Steve Blank

APRIL 12, 2013

This post is about the rise of Chinese venture capital and how it helped build the countries entrepreneurial ecosystem. The Rise of Chinese Venture Capital. This helped the startups qualify for funding from banks and venture capital firms. It went bankrupt in 1997.). Investing in China Today.

Venture Capital 163

Venture Capital China Offshore SBIR 163

View from Seed

MARCH 26, 2015

In the last year or so, the debate over the definitions of seed versus pre-seed capital (sometimes called genesis rounds) has exploded. Much digital ink has been spilled about what dollar amount constitutes a pre-seed and how that might affect a startup’s ability to go raise a “normal” seed round from institutional investors.

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Seed Capital Institutional Investors Venture Capital Partner 120

YoungUpstarts

JULY 31, 2019

Of course, a certain amount of initial capital without financial performance is absolutely necessary to get a business off the ground, especially in regulated industries. Founders need seed capital to get their operations up and running, and to begin generating revenue.

Cofounder 118

Cofounder Burn Rate Technical Cofounder Seed Capital 118

View from Seed

MARCH 24, 2021

At NextView Ventures we have written many pieces about venture capital — how to raise it, build your business, engage with investors, iterate your product, navigate expanding industries, etc. Magic Graph: How Much Seed Capital Should You Raise? I’ve Been in Venture Capital for Two Months.

Seed Stage 177

Seed Stage Hiring IPO Analytics 177

VC Cafe

APRIL 23, 2012

Venture capital and other forms of seed funding have been crucial for the development of the best online colleges. Many third-party educational organizations exist to maintain online schooling ventures, and these organizations typically receive most of their funding from venture capital firms.

Venture Capital 96

Venture Capital Michigan Seed Capital Programming 96

Austin Startup

DECEMBER 9, 2019

Rule Number One: the best help for start-ups comes from proven leaders who don’t need cash from your seed capital and genuinely want to help ideas they believe in. Regardless, the first warning sign that you’re among the SIC is when they ask for cash upfront to “help” you.

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Vesting Early Stage Seed Capital Equity 72

Hunter Walker

JANUARY 11, 2021

Traditional venture capital models lean into what’s called ‘power laws.’ Basically the idea that you are backing risky new ventures, many of which will stumble along the way, but one or two of the companies you back will be such outsized successes that the investment gains from those will more than offset the others.

Startup 124

Startup Venture Capital Seed Capital Software 124

K9 Ventures

JUNE 5, 2015

In that presentation, I said that Seed is not the first round of financing any more and that K9’s investments were mostly “pre-seed”. The Venture Capital industry as a whole does a terrible job of giving things the right name and so we end up keeping the same name, but changing the meaning out from under it.

Seed Stage 48

Seed Stage Venture Capital Early Stage Valuation 48

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 8, 2014

Given how efficient markets are when a large market like LA starts to blossom it attracts capital pretty quickly. billion in venture capital to LA’s technology startups and 2014 will shatter that figure. In the last full year where we have data LA attracted $1.5 Success begets success. and are guiding LA 2.0.

Los Angeles 376

Los Angeles Silicon Valley Entrepreneur Seattle 376

Feld Thoughts

OCTOBER 15, 2013

Provide some sort of seed capital to their founders. Accelerators business david cohen entrepreneur global accelerator network Seed money TechStars United States Venture Capital' Not every accelerator is/could be/would be a member in GAN, nor is it designed that way.

Global 179

Global Networking United States Seed Money 179

VC Cafe

JULY 26, 2020

“After the crash, venture capital was scarce to non-existent. But when it comes to launching a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) these days, as incremental and iterative prototypes, things have changed significantly: Capital abundance: There’s never been more seed capital in the market.

Lean 214

Lean Seed Capital Startup Burn Rate 214

Seeing Both Sides

AUGUST 28, 2017

Goldman Sachs and CB Insights recently reported that startups have raised over $1 billion in Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) this summer — more than the total amount of venture capital raised during the same period. Need for growth capital. A company that can successfully raise money in an ICO may never need venture capital again.

Early Stage 20

Early Stage Equity Venture Capital Government 20

Seeing Both Sides

AUGUST 28, 2017

Goldman Sachs and CB Insights recently reported that startups have raised over $1 billion in Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) this summer — more than the total amount of venture capital raised during the same period. Need for growth capital. A company that can successfully raise money in an ICO may never need venture capital again.

