View from Seed

APRIL 30, 2015

There’s been a lot of digital ink spilled around the various types of capital available to startups today. As a startup grows, venture debt becomes a viable option to continue that growth. Glen is an active contributor to the local tech ecosystem and well-versed in how and when startups can use venture debt to their advantage.

Term Sheet 120

Term Sheet Equity Startup Seed Stage 120

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 18, 2015

I rarely talk to any startup entrepreneur or VC who doesn’t feel it and somehow long for simpler times despite the benefits we all enjoy from increased enthusiasm for our sector. And even this can’t stop their employees from fleeing after two years of vesting to move on to the next hot startup. Easier said than done.

Software Review 150

Software Review Turkey Portfolio Syndicate 150

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 27, 2021

contributes more than $25 billion to fund 70,000 startups every year. In fact, there are a few key sites to help you find angels, including AngelList and Gust , but these don’t tell you very much about how angels work, and how to find the right ones for your startup. Look to grants and strategic partners for seed funding.

Search 317

Search Accredited Investor Angel Investor Venture Capital 317

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 15, 2014

Much has been written about when it is time to hire a “professional CEO” to run a startup company and of course that has long been a norm in Silicon Valley when founders find that their inexperience may be a limiting factor in company growth ( know as the Peter Principle ). Startup Lessons' Shaping an industry.

Founder 309

Founder CTO Hire Silicon Valley Leadership 309

Agile VC

JUNE 5, 2012

AGILEVC My idle thoughts on tech startups. Both companies generate direct revenue from their platform in the form of a revenue share / platform tax (typically 30%) on software and digital goods sold through the respective platforms. Apple generated nearly $130B in revenue in 2011. How to Evaluate Firms for a Seed VC.

Java 170

Java Flash Software Azure 170

Austin Startup

NOVEMBER 7, 2011

Mass Relevance today announced that it has been selected by Twitter (blog post) as the first curation partner officially licensed to re-syndicate Twitter content. Through this partnership, companies will be able to move beyond engagement and create new revenue streams around curated and integrated experiences into TV, [.].

Syndicate 85

Syndicate Syndication Partner Naming 85

Agile VC

APRIL 17, 2011

AGILEVC My idle thoughts on tech startups. How They Make Money: Majority of Kayak’s revenue actually comes from advertising on their site (55%), not lead generation or referral fees to travel suppliers as you might think (more on this below). Financial Snapshot: 2010 Revenue: $170 million. How To Think About The Future.

Pre-Money Valuation 113

Pre-Money Valuation Liquidation Preference Dividend Common Stock 113

Rob Go

SEPTEMBER 4, 2018

As the venture capital industry has evolved, more and more seed investors are passing on traditionally “seed stage” startups because there isn’t enough traction. We are also seeing more investors try to be a part of syndicated A rounds for companies that are raising $5M or more and are really not what most would consider “seed” stage.

North America 36

North America Seed Stage Early Stage Lead Investor 36

Genuine VC

MAY 29, 2014

Yet even today, whether or not to take a (relatively) small check in a seed round syndicate from a multi-hundred million or even billion dollar fund is still a decision which takes quite a bit of consideration and sometimes consternation. So there is an element of (positive) selection bias in the larger VC syndicate cohort companies.

Syndicate 166

Syndicate Syndication Seed Stage Valuation 166

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 24, 2015

As the number of sites on the Internet floats around one billion, the challenge with every new startup is to be found and stand out. A great solution is necessary, but not sufficient, to build a great startup. If you post on industry sites, or get syndicated to popular sites, your scores and visibility will go up even more.

Startup 120

Startup Social Media Syndicate Syndication 120

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 16, 2015

But many have no insight or connections to the ethereal angel investment community, which actually funds more startups then all other venture sources combined (over $25 billion annually). Angels are typically current or former entrepreneurs who want to bring more than money to your startup. Avoid risky or questionable business domains.

Angel Investor 120

Angel Investor Accredited Investor Venture Capital Startup 120

Agile VC

MAY 26, 2011

AGILEVC My idle thoughts on tech startups. Salesforce.com is a startup with 76,000 subscribers (over 2.1M I also joke with Reid Hoffman that this was back in the days before he was “Reid” Reid’s an incredible entrepreneur, startup investor, and human being. How to Evaluate Firms for a Seed VC. May 26, 2011.

Term Sheet 178

Term Sheet Silicon Valley Technical Review Social Network 178

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

Agile VC

JUNE 5, 2011

AGILEVC My idle thoughts on tech startups. They’ve grown from nothing to >$2B in revenue in 30 months time, making the company among the fastest growing businesses in the histroy of the world. How They Make Money: Groupon keeps a share of the coupon value (typically 40-50%) as its net revenue (1). June 5, 2011.

