Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 24, 2011

More on that later. This is a post I’ve been dying to write for 18 months. I invested in LA-based Gogii , one of the fastest growing, most exciting mobile social networking companies you’ve never heard of and maker of a product called textPlus. I know this because you’re not a young teenager. And if you are – what on earth are you reading such a boring blog as this?!? I only recently invested and I only got here through persistence. See, I originally lost this deal.

Later Stage 261

Later Stage South America Mobile Silicon Valley 261

The Equity Kicker

AUGUST 19, 2015

In the words of an alum from the 2006 cohort: Companies are joining YC at a much later stage. If you read this Techrunch post profiling 50 of the current YC companies you will notice that many of them are up and running with customers and revenues. That marks a shift in the YC investment strategy which used to focus on younger businesses. When I started YC, most companies wrote their first line of code in the first week in the program.

Later Stage 110

Later Stage Private Equity Valuation Equity 110

VC Cafe

JULY 20, 2011

Mid stage companies accounted for the highest rate of investments in Q2 2011, attracting 44% of all capital invested and later stage followed, with 27%. In the first half of 2011, Mid and late stage companies together raised $749 million, an increase of 108% from the first half of 2010 when mid and late stage companies attracted $360 million. Mid stage companies led capital raising with $249 million or 44 percent of the total capital raised.

Later Stage 76

Later Stage Israel Early Stage Seed Stage 76

aweissman.com

JULY 24, 2007

It is about the fact that while venture funding statistics show larger funds and more later stage investing, there are still a wealth of early ventures being formed, and getting funded. skip to main | skip to sidebar. aweissman.com. Maximizing the serendipity around you. Jul 24, 2007. Seed Investing. I wrote a piece for the new Silicon Alley Insider site about seed investing in New York.

Naming 20

Naming Later Stage New York 20

View from Seed

JANUARY 13, 2021

It turns out capital is not a weapon, especially in the early stages of building a business, and even experienced founders who can raise huge sums often realize this and right-size their asks. A year later, they did Coinbase and Instacart.

LP 236

LP Dilution Portfolio Later Stage 236

Version One Ventures

MARCH 8, 2020

This puts the VC firm and its investors in a position to continue to exercise their pro-rata rights in later-stage rounds instead of giving them up. . Besides doubling and tripling down on existing portfolio companies , opportunity funds sometimes have the mandate to be able to invest in later-stage companies outside of the existing portfolio…companies that the VC missed in earlier rounds of financing but are squarely in their investment focus.

Portfolio 119

Portfolio LP Later Stage Finance 119

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 4, 2021

We all probably thought that our initial ideas and the right products were the key, but realized later that business is all about win-win relationships with partners, team members, and customers.

India 264

India Later Stage Global Partner 264

VC Adventure

FEBRUARY 13, 2018

Venture is being increasingly driven by large rounds (especially at the later stages – this is significantly skewing the overall funding numbers that are being reported). Want to visualize how the venture funding market is changing? Look no further than these 3 slides (from a presentation put together by our friends at Greenspring ). I don’t think much commentary is needed here. Average round size at Series A is increasing dramatically.

IPO 71

IPO Later Stage Marketing Venture Capital 71

The Next Web

JUNE 1, 2017

Additionally, if the expansion goes well, you’ll have also demonstrated the adaptability and versatility of your product on a world stage. So when your later stage startup is ready to expand, where should you go? Regardless of where your startup resides, you should always monitor where else in the world your product is gaining traction. Expanding to a new country can lead to a larger client base, a foothold in another market, more media exposure, and more investors.

South Korea 114

South Korea Silicon Valley United States Later Stage 114

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 11, 2020

Accelerators generally accept startups at a slightly later stage, and attempt to compress the timeline to commercialization into a few months, instead of a year or more. Peer-to-peer networking with other startups and founders in the same stage.

Startup 264

Startup Incubator Silicon Valley North America 264

View from Seed

JULY 8, 2020

Today I’m excited to announce the relaunch of our most popular resource ever: board meeting deck templates for seed-stage startups, now in conjunction with an investor update email template. We first released a version of the board meeting deck template template back in 2014 and then a revised version a couple of years later. Yet the landscape for the seed stage has evolved over that period. Founders should aspire to run your company as if it’s at the next stage.

