David Teten

MAY 20, 2016

Engineers, product managers, and platform managers building tech solutions for private market investing. I’ve also made significant engineering contributions to our two other platforms, Admin (back-end portal for our data team) and Access (LP dashboard). who use tech solutions in their day-to-day process.

Private Equity 113

Private Equity Equity Cap Table Venture Capital 113

Version One Ventures

JULY 24, 2019

Right now, this is a two- to three-year role where our new team member will learn about the business of venture capital and get the opportunity to work with some really interesting startups. Reporting for our investors, including writing quarterly updates and preparing LP advisory board meetings.

Technical Review 124

Technical Review Advisory Board Due Diligence LP 124

David Teten

AUGUST 15, 2013

How can a tech startup engage with a Fortune 500 company for mutual benefit? The chasm between the typical Fortune 500 company and a startup is typically too vast for a standard partnership. I worked with our intern team to look for the Fortune 500 companies making the strongest effort to reach out to the tech startup community.

Startup 114

Startup Technical Support Venture Capital Balance Sheet 114

Feld Thoughts

MARCH 24, 2017

Foundry Group is best known for our investments in startups, but our vehicle currently investing in other venture funds, Foundry Group Next, is off to what we believe to be a great start and I wanted to share an update about it by talking about our new investment in a fund managed by Founder Collective.

Founder 75

Founder LP Technical Review Seed Stage 75

Eric Friedman

DECEMBER 27, 2021

1/ Twitter builds out payments into the product – launches a new creator chapter. I think AngelList is leading the charge here with Rolling Funds and other products like free RUVs for companies. Startups pave the way for in person only monthly, quarterly, or bi-annually and large corps have 2 day a week in offices.

Balance Sheet 97

Balance Sheet Stock Private Equity Option Pool 97

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 27, 2013

In this period (less than 2 years) he has brought on incredibly talented senior execs is sales, marketing, product management, client services, finance, vp engineering and more. Startup Advice' Growth like this, this early in a company’s lifecycle rarely happens. In his spare time he raised nearly $30 million.

Advisory Board 365

Advisory Board CTO Hire Fractional CTO Los Angeles 365

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 10, 2013

As I’ve said before, all startups need to realize that every other company still has to see itself naked in the mirror in the morning. You know the truth: You are late shipping product, your potential investors are taking too long to decide, your team is fighting over strategy, not enough of your users are returning.

Startup 412

Startup San Francisco LP Bankruptcy 412

Hunter Walker

APRIL 27, 2014

I’ve written before about our fundraising process and how it very much resembles that of a startup. Last week we held our first annual LP meeting, when venture funds get their investors together with updates on operations and results. 2) Product Market Fit & Our Roadmap. We love our founders.

LP 97

LP Cofounder Term Sheet Valuation 97

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2011

That great productivity drain that we somehow all buy into. So I ask you – if you’re being reactive to somebody else’s emails are you really being as productive in your company as you could be? The same kind of tasks that a startup team has. We call these investors “LPs” for limited partners.

Email 314

Email Product Term Sheet Portfolio 314

View from Seed

AUGUST 17, 2021

In some cases, great companies massively expand the definition or potential of the market with innovative products, technology leverage, and great execution. It’s conventional wisdom to say that it doesn’t, and that startups should keep their head down and execute. It would be case based, and each case would be an A vs. B matchup.

IRR 206

IRR Dilution Founder Portfolio 206

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 19, 2015

I point this out because in a world where it sometimes feels productive to be busy, people seldom find extreme focus to get stuff out of the bottom end of the funnel. It doesn’t matter if it’s recruiting, business development, shipping product, writing blog posts, networking … it’s all the same.

LP 150

LP Warrant Portfolio Framework 150

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 5, 2010

They often make great team members such as head of products, CTO, head of sales, CFO, etc. And we’re lucky because they deliver many of the great products, services and content that we consume in our lives every day. A caller dialed in to ask us questions about his startup. I was recently on TWiST with Jason Calacanis.

Entrepreneur 293

Entrepreneur CTO Hire South America Salary 293

View from Seed

AUGUST 17, 2021

In some cases, great companies massively expand the definition or potential of the market with innovative products, technology leverage, and great execution. It’s conventional wisdom to say that it doesn’t, and that startups should keep their head down and execute. It would be case based, and each case would be an A vs. B matchup.

