View from Seed

OCTOBER 21, 2014

As the seed-stage startup fundraise process has received more transparency in recent years, ranging from published advice on how to raise seed capital to increased availability through AngelList, Funders Club, and various accelerator programs, I’ve noticed another trend emerging. Lower-Than-Market Value.

Valuation 336

Valuation Founder Seed Stage Angel Investor 336

View from Seed

DECEMBER 4, 2014

Editor’s note: Understanding how to divide founder equity at a startup can be tricky, even to the point of reaching emotional riffs between founders. Across both the startups I’ve personally been involved in (PayPal and LinkedIn) and the startups in which I’ve been an investor, I’ve seen a broad range of co-founder equity splits.

Equity 315

Equity Founder Sweat Equity Cofounder 315

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.

Seed Capital 120

Seed Capital Institutional Investors Venture Capital Partner 120

Agile VC

DECEMBER 4, 2014

Across both the startups I’ve personally been involved in (PayPal and LinkedIn) and the startups in which I’ve been an investor, I’ve seen a broad range of co-founder equity splits. But delaying or avoiding the conversation often results in it being more awkward than it needs to be.

Cofounder 255

Cofounder Equity Founder Sweat Equity 255

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 14, 2010

This clause attempts to protect the conversion price of stock of angel investors, prior to additional financing, from being reduced to a price equal to the price per share paid in a later “down” round. Tags: entrepreneur startup angel investment term sheet business. Anti-dilution protection. But some dilution is almost inevitable.

Term Sheet 227

Term Sheet Pre-Money Valuation Due Diligence Post-Money Valuation 227

maplebutter.com

JANUARY 8, 2013

189 Answers To The Top Startup Questions On Your Mind. 189 Answers To The Top Startup Questions On Your Mind. Written By Dan Martell on February 2nd, 2012 | Category: Hiring LeanStartup Marketing Metrics Startup Life | 6 Comments. I love startups. Here’s my high-level approach for startups. No, I have many ideas.

Technical Review 44

Technical Review Startup Cofounder Software Review 44

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 6, 2019

Every year I try to answer the question of “what has changed in the Venture Capital industry” and this year my colleague Chang Xu and I took a deep dive through the data and called many of our peers for confirmation. If you want the whole deck you can find it on SlideShare but I’ve written up a short summary with commentary below.

Venture Capital 292

Venture Capital IPO Mezzanine Early Stage 292

Gust

SEPTEMBER 29, 2011

The most successful serial entrepreneurs in the world may found three or four, perhaps even eight or ten venture-backed startups over the course of their careers. For more on working with startup lawyers, see Mark Suster’s classic post, How To Work With Lawyers At A Startup.). Knowledge is power.

Finance 178

Finance Term Sheet Preferred Stock Bridge Financing 178

SoCal CTO

NOVEMBER 5, 2009

I recently got together with Aaron Shechet and an early stage startup to discuss the direction the company might want to take. It was a great conversation and I thought it would be a good idea to do some visible networking with Aaron to get to know him better. Any thoughts on my recent post Startup Metrics ? That's great.

Los Angeles 150

Los Angeles Southern California Startup SEO 150

Feld Thoughts

OCTOBER 15, 2013

Some are major contributors to their startup communities. As with everything new that grows quickly, it’s a chaotic system with lots of innovation, creative destruction, and rapid change and learning that – if done well – is a great example of the power of the Lean Startup approach to entrepreneurship.

Global 179

Global Networking United States Seed Money 179

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 27, 2012

This clause attempts to protect the conversion price of stock of Angel investors, prior to additional financing, from being reduced to a price equal to the price per share paid in a later “down” round. Investors may provide money in stages or tranches, based on defined milestones, to decrease investment risk. Anti-dilution protection.

Term Sheet 223

Term Sheet Pre-Money Valuation Due Diligence Angel Investor 223

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. You help them on stories, act as a source, develop real relationships, read their stories and eventually when you have news they’re more willing to have a conversation. In a startup this is a mistake.

PR 319

PR Venture Capital Hiring Seed Capital 319

Agile VC

DECEMBER 4, 2014

Across both the startups I’ve personally been involved in (PayPal and LinkedIn) and the startups in which I’ve been an investor, I’ve seen a broad range of co-founder equity splits. But delaying or avoiding the conversation often results in it being more awkward than it needs to be.