Email 256

Email Seed Stage Syndicate Syndication 256

Steve Blank

MARCH 17, 2020

If you’re an early stage company, that number may be zero. They triage their deals – first worrying about liquidity of their late stage deals which have the highest valuations. Data from the last large crash in 2008 had seed rounds recovering early, but later stage funding cratered and took years to recover. If they pull back, there will be a liquidity crunch for later stage startups (Series B, C…). “Winter is coming.”.

Burn Rate 264

Burn Rate Startup Azure Venture Capital 264

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 18, 2020

Most new teams are geographically dispersed these days anyway, so paying rent for an office should be differed to later stages when revenue is plentiful. Defer your desire for expensive perks and vacations until later when you have time for them. If you really want to start a business your way without a boss or professional investor hovering over you, then just fund it yourself or through friends and family, and grow it organically.

Hockey Stick 241

Hockey Stick Bootstrapping Sweat Equity Intellectual Property 241

YoungUpstarts

NOVEMBER 19, 2017

Venture capital fundraising can be divided into three stages: seed, early stage, and later stage. According to the same report by KPMG, the median deal size is the largest for later-stage funding, at $26 million. Later stage funding can be provided for startups that have fully matured with a wide user base and a working business model. by Marek Danyluk, managing partner at Space Executive.

Asia 164

Asia Venture Capital Merger Vietnam 164

Feld Thoughts

DECEMBER 10, 2014

The number of large, “later stage” financings are remarkable – both in size and velocity. But they are often extremely frustrating to strong, mid and later stage companies growing 25%+ year over year. We are syndication agnostic and are happy to continue to finance strong, later stage companies in our portfolio with or without new co-investors.

Later Stage 145

Later Stage Syndicate Syndication Finance 145

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 13, 2020

Angels are more likely to fund new entrepreneurs, and early-stage or seed rounds, while VCs tend to focus on entrepreneurs with a successful track record, and later stage rounds. In all cases, investors tend to invest in people, more than the idea, or even the stage of execution. Too many entrepreneurs tell me they are looking for an investor, and can’t differentiate between venture capital (VC) investors versus accredited angel investors.

Angel Investor 211

Angel Investor IRR Entrepreneur Valuation 211

NZ Entrepreneur

FEBRUARY 27, 2020

While capital to large tech companies is increasing, smaller rounds for early-stage companies is drying up. This decline has also become evident in startup accelerator programs shifting their focus on later-stage scale-ups that provide higher returns. Capital funding for early-stage companies is drying up and becoming harder to find. Each stage of tech company growth has unique challenges. Building a tech startup?

Developer 63

Developer Early Stage Later Stage Acquisition 63

SiliconHills

JUNE 22, 2016

The addition of Serendex adds new drugs to its portofolio including Serendex’s flagship product, Molgradex, an inhaled drug in later stage clinical trials in Europe and Japan to treat autoimmune pulmonary alveolar proteinosis. Savara Pharmaceuticals, which creates drugs focused on rare respiratory diseases, announced it has acquired the assets of Serendex Pharmaceuticals.

Japan 60

Japan Europe Later Stage Acquisition 60

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 29, 2020

If you have more, they better be major investors or partners who will likely be part of your formal Board of Directors at a later stage. In my role as an angel investor to startups, I’m struck by the broad variety of advisor strategies I see in investor presentations and business plans that cross my desk. Some entrepreneurs are “lone rangers,” never mentioning any outside guidance, while others tout dozens of advisors.

Advisory Board 212

Advisory Board Angel Investor Later Stage Stock 212

Feld Thoughts

JUNE 20, 2014

With yesterday’s announcement that early-stage VC Greycroft has raised a $200 million growth fund , this type of fund has officially become a trend. ” Prior to this, plenty of VC firms invested across the early stage to late stage spectrum from the same fund (e.g. Others had separate early stage funds and late stage funds, often with separate teams and economics (e.g. Foundry Group fund Greycroft growth late-stage opportunity select USV

Early Stage 149

Early Stage Syndicate Syndication Later Stage 149

View from Seed

MAY 18, 2016

Here at NextView, we are strong proponents of creating a board at the seed stage. At the seed stage, we typically have three-person boards with two founders and one VC — though as companies grow at later stages, five-person boards and ultimately six- or seven-person boards become more common. I think having two or at most three VC board members is probably where this should cap out, even for later stage startups.

Seed Stage 184

Seed Stage Later Stage Government Founder 184

Version One Ventures

JANUARY 23, 2019

For later-stage start-ups, it’s always advisable to have a Plan B on how to get to profitability with existing cash in case funding markets dry up. The world seems more volatile than ever before. There’s an explosion in the number of issues, combined with an ever-accelerating news cycle to cover each issue 24 hours a day. Much of today’s uncertainty can impact start-ups… When will the US government shutdown end? Are we heading into a US-China trade war?

