Both Sides of the Table

MAY 9, 2018

Your product demo crushed. You race back to the office to tell everybody how well it went and you wait for the follow-up call to have a partners’ meeting or talk about term sheets or at least dip into due diligence. That way when my partners in are in …. But the real product being bought or sold is “trust.”

Software Review 381

Software Review Churn Rate Due Diligence New York 381

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 28, 2012

You’re heading into a full partner meeting and you’ve been asked for a full data pack before – should you give it? If you show a list of key customers or key business partners and if this list is sensitive (READ: If you don’t want VCs calling them) then you need to make it explicit with the VCs. Follow Up Engagement.

Technical Review 316

Technical Review Due Diligence Term Sheet Cap Table 316

www.quora.com

JANUARY 16, 2011

Find Questions, Topics and People Add Question Add Question Venture Capital Venture Capital Term Sheets Startups Term Sheets What are examples of good startup term sheets? Ycombinator open source term sheet is a good start for Seed deals. Brad Feld does the best blog term sheet series.

Term Sheet 41

Term Sheet Startup Angel Investor Wiki 41

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 24, 2018

You company is the product and you’re selling an equity ownership in your company but much more broadly you’re selling trust & confidence that you’re going to build something enormously valuable and that you’re going to be enjoyable to work hand-in-hand with over the coming decade of each other’s lives. How many partners are there?

Technical Review 314

Technical Review Due Diligence Partner Term Sheet 314

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 10, 2014

Investor due diligence on a startup is not a mysterious black art, but is nothing more than a final integrity check on all aspects of your business model, team, product, customers, and plan. To get the terms you want, it’s better to start with your own term sheet. Know your partner well before you get married.

Technical Review 257

Technical Review Due Diligence Term Sheet Offshore 257

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 27, 2016

Investor due diligence on a startup is not a mysterious black art, but is nothing more than a final integrity check on all aspects of your business model, team, product, customers, and plan. To get the terms you want, it’s better to start with your own term sheet. Know your partner well before you get married.

Technical Review 120

Technical Review Due Diligence Term Sheet Offshore 120

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 19, 2014

So when they spoke about character development, repeatable gaming experiences, bringing games to multiple platforms (in the industry we call this “ Transmedia “) and physical products my ears naturally perked up. We met in August (so much for VCs taking the Summer off!) and had several phone conversations after that.

Technical Review 373

Technical Review North America Los Angeles Cofounder 373

View from Seed

MARCH 11, 2020

More mature companies will have to answer more detailed questions around their tech, product, and business. Due diligence may seem like a drag, but partnering with an investor is a serious commitment, and you want to make sure that whoever you work with has built real conviction about you and your company.

Technical Review 279

Technical Review Due Diligence Term Sheet Seed Stage 279

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 19, 2009

I had really positive experiences such as working with Greg Gretsch at Sigma Partners where he championed us to a partners’ meeting where we sort of got crucified. We made changes and Greg was a gentleman throughout the process rather than berating us for our performance (it was our first partners’ meeting).

Venture Capital 274

Venture Capital Term Sheet San Diego Viral 274

Agile VC

MAY 26, 2011

This also appears as a guest post at Fortune’s Term Sheet. Yes… he was a very successful PayPal exec and previously co-founder & VP Product of SocialNet. Not long after the product launch we began the initial conversations with VCs for a Series A round. How To Think About The Future. May 26, 2011.

Term Sheet 178

Term Sheet Silicon Valley Technical Review Social Network 178

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 13, 2011

If you are going to do the tour up and down Sandhill Road to try and raise your 1st round of financing you need a pitch deck because the vast majority of those meetings you are going to be sitting around a table and you will be presenting to one or more partners and that is going to be your first engagement.”. Is that when it became big?

Technical Review 288

Technical Review Venture Capital Silicon Valley Software Review 288

View from Seed

AUGUST 17, 2021

It’s by far the longest time I’ve spent working on any one thing, and I feel very blessed to have been able to work with my partners, colleagues, founders, and collaborators. My partners will tell you that I am an incredibly impatient person. You want someone who will challenge you and be an intellectual sparring partner.