Early Stage 20

Early Stage Equity Venture Capital Government 20

Steve Blank

APRIL 10, 2019

As Venture Capital emerged as an industry in the mid 1970’s, investors in venture-funded startups began to give stock options to all their employees. And Mark Suster of Upfront Capital has a great post that summarizes these changes. It’s called Growth capital. On its surface this was a pretty radical idea.

Stock Options 333

Stock Options Stock Vesting Common Stock 333

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 14, 2014

I had witnessed a number of early-stage tech startups in LA raise seed capital from the Bay Area and relocate. And Jim & I went on to raise several more venture capital funds in our day jobs. As we started to focus on what each of us wanted to do, Adam raised his venture capital fund – Plus Capital.

Early Stage 290

Early Stage Venture Capital Los Angeles Coder 290

View from Seed

MARCH 29, 2018

It’s a world that doesn’t fit our seed-focused model and fund strategy. Outside of life-sciences, we’ve noticed something interesting emerging: There is a huge dearth of seed capital for health care services and software-driven health-tech companies.

Vertical 120

Vertical Stealth Portfolio Seed Capital 120

Gust

MARCH 11, 2014

Despite the noisy data, it’s reasonable to conclude the financing market has become more competitive, driven by an increase in the total number of startups raising seed capital and a relatively constant inflow of capital into venture capital. Originally posted by Tomasz Tunguz on his blog, www.tomtunguz.com.

Seed Stage 169

Seed Stage Seed Capital Startup Green 169

Feld Thoughts

JANUARY 2, 2016

” When I go back a decade, we were just making the decision not to raise another Mobius Venture Capital fund. Venture Capital and entrepreneurship was dramatically out of favor. Early stage and seed capital was extremely difficult to find. My partners and I hadn’t yet created Foundry Group.

Venture Capital 70

Venture Capital Seed Capital Early Stage Partner 70

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 26, 2014

Contrary to popular opinion I actually believe crowd-funding is best used after seed capital or venture capital. So while I highly recommend working with an external agency once you’ve raised venture capital I think you’ll waste a bunch of money and be less effective unless you first hire staff in-house.

PR 319

PR Venture Capital Hiring Seed Capital 319

Gust

SEPTEMBER 27, 2014

While VCs are the toughest nut to crack, there are many other (often better) sources of seed capital that may be available to you. This will almost always be the best approach to an investor. Gust is used by over 1,000 angel investment groups, accelerators, business plan competitions and support programs to manage their applications.

Angel Groups 159

Angel Groups Elevator Pitch Software Review Deal Flow 159

Growthink Blog

MAY 23, 2011

With this seed capital – more often than not totaling between $100,000 and $1,000,000 - the company accomplishes a number of key technical milestones, gets a beta customer or two, and then goes on a "road show" to venture capitalists around the country for capital to “scale” the business.

Angel Investor 112

Angel Investor Sweat Equity Venture Capital Cram Down 112

ReadWriteStart

NOVEMBER 5, 2019

According to a study by CB Insights (2017), a software that gathers essential data from investors, companies and industries, more than 70% of startups do not exceed the first stage of venture capital investment. The rounds were conducted from 2008 to 2010, starting from seed capital. Why do so many companies fail?

Venture Capital 77

Venture Capital Cofounder Finance United States 77

Up and Running

MAY 2, 2014

I learned this lesson when I raised the first round of seed capital for my startup PopInShop , an online platform that connects brands and boutiques to facilitate short-term, cross-promotional shopping events. Venture Capital and Angel Investors' Pre-empt the questions and include the answers right in your pitch.

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Angel Investor Seed Capital Venture Capital Early Stage 146

Haystack

NOVEMBER 24, 2018

venture capital to date (more on this in a separate post), unfortunately relegating billion-dollar exits as “ho-hum” events to the technology crowd. 1/ A Pre-Seed Reminder: According to Crunchbase, PlanGrid was founded and went through Y Combinator in 2012. The company only raised a bit over $1M as seed capital.

Acquisition 62

Acquisition Artificial Inteligence Balance Sheet Cofounder 62

Growthink Blog

MAY 10, 2012

If it's not your plan to get venture capital down the road, then you'll probably stop in Stage 2-receiving enough funding to boost your marketing, sales, and infrastructure to grow organically from there to the point where you are satisfied or ready to sell. Each round may raise between $5 million and $20 million or more.

