Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 14, 2009

As an entrepreneur you don’t want 5 investors on your board because then board decisions will be more representative of investor concerns than management concerns. The third scenario I’ve seen is with “strategic&# investors. I’ll cover strategic investors in a different post.

Advisory Board 215

Advisory Board Strategic Investors Venture Capital Later Stage 215

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 1, 2014

Competitors can become strategic investors or merger candidates. Good strategic partnerships often lead to strategic investments, or great acquisition relationships. They also manage internal venture funds that may be your growth lifeline.

Non-disclosure Agreement 257

Non-disclosure Agreement Intellectual Property Startup Non-Compete 257

Berkonomics

AUGUST 3, 2023

Friends, family and fools: [Email readers, continue here…] This term, although pejorative, describes the typical mix of early investors in a small, young growing business. Better yet, the valuation of your enterprise is often higher than if the same investment were taken from a professional investor.

Private Equity 118

Private Equity Valuation Cap Table Accredited Investor 118

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 16, 2012

And if management values the opinions of the associates (and often they should!) Some “strategic investors” have rules that they can’t sit on board seats. If the person is there to understand the context and help with follow up then they should be able to get full value from the meeting just by being there.

Strategic Investors 289

Strategic Investors Early Stage Partner Naming 289

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 4, 2010

Provides application performance management (APM) software solution that helps web sites manage distributed applications in high-volume production environments; features include: application mapping, transaction flow monitoring, code-level diagnostics, and cloud orchestration. I believe that “strategic&# money is an oxymoron.

IPO 236

IPO .Net Venture Capital Strategic Investors 236

Rob Go

DECEMBER 14, 2016

This is also a risk in financing rounds with investors that are unknown (foreign investors, groups that are starting to do early stage investing for the first time, unusual strategic investors, etc). Second, don’t be too quick to get to the LOI. Fred Wilson wrote a bit about this a few years ago: [link].

Term Sheet 28

Term Sheet Technical Review Due Diligence Private Equity 28

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 30, 2018

If a VC prices a flat or down round it means that management teams are often taking too much dilution. Each new investor knows that the people who have the MOST asymmetric information on your performance are the previous round investors. Strategics (ie industry investors vs. VCs).

Valuation 324

Valuation Post-Money Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Cofounder 324

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 24, 2016

A find many board meetings highly unproductive in that they are often just a date in the calendar where management is set to update its investors and other board members of its performance over the past time period. It ought to lay out the key issues, provide 3 options per issue and state which one management is leaning toward.

Metrics 196

Metrics Strategic Investors Later Stage Management 196

Seeing Both Sides

AUGUST 28, 2017

We typically advise our portfolio companies to avoid taking on strategic investors at an early stage for this very reason. Who sets the policy for token sales—management or the board of directors? How does that impact the management team’s incentive to create equity value and liquidity for the equity holders?

Early Stage 20

Early Stage Equity Venture Capital Government 20

Seeing Both Sides

AUGUST 28, 2017

We typically advise our portfolio companies to avoid taking on strategic investors at an early stage for this very reason. Who sets the policy for token sales—management or the board of directors? How does that impact the management team’s incentive to create equity value and liquidity for the equity holders?

Early Stage 20

Early Stage Equity Venture Capital Government 20

BeyondVC

NOVEMBER 12, 2003

A strategic investment is not an exit strategy-in many cases, it could actually limit your exit opportunities as other competitors to the strategic investor may not want to partner with you. Manage expectations-constant communication between both sides is key to maintain a healthy relationship.

Strategic Investors 60

Strategic Investors Due Diligence Early Stage Exit Strategy 60

Hunter Walker

APRIL 4, 2014

strategic investors (including corporates). traditional institutional LPs such as fund of funds, endowments, foundations, sovereign wealth funds ( our investors ). The result has been many new managers, many new funds. There’s a influx of capital to back new funds: crowding funding via AngelList syndicates.

San Francisco 100

San Francisco Private Equity LP Syndicate 100

David Teten

SEPTEMBER 6, 2015

Previously she was Co-Founder and CEO of SNAZZ, a cloud-based event management platform. A corporate investor can provide diversity on the Board as someone who thinks differently from independent VCs. Corporate venture funds are often referred to as ‘strategic’ investors because of the unique benefits they bring to the table.

