David Teten

JANUARY 19, 2021

More and more startups are pursuing Revenue-Based VCs , but “RBI” doesn’t fit everyone. Flexible VC 101: Equity Meets Revenue Share. By tying payments to actual revenues, founders and investors remain aligned around the company’s real-time performance, good or bad. Of the Inc. 5000 companies, only 6.5% raised from angels.

Cofounder 78

Cofounder Technical Review Equity Dividend 78

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 23, 2014

The rise of “micro VCs” or seed-stage funds. The “big boom” in startup financing started around March 2009?—?more Public-company tech investors creates competition in late-stage financings and these investors can afford to be less price sensitive if they choose. On the surface the narratives have been.

Technical Review 398

Technical Review Venture Capital Valuation Pre-Money Valuation 398

View from Seed

JANUARY 27, 2021

This is a fresh $100M fund with the same high-conviction, hands-on seed strategy that we’ve been pursuing since the start of NextView over 10 years ago. 100M is a meaningful increase from our $50M third fund, though it’s still quite small in the grand scheme of venture, especially amid the recent wave of late stage financings and SPACs.

LP 411

LP Early Stage Seed Stage Venture Capital 411

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 13, 2018

Over the past five years, we’ve witnessed an Atomization of the Seed Stage. Early fundraising is no longer a one-and-done fundraise of a single round of Seed capital subsequently followed by a Series A 12–18 months later. Seed stage startups are now graded on a curve. raise $1.8M

Seed Stage 136

Seed Stage Post-Money Valuation Valuation Startup 136

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 16, 2010

So angel and seed stage investors’ returns will be dependent on good times continuing or on the ability of their portfolio companies to get financed. Revenue must come from a primary source (as opposed to advertising or other third party sources). Nobody understands this better than First Round Capital.

LP 311

LP Technical Review Early Stage Silicon Valley 311

Gust

JULY 8, 2012

If you are new to the entrepreneurial world of startups, you are likely confused by the terminology of seed-stage, lean startups, micro-VCs, and Super Angels. Seed-stage means promising companies that don’t yet have a revenue stream, and may not yet have a proof of concept. Series-seed round. Super Angels.

Early Stage 177

Early Stage Finance Seed Stage Entrepreneur 177

View from Seed

OCTOBER 15, 2014

Over the summer, based on feedback from our portfolio and the broader startup community, NextView created pre-formatted board deck templates for seed-stage startups — part of our Growth Guides series. As Rob Go wrote , board decks and board meetings can waste loads of time at the seed stage.

Seed Stage 331

Seed Stage Cap Table Metrics Burn Rate 331

Hunter Walker

JULY 22, 2014

Hey founders, want to hear something incredibly frustrating about seed financing? You know the one that inevitably has you at $100 million in revenue by Year Three? Just* committing to grow customers or revenue or usage can still create a hollow company. I don’t believe the forecast you show me. Yeah, that one.

Forecast 96

Forecast Early Stage Seed Stage Startup 96

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 23, 2019

*This post is part of our “pitch deck” series where we dissect the seed stage pitch deck and discuss the ideal flow for a pitch. To provide relevant perspective, listing past convertible note(s) and/or equity financing(s) including total round size and valuation (caps) is helpful. Here we are, at (one of) the final slides.

Cap Table 211

Cap Table Seed Stage Valuation Dilution 211

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 19, 2013

Yet our initial customer success didn’t translate into big revenue growth and we faced issues such as: Do we support developers, end-users or both? I have a very public seed stage investment policy and awe.sm Do we price for volume of consumption or for enterprise integration with other platforms? I saw it first hand.

Technical Review 303

Technical Review Cofounder Analytics Founder 303

View from Seed

NOVEMBER 18, 2014

Once a startup has raised seed capital, plenty of theories and advice exist on how to successfully raise a Series A. Recently, we looked at our own portfolio at NextView Ventures to dig a little deeper on how startups actually raise that next round of financing. Generate Real Revenue. Craft a Small Scale Machine.

Syndicate 333

Syndicate Syndication Seed Stage Startup 333

K9 Ventures

JUNE 5, 2015

Almost two years ago, in a private/closed meeting with K9 Ventures’ LPs only, I claimed that: What was being referred to in the press as the “Series A Crunch” was not because fewer Series A deals were being done, but because there were too many Seed deals being done. Seed stage was super tough. Implications for Founders.

Seed Stage 48

Seed Stage Venture Capital Early Stage Valuation 48

This is going to be BIG.

