VC Cafe

SEPTEMBER 5, 2024

Paul Graham’s recent essay, Founder Mode , describes the mindset that founders need to adopt to navigate the early stages of building a startup, and how they’re different than ‘manager mode’ which is traditional management/corporate best practices.

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Management Technical Review Venture Capital Generative AI 104

VC Cafe

OCTOBER 16, 2024

Voice AI applications will unlock $10B of new software TAM over the next five years Bessemer Venture Partners Remember when talking to machines felt like science fiction? billion to re-hire the founders of Character.ai If you’re a founder building the future of AI Voice applications/agents, we’d love to hear from you.

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Vertical Generative AI B2C CTO Hire 169

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 19, 2010

Our guest this week on #TWiVC was Dana Settle , partner at Greycroft Partners , a venture capital firm with offices in New York and Los Angeles. Current round: $35mm in Series C (extension of Series B at higher valuation) from General Atlantic, Matrix Partners. Note that I’m not defining who numbers 1,2 are.

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Partner New York City Cofounder Syndication 240

VC Cafe

OCTOBER 31, 2022

It’s a tough time for a lot of startup founders right now. This is not meant to be a negative post, but rather a temperature check of today’s market environment and the levers founders can pull on to survive this period. What is a founder to do? Startups, Don’t Pin Your Hopes on VC Dry Powder ( Source ).

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Founder Technical Review Down Round Liquidation Preference 174

Hunter Walker

DECEMBER 13, 2020

If things are going great, you still may get a lower valuation or smaller round. You’re spending much of your time selling: the vision to employees, the opportunity to investors, the story to the press, the offering to the customers, the relationship to partners. Are you a founder who trained themselves to become a better salesperson?

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Technical Cofounder Cofounder Startup Matching 149

View from Seed

OCTOBER 31, 2018

The main value propositions are: user experience and value – home sellers can manage the entirety of their selling activities through its app and cloud-based platform, from valuation to showing scheduling to negotiation and closing, while paying a $5,000 flat fee vs. the industry tradition of 3% commission.

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Atlanta Cofounder Software Review Technical Review 159

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 30, 2018

I thought I’d write a post about how to talk about valuation at a startup and give you some sense of what might be on the mind of the person considering funding you. It’s not uncommon for a VC to ask you how much capital you’ve raised and what the post-money valuation was on your last round. is to start with just the data.

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Valuation Post-Money Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Cofounder 324

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.

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Cofounder Technical Review Equity Dividend 78

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 5, 2018

Jeff Katzenberg has a great track record – head of the studio at Paramount, chairman of Disney Studios, co-founder of DreamWorks and now chairman of NewTV. Since NewTV won’t be making the content, they will be licensing from and partnering with traditional entertainment producers. ” Fire, Ready, Aim. The result?

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Lean Burn Rate Startup IPO 335

blog.nahurst.com

JULY 19, 2010

The graphic below balances the risks cofounders take with their relative contributions to help answer this question. This covers one of the most common situations I encounter: For a pre-funding web startup whose team includes only a non-technical cofounder, how much equity should an incoming technical cofounder get?

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Technical Cofounder Cofounder Equity Salary 43

Small Business Force

AUGUST 31, 2013

Picking a partner or co-founder isn't like finding a new friend. Just like people that tend to jump into marriages, entrepreneurs tend to get starry-eyed and join forces without thinking through the long-term implications of having a partner. How do you pick the right person to partner with for you and your business?

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Cofounder Partner Technical Review Founder 40

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 25, 2018

Those that do it right also have the unprecedented opportunity to join the elite ranks of 250 unicorns (relatively new companies with a current valuation of over $1 billion). Co-mingling personal and business funds and accounts creates legal risk and tax liability, and makes your efforts look like a hobby.

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Technical Cofounder Intellectual Property Silicon Valley LLC 184

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. For more background, see Revenue-Based Investing: A new option for founders who care about control.

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Revenue Cofounder Founder Venture Capital 60

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.

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Technical Review Due Diligence Portfolio Venture Capital 150

View from Seed

FEBRUARY 16, 2016

As of January 20, 2016, based on the “CrunchBase Unicorn Leaderboard,” there are 157 unicorns (companies with $1 billion+ valuations) which have not IPOed or been acquired—and more start-ups reaching unicorn status every day. 38 unicorns, or 1 in 4 (24%), have at least one MBA founder. Key Insights. Red Ventures (HBS, Wharton).

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Programming St. Louis Cofounder India 120

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. Executives run the day-to-day so often the board is more involved as a sparring partner at key intervals. That’s true.

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Cofounder Stock Options Equity Technical Review 217

YoungUpstarts

SEPTEMBER 20, 2019

by Alejandro Cremades , cofounder of Panthera Advisors and author of “ The Art of Startup Fundraising: Pitching Investors, Negotiating the Deal, and Everything Else Entrepreneurs Need to Know “ Why should entrepreneurs intentionally be generous when negotiating with investors? Generosity is nowhere on their radar.

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Technical Cofounder Entrepreneur Cofounder Post-Money Valuation 127

The Equity Kicker

SEPTEMBER 24, 2014

We see this all the time at Forward Partners where we invest right from the idea stage and most of the companies get a first version of their product live for less than £30k (that generally includes founder salaries and time spent doing customer research). Forward Partners and Crowdcube are both attacking elements of these problems.

