Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 24, 2021

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.

Technical Review 379

Technical Review Due Diligence Term Sheet Bankruptcy 379

www.founderinstitute.com

MARCH 2, 2010

When members see connections, they often partner with one another, backstopping and expanding each other’s capabilities and skills or forming entirely new ventures. Chris Dixon posted about an ideal term sheet for first round funding, which started an blogosphere discussion about terms.

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Term Sheet Liquidation Preference Vesting San Diego 40

Hunter Walker

AUGUST 7, 2021

That’s not to say we’re always correct, but I will specifically tell a founder ‘and now I’m putting on my Homebrew hat’ when I have a POV that’s informed by my own needs as their capital partner versus what I generally think should be the company’s strategy. and include the major terms like Keith suggests. When it’s a junior partner.

Term Sheet 151

Term Sheet Due Diligence Reputation Early Stage 151

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

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

Genuine VC

APRIL 29, 2013

all talk about the best way for entrepreneurs to optimize their fundraising process with the end-goal of receiving a term sheet. It’s often spoken as if the second that magical term sheet document is in hand, the process is over. Agreement of key terms between entrepreneur + VC firm. How can this situation happen?

Term Sheet 150

Term Sheet Valuation Partner Conversion 150

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 9, 2018

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 …. there is a reason for us to re-engage because they never met that partner before.

Software Review 381

Software Review Churn Rate Due Diligence New York 381

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 3, 2012

He told me he wondered if we should consider switching partners so the company could get more money and at a higher price. The truth is that I wasn’t as valuation sensitive as my original VC partner was and I would have been willing to raise price. I know it’s tempting to switch partners. He has signed a term sheet.

Term Sheet 356

Term Sheet Silicon Valley Reputation Partner 356

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 24, 2018

VC Partnerships Start by understanding how many partners are at the firm you are approaching. It’s pretty easy since nearly every VC lists its partners on the website. Some firms are trickier since they artificially call everybody “partner” but they’re not all “investment partners.” How many partners are there?

Technical Review 314

Technical Review Due Diligence Partner Term Sheet 314

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 10, 2014

Reverse due diligence on the investor is a comparable process whereby the entrepreneur seeks to validate the track record, operating style, and motivation of every potential partner. 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

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 29, 2009

You finally get your first term sheet. They’re giving me 48 hours to sign the term sheet or it expires? Will they really pull the term sheet if I don’t sign? Will they really pull the term sheet if I don’t sign? First, every term sheet has an expiration date in it.

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Term Sheet Technical Review Due Diligence Venture Capital 197

NZ Entrepreneur

AUGUST 4, 2021

Byron van Vugt from NZ Growth Capital Partners explains. Lead investors and term sheets. Those investors interested in becoming lead will issue what’s called a term sheet – this details the terms they’re willing to invest on. Byron van Vugt is a senior investment analyst at NZ Growth Capital Partners.

Technical Review 61

Technical Review Software Review Founder Due Diligence 61

Genuine VC

OCTOBER 2, 2012

After completing a long process identifying the right venture firms to pitch, running an exhaustive fundraising process, finding a mutual fit, and successfully negotiating terms… at last, the term sheet is signed. The two- to six- week time between the signing of the term sheet and closing is “venture limbo.”

Term Sheet 162

Term Sheet Founder Vesting Due Diligence Syndicate 162

David Teten

AUGUST 19, 2019

John Borchers, Co-founder and Managing Partner of Decathlon Capital, claims to be the largest revenue-based financing investor in the US. John Borchers defines RBI as, “anchored around a model for providing long-term growth capital to a company that is paid back over time in the form of a modest, fixed percentage of monthly revenue.

Revenue 60

Revenue Term Sheet Founder Technical Review 60

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 25, 2010

We had many term sheets (it was 1999 and we had a pulse) and we were deciding which one to take. We were trying to optimize around a few criteria: price, size of round, number of syndicate partners and, of course, terms. We ended up agreeing a term sheet for $16.5 Second time he also kept shopping.

Technical Review 301

Technical Review Term Sheet Due Diligence Venture Capital 301

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 23, 2017

Also, make sure you know several partners at the VC firms who have invested in you because in tough times it helps to have very broad support. You need to know how many partners they have and which partners do which kinds of deals. Or ask anybody who has had a VC pull a term sheet for whatever reason.