AUGUST 22, 2012

Let’s start out with the basic functions of a tech company: 1) Engineering 2) Marketing 3) Sales 4) Business development 5) PR 6) Design 7) Product Management 8) HR 9) Operations 10) Finance Ok, that's just overwhelming. Ready to start simplifying? The last two are pretty basic.

PR 144

PR Technical Review Seed Stage Design 144

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 1, 2011

If you are new to the entrepreneurial world of startups, you are likely confused by the terminology of seed-stage, lean startups, micro-VCs, and Super Angels. Seed-stage means promising companies that don’t yet have a revenue stream, and may not yet have a proof of concept. Series-seed round. Super Angels.

Early Stage 231

Early Stage Seed Stage Angel Investor Silicon Valley 231

thebarefootvc

JANUARY 27, 2014

I think that later stage valuations are frothy (for reasons I explain below) while earlier stage valuations are starting to stabilize from previous highs (with the exception of the superstar serial entrepreneur) - turns out scaling in a sea of competition (both startup and entrenched) is not so easy. Or so it seems.

Technical Review 63

Technical Review Valuation Venture Capital Investment Bankers 63

Gust

SEPTEMBER 5, 2012

How to finance a new seed-stage startup? ” Ressi in particular seems to be passionate about removing the “debt” component from convertible debt seed financing transactions. .” A convertible note financing is not a loan in the conventional sense. Convertible debt?

Finance 134

Finance Convertible Security Equity Seed Stage 134

Genuine VC

MAY 29, 2014

It’s been five years now since large VC ‘signaling’ entered the seed stage entrepreneur’s lexicon. It seems as though it’s been talked about ad nauseum in the blogosphere, but we see first-hand as entrepreneurs we’re investing in at NextView Ventures work through building their seed round syndicates, it really is a tough issue.

Syndicate 166

Syndicate Syndication Seed Stage Valuation 166

David Teten

JULY 10, 2019

As a VC, I’m interested in working with companies with large-scale revenue potential, and that’s the company we envision. This work is unpaid, as with any other startup at the pre-seed stage. Once we’ve executed all the steps above, we go to VCs and raise seed capital of $1-2m. Q: Is this civic tech? A nonprofit?

America 60

America Technical Review Advisory Board Due Diligence 60

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 25, 2019

*This post is part of our “pitch deck” series where we dissect the seed stage pitch deck and discuss the ideal flow for a pitch. Investors want to know the critical thinking behind the inputs and value-drivers of the business, and how that results in the outputs on the critical metrics and finances.

Seed Stage 166

Seed Stage Retention Restful Valuation 166

Haystack

FEBRUARY 17, 2019

And this week, the company announced it had raised a super-sized $20M Series A financing co-led by Kent Bennett from Bessemer Venture Partners and also Goldman Sachs. On the other hand, solid businesses like SecondMeasure which have found product-market fit within the seed stage have more leverage on when to take financing and from what firm.

Seed Stage 106

Seed Stage Retention Finance Conversion 106

The Next Web

FEBRUARY 27, 2014

This is typically in conjunction with an upcoming financing or pending takeover offer. A competitive commodity business, or a “me too” story , will be less demanded, and hence, will require a lower valuation to close your financing. Freshman are a piece of paper to beta site (bootstrap financed—raise $50K to $500K).

Valuation 167

Valuation Forecast Seed Stage .Net 167

VC Cafe

FEBRUARY 27, 2024

A founder asked me what makes a $2M round “pre-seed”? especially if the startup already has a product and revenue? And why do we still sometimes hear about pre-seed rounds that look more like a series A in pricing and size? Pre-seed tends to be about developing an MVP and generating early traction.

Valuation 186

Valuation Software Review Generative AI Technical Review 186

K9 Ventures

OCTOBER 10, 2017

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. And I sincerely hope that this post does a good job of addressing what Pre-Seed really is. Q: Define Pre-Seed? Q: What amount of financing is considered Pre-Seed?

Seed Stage 82

Seed Stage Finance Later Stage Equity 82

VC Adventure

MAY 5, 2022

In markets like this, funds that deploy quickly generate markups on their full portfolio; those that show more patience suffer from an IRR perspective as a larger portion of their fund is yet to be marked up by subsequent financing rounds. Both were valued at greater than 50x revenue (one was, I think, 70x revenue).

