Gust

SEPTEMBER 2, 2015

By Paula Taas, Founder Institute. By searching for a lead investor in your next funding round. The lead investor is the first step in Read more >. The lead investor is the first step in Read more >. The post How To Secure A Lead Investor appeared first on The Gust Blog.

Lead Investor 70

Lead Investor Security Search Founder 70

View from Seed

OCTOBER 24, 2019

As seed rounds have atomized, it’s not uncommon for founders to raise 3 or even 4 rounds prior to a series A. The reality is that if a founder raised every one of these rounds, and lead investors always got their “target” ownership, the level of dilution would be ridiculous. Founders with limited experience.

Dilution 149

Dilution B2B Burn Rate Early Stage 149

View from Seed

OCTOBER 21, 2014

Using NextView as an example, since we both seek to lead the seed round and only lead during this round, I’ve seen this trend manifest in one of two ways: In a priced round, the entrepreneur will often share their valuation ask (or a stated floor) for the pre-money valuation of their company much sooner in the process.

Valuation 336

Valuation Founder Seed Stage Angel Investor 336

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 26, 2013

We give abundant advice to founders about how to make startups succeed yet we offer few models about dealing with failure. We established a team of founders who worked collaboratively. “What’s gone and what’s past help. Should be past grief.” ” William Shakespeare - The Winter’s Tale. So here’s mine.

Redemption 330

Redemption Cofounder Silicon Valley Burn Rate 330

Feld Thoughts

JUNE 9, 2021

Matt was the co-founder/CEO of Return Path. Fred Wilson was his lead investor. I was the lead investor for Veripost. The founders of each company talked and, in between efforts to decimate the other, agreed it might be worth merging to survive. I’ve been working with Matt since 2000.

Fractional CTO 70

Fractional CTO Cofounder Startup Lead Investor 70

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 29, 2013

” From the hyperbolic Jason Calacanis weighing in that “The petty VC’s did everything to deride [Naval, the co-founder of AngelList]” as though the industry was collectively s g its pants that AngelList was going to put us out of business. It’s hard to be a great lead investor . founder fighting.

Syndicate 356

Syndicate Syndication Cofounder Early Stage 356

View from Seed

JANUARY 27, 2021

But it is also large enough to write a $2M check to lead a post-seed round for companies that are starting to scale. What hasn’t changed is that our heart lies in working with founders to find product/market fit and to begin to grow. This year also marks the 10-year anniversary of the founding of NextView.

LP 411

LP Early Stage Seed Stage Venture Capital 411

Gust

NOVEMBER 28, 2023

The principal roles of the lead investor was to negotiate the terms of an investment with the founder of the startup. That’s what you as a founder will have, which is why it’s also known as founders’ stock. There is a different kind of stock that investors can choose to purchase, called preferred stock.

Due Diligence 91

Due Diligence Term Sheet Common Stock Preferred Stock 91

Hippoland

AUGUST 9, 2016

One question that seed investors love to ask is if you have a lead investor in your seed round. But once you figure out why an investor is asking, tactically speaking, what do you do? Let’s say that you find out that an investor is asking because he/she does not invest without a lead investor in place.

Lead Investor 48

Lead Investor Term Sheet Due Diligence Convertible Security 48

View from Seed

FEBRUARY 26, 2020

In previous blog posts I’ve written about the two main approaches to building a seed round syndicate – the subscription method (where an entrepreneur presets a structure with a convertible note or SAFE and recruits investors who subscribe to the round, all without a term-driving lead investor) and a term-driving lead investor approach.

Syndicate 257

Syndicate Syndication Lead Investor Venture Capital 257

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 26, 2013

We give abundant advice to founders about how to make startups succeed yet we offer few models about dealing with failure. We established a team of founders who worked collaboratively. “What’s gone and what’s past help. Should be past grief.” ” William Shakespeare - The Winter’s Tale. So here’s mine.

Redemption 222

Redemption Cofounder Silicon Valley Burn Rate 222

Rob Go

SEPTEMBER 4, 2018

Most of these rhyme with what we’ve said in the past, but some have also evolved to fit the changing landscape and our own convictions about what really matters for founders and their investors at the seed stage. Lead investors are few. Leads that are true force-multipliers are exceedingly rare.

North America 36

North America Seed Stage Early Stage Lead Investor 36

Hunter Walker

NOVEMBER 21, 2018

When they’re at seed stage, we’re deferring to the founders’ decisions but also trying to help them understand the challenges associated with a hard pivot if their cap table isn’t supportive of the direction. At the same time, investors should give the founders some space to figure out if they want to push on or not.