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Early Stage Development Team Review Technical Review Software Review 119

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 25, 2017

They come at the early stage while a startup has no revenue or valuation, so professional investors are hard to find. Provides networking with cofounders and strategic partners. In today’s fast moving market, the basic product development cost and time are critical to survival.

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Technical Cofounder Intellectual Property Wiki Cofounder 153

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 20, 2021

They come at the early stage while a startup has no revenue or valuation, so professional investors are hard to find. Network with potential cofounders and strategic partners. Here are some key positives from an entrepreneur perspective: Shorten the time and cost from idea to prototype.

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Startup Cofounder Incubator California 397

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.

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Cost Non-Compete Accredited Investor Cofounder 363

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.

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Community Cofounder Security Open Source 62

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.

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Startup Cofounder Burn Rate Technical Review 78

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

David Teten

DECEMBER 3, 2019

But in business, you want a lot of partners. To learn more about this space, I suggest join an online community I co-founded, PEVCTech. . 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.

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Technical Review Software Review Analytics Private Equity 78

Agile VC

APRIL 17, 2011

Kayak was started here in my backyard of Boston… co-founder & CTO Paul English and the product/engineering team is based here in Concord MA. Co-founder & CEO Steve Hafner and the business team are based in Norwalk, CT. Post-money valuation probably no higher than $12M (2). Series A-1 Preferred.

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Pre-Money Valuation Liquidation Preference Dividend Common Stock 113

YoungUpstarts

SEPTEMBER 11, 2013

By Alan Lobock, co-founder, Worthworm. Sometimes the list of challenges may feel never ending – from writing the business plan to finding the right partner – but one of the single most important challenges entrepreneurs face is calculating a realistic, defensible pre-money valuation. . What valuation methods did you use?

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Pre-Money Valuation Valuation Angel Investor Cofounder 133

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. Zoom calls have taken the place of in-person meetings.

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Venture Capital Cofounder Early Stage Seed Stage 350

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 20, 2011

They have totally changed the way you run a VC firm, investing heavily in systems & events for their founders that are pushing the boundaries of the way our industry works. The discussion with Howard Morgan starts off by acknowledging Josh Kopelman as a co-founder of First Round Capital. I'm a huge fan of this innovation.

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Pre-Money Valuation Technical Review Cofounder Cram Down 284

ReadWriteStart

AUGUST 26, 2022

How to Scale Unicorns With Partner David Zhang, TVC. Joining us for this episode is our partner David Zhang, Partner at TCV (( Technology Crossover Ventures ). I’m a partner at TCV, which we founded in 1996. So, think of the typical two founders with a pitch book in a garage. Jonathan Siddharth .

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Partner Cofounder Retention Acquisition 132

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 15, 2010

He’s considering making me the permanent co-host so if you enjoy any of this episode or want to see me on the show on a more regular basis please Tweet @jason and let him know (he asked for direct feedback). In fact, their affiliate partners dissuaded them from doing so. billion valuation. People are talking a rumored $1.2

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Venture Capital Affiliate Valuation San Francisco 271

SoCal CTO

JUNE 9, 2010

But founders need to know how to ask for their advice and when to ignore it. Startup Insights From Paul English, Co-Founder of Kayak - OnStartups , May 10, 2010 I’m just wrapping up several weeks of attending conferences across both coasts. Why Entrepreneurs Hate Lawyers. was having coffee with a friend who teaches at the U.C.

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Fractional CTO Startup Venture Capital Cofounder 248

VC Cafe

SEPTEMBER 20, 2023

I was watching a fireside chat from SaaStr 2023 between Jason Lemkin and David Sacks (ex Paypal Mafia, All In podcast co-founder and managing partner at Craft Ventures, with $3.3 Co-pilots – every industry will have its own co-pilots. billion under management). Lawyers, doctors, architects, designers, etc.

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Generative AI Cofounder Valuation Cloud 89

YoungUpstarts

SEPTEMBER 27, 2013

Quoting an inflated valuation. . When your valuation is too high, investors think you are either greedy or you don’t know what you are doing. In both cases, a high valuation can end a conversation. Use relationships in your hometown or the hometowns of your founders to seek investment from other cities and states.

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Venture Capital Technical Cofounder Milwaukee Valuation 180

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 17, 2009

These periods of time can leave a founder very vulnerable in the future. Assuming normal valuations at fund raising rounds you’ll be down to 6-12% after you’ve created a stock-option pool and raised capital. That’s the difference between a founder and a non-founder. Founder vesting.

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Founder Vesting Intellectual Property Stock Options IP 365

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 10, 2016

Funding challenges and other issues founders face in the early days of starting up were the focus of interviews with the latest guests on Entrepreneurs are Everywhere , my radio show on SiriusXM Channel 111 (airing weekly Thursdays at 1 pm Pacific, 4 pm Eastern). Will Zell , co-founder and CEO of Nikola Labs wireless power company.

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Silicon Valley Ohio Columbus Entrepreneur 120

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 1, 2011

Mike is a no BS guy, has all the attributes I look for in a founder and says things like, openly shares knowledge and opines without a filter including this one, “whoever invented uncapped convertible debt should be spanked!&# The Union Square Ventures partners started whispering in his ear that “it’s all about social now”.

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Semantic Acquisition Valuation Angel Investor 302