Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 14, 2017

As the idea went from innovating on software & systems to launching a company to rolling it out in the field brought on Rahul Gandhi as his co-founder to physically launch the company. Sam & Rahul have worked closely together on “innovate & operate” since the earliest days of MakeSpace.

Operations 286

Operations New York City Technical Review Startup 286

YoungUpstarts

JANUARY 11, 2021

by Swapnil Shinde, Co-Founder and CEO of Zeni. To avoid these common pitfalls — and set up your finances to support your business as it grows — follow these four accounting tips for startups and small businesses. Don’t rely on spreadsheets to track revenue and expenses; start using accounting tools as soon as possible.

Small Business 208

Small Business Startup Cofounder Vertical 208

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 19, 2014

I first met Andrew Stalbow , the founder & CEO of Seriously in August of 2013. and Petri was co-founder and head of creative at Remedy Entertainment that launched the hit PC games Max Payne and Alan Wake. By September 26th we had submitted a term sheet which was signed on October 4th and financing was closed in less than 30 days.

Technical Review 373

Technical Review North America Los Angeles Cofounder 373

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 19, 2013

My internal compass has always steered me strongly toward the belief that founders who can scale with their startup companies are better to back that founders who eventually need to hire a CEO. Very few founder CEOs go into the job ever expecting to give up their seat. We set out to find Jonathan’s “co-founder.”

Technical Review 303

Technical Review Cofounder Analytics Founder 303

The Startup Magazine

MAY 13, 2022

Equity distribution among co-founders may be a complex procedure while starting any business. How you split founder startup equity can be even harder for a tech startup due to different roles and contributions from the founders. You can utilize a co founder equity calculator to properly divide equity amongst co-founders. .

Equity 172

Equity Founder Vesting Cofounder 172

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 22, 2011

I recently spoke at the Founder Showcase at the request of Adeo Ressi. I said that at the Founder Showcase, too. Ah, but today’s Internet companies have real revenue! And for many of these they were (over) funded 7-10 years ago and don’t necessarily all represent great returns for investors or founders.

Saudi Arabia 309

Saudi Arabia Valuation IPO Technical Review 309

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 13, 2011

You have two founders and it was agreed that one would get the CEO role so the other needs to call themselves president or COO. They will often run all of the daily reports into them covering off for finance, sales, marketing, biz dev & HR. I was the CEO of my startup and my co-founder was the president.

Technical Review 325

Technical Review Startup Cofounder Due Diligence 325

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 28, 2018

My friend Michael Broukhim, founder & co-CEO of FabFitFun and I recently had a catch-up meeting for 3-miles on the Santa Monica “Bird Trail” No company has ever elicited so many questions by friends, colleagues, entrepreneurs, fellow VCs and journalists as has Bird, the company that pioneered the electronic scooter as a service market.

San Francisco 256

San Francisco Valuation Los Angeles Technical Review 256

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 6, 2014

When you first start your company and raise initial venture capital your board probably consists of 1-3 founders and 1-2 VCs. Most experienced VCs won’t push you to give up founder control at this stage of the business nor should they. Founder’s perspective. You’ll get empathy. Experience. Relationships.

Technical Review 325

Technical Review Early Stage Software Review Los Angeles 325

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 7, 2011

Blogs weren’t popularized yet so it was an oddity for me to read the founder of a software company spewing out advice. Joel met his co-founder for Fog Creek software and learned a valuable management lesson. He is responsible for bringing in revenue from advertising and their careers offering. What did you learn at Juno?

Software Review 285

Software Review Software St. Louis API 285

VC Cafe

FEBRUARY 27, 2024

A founder asked me what makes a $2M round “pre-seed”? especially if the startup already has a product and revenue? While the answers are somewhat semantic, the pre-seed funding round is making a comeback in 2024 startup financing.

Valuation 186

Valuation Software Review Generative AI Technical Review 186

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 16, 2010

So super angel and seed funds are proliferating – As a result there has been an explosion in the number of amazing early-stage investors such as Softtech VC , Floodgate , Felicis Ventures , K9 Ventures , OATV , Lowercase Capital , Founder Collective , and many, many more. Nobody understands this better than First Round Capital.

LP 311

LP Technical Review Early Stage Silicon Valley 311

VC Cafe

MARCH 1, 2024

Most startups equate the process of fundraising to dating – founders have to typically kiss a lot of frogs until the find the right fit. Personal Finance Cross-account visibility and management – Today’s AI products can analyze and move money between accounts – as agents improve, they will make trades across accounts.