Founder 96

Founder Cap Table Seed Stage Cofounder 96

View from Seed

FEBRUARY 4, 2021

It’s a super important, near permanent relationship, especially for a lead investor that is likely to take a board seat for many years. I know many VC’s that are amazing partners to founders in thick and thin. But their reputation with founders that pitch them is mixed. This is true.

Founder 280

Founder Lead Investor Portfolio Reputation 280

ithacaVC

MARCH 9, 2017

Sometimes at the seed stage, the company founder insists that he/she be the only board member and that once more financing is raised that the board composition will be normalized (code word for “adding more members”). We followed in line with the lead investor and went along with the structure.

Seed Stage 58

Seed Stage Software Review Institutional Investors Lead Investor 58

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 7, 2015

Another founder … “When I pitched the idea to Adam, he was super on board,” Mr. Sloyan said. million from more than 30 investors. And from Nancy Hua … “Too many angels can also hurt a start-up and be taken as an indication that a company is not strong enough to attract any one “lead” investor, said Ms.

Cap Table 150

Cap Table Silicon Valley Cofounder Startup 150

View from Seed

JUNE 11, 2019

At this point, founders find themselves in a luxurious situation of being able to build the best possible syndicate. Here are a couple tips and suggestions on how to go about creating the most supportive investor base for a typical institutional seed round.

Syndicate 202

Syndicate Syndication Seed Stage Cap Table 202

YoungUpstarts

OCTOBER 12, 2017

To outside investors, the future of early stage and startup companies can be murky. When investors believe in the founders, products, or ideas they will provide companies with funding. Many of these companies are pre-revenue and in the cash burn stage as they try to establish their technology and market.

San Francisco 114

San Francisco Forecast Early Stage Term Sheet 114

View from Seed

FEBRUARY 23, 2021

One reason for this is that institutional seed funds have gotten bigger, and so the rivalry to lead rounds and buy ownership is more intense. The other is that I think both investors and entrepreneurs are getting much more efficient about reaching one another. The old process of syndication inevitably took several weeks in the past.

Syndicate 207

Syndicate Syndication Term Sheet Cofounder 207

Hunter Walker

JANUARY 10, 2022

I love working with great people and as a venture capitalist, am fortunate the number of founders I’m impressed by far exceeds our investment capacity. Here’s an example of a founder that I’ve known for a while who recently raised a seed round with different firms than ours. The needs of the lead investor for ownership?

Cofounder 89

Cofounder Founder Acquisition Startup 89

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 16, 2017

It was a “disappearing text app” where the founders told me that they named the company because the idea came from how Tiger Woods got caught cheating on his wife because all of his mistresses had evidence that he cheated because they saved text messages from him. I didn’t do that. Because that would a very long and bitchy article I’m sure.

IPO 214

IPO Los Angeles Technical Review Silicon Valley 214

View from Seed

FEBRUARY 12, 2020

During the course of a fundraise, founders are likely to encounter a few questions from VC’s that seem awkward or even a bit unfair. These are questions that usually don’t have anything to do with the business itself, but center around the dynamics of the round or maybe the motivations of the founders.

Term Sheet 364

Term Sheet Burn Rate Founder Partner 364

YoungUpstarts

MAY 1, 2020

by Ash Rust , founder and managing partner of Sterling Road. Most startups will need a viable product and proof of credibility before they can expect early-stage investors to really bite. But the warning still holds: Don’t focus on lead investors exclusively (even if they’re the ideal outcome).

Early Stage 154

Early Stage Security Angel Investor Lead Investor 154

Hunter Walker

AUGUST 29, 2017

As a result our investment process is geared towards giving teams a chance to understand what it’s like to work with us and, on our end, confirming that we can be a good partner to the founders. Reviewing the application together shows you how an investor will react to founders making decisions with incomplete information.

Founder 71

Founder Incubator Seed Stage Lead Investor 71

View from Seed

JANUARY 11, 2021

The sudden arrival of the global pandemic has shifted the playbook for founders and venture capitalists. Investors previously prone to onsite visits and amassed airline miles, now grapple with how to form relationships and build confidence without having met teams in person. Zoom calls have taken the place of in-person meetings.