Burn Rate 80

Burn Rate China Later Stage Venture Capital 80

The Next Web

JULY 19, 2015

Additionally, if the expansion goes well, you’ll have also demonstrated the adaptability and versatility of your product on a world stage. So when your later stage startup is ready to expand, where should you go? Regardless of where your startup resides, you should always monitor where else in the world your product is gaining traction. Expanding to a new country can lead to a larger client base, a foothold in another market, more media exposure, and more investors.

South Korea 113

South Korea Silicon Valley United States Later Stage 113

The Next Web

JULY 24, 2015

Venture capital firms are typically growth-oriented, early-stage investors looking for these proof-of-concept points before cutting a check. Private equity firms are typically cash-flow oriented, later-stage investors, looking to invest in companies in excess of $10 million in revenues and $3 million in EBITDA (A company’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) in size.

Private Equity 106

Private Equity Equity Venture Capital Early Stage 106

Steve Blank

APRIL 12, 2013

The second wave of technology investors were Chinese banks, who provided the majority of the later stage investments in the Torch Program. By 1991, 70% of the Torch funded startups were getting bank financing for expansion and later stages of the new ventures, with local governments acting as guarantors. It’s done it in a series of evolutionary stages, each new one learning from the last.

Venture Capital 260

Venture Capital China Offshore SBIR 260

VC Cafe

OCTOBER 29, 2020

Much of the growth in funding is attributed to later stage rounds (Next Insurance $250M, Snyk $200M, Gong.io $200, Redis Labs $100M, etc etc). The median seed round size dropped significantly, by 80% in Q3 2020, from approximately $1M in 2016-2019 levels, to $0.15M in Q3 2020 driven big a big drop in angels and VCs participating in early stage deals.

Venture Capital 94

Venture Capital Angel Investor Later Stage PR 94

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 27, 2014

We both agree that the later-stage valuations are being driven up to a point that feels irrationally priced [he uses b-round SaaS valuations as an example and I am willing to be even more broad based]. We both are concerned about non-traditional capital entering the late stages and the impact that may have in the next downturn in the economy to the startups who merely trying to optimize for short-term valuation maximization.

Valuation 258

Valuation Pre-Money Valuation San Francisco Early Stage 258

Feld Thoughts

JULY 13, 2014

I wish he had called it “This Unicorn Thing Is B t For Early Stage Investing” but I think he’s a little more restrained than I am. My original title for this post was “How Can This Be A Billion Dollar Company and other b t VCs ask early stage companies.” Now, I’ve invested in a few unicorns in my investing career, including at least one unicorn that went bankrupt a few years later (I guess that’s a dead unicorn.)

Early Stage 154

Early Stage Later Stage Valuation Seed Stage 154

Version One Ventures

JULY 29, 2020

In the same way that the first employees of a start-up not only get a much higher number of stock options but also a much lower entry price than later-stage employees for taking on early risk, the same logic should be applied to crypto platforms.

Networking 100

Networking Government Stock Options Aggregator 100

YoungUpstarts

SEPTEMBER 13, 2020

Since they are in the decision making stage, or at least close to it, then this could be the thing that helps them overcome the resistance they may have been feeling. You’ve done everything right for your ecommerce store.

Video 172

Video eCommerce Conversion Channel 172

K9 Ventures

FEBRUARY 8, 2020

” IMHO this was why @cartainc had such a hard time raising in the early stages. This is what makes early-stage investing so much more fun and exciting for me. I would be bored out of my mind if I were investing at later stages. This is a recent tweet-storm that I wanted to cross post here as well as I feel so strongly about the lessons. 1/ So much of building a product/company is about progressive discovery.

Early Stage 76

Early Stage Startup Later Stage Portfolio 76

The Startup Magazine

SEPTEMBER 18, 2020

Crosscutting will ensure it is impossible for prying eyes to glue the pieces back together at a later stage. If you have not implemented most, if not all, of the above features to secure your home office, it is best if you do so sooner rather than later.

