Both Sides of the Table

MAY 4, 2013

Should I trust my instincts for founders and products or should I be more focused on the market size or business plan? ” As far as “terms” go I’m 100% aligned to have the most vanilla, founder-friendly terms I can. And I listen to the reasons their co-founders quit their well-payed job to join them.

Early Stage 361

Early Stage Deal Flow Investment Bankers Technical Review 361

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 14, 2017

I read commentary or Twitter or blogs and realize that there are also strongly held convictions that there are these evil VCs who do terrible things to mostly altruistic founders. But unlike the popular press reporting of this conflict — 80% of the time it is founder-to-founder conflict and not investor-to-founder conflict.

Cofounder 217

Cofounder Stock Options Equity Technical Review 217

Altgate

DECEMBER 15, 2010

@altgate Startups, Venture Capital & Everything In Between Skip to content Home Furqan Nazeeri (fn@altgate.com) ← No one wants to tell you your baby is ugly More on Liquidation Preferences → Pre-Money Valuation vs Number of Founders Posted on December 15, 2010 by admin Here’s a chart of the day worth sharing.

Pre-Money Valuation 66

Pre-Money Valuation Valuation Cofounder Founder 66

Steve Blank

MARCH 31, 2014

Cheered on by finance professors, Wall Street analysts, investors and hedge funds, companies have learned how to make metrics like Internal Rate of Return look great by one; outsourcing everything, two, getting assets off their balance sheet, and three only investing in things that pay off fast. This never ends well.

Private Equity 330

Private Equity Metrics China Intellectual Property 330

The Startup Magazine

AUGUST 11, 2023

The following is a condensed explanation of seed funding: Seed money is a form of early-stage financing that new businesses receive from investors in exchange for a share of ownership in the company. The term “seed financing” refers to the stage of funding that comes from first equity. What exactly is the seed funding?

Seed Stage 147

Seed Stage Technical Review Early Stage Due Diligence 147

This is going to be BIG.

SEPTEMBER 30, 2012

How else can you explain this headline matching a story about a professional social network still trying to explore revenues raising $17mm on an $80mm valuation? Did I mention it only took the founder a month? I suppose, more specifically, the bubble ended in the last two weeks of September--right after this financing.

Venture Capital 130

Venture Capital Marketing Term Sheet Software Review 130

Lightspeed Venture Partners

OCTOBER 7, 2012

The founders were very sympathetic; a man, laid off from his job, and his very pregnant wife, who sold their house and investing $150k into the business and are working hard to make a go of it. At this point, the very pregnant cofounder was weeping. But in the end Robert came back in to join Lori. Daymond offered to be an advisor.

Technical Review 110

Technical Review Technical Cofounder Valuation Pre-Money Valuation 110

crowdSPRING Blog

APRIL 26, 2013

3 Biggest Mistakes When Choosing a Cofounder – [link]. If there’s one video 1st time founders should watch to understand VC financing it’s this one – [link]. 3 Biggest Mistakes When Choosing a Cofounder – [link]. Always use data, not feelings, to make business decisions – [link].

Social Media 90

Social Media Small Business Design Media 90

Startup Company Lawyer

MARCH 14, 2010

After the recent announcement of the Series Seed Financing documents by Marc Andreesen, Brad Feld points out that there are now four sets of “open source&# equity seed financing documents: TechStars Model Seed Funding Documents (by Cooley). Y Combinator Series AA Equity Financing Documents (by WSGR). under $500K).

Finance 70

Finance Software Review Term Sheet Liquidation Preference 70

VC Adventure

JUNE 14, 2022

Certainly from the venture perspective, VCs (Foundry included) pitch themselves to companies, co-investors, and LPs as more than just capital. Most founders don’t feel they are getting value from their investors, even in areas like follow on rounds where they would hope to see specialized experience. The answer may surprise you.

Technical Review 150

Technical Review Due Diligence Portfolio Venture Capital 150

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 19, 2015

That’s why I recommend that they find a co-founder who loves business challenges, including marketing and finance. Most founders bootstrap product development. Patents can raise startup valuation by investors by as much as a million dollars, and will attract acquisitions rather than copycats.

Technical Review 120

Technical Review Intellectual Property Cofounder Bootstrapping 120

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 13, 2011

Revolution is a “stage agnostic&# fund (means they invest early or late) funded entirely by Steve Case , the founder of AOL and co-founded by two other individuals, Tige Savage (yes, pronounced like the golfer, minus the “r&# ) and Donn Davis. And we also talked about what it’s like to work with Steve Case.