North America 100

North America Chicago Boston Silicon Valley 100

Pascal's View

JULY 9, 2017

There is nothing wrong with using a SAFE or a convertible note in a startup if you know its implications. In contrast, there is limited benefit for being the 2 nd investor or the 10 th investor joining the syndicate of a priced round, so it is common for investors to wait to see “who else is involved”. Sound simple? Now go do it.

Post-Money Valuation 49

Post-Money Valuation Valuation Cap Table Covenant 49

K9 Ventures

APRIL 27, 2011

I helped introduce the company to various angels and lead the effort to form a syndicate for their fund-raising round. Modista had only had modest revenue to date (~5K) and had by no means gotten to the point where it was having an impact on the revenues of Like.com. I’m all for competition and for a fair fight.

Software Review 134

Software Review Technical Review IP Finance 134

Agile VC

AUGUST 22, 2011

AGILEVC My idle thoughts on tech startups. Odds Are, Your Startup Probably Isn’t a Platform. I have the great privilege of meeting lots of entrepreneurs every day and hearing about the startups they’re building. But the reality is that most software-based startups aren’t really platforms. Not Dropbox.

Silicon Valley 113

Silicon Valley Seed Stage Startup Syndicate 113

K9 Ventures

JULY 19, 2012

Over the the course of three years, K9 Ventures has invested in 18 startups, including CrowdFlower , Twilio , DNAnexus , HighlightCam , CardMunch , Lytro , Zimride , IndexTank , BackType , EasyESI , card.io , Baydin , LucidChart , Torbit , Occipital , TapCanvas , and 3Gear Systems. Not interested in me-too businesses.

Technology 132

Technology Seed Stage San Francisco Limited Partner 132

K9 Ventures

JULY 19, 2012

Over the the course of three years, K9 Ventures has invested in 18 startups, including CrowdFlower , Twilio , DNAnexus , HighlightCam , CardMunch , Lytro , Zimride , IndexTank , BackType , EasyESI , card.io , Baydin , LucidChart , Torbit , Occipital , TapCanvas , and 3Gear Systems. Not interested in me-too businesses.

Technology 132

Technology Seed Stage San Francisco Limited Partner 132

VC Cafe

JULY 27, 2017

According to the Interactive Advertising Bureau, podcast industry ad revenue will reach $220 million in 2017, up 85 percent from 2016’s $119 million ( source ). Founded in 2014 and based in Brooklyn, it has already produced some of my favourite podcasts: StartUp?—?Gimlet’s StartUp Podcast by Gimlet Media on Apple Podcasts.

Audio 109

Audio Silicon Valley Curation Cofounder 109

Agile VC

JANUARY 27, 2012

AGILEVC My idle thoughts on tech startups. Something has clearly changed within the last 5-6 years in terms of the speed with which monster startups are created in the software and internet space. Multi-billion dollar valuations for late stage startups like Dropbox, et al. Are Google-Scale Outcomes More Frequent?

Hockey Stick 113

Hockey Stick Seed Stage Silicon Valley Syndicate 113

Agile VC

FEBRUARY 7, 2012

AGILEVC My idle thoughts on tech startups. I wanted to touch on ‘golazo’ as it’s my fault we use this strange verbiage, but also a critical element we look for in all the startups we invest in. These are the same qualities we’re looking for in terms of ambition and potential scale of the startups we invest in.

South Korea 124

South Korea Seed Stage Silicon Valley Syndicate 124

Agile VC

DECEMBER 5, 2011

AGILEVC My idle thoughts on tech startups. Objective Logistics has created a game layer on top of very sophisticated scheduling algorithms which increase revenue, save time, and improve customer and staff satisfaction. My partner @ LeeHower looks back: [link] 5 days ago Search. How to Evaluate Firms for a Seed VC.

Silicon Valley 100

Silicon Valley Seed Stage Syndicate Syndication 100

Agile VC

FEBRUARY 2, 2012

AGILEVC My idle thoughts on tech startups. I recently wrote a post noting that while the growth cycle of startups has clearly accelerated in the last 5 years, the number of truly monster new businesses (a company ultimately worth $75-100B) remains about the same … it’s a once in a decade sort of thing. February 2, 2012.

IPO 100

IPO South Korea Venezuela Revenue 100

Agile VC

JANUARY 12, 2012

AGILEVC My idle thoughts on tech startups. Good investors try to be clear in terms of what they look for in terms of progress and milestones of the startups they invest in. Good investors try to be clear in terms of what they look for in terms of progress and milestones of the startups they invest in. Author howerl.

