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. Operate small, but show a big-company image. Use your equity for key executives and business partners. Barter services for access to required resources.

Hockey Stick 423

Hockey Stick Bootstrapping Sweat Equity Intellectual Property 423

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. Today, most new YC companies have been operating for a year or longer and have customers and revenue before starting. That marks a shift in the YC investment strategy which used to focus on younger businesses.

Later Stage 60

Later Stage Private Equity Venture Capital Valuation 60

This is going to be BIG.

MAY 5, 2023

I understand that now, being an investor in companies that have over 100 employees, closing in on $100mm run rates, where it’s been a long time since I was a Board Observer and most of their interaction is with the bigger, later stage investors that came after me.

Later Stage 218

Later Stage Venture Capital Term Sheet Limited Partner 218

David Teten

SEPTEMBER 23, 2017

PEVCTech is partnering with Blue Future Partners to run the first large-scale survey of VCs’ technology stack. Johann Kratzer of Blue Future Partners , a fund of funds, observed, “The majority of the hundreds of funds we’ve diligenced rely predominantly on their relationships to source deals. Greylock Partners.

Private Equity 60

Private Equity Venture Capital Equity Technical Review 60

The Next Web

SEPTEMBER 13, 2013

In India, the leading firms are slightly more concentrated with Sequoia India , Accel Partners , and Nexus Venture Partners being a cut above the rest. The rest of Asia is still developing with far more angel and early-stage investors than mid-to-later stage folks. Golden Gate Ventures , Jungle Ventures , etc.),

Asia 132

Asia Silicon Valley India Term Sheet 132

David Teten

MAY 9, 2012

HBSAANY is comprised of New York City tri-state area Harvard alumni who are venture capitalists and other accredited investors investing in early-stage, private companies around the United States. Founded in 1970, NAIC firms invest in venture (early stage/later stage) and private equity (growth/buyout/mezzanine/distressed/secondary funds).

Venture Capital 154

Venture Capital Programming Accredited Investor New York 154

View from Seed

MAY 18, 2016

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. In subsequent rounds of VC funding, for instance, additional investors may seek/require a board seat.

Seed Stage 216

Seed Stage Cofounder Later Stage Government 216

YoungUpstarts

JUNE 15, 2015

Kevin Hale, Founder, Wufoo, and Partner, Y Combinator. Justin Kan, Founder, Twitch, and Partner, Y Combinator. Alfred Lin, Former COO, Zappos, and Partner, Sequoia Capital. Reid Hoffman, Founder, LinkedIn, and Partner, Greylock Ventures. Lecture 14: How To Operate. Lecture 7: How to Build Products Users Love.

Cofounder 100

Cofounder Delaware Startup Technical Review 100

David Teten

JANUARY 9, 2018

a “Bitcoin Fund”, a “Social Media Fund”, a “Nanotech Fund”), you’re going to raise capital from Limited Partners who are very focused on Theme X. The importance of reputation is why, for example, Andreessen Horowitz invested early and heavily in their own PR, adding PR guru Margit Wennmachers as a Partner. . – Network.

Venture Capital 60

Venture Capital Private Equity Silicon Valley Differentiation 60

David Teten

JANUARY 9, 2018

a “Bitcoin Fund”, a “Social Media Fund”, a “Nanotech Fund”), you’re going to raise capital from Limited Partners who are very focused on Theme X. The importance of reputation is why, for example, Andreessen Horowitz invested early and heavily in their own PR, adding PR guru Margit Wennmachers as a Partner. . – Network.

Venture Capital 60

Venture Capital Private Equity Silicon Valley Differentiation 60

David Teten

SEPTEMBER 5, 2014

We’re backed by Bessemer Venture Partners, Silver Lake Partners, and individual investors like Ron Conway, among others. If you’re a late stage company trying to penetrate a new market (think Warby Parker trying to expand internationally), we have people who can help with that. David Teten: How do startups sign up?

New York 114

New York Technical Review Networking Advisory Board 114

David Teten

SEPTEMBER 6, 2015

She had so much insight to share that we broke the interview into two parts, 1) Corporate Venture Capital and more broadly, 2) How the Fortune 500 Can Buy, Invest and Partner with the Innovation Economy (coming soon). . They used to come in at series B and later. Corporate venture funds are also investing earlier today.

