Hunter Walker

JUNE 22, 2014

I was excited to recently see YC President Sam Altman evangelize for adding an investor or outside Director to a seed stage startup. With larger seed financings these days, your next investors are expecting more polished companies come A Round.

Seed Stage 93

Seed Stage Early Stage Metrics Startup 93

Genuine VC

SEPTEMBER 7, 2010

The famed business strategist Michael Porter described a set of successful general strategies which firms employ to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage: differentiation strategy and cost leadership strategy for those firms with a broad market scope, and a segmentation strategy for those with a narrow market scope.

Seed Stage 191

Seed Stage Belgium Differentiation LP 191

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

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 16, 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. Your job is to show that your positive momentum will lead to sustained market leadership. You can read the rest of the posts in the series by clicking here *.

Seed Stage 192

Seed Stage Metrics PR Leadership 192

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 19, 2013

I have a very public seed stage investment policy and awe.sm They need to be passionate about leadership, management, and organizational processes as the company scales.” The decisions were endless, the choices not obvious and the VC involved a pain in the ass. I saw it first hand.

Technical Review 303

Technical Review Cofounder Analytics Founder 303

Hunter Walker

NOVEMBER 20, 2020

tldr: instead of choosing between in-person or remote, your seed stage company (or team) should be more hybrid, tied to the type/phase of project going on. Experienced leadership, well-funded, and hiring in engineering, product and operations. Highlighted Homebrew Portfolio Jobs.

Early Stage 146

Early Stage Seed Stage Startup Software 146

YoungUpstarts

FEBRUARY 6, 2017

For example, assume you are a seed-stage company that needs $500,000 but you go out looking for $1 million. This is the firm that will give you a term sheet, take a leadership role in driving financing, and likely be your most active new investor. Be careful not to go out asking for an amount that is larger than you need.

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Venture Capital Term Sheet Technical Review Due Diligence 100

Up and Running

MARCH 11, 2015

From leadership advice to thoughts on how to build a thriving company, Mark’s voice is direct and succinct. As president of Y Combinator, the hugely successful seed-stage investor/accelerator, Sam Altman has a lot of knowledge to share. You get Mark Suster’s excellent blog where he doles out advice to aspiring CEOs. Sam Altman.

Venture Capital 60

Venture Capital Technical Review Silicon Valley Cofounder 60

View from Seed

JANUARY 8, 2015

So the question needs to be asked: Should seed-stage startups even blog in the first place? Think of it this way: Even in the seed stage, before most companies find product-market fit, they understand the problems they’re trying to solve. It’s simply about solving problems.

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage Startup Audience Leadership 120

Austin Startup

FEBRUARY 21, 2011

The person will work directly with founders and leadership of member companies on core issues – go-to–market strategy, market segmentation, financial modeling, revenue models, fund raising, pitch decks, and all the other issues that startups must tackle.

Technical Review 70

Technical Review Intellectual Property Incubator Due Diligence 70

View from Seed

AUGUST 20, 2015

Scott’s thought leadership is popular and widely followed, and you’ll want to hear some of the things he did to bootstrap Behance and gain initial traction, not least of which was creating and selling a paper notebook as his very first product. Bobby Kane (@ bobbyjkane , www.bobbyjkane.com/ ).

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage Product Bootstrapping Portfolio 120

View from Seed

AUGUST 20, 2015

Scott’s thought leadership is popular and widely followed, and you’ll want to hear some of the things he did to bootstrap Behance and gain initial traction, not least of which was creating and selling a paper notebook as his very first product. Bobby Kane (@ bobbyjkane , www.bobbyjkane.com/ ).

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage Product Bootstrapping Portfolio 120

Agile VC

MARCH 13, 2012

That being said, it wouldn’t surprise me in the least if Facebook’s leadership takes a scorched earth approach to fighting Yahoo! New CEOs often like to take a bold step early in their tenure to establish their leadership, appease restless shareholders, or otherwise tell the broader marketplace that things are changing.

IP 100

IP IPO Social Network Silicon Valley 100

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 25, 2010

. “Yes&# was given to me by one of my favorite angel investor / seed VC’s to work with – John Greathouse of Rincon Venture Partners and author of the blog InfoChachkie that you should check out because it is filled with great info from a guy who has been a very successful operator.

