Haystack

AUGUST 18, 2019

If you’ve been following my tweets lately, you’ve read some of my quick musings on the state of the seed market this summer. years of investing in the seed stage, I have never seen activity levels like I’m seeing today. In short, in my 6.5 Granted, 6.5 You lose way more than you win.

Seed Stage 108

Seed Stage Cap Table Early Stage Malaysia 108

Mucker Lab

OCTOBER 10, 2023

In navigating the transition from founder-led sales to a structured approach, the pivotal question arises: when to hire a Sales Development Representative (SDR) or an Account Executive (AE) ? If there are inbound leads, the situation is different; hiring an AE might be suitable if these leads align with the ideal customer profile.

Early Stage 78

Early Stage Sales Developer Development Team Review 78

View from Seed

FEBRUARY 18, 2016

It’s very different with a $1 million seed round. Believe me, I raised that $1 million seed round in 2009 and we never would have made it at these prices. The post Seed-Stage Startups: Beware the “Stickiness Squeeze” appeared first on NextView Ventures.

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage San Francisco Startup Valuation 120

YoungUpstarts

JUNE 20, 2019

Specifically, there are five challenges that emerging business typically put on the backburner between funding rounds: Seed to Series A: Customer Testing. Hypotheses should be tested extensively and disproven, which is where customer testing plays a central role for seed-stage startups. Series B: Hiring and Developing Managers.

Technical Cofounder 113

Technical Cofounder Burn Rate Seed Stage Cofounder 113

View from Seed

APRIL 16, 2015

The reason why hiring a technical co-founder or someone else in role X seems like a milestone is because investors might actually have questions about whether the team can be successful. But again, it’s not specifically the hiring of people that is the value inflection, it’s answering the question of confidence in the team.

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage Cofounder Early Stage Startup 120

View from Seed

MAY 3, 2016

Jesse shares insights on everything from mission and hiring to community development to the scrappy and clever tactics they used early on at WeWork. Jesse was also among the first to join the co-founders of WeWork when it started. We also peer ahead to the future of what WeWork could be doing globally. nvsubscribe.

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage Cofounder Incubator Global 120

View from Seed

FEBRUARY 9, 2022

NextView is a thematic, seed-stage VC firm focused on the Everyday Economy with $500M+ of capital under management. We will work together to leverage the firm’s platform to help you thrive. You will be based in the NYC office but will be able to pursue investments across North America. About NextView.

Technical Review 156

Technical Review North America Seed Stage Bandwidth 156

View from Seed

APRIL 2, 2015

These all serve as doorways to different but important audiences that a founder needs to impress, ranging from investors to target customers or users to potential new hires. To focus on hiring briefly: Seed-stage startups lack early traction but make up for it with tons of promise. appeared first on The View From Seed.

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage Design Startup Early Stage 120

View from Seed

JANUARY 13, 2015

“As a seed-stage investor, should you pay up for team or traction?” So, if you are going to pay up as a seed-stage investor, pay up for team. In a world of constrained resources, in a way, founders are “paying up” with each hiring decision or dollar they spend. The Case for Traction.

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage B2B Distribution Early Stage 120

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. However, our overall goal is to invest in the full spectrum of seed. Belief #1: The best time to invest is early.

North America 120

North America Seed Stage Early Stage Lead Investor 120

View from Seed

APRIL 26, 2018

At the seed stage, hiring great people is one of the most important things to get right. I saw this first-hand at Blue Apron — I had to hire 30+ people across a ton of different functions in just under two years. If you have to hire several people this year, you won’t want to miss this session.

Hiring 120

Hiring Seed Stage Portfolio Acquisition 120

Hunter Walker

AUGUST 31, 2023

HW: I’m always surprised when someone considering ‘joining a startup’ has put a lot of thought into industry/vertical but not into stage of company. For example, in many ways seed stage companies across different industries are more similar than two companies within the same vertical but one new and one more mature.

