Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 22, 2012

Instant growth = huge valuation from follow-on investors = big VC mark-up on our quarterly reports = LP interest. It encourages a bit too much FOMO (fear of missing out) and over-valuation in companies and a desire to do huge financing rounds to be perceived as the “knock-out winner.” Grow or die.

Silicon Valley 390

Silicon Valley Venture Capital Startup Technical Review 390

Austin Startup

AUGUST 10, 2017

Although we were studying finance, we were always more interested in tech. Before graduating, I decided to forgo the finance path and instead dove into engineering and later sales and product management roles at VersaSuite (health IT) in Austin. But we never lost the finance bug. We were infatuated with tech.

Technical Review 48

Technical Review Cofounder Technical Cofounder Austin 48

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. 2) Product Market Fit & Our Roadmap. I’ve written before about our fundraising process and how it very much resembles that of a startup. We love our founders.

LP 97

LP Cofounder Term Sheet Valuation 97

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 5, 2010

They often make great team members such as head of products, CTO, head of sales, CFO, etc. And we’re lucky because they deliver many of the great products, services and content that we consume in our lives every day. Great companies are comprised of great individual point people or functional leaders. Why should I be?

Entrepreneur 293

Entrepreneur CTO Hire South America Salary 293

David Teten

JANUARY 19, 2021

Part of the magic of revenue-based financing is how historical performance and strong, achievable financial projections are ultimately the backbone of how RBI/RBF investment decisions are made.” Early-stage: Cofounder with engineering/ product background from top-tier university or major technology company. Short track record.

Cofounder 78

Cofounder Technical Review Equity Dividend 78

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 27, 2016

I was asked again in an LP meeting later in the week and then again at a founder breakfast gathering we hosted yesterday. I spend hours thinking about the products, competitors, market opportunities, recruiting and financing of these businesses. I answered in the same way I always do so I thought I’d just write it publicly.

Early Stage 254

Early Stage Non-Compete LP Later Stage 254

View from Seed

DECEMBER 11, 2019

Yes, there are intermittent points of feedback along the way, like valuation marks from subsequent rounds of financing. So the most productive Partners in the current day often don’t get rewarded relative to their present contribution. The median average investment time period to liquidity for a venture investment is currently 6.5-7.5

Venture Capital 204

Venture Capital Cap Table Partner LP 204

This is going to be BIG.

SEPTEMBER 19, 2012

Two Sigma is a technology and finance company in Soho filled with incredibly bright engineers and developers, so I’m really excited about leveraging that partnership in a number of cool ways. That product isn't money--it's their time, attention, sound advice and network.

LP 112

LP New York City New York Chad 112

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 10, 2013

You know the truth: You are late shipping product, your potential investors are taking too long to decide, your team is fighting over strategy, not enough of your users are returning. Startups are filled with enormously talented people – often product people & engineers. Inside your own corridors you’re naked.

Startup 412

Startup San Francisco LP Bankruptcy 412

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 23, 2012

Yes, it’s true that FOMO (fear of missing out) is driving some irrational behavior and valuations amongst uber competitive deals and well-financed VCs. Thomson Reuters data shows that around $10 billion of LP money went into VCs per year pre bubble. By 2000 the total LP commitments had mushroomed to more than $100 billion.

Venture Capital 347

Venture Capital Technical Review LP Mobile 347

YoungUpstarts

NOVEMBER 18, 2018

The costs associated with patenting your technological or creative boon, successfully bringing your product to market and compelling larger companies to come to the table and negotiate a royalty deal rests in how you proceed. This provides into a place for this product within the current market.

Intellectual Property 157

Intellectual Property Forecast LLC Acquisition 157

K9 Ventures

OCTOBER 10, 2017

I’ll start with all the questions I can think of, from many different perspectives: founders, LPs, the press, and even other VCs. This post is intended to be a dynamic document, and I will attempt to update it from time to time with new questions that may arise or as financing trends evolve. Q: Define Pre-Seed?

Seed Stage 82

Seed Stage Finance Later Stage Equity 82

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 24, 2021

This “overnight success” was first financed in 2004. It’s a virtue of the laws of large numbers ($100 million in ARR ) plus strong growth compounding off of large numbers plus large customers relying on our products for 7+ years or longer. This is true in consumer but it’s also true in enterprise software. The virtue of going long.

Venture Capital 363

Venture Capital LP Valuation Later Stage 363

David Teten

DECEMBER 3, 2019

Automation allows you to spend less time on tedious tasks and will help boost productivity, especially within a small marketing team. Tim Friedman, Founder, PE Stack , said, “If I could offer one piece of advice to today’s managers, it would be to take the time to understand the demands of the modern institutional LP.

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Software Review Analytics Private Equity 78

K9 Ventures

OCTOBER 12, 2015

So here are some of the things I was thinking about when I tweeted this: Peak Oil is defined as the point in time when the maximum rate of extraction of petroleum is reached, after which the rate of production is expected to enter terminal decline. If you’re a new GP, chose your LPs wisely (if you have the luxury to of course).

Venture Capital 48

Venture Capital Seed Stage LP Valuation 48

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

Austin Startup

JULY 23, 2010

What other products have they looked at? Which products are already in their shopping cart? These are some things to think about when pricing products dynamically, but I’m sure Zilliant’s products are not just focused on realtime web. How did they arrive at our website?

Balance Sheet 67

Balance Sheet Private Equity LP IPO 67

David Teten

JANUARY 21, 2021

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. The fund’s network of mentors are all invested LPs, ensuring they have “skin in the game.” IV: Should your new VC fund use Revenue-Based Investing?