Cofounder 173

Cofounder Equity Founder Sweat Equity 173

Business Plan Blog

NOVEMBER 13, 2013

Raising Seed Capital. Most startup founders do not have enough capital to launch their companies and need to raise money at some point. Raising Angel Capital. Individual investors who provide financial funding to startups are called ‘Angel Investors.’ Convertible Debt Financing.

Finance 93

Finance Accredited Investor Angel Investor Seed Capital 93

View from Seed

FEBRUARY 3, 2015

Today, NextView Ventures is excited to release a pillar project in our Growth Guides series: pitch deck templates for raising seed capital. These help address a common question which we frequently receive from entrepreneurs about how to create startup pitch decks for this crucial financial milestone.

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage Startup Seed Capital Audience 120

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

Gust

SEPTEMBER 5, 2012

How to finance a new seed-stage startup? ” Ressi in particular seems to be passionate about removing the “debt” component from convertible debt seed financing transactions. Convertible debt? Convertible equity? As of August 2010, Paul Graham famously proclaimed , “Convertible notes have won.

Finance 134

Finance Convertible Security Equity Seed Stage 134

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. Instead, people want to get to know you, the entrepreneur, and to see your progress, even if over a short time period.

Angel Investor 146

Angel Investor Seed Capital Venture Capital Early Stage 146

The Startup Lawyer

OCTOBER 28, 2010

Whenever a startup considers paying a “finder&# for successful investor introductions, I have the same type of conversation with the founders that goes something like this: – Startup : “Finder&# knows a lot of investors and he’ll introduce us if we pay him [6]% of all capital raised through the introductions.

Finder 72

Finder Private Placement SEC Seed Capital 72

Gust

OCTOBER 5, 2011

Last week , we gave some attention to the “why” behind convertible note financing for early stage startups. Going back to Part I , recall that although a convertible note is technically a loan made to the startup, in practice these loans are rarely expected to be repaid. These deal terms are simple but significant.

Finance 79

Finance Preferred Stock Term Sheet Early Stage 79

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

JULY 20, 2015

Today he is the founder of M34 Capital , a seed capital fund that focuses on early-stage projects being spun out of academic and corporate research labs. What is M34 Capital? M34 is a fund that focuses on taking Customer Discovery and the Lean Startup process and applying it in the venture model.

Government 120

Government Channel Southern California Lean 120

Scott Edward Walker

JUNE 13, 2011

I’m using Twitter as a form of micro-blogging to share interesting blog posts, articles and podcasts relating to entrepreneurship and startups, M&A and legal issues. If you missed this past week’s Twitter updates, below are my five most popular tweets (via bit.ly ) and my blog-related tweets. Less is more.”

Term Sheet 45

Term Sheet Seed Capital Conversion Rights RSS 45

Austin Startup

OCTOBER 12, 2018

Over 500 tech executives, startup founders, investors and aspiring entrepreneurs came together for an unforgettable day of in-depth discussions, workshops and a $200,000 surprise. the first day of Austin Startup Week ?—?more On Monday, October 1?—?the because two winners are better than one!

Cofounder 48

Cofounder Texas Dallas Seed Capital 48

Austin Startup

JANUARY 24, 2018

There is a puzzle in Austin which remains unsolved regarding why Austin hasn’t seen more big and consistent breakout successes in the tech startup ecosystem. If you follow the writings regarding the Austin ecosystem you’ve probably read debates about the absence of capital. The smaller local companies help the local startups.

San Francisco 48

San Francisco Austin Sweden Germany 48

Austin Startup

APRIL 28, 2019

Mitch Marchand, founder of Vybe Software, working at Sputnik ATX accelerator in Austin, TX First off, and full disclosure, I operate an accelerator program (Sputnik ATX) and have strong opinions on this subject as a participant in the “helping startups” market. Ask the accelerator how they’re going to help you, and be specific.

Incubator 50

Incubator Equity Programming Cloud 50

Software By Rob

JANUARY 8, 2019

Two-and-a-half months ago Einar Vollset and I announced TinySeed , the first startup accelerator designed for bootstrappers. Hundreds and hundreds of tweets, re-tweets, likes, Hacker News upvotes, email responses…it was immediately obvious that there is pent up demand for this kind of alternative early-stage startup funding.

Early Stage 46

Early Stage Valuation Seed Capital Revenue 46

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 25, 2021

He spent a few years working at the tech startup SpeedDate before following through with his original plan, after which Udemy went on to be enormously successful. Now, as CEO and founder of Carbon Health , Eren is leading one of the country's fastest growing healthcare startups. Then he realized that somebody was him.

Silicon Valley 60

Silicon Valley Turkey Los Angeles California 60