IRR 156

IRR Dilution Founder Portfolio 156

Genuine VC

SEPTEMBER 7, 2010

In other words, for a company looking to compete across the entire marketplace in a specific industry, it must either develop a unique product offering (along the lines of brand, design, features) or more-efficiently produce the product to outcompete on price. And many of those offering them this product will be profitable doing it.

Seed Stage 191

Seed Stage Belgium Differentiation LP 191

VC Cafe

JULY 4, 2022

Another impact of the meltdown of the public markets is on performance, in LP and VC books which resulted in 68% of funds estimated to have marked down companies in their portfolio. Narrative violation: VC investment in EMEA startups reached an all-time high in the first half of 2022. billion in June 2021. Source: The Economist.

Venture Capital 167

Venture Capital Valuation Private Equity LP 167

View from Seed

AUGUST 17, 2021

In some cases, great companies massively expand the definition or potential of the market with innovative products, technology leverage, and great execution. It’s conventional wisdom to say that it doesn’t, and that startups should keep their head down and execute. It would be case based, and each case would be an A vs. B matchup.

IRR 136

IRR Dilution Founder Portfolio 136

Austin Startup

AUGUST 10, 2017

Before graduating, I decided to forgo the finance path and instead dove into engineering and later sales and product management roles at VersaSuite (health IT) in Austin. As entrepreneurs, Tushar and I immediately knew that when product-market fit hits you in the head, you jump on it. We were infatuated with tech.

Technical Review 48

Technical Review Cofounder Technical Cofounder Austin 48

Hunter Walker

JANUARY 5, 2014

Stage 1 : Either Satya or I are meeting the founders, usually solo, giving them an overview of Homebrew and learning about their startup through direct conversations, using the product (whatever stage it’s at) and doing some background on their industry (if it’s an area new to us). Stage 2 : Here both of us are engaged.

Software Review 102

Software Review Balance Sheet Cofounder Technical Review 102

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 11, 2014

Last week displayed the best of LA last week for a gala event of all of Upfront’s portfolio companies + the CEOs of many of LA’s top technology companies + 75 VC firms from LA, SF, NY & Boston + 25 LP Funds + the Chairman of Yahoo! Startup Lessons' Maynard Webb) and the Mayor of Los Angeles, Eric Garcetti.

Los Angeles 318

Los Angeles Silicon Valley LP Warrant 318

Version One Ventures

JULY 31, 2018

We’re hiring an associate for a two- to three-year role where he/she will learn about the business of venture capital and get the opportunity to work with some really interesting startups. Reporting for our investors, including writing quarterly updates and preparing LP advisory board meetings. What are we looking for?

Hiring 166

Hiring San Francisco Advisory Board Due Diligence 166

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 27, 2016

I was speaking recently to the team at NuOrder , an LA-based company we’re an investor in about “realism in startups” — an impromptu talk I have given to any of our portfolio companies who ask. I was asked again in an LP meeting later in the week and then again at a founder breakfast gathering we hosted yesterday. Early stage.

Early Stage 254

Early Stage Non-Compete LP Later Stage 254

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 6, 2019

Yes, VC / Startup Funding is up Massively If you look at how much VC firms have raised from Limited Partners (LPs) over the past 2 decades you’ll see that we’ve returned to a level that we haven’t seen since 1999. If you want the whole deck you can find it on SlideShare but I’ve written up a short summary with commentary below.

Venture Capital 292

Venture Capital IPO Mezzanine Early Stage 292

David Teten

JANUARY 19, 2021

More and more startups are pursuing Revenue-Based VCs , but “RBI” doesn’t fit everyone. Marco Cesare Solinas , VC Analyst with Blue Future Partners , said, “ From the LP perspective, another disadvantage is the lack of track record given the early stage of the concept. of startups raise VC. Of the Inc. 5000 companies, only 6.5%

Cofounder 78

Cofounder Technical Review Equity Dividend 78

David Teten

SEPTEMBER 23, 2017

The only problem that faces startup investors now is how to mine this new data layer efficiently to increase returns.”. To measure product usage and traction over time, we use tools like Alexa , AppAnnie and Google Analytics. For the broader use case of helping startups execute their legal paperwork, Clerky is a focused solution.

Private Equity 60

Private Equity Venture Capital Equity Technical Review 60

This is going to be BIG.

