Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 9, 2011

Rose, who has been described as "the Father of Angel Investing in New York" by Crain's New York Business, and a "world conquering entrepreneur" by BusinessWeek. The second company in which I invested, back in 2001, was a novel concept from the serial entrepreneur who invented social networking.

New York 221

New York Accredited Investor Advisory Board IRR 221

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 17, 2019

The first check I wrote was just over 10 years ago into a company called Invoca who just announced a new $56 million in funding led by Scott Hilleboe at HIG Growth Partners. The advantage is that in many of our best deals we now have $50+ million invested so we can really support entrepreneurs as their businesses scale.

IP 223

IP Intellectual Property IRR Cofounder 223

Professor VC

MARCH 10, 2009

His latest venture, Bharosa, was sold to Oracle for a 6X multiple in 3 years to his angel investors, a sweet close to triple digit IRR. In this economy, all entrepreneurs are going to hear a lot of "nos", but time spent going after customers rather than investors should provide a higher return on investment.

Bootstrapping 28

Bootstrapping San Jose Silicon Valley Angel Investor 28

David Teten

OCTOBER 15, 2013

ff Venture Capital has consistently generated a gross IRR on invested capital in excess of 30%, in a world where the average ten-year returns for venture capital firms are in the single digits. Funding platforms and tools such as AngelList and Indiegogo* are clearly changing how entrepreneurs are raising capital. Now we can.

Venture Capital 114

Venture Capital Accredited Investor IRR Later Stage 114

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 5, 2016

Too many entrepreneurs tell me they are looking for an investor, and can’t differentiate between venture capital (VC) investors versus accredited Angel investors. Angels are more likely to fund new entrepreneurs, and early-stage or seed rounds, while VCs tend to focus on entrepreneurs with a successful track record, and later stage rounds.

Angel Investor 120

Angel Investor IRR Valuation Startup 120

Professor VC

JANUARY 17, 2008

I think the title of this post is a TV show, but fitting as there has been much debate in the venture community as to the whether angel investors are good or bad for entrepreneurs and VCs. One group charges entrepreneurs "an administrative fee" to present to the group. Touched by an Angel. return on investment after 3.5

Pre-Money Valuation 28

Pre-Money Valuation Angel Investor Angel Groups Valuation 28

Feld Thoughts

AUGUST 1, 2018

The $750 million fund combines all of our prior fund strategies – our early stage, early growth, and partner fund investments – into a single fund. When we started Foundry Group, we had four equal partners. We now have seven equal partners. The seven partners all work directly with the companies and partner funds.

Syndicate 17

Syndicate Syndication IRR Canada 17

K9 Ventures

MAY 14, 2011

This is probably the very first group that an entrepreneur who is starting out may approach for some funding for his or her idea. They are still individual investors, they invest on a full-time basis as professionals, but they have funds with Limited Partners. Most angels will usually invest under $50K per investment.

Preferred Stock 125

Preferred Stock Seed Stage Incubator Accredited Investor 125

The Equity Kicker

MAY 27, 2015

Forwards Partners, and an increasing number of higher value add VC firms (see here for a partial list) have different models which require a new way of looking at things. In fact, our strategy is to have higher expenses in order to attract the best entrepreneurs and help their companies achieve better results.

Cost 60

Cost IRR Private Equity Salary 60

K9 Ventures

NOVEMBER 30, 2008

The General Partners (GPs) are the operating guys. The money that the GPs and other employees of the firm invest comes from Limited Partners (LPs) — typically the big university endowments, retirement funds, charitable organizations, family offices and high net-worth individuals. This is what makes it more difficult to scale.

IRR 48

IRR Venture Capital LP Early Stage 48

David Teten

AUGUST 21, 2019

These entrepreneurs want to maintain two major options: 1) To raise VC later (or not), and/or. So you’re stuck selling mid-term, which is frequently sub-optimal for the entrepreneur. “. BK Landland observed, “At Lighter, most entrepreneurs we fund spend 10 total hours of work over 3-6 weeks to get funding. Optionality.

Revenue 60

Revenue Liquidation Preference Equity Cofounder 60

Steve Blank

MARCH 31, 2014

I like the guy because he’s credited with coining the word entrepreneur. Unfortunately as we’ve learned from recent experience, using Return on Net Assets and IRR as proxies for efficiency and execution won’t save a company when their industry encounters creative disruption. I’m sure many of you have heard his name.

Private Equity 330

Private Equity Metrics China Intellectual Property 330

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 25, 2013

After all, I am no stranger to the publicly expressing the frustrations of dealing with the downside of this industry as I wrote about in 2006 when I was an entrepreneur. The better way to think about VC returns is, do the firms consistently beat alternative asset clases on an IRR basis to adjust for the increased risk and lack of liquidity?

LP 374

LP Later Stage IRR Term Sheet 374

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 19, 2018

Or if you’re a VC raising from LPs you have to list all of your deals, your investment value, your carrying value, your multiples, your IRRs, TVPIs, DPIs, etc along with net cashflows plus your previous LPAs. Most entrepreneurs (and VCs raising from LPs) think this means progress. Entrepreneur : “Sure. It doesn’t. No problem.

Cap Table 336

Cap Table Due Diligence Forecast Churn Rate 336

Steve Blank

AUGUST 5, 2014

Larry was the best entrepreneur I’ve ever known, and completely unconventional…. I was on the way to my lifetime IRR of 90%. My two best partners went off to start Benchmark Capital, very successful to this day, so my firm was going to blow up. So I joined Oracle when it was about 20 people, eventually becoming VP Marketing.

Venture Capital 335

Venture Capital Silicon Valley Chicago Cofounder 335

abovethecrowd.com

APRIL 20, 2016

All Unicorn participants — founders, company employees, venture investors and their limited partners (LPs) — are seeing their fortunes put at risk from the very nature of the Unicorn phenomenon itself. Entrepreneurs/Founders/CEOs. By the first quarter of 2016, the late-stage financing market had changed materially.

IPO 40

IPO Term Sheet Silicon Valley Valuation 40

Hippoland

NOVEMBER 13, 2016

When I was an entrepreneur, it never crossed my mind how VCs measure their success. So, as an entrepreneur, in many cases, you are pitching people who may not even be good investors. A common intermediary milestone for most investors is IRR (internal rate of return) of the fund. But I should have thought about it.

IRR 48

IRR Valuation Portfolio Due Diligence 48

Agile VC

NOVEMBER 13, 2012

Some of the firm’s partners may move on to new jobs during this phase but at least some are usually still around. And I think it’s at best bad form (and at worst outright deception) when VCs who have little or no capital to make new investments aren’t clear with entrepreneurs about their situation.

LP 154

LP Portfolio Venture Capital IRR 154

David Teten

NOVEMBER 23, 2020

Blue Future Partners, a venture capital fund of funds, recently interviewed me on ESG in venture capital. The Boston Consulting Group and MassChallenge , a US-based global network of accelerators, partnered to study why “ women-owned startups are a better bet ”. Why is that? One example of a structural solution is targeted outreach.

Venture Capital 60

Venture Capital Partner Technical Review Cofounder 60

Hippoland

NOVEMBER 6, 2016

And, when you think about it, this cycle continues, because if investors want those fast markups to help raise their next fund in a couple of years, they should definitely invest in founders with pedigree, because they will have great unrealized gains to show potential limited partners.

Portfolio 48

Portfolio IRR Later Stage Bootstrapping 48