Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 1, 2016

LPs have been feeling great about venture capital due to holding valuable paper positions in companies like Uber, Lyft, Airbnb, Dropbox, all of which they feel confident will drive large cash distributions in the future. Another Area of Concern is in the Seed Investor Class. But there’s no doubt, some will make money.

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital LP Silicon Valley Marketing 150

BeyondVC

JANUARY 3, 2019

While developers can now spin up applications faster than ever before, one of the downsides is the complexity of managing these distributed applications and technologies. Year of HQ2 and Distributed Teams: It was a banner year for non-Silicon Valley cities as NYC and Northern Virginia were selected as Amazon’s HQ2.

Stealth 79

Stealth Advisory Board Cloud Virginia 79

Rob Go

SEPTEMBER 4, 2018

Most of these rhyme with what we’ve said in the past, but some have also evolved to fit the changing landscape and our own convictions about what really matters for founders and their investors at the seed stage. However, our overall goal is to invest in the full spectrum of seed. Belief #1: The best time to invest is early.

North America 36

North America Seed Stage Early Stage Lead Investor 36

Gust

OCTOBER 20, 2011

In 2011, the valuation of pre-revenue, start-up companies is typically in the range of $1.5–$2.5 Such comparisons can only be made for companies at the same stage of development, in this case, for pre-revenue startup ventures. As can be seen the average (mean) pre-money valuation for recent pre-revenue deals is $2.1

Valuation 146

Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Intellectual Property Technical Review 146

K9 Ventures

APRIL 28, 2010

– a seed-stage fund. is a $6.25M fund that is designed to do concept and seed-stage investments in technology companies. Direct Revenue : The company must have a direct revenue model. No distributed teams, and no outsourced product development. K9 Ventures, L.P.

Seed Stage 61

Seed Stage San Francisco IP Portfolio 61

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

JULY 24, 2012

It’s quite simple, which is when you had systems where you had limitations on distribution or transportation of products, it enabled you to operate with a certain cost structure. or an MSN or an AOL in terms of portal distribution. So VCs invest in different stages. You have seed stage, A round, B round, C round, D round.

Silicon Valley 204

Silicon Valley Software Review Internet Technical Review 204

This is going to be BIG.

AUGUST 22, 2012

It’s basically working with potential outside partners to reach your business goals--which could be revenue, distribution, financing, product development, awareness, etc. Plus, in such a connected world, at the seed stage, the "outside" bar is low--a good article, review, demo can be a difference maker and get you on the right radars.

PR 160

PR Technical Review Seed Stage Design 160

VC Adventure

MAY 5, 2022

Both were valued at greater than 50x revenue (one was, I think, 70x revenue). If you abstract this across the venture industry or asset class (seed stage venture in this particular case) you run the risk of having a few outlier valuations driving what appears to be spectacular IRR. Both had raised attractive up rounds.

IRR 116

IRR Metrics Valuation LP 116

ReadWriteStart

JANUARY 28, 2022

The market regards equity as an ownership “share” in a corporation’s income revenue stream. They need to ensure that the shares are distributed productively. It is not possible to shift costs and revenues in a linear manner. Distribution Channel. What is Company Equity? Equity for Co-founders.

Valuation 108

Valuation Equity Warrant Common Stock 108

Genuine VC

JANUARY 3, 2013

According to all of the blogosphere chatter over the past month, seed-funded internet startups are entering this year gearing up for the now-near-infamous Series A Crunch. to become not just ramen-profitable, but sustainably profitable. In the end, just as always: startups are risky and a majority of them do not survive.

Seed Stage 166

Seed Stage Venture Capital Audience New York 166

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 1, 2016

Getting investors to trust you with their money is always a challenge, and it’s even more difficult in the early stages, where you don’t have a significant revenue stream, a few customers, or maybe even a product yet. At these stages, it’s all about you, and your ability to communicate and execute effectively.

Due Diligence 120

Due Diligence Intellectual Property Preferred Stock Seed Stage 120

K9 Ventures

APRIL 9, 2014

Instead, it was more of a result of over-funding at the seed stage. There was simply too much money coming in to the seed stage, which increased the supply of companies at the seed stage. Threshold for an IPO is higher Ten years ago, if you had $20M in revenue you were ready to go public.