Burn Rate 238

Burn Rate Term Sheet CTO Hire Fractional CTO 238

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 27, 2016

Reverse due diligence on the investor is a comparable process whereby the entrepreneur seeks to validate the track record, operating style, and motivation of every potential partner. 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

Feld Thoughts

DECEMBER 28, 2010

On the heels of all the noise around Groupon’s $ 100m financing at a $7.5b (billion) post valuation, I thought I’d put out a call for “old VC term sheets – prior to 1990.&#. My partner Jason Mendelson and I are working on a book titled Venture Financings: How To Look Smarter Than Your Lawyer and VC.

Term Sheet 118

Term Sheet Search Finance Valuation 118

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 5, 2023

Let me be a bit more specific on how follow-up trumps ideas for success in the key challenges of a startup, or any small business: Networking with investors, partners, and customers. Tailor investor proposals and term-sheets. Meeting people and talking about your ideas won’t get you very far.

Cofounder 389

Cofounder Startup Term Sheet Acquisition 389

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 19, 2014

By September 18th we were ready to bring them to a full partner meeting and as a group we were bought into the vision and the experience of this exact team to pull things off. By September 26th we had submitted a term sheet which was signed on October 4th and financing was closed in less than 30 days.

Technical Review 373

Technical Review North America Los Angeles Cofounder 373

Agile VC

MAY 26, 2011

This also appears as a guest post at Fortune’s Term Sheet. At the end of the process, which ran into the fall of 2003, we received term sheets from two firms and had a third which expressed interest in participating though not leading the round. We three partners are working hard. May 26, 2011. It was a $4.7M

Term Sheet 178

Term Sheet Silicon Valley Technical Review Social Network 178

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

View from Seed

MARCH 11, 2020

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. Seed stage companies will mostly face questions around the team and market.

Technical Review 279

Technical Review Due Diligence Term Sheet Seed Stage 279

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

Feld Thoughts

FEBRUARY 14, 2010

Over the years my partner Jason Mendelson and I have heard from numerous people that they’ve been exposed to our Venture Capital Term Sheet Series as reference material in a college course. Tags: Term Sheet Venture Capital. So – I’m writing with a simple request. I promise we won’t send Jack Bauer your way.

Term Sheet 102

Term Sheet Venture Capital Programming Partner 102

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

YoungUpstarts

SEPTEMBER 20, 2019

It’s often more all about fearing how tough VCs are going to be with their term sheets and ‘standard’ clauses. Wouldn’t you like more loyalty and trust from your investors, board members and business partners? As well as how to work with pre and post-money valuations. Generosity is nowhere on their radar.

Technical Cofounder 127

Technical Cofounder Entrepreneur Cofounder Post-Money Valuation 127

View from Seed

FEBRUARY 12, 2020

If you have a term sheet in hand or know for a fact that you are about to get one, you can be pretty transparent and say that you are late in the process and are looking to make a decision by X date. If you don’t have a term sheet, my general approach is to communicate that you are early in the process.

Term Sheet 364

Term Sheet Burn Rate Founder Partner 364

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

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

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

FEBRUARY 23, 2021

The classic scenario is when a VC has a signed term sheet to lead a round, but has left room open for another meaningful investor. At this point, the investor and the entrepreneur work together to develop their perfect list of potential partners, and then do targeted outreach to try to bring this investor into the round.

Syndicate 207

Syndicate Syndication Term Sheet Cofounder 207

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

ReadWriteStart

SEPTEMBER 2, 2011

If you're earlier in the 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. Tip 4: Really Understand Key Terms. Once you get the term sheet make sure you know how to read it.

Cap Table 125

Cap Table Term Sheet Liquidation Preference Technical Review 125

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 4, 2018

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 136

IRR Dilution Founder Portfolio 136

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 19, 2011

Called Tim Spicer (c-companies partner) and he told him matt, they only want one thing, more warrant coverage!!! Raised money from Splitrock Partners (of whom Matt thinks very highly) experience was so emotionally traumatic he came out of it vowing he’d never go thru that again – get cash flow positive RIGHT NOW!!! [if

Acquisition 304

Acquisition Warrant Customer Term Sheet 304