Feld Thoughts

AUGUST 25, 2015

Jack Tankersley, a long time mentor of mine, co-founder of Centennial Funds, and co-founder of Meritage Funds, wrote me a very long response. So contrary to the piece, it wasn’t VC were good at early stage technology, it was that they had newfound capital and a big exit window.

Venture Capital 70

Venture Capital SBIC Technical Review Silicon Valley 70

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 19, 2010

Greycroft is an early-stage VC. Founded in November 2007 in New York City by Alexis Maybank and Kevin Ryan (co-founder of DoubleClick); CEO is Susan Lyne (ex-CEO Marta Stewart Living Omnimedia) Revenue estimates: $50mm in 2008; $170mm in 2009 (versus budget of $150mm); $450mm forecasted for 2010. Time will tell.

Partner 240

Partner New York City Cofounder Syndicate 240

Agile VC

JULY 11, 2012

Some disgruntled younger partners left in the mid-90s… two co-founded Benchmark Capital (Bruce Dunlevie & Andy Rachleff). But eventually some disgruntled younger partners left and two started August Capital (Dave Marquardt & John Johnson) and one co-founded Benchmark (Bob Kagle). But it’s not quite that simple.

Silicon Valley 240

Silicon Valley Carried Interest Cofounder Boston 240

View from Seed

MAY 29, 2019

Historically, seed rounds were syndicated among several different firms. Early seed funds and super-angels typically wrote $250-$500K checks, and rounds of $2–3M would be composed of 3–4 funds collaborating together along with a handful of angels. Is This is Good or Bad for Founders?

Syndicate 267

Syndicate Syndication Cofounder Cap Table 267

Rob Go

SEPTEMBER 4, 2018

It occurred to me that although we mentioned our new thematic approach when we raised our last fund in 2017, we haven’t really shared a broader manifesto about how we are approaching the early stage market. It’s been an interesting several years in the early stage venture eco-system, and the sands have shifted considerably.

North America 36

North America Seed Stage Early Stage Lead Investor 36

View from Seed

JUNE 10, 2020

of teams’ online pitch decks and recorded videos, as well as loved the dozens of second-round video conversations which we had with Founders working on quite compelling startups. Many of these Founders we wouldn’t have had an opportunity to connect with if we hadn’t launched this program.

Cofounder 177

Cofounder Syndicate Syndication Alabama 177

View from Seed

APRIL 30, 2015

What is it, and how should founders think about it? note: We’d like to be extra clear that founders should not take on venture debt if they don’t have 100% visibility into repaying the loan, as banks that need to recoup their loan my force the company or you as the guarantor into liquidation or bankruptcy.

Term Sheet 120

Term Sheet Equity Startup Seed Stage 120

David Teten

FEBRUARY 3, 2014

Their late stage deals outside of the venture centers outperform by ~5% vs. those in the venture centers; early stage deals outperformed by ~4%. A number of the funds we studied use an origination approach that allows them to proactively co-create companies or opportunities.

Private Equity 114

Private Equity Venture Capital Technical Review Equity 114

This is going to be BIG.

DECEMBER 3, 2020

The partner at the fund, the VC, gets to do the fun part—the meeting with founders, vetting deals, negotiating, helping, etc. Side Benefits Ideally, a small fund could get you the following, but you have to ask to make sure it’s available: Co-investing opportunities. So what’s the point? Access to the partner.

Portfolio 134

Portfolio Syndicate Syndication Deal Flow 134

David Teten

SEPTEMBER 23, 2017

In venture capital in particular, early-stage companies are often operating in frontier industries, where the rules are unpredictable and conventional analytic frameworks may be misleading. Signal is a fundraising tool for founders run by NFX Guild, which identifies the most relevant VCs for you. . Pitchbot.vc

Private Equity 60

Private Equity Venture Capital Equity Technical Review 60

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 27, 2014

Seed investors are aplenty and of course they need downstream money to fuel their early-stage bets. I told my friend that I felt that in 2014 too many new VCs feel the pressure to chase deals, to be a part of syndicates with other brand names and to pounce on top of every startup whose numbers are trending up quickly.

Cofounder 374

Cofounder Syndication Syndicate Early Stage 374

David Teten

DECEMBER 3, 2019

To learn more about this space, I suggest join an online community I co-founded, PEVCTech. . Tim Friedman, Founder, PE Stack , said, “If I could offer one piece of advice to today’s managers, it would be to take the time to understand the demands of the modern institutional LP. The 11 Steps of Investing in Private Companies.