Artificial Inteligence 176

Artificial Inteligence Technical Review Software Review Generative AI 176

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 26, 2010

I wrote a blog post about being hands on where I argued that startup founders need to be hands-on or in my words, “you can’t run a burger chain if you’ve never flipped burgers.&#. It’s different when you’re co-founders and one person gets the title COO. Who does finance report to?

Entrepreneur 286

Entrepreneur CTO Hire Cofounder Early Stage 286

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 12, 2018

Founder, Founder, Founder At Upfront we talk regularly about how 70% of our investment decision in Seed and A rounds is the quality of the entrepreneur and 30% is the quality of the idea. Having recurring revenue allows you to keep the original purchase price down, which in turn increases sales. Here are my views … 1.

Security 247

Security Los Angeles Silicon Valley Video 247

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 18, 2019

Depending on the composition of the founding team, you might or might not have near-term holes in certain functions at the exec level – e.g. you’ll most likely need to bring on a CTO/VP of Engineering shortly after the seed round if you don’t have a technical co-founder. The post Pitch Deck Month: The “Where Are You Going?

Part-Time VPE 195

Part-Time VPE Seed Stage CTO Hire Forecast 195

Duct Tape Marketing

OCTOBER 2, 2024

Liz is the co-founder and CEO of the award-winning TransPerfect. billion in revenue and offices in over 100 cities around the globe. She's the founder and c e o of the Elizabeth Elting Foundation is an entrepreneur, business leader. So went back to school, got my M B A from N Y U and had a very brief stint in finance.

Venezuela 79

Venezuela Cofounder Finance San Francisco 79

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 5, 2011

I’ve decided to take all of my private conversations and subjective points-of-view on the topic and make them public in a keynote speech at the Founder Showcase in San Francisco on June 15th. That’s the deal you get when you’re raising in a good market for startup financing. That’s fine. It was early 2000.

Pre-Money Valuation 336

Pre-Money Valuation Valuation Silicon Valley Stock 336

YoungUpstarts

JUNE 16, 2020

Reasons for a business valuation run a gamut from selling the business due to retirement or health reasons to financing expansion efforts to adding shareholders to a buyout situation. Capitalization Factor – This can be defined as a multiplier used for converting projected future earnings and revenue into present day value.

Valuation 162

Valuation CPA Software Review .Net 162

VC Cafe

FEBRUARY 6, 2025

AI Agents & Software Personalised AI Agent Development: Create AI agents that can understand user intent, plan actions, and improve through continuous learning, with a focus on specific verticals like travel, healthcare, or finance. This type of expertise allows founders to innovate on the entire software stack.

Software Review 78

Software Review Technical Review Startup Software Engineering 78

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!&# This is an interview you’re not going to want to miss, I promise.

Semantic 302

Semantic Acquisition Valuation Angel Investor 302

David Teten

MARCH 5, 2021

All of the 40 companies’ 92 founders were male. based founders, 35 were white* American; four were white immigrant/first generation, from France, Ukraine, Russia and Iran; and four were Indian immigrant/first generation. Of the 19 Western Europe/Israel-based founders, all were white. Of the 43 U.S.-based

Cofounder 78

Cofounder Founder Technical Cofounder Technical Review 78

Steve Blank

MAY 9, 2017

The founders were simply wrong about their assumptions about customer needs. It turns out the term “visionary founder” was usually a synonym for someone who was hallucinating. Founders Need to Run the Company Longer. So, almost like clockwork 20 th century startups fired the innovators/founders when they scaled.

Restful 249

Restful Silicon Valley San Jose Puerto Rico 249

Hunter Walker

APRIL 17, 2025

By early 2024, we were sustainably profitable for a second time, on track to generate over $30 million in revenue and starting to get some PEs and strategics showing interest in Issuu. While every CEO and founder wants to create the next impactful IPO oriented company, IPOs are rare, even in the best of times. Thats a mistake.

Covenant 77

Covenant Acquisition IPO Artificial Inteligence 77

YoungUpstarts

SEPTEMBER 24, 2019

by Chen Amit, co-founder and CEO of Tipalti. And accounts payable processing is poised to become even more significant and complex over the next three years, according to the Institute of Finance & Managemen’s research. The accounts payable process is often the biggest thorn in a small business’s side.

