ithacaVC

MARCH 9, 2017

The Board has to vote on issuing stock, approving the annual budget, setting the company’s strategy, changing the company’s by-laws and certificate of incorporation, selling the company, merging with another company, hiring officers like the CEO, shutting the company down, etc. The list goes on and on.

Seed Stage 58

Seed Stage Software Review Institutional Investors Lead Investor 58

David Teten

DECEMBER 15, 2018

Existing investors have said they’d be glad to invest…if she gets a new lead investor, which 6 months of searching have failed to generate. Lewis Gersh, a former VC and CEO of Pebblepost (in which I’m an investor), observes, “Investors love good news, and can handle bad news, but will not tolerate surprises.

Startup 60

Startup Later Stage Technical Review Software Review 60

The Next Web

OCTOBER 7, 2013

They were referring to non-founder engineers, most commonly the first hire for technology businesses. It is typical for employees to vest their options over four years with a one year cliff, which means a new hire must stay on the company for at least one year to see any shares.

Engineer 129

Engineer Dilution Option Pool Vesting 129

Rob Go

SEPTEMBER 4, 2018

Lead investors are few. Leads that are true force-multipliers are exceedingly rare. Although seed funding has exploded since we started Nextview, we continue to hear the refrain from founders that there are tons of investors that will pile-in on a round that is coming together, but that lead investors are few and far between.

North America 36

North America Seed Stage Early Stage Lead Investor 36

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). While it may seem obvious, I can say that hiring mistakes are what taught me the most. What’s important is to correct them quickly.

San Francisco 60

San Francisco Bangladesh Ukraine Philippines 60

The Startup Magazine

MARCH 1, 2021

David : One of our main challenges, due to lockdown, has been not having those face-to-face meetings (with both customers and investors) – which are so much more effective. She’s also our lead investor interface, and great at articulating our vision to investors and partners alike. Quality control?

Technical Review 110

Technical Review Founder Saudi Arabia Cofounder 110

View from Seed

MAY 29, 2019

But there wasn’t always a clear lead investor that really rolled up her sleeves to work with a company. As each fund focuses more and more on winning a lead or co-lead slot in a syndicate, it will be more and more important to show that they can deliver on the value and responsibility of being a lead investor.

Syndicate 267

Syndicate Syndication Cofounder Cap Table 267

This is going to be BIG.

FEBRUARY 27, 2011

Despite advances in cloud infrastructure, many businesses still have fleshy parts—soft underbellies where a human hand is required to keep quality control, stuff something into a box, order inventory, hire enough engineers to keep the site going or manage cash. Scale brings complexity. If you’re lucky, you realize it in time.

Dilution 104

Dilution Equity Hiring Partner 104

Austin Startup

APRIL 1, 2017

out of state VCs Don’t rush a term sheet In assessing financing terms and interacting with their lead investors, most founders instinctively focus on two core things: economics and control. But because founders often have significantly narrower networks than their lead investors (who are repeat players), that is easier said than done.

Term Sheet 48

Term Sheet Institutional Investors Technical Review Lead Investor 48

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 23, 2019

In short, sharing pricing expectations early with potential lead investors fundamentally potentially qualifies your conversations, but it also runs the risk of prematurely losing a potential financing partner, or even reduce options to maximize your fundraise outcome. What not to include is directly stating valuation expectations.

Cap Table 211

Cap Table Seed Stage Valuation Dilution 211

David Teten

MARCH 31, 2012

I’m exceptionally excited to announce that I’m now Chairman and lead investor with some other angels in a new company, Spright Governance Inc. I was introduced via mutual friends to Boon, and jointly decided to start a ‘government for hire’ business. (An aerial view of Parliament House in Singapore. Photo credit: Wikipedia).

Government 154

Government Singapore New York City Non-Compete 154

Hunter Walker

SEPTEMBER 12, 2022

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. Oh and by the way, Ethena is HIRING.

Cofounder 96

Cofounder Lead Investor Founder Restful 96

techcrunch.com

APRIL 26, 2013

First, AngelList Invest is available to any company on AngelList that has a top-tier lead investor. And the lead investor has to be putting in at least $100,000 in capital, says Ravikant. Using today’s data on AngelList, that includes 300 startups. Other criteria include that the startup needs to be U.S.-based,

SEC 61

SEC Accredited Investor San Diego New York City 61

Berkonomics

FEBRUARY 10, 2022

It is not uncommon for a sharp investor to discover a “stinky” clause or two in such agreements when reading them in preparation for signing. Bill Payne came across just such a stinky clause in a deal we both were joining as investors late in the process. Can you change a deal if not the lead investor?