Security 108

Security Later Stage Startup Mobile 108

Feld Thoughts

JUNE 20, 2014

With yesterday’s announcement that early-stage VC Greycroft has raised a $200 million growth fund , this type of fund has officially become a trend. ” Prior to this, plenty of VC firms invested across the early stage to late stage spectrum from the same fund (e.g. Others had separate early stage funds and late stage funds, often with separate teams and economics (e.g. Foundry Group fund Greycroft growth late-stage opportunity select USV

Early Stage 108

Early Stage Syndicate Syndication Later Stage 108

Steve Blank

JUNE 15, 2010

What startup stage do they typically invest in? What Startup Stage Do they Invest In? Ask potential investors which stage they invest in. Certain VC’s like the new class of Super-Angels and small VC funds specialize in the early stage of a startup where you are searching for a business model. And some larger funds that specialize in later stage deals may have a partner or two who likes to invest at this stage.

Founder 207

Founder Vesting Advisory Board Early Stage 207

Feld Thoughts

DECEMBER 9, 2015

During these discussions, we reflected on the incredible collection of early stage VC firms we’ve invested in personally over the years. We were clear at that point that we wanted to continue to make early stage investments through a new Foundry Group fund, which we subsequently raised in the middle of 2015 and started investing at the end of the year. At the same time we discussed our later stage investment strategy.

Advisory Board 111

Advisory Board Early Stage Later Stage Private Equity 111

The Startup Magazine

OCTOBER 19, 2020

Loans with lower levels of interest can be kept for a later stage, but high-interest loans should be considered as an emergency and should be paid off as soon as possible. Financial freedom is gaining ownership of your own life and finances.

Later Stage 93

Later Stage .Net Design Finance 93

View from Seed

JANUARY 5, 2015

Raising venture capital at any stage of company growth requires tremendous effort from entrepreneurs. Note that this list was created specifically with seed-stage startups in mind. While it may be somewhat useful for later-stage companies, seed is our entire focus here at NextView Ventures and, predictably, on The View From Seed.

Seed Capital 260

Seed Capital Seed Stage Venture Capital Later Stage 260

Version One Ventures

SEPTEMBER 6, 2017

My answers must have impressed him enough that Boris suggested we meet in-person two weeks later when he would be visiting SF from Vancouver. Four years later, we certainly continue to complement one another and I’m thrilled to be part of the Version One partnership. At later stages, there’s more access to private data that they can benchmark against their own successful portfolio. So, what do we do at the seed stage?

Seed Stage 104

Seed Stage Algorithm Later Stage API 104

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 31, 2019

As best, you should reserve this option for later stage VC discussions, once you have a well-proven business model, large market following, and substantial revenue. In the old days, every entrepreneur dreamed of easily taking their startup public, and making it big. Today the rate of startups going public (IPO – Initial Public Offering) is up from the dead zone, but is still half the rate back before 2000.

IPO 161

IPO Prospectus SEC Stock 161

Feld Thoughts

JULY 30, 2015

We subsequently raised a $225 million fund in 2010 , another one in 2013 , and a late stage fund in 2013. Except for our late stage fund, each of our funds has 30 investments (+/- 2) in it. We are early stage investors – if you’ve raised more than $3 million you are too late for us. Our late stage fund gave us flexibility to invest more money in our later stage companies. Yesterday we closed our fifth fund, Foundry Venture Capital 2016, L.P.

Minneapolis 149

Minneapolis Phoenix Portland LP 149

Version One Ventures

JANUARY 15, 2019

Keep in mind that the job description will depend on the stage of your company. During the early stages, you are trying to hire athletes, not specialists. First hires should be like “swiss army knives,” able to take on multiple tasks at any stage and figure out how to solve problems. Your job description for hiring at this stage should focus on general capabilities. At later stages, you start hiring for specialists.

Hiring 98

Hiring Later Stage Early Stage Portfolio 98

Steve Blank

APRIL 12, 2013

The second wave of technology investors were Chinese banks, who provided the majority of the later stage investments in the Torch Program. By 1991, 70% of the Torch funded startups were getting bank financing for expansion and later stages of the new ventures, with local governments acting as guarantors. It’s done it in a series of evolutionary stages, each new one learning from the last.

Venture Capital 189

Venture Capital Offshore SBIR China 189

Berkonomics

MARCH 8, 2018

Many early stage CEOs and board members have asked for some guidance regarding pay and time commitments for board members. Pay early stage board members of companies that are not lifestyle businesses one percent of the fully diluted equity in the form of an option that vests over four years of service. Email readers, continue here…] For lifestyle companies or later stage companies, board members should be paid on a per-meeting basis in cash.

Early Stage 84

Early Stage Vesting Stock Options Preferred Stock 84