Feld Thoughts

MARCH 24, 2017

Lindel joined Foundry Group as a partner to lead the fund investing activity of Foundry Group Next. We’ve had the opportunity to work with Founder Collective’s partners – David Frankel, Eric Paley, and Micah Rosenbloom – over the years on several companies. We also know many of the entrepreneurs in their portfolio.

Founder 75

Founder LP Technical Review Seed Stage 75

David Teten

JANUARY 21, 2021

(co-written with Jamie Finney, Founding Partner at Greater Colorado Venture Fund. VI: Revenue-based financing: The next step for private equity and early-stage investment. This is a summary of: Revenue-Based financing: State of the Industry 2020. Of Indie.VC’s portfolio, 60% of investments are not in NY, CA, or MA.

Equity 78

Equity Revenue Cofounder Colorado 78

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 27, 2013

Understanding where your VC partner sits in their respective fund and where their fund is in the cycle of its investment lifecycle will help you understand your VCs behavior. VCs crave the ability to help portfolio companies. By spending more time educating your board on your business you get more valuable advice from them.

Advisory Board 365

Advisory Board CTO Hire Fractional CTO Los Angeles 365

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 12, 2014

It’s why I often advise angel investors to be careful about assuming that being an angel investor is a profitable exercise unless you have the ability to have a wide-enough portfolio to have a few companies doing extraordinarily well plus deep enough pockets to follow your winners. Why prorata rights are now sought out by LPs.

Technical Review 336

Technical Review Later Stage Early Stage LP 336

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 23, 2014

Limited Partners or LPs (the people who invest into VC funds) have taken notice as 2014 is by all accounts the busiest year for LPs since the Great Recession began. The “big boom” in startup financing started around March 2009?—?more Why is this? more than 5 years ago?—?and and hasn’t abated.

Technical Review 398

Technical Review Venture Capital Valuation Pre-Money Valuation 398

David Teten

MARCH 18, 2021

Investment theses are just hypotheses; the portfolio shows how accurate the hypothesis was. Avataar Ventures invests exclusively in companies which fit these criteria: “$15 Million + in Annual Recurring Revenues; Strong Tech-Led B2B & SaaS Companies; Core Operations in India/ South East Asia; Open to Active Partnering.”

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Cofounder Venture Capital Deal Flow 78

Haystack

JULY 20, 2018

This is a post I’ve wanted to write for a long time, but I needed the time to digest all the other great posts on the topics by other investors, and to analyze specific portfolio data from Haystack over the last five years. Haystack Portfolio Data. Well, that time has finally come. These questions have been rattling around my brain.

San Francisco 116

San Francisco Silicon Valley Seattle Venture Capital 116

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. Having a better overall portfolio of venture capital by adding funds into the mix. Access to the partner. Fund investing, like adulting, is boring. Access to other investors.

Portfolio 134

Portfolio Syndicate Syndication Deal Flow 134

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 5, 2010

If your idea is so amazing that it warrants my hard-earned angel money or the money of my LP investors from our fund then why should I take a risk on you if you won’t take a risk on yourself? He and his partner told me about this new idea over the course of nearly a year. I run the recruiting process for my VC firm, GRP Partners.

Entrepreneur 293

Entrepreneur CTO Hire South America Salary 293

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

Babbling VC

OCTOBER 3, 2011

For those of you not in the know, they are one of the largest limited partners ( LP's : investors in venture capital funds) in Europe and are basically in almost all the funds throughout the market. Hypothesis 3: Insufficient diversification in European VC managers’ portfolios .

LP 82

LP Europe Germany Venture Capital 82

View from Seed

DECEMBER 11, 2019

“I’m thrilled to announce that I’m joining [New Firm] as a Partner where I will continue to invest in great Founders across the industries I care about.”. “I In any professional service industry, there is natural shuffling in the junior roles, as the race up the pyramid towards a Partner title is like musical chairs.

Venture Capital 204

Venture Capital Cap Table Partner LP 204

Hunter Walker

APRIL 27, 2014

Last week we held our first annual LP meeting, when venture funds get their investors together with updates on operations and results. I wrote about the two we lost last year to firms that have been around longer and proud to say that since that time, we’ve been able to beat out and/or partner with many great funds.

LP 97

LP Cofounder Term Sheet Valuation 97

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 24, 2015

I made my calls around to a few firms today to hear how their partner meetings went. When many venture investors are seeing their personal public portfolios tank it creeps into their business lives and creates an emotion that is less risk tolerant whether they’re aware of it or not. So, too, investments.

