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

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. Having diversity of investors can end up being pretty helpful.

Syndicate 202

Syndicate Syndication Seed Stage Lead Investor 202

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

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. Ideally, reach out to people from your past who have wealth, influence, or a network. Instead, approach your fundraising in tiers.

Early Stage 165

Early Stage Security Angel Investor Lead Investor 165

Gust

SEPTEMBER 27, 2014

I am continually surprised at founders who spend ten minutes throwing up a barebones profile and are dismayed that money doesn’t start flowing in. Investor profiles on the platform are created by the investors themselves, and tell you exactly who the group’s leaders are, and what they are looking for.

Angel Groups 159

Angel Groups Elevator Pitch Software Review Deal Flow 159

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

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

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

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. This is Homebrew Forever.

Cap Table 67

Cap Table Venture Capital Cofounder Portfolio 67

techcrunch.com

APRIL 26, 2013

Co-founder Naval Ravikant explains that 18 pilot companies in the program, including Transcriptic, Double Robotics and Tred, received $6.7 million in commitments from 620 investors in the past four months, with about $2 million raised per month on average. Investors included Founders Fund, 500 Startups and Marc Cuban.

SEC 61

SEC Accredited Investor San Diego New York City 61

David Teten

SEPTEMBER 6, 2015

Previously she was Co-Founder and CEO of SNAZZ, a cloud-based event management platform. At Virgin Mobile USA, Mari led early initiatives in mobile commerce, social networking and advertising. What are some of the unique benefits and constraints from the point of view of a founder? . Mari Holds a B.A.

Venture Capital 60

Venture Capital Balance Sheet Technical Review Portfolio 60

Hearpreneur

AUGUST 27, 2023

As the founder of Breachsense, I set aside dedicated time in my calendar for non-work-related activities. This person conducts regular one-on-one meetings with the chairman and lead investor. This form of exercise helps me cultivate inner peace while also improving my physical health through improved circulation.

Entrepreneur 106

Entrepreneur Australia Lead Investor Management 106

A Crowded Space

OCTOBER 3, 2018

Very shortly after I joined, Greg Gretsch (now my partner at Jackson Square Ventures) co-led oDesk’s Series A along with Venky Ganesan (partner at Menlo Ventures and lead investor in Rev.com). The correct answer is to closely manage the overall network – promote the good people and kick out the bad people.

San Francisco 60

San Francisco Bangladesh Ukraine Philippines 60

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 29, 2016

Just like professional investors wait for friends and family to go first, friends will wait for you to show “skin in the game.” A startup founder that is not the “lead investor” in time and money should not expect anyone else to jump in front and lead the way. Demonstrate your own financial commitment and progress.

Elevator Pitch 151

Elevator Pitch Exit Strategy Angel Investor Equity 151

www.readwriteweb.com

MARCH 7, 2011

Before AngelList, investment dealflow was private and networks revolved around a few connected angels and VC?s. Since the angel network was created, transparent angel investing has exploded and entrepreneurs from any background can get funded. Theres now a heated discussion in the investor class about AngelList. spray-and-pray?

Technical Review 50

Technical Review Due Diligence Startup Angel Investor 50

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 2, 2020

The story of how Curative pivoted and scaled is about moving with entrepreneurial speed to find a solution, then collaborating with investors and government for the public good. Celine Halioua , founder of a company called Celevity that is developing drugs to extend the lifespan of dogs, also played a key role. I didn't have any team.

Curation 60

Curation Government Los Angeles Partner 60

ithacaVC

DECEMBER 9, 2018

They are independent from the founders, independent from the management team and independent from investors. Often there is inherent tension between professional investors (VCs) and founders. Good for the founders and good for the investors. I recommend that the founders source the independent.

Stock Options 40

Stock Options Salary Lead Investor Founder 40

David Teten

JULY 12, 2017

Alpha Venture Partners’ and Correlation Ventures’ founders all have strong operational backgrounds; that said, they don’t typically serve on boards and don’t get as involved in company management as many other VCs. They are comfortable with others taking the lead. . Fundraising is burdensome. Alpha pursues a similar model.

Syndicate 60

Syndicate Syndication Institutional Investors LP 60

Reid Hoffman

JANUARY 26, 2021

But every so often another founder also sits on the board. If that’s the case, it’s essential that that founder and the CEO have a very tight relationship and coordinate closely to avoid allowing members of the organization to use that alternate channel to the board to get around the CEO’s decisions. Maybe it’s an economic challenge.

Startup 36

Startup Equity Early Stage Green 36

This is going to be BIG.

JANUARY 18, 2010

and FashInvest invite the online fashion community to present their startups to the audience and special feedback panel consisting of leading investors in the space. RSVP: [link] 6:00PM Fashion 2.0: Startups Showcase Fashion 2.0 what is changing/what isn't -- what are we willing to bet on, and where are the wildcards.

Community 60

Community Cofounder Venture Capital Social Network 60

BeyondVC

JULY 7, 2010

This was the year 2000 and the idea was that Metapa would allow any company to send any media asset over any content delivery network and our service would automatically transform the asset for viewing anywhere. Frankly we did this to keep ourselves around long enough to figure out what to do next.

Portfolio 109

Portfolio Architecture Open Source Database 109

BeyondVC

JULY 7, 2010

This was the year 2000 and the idea was that Metapa would allow any company to send any media asset over any content delivery network and our service would automatically transform the asset for viewing anywhere. Frankly we did this to keep ourselves around long enough to figure out what to do next.