Cofounder 277

Cofounder Merger Founder Venture Capital 277

David Teten

JANUARY 19, 2021

(co-written with Jamie Finney, Founding Partner at Greater Colorado Venture Fund. From RBI, Flexible VCs borrow the ability to reap meaningful returns without demanding founders build for an exit. By tying payments to actual revenues, founders and investors remain aligned around the company’s real-time performance, good or bad.

Cofounder 78

Cofounder Technical Review Equity Dividend 78

www.entrepreneur.com

SEPTEMBER 22, 2011

Entrepreneur Homepage Startups Starting a Business Home How-To Guides Startup Basics Business Ideas Business Planning Startup Financing Success Stories Home-Based Business Starting a Business Play Video How to Take a New Product from Just an Idea to a Business (Video). Financing Some Jobs Act Proposals Make Headway.

Sweat Equity 55

Sweat Equity Equity Fractional CTO CTO 55

ReadWriteStart

MARCH 24, 2011

Our co-host for the program was TiE Midwest, based in Chicago. The discussion today was around Social Media financing and go-to-market strategy. Next week, the 1M/1M roundtable will be co-hosted with TiE Chennai and TiE Mumbai. My assessment is that this is a good company that should be able to raise money at this point.

Illinois 114

Illinois Entrepreneur Silicon Valley Chicago 114

David Teten

AUGUST 20, 2019

Many are reporting that they’re seeing a more diverse pool of applicants than traditional equity VCs… even though virtually none have a particular focus on women or underrepresented founders. Revenue-Based Investing (“RBI”) is a new form of VC financing, distinct from the preferred equity structure most VCs use.

Revenue 60

Revenue Cofounder Founder Venture Capital 60

mashable.com

OCTOBER 16, 2010

All of this is according to Paul Graham, co-founder of the early-stage investment fund Ycombinator. The result is that many venture capital firms are now making smaller angel investments in an attempt to get close with startup founders that are likely to raise bigger funding rounds later on. Work from Anywhere: 9 Handy Portable.

Angel Investor 84

Angel Investor Venture Capital Social Media Technical Review 84

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 11, 2021

Here are five of the most common examples: Failure to document a Founder agreement at the beginning. This oversight can lead to the so-called “forgotten Founder” problem. Later, when your venture is trying to close on financing, or even going public, that forgotten partner surfaces, demanding their original share.

Cost 363

Cost Non-Compete Accredited Investor Cofounder 363

mashable.com

OCTOBER 16, 2010

All of this is according to Paul Graham, co-founder of the early-stage investment fund Ycombinator. The result is that many venture capital firms are now making smaller angel investments in an attempt to get close with startup founders that are likely to raise bigger funding rounds later on. Work from Anywhere: 9 Handy Portable.

Angel Investor 83

Angel Investor Venture Capital Social Media Technical Review 83

Small Business Force

AUGUST 31, 2013

Picking a partner or co-founder isn't like finding a new friend. I came to find that they had differing ideas about timing, valuation, to whom they should sell and how long or whether they would stay with the company. Picking the right partner or co-founder for your business can portend whether that business succeeds or not.

Cofounder 40

Cofounder Partner Technical Review Founder 40

Up and Running

MAY 15, 2019

In this guide to starting a brewery, we’re going to talk with brewers who’ve been-there-done-that, and we’ll get insights from experts in supporting industries such as insurance and finance, as well as discuss regulatory issues. Watch your finances. Market valuation coverage (for offerings such as a barrel aging program).

Oregon 24

Oregon Jordan Software Review Distribution 24

Up and Running

SEPTEMBER 5, 2017

Her background includes senior roles in both the banking and tech sectors, and she has launched four data businesses—including her current firm, New Frontier Data , which boasts a $20 million valuation and has received $5 million in funding. According to Fortune , in 2006, female founders were involved in only 2.95

Venture Capital 82

Venture Capital Lean Cofounder Technical Review 82

www.avc.com

SEPTEMBER 22, 2011

To be clear, these are hires we are talking about, not co-founders. Co-founders are an entirely different discussion and I am not talking about them in this post. This is NOT your 409a valuation (we call that "fair value"). This "best value" can be the valuation on the last round of financing.

Equity 64

Equity Employee CTO Hire Fractional CTO 64

Mucker Lab

MAY 28, 2020

This post originally appeared in TechCrunch back in 2015, written by our co-founder and managing partner Erik Rannala. These lost startups land higher valuations, have larger teams, outsource more product development and spend more money on customer acquisition than their peers. Hire the wrong people. It’s an art. Lose focus.