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Software Review Analytics Private Equity 78

Agile VC

MAY 26, 2011

Many assume it was a cakewalk, based on the success LinkedIn has enjoyed over time and the current stature of our founder/CEO Reid Hoffman (now Chairman). I thought I’d revisit it and share the story… First, you have to rewind mentally to early 2003. But keep in mind at this point Reid’s a first-time CEO.

Term Sheet 178

Term Sheet Silicon Valley Technical Review Social Network 178

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 25, 2010

We were trying to optimize around a few criteria: price, size of round, number of syndicate partners and, of course, terms. My co-founder and other management team members wanted us to hold off and see whether we could get the deal done at a higher price. We ended up agreeing a term sheet for $16.5 Yes, this was stupid.

Technical Review 301

Technical Review Term Sheet Due Diligence Venture Capital 301

Gust

OCTOBER 20, 2011

Diversification across industry sectors is not as easily achieved for angels as could be accomplished in public markets, but can be achieved by co-investing with trusted angel colleagues in a broader set of businesses. Is the founder coachable? A local network of angels is critical to achieving a diversified portfolio. — No.

Valuation 146

Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Intellectual Property Technical Review 146

Feld Thoughts

OCTOBER 1, 2015

The co-founders are Greg Gottesman, Geoff Entress, Mike Galgon, and Ben Gilbert. Greg is a co-founder of Madrona and long-time VC. Mike was the co-founder of aQuantive which was acquired by Microsoft for $6.2 Mike was the co-founder of aQuantive which was acquired by Microsoft for $6.2

Seattle 70

Seattle San Francisco Angel Investor Syndicate 70

View from Seed

OCTOBER 16, 2019

On the more organic side is when the founder and investor have a pre-existing relationship. Maybe you’ve backed the founder before, or have just known and shown mutual respect for each other for months or years. We have made a number of investments that we are thrilled about that were referred to us by a trusted co-investor.

Deal Flow 45

Deal Flow Syndicate Syndication Cofounder 45

OnlyOnce

FEBRUARY 9, 2022

In our prior lives, the Bolster founders worked together to scale up a business called Return Path and also. worked as advisors and mentors to numerous early stage founders and startups. The middle” consists of venture-backed companies that are neither early stage nor mature. What about the middle?

Silicon Valley 62

Silicon Valley Venture Capital Cap Table Early Stage 62

View from Seed

JANUARY 26, 2016

With that in mind, let’s look at an illustration of these trends below, which demonstrates what’s been happening to early-stage financing rounds over the last 15 years or so. Series A investors invested quite early, often before product/market fit. FWIW, that is not how we operate.).

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage Early Stage Cofounder Finance 120

Feld Thoughts

JANUARY 5, 2016

After two years of a dedicated experiment, we’ve decided to stop making new investments via our FG Angels Syndicate. The Monday after AngelList announced their Syndicate product in September 2013 we decided to to jump in with both feet and start FG Angels. Average syndicate investment amount per deal: $316k.

Syndicate 70

Syndicate Syndication Angel Investor Portfolio 70

Hunter Walker

MAY 19, 2014

Anecdotally, over the last 3-6 months we’re definitely seeing more examples of larger early stage or multistage funds offer to do 80-100% of a company’s seed round. And it hasn’t been a special situation such as the founder as an EIR at said fund, or having been previously backed by that fund at earlier company.

Seed Stage 101

Seed Stage Syndicate Syndication Founder 101

mashable.com

SEPTEMBER 14, 2011

In other words, angel investors and early stage venture capital (VC) firms will have different expectations than late stage VC firms. Partners W3 EDGE Concentric Sky Rackspace Intridea Dynect DNS Webtrends Global Syndication Partners ABCNews CNN Metro USAToday Yahoo ©2005-2011 Mashable, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

France 77

France Marketing Social Media Startup 77

Feld Thoughts

JUNE 6, 2012

We describe Foundry Group ‘s behavior as “syndication agnostic.” ” When we make an investment, we are completely agnostic as to whether or not we have a co-investor. This is true at early stages but also true at later stages. Both are worth reading along with the comments.

Syndicate 136

Syndicate Syndication Cofounder Angel Investor 136

Hunter Walker

NOVEMBER 30, 2022

As cofounder of an early stage venture fund myself, I’m here to tell you that while these statements are accurate, they’re also misleading when trying to understand the broad impact these implosions may have upon a firm. Relationship Cost of SPVs/Direct Co-Investment and LP Credibility.

Vertical 48

Vertical LP Syndicate Syndication 48

View from Seed

JUNE 16, 2015

And that product is a highly engaged seed-stage investment where we are usually the lead or co-lead in a round and will often take a board seat. I’d also question a founder who asks his or her investors to comment falsely on something — that puts the investor in an awkward spot.

