This is going to be BIG.

SEPTEMBER 30, 2012

How would they know unless they surveyed a critical mass of startups all at the same stage now and then three years ago or so to compare? David's firm most recently participated in the $77 million second round financing of SoFi, a one year old startup focusing on student loans. Needless to say, he's having some trouble raising.

Venture Capital 114

Venture Capital Marketing Term Sheet Software Review 114

YoungUpstarts

OCTOBER 14, 2014

But he chose to move forward with a positive attitude, raise seed money for his company, and network his way to a profitable future. Here are six things you can do to make your startup look attractive to potential investors: 1. A natural part of the startup life is the feeling of “building the airplane as you fly.”

Bootstrapping 234

Bootstrapping Startup Seed Money New York 234

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 5, 2010

A caller dialed in to ask us questions about his startup. He was from South America but living in Switzerland and had launched a startup while holding down a day job at a consulting firm (McKinsey if memory serves). He wanted to raise angel money. I was recently on TWiST with Jason Calacanis. I told him to quit his job first.

Entrepreneur 293

Entrepreneur CTO Hire South America Salary 293

Version One Ventures

DECEMBER 14, 2016

At the same time, seed money is still abundant due to the proliferation of micro VC over the past few years. Mattermark (a portfolio company) looked at the matriculation rates for a class of startups. Mattermark found that, on average, around 31 of the initial startups raised a Series A. Looking ahead to 2017.

Technical Review 60

Technical Review Early Stage Portfolio Valuation 60

cdixon.org

SEPTEMBER 17, 2011

Why you shouldn’t keep your startup idea secret. I have a personal diligence rule that when speaking to people at large companies, the facts that they tell you are very useful but their opinions about startup ideas no more valuable than any other smart person’s opinions). Peter Coles. Jon Russell. Jonah Peretti. Lauren Leto.

Stealth 68

Stealth Startup NDA Cofounder 68

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 2, 2011

By John Williams Fast Company magazine recently reported that PayPal founder Paul Thiel is giving away $100,000 to twenty-four young men and women to finance startup businesses. Thiel is providing his mentees with capital to make their startups a reality. Your mortgage and grocery bill depend on it. You can keep overhead low.

Sweat Equity 231

Sweat Equity Startup Angel Investor Seed Money 231

BeyondVC

SEPTEMBER 29, 2011

Increasingly I am seeing many startups who were ably seed funded get caught in "No Man's Land" between the seed round and a true Series A round led by a venture capitalist. This is happening because there are way too many companies raising seed capital but not enough executing their way to a Series A.

Seed Capital 133

Seed Capital Angel Investor Seed Money Startup 133

BeyondVC

SEPTEMBER 29, 2011

Increasingly I am seeing many startups who were ably seed funded get caught in "No Man's Land" between the seed round and a true Series A round led by a venture capitalist. This is happening because there are way too many companies raising seed capital but not enough executing their way to a Series A.

Seed Capital 133

Seed Capital Angel Investor Seed Money Startup 133

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 21, 2013

More important are standard business, finance, and economics courses. Too many startups fail simply by missing the practical elements of money management, time management, and setting priorities. Most schools have business plan competitions, and even give out seed money to winners. Pick an idea, any idea.

Entrepreneur 264

Entrepreneur Seed Money Social Network Business Plan 264

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 6, 2011

More important are standard business, finance, and economics courses. Too many startups fail simply by missing the practical elements of money management, time management, and setting priorities. Most schools have business plan competitions, and even give out seed money to winners. Pick an idea, any idea.

Entrepreneur 264

Entrepreneur Seed Money Social Network Business Plan 264

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 12, 2010

More important are standard business, finance, and economics courses. Too many startups fail simply by missing the practical elements of money management, time management, and setting priorities. Most schools have business plan competitions, and even give out seed money to winners. Pick an idea, any idea.

Seed Money 225

Seed Money Social Network Networking Business Plan 225

Gust

JANUARY 13, 2013

More important are standard business, finance, and economics courses. Too many startups fail simply by missing the practical elements of money management, time management, and setting priorities. Most schools have business plan competitions, and even give out seed money to winners. Pick an idea, any idea.

Entrepreneur 180

Entrepreneur Seed Money Social Network Business Plan 180

Feld Thoughts

AUGUST 28, 2015

I characterized the situation as “silly” and specifically didn’t call out the people as my goal was to be instructive around the startup landscape, not to complain (we are big boys and will deal with whatever) or to try to generate a different outcome. I accepted what happened, wrote my post, and moved on.

