View from Seed

JULY 8, 2020

Over the intervening years, we’ve heard continued and consistent feedback about the value of it for seed stage Founders in providing both strategic thought and tactical help in assembling their post-financing investor communications. Again, we’ve put together the full template here for founders to utilize.

Email 331

Email Seed Stage Syndicate Syndication 331

Feld Thoughts

AUGUST 25, 2020

Several people pointed me at Hadiyah Mujhid , the Founder and CEO of HBCUvc. Primary learnings for the fellows include: Originating investment opportunities Conducting due diligence Syndicating transactions Executing transactions Supporting founders and portfolio companies. or email me.

Technical Review 100

Technical Review Due Diligence Syndicate Syndication 100

Haystack

JULY 15, 2018

Immediate “Yes” – It is not common, but it is possible that I leave the meeting with all the information I need and, with some quick reflection, signal the founder that I’d like to invest. ” Here, the onus is on me to re-engage with the founder and ask for their time. This can be as short as 24-48 hours.

Founder 60

Founder Syndicate Syndication Deal Flow 60

Feld Thoughts

JULY 15, 2014

We recently funded Blinkfire Analytics using our FG Angels Syndicate. The CEO and founder, Steve Olechowski , was co-founder / COO of FeedBurner, which Google acquired in 2007. So, we were psyched he was willing to do an FG Angels Syndicate with us. Angel Investing angellist blinkfire fg angels syndicate'

Syndicate 148

Syndicate Syndication Cap Table Due Diligence 148

Feld Thoughts

OCTOBER 11, 2013

Our syndicate, which we are going to max out at $450,000, is currently right at $300,000 after one week. Geir Freysson, founder of Five Hundred Plus , did a super cool visualization of some of the top syndicates and how the participants in the syndicate relate to each other. . We’ve chosen our first deal to do.

Syndicate 148

Syndicate Syndication SEC Angel Groups 148

View from Seed

JANUARY 13, 2021

The objection goes something like this: “yes, I can see rookie founders turning to you for a seed round. But won’t all good founders go to established firms that raise series A’s out of the gate?”. And quite a few founders make the choice to do YC first rather than raise a traditional seed or pre-seed round.

Dilution 399

Dilution Later Stage Portfolio Technical Review 399

View from Seed

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. Instead, it’s more of a Manifesto about the core beliefs that shape our strategy. Belief #1: The best time to invest is early.

North America 120

North America Seed Stage Early Stage Lead Investor 120

View from Seed

OCTOBER 5, 2016

Whether an entrepreneur is raising a smaller (pre-)seed round entirely from individuals or she has a seed-stage or larger VC firm involved in (leading) the seed syndicate, it’s somewhere between necessary and optimal to have multiple individual angel investors involved. First and foremost, angels can provide capital. Affinity by function.

Angel Investor 332

Angel Investor Boston Seed Stage Syndicate 332

Entrepreneurs-Journey.com by Yaro Starak

OCTOBER 25, 2021

Sonya Petcavich is the founder and CEO of Meowtel.com, an ‘Uber for cat sitting’ service where a vetted cat sitter will come to your house and look after your kitties for as long as you need them to. Full disclosure: I am an angel investor in Meowtel and Sonya via the Jason Calacanis syndicate. When […].

Syndicate 95

Syndicate Syndication Founder Angel Investor 95

Steve Blank

MARCH 12, 2014

For the second startup, we chose a year-old web/mobile startup whose market is college bound teens, with a founder who had skipped the initial customer validation process. Knowing they had 3 weeks before presenting to the company co-founders, the kids felt intensity like no traditional classroom could generate.

Lean 334

Lean Customer Development Startup Silicon Valley 334

Genuine VC

SEPTEMBER 18, 2014

When Chad Pytel introduced me to Bryan Helmkamp , CEO/Co-founder of Code Climate , I knew that I had to pay attention. Joining us in the syndicate are Lerer Ventures, Trinity Ventures, and Fuel Capital. Chad is the CEO of thoughtbot, a consulting firm that makes web + mobile apps for early-stage startups. It’s indispensable.”

Software Review 191

Software Review Chad Ruby PHP 191

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. This is primarily an advantage for the underlying investor in the company, not the VC leading the syndicate. .