Silicon Valley 293

Silicon Valley Technical Review Southern California Angel Investor 293

View from Seed

JUNE 10, 2020

The NextView Accelerator is different in that the experience is a bespoke hands-on effort with the senior leadership of the NextView partnership. Some prospective seed stage VCs may consider the remaining startups “passed over” and of lesser quality, when in reality great startups take time to mature and blossom. .

Cofounder 177

Cofounder Syndicate Syndication Alabama 177

Hunter Walker

DECEMBER 27, 2016

Satya and I take a concentrated approach to seed stage investing – playing a leadership role in financings and committing 50%+ of our time ongoing to working with current investments. We excuse ourselves from opportunities where we don’t feel a strong connection with the missionary zeal of the founders.

Seed Stage 94

Seed Stage Management Founder Leadership 94

View from Seed

MARCH 16, 2016

Yes, they’re bringing 800 jobs, which isn’t the thousands we would prefer, but with those 800 comes their organization’s global leadership. Thought leadership originating in Boston. And although they’re not a startup, GE’s decision to move its global headquarters to Boston is a positive sign.

Boston 215

Boston Early Stage Artificial Inteligence Semantic 215

Hunter Walker

AUGUST 1, 2014

But I’m skeptical I will EVER write a seed check to a company that reaches out to me via a banker or placement agent. At the seed stage there are just some things you can’t outsource and fundraising is one of them. Remember, I’m talking about seed stage financing.

Seed Stage 110

Seed Stage Finance Hiring Founder 110

Version One Ventures

JANUARY 4, 2017

This seed-stage fund is named 50/50 since Frank + Oak plans to grant 50 percent of the fund to female entrepreneurs and 50 percent of the fund to male entrepreneurs. As CEO Thomas Smyth told VentureBeat, “Basically we want to see how many people we can help before Comcast shuts us down.”. You can read more about the Fund here.

Seattle 130

Seattle Portfolio Seed Stage Canada 130

Genuine VC

JULY 10, 2012

Willingness to lead – This leadership dynamic is important especially when talking with seed-only focused funds, as many have an explicit strategy of only participating in a round coming together with a third-party lead syndicate VC partner.

Syndicate 207

Syndicate Syndication Seed Stage Portfolio 207

Hunter Walker

MAY 18, 2016

Unbeknownst to me at the time, my future would end up mirroring his, moving from product leadership roles to starting a seed stage venture fund. Hunter Walk: After a career in product management you moved over to seed investing in 2009. Based out of LA, Erik runs Mucker Capital (plus an accelerator Mucker Lab ).

Seed Stage 52

Seed Stage Founder Leadership Operations 52

Hunter Walker

MAY 18, 2016

Unbeknownst to me at the time, my future would end up mirroring his, moving from product leadership roles to starting a seed stage venture fund. Hunter Walk: After a career in product management you moved over to seed investing in 2009. Based out of LA, Erik runs Mucker Capital (plus an accelerator Mucker Lab ).

Seed Stage 52

Seed Stage Founder Leadership Operations 52

Rob Go

NOVEMBER 12, 2012

We are pretty explicit that we are a dedicated seed stage fund focused on internet-enabled businesses. I find that most savvy entrepreneurs do a little research on the investors they reach out to to figure out if it’s a fit and a mutually effective use of time.

Portfolio 67

Portfolio Social Media Seed Stage Email 67

Steve Blank

MAY 12, 2015

The SBIR/STTR program made ~6,200 seed stage investments in 2014, dwarfing the seed investments made by venture capital. The SBIR/STTR program represents a critical source of seed funding for U.S. In fact, half of all seed stages in tech companies in the U.S. Eleven U.S. were funded by the SBIR program.

SBIR 120

SBIR Maryland Lean Seed Stage 120

View from Seed

AUGUST 5, 2014

For seed-stage startups, when resources are tight, trying to consciously build startup culture can feel wasteful. While working on our last startup, Derek and I often spent long lunches discussing what we were “hacking” in our lives: the latest diet, workout, productivity system, or leadership technique.

Cofounder 307

Cofounder Startup SCRUM Seed Stage 307

Hunter Walker

FEBRUARY 3, 2015

When Homebrew launched two years ago, Satya and I knew that smart hardware was going to be important to our Bottom Up Economy thesis but also that neither of us yet had meaningful experience working alongside the best hardware entrepreneurs at the seed stage where we invest.