SEPTEMBER 19, 2012

I was out trying to save my startup by talking to as many investors as I could. While my company may not have lasted, and even though I swore to myself that I wouldn't do another startup--this recently launched new venture is moving forward with the help of some fantastic partners. It's the black box of the startup world.

LP 112

LP New York City New York Chad 112

Hunter Walker

JUNE 14, 2019

The six who didn’t go out for a Series A either (a) shutdown/acquihired prior to this milestone [founder disagreement; lack of product traction], (b) exited due to an early M&A opportunity or (c) in one case, is currently an ongoing concern that hasn’t needed to raise additional capital.

LP 100

LP Early Stage Lead Investor Founder 100

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 21, 2020

We talked about what startup CEOs should do in these situations and how to think about these renegotiations. Food production and distribution, group collaboration, remote training or education, sensor technology (tracking people movement, temperatures, etc), certain biotech deals.

Marketing 263

Marketing Valuation Churn Rate Balance Sheet 263

Eric Friedman

DECEMBER 30, 2020

This did not end up happening at all but there are a few startups working in this space which I think have a shot 2/ NFTs (non-fungible-tokens) will emerge as a killer use case inside an incredibly fun game at a scale. 1/ Twitter builds out payments into the product – launches a new creator chapter. No, but close.

Stock 120

Stock Private Equity Option Pool LP 120

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 23, 2012

I have been close to the tech & startup sectors for more than 20 years and I can’t think of a period in which I felt more optimistic about the innovation and value creation I see in front of us. The number of startups being created has increased by an order of magnitude. Thank you, Aaron Sorkin! The Funding Problem.

Venture Capital 347

Venture Capital Technical Review LP Mobile 347

Version One Ventures

JUNE 3, 2013

The analyst position is a two- to three-year role where you will learn about what the venture capital business is all about and get the chance to work with some interesting startups. Performing market research and due diligence for potential investments (interviewing customers/users, testing products and services, and/or financial modeling).

Hiring 156

Hiring North America Los Angeles Advisory Board 156

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 14, 2015

I spoke at Michael Kim’s excellent annual Cendana VC/LP conference today. We have an entire generation of startup founders who don’t have muscle memory from getting their burn rates back into shape from 2008/09 or 2001-2005. Twitter is a great product and a great company. Here’s my take away.

Burn Rate 150

Burn Rate San Francisco Private Equity LP 150

David Teten

DECEMBER 3, 2019

See Bessemer Venture Partners’ A comprehensive guide to security for startups. Automation allows you to spend less time on tedious tasks and will help boost productivity, especially within a small marketing team. We are also seeing technology evaluation as an increasingly important part of LP operational due diligence.

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Software Review Analytics Private Equity 78

YoungUpstarts

NOVEMBER 18, 2018

The costs associated with patenting your technological or creative boon, successfully bringing your product to market and compelling larger companies to come to the table and negotiate a royalty deal rests in how you proceed. How does a startup use this information on their business strategy?

Intellectual Property 157

Intellectual Property Forecast LLC Acquisition 157

Hunter Walker

APRIL 28, 2017

For VCs, annual LP meetings are combination Board Meeting + Community Event. Several founders gave 10-12 minute updates on their companies, and then, a dinner with our LPs, Homebrew founders and fund advisors. We spent an afternoon with our investors, providing updates on fund performance, market dynamics and future plans.

LP 70

LP Portfolio Founder Community 70

The Equity Kicker

JULY 16, 2012

I’ve been advising startups for a long time now to make sure their fundraising is consistent with the size of their opportunity. Unfortunately, it is in the nature of startups that the opportunity size is usually unclear at the early stages. sounds inspirational, i know, but stick with me for a minute.).

LP 105

LP Early Stage Valuation Differentiation 105

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 10, 2011

The startup business moves in cycles, and what goes up will eventually come down. One easy way to tell: notice all the startup experts and prophets that have sprung up in the last two years (myself included). The LP's that fund booms are, after all, pension, municipal, and sovereign wealth funds. We're in summer.

LP 168

LP Incubator New York Programming 168

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 24, 2021

But markets have changed and I think investors, founders and experienced executives who want to join later-stage startups can all benefit from playing the long game. But in the LP world there is an obsession with “top quartile” benchmarking in the near term, which drives skewed incentives for newer VCs to show quick returns.

Venture Capital 363

Venture Capital LP Valuation Later Stage 363