Lead Investor 62

Lead Investor Hiring Email Entrepreneur 62

David Teten

FEBRUARY 3, 2014

Similarly, my research on venture capital portfolio operations found that Portfolio Operator VCs such as Andreesen Horowitz , First Round Capital , ff Venture Capital , and Google Ventures are hiring unusually large teams and structuring them in traditional pyramids. Deal origination is a slow, labor-intensive, frustrating process.

Private Equity 114

Private Equity Venture Capital Technical Review Equity 114

www.xconomy.com

JUNE 9, 2012

Q&A: Group Commerce Plans Hires, European Growth with $21M Funding. So Coats and Kienzle set up Correlation to be a co-investor, not take board seats, and invest quickly—making it easier for lead investors and companies to quickly put a round together. Ministry of Supply Puts MIT Engineering Cred Into Dress Shirts.

San Diego 40

San Diego Venture Capital Technical Review San Francisco 40

mashable.com

NOVEMBER 2, 2011

Look for Your Lead Investor. First you’ll want to find a lead investor — someone many other investors will recognize and respect. This list of top angel investors is a good start. Jobs by Simply Hired. I use a service like Tout to manage my email templates for quickly replies. Back to top.

Social Media 80

Social Media Startup Angel Investor RSS 80

www.paulgraham.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

In the future, angel rounds will less often be for specific amountsor have a lead investor. forstartups was to find one angel to act as the lead investor. Youdnegotiate a round size and valuation with the lead, whod supplysome but not all of the money. Then the startup and the lead wouldcooperate to find the rest.

Startup 93

Startup Valuation Non-Compete Deal Flow 93

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 3, 2011

“Steve, we thought we’d tell you this before the board meeting, but both our firms are going to pass on leading your next round.” I felt like I had just been kicked in the gut and stabbed in the back These were my lead investors. I’ll resign if you guys think you can hire someone else you want to back.” I was speechless.

San Francisco 331

San Francisco Silicon Valley Limited Partner Venture Capital 331

Babbling VC

DECEMBER 5, 2010

Running around Europe trying to find lead investors for these businesses was priority number 1. It's so much harder to get rid of someone after you've hired them (especially in Europe) as opposed to waiting a big longer and doing your homework. I hate to admit that early in my career I pushed for hires we should of never made.

Technical Review 76

Technical Review Europe Portfolio Germany 76

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 5, 2015

If I’m a higher-volume fund that doesn’t always take board seats and wants more diversification (let’s say 50-70 deals per fund) I might only want 5-10% and I might prefer lots of other investors. Why do investors care about this? If you think the other investors will be super value-added – no problem!

Pre-Money Valuation 150

Pre-Money Valuation Option Pool Post-Money Valuation Dilution 150

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 2, 2020

I think I took the first two or three meetings with Fred's lead investor, which is pretty funny. Eric Ries : So, what was the investor reaction like? Fred Turner : A lot of hiring. So, there's been quite a rapid hiring spree, and we're about to hire another 100 people over the next two weeks.

Curation 60

Curation Government Los Angeles Partner 60

reidhoffman.org

NOVEMBER 12, 2013

Even though we glossed over those slides, investors knew they could come back to those slides later and dig into them if necessary. By this point in the presentation, our goal was to lead investors to believe: A network-empowered people search application could be really valuable. That’s a worthy value proposition.

Entrepreneur 111

Entrepreneur Revenue Viral Networking 111

ithacaVC

DECEMBER 9, 2018

Sure, the person will ultimately typically need to be mutually agreeable to the lead investor and founders but having the founders source the person strikes the right balance in my opinion. The funny thing is that investors think very highly of founders who build great teams both in management and at the director level.

Stock Options 40

Stock Options Salary Lead Investor Founder 40

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 1, 2010

The product ships a bit more slowly, hiring takes a bit longer than anticipated, product/market fit isn’t achieved with the first product release, etc. The others would need to either sell, slim costs, find new lead investors or wind things down. But in all reasonable circumstances were in. the $190 million).