Equity 78

Equity Revenue Cofounder Colorado 78

Babbling VC

NOVEMBER 28, 2011

If it takes forever to raise finances or your fund, there's something not right. You're a VC and LP's can't make up their minds and keep telling you to come back once you can show more? Launching Products. Keep launching products, features and updates. Go get someone else to invest. Well, you probably suck.

LP 71

LP Valuation Aggregator Venture Capital 71

Hunter Walker

SEPTEMBER 29, 2022

Most of this discussion is about ‘playing offense’ — working towards being a good steward of LP capital and the risk/reward associated with VC. As former product managers Satya and I lean towards having frameworks for these sorts of decisions, for both consistency and speed in internal operations.

Venture Capital 122

Venture Capital Cap Table LP Equity 122

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 29, 2011

I believe some VCs have entered the early-stage market as simply an option on future financing rounds. The LP Community Hasn’t Yet Caught Up. As I’ve started to get to know the other side of the VC industry lately (the people who invest in VC funds or “LPs&# ) one thing has occurred to me.

Venture Capital 296

Venture Capital Software LP Early Stage 296

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 16, 2012

As with any sales campaign you need to: Qualify your buyers early so you focus your scarce resources on people likely to buy your product. ” These are people with whom there is a likely match for your product or service. I get many Tweets directed at me that say, “come check out my product.” Meet in person.

Developer 366

Developer Silicon Valley PR Las Vegas 366

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 8, 2014

Not all of these products & companies came from Silicon Valley but the overwhelming majority did. While the costs of starting a tech company have plummeted it still does take money to hire a team, launch products and market oneself. Our fund has more interest from potential LP investors than our fund needs.

Silicon Valley 390

Silicon Valley Kansas City Startup Venture Capital 390

abovethecrowd.com

APRIL 20, 2016

Why the Unicorn Financing Market Just Became Dangerous…For All Involved. By the first quarter of 2016, the late-stage financing market had changed materially. Investors were becoming nervous and were no longer willing to underwrite new Unicorn-level financings at the drop of a hat. This is uncharted territory.

IPO 40

IPO Term Sheet Silicon Valley Valuation 40

Austin Startup

JUNE 26, 2019

If you’re a founder/product manager/business owner, I encourage you to find that out! that a sub-par product/execution is very likely to win the market. Do you want someone already making $12–17/hour watching your kid to make less (so a LP can make their returns…)? and the outcomes. “If Hello Chris Yeh!)

Silicon Valley 54

Silicon Valley Startup B2C Sweat Equity 54

Professor VC

DECEMBER 8, 2015

Luckily, Google was one of the 150 and did ultimately return the fund assuming the LP was smart enough to hold the stock after distribution. I originally got to thinking about this when I received a 485 page information statement on a previously announced merger between Clean Power Finance and Kilowatt Financial.

Merger 28

Merger LP IPO Redemption 28

This is going to be BIG.

SEPTEMBER 7, 2012

I know, because those people all used to pitch me as an institutional LP back in the day. Reality is that venture is a bunch of individual stories, individual assessments of teams, unique products, and a whole lot of stars lining up for particular companies for success to happen.

Later Stage 99

Later Stage Down Round Pre-Money Valuation Early Stage 99

www.quora.com

SEPTEMBER 22, 2011

Early employees are paid a salary from day 1, don't have to have the reputation/connections to raise money, take on much less risk, and often have much more information about the company (team so far, financials, product traction/progress) when they decide to join than the founders do when they found the company. This answer.

Equity 40

Equity Employee Founder Cofounder 40

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

VC Cafe

APRIL 9, 2010

Benchmark Capital and existing investors including Mangrove Capital Partners and Bessemer Venture Partners funded the round for future product development, likely for iPad related Flash content (more here ). NGN Capital; Peregrine Ventures Buyer Funds: NGN BioMed Opportunity II LP. Wix has raised $20 million in funding till date.

Venture Capital 68

Venture Capital LLC LP 68

Start Up Blog

APRIL 29, 2013

The revolution is about access and the democratization of the factors of production. Who gets to own the digital products we have purchased in good faith? While non bank business financing is currently miniscule by comparison, the numbers from kickstarter.com tell us something is brewing. It’s the next phase of D.I.Y:

Uruguay 123

Uruguay Technical Review Vertical Las Vegas 123

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 4, 2021

But beyond its products, Coinbase is an interesting company in itself. But if I see a really great piece of work product, I generally will just try to, say hey, let's post this on the blog externally. And of course, I wasn't really interested in the finance side of it to me. Do we need more regulation in this area or less?

IPO 113

IPO Cofounder Technical Review Government 113

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 30, 2016

I told him that I had observed every LP on their computers doing email and that clearly they were bored, to which he replied, “We like boring Powerpoint presentations. When we were rebuilding our LP base one of the single most helpful person to me as a friend, sparring partner and reference was Dana Settle of Greycroft.

Community 150

Community Los Angeles LP Portfolio 150

David Teten

NOVEMBER 23, 2020

. – Indiegogo.com is a crowd-funding platform allowing contributors to empower hundreds of thousands of inventors, musicians, do-gooders, filmmakers – and many more – to bring their dreams to life. – Clarity.com proactively advises you on managing your personal finances efficiently. Goldman Sachs bought Clarity for ~$100m. .

Venture Capital 60

Venture Capital Partner Technical Review Cofounder 60