IRR 205

IRR Dilution Founder Portfolio 205

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 4, 2018

Of the last 15 investments we’ve made, 8 have been pre-product or pre-seed style rounds. That said, we tend to be very flexible on syndication to bring on great partners, and have collaborated with terrific partners like our most frequent co-investors Founder Collective, Accomplice, LHV, Softech, and others.

North America 120

North America Seed Stage Early Stage Lead Investor 120

View from Seed

AUGUST 17, 2021

It’s by far the longest time I’ve spent working on any one thing, and I feel very blessed to have been able to work with my partners, colleagues, founders, and collaborators. My partners will tell you that I am an incredibly impatient person. You want someone who will challenge you and be an intellectual sparring partner.

IRR 156

IRR Dilution Founder Portfolio 156

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 17, 2009

Ability to Pivot – I don’t like to invest in people that I’ve never met before who come through my office wanting to have a term sheet within 30 days. Yes, there is the mythical company you all heard about that walked into Sequoia and had a term sheet 24 hours later. I’m sure that happens.

Entrepreneur 291

Entrepreneur Term Sheet Early Stage Affiliate 291

The Next Web

APRIL 6, 2013

My daily work consists of connecting innovative A round startups with potential investors or strategic partners. The five suggestions below are designed to help facilitate the investment process which may lead to a more expeditious term sheet and teach entrepreneurs to think more like an investor. Go For The Money NOW.

Term Sheet 126

Term Sheet Due Diligence Strategic Investors Valuation 126

David Teten

JANUARY 19, 2021

(co-written with Jamie Finney, Founding Partner at Greater Colorado Venture Fund. Similar to the explosion of seed funds in the past decade, we (and some limited partners too ) believe these Flexible VCs are on the forefront of what will become a major segment of the venture ecosystem. Of the Inc. 5000 companies, only 6.5% return cap.

Cofounder 78

Cofounder Technical Review Equity Dividend 78

View from Seed

APRIL 30, 2015

Use good judgment, talk to your co-founders/investors/lawyers, and partner with a bank that values transparency and relationships such as SVB.]. Especially in the early stages, so much about the company may change in how they think about product or go-to-market — and change multiple times — before raising an institutional round.

Term Sheet 120

Term Sheet Equity Startup Seed Stage 120

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 26, 2015

Often if it’s a bigger firm (say 4 partners or more) and it’s a super small investment for their fund size (let’s say $250-500k when they normally invest $5-7 million) they will just require 1 or 2 partners to decide. What happens next feels like a black box to outsiders. ” Some firms are collegiate.

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital Detroit Early Stage Partner 150

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 17, 2015

For the elite startups and entrepreneurs who manage to attract the investor they dream of, and survive the term sheet negotiation, there is still one more hurdle before the money is in the bank. Visit reference customers, partners, and vendors. Status of the solution. Review of opportunity and segmentation.

Technical Review 120

Technical Review Due Diligence Startup Term Sheet 120

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 8, 2009

Traction can simply mean showing that you’re making progress with customers, product development, channel partners, initial revenue as a proof point, attracting well-known angel investors, winning industry awards / recognition. They tell you they’re going to ship product and they do. They hire key staff.

Technical Review 309

Technical Review Term Sheet Venture Capital Revenue 309

View from Seed

AUGUST 17, 2021

It’s by far the longest time I’ve spent working on any one thing, and I feel very blessed to have been able to work with my partners, colleagues, founders, and collaborators. My partners will tell you that I am an incredibly impatient person. You want someone who will challenge you and be an intellectual sparring partner.

IRR 136

IRR Dilution Founder Portfolio 136

Mucker Lab

AUGUST 27, 2014

After stints as a technology investment banker, a dot-com entrepreneur, and a product manager in Silicon Valley, I moved to Los Angeles in 2006. For the last couple of years, I’ve been investing in startups as a partner at Mucker, while spending a lot of time in the Valley working with potential co-investors and partners.