Artificial Inteligence 165

Artificial Inteligence Technical Review Cofounder Cloud 165

YoungUpstarts

APRIL 17, 2018

by Felix Winstone, Co-Founder and Managing Director at Talkative. As a startup co-founder with a growing team, here are the recruiting tips I’ve learnt over the last couple of years. Robert Metcalfe, co-founder and CEO of 3Com, says you need to think about it as “recruiting, not hiring”. Hiring = Sales. Be Specific.

Cofounder 164

Cofounder Elevator Pitch Hiring Dividend 164

The Startup Magazine

NOVEMBER 22, 2022

Catherine Mandungu is the founder of Think RevOps , a company that began as the pandemic was brewing. She realised the revenue operations market was booming, especially within the tech industry, and therefore wanted to explore what is largely an untapped market within the UK and Europe. Reducing revenue leakage. These goals are.

Congo 158

Congo Technical Review Africa Netherlands 158

YoungUpstarts

DECEMBER 22, 2014

by Anthony Coundouris , trade finance evangelist for ApexPeak. DSO is the average number of days that a company takes to collect revenue after a sale has been made. If an overseas customer is not able to settle an account due to liquidity problems, sourcing local finance to bridge the gap is an option. Alternative financing.

Singapore 191

Singapore Asia Management China 191

YoungUpstarts

AUGUST 10, 2017

by Mark Gilbert, founder and CEO of MBS Accounting Technology & Advisory. Investors want to see in-depth financial reports that reinforce the startup has an organized business model with potential for revenue growth. These software programs are more efficient for managing a company’s finances.

Software Review 124

Software Review Technical Review Due Diligence Startup 124

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 29, 2010

People buy companies for 3 primary reasons: 1) they want the management team / talent 2) they want the technology or 3) they want the market traction (revenue, customer base, profits, etc). But most importantly I lectured founders that you can’t avoid the admin of setting up your ESOP. Do it early. Check ‘em out!

Venture Capital 282

Venture Capital Term Sheet Valuation Stock Options 282

David Teten

JANUARY 21, 2021

This essay is part of a series on alternative VC: I: Revenue-Based Investing: a new option for founders who care about control. II: Who are the major Revenue-Based Investing VCs? III: Why are Revenue-Based VCs investing in so many women and underrepresented founders? Revenue-Based Flexible VCs.

Equity 78

Equity Revenue Cofounder Colorado 78

YoungUpstarts

MAY 23, 2018

Most startups do not fail because they had a bad idea that could not find a market, but rather because the founders and startup teams got overwhelmed or were missing key ingredients to success. Finances are a huge part of startup success or failure, but while a lack of funds is a significant problem, it’s usually not the biggest problem.

Due Diligence 133

Due Diligence Startup Finance Leadership 133

Feld Thoughts

JUNE 9, 2021

Matt was the co-founder/CEO of Return Path. The founders of each company talked and, in between efforts to decimate the other, agreed it might be worth merging to survive. It’s a follow-up to his previous book, Startup CEO: A Field Guide to Scaling Up Your Business. I’ve been working with Matt since 2000.

Fractional CTO 197

Fractional CTO Cofounder Startup Lead Investor 197

View from Seed

OCTOBER 24, 2019

As seed rounds have atomized, it’s not uncommon for founders to raise 3 or even 4 rounds prior to a series A. The reality is that if a founder raised every one of these rounds, and lead investors always got their “target” ownership, the level of dilution would be ridiculous. Founders with limited experience. should be avoided.

Dilution 149

Dilution B2B Burn Rate Early Stage 149

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 11, 2021

Digital advertising spend is projected to grow 25% this year to $191 billion, and Google (69%), Facebook (59%), Snapchat (116%) and Twitter (87%) all just reported rapid growth in their year over year advertising revenues. founders, marketers, investors?—?and Founders, marketers and growth leaders?—?join

Founder 424

Founder Product Cofounder Acquisition 424

Haystack

NOVEMBER 25, 2018

venture capital deals, a spike in mega-financings where it’s common to see not only $100M private rounds, but companies that raise two or three types of financings like this in the same calendar year! 5/ The Enduring Allure Of Platform Potential: Revenue is important. Revenue acceleration is, too.

Technical Review 127

Technical Review Open Source Software Review Venture Capital 127

The Startup Magazine

AUGUST 11, 2023

The following is a condensed explanation of seed funding: Seed money is a form of early-stage financing that new businesses receive from investors in exchange for a share of ownership in the company. The term “seed financing” refers to the stage of funding that comes from first equity. What exactly is the seed funding?

Seed Stage 148

Seed Stage Technical Review Early Stage Due Diligence 148