Venture Capital 350

Venture Capital Cofounder Early Stage Seed Stage 350

The Startup Magazine

MARCH 1, 2021

As part of The Startup Magazine Founder Interview Series , we interviewed Maha and David Harper, wife and husband co-founders of Atlas Group London, a construction-tech startup that has digitized the building of healthcare facilities. Co-Founder & CEO. Co-Founder & COO. David Harper. Maha Harper.

Technical Review 110

Technical Review Founder Saudi Arabia Cofounder 110

The Startup Magazine

AUGUST 18, 2017

The opening keynote session will define directions on Aligning the Role of Government Policymakers, Incumbent Banks, FinTech Innovators, Investors, Multilateral Agencies, MNOs and the Private Sector to Create a Dynamic Ecosystem for FinTech in Africa.

Africa 62

Africa Ethiopia Elevator Pitch Technical Review 62

Hunter Walker

SEPTEMBER 12, 2022

An Investor and a Founder Postmortem a Mistake. And while I passed on leading their seed, I did contribute a smaller amount into the financing, along with three subsequent pro rata/super pro rata investments. The ability for an investor to earn the trust of a founder and maintain that over time. The Four (!!!)

Cofounder 96

Cofounder Lead Investor Founder Restful 96

This is going to be BIG.

MAY 17, 2012

That means investors are going to buy that much of your company at a time. That means that founders as a group will be right around 50% ownership after two rounds. It means lead investors can get to 10, 15 or 20% ownership depending on whatever math they have that makes their own success model work.

Venture Capital 116

Venture Capital Framework Dilution Equity 116

This is going to be BIG.

MAY 4, 2022

For most founders, fundraising is a struggle. The rest have to work super hard to create access for themselves, build trust and win investors over. What’s that investor going to be like in a board meeting when you as a female founder need their support or worse, actually their vote?

Cap Table 163

Cap Table Cofounder Private Equity Finance 163

Hippoland

APRIL 9, 2017

3) You act cagey about information Early stage investors understand that there is a lot of work to do in an early stage startup. What looks really bad is when founders try to be evasive about their answers. But a lot of founders will act cagey and evade questions or beat around the bush when faced with difficult questions.

Cofounder 48

Cofounder Early Stage Software Review Naming 48

David Teten

SEPTEMBER 5, 2014

I’ve also presented at a range of industry conferences on how institutional investors can use professional networks for research , origination , market research , and value creation. Our founders realized that investors needed to learn interactively, on-demand, on very specific topics, and in an atmosphere of trust.

New York 114

New York Technical Review Networking Advisory Board 114

Lightspeed Venture Partners

APRIL 12, 2016

Since then, as a team, we’ve been fortunate enough to invest behind the vision of the founders of some tremendous consumer companies across messaging, social media, e-commerce, Internet of Things, marketplaces and gaming. His full time job is CEO of Cheddar , the OTT video company he founded, and where Lightspeed is the lead investor.

Technical Cofounder 60

Technical Cofounder Cofounder SCRUM Committed Capital 60

SiliconHills

APRIL 30, 2019

Active Capital, a new venture capital firm based in San Antonio and led by Pat Matthews, is the lead investor in the seed stage round of funding. Other investors include Altair. Spencer Farber, founder and CEO […]. The post San Antonio-based Cliently Receives $1 Million in Funding appeared first on SiliconHills.

San Antonio 109

San Antonio Seed Stage Venture Capital Lead Investor 109

Pascal's View

JULY 9, 2017

At its core, this issue points to the lack of understanding about the importance of post-money valuation by both entrepreneurs and investors. In contrast, there is limited benefit for being the 2 nd investor or the 10 th investor joining the syndicate of a priced round, so it is common for investors to wait to see “who else is involved”.

Post-Money Valuation 49

Post-Money Valuation Valuation Cap Table Covenant 49

ReadWriteStart

JULY 18, 2011

Clavier began his presentation at the beginning of a company's lifecycle, asking how many co-founders a startup ought to have. Money man and pundit Paul Kedrosky also spoke at the International Startup Festival and offered humorous, blunt advice about how to get what you want from investors and investment bankers.

Investment Bankers 153

Investment Bankers Technical Review Cofounder Due Diligence 153

Hunter Walker

DECEMBER 30, 2022

The same can be said of startups and their founders, in the sense that so many things can go wrong in the building of a company to an exit, that success almost seems to be a statistical anomaly [more on how bees fly ]. See, it happens to investors too, not just founders.

Cap Table 67

Cap Table Venture Capital Cofounder Portfolio 67