Seed Stage 100

Seed Stage Silicon Valley Syndicate Syndication 100

Agile VC

MARCH 18, 2012

AGILEVC My idle thoughts on tech startups. Costolo clearly wants to position Twitter as a complementary part of the media ecosystem (which it is by and large) rather than a competitor, and there remains a chance that Twitter will have other forms of revenue besides ads. How to Evaluate Firms for a Seed VC. March 18, 2012.

Media 113

Media Advertising Silicon Valley Revenue 113

Agile VC

MAY 23, 2012

AGILEVC My idle thoughts on tech startups. E-commerce accounts for the vast majority of LL Bean’s revenue today ( it crossed 50% in 2010 though was as low as 15% in 2000 ), but because LL Bean is over a hundred years old and started as catalog & physical store retailer we typically don’t refer to it as an internet company.

Internet 182

Internet Silicon Valley IPO Seed Stage 182

Agile VC

MARCH 8, 2012

AGILEVC My idle thoughts on tech startups. I remember when it was a rare, extraordinary thing for a software/internet startup to even file an S-1. What’s the impact for early-stage startups? As of this week, here’s a sample of multiples: LinkedIn – 16x+ trailing revenue. trailing revenue.

IPO 100

IPO Silicon Valley Revenue Seed Stage 100

Austin Startup

AUGUST 7, 2017

The time has come for the Texas startup community to band together to change the world once again. Texas has produced world-changing startups in the past such as Dell Software , National Instruments and Whole Foods Market but all of those were founded more than 30 years ago. We truly are an accelerator of the Austin startup ecosystem.

Texas 97

Texas San Antonio Houston Dallas 97

Rob Go

JANUARY 8, 2014

We make 2-4 investments per year per partner. We don’t do chip-in investments – each investment is a full-allocation of partner time. We don’t invest in “syndicates A rounds” as our first point of entry into a company. 1/3 are post product but pre-revenue. Each investment matters.

Syndicate 45

Syndicate Syndication Portfolio Advertising 45

David Teten

DECEMBER 3, 2019

But in business, you want a lot of partners. In the private equity universe, most Partners have primary training as deal-makers, not as managers. See Bessemer Venture Partners’ A comprehensive guide to security for startups. Cobalt for General Partners helps GPs to optimize their fundraising strategy. 2) Market .

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Software Review Analytics Private Equity 78

VC Cafe

JULY 27, 2017

According to the Interactive Advertising Bureau, podcast industry ad revenue will reach $220 million in 2017, up 85 percent from 2016’s $119 million ( source ). StartUp Podcast by Gimlet Media on Apple Podcasts. Download past episodes or subscribe to future episodes of StartUp Podcast by Gimlet Media for free. itunes.apple.com.

Audio 60

Audio Curation Silicon Valley Media 60

Austin Startup

DECEMBER 20, 2010

Legendary venture investor and General Partner at Austin Ventures John Thornton told us, “Social content has tremendous potential to drive a new level of consumer engagement on media, entertainment and retail properties – but the market needs a startup with expertise in both social and enterprise tech in order turn the promise into reality.

Curation 118

Curation Austin Cofounder Ruby 118

Rob Go

JANUARY 7, 2013

Actually, growth equity firms I find are best at this, because they have very specific financial criteria that they look for, such as ranges for revenue, ebitda, growth, etc. This equates to 3-4 investments that are “led” internally by each partner. Live Product, Pre Revenue: 6 1/2. This isn’t a quota.

Portfolio 49

Portfolio Seed Stage Cofounder B2B 49

Gust

OCTOBER 20, 2011

In 2011, the valuation of pre-revenue, start-up companies is typically in the range of $1.5–$2.5 This method compares the target company to typical angel-funded startup ventures and adjusts the average valuation of recently funded companies in the region to establish a pre-money valuation of the target. million to a high of $3.4

Valuation 146

Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Intellectual Property Technical Review 146

Duct Tape Marketing

AUGUST 25, 2014

These shows have turned the owners and employees of obscure small businesses into international celebrities, and generated tens of thousands of dollars of revenue for the businesses (if not more). Entrepreneur Podcast Podcasting Positioning Small Business Marketing Social Media Startups Kevin Jordan'

Jordan 66

Jordan Las Vegas Alaska Audio 66

www.paulgraham.com

APRIL 28, 2010

Want to start a startup? A typical startup goes throughseveral rounds of funding, and at each round you want to take justenough money to reach the speed where you can shift into the nextgear. Few startups get it quite right. 1 ] A startups life will be more complicated, legally, if any of theinvestors arent accredited.

Technical Review 76

Technical Review Startup Software Review Angel Investor 76