IRR 116

IRR Metrics Valuation LP 116

View from Seed

JANUARY 26, 2016

In the next post, I’ll talk about how we think about pre-seeds at NextView. It’s become increasingly common for startups to raise several seed rounds, and this has led to a bifurcation in the seed stage between what are known as “pre-seed” (or “genesis”) and institutional seed rounds.

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage Early Stage Cofounder Finance 120

K9 Ventures

JUNE 12, 2012

While it it may not feel that way, the data suggest that there is indeed too much capital in the system — especially so at the seed stage, with more and more individuals and larger funds trying to invest in companies at this stage.). This situation is not always in the best interest of founders.

Venture Capital 117

Venture Capital Silicon Valley Founder Seed Stage 117

Genuine VC

JANUARY 3, 2013

According to all of the blogosphere chatter over the past month, seed-funded internet startups are entering this year gearing up for the now-near-infamous Series A Crunch. to become not just ramen-profitable, but sustainably profitable.

Seed Stage 166

Seed Stage Venture Capital Audience New York 166

Diego Basch

MARCH 14, 2013

I avoid the entertainment industry, and anything where the revenue stream is based on advertising. I prefer investing in health, transportation, education, and (under some very specific circumstances) finance. If your seed-stage company fits the criteria above, please contact me.

San Francisco 55

San Francisco Startup Silicon Valley Seed Stage 55

K9 Ventures

JUNE 12, 2012

While it it may not feel that way, the data suggest that there is indeed too much capital in the system — especially so at the seed stage, with more and more individuals and larger funds trying to invest in companies at this stage.). This situation is not always in the best interest of founders.

Venture Capital 105

Venture Capital Silicon Valley Founder Seed Stage 105

K9 Ventures

APRIL 9, 2014

Instead, it was more of a result of over-funding at the seed stage. There was simply too much money coming in to the seed stage, which increased the supply of companies at the seed stage. Threshold for an IPO is higher Ten years ago, if you had $20M in revenue you were ready to go public.

Mezzanine 134

Mezzanine Seed Stage Early Stage IPO 134

The Equity Kicker

APRIL 21, 2016

But it got me thinking about the trade off between short term clarity and long term upside in seed stage investing. That plan will show short term activities that generate value and significant revenues in the out years. Not when they’re at the seed stage.

Seed Stage 60

Seed Stage Venture Capital eCommerce Partner 60

This is going to be BIG.

MARCH 16, 2020

As a seed stage investor, I know the math. Some key existings who didn’t want to see their prior money get lost wouldn’t budge on a dilutive financing, despite the fact that they knew where we were headed. Half the companies I invest in won’t provide a financial return. The answer, unfortunately, was to declare bankruptcy.

Bankruptcy 95

Bankruptcy Private Equity Seed Stage Dilution 95

VC Adventure

APRIL 18, 2019

And most major investors will also require annual audits (we sometimes waive this for seed stage companies, although even then it can make sense). There’s convenience to this for startups – especially with limited finance staff – but as you grow it’s more typical to use a different firm for audit and tax.

Seed Stage 83

Seed Stage Portfolio Revenue Finance 83

View from Seed

JUNE 30, 2015

A few weeks ago, Manu Kumar wrote an excellent post detailing the current state of the seed financing landscape. One very common meme these days is that “seed is the new A.” Over a third of our investments happen pre-product (so by definition, before PMF), and two-thirds are pre-revenue.

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage Syndicate Syndication Dilution 120

Agile VC

JANUARY 12, 2012

When a startup doesn’t match the stage where a particular investor focuses, founders may get a response along the lines of “This is interesting to us, but come back once you get from X phase to Y phase” That could be from seed stage to a larger Series A financing need, or to progress from pre-product to post-revenue.

Seed Stage 100

Seed Stage Silicon Valley Syndicate Syndication 100

View from Seed

JUNE 16, 2015

And that product is a highly engaged seed-stage investment where we are usually the lead or co-lead in a round and will often take a board seat. In my opinion, VCs shy away from directly answering the questions pertaining to “at what point a company is fundable” or give a generic answer regarding revenue.

Boston 120

Boston Syndicate Syndication eCommerce 120

View from Seed

OCTOBER 22, 2015

For example, employees aren’t going to start the day after the financing closes — it often takes three months or more to recruit additional core team members and get them up and going. Also, it will take at least three months to raise the next round of financing, whatever it is (Series A, seed extension, etc.).

Seed Capital 120

Seed Capital Seed Stage Demand Finance 120