Venture Capital 60

Venture Capital Balance Sheet Technical Review Portfolio 60

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 10, 2010

Banks are particularly helpful with raising money from “strategic&# investors, which often means corporate investors such as Intuit, SAP, AMD, Salesforce.com and the like. Current round: $19.8mm Series B led by Accel with existing investors Floodgate and First Round Capital. TechCrunch. GroupSpaces. students. -Is

IPO 242

IPO Venture Capital Private Placement Cofounder 242

Hunter Walker

JUNE 7, 2016

HotSchedules – a restaurant management platform for scheduling employees, plus more. Asana – a project management tool to help our team track our work and current and past projects. I’ve been asked if our investors balked at the idea of a socially-responsible, triple-bottom line taco shop?

Caching 70

Caching DC Social Media Finance 70

Berkonomics

JUNE 8, 2017

composed of these investors and management. However, most often, these funds are solicited by a well-meaning entrepreneur from investors who are not qualified as accredited investors under the law (currently requiring a proved income of $200,000 a year or $1 million in net worth for an individual investor).

Private Equity 106

Private Equity Valuation Cap Table Accredited Investor 106

This is going to be BIG.

DECEMBER 21, 2017

Ice cream has gotten to be a pretty hot space, ironically, for high profile investors to get into lately. Sometimes, you run into big name investors who have great potential value as a strategic investor, but they want to get paid extra for their brand's value in the form of equity or lower valuations.

Cap Table 90

Cap Table Cofounder Valuation .Net 90

Austin Startup

SEPTEMBER 20, 2019

Since the beginning, the week’s programming has been lovingly organized by Jacqueline Hughes , Events Manager at Kauffman Fellows, Joshua Baer , Founder and CEO of Capital Factory, and the Capital Factory Dream Team.

Austin 48

Austin Startup Texas Community 48

Growthink Blog

OCTOBER 7, 2011

you know how to manage and motivate people, you have great marketing and sales tactics, etc.), you know how to manage and motivate people, you have great marketing and sales tactics, etc.), One of Harrison's companies received early funding from a strategic investor (a large corporation).

Business Plan 83

Business Plan Jordan Strategic Investors IPO 83

Hunter Walker

JUNE 7, 2016

HotSchedules – a restaurant management platform for scheduling employees, plus more. Asana – a project management tool to help our team track our work and current and past projects. I’ve been asked if our investors balked at the idea of a socially-responsible, triple-bottom line taco shop?

Caching 48

Caching DC Social Media Finance 48

The Next Web

SEPTEMBER 17, 2012

Today, more than 125,000 businesses and individuals at 92 percent of the Fortune 500 use Box to manage information and collaboration in the cloud. Venture Partners, and strategic investors salesforce.com and SAP. According to the tests, Box had the lowest average upload time across all locations tested (2.7

Europe 114

Europe Entrepreneur United States San Francisco 114

VC Adventure

AUGUST 10, 2010

With that pre-amble, let me describe the story of Trada – a company that helps businesses more effectively manage their search marketing campaigns via its marketplace through which paid search experts work collaboratively and competitively to maximize the effectiveness of Trada customers search marketing campaigns.

Syndicate 74

Syndicate Syndication Due Diligence SEM 74

Berkonomics

JANUARY 20, 2010

Friends, family and fools: This term, although pejorative, describes the typical mix of early investors in a small, young growing business. Money from these sources is relatively easy to come by, and most often comes with no strings as to oversight by a formal board composed of these investors and management.

Private Equity 69

Private Equity Valuation Cap Table Accredited Investor 69

VC Cafe

OCTOBER 18, 2011

Israeli startup Siklu Wireless Communications has raised a series B round of $19 million led by new investors Amiti Ventures , Qualcomm Ventures and joined by all existing investors: DFJ- Tamir Fishman Ventures , Evergreen Venture Partners and Argonaut Private Equity. We’re looking forward to working with Siklu.”.

Bandwidth 90

Bandwidth Private Equity Architecture 90

VC Cafe

DECEMBER 13, 2011

Founded in 2006, Anobit’s management team include several of Israel’s top high-tech entrepreneurs: chairman and CEO Prof. Intel Capital Pitango Venture Capital , Battery Ventures Micron Technologies and other strategic investors have invested $76 million in the company to date.

Flash 102

Flash SEC Acquisition 102

VC Cafe

NOVEMBER 28, 2010

Mobile gaming company Oberon Media raised a fifth round of $16 million – some of the funds raised are from previous investors Goldman Sachs, Infinity I-China Fund and Oak Investment Partners. In addition to Intel Capital, investors include Pitango Venture Capital , Battery Ventures , and strategic investors.

Flash 94

Flash Venture Capital Acquisition 94