Mezzanine 134

Mezzanine Seed Stage Early Stage IPO 134

K9 Ventures

JULY 19, 2012

which was a $6.25M fund designed to be deployed over 3-4 years, making initial investments between $100K – $250K in concept and seed stage technology companies located in the San Francisco Bay Area. Direct Revenue : The company must have a way of getting direct revenue from its customers (“I deliver value to you, you pay me”).

Technology 132

Technology Seed Stage San Francisco Limited Partner 132

K9 Ventures

JULY 19, 2012

which was a $6.25M fund designed to be deployed over 3-4 years, making initial investments between $100K – $250K in concept and seed stage technology companies located in the San Francisco Bay Area. Direct Revenue : The company must have a way of getting direct revenue from its customers (“I deliver value to you, you pay me”).

Technology 132

Technology Seed Stage San Francisco Limited Partner 132

VC Cafe

SEPTEMBER 9, 2020

Trend to watch : an equivalent to MCNs (Multi Channel Networks) on the early days of YouTube where creators band together to generate economies of scale (and share revenue). Copyright, or the lack thereof – it’s hard for creators to prevent illegal distribution of their IP.

Aggregator 207

Aggregator Vertical Audience Seed Stage 207

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 24, 2009

One is explaining the world as it used to work: the importance of gatekeepers, the scarcity implied by limited distribution, and the resulting quality bar that the industry is so proud of. Mostly it is the time and expense required to create the means of distribution for that industry. It’s just taking some longer than others.

San Francisco 113

San Francisco Lean Technical Review Distribution 113

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 3, 2015

The right investor will have specific feedback on pricing models, distribution and market positioning to improve scalability. Temper your approach based on the stage of your startup. If your startup has a proven revenue model, real customers and is ready to scale, approach the best investors even if it costs you more money.

Cost 120

Cost Angel Groups Due Diligence Silicon Valley 120

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 11, 2019

Ann Miura-Ko is a founding partner at Floodgate , a seed-stage VC firm. How do you not only make money in terms of revenue and revenue growth, but ultimately how do you develop profits and a profit center? Above that is product power, and for me that's about what is the path to getting to product-market fit?

Founder 68

Founder Lean Venture Capital Cofounder 68

View from Seed

MAY 27, 2015

Early stage founders end up doing many things that fall outside of any traditional blueprint or approach, and therefore it might not be repeatable again. Taking advantage of an emerging distribution channel or market inefficiency is an opportunity in a moment in time, not today.

Cofounder 120

Cofounder Non-Compete Early Stage Silicon Valley 120

Agile VC

JUNE 17, 2015

We were a profitable company at that point with nearly $200M annualized revenue, one of the first tech companies to IPO after the dot-com bubble. We’re hearing more about people new to startups asking their seed stage company how many months of severance is included in their package.

Startup 188

Startup Cofounder Seed Stage IPO 188

View from Seed

JUNE 30, 2015

Over a third of our investments happen pre-product (so by definition, before PMF), and two-thirds are pre-revenue. Does that mean we are invest “pre-seed”? Does this mean we are an “institutional seed fund”? FWIW, at NextView, we invest from inception to strong PMF.

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage Syndicate Syndication Dilution 120

techcrunch.com

OCTOBER 13, 2012

He is on the board of the Angel Resource Institute, and is a partner with Montlake Capital (a late stage growth capital fund) and with Revenue Capital Management (a royalty based lender). as well as a more detailed description of the distribution of outcomes: Kauffman Foundation Angel Returns Study and NESTA Angel Investing Study.

Angel Investor 103

Angel Investor Venture Capital Seed Stage Silicon Valley 103

View from Seed

JUNE 17, 2015

We were a profitable company at that point with nearly $200M annualized revenue, one of the first tech companies to IPO after the dot-com bubble. We’re hearing more about people new to startups asking their seed stage company how many months of severance is included in their package.

Startup 120

Startup Cofounder Seed Stage IPO 120

Steve Blank

AUGUST 27, 2009

Yet we used the product development model not only to manage product development, but as a road map for finding customers and to time our marketing launch and sales revenue plan. We’ll look at the model stage-by-stage. The distribution discussion also leads to some assumptions about pricing.

Silicon Valley 271

Silicon Valley Product Startup RSS 271

Agile VC

MAY 23, 2012

We now only think about “electricity” companies in the narrowest of senses… the small number of businesses (relative to the overall impact of electricity in the economy) that are actually in the business of generating and distributing electrical current. link] leehower. Your welcome. . Read More ».