Seed Stage 48

Seed Stage Cofounder Incubator Leadership 48

Hippoland

NOVEMBER 27, 2016

Pocket will be joining me on Tues 12/6 at 9pm PT and in her words, invests in: Smart Hardware Next-gen Consumer Tech AI-powered Enterprise Tech Diverse Founders Teams based in Asia Pre-Seed/Seed Stage Elizabeth Galbut is a venture capitalist and business designer.

Southern California 48

Southern California Los Angeles Seed Stage Asia 48

View from Seed

JANUARY 11, 2017

Normally I would counsel seed stage companies not to take strategic investment but that wasn’t the case here. The same cannot be said of corporate VC programs, many of which come into being during bullish periods in capital markets but then wane when capital is scarce or when corporate leadership or priorities inevitably shift.

Strategic Investors 120

Strategic Investors Post-Money Valuation Seed Stage Cofounder 120

Rob Go

OCTOBER 14, 2012

Early Progress: Performance is a difficult thing to measure as a seed stage fund given the time horizons and the fickleness of private company valuations. We are still in the relatively early stages of a big deleveraging process for the private sector, coupled with the need to take some giant and painful strides to cut public debt.

New Hampshire 50

New Hampshire Croatia Omaha Portfolio 50

Hunter Walker

OCTOBER 23, 2014

As background, Satya and I are believers in the value of Boards post seed funding because it gives founders what we think of as ‘leadership momentum.’ We stress to founders that seed stage Board meetings are about dashboards and discussions. A chance to shine or impress investors.

Employee 91

Employee Silicon Valley Seed Stage Startup 91

Rob Go

MAY 5, 2014

Seed stage investing has developed significantly over the past 7 years that I’ve been in VC. It’d pretty standard for entrepreneurs to contemplate raising an “institutional seed round” prior to approaching VC’s for series A rounds. Many have said that the institutional seed is the new series A.

Seed Stage 69

Seed Stage Leadership Portfolio Boston 69

Hunter Walker

APRIL 21, 2015

Satya and I strongly believe in the value of Boards at the seed stage because they help founders build cadence heading into the A round. When Homebrew lead Shyp’s seed in 2013, I joined their Board. Prior to Kleiner (and a leadership role at Square), Megan held a variety of roles at Google. Breaching the Gates.

Seed Stage 48

Seed Stage Finance Portfolio Leadership 48

adamac.blogspot.com

MARCH 9, 2010

Adam MacBeth Tuesday, April 07, 2009 10 Startup Red Flags Ive worked on a number of startups: from seed-stage through IPO, as a founder, employee, advisor, and consultant, as well as evaluating a bunch from the outside, so Ive seen my share of screw-ups. leadership) problem. Adamac Attack!

Technical Review 41

Technical Review CTO Hire Fractional CTO Startup 41

Rob Go

SEPTEMBER 2, 2014

Some specialized platforms like Kickstarter can garner so much interest from non-financial backers that founders can avoid dilutive financing at the seed stage altogether. These platforms are really interesting to seed funds because they are simultaneously a threat, a weapon, and a sourcing mechanism.

Cram Down 66

Cram Down Institutional Investors Dilution Seed Stage 66

Steve Blank

AUGUST 27, 2009

We’ll look at the model stage-by-stage. Concept and Seed Stage In the Concept and Seed Stage, founders capture their passion and vision for the new company and turn them into a set of key ideas, which quickly becomes a business plan, sometimes on the back of the proverbial napkin.

Silicon Valley 260

Silicon Valley Product Startup Product Development 260

Hearpreneur

MAY 4, 2019

While they are working with a Bionic entrepreneur to discover new customer problems and needs and run experiments to validate or invalidate the solutions they devise, our venture partners work with the senior leadership of the company to set up a growth board, which a form of corporate governance that focuses on new businesses from the seed stage through (..)

Cofounder 66

Cofounder Founder Entrepreneur Venture Capital 66

Rob Go

NOVEMBER 14, 2011

As with other markets, one of the big gaps in LA is a shortage of very high quality, sophisticated seed stage capital coupled with operating expertise that can really help entrepreneurs at the ground floor. There has been a surge of interesting activity in that region, and there is a wealth of engineering talent in the area.

Los Angeles 47

Los Angeles Seed Stage Incubator Differentiation 47