

Yet even today, whether or not to take a (relatively) small check in a seed round syndicate from a multi-hundred million or even billion dollar fund is still a decision which takes quite a bit of consideration and sometimes consternation. So there is an element of (positive) selection bias in the larger VC syndicate cohort companies.

Syndicate 166

Syndicate Syndication Seed Stage Valuation 166

David Teten

DECEMBER 3, 2019

Small investment firms often have interns and entrepreneurs in residence passing through, each of which is a security risk. Chris Dixon, Partner, A16Z, observes , “Success in VC is probably 10% about picking, and 90% about sourcing the right deals and having entrepreneurs choose your firm as a partner”. 2) Market . 7) Negotiate .

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Software Review Analytics Private Equity 78

Berkonomics

APRIL 3, 2014

We’ve spoken of financing a young company through friends and family, known as “inside angels.” And even though angel groups syndicate their best deals within their respective associated networks, it is always best to apply to the angel groups nearest your physical location. Raising money'

Equity 92

Equity Finance Liquidity Event Angel Groups 92

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 18, 2015

Or the influx of massive new amounts of entrepreneurs and wantrepreneurs seeking fortune and fame? Either we’ve discovered magical beans and elixir or perhaps we’ve gotten ahead of ourselves on valuation. This must be a boon for entrepreneurs of fast-growing tech firms – right? Are LPs to blame? None of these.

IPO 150

IPO Venture Capital LP SEC 150

Feld Thoughts

DECEMBER 10, 2014

So – I’ll start with that – this is not a prediction, rather it’s a hypothesis, which is as long as there isn’t a cataclysmic macro event, Q115 financing activity is going to be insane. The number of large, “later stage” financings are remarkable – both in size and velocity.

Later Stage 142

Later Stage Syndicate Syndication Portfolio 142

View from Seed

AUGUST 20, 2014

It seems like a high-class problem for an entrepreneur to be able to influence round composition, and it is. How should an entrepreneur think about the different types of investors affecting their seed and Series A rounds? Series A Dynamics: This is a middle-of-the-road outcome in terms of optimizing your next round of financing.

Startup 301

Startup Syndicate Syndication Boston 301

Genuine VC

JULY 30, 2012

In theory, there are three levels of pricing for an entrepreneur to potentially signal to a prospective investor: Lower than “market.” This approach is almost never a good idea. By definition, all entrepreneurs should think that their endeavor is truly exceptional. Above market.

Valuation 136

Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Angel Investor Syndicate 136

Feld Thoughts

APRIL 29, 2015

Now that everyone is overly focused on unicorns, the headline number on the valuation (e.g. Company X raised Y at a valuation of Z from A, B, and C) has crept into the story on big rounds. While this makes for press release fodder and ego gratification, it’s of very little use to entrepreneurs. financing of Mattermark.

Atlanta 70

Atlanta Valuation Term Sheet Finance 70

Babbling VC

JANUARY 7, 2011

I personally believe that one of the major drawbacks to venture capital in Europe is chronic under-financing and people skirt around this issue. Hence, financing rounds have been smaller (roughly a ratio of 5 to 1 when comparing US to EU). At the same time, businesses in Europe have always been forced to make do with less.

Finance 76

Finance LP Europe Valuation 76

Feld Thoughts

AUGUST 10, 2010

My partner Seth Levine has a detailed post up today titled Trada – from the beginning that describes the creation and financing of Trada. In this case neither Niel (nor I) had any interest in creating a traditional syndicate to fund the company. Tags: Seed Financing angel financing Foundry Group seed trada VC.

Syndicate 120

Syndicate Syndication Angel Financing Finance 120

View from Seed

JANUARY 26, 2016

There are a number of factors that have contributed to the rise of pre-seed rounds, but the strongest have been the frothy late-stage financing market, coupled with both the scaling-up of some of the early winners in the institutional seed ecosystem and the scaling-down of some larger funds that retrenched after the financial crisis.

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage Early Stage Cofounder Finance 120

Feld Thoughts

JULY 14, 2015

Assuming equity is raised at or above that cap, the total dilution, before the new money, is 16.6% (equivalent to an equity financing of $1m at a $6m post money valuation. The term sheet converts all the convertible debt into a post-money valuation of $100, essentially making the convertible debt worthless.

Recapitalization 70

Recapitalization Pre-Money Valuation Post-Money Valuation Angel Investor 70

Professor VC

APRIL 1, 2010

was part of a Dow Jones VentureWire webinar last week titled Negotiating An Angel Deal: What Angels, Entrepreneurs & VCs Need to Know. One comment made by Jason was that angels tend to be less sensitive than VCs on valuation and can potentially make it difficult to get a venture financing done at acceptable valuation.

Term Sheet 32

Term Sheet Angel Investor San Jose Venture Capital 32

Austin Startup

AUGUST 1, 2017

TL;DR: In a market that has historically idolized huge, splashy financings and exits, an increasing number of entrepreneurs are realizing that everyone else’s definition of success — particularly among certain large VCs — isn’t necessarily aligned with their own. Most individual VCs can only support about 7–10 companies at a time.

Liquidation Preference 48

Liquidation Preference Common Stock Valuation Silicon Valley 48

Professor VC

JANUARY 17, 2008

I think the title of this post is a TV show, but fitting as there has been much debate in the venture community as to the whether angel investors are good or bad for entrepreneurs and VCs. One of my comments was that we would likely see more institutionalization of angel groups and syndication of deals among groups.