Syndicate 60

Syndicate Syndication Institutional Investors LP 60

View from Seed

OCTOBER 21, 2014

On the positive side for a founder, directly stating a high valuation expectation up front can anchor the negotiations to a higher level, assuming that an investor takes the leap of faith to invest. After angels, larger venture firms are probably next in terms of how variable they are when reacting to seed pricing asks by founders.

Valuation 336

Valuation Founder Seed Stage Angel Investor 336

David Teten

MARCH 14, 2018

Managers of VC funds typically want to grow their business aggressively, just like the founders we back. Among the sites we have found most helpful with practical guides for founders: Biztree , First Search , Foundersuite , Goodwin Founders Workbench , Guides.co , Inc.com , and StartupRocket. .

Private Equity 60

Private Equity Venture Capital Equity Cofounder 60

Hunter Walker

APRIL 10, 2014

But he’s raised the largest syndicate on AngelList , turning himself effectively into a one-man fund for, if not the masses, at least the 270 people who have already committed nearly $3.4m AngelList syndicate has surprised some people, you’ve been angel investing for quite a while, right? penchina#syndicate.

Syndicate 121

Syndicate Syndication Hiring Cofounder 121

YoungUpstarts

MAY 9, 2014

Founder and CEO of Appsbar, Scott Hirsch, is a noted entrepreneur and expert in mobile marketing. Scott pioneered many of the most utilized concepts in online media including opt-in data collection, email to postal data appending, affiliate marketing, web syndication, internet reality shows and internet pay per view.

Management 167

Management Software Review eCommerce Entrepreneur 167

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 19, 2010

Founded in November 2007 in New York City by Alexis Maybank and Kevin Ryan (co-founder of DoubleClick); CEO is Susan Lyne (ex-CEO Marta Stewart Living Omnimedia) Revenue estimates: $50mm in 2008; $170mm in 2009 (versus budget of $150mm); $450mm forecasted for 2010. Founded in October 2006 by Jonah Peretti (co-founder of Huffington Post).

Partner 240

Partner New York City Cofounder Syndicate 240

Feld Thoughts

AUGUST 25, 2015

Jack Tankersley, a long time mentor of mine, co-founder of Centennial Funds, and co-founder of Meritage Funds, wrote me a very long response. Take a look at the founding syndicates of each: Masstor Sytems (5/1979). Quantum Corporation (6/1980). CIVC. $ 250,000. CIVC. $ 200,000.

Venture Capital 70

Venture Capital SBIC Technical Review Silicon Valley 70

This is going to be BIG.

JUNE 16, 2014

It''s also not the best way to create a helpful syndicate of investors that share the founder''s vision for the company. If all my deals came as intros from trusted connections that I know for years versus at founder pitch events that''s interesting data. Fear not, founders. The first thing I did was trace my sources.

Venture Capital 162

Venture Capital Syndicate Syndication Founder 162

Agile VC

DECEMBER 13, 2011

I looked at this founder’s prior startup, which ultimately had a successful exit, and then was happy to connect with him again as he launches a new project. I recently was having one of these conversations with an entrepreneur I’ve known for a couple years. What’s Your Favorite Future?

Seed Stage 185

Seed Stage Silicon Valley Cofounder Technical Review 185

Agile VC

JANUARY 4, 2012

Founders Hardi Meybaum and Indrek Narusk originally started building the company in their native Estonia before moving to Boston to join the hub of SaaS / CAD software companies located here. In addition to compelling founders, we were drawn to the company by their vision for a professional community for mechanical engineers and designers.

Community 100

Community Estonia Syndicate Syndication 100

David Teten

JANUARY 19, 2021

From RBI, Flexible VCs borrow the ability to reap meaningful returns without demanding founders build for an exit. Every Flexible VC structure allows founders to access immediate risk capital while preserving exit, growth trajectory, and ownership optionality. . Flexible VC 102: Variations.

Cofounder 78

Cofounder Technical Review Equity Dividend 78

YoungUpstarts

MARCH 10, 2014

Founder and CEO of Appsbar, Scott Hirsch, is a noted entrepreneur and expert in mobile marketing. Scott pioneered many of the most utilized concepts in online media including opt-in data collection, email to postal data appending, affiliate marketing, web syndication, internet reality shows and internet pay per view.

Mobile 160

Mobile Application Development Syndicate Syndication 160

View from Seed

AUGUST 13, 2014

So to successfully raise a seed round of capital, founders should possess at least a basic understanding of the different types of angel investors they’ll encounter. It can also help founders better approach angels in the first place. The Previous-Colleague Angel. The Financial Angel.

