Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 6, 2023

For the elite startups and entrepreneurs who manage to attract the investor they dream of, and survive the term sheet negotiation, there is still one more hurdle before the money is in the bank. This is the mysterious and dreaded due diligence process, which can kill the whole deal.

Technical Review 296

Technical Review Due Diligence Term Sheet Bankruptcy 296

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 28, 2010

If your startup is great enough to get a term sheet from angel investors or a venture capitalist, the next step for the investor is to complete the dreaded due diligence process. Some startups do nothing to prepare for the due diligence process, assuming the people and business plan documents will speak for themselves.

Technical Review 229

Technical Review Due Diligence Term Sheet Angel Investor 229

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 11, 2020

Struggling entrepreneurs are often so happy to get a funding offer that they neglect the recommended reverse due diligence on the investors. Taking on equity investors to fund your company is much like getting married – it is a long-term relationship that has to work at all levels. It’s no fun for either side.

Technical Review 310

Technical Review Due Diligence Term Sheet Offshore 310

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 18, 2021

If your startup is great enough to get a term sheet from angel investors or a venture capitalist, the next step for the investor is to complete the dreaded due diligence process. Some startups do nothing to prepare for the due diligence process, assuming the people and business plan documents will speak for themselves.

Technical Review 380

Technical Review Due Diligence Term Sheet Angel Investor 380

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 17, 2015

For the elite startups and entrepreneurs who manage to attract the investor they dream of, and survive the term sheet negotiation, there is still one more hurdle before the money is in the bank. This is the mysterious and dreaded due diligence process, which can kill the whole deal.

Technical Review 120

Technical Review Due Diligence Startup Term Sheet 120

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 10, 2014

Struggling entrepreneurs are often so happy to get a funding offer that they neglect the recommended reverse due diligence on the investors. Taking on equity investors to fund your company is much like getting married – it is a long-term relationship that has to work at all levels. It’s no fun for either side.

Technical Review 257

Technical Review Due Diligence Term Sheet Offshore 257

Gust

NOVEMBER 14, 2011

After you have successfully attracted angels or venture capital with your business case, your million dollar product idea, and you have a signed term sheet, there is still one more hurdle to overcome before investors write the check. This is the dreaded “due diligence” process. Product or service readiness. Waste no time.

Technical Review 152

Technical Review Due Diligence Intellectual Property Private Equity 152

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 14, 2010

Back in November I agreed with Nivi over at VentureHacks to do a series on the ten most important attributes of a successful entrepreneur. Unfortunately, I don’t believe it is perfectly correlated with what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur. Tags: Entrepreneur Advice Start-up Advice Startup Advice.

Technical Review 284

Technical Review Due Diligence Entrepreneur Early Stage 284

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 25, 2010

A reminder that it is important for all entrepreneurs is to remember to be careful about “deal drift.” We had many term sheets (it was 1999 and we had a pulse) and we were deciding which one to take. We were trying to optimize around a few criteria: price, size of round, number of syndicate partners and, of course, terms.

Technical Review 301

Technical Review Term Sheet Due Diligence Venture Capital 301

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 25, 2010

Not that they’re “such a bad idea&# but more that there are inherent problems for entrepreneurs in the process of raising angel money that need to be addressed. This leads to the problem of “herding cats&# for entrepreneurs raising angel money. Here’s where I feel common ground : 1. Violent agreement.

Finance 286

Finance Term Sheet Technical Review Warrant 286

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 13, 2011

My initial desire to blog came from something that’s always been my approach to investing – I’m a nerd and I love to play with the technology and part of my approach has really been to understand things both at a user level and at a reasonably deep tentacle level. Brad on blogging. How did you start blogging? “My Is that when it became big?

Technical Review 288

Technical Review Venture Capital Silicon Valley Software Review 288

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 19, 2014

We are often asked how companies get funded, why VCs make the decisions we make and what we’re looking for in entrepreneurs. At Upfront we’re totally fine funding entrepreneurs who have done multiple businesses in the past – in fact we like it. Tech Market Analysis Upfront Ventures' Clear path to execution.

Technical Review 373

Technical Review North America Los Angeles Cofounder 373

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 17, 2009

This is part of my new series on what makes an entrepreneur successful. I originally posted it on VentureHacks , one of my favorite websites for entrepreneurs. Ability to Pivot – I don’t like to invest in people that I’ve never met before who come through my office wanting to have a term sheet within 30 days.