Employee 113

Employee Startup Vertical Leadership 113

SoCal CTO

JANUARY 5, 2012

By the way, I should point out that the four top articles on the site when I took the screen shot were all great: The Long Grind Before You Become an Overnight Success - Vinicius Vacanti , September 12, 2011 Hacking Angel List | VentureArchetypes Blog: Seed Stage Capital - Seed Stage Capital , July 13, 2011 Hiring a CTO for Your Startup - SoCal CTO (..)

CTO Hire 175

CTO Hire Seed Stage Curation Matching 175

View from Seed

MARCH 8, 2016

Jesse recently sat down with NextView (I assume he was sitting anyway — we spoke on the phone) to talk seed-stage company branding, building a startup identity, and some of the most common mistakes founders make when establishing a name for their companies. And try to listen to the people you’re hiring as experts.

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage Conversion Startup PR 120

SiliconHills

FEBRUARY 8, 2024

Austin-based Perigon has closed on a $5 million seed stage round of financing led by LiveOak Venture Partners. Josh Rickel, co-founder, said the company plans to use the money to hire key employees and further develop its technology.

Austin 71

Austin Seed Stage Cofounder Finance 71

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 17, 2023

Investors call this the seed stage , where money is required to build a market and a real product. You are now entering the rollout stage , with money required for marketing, hiring a full-time team, and a production process. My invention and prototype works, but I need funding to continue.”

Angel Investor 313

Angel Investor Intellectual Property Investment Bankers Private Equity 313

View from Seed

OCTOBER 15, 2014

Over the summer, based on feedback from our portfolio and the broader startup community, NextView created pre-formatted board deck templates for seed-stage startups — part of our Growth Guides series. As Rob Go wrote , board decks and board meetings can waste loads of time at the seed stage.

Seed Stage 331

Seed Stage Cap Table Metrics Burn Rate 331

View from Seed

DECEMBER 17, 2015

I recently chatted with Saurya about how he approaches hiring engineers at Google and what founders can learn. We hire generalists because the company wants to be able to dissolve one division one day if it’s not working, and then move those same people into something else that’s new or already working.

Technical Review 120

Technical Review Engineer Software Review Founder 120

Austin Startup

MAY 8, 2018

Background reading: Founder Compensation: Cash, Equity, Liquidity Fatal Errors in Early Startup Hiring Early Hires: Options or Stock Given how deeply involved we are with early-stage startups hiring their first key employees, I figured it would be helpful to outline a few key principles to help entrepreneurs navigate the topic.

Employee 48

Employee Seed Stage Startup Equity 48

SoCal CTO

FEBRUARY 25, 2010

And from my perspective as an engaged seed stage venture investor, this makes them unfundable. Mark Suster has similar advice in Hiring at a Startup? So why do inexperienced (as entrepreneurs), ultra-skilled CTOs fall into the trap of engaging a business partner too early?

Technical Cofounder 150

Technical Cofounder Cofounder CTO Hire Founder 150

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 3, 2015

Traction is a biweekly podcast where founders share the creative or unusual things they did during the seed stage to make early progress. Everyone knows startups should do scrappy things that “don’t scale” — this show explores what those things actually are.

CTO Hire 120

CTO Hire Framework Cofounder Seed Stage 120

View from Seed

NOVEMBER 4, 2019

I’m often surprised by how much effort seed stage teams put into building an early product and how little credit that receives from investors. And the ultimate uncertainties for a seed stage company are around talent and customer demand. But the way the market values this early work can vary greatly.

Seed Stage 180

Seed Stage Bootstrapping Demand Early Stage 180

Version One Ventures

NOVEMBER 28, 2018

How to hire. At this stage, you should be hiring smart, hungry generalists, rather than specialists. Specialists are great when you have a playbook, but very few start-ups have a playbook at the seed stage. This means you need to design a hiring process to find generalists. Should you outsource?

Seed Stage 163

Seed Stage Portfolio Metrics Hiring 163

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 19, 2013

My internal compass has always steered me strongly toward the belief that founders who can scale with their startup companies are better to back that founders who eventually need to hire a CEO. I have a very public seed stage investment policy and awe.sm ” So Reid set out to hire a CEO. I saw it first hand.