Pre-Money Valuation 28

Pre-Money Valuation Angel Investor Angel Groups Valuation 28

Rob Go

SEPTEMBER 2, 2014

I’ve seen a few cases now where a number of very high-quality institutional investors were interested in investing in a company at valuation, but a non-institutional investor was willing to set terms 1.5 – 2X higher than that valuation. All in all, this is good for entrepreneurs. Alternative funding sources.

Cram Down 66

Cram Down Institutional Investors Dilution Seed Stage 66

View from Seed

JANUARY 28, 2016

When we talk about seeds, we mean your first outside round of financing at the earliest stages of your business. In my prior post, I talked about the rise of the pre-seed and a more nuanced definition of a pre-seed based on milestones, not financing labels. At NextView, we pride ourselves as being a “one-product company.”

Cofounder 120

Cofounder Finance Founder Syndicate 120

Professor VC

MARCH 12, 2015

It was a great product addressing a large market opportunity and was interested in seeing how the AngelList syndicate process worked. I don''t know the reasons for selling, but presumably Authy felt their prospects weren''t promising as a standalone entity and may have had difficulty raising further financing.

Syndicate 28

Syndicate Syndication Silicon Valley Common Stock 28

David Teten

NOVEMBER 15, 2013

Each new investor tends to raise valuations and lower returns for all the other competitive investors. This is the psychology that drives VCs to load up a company with more capital, rationalizing that $5m at a $20m pre-money valuation is little different than $10m at a $40m pre-money valuation. Photo credit: JD Hancock.

Management 114

Management Pre-Money Valuation Venture Capital New Hampshire 114

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 1, 2010

Many firms do it in a way that can be more detrimental to entrepreneurs. In these cases we proactively offer to lead their next round of financing. Like Brad Feld I’m syndication agnostic but I have a slight preference toward working with others. The investor strategy is really determined by the management team.

Post-Money Valuation 298

Post-Money Valuation Term Sheet Warrant Partner 298

Professor VC

JULY 25, 2013

This is the feeling you get from watching the venture capitalists talk about the entrepreneurs and other investors in the film. I''m all for transparency, but won''t be naming names in this post as I don''t want to put some entrepreneurs in a difficult position. Startup outcomes tend to be very binary.

Term Sheet 46

Term Sheet Silicon Valley Syndicate Syndication 46

Cracking the Code

DECEMBER 9, 2006

Done deal: after a quick syndication with the kitchen team (their job was at stake, so they were easy to convince.), Detailed SaaS Spreadsheet (Valuation and CAC benchmark). SaaS 13 Index Valuation. Favorite VC and Entrepreneur blogs. Yahoo Finance. S&M productivity (CAC ratio) for the SaaS 13 Index.

Software Review 48

Software Review Technical Review Europe Venture Capital 48

Tim Keane

APRIL 12, 2006

Ten questions the entrepreneur should ask the (prospective) investor. If they’re making it as part of a group that the entrepreneur likes, fine. If they are “solo,” though, the entrepreneur will want to know a lot about their attitudes and expectations, especially when things go wrong. valuation than the previous round.

Entrepreneur 60

Entrepreneur Valuation Sweat Equity Common Stock 60

Feld Thoughts

AUGUST 1, 2018

We are syndication agnostic, being indifferent between investing by ourselves or with co-investors – especially our partner funds – where we mostly have long and successful relationships. We refer to B and C rounds as early growth – essentially financings with valuations between $50m and $300m pre-money.

Syndicate 17

Syndicate Syndication IRR Canada 17

Austin Startup

DECEMBER 20, 2010

A group of seasoned Austin technology entrepreneurs and executives are announcing the formation of their new company, Mass Relevance , to help consumer brand use real-time social content to drive engagement on television, the web, and in the mobile world. Mass Relevance is this company.&#. To what do you attribute that rapid success?

Curation 118

Curation Austin Cofounder Ruby 118

Rob Go

NOVEMBER 10, 2011

I once showed a company to an investor for an investment we were syndicating. I wondered if it could potentially be a “platform” for something else (the most meaningless and overused phrase that entrepreneurs and investors try to use to make companies seem more important than they are). It’s very discouraging.

Marketing 52

Marketing Angel Investor Syndicate Syndication 52

Rob Go

JANUARY 7, 2013

We have pretty strong guidelines internally about how much capital we want to invest in a given company, at what valuation, and thus, what ownership we are looking for. Tom Brady Entrepreneurs: 8. Introduced by other entrepreneurs: 6. Syndicate Composition: NextView + Seed Funds + Angels: 9. 5 are in other locations.

Portfolio 49

Portfolio Seed Stage Cofounder B2B 49

Agile VC

FEBRUARY 2, 2012

I’ll focus for now on the business itself, there’s plenty of other info on the web if you care to understand the equity ownership or financing history of Facebook and frankly this has been fairly well known for awhile. ==. Im a former Silicon Valley entrepreneur turned East Coast VC. Facebook, Inc. Read More ».

IPO 100

IPO South Korea Venezuela Revenue 100

Professor VC

JUNE 20, 2011

Financing, that is.I One truth of start-up financing is that it generally takes twice as long and twice as much money to accomplish your milestones. Most companies dont come close to their rose colored financial models prepared when going out for Series A financing. As I said up front, I have mixed emotions about the financing.

San Jose 28

San Jose Angel Investor Term Sheet Venture Capital 28

Rob Go

JANUARY 28, 2016

When we talk about seeds, we mean your first outside round of financing at the earliest stages of your business. In my prior post, I talked about the rise of the pre-seed and a more nuanced definition of a pre-seed based on milestones, not financing labels. At NextView, we pride ourselves as being a “one-product company.”

Cofounder 28

Cofounder Finance Founder Syndicate 28