Angel Investor 334

Angel Investor Syndicate Syndication Early Stage 334

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. If anything it felt like a public service to founders to me. Founder fighting, IP lawsuits, high-profile resignations, trouble fund raising, bad product release, 409a complications, community is rebelling against the CEO: You.

Cap Table 150

Cap Table Cofounder Silicon Valley Startup 150

VC Cafe

JANUARY 24, 2021

In a world without cookies, we’ll see smart alternatives to targeting that avoid cookies altogether: contextual targeting, time-based targeting, and using syndicated and custom audiences, according to the 2021 media trends and predictions by Kantar. I’m excited to back the founders that are building the future in this space.

Technical Review 207

Technical Review Audio Forecast Social Media 207

YoungUpstarts

JANUARY 21, 2014

For current founders, in our hyper-pressurized worlds of being incubated, accelerated, and constantly switching modes between pitching and executing, how do we successfully navigate the labyrinth to success? Now, how do we become successful founders? by Melissa Thompson, CEO of TalkSession. There is no time like the present.

Entrepreneur 210

Entrepreneur Startup Balance Sheet Non-Compete 210

View from Seed

JUNE 10, 2020

of teams’ online pitch decks and recorded videos, as well as loved the dozens of second-round video conversations which we had with Founders working on quite compelling startups. Many of these Founders we wouldn’t have had an opportunity to connect with if we hadn’t launched this program.

Cofounder 177

Cofounder Syndicate Syndication Alabama 177

Feld Thoughts

JUNE 10, 2022

Sometimes, given your syndicate configuration, you have no choice but to take structure in a new round. But if you can do a clean financing at a lower price, I always think that’s a better option for everyone (founders, employees, and existing investors.). and a bunch of other things.

Down Round 162

Down Round Ratchet Liquidation Preference Participating Preferred 162

Steve Blank

JUNE 6, 2016

The show follows the journeys of founders who share what it takes to build a startup – from restaurants to rocket scientists, to online gifts to online groceries and more. Evangelos Simoudis’ is the founder and managing director of Synapse Partners. If you can’t hear the clip, click here. If you can’t hear the clip, click here.

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley Entrepreneur Fractional CTO Analytics 120

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). It’s a great idea and at Foundry we quickly decided it would be an interesting experiment to form our own syndicate.

Syndicate 93

Syndicate Syndication Technical Review Due Diligence 93

View from Seed

NOVEMBER 18, 2014

Of the NextView-backed founders have have tried to raise this round, over 70% have done so (compared to a mean success rate in the industry of around 27%, according to some sources ). Startups with large, lifecycle VCs included in the seed round syndicate did not reach Series A faster than those who did not. average versus $4.9M

Syndicate 333

Syndicate Syndication Seed Stage Startup 333

YoungUpstarts

MARCH 16, 2014

Founder and CEO of Appsbar, Scott Hirsch, is a noted entrepreneur and expert in mobile marketing. Scott pioneered many of the most utilized concepts in online media including opt-in data collection, email to postal data appending, affiliate marketing, web syndication, internet reality shows and internet pay per view.

Developer 162

Developer Application Development Syndicate Syndication 162

View from Seed

MAY 3, 2022

I’ve had the privilege of joining Flyp’s Founders, James Kawas and Dani Arnaout , on their journey; my tenure on the company’s board started a year ago in leading their seed round of financing and will continue going forward.

Syndicate 156

Syndicate Syndication IPO Matching 156

YoungUpstarts

FEBRUARY 11, 2019

a production company that produced Phat TV for Canadian broadcaster CFMT Television, as well as a year-end television special, “Phat TV 97”, that was syndicated nationally in the U.S. Taking what he learned at HBO, Mascoll formed EME Inc.,

Media 113

Media Los Angeles Artificial Inteligence New York City 113

David Teten

JANUARY 11, 2020

We market to four populations: High-potential founders. Founders and LPs will read into your personal vacation pictures on instagram, just as much as they’ll consider the amount of time you spend responding to comments on LinkedIn articles. Kevin has written over 620 syndicated columns). I welcome suggestions.

Social Media 60

Social Media Technical Review Media Private Equity 60

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. Instead, it’s more of a Manifesto about the core beliefs that shape our strategy. Belief #1: The best time to invest is early.

North America 36

North America Seed Stage Early Stage Lead Investor 36