Los Angeles 138

Los Angeles Southern California Silicon Valley Technical Review 138

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 13, 2018

If you truly believe that you, your company and your products are exceptional and your company will be valuable then you’re actually doing them a FAVOR by helping them invest in your startup. Like any sale you first need to plan your “prospects” and qualify whether or not they’d be a good fit for your product?—?an

Term Sheet 332

Term Sheet Due Diligence Campaign Sales 332

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 15, 2010

I was raising money for my second company and having been burned by term sheets on my first company I was eager to get myself knowledgeable before signing up to take VC again. I started reading Brad’s “term sheet&# series. Brad Feld : I first learned of Brad Feld like many of you – through his blog.

Social Network 347

Social Network Networking Southern California Term Sheet 347

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? I spent a late morning meeting with a product exec at one portfolio company. Yesterday I offered him a term sheet.

Email 314

Email Product Term Sheet Portfolio 314

YoungUpstarts

OCTOBER 28, 2015

by John Vrionis, partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners. Investors typically negotiate from a term sheet, which if not handled properly can create problems that can hurt or kill the startup’s chances when they do their Series A round of funding. Lightspeed is in the business of encouraging entrepreneurship.

Convertible Security 100

Convertible Security IP Technical Review Software Review 100

Austin Startup

NOVEMBER 12, 2017

You should assume your target has substitutes for your product, has an overflowing inbox, and is being wooed by others. The more mature and visual your product, and the better your customer reference base, the less need there is to propose a baby step. In that case, you are not making a specific offer; you are soliciting a terms sheet.

Term Sheet 48

Term Sheet Technical Review Due Diligence Merger 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 103

Software Review Balance Sheet Cofounder Technical Review 103

David Teten

AUGUST 19, 2019

In addition, I’ve noted a few multi-product lending firms, e.g., Kapitus and United Capital Source , which provide RBI as one of many structural options to companies seeking capital. . We have a special program if you are pre-seed and need product development. I’ve listed below all of the major RBI venture capitalists I’ve identified.

Revenue 60

Revenue Technical Review Software Review Equity 60

OnlyOnce

OCTOBER 31, 2013

Fred Wilson has been a venture investor and director in Return Path since 2000, first with Flatiron Partners and then with Union Square Ventures. Here are a few tips for ending up with the best long-term partner as an investor. And this is true of any negotiation, not just a term sheet. Selecting Your Investors.

Valuation 133

Valuation Term Sheet B2C Security 133

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 23, 2015

The final clip is Fred & I talking about whether “the best product wins” and my assertion that the bias in today’s Silicon Valley dominated tech world there is probably too much emphasis on tech at the expense of how to sell, implement and service customers. But Fred got me to see a broader perspective.

Los Angeles 150

Los Angeles Silicon Valley Term Sheet Video 150

Reid Hoffman

DECEMBER 10, 2020

Couchsurfing is a bad product experience. The story continued to take unexpected twists and turns the next day after the Greylock partner meeting. Then other partners like James Slavet supported the idea, thinking it was actually pretty interesting. So I got the license to put a term sheet down, and we made the investment.

Hosting 69

Hosting Hockey Stick IPO Silicon Valley 69

View from Seed

DECEMBER 6, 2018

The decision for VCs to partner with an entrepreneur to take on a project where the odds are stacked against it is not one which can outsourced to others, but rather a VC partner has to “feel” the validation first-hand. For example, offer to intro the partner to one customer?—?fit

Due Diligence 120

Due Diligence Term Sheet Seed Stage Partner 120

www.readwriteweb.com

DECEMBER 29, 2011

We hope you enjoy reading them again and we look forward to bringing you more Web products and trends analysis in 2012. If you're early in the investment process, a small angel round or partnering with an accelerator may be the best approach. Next, if you are going to raise a round, find one or two partners to do it with.

Cap Table 47

Cap Table Term Sheet Liquidation Preference Technical Review 47

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 21, 2010

Your contractor wrote a great V1 of the product and it helped you get angel funding. Focus on the partner you would be working with. 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.

Southern California 318

Southern California Silicon Valley IP Stock Options 318

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 25, 2013

I had them at my partners’ meeting the next Monday. We had them a term sheet the same week. She learns how to ship product, how to deal with merchants, how to hire product managers. Always meeting her product ship dates. She was always able to get into the weeds on product or biz dev discussions.

Haiti 398

Haiti San Francisco Startup Turkey 398