Technical Review 303

Technical Review Cofounder Analytics Founder 303

View from Seed

MARCH 22, 2016

Even if you’re in the pre-revenue, pre-seed or seed stage, there are still ways to get on a reporter’s radar. You have a new hire (if they’re not the CEO or CTO, reporters probably won’t care). The post Why Reporters Ignore Your Seed-Stage Startup Pitches, And How to Fix That appeared first on NextView Ventures.

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage San Francisco Startup CTO Hire 120

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 16, 2010

You don’t have to hire as many sales people because much can be sold online. So angel and seed stage investors’ returns will be dependent on good times continuing or on the ability of their portfolio companies to get financed. You don’t need to buy hardware – there’s Amazon AWS.

LP 311

LP Technical Review Early Stage Silicon Valley 311

Rob Go

JULY 29, 2014

But we think they are important even at the seed stage of a business. We tend to suggest that seed stage companies convene with their board ever 6-8 weeks. Have you been unable to hire the engineers your were hoping for? Even at the seed stage, I believe governance is really important. Governance.

Seed Stage 65

Seed Stage Government Founder Finance 65

VC Adventure

FEBRUARY 7, 2019

It’s interesting to note that the majority of these new funds are focused on Seed stage investing (not surprising if you follow the market, although investments at the Seed and Seed + stages have started to decline quite a bit from their peak a few years ago).

Venture Capital 103

Venture Capital Seed Stage Angel Groups Portfolio 103

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 22, 2020

Investors call this the seed stage , where money is required to build a market and a real product. You are now entering the rollout stage , with money required for marketing, hiring a full-time team, and a production process. My invention and prototype works, but I need funding to continue.”

Angel Investor 370

Angel Investor Intellectual Property Investment Bankers Private Equity 370

View from Seed

FEBRUARY 14, 2017

Today, we discuss Dan’s smart process hiring his early technical talent — both leadership and front-line developers. Subscribe to the NextView blog for future episodes and more resources for seed-stage startups: nextviewvc.com/blog. (Disclosure: NextView is an investor in Troops.).

Artificial Inteligence 159

Artificial Inteligence Seed Stage Founder Cofounder 159

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

This is going to be BIG.

AUGUST 22, 2012

Who should you hire? Plus, in such a connected world, at the seed stage, the "outside" bar is low--a good article, review, demo can be a difference maker and get you on the right radars. Many startups outsource visual design work, and instead of hiring that designer, hire a second developer.

PR 144

PR Technical Review Seed Stage Design 144

View from Seed

APRIL 30, 2015

In many instances, you raise an institutional round to either fulfill a product strategy or go-to-market strategy or you’re increasing sales and marketing hires, so you have better visibility into what needs to happen in the next six, 12, 18 months. NVV: Let’s talk about the seed stage specifically.

Term Sheet 120

Term Sheet Equity Startup Seed Stage 120

K9 Ventures

JUNE 5, 2015

Almost two years ago, in a private/closed meeting with K9 Ventures’ LPs only, I claimed that: What was being referred to in the press as the “Series A Crunch” was not because fewer Series A deals were being done, but because there were too many Seed deals being done. Seed stage was super tough. Implications for Founders.

Seed Stage 48

Seed Stage Venture Capital Early Stage Valuation 48

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. However, our overall goal is to invest in the full spectrum of seed. Belief #1: The best time to invest is early.

North America 36

North America Seed Stage Early Stage Lead Investor 36

Hippoland

OCTOBER 9, 2016

(revenue / traction / setting up infrastructure / etc) This can set you apart, because the vast majority of businesses I see at the seed stage are just ideas with no action. At the seed stage, there are companies who have been around for 5 months and others for 5 years. 2) Speed matters. And convey this in your pitch.

Seed Stage 48

Seed Stage CTO Hire Email Later Stage 48

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 23, 2019

*This post is part of our “pitch deck” series where we dissect the seed stage pitch deck and discuss the ideal flow for a pitch. The former can include expected burn and runway, guideposts on hiring, and resource allocation. You can read the rest of the posts in the series by clicking here *.

Cap Table 211

Cap Table Seed Stage Valuation Dilution 211