Startup 78

Startup Cofounder Burn Rate Technical Review 78

Cracking the Code

JANUARY 25, 2021

The first time I met Matan, the founder of Melio, he told me that his mission was simple: he wanted to “help small businesses stay in business” by making B2B payments fast, simple and flexible. And he and his co-founders Ziv and Ilan made it happen: Melio’s now processing multi-billion dollar payment volumes less than two years after launch.

Israel 62

Israel B2B Cloud Europe 62

www.mint.com

MARCH 9, 2010

What is the post-money valuation of your last round? Post-money valuation” is the value of the company after the last round of money was put in (again, lines of credit and promises don’t count). But you should beware of boards that are only the founders and their family and friends. Who is on your board of directors?

Software Review 68

Software Review Startup Post-Money Valuation Technical Review 68

reidhoffman.org

NOVEMBER 12, 2013

Friendster’s valuation set the tone for the entire social networking space. You may happen to emphasize the right points that pique an investor’s interest, but you shouldn’t leave your financing up to chance. Second, understand the broader financing climate. In fact, the most fundamental strategy is the financing strategy.

Entrepreneur 111

Entrepreneur Viral Revenue Networking 111

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 14, 2012

What I want to talk about today is one of the insider baseball discussions of our industry this past week: The odd fact of the $500 million financing round completed just before the company sold for a B. Did raising money at a $500 million valuation help secure the $1 billion deal? “Impending” valuation.

Valuation 316

Valuation Balance Sheet Dilution Term Sheet 316

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

Duct Tape Marketing

FEBRUARY 3, 2022

Amanda is the Co-founder at Barney an M&A firm that specializes in the digital marketing space. 17:49] Have you ever experienced a transaction where a Founder sold the company to their existing team? [18:35] She's the co-founder at Barney, an M & A firm that specializes in the digital marketing space.

Entrepreneur 94

Entrepreneur Technical Review Cofounder Valuation 94

Cracking the Code

SEPTEMBER 12, 2021

As the company announces its $530 million Series F at a valuation of $8.5 What was your approach to picking co-founders, and what advice would you give entrepreneurs on this? I think having a co-founder is very important. The co-founder / marriage analogy is apt. The entrepreneurship journey is hard.

Community 62

Community Cofounder Security Open Source 62

Feld Thoughts

JULY 29, 2011

Finance Friday’s gets off the ground with today’s post by introducing you to an imaginary startup, the entrepreneurs that we’ll being following throughout the series, and their first challenges: splitting up the founders’ equity and addressing the case where one of the founders provides the initial seed capital for the business.

Equity 137

Equity Finance Denver Pre-Money Valuation 137

Reid Hoffman

JULY 27, 2021

As I discussed last week in the Greymatter podcast with my friend and Blitzscaling co-author Chris Yeh , I believe that a knowledge of philosophy is actually a great asset for entrepreneurs. Like many first time founders, I ran over that landmine. In particular, Bill Sahlman’s Entrepreneurial Finance course was excellent.

Silicon Valley 69

Silicon Valley Venture Capital Balance Sheet Cofounder 69

Reid Hoffman

JULY 27, 2021

As I discussed last week in the Greymatter podcast with my friend and Blitzscaling co-author Chris Yeh , I believe that a knowledge of philosophy is actually a great asset for entrepreneurs. Like many first time founders, I ran over that landmine. In particular, Bill Sahlman’s Entrepreneurial Finance course was excellent.

Silicon Valley 69

Silicon Valley Venture Capital Balance Sheet Cofounder 69

View from Seed

JANUARY 11, 2021

The sudden arrival of the global pandemic has shifted the playbook for founders and venture capitalists. As high-conviction, seed stage investors, we are inherently relationship-driven, and we value meeting exceptional founders face-to-face. I can have a wider reach and a higher volume of 30 minute meetings with founders.”.

Venture Capital 350

Venture Capital Cofounder Early Stage Seed Stage 350

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 3, 2013

I’m super proud to announce that DataSift has just completed a $42 million financing round coming at the end of a year where its revenue grew several hundred percent year-over-year. We co-led the A-round with IA Ventures. Tim, my former co-founder and long-time colleague & friend who joined as global head of products.

Iran 358

Iran API San Francisco Nigeria 358

Pascal's View

JULY 9, 2017

Andrew Krowne and I recently co-wrote an article in Tech Crunch , Why SAFE Notes Are Not Safe for Entrepreneurs. This is a fundamental issue that does, indeed, boil down to understanding the post-money valuation of a company. But it is also a topic that many find esoteric and difficult to grasp.

Post-Money Valuation 49

Post-Money Valuation Valuation Cap Table Covenant 49