Venture Capital 60

Venture Capital Balance Sheet Technical Review Portfolio 60

David Teten

JULY 25, 2017

We also have a better known brand than some of our early stage companies, so we can leverage that to help source talent. We think coaching is a key lever for doing this, with our own team or through outside partners. For example, we provide direct coaching on how to pitch investors. I’ve listed a few ideas below.

Portfolio 60

Portfolio Technical Review Private Equity Database 60

Reid Hoffman

MARCH 9, 2021

But I knew that there was a ton of work to be done to scale the business into multiple business lines, and that we would be better off with a CEO who was a grand master of organizational growth and had the product vision to serve as a later-stage co-founder. Sometimes, it’s not obvious.

Leadership 42

Leadership Technical Review Cofounder Later Stage 42

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 21, 2010

Focus on the partner you would be working with. I always try operate on the “Fixed Fee +&# arrangement. One issue he talked about was working with partners. I also like to work with partners. But I also know it’s not realistic for the partners to do all of the work. Good people and evil people.

Southern California 318

Southern California Silicon Valley IP Stock Options 318

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 18, 2017

Recently the firms two founding partners (and also Managing Partners) —  Fred Wilson and Brad Burnham  — decided to transition management of the firm to Andy Weissman (who joined in 2012) and Albert Wenger (joined in 2008 and writes one of the most thoughtful blogs in our industry ). Lindel Eakman led the discussion with Fred and Andy.

Leadership 161

Leadership LP Venture Capital Silicon Valley 161

Austin Startup

JUNE 27, 2017

Collectively they have $850M in capital in their most recent funds: [link] Both Silverton Partners and LiveOak Venture Partners have filed regulatory documents associated with new fundraising efforts in 2017 so we should all look forward to announcements from them on successfully raising new funds.

Venture Capital 54

Venture Capital Austin Texas Private Equity 54

View from Seed

FEBRUARY 27, 2019

Analytics is about designing, reporting, and leveraging operating metrics to aid strategic and functional decision-making. These are operating metrics because they are not part of GAAP financial statements, even though they are critical for everyone from the CEO to marketers and PMs to make data-informed decision on a daily basis.

Analytics 149

Analytics Hiring SQL Forecast 149

Up and Running

AUGUST 17, 2015

Between my experiences as a management consultant, as well as my product and marketing roles at multiple tech companies, I felt that I had enough operational experience to make that leap sooner than later. See Also How to Find a Business Partner. It allows for rapid idea validation.

Entrepreneur 60

Entrepreneur Cofounder Angel Investor eCommerce 60

YoungUpstarts

DECEMBER 2, 2012

. “Vinnie was amongst the most popular and valued mentors on the bootcamp we operated earlier this year,” says Hugh Mason, co-founder and CEO at JFDI.Asia. “Golden Gate Ventures’ links to later stage investors and Silicon Valley can add most value once start-ups launch products and prove market traction.

Asia 162

Asia Singapore Silicon Valley Cofounder 162

The Startup Magazine

FEBRUARY 6, 2020

Second, the Board can usually avoid a public vote or referendum by leasing to a new partner, something politicians fear. Private Equity sees infrastructure investing as uncorrelated diversification and has the additional upside of correcting any operational inefficiencies. Capital Solutions.

Private Equity 128

Private Equity New York City Chicago Investment Bankers 128

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 6, 2016

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. Operate small, but show a big-company image. Use your equity for key executives and business partners. Barter services for access to required resources.

Bootstrapping 120

Bootstrapping Hockey Stick Sweat Equity Intellectual Property 120

The Equity Kicker

NOVEMBER 28, 2016

Different investors place different weights on the three elements but as a rule earlier stage investors place more emphasis on the team and later stage investors place more emphasis on the market. Some very early stage investors go as far as to say that for them team is everything.

Seed Stage 60

Seed Stage Later Stage Early Stage Partner 60

This is going to be BIG.

JUNE 30, 2010

” Figuring out the market for your equity, appropriate capital structures, reasonable milestones, and most important of all, the right partner, aren't things that usually happen on the first try without some amount of trial and error. Why not ask people who may have entrepreneurial, operational, sales, marketing, etc.

Technical Review 106

Technical Review Due Diligence Venture Capital Later Stage 106

The Next Web

AUGUST 26, 2013

Both ways are great, I’ve tried both, but personally I wouldn’t try to start something again without partners. Before you start talking to large VCs, find some early stage investors. Stefan Tirtey, Partner at Doughty Hanson Ventures , created this document with Berlin early stage investors.