Cap Table 70

Cap Table Seed Stage Angel Groups Dilution 70

Berkonomics

OCTOBER 15, 2015

There’s a common expectation among entrepreneurs that seed money from family is great – letting close relatives in at the ground floor. Don’t talk yourself into a high valuation for the first round of financing for any reason , even if your hair is on fire and the idea is worth billions.

Valuation 48

Valuation Startup Seed Money Early Stage 48

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 31, 2019

He’ll be speaking at this year’s Lean Startup Conference , and also has a new book (for which I very happily wrote a short foreword) coming out next month: Secrets of Sand Hill Road: Venture Capital and How to Get It. First, the introduction of seed money as an institutional form of capital.

Lean 108

Lean Venture Capital Conversion IPO 108

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 28, 2010

This includes seed funding Automattic (who produce WordPress, the blog I use for this website) and investing in formspring.me, stickybits, Thing Labs (producer of Brizzly), KissMetrics and many others including Quantcast. So how is Mike able to do this at a time where others have warned against taking seed money from VC funds?

San Francisco 230

San Francisco Los Angeles Cofounder SMS 230

Austin Startup

SEPTEMBER 17, 2017

Startups provide both the luxury and the risk of having very little data on which to base the important early decisions. You’ll want to get cozy with the numbers all over again based on some history and make decisions on operating spend and on financing strategies. This is a point where your really must be honest with yourself.

Valuation 48

Valuation Forecast Seed Money Business Model 48

VC Adventure

APRIL 23, 2012

There’s been plenty of chatter over the past few years about the potential pitfalls for entrepreneurs taking seed money from VCs.

Institutional Investors 93

Institutional Investors Seed Money Finance Entrepreneur 93

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 1, 2010

I think the issue was mostly framed initially by Chris Dixon in his article The Problem with Taking Seed Money from Big VC s. In these cases we proactively offer to lead their next round of financing. Tags: Startup Advice Tech Market Analysis VC Industry.

Post-Money Valuation 298

Post-Money Valuation Term Sheet Warrant Partner 298

Rob Go

MARCH 20, 2013

What are some common-sense tips for startups as they seek to avoid the “ Trough of Sorrow ” that Brian Balfour has blogged about? There really aren’t many easy answers – honestly, most startups face some sort of trough of sorrow. Find good financing partners. Rob Go] This is a great question!

Bootstrapping 46

Bootstrapping Finance Dividend Vesting 46

VC Adventure

APRIL 23, 2012

There’s been plenty of chatter over the past few years about the potential pitfalls for entrepreneurs taking seed money from VCs.

Institutional Investors 48

Institutional Investors Seed Money Finance Entrepreneur 48

The Startup Magazine

OCTOBER 19, 2020

Bitcoin investing is the new frontier, the Wild West, a place where the playing field is relatively even and anyone can make some money. Armed with this knowledge, some seed money, and a little bit of luck, you can be the next bitcoin success story.

Seed Money 125

Seed Money Stock Security Analytics 125

Version One Ventures

JANUARY 28, 2013

With headlines declaring that more than 1,000 seeded startups will soon be orphaned, it’s only natural that startups are concerned about the future funding landscape. Seed financing grew from 89 fundings in Q1 2009 to more than 500 in Q3 2012. For example, a startup of mine just raised a $3 million seed round.

Burn Rate 140

Burn Rate San Francisco Vesting Finance 140

www.businessinsider.com

SEPTEMBER 6, 2012

Your Money. Top Startup Advisor Paul Graham Just Warned Against Taking Googles Money. Paul Graham is warning startups against "lowball offers.". What Its Really Like To Go Through Y Combinator, The Most Important Startup School In The World. Convertible notes technically dont set a price for startups.

Silicon Valley 54

Silicon Valley Startup Valuation Venture Capital 54

pandodaily.com

NOVEMBER 29, 2012

Add to this regular angels becoming “super angels” — a much-mocked phrase for when someone goes from investing their own money to investing institutional funds. Essentially they became micro-VCs, still investing at the seed level but with much greater resources behind them. A name like 500 Startups says it all.

Technical Review 93

Technical Review Silicon Valley Incubator Syria 93