Entrepreneur 291

Entrepreneur Term Sheet Early Stage Affiliate 291

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 26, 2013

Some aspiring entrepreneurs are so desperate for funding, or naïve, that they ignore the obvious signs of scams and rip-offs on the Internet, praying for a windfall. But people are still begging for more technology or laws, often to protect them from themselves. Deposit required to hold your terms. Marty Zwilling.

Technical Review 202

Technical Review Non-disclosure Agreement Due Diligence Entrepreneur 202

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 8, 2009

Many entrepreneurs make the mistake of thinking that funding is something you do in “funding season,&# some mythical 2-month period when you’re ready with a great Powerpoint deck and you hit up all of the VC’s at the same time so that you can quickly raise money and get back to the job of building a business.

Technical Review 309

Technical Review Term Sheet Venture Capital Revenue 309

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 29, 2010

We received so much positive feedback from our This Week in Venture Capital show walking through valuation calculations & term sheets that we decided to do a Q&A show this week to address topics that entrepreneurs want to learn about. on the entrepreneur side of the table) when I raised at too high of a price.

Venture Capital 282

Venture Capital Term Sheet Valuation Stock Options 282

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 20, 2019

Image via Flickr by ivanpw Some aspiring entrepreneurs are so desperate for funding, or naïve, that they ignore the obvious signs of scams and rip-offs on the Internet, praying for a windfall. But people are still begging for more technology or laws, often to protect them from themselves. Deposit required to hold your terms.

Technical Review 228

Technical Review Non-disclosure Agreement Due Diligence Term Sheet 228

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 5, 2009

Product Development – Getting Funded as The Goal In a traditional product development model, entrepreneurs come up with an idea or concept, write a business plan and try to get funding to bring that idea to fruition. Chasing funding versus chasing customers and a repeatable and scalable business model, is one reason startups fail.

Customer Development 270

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 270

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 27, 2016

Struggling entrepreneurs are often so happy to get a funding offer that they neglect the recommended reverse due diligence on the investors. Taking on equity investors to fund your company is much like getting married – it is a long-term relationship that has to work at all levels. It’s no fun for either side.

Technical Review 120

Technical Review Due Diligence Term Sheet Offshore 120

Agile VC

MAY 26, 2011

AGILEVC My idle thoughts on tech startups. This also appears as a guest post at Fortune’s Term Sheet. Silicon Valley is still emerging from the tech bubble and massive downturn of late 2000-2002. How to Evaluate Firms for a Seed VC. How To Think About The Future. LinkedIn: The Series A Fundraising Story.

Term Sheet 178

Term Sheet Silicon Valley Technical Review Social Network 178

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 2, 2009

A friend of mine is a serial entrepreneur and is running a high-profile, early stage company in NorCal. We exchanged ideas when I was an entrepreneur along side him in NorCal in 05-07 and my point-of-view on founder / VC relationships hasn’t shifted even 1% since I went to the dark side. Many term sheets ensued.

Founder 329

Founder Liquidation Preference Term Sheet Participating Preferred 329

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 10, 2018

Many entrepreneurs let the early rejections get to them and it’s normal because when you hear “no” you think “what’s wrong with me!?” Founders read the tech press every day filled with stories about these $20 million fund-raisings by this firm and that firm and it sounds like everybody else is doing it except for you.

Term Sheet 232

Term Sheet France Technical Review Restful 232

Gust

DECEMBER 27, 2012

It sounds obvious, but the majority of entrepreneurs who pitch me have obviously never thought through many of the major issues surrounding their companies. The expectation is that in an era of increasing technology and decreasing costs, you will be bringing them an operating company with at least some traction.

Software Review 164

Software Review Term Sheet Technical Review Angel Investor 164

SoCal CTO

JULY 13, 2010

10 Ways To Be Your Own Boss - A VC : Venture Capital and Technology , June 18, 2010 The folks at Behance and Cool Hunting asked me to talk at their 99% Conference a couple months ago. had two occasions recently to review products which had clear market leadership. Here are the top 30 along with a brief snippet from the post.

Cofounder 175

Cofounder Technical Cofounder Term Sheet Startup 175

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 18, 2017

Some aspiring entrepreneurs are so desperate for funding, or naïve, that they ignore the obvious signs of scams and rip-offs on the Internet, praying for a windfall. But people are still begging for more technology or laws, often to protect them from themselves. Deposit required to hold your terms. Marty Zwilling.