Management 120

Management Cofounder Startup Bootstrapping 120

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 25, 2013

But the larger funds usually have lower returns because they are often investing bigger dollars at later stages with less risk and therefore lower returns. As you can see in this Cambridge Associates data, early-stage investing beat later stage investing in returns in 70% of the past 30 years. Yeah, true.

LP 374

LP Later Stage IRR Term Sheet 374

Genuine VC

MAY 5, 2015

At NextView Ventures, we’re hyper-focused on the seed stage, and since starting the firm, we’ve heard repeatedly and consistently from founders that a primary challenge they face during that stage is hiring. That is NextView’s overall mission, and that is the reason we exist and partner with exceptional entrepreneurs.

Portfolio 100

Portfolio Startup Boston Seed Stage 100

This is going to be BIG.

FEBRUARY 21, 2021

They’ll tell you all about their strategy, the order of operations of who and how they pitched, the magic slides, the timing of the raise itself, etc. It’s the “hook” that gets a team noticed in a partner meeting. It will all very much make sense. But wait—does that mean I’m saying there’s no bias in the process?

Venture Capital 162

Venture Capital Cofounder Deal Flow Later Stage 162

NZ Entrepreneur

AUGUST 12, 2020

Reversing a lack of intellectual property rights at a later stage is very expensive and in some cases impossible, it is more efficient to invest the time and money sorting your intellectual property out from the beginning. Infringement proceedings can be very costly and time consuming.

Intellectual Property 90

Intellectual Property New Zealand Startup Early Stage 90

K9 Ventures

JUNE 5, 2015

So while the infrastructure cost and startup costs may have declined, the operating costs have increased. Together this means that Seed stage companies need to run longer and at a higher expense structure, meaning they need to raise a lot more capital. A re-jiggering of deal stages and sizes had begun in 2013.

Seed Stage 48

Seed Stage Venture Capital Early Stage Valuation 48

David Teten

DECEMBER 3, 2019

But in business, you want a lot of partners. I walk through below how progressive investors are using technology and analytics throughout all of their operations. In the private equity universe, most Partners have primary training as deal-makers, not as managers. Most of us want one spouse and we’re done. 1) Manage the firm .

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Software Review Analytics Private Equity 78

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 24, 2016

What you Before Sets the Course for How Well the Day Goes Make sure you send your financial and operating metrics no less than 72 hours before the board meeting — even better if it can be a week in advance. If you’re slightly later stage it might be 5–6 hours. So here’s a short guide to achieving that.

Metrics 196

Metrics Strategic Investors Later Stage Management 196

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 14, 2009

The final reason you might find board observers is where you have an investor on your board in an early round of investment and the later stage investors want to take the board seats. VC partners will often ask to have an associate attend board meetings along with them. I’ll cover strategic investors in a different post.

Advisory Board 215

Advisory Board Strategic Investors Venture Capital Later Stage 215

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 31, 2019

Scott Kupor is the managing partner at Andreessen Horowitz, where he’s responsible for all operational aspects of running the firm. Coming from an operating role in a company, that can feel odd - that doing nothing is in fact accomplishing your objective - so that takes some getting used to.

Lean 108

Lean Venture Capital Conversion IPO 108

Up and Running

AUGUST 21, 2017

To put that benchmark in context, the latest estimates place the total number of businesses operating in the U.S. VCs don’t expect any serious corrections to valuations in 2017 and they seem to be taking financial discipline in later-stage companies more seriously, valuing unit economics over “growth at any cost.”.

Silicon Valley 86

Silicon Valley Venture Capital Valuation Later Stage 86

Austin Startup

MARCH 7, 2021

These are all potential customers and strategic partners for startups. Other companies, like Blue Origin, Firefly Space and Space X are all conducting operations in Texas, both together with NASA and for their own unique space ventures. More than 50 Fortune 500 companies are headquartered in Texas and six of the Fortune 50.

Texas 90

Texas San Antonio Houston Dallas 90

David Teten

JANUARY 21, 2021

(co-written with Jamie Finney, Founding Partner at Greater Colorado Venture Fund. In addition to a fund, the overall Capacity organization provides direct mentorship, consulting and connects founders to a broad network of talent, diverse forms of capital, and existing resources focused on the post-startup stage of growth.

Equity 78

Equity Revenue Cofounder Colorado 78