Portfolio 109

Portfolio Open Source Architecture Database 109

View from Seed

AUGUST 26, 2015

They also want to help founders and want their products and services to exist. So, if you’ve been a successful internet founder or have launched great web/mobile products, most founders would love to have you in a round even if your check size is small. Be founder driven. Investment Strategy. I’m not that dogmatic here.

Technical Review 120

Technical Review Angel Investor Software Review Silicon Valley 120

View from Seed

AUGUST 26, 2015

They also want to help founders and want their products and services to exist. So, if you’ve been a successful internet founder or have launched great web/mobile products, most founders would love to have you in a round even if your check size is small. Be founder driven. Investment Strategy. I’m not that dogmatic here.

Technical Review 120

Technical Review Angel Investor Software Review Silicon Valley 120

Austin Startup

OCTOBER 13, 2010

StoredIQ , a leading provider of Intelligent Information Management solutions for eDiscovery, records and compliance management, today announced that it has closed $10 million in new investment financing and expanded its management team in preparation for accelerated growth. CrunchBase Information. S3 Ventures.

Vertical 59

Vertical Early Stage Cofounder Channel 59

Rob Go

JANUARY 9, 2012

I believe that the best way to understand an investor is to meet the founders that they work with. Founders: We invest behind founders from a variety of backgrounds. Broadly speaking, they break down something like this: First Time Founder: 6. Source Type: How we meet founders. Introduced by co-investor: 3.

Portfolio 46

Portfolio Syndicate Syndication Cofounder 46

View from Seed

MAY 29, 2019

These funds would regularly share deal flow with one another and could share the work in supporting founders and helping to push the company forward. This post will try to describe why this is happening and what repercussions are for founders and investors. Is This is Good or Bad for Founders?

Syndicate 267

Syndicate Syndication Cofounder Cap Table 267

Rob Go

FEBRUARY 3, 2014

Also included in the round are typically 2 sorts of high-quality angels – those that really know the founders and are let into the round because of relationship, and those that are more value-added in nature, usually because of the brand credibility they bring or deep domain knowledge. In a given $1.5M Feel free to call them”.

Term Sheet 73

Term Sheet Due Diligence Valuation Seed Stage 73

David Teten

JANUARY 10, 2012

Howard Lindzon is Co-Founder and CEO of StockTwits, a social network for traders and investors to share real-time ideas and information. Michael was the lead research analyst for the IPOs of Internet companies like UUNET, Yahoo!, Christopher Ahlberg is the CEO and Co-founder of Recorded Future.

Technical Review 128

Technical Review Technology North Carolina Switzerland 128

Professor VC

APRIL 1, 2010

While this may certainly be the case with unsophisticated angels (much less of these now) or in cases with no lead investor, Id argue the opposite. In my experience, venture investors are more focused on percentage ownership, which obviously requires a trade-off with the amount invested and valuation. Steve Bennet. at 11:15 AM.

Term Sheet 32

Term Sheet Angel Investor San Jose Venture Capital 32

Rob Go

AUGUST 9, 2016

Raising money is often challenging, and a lot has been written about how to optimize the process to get the most attractive deal with the right investors. But relatively little has been written about actually selecting the “right” investor. But often, it is not. Here are a couple suggestions on this.

Term Sheet 28

Term Sheet Due Diligence Lead Investor Portfolio 28

SoCal CTO

SEPTEMBER 8, 2010

Before I get into the details for founders, let me talk about options-hungry employees. How I Think About Seed Investing As A VC - Feld Thoughts , August 2, 2010 Last week saw an explosion of discussion around seed investing, including plenty of negative comments around VCs as seed investors. Do it because you love small teams.

Startup 191

Startup CTO Hire Cofounder Venture Capital 191

Hunter Walker

JANUARY 17, 2023

Similarly, founders of these companies are looking for lead investors who can de-risk their path forward. Being a pure generalist VC makes it very difficult to convince savvy founders that you have the industry relationships, relevant pattern-matching, and density of experience to be their best lead investor.

Early Stage 86

Early Stage Lead Investor Matching Software 86

David Teten

FEBRUARY 3, 2014

But in practice, these phenomena create a tremendous volume of startups, which investors then have to filter. Most investors rely on their network of colleagues and service providers to source investments. The funds with more traditional origination are primarily focused on their local venture center network.

Private Equity 114

Private Equity Venture Capital Technical Review Equity 114

VC Adventure

MAY 21, 2014

A few months ago AngelList announced Syndicates - enabling investors on AngelList to create fund-like groups of investors to invest together in AngelList companies (following a single lead investor). FG Angels and AngelList will get their carry straight from the syndicate investors upon an exit.

Syndicate 93

Syndicate Syndication Technical Review Due Diligence 93

mashable.com

NOVEMBER 2, 2011

Facebook Co-Founder’s Startup Asana Launches Publicly. Joshua Baer is the co-founder and CEO of Otherinbox , a prolific angel investor and the director of Capital Factory , Austin’s seed-stage incubator. Make It Easy for Investors To Write Checks. Look for Your Lead Investor. Social Network Lists.

Social Media 80

Social Media Startup Angel Investor RSS 80

Professor VC

JANUARY 20, 2009

Ill share a few points about how we were successful, but most of the credit goes to Benjamin Wayne , founder and CEO of Fliqz, a passionate, strategic and tactical executive. This brought in a new set of prospective investors and required a lower investment from the lead investor as our existing investors were committed and on board.

Venture Capital 28

Venture Capital Silicon Valley San Jose Bootstrapping 28