Stock 150

Stock Finance Marketing Valuation 150

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 16, 2012

And I also now have to raise money myself, but this time from bigger institutions that our industry calls LPs (limited partners). Partners make investment decisions. Also recognize that WITHIN a VC you have partners who focus on different areas. I now observes the fund raising process as a profession. Meet in person.

Developer 366

Developer Silicon Valley PR Las Vegas 366

Haystack

JUNE 1, 2018

Perhaps because of this success and the unique elbow grease they supply to their portfolio, it was shocking to many to see that one of the storied seed franchises would contract, become its own sole LP, and scale back its operations. There is a tremendous amount of money and new deals and financings.

LP 116

LP Global Social Media Portfolio 116

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 4, 2016

” There are a lot of data points that one can observer to get a sense of the venture capital markets – both LP fundings into venture and VC financings of startups. They point to some widely known facts: financings & valuations are up massively over the past 7 years and non-VC money has entered the system.

LP 150

LP Valuation Burn Rate Pre-Money Valuation 150

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 27, 2016

I was speaking recently to the team at NuOrder , an LA-based company we’re an investor in about “realism in startups” — an impromptu talk I have given to any of our portfolio companies who ask. I was asked again in an LP meeting later in the week and then again at a founder breakfast gathering we hosted yesterday.

Early Stage 254

Early Stage Non-Compete LP Later Stage 254

Agile VC

DECEMBER 6, 2012

Unlike a startup that might raise equity financing across several rounds all combined in a single balance sheet, VC’s do not simply commingle these funds into a single bucket to be allocated across all the companies in that firm’s portfolio. Why is this?

LP 178

LP Balance Sheet Differentiation Limited Partner 178

The Equity Kicker

JULY 8, 2019

From around 2000, and perhaps coinciding with the need to work harder to win deals as opportunities dried up after the internet bubble burst, individual partners at VC firms began adding ‘helping CEOs win’ to their job descriptions. . The most visible symptom of this trend was VCs writing blogs to show just how value add they were.

Portfolio 84

Portfolio LP Venture Capital Partner 84

Agile VC

NOVEMBER 13, 2012

At Risk – Usually starts with a firm beginning to see challenges in large portions of its portfolio, or in keeping the partnership together, or in the viability of the firm’s core strategy as broader markets start to shift (e.g. Well first it’s worth understanding the distinct phases of exactly how a VC firm dies.

LP 154

LP Portfolio Venture Capital IRR 154

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 30, 2016

Mark dutifully went to partner meetings, back-channel references began, firms started calling existing VCs to “test prices” and we started debating whom our best partner would be. Great companies get financed. As we headed into Q4 it was clear that firms were elongating the process.

Balance Sheet 150

Balance Sheet Burn Rate Valuation Forecast 150

David Teten

AUGUST 21, 2019

Revenue-Based Investing (“RBI”) is a new form of VC financing, distinct from the preferred equity structure most VCs use. A company with that mindset is dramatically less risky, because it’s not dependent on the financing markets for continued viability. Most founders who are raising capital look first to traditional equity VCs.

Revenue 60

Revenue Liquidation Preference Equity Cofounder 60

Professor VC

DECEMBER 8, 2015

Often times those involve trading within a venture capital portfolio or between two venture firms portfolios. I was a Limited Partner in Angel Investors II (Ron Conway's angel fund) that was an investor in Confinity. Like CPF, Kilowatt also provides solar financing services to consumers. At the IPO, Musk held a 14.2%

Merger 28

Merger LP IPO Redemption 28

abovethecrowd.com

APRIL 20, 2016

Why the Unicorn Financing Market Just Became Dangerous…For All Involved. All Unicorn participants — founders, company employees, venture investors and their limited partners (LPs) — are seeing their fortunes put at risk from the very nature of the Unicorn phenomenon itself. This is uncharted territory.

IPO 40

IPO Term Sheet Silicon Valley Valuation 40

Bryce Dot VC

NOVEMBER 19, 2012

Given how quickly we’re seeing startup bubblettes emerge, we decided to raise a little more cash now to provide for greater time diversity within the portfolio. I am fortunate to call them Partners and friends. Second, and more importantly, the seed landscape has changed dramatically since 2005.

Seed Stage 61

Seed Stage LP Incubator Venture Capital 61

K9 Ventures

NOVEMBER 30, 2008

The birth of modern-day venture capital (not considering the European monarchs financing explorations and projects as venture capital) can be traced back to American Research and Development, which was started by Georges Doriot. The General Partners (GPs) are the operating guys. The business of venture capital is relatively young.

IRR 48

IRR Venture Capital LP Early Stage 48