Post-Money Valuation 298

Post-Money Valuation Term Sheet Warrant Partner 298

The Equity Kicker

AUGUST 24, 2012

This comes on top of a lot of other negative news, including leading investors selling shares in the companies above at minimal profits, and CalPERS, traditionally one of the largest investors in venture capital, announcing that they have made a terrible 0.0 per cent return on venture over the last ten years.

IPO 101

IPO Valuation Silicon Valley Venture Capital 101

leananalyticsbook.com

AUGUST 19, 2012

This is about whether you can grow, or hire, or whether you’re getting the organic growth you expected. Marketers optimizing campaigns to generate traffic and leads. Investors , when we’re trying to raise money. Later, many of these KPIs become accounting inputs—stuff like sales, margins, and so on.

Metrics 58

Metrics Clickthrough Lean Analytics 58

www.readwriteweb.com

MARCH 7, 2011

The startups and investors can do the round however they like. AngelList is a community. The community helps you get intros. startupcto

Technical Review 50

Technical Review Due Diligence Startup Angel Investor 50

Reid Hoffman

JANUARY 26, 2021

This is one of the reasons why the best practice for a startup is to raise investment rounds from different lead investors rather than simply doing internal rounds, even if an internal round requires less work. Finally, whether for the board or for your company, it’s not enough to hire one diverse person.

Startup 36

Startup Equity Early Stage Green 36

Up and Running

JANUARY 25, 2017

Users love the concept, and we’re getting a lot of organic support to launch quickly so that employers and applicants can enjoy an easier hiring process.”. The lead investor, the individual that seemed the most optimistic about our pitch, was surprised to hear from me so soon. There were a few problems with his response.

Venture Capital 60

Venture Capital Cofounder Security Partner 60

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 14, 2009

That’s what “information rights&# are for and you can promise the investor to meet 1-on-1 on a quarterly basis. The second scenario is where there are too many investors (egos?) These can be competitive threats, customer adoption problems, pricing strategies, senior hires, whatever. in a company.

Advisory Board 215

Advisory Board Strategic Investors Venture Capital Later Stage 215

David Teten

SEPTEMBER 6, 2015

Some corporate funds now lead rounds. Others follow independent financial lead investors and most require that independent investors be part of the syndicate. Teten: What makes for a good vs. bad corporate venture investor? Corporate VCs are at the table with all the other venture funds.

Venture Capital 60

Venture Capital Balance Sheet Technical Review Portfolio 60

Rob Go

FEBRUARY 3, 2014

This is kind of the equivalent of “I’m in as long as you have a lead” but sounds a lot better. Find a lead investor: These are funds that are willing to stick their neck out and be the first “yes” and issue a term sheet. There are ways to do this without a lead, but I’ll ignore that for now. Feel free to call them”.

Term Sheet 73

Term Sheet Due Diligence Valuation Seed Stage 73

Austin Startup

MAY 17, 2017

At a minimum, the lead investor(s) of the round get Board seats; although they shouldn’t get Board control. The Board of Directors, however, is the most powerful group of people in the Company , with the ability to hire and fire senior executives and approve (or block) key transactions. They just advise. Big difference.

Seed Stage 48

Seed Stage Startup Cap Table Angel Investor 48

SoCal CTO

SEPTEMBER 8, 2010

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. While I agree that many VCs are crummy seed investors, I think there are some that are excellent seed investors.

Startup 191

Startup CTO Hire Cofounder Venture Capital 191

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 9, 2020

And these are people that we spent so much time to hire. We went through hundreds of thousands of resumes to hire those 1,900 people and we do so much to bring them in and to have to say goodbye to them, I'd say that was the hardest part. And by the way, we ended up raising $2 billion and the lead investor, Silver Lake.

Silicon Valley 60

Silicon Valley Hosting Cofounder Employee 60

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 3, 2010

They were grateful for the extra money as their launch was overwhelmingly successful and they had to rapidly hire staff to support customer demand. Signaling problems always exist - What Chris doesn’t make clear is that signaling problems exist with nearly EVERY investor. I’m not the only VC who feels this way.

Venture Capital 265

Venture Capital Term Sheet Early Stage Silicon Valley 265