Internet 182

Internet Silicon Valley IPO Seed Stage 182

Seeing Both Sides

SEPTEMBER 15, 2015

To answer these questions, we built a database of 112 Israeli companies founded between 1996 and 2013 that have met or exceeded $20 million in revenue. Understanding the market and establishing product/market fit is a critical seed-stage milestone. What are the challenges and lessons of scaling up?

Israel 20

Israel Cofounder Technical Review United States 20

Agile VC

JUNE 17, 2015

We were a profitable company at that point with nearly $200M annualized revenue, one of the first tech companies to IPO after the dot-com bubble. We’re hearing more about people new to startups asking their seed stage company how many months of severance is included in their package.

Startup 100

Startup Cofounder Seed Stage IPO 100

Jeff Hilimire

AUGUST 30, 2013

By providing very early — or seed-stage — capital, Cummings hopes to give the B2C startups the breathing room to achieve financial milestones that would make them more palatable to investors higher up the food chain. Backed by his $5 million Atlanta Ventures fund, Cummings hopes to “de-risk” such investments.

Atlanta 77

Atlanta B2C Georgia Los Angeles 77

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 26, 2020

There are two reasons to raise money: You have a killer idea that is only partially validated, that you think can get to $50M+ of revenue in 5 years with 80%+ gross margins (if margins are lower, you need a lot more revenue)and you need money to get to product-market fit, or. Pre-seed Round of Funding.

Cofounder 433

Cofounder Seed Stage Valuation Metrics 433

Rob Go

MAY 27, 2015

Early stage founders end up doing many things that fall outside of any traditional blueprint or approach, and therefore it might not be repeatable again. Taking advantage of an emerging distribution channel or market inefficiency is an opportunity in a moment in time, not today.

Cofounder 28

Cofounder Non-Compete Early Stage Silicon Valley 28

Rob Go

MAY 27, 2015

Early stage founders end up doing many things that fall outside of any traditional blueprint or approach, and therefore it might not be repeatable again. Taking advantage of an emerging distribution channel or market inefficiency is an opportunity in a moment in time, not today.

Cofounder 28

Cofounder Non-Compete Early Stage Silicon Valley 28

K9 Ventures

JULY 21, 2016

And 2 seed stage companies that haven’t launched yet. If you do a launch it’s rare for the launch to take of organically, it must also be accompanied by a level of paid distribution (i.e. Distribution: Most startups tend to launch on either Kickstarter or on their own site.

Software Review 48

Software Review Forecast Portfolio Distribution 48

Gust

OCTOBER 16, 2012

This summer I conducted our third annual survey of the pre-money valuation of pre-revenue companies recently funded by angel groups in North America. For the first time, we asked for data from specific business sectors, as follows: All pre-revenue deals. Pre-revenue life Science, biotech and medical device deals. Number: 30.

Angel Groups 169

Angel Groups Valuation Pre-Money Valuation North Dakota 169

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 29, 2011

This in turn has fueled incubation programs like YCombinator, TechStars, 500 Startups & many more to help early-stage teams launch businesses led by most technical founders who are getting coaching from seasoned management teams. In addition it is much easier to get distribution than it was in the pre Facebook, pre iPhone world.

Venture Capital 296

Venture Capital Software LP Early Stage 296

rapidrollout.wordpress.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

Or you can find seed-stage investors who will give you the money to hire a developer. You’re asking someone to take a chance that with the code they deliver you can get funding or gain some revenue traction. That’s why you need to be looking for seed-stage investors at the same time as technologists.

Technical Review 40

Technical Review Fractional CTO Partner CTO Hire 40

Reid Hoffman

AUGUST 6, 2020

But for us, revenue is not a hard prerequisite because some of our bets are based on our conviction around technology or platforms that might take a little more time to build out and get going.”. At the seed stage, we have backed very non-obvious, non-pedigreed entrepreneurs, in spaces that weren’t obvious, who ended up being amazing.

Technical Review 69

Technical Review Seed Stage Software Review Early Stage 69

View from Seed

APRIL 23, 2015

However … An unfortunate side effect of this particular POTAJ is that, in many startup pitches, entrepreneurs focus so much on product or tech that they leave out one crucial, deal-making-or-breaking detail: distribution. ” Founders must address distribution in their pitches both overtly and succinctly.

Founder 120

Founder Distribution Viral Seed Stage 120