Boston 120

Boston Syndicate Syndication eCommerce 120

ReadWriteStart

APRIL 13, 2012

In 1998, before they even incorporated, Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page were trying to present their concept to early-stage, or "angel" investors, with limited success. Sun Microsystems co-founder Andy Bechtolsheim was one such angel.

Angel Investor 128

Angel Investor Syndication Syndicate Exit Strategy 128

Agile VC

FEBRUARY 28, 2012

Startups in NextView’s portfolio frequently receive inbound interest from other VC investors who are intrigued about what they’re doing, and I often talk with other early-stage entrepreneurs how to approach similar situations. I co-founded NextView Ventures , a seed-stage VC firm based in Boston, in 2010.

Early Stage 100

Early Stage Syndicate Syndication Silicon Valley 100

This is going to be BIG.

NOVEMBER 16, 2015

It just seemed like a fitting title for a company built around narrative by a founder who used to write stories for a living. I'm joined by Lerer Hippeau Ventures, Red Sea Ventures, NucleasHG, the founders of Seamless, a host of extremely helpful angels, and a CircleUp syndicate led by my friend Tom Potter, co-founder of Brooklyn Brewery.

Venture Capital 60

Venture Capital Cofounder Syndicate Syndication 60

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 3, 2010

Second, more damning is the “signaling problem.&# This means that if a VC invests in your seed round and does not participate in a future round the next round investor will think to himself, “well, if Big VC Co. A very well known early stage fund used to have a rule that they didn’t do follow ons. is now a VC.

Venture Capital 265

Venture Capital Term Sheet Early Stage Silicon Valley 265

Feld Thoughts

JULY 14, 2015

But instead of adding it on to the note or doing an equity round with a price, which could still be an early stage price but below the cap, they make the argument that since the company couldn’t raise a round, the company is worthless. So the new investment gets 60%, the founders get 39.9%, and the $1m of seed money gets 0.1%.

Recapitalization 70

Recapitalization Pre-Money Valuation Post-Money Valuation Angel Investor 70

Hunter Walker

DECEMBER 21, 2014

17 core investments have been made, I’d say our investment model was, and continues to be, consistent with the type of firm we want to build but if you’re not constantly evaluating how to get better and serve entrepreneurs, you won’t last very long in the early stage venture business. No more, no less.

Cofounder 104

Cofounder Seed Stage Syndication Syndicate 104

Austin Startup

FEBRUARY 28, 2019

Find out what the buzz is all about and make valuable connections with local investors who you can syndicate deals with. Hear pitches from startups, investors, and partners Develop relationships between local and visiting investors so we can start to co-invest together VC Reverse Pitch What will do we do in each city?

Texas 50

Texas San Antonio Dallas Houston 50

Rob Go

JANUARY 9, 2012

I believe that the best way to understand an investor is to meet the founders that they work with. Founders: We invest behind founders from a variety of backgrounds. Broadly speaking, they break down something like this: First Time Founder: 6. Source Type: How we meet founders. Introduced by co-investor: 3.

Portfolio 46

Portfolio Syndicate Syndication Cofounder 46

ConversionXL

MAY 27, 2022

Only around 10–15% of B2B leads turn into paying customers, and it’s because tactics optimizing for the early stages of the funnel only cater to early-stage goals. It’s their job to implement a holistic approach to growth that encompasses both marketing and sales and looks at every stage of the buyer’s journey. .

Demand 95

Demand Management B2B Campaign 95

Austin Startup

MARCH 7, 2021

It seems like every day there is a new headline about an exceptional startup founder, investor, or corporate headquarters moving to Texas. The Innovation Center at Houston’s TMC (TMCx), co-located with Johnson and Johnson’s J-Labs, and the Center for Medical Device Innovation, drive medical innovation. Joe Lonsdale. Drew Houston.

Texas 90

Texas San Antonio Houston Dallas 90

Rob Go

JANUARY 7, 2013

As a founder, it feels like a long time, but it’s really a blip on the radar in the scheme of things. We don’t have such a section on our website (yet) and in some ways, the seed/early stage is more amorphous. Founders: Repeat Founders: 8. First Time Founders: 9. Introduced by a co-investor: 5.

Portfolio 49

Portfolio Seed Stage Cofounder B2B 49

David Teten

MARCH 14, 2018

Managers of VC funds typically want to grow their business aggressively, just like the founders we back. Among the sites we have found most helpful with practical guides for founders: Biztree , First Search , Foundersuite , Goodwin Founders Workbench , Guides.co , Inc.com , and StartupRocket. .

Private Equity 60

Private Equity Venture Capital Equity Cofounder 60