Technical Review 120

Technical Review Non-disclosure Agreement Due Diligence Entrepreneur 120

YoungUpstarts

NOVEMBER 29, 2015

For many entrepreneurs and inventors, mass producing and distributing products simply doesn’t play to their strengths. Most inventers and many entrepreneurs are not prepared for the ongoing struggles with getting a product to market. Entrepreneurs often worry that the lawyers are going to get all the money. Consider Licensing.

Technical Review 100

Technical Review Intellectual Property Due Diligence Los Angeles 100

Tim Keane

JANUARY 12, 2010

Term-sheets and Valuations: Thinking about Negotiations. Please see later version of this post on May 16, 2010 Entrepreneurs are often not experts in the area of term-sheet negotiations and all of the surrounding issues. and walked through each proposed term and why it is or isn’t important.

Term Sheet 68

Term Sheet Valuation Dividend Liquidation Preference 68

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 12, 2009

But Cafepress’s most memorable moment was when the founders used a “Lessons Learned” VC pitch to raise their second round of funding and got an 8-digit term sheet that same afternoon. The VC firm delivered a term sheet for an 8-digit second round that afternoon. Lesson learned, review how each action [.]

Venture Capital 245

Venture Capital Silicon Valley RSS Hockey Stick 245

David Teten

DECEMBER 3, 2019

When I met my now-wife, I realized that any technology that can find me a spouse is a killer app. I’d argue that the same type of technologies that have revolutionized dating can revolutionize our industry. . I walk through below how progressive investors are using technology and analytics throughout all of their operations.

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Software Review Analytics Private Equity 78

ReadWriteStart

MARCH 31, 2020

In the same vein, various technological innovations such as artificial intelligence have made VC funding easier and less biased. According to Ben Narasin , “in 2020, investors will require firmer governance and oversight structures to safeguard against negative impact and ensure these protections are mandated in their term sheets.”.

Technical Review 175

Technical Review Artificial Inteligence Startup Term Sheet 175

Mucker Lab

AUGUST 27, 2014

As an entrepreneur himself, founding and operating printed circuit board factories in Taiwan, my father was debating between two places to immigrate to and build his next new venture: Los Angeles (“The Valley” aka San Fernando Valley) and Santa Clara (“Silicon Valley”).

Los Angeles 138

Los Angeles Southern California Silicon Valley Technical Review 138

Steve Blank

APRIL 9, 2009

competitive analyses, channel and customer collateral (white papers, data sheets, product reviews), customer surveys, and market requirements documents. And our Director of Technical Marketing was superb at understanding customer needs and communicating them to engineering. It will cost you your job.” That kind of accountable.

Silicon Valley 271

Silicon Valley Technical Review RSS PR 271

YoungUpstarts

FEBRUARY 6, 2017

The fundraising stage is vital for any entrepreneur, but you can’t wing it through your meetings and expect to be taken seriously. As an entrepreneur, your goal when raising financing is to get several term sheets — the documents describing the terms and conditions of financing. Find the right VC.

Venture Capital 100

Venture Capital Term Sheet Technical Review Due Diligence 100

www.founderinstitute.com

MARCH 2, 2010

The only science and technology-focused comprehensive university located between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, Harrisburg University’s academic mission is to create, to attract and to expand economic opportunities in the region. Please contact us or stop by our Adams Morgan or U Street locations.

Term Sheet 40

Term Sheet Liquidation Preference Vesting San Diego 40

ReadWriteStart

SEPTEMBER 2, 2011

While certainly not every business needs to raise venture financing, it is the path for many high-growth technology startups. Therefore, going down the fundraising path is something many technology entrepreneurs will need to do and a critical step in the development of their business. Tip 4: Really Understand Key Terms.

Cap Table 125

Cap Table Term Sheet Liquidation Preference Technical Review 125

ReadWriteStart

OCTOBER 6, 2011

Sramana Mitra is the founder of the One Million by One Million (1M/1M) initiative, an educational, business development and incubation program that aims to help one million entrepreneurs globally to reach $1 million in revenue and beyond. She is a Silicon Valley entrepreneur and strategy consultant.

Silicon Valley 118

Silicon Valley India San Francisco Entrepreneur 118

NZ Entrepreneur

AUGUST 4, 2021

Again, use this as an opportunity to pique their interest – and ultimately, land follow-up meetings or enter due diligence. Due diligence, information memorandums & data rooms. Lead investors and term sheets. Now that you’ve got investors undergoing due diligence, you must secure a lead investor.

Technical Review 68

Technical Review Software Review Founder Due Diligence 68