Equity 88

Equity Mezzanine Later Stage Venture Capital 88

Scalable Startup

AUGUST 9, 2018

Raising seed capital is a tricky business. Most are making major mistakes in their approach when seeking capital. I get approached often by tech startups looking for their first outside funding. They come in lots of different flavors and stages of fundability.

Technical Cofounder 20

Technical Cofounder Silicon Valley Early Stage Cofounder 20

Steve Blank

APRIL 28, 2016

Before co-founding Biota Technology , he was an investor and entrepreneur-in-residence at Seed Capital , a investing in science-based innovation. Switching from venture capital to startup founder required a different mindset, Ajay said: All day in a VC firm, you’re saying ‘no’. Steven : Nope, hubris.

Entrepreneur 120

Entrepreneur Cofounder Seed Capital Texas 120

Steve Blank

APRIL 28, 2016

Before co-founding Biota Technology , he was an investor and entrepreneur-in-residence at Seed Capital , a investing in science-based innovation. Switching from venture capital to startup founder required a different mindset, Ajay said: All day in a VC firm, you’re saying ‘no’. Steven : Nope, hubris.

Entrepreneur 120

Entrepreneur Cofounder Seed Capital Texas 120

Business Plan Blog

JANUARY 7, 2014

With venture capital becoming more and more of a bygone dream for early-stage companies, many startups want to turn to angel funding to raise capital but don’t know where to start. Download our free Raising Capital from Angel Investors eBook. 6 Strategies When Searching For Angel Funding. Want To Learn More?

Search 55

Search Angel Investor Seed Capital Early Stage 55

David Cohen

JULY 29, 2015

There is four times as much seed capital in the venture market this year as there was 1 year ago. Because of this, it’s easier to attract seed funding than it has been in the past. The founders shut the business down, and either take a job or go out and start a new company with more of that plentiful seed funding.

Hockey Stick 48

Hockey Stick Seed Capital Founder Startup 48

ReadWriteStart

APRIL 2, 2012

It's the term proposed by the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) in a proposal last October ( PDF available here ), and this week it will be codified into law. Crowdfunding is an efficient way for entrepreneurs to raise seed capital," the editors wrote. But it is also a good way for hucksters to fleece suckers.".

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IPO Startup Seed Capital Florida 121

thebarefootvc

MARCH 8, 2012

While the seed capital gap has closed, there are still only a handful of venture capital firms here in NYC investing in the crucial Series A/B rounds. In contrast, many Silicon Valley funds are large with much capital to put to work (which is why we are seeing them lead NYC deals at these stages).

Silicon Valley 69

Silicon Valley Ghana Venture Capital India 69

View from Seed

NOVEMBER 19, 2015

Just taking any outside capital comes with a lot of responsibilities, including having a fiduciary responsibility to other parties involved in the business. Even if it’s assumed that the startup will raise outside (venture) capital, raising sooner often creates an accelerated (and riskier) timeframe.

Seed Capital 120

Seed Capital Seed Stage Dilution Networking 120

Haystack

AUGUST 18, 2019

.” 2/ Lateral Competition – The number of “seed” funds has also grown during this boon. More and more seed capital has flooded into the market, making the situation for funding seed rounds ~$2M-ish total size more competitive. Samir Kaji from First Republic has been writing on this for years.

Seed Stage 108

Seed Stage Cap Table Early Stage Malaysia 108

BeyondVC

SEPTEMBER 29, 2011

Increasingly I am seeing many startups who were ably seed funded get caught in "No Man's Land" between the seed round and a true Series A round led by a venture capitalist. This is happening because there are way too many companies raising seed capital but not enough executing their way to a Series A.

Seed Capital 133

Seed Capital Angel Investor Seed Money Startup 133

BeyondVC

SEPTEMBER 29, 2011

Increasingly I am seeing many startups who were ably seed funded get caught in "No Man's Land" between the seed round and a true Series A round led by a venture capitalist. This is happening because there are way too many companies raising seed capital but not enough executing their way to a Series A.

Seed Capital 133

Seed Capital Angel Investor Seed Money Startup 133

David Cohen

JUNE 16, 2015

Techstars remained involved informally – we hosted and attended events, promoted them, and ultimately funded many companies that emerged from these weekends through our accelerators and venture capital funds.

Mongolia 48

Mongolia Chile New Zealand Startup 48