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.

Valuation 336

Valuation Founder Seed Stage Angel Investor 336

Business Plan Blog

OCTOBER 4, 2013

If you have a technical background and you are focused on product development, consider a co-founder with a sales and marketing background that can focus on selling your world class product. Rather, give titles such as VP of Engineering, Product/Technology, Sales, Marketing, Finance, etc. Don’t make everyone a founder.

Part-Time VPE 79

Part-Time VPE Fractional VPE Cofounder CTO Hire 79

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 15, 2010

Clearly a startup should consult its lawyer before filing or not filing.But the attorneys I relied on to write this piece told me that they’ve done lots of Section 4(2) deals in the past, and would recommend it to clients who had relatively simple financing agreements (not tranched-out, not too many investors, etc.) Short answer: no.

Stealth 285

Stealth SEC Advertising Accredited Investor 285

View from Seed

DECEMBER 8, 2015

It’s often a good idea for founders to find a way to build something and get some early market validation before raising outside capital. But doing that is sometimes not practical given your personal runway or because the product you want to build requires additional capital very early on. Is there founder/market fit?

Product 120

Product Startup Early Stage Seed Capital 120

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. Convertible Debt Financing. Among the most common methods of funding used by startups when raising seed capital is “Convertible Debt Financing.”

Finance 93

Finance Accredited Investor Angel Investor Seed Capital 93

Gust

SEPTEMBER 29, 2011

It should therefore come as no surprise that an asymmetry of information exists, mostly gleaned from experience, between founders and investors in a venture financing deal. Experienced investors often don’t feel the need to involve legal counsel in most typical convertible debt seed or angel round investments.

Finance 178

Finance Term Sheet Preferred Stock Bridge Financing 178

View from Seed

FEBRUARY 25, 2015

A few weeks ago, we launched two startup pitch deck templates for raising seed capital — part of NextView’s platform of exclusive startup resources. Some of these lessons might be useful because I’m not the founder who created those decks. 5 Surprising Mistakes Found in Seed-Stage Startup Pitch Decks. #1:

Technical Review 120

Technical Review Seed Stage Boston Startup 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 Pre-Money Valuation Denver 137

View from Seed

DECEMBER 6, 2018

Five years ago, as the mania around seed fundings was accelerating, Founders were very eager to announce their seed round to the world. And seed VCs, especially as new firms were being established, were eager to encourage their portfolio startups to plant that flag in the ground publicly. What’s going on?

Seed Stage 201

Seed Stage Stealth Seed Capital Later Stage 201

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. .” I won’t rehash all of the customary convertible note financing deal terms and points of negotiation here. (For

Finance 134

Finance Convertible Security Equity Seed Stage 134

View from Seed

NOVEMBER 18, 2014

Once a startup has raised seed capital, plenty of theories and advice exist on how to successfully raise a Series A. Recently, we looked at our own portfolio at NextView Ventures to dig a little deeper on how startups actually raise that next round of financing. There was no meaningful difference.

Syndicate 333

Syndicate Syndication Seed Stage Startup 333

YoungUpstarts

MARCH 13, 2013

Cancer research and treatment may just have gotten a shot up the arm – Singapore-based Clearbridge BioMedics has just announced that it successfully closed a S$9 million Series B financing round led by Vertex Venture Holdings Ltd, the wholly-owned VC arm of Singapore’s Temasek Holdings.

Singapore 228

Singapore Intellectual Property United States Cofounder 228

Genuine VC

MARCH 24, 2014

A couple years ago, my partner Lee penned a blog post about the milestone benchmarks for startups raising a Series A round of financing. The four winning strategies for startups to go from Seed to A are: Build Scale/Momentum.

Seed Capital 212

Seed Capital Metrics Cofounder Revenue 212

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 8, 2014

billion 2013 figure) have been massive financings at Honest Company ($70mm), JustFab ($85mm), ZipRecruiter ($63mm) and lord only knows how much SnapChat has actually accumulated. Over the past 4 years LA’s tech fundings have growing at a 30% compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) which is > 4 times the US average VC CAGR (7%).

Los Angeles 376

Los Angeles Silicon Valley Entrepreneur Seattle 376

The Startup Lawyer

MARCH 8, 2010

Founders: Well-rounded founder teams >1 person, demonstrated understanding of entrepreneurship, relevant technical and business knowledge. -Location: Come from anywhere, willing to locate to Dallas for the program.

Technical Review 40

Technical Review Dallas Seed Capital Angel Investor 40

The Startup Lawyer

MARCH 8, 2010

Founders: Well-rounded founder teams >1 person, demonstrated understanding of entrepreneurship, relevant technical and business knowledge. -Location: Come from anywhere, willing to locate to Dallas for the program.

Technical Review 40

Technical Review Dallas Seed Capital Angel Investor 40

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 27, 2012

When a company is at its earliest seed stage, the terms tend to be the least complex. As the company grows and the second or third group of investors comes in, the terms of each subsequent financing grow in size, scope, and the number of lawyers’ fingerprints on them. Outline multiple tranches. Anti-dilution protection.

Term Sheet 223

Term Sheet Pre-Money Valuation Due Diligence Angel Investor 223

Gust

OCTOBER 5, 2011

Last week , we gave some attention to the “why” behind convertible note financing for early stage startups. As with so many subjects in law and finance, mastering the jargon is half the battle. This may seem like a no-brainer now that you understand the basic structure of a convertible debt financing.

Finance 79

Finance Preferred Stock Term Sheet Early Stage 79

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 14, 2010

When a company is at its earliest seed stage, the terms tend to be the least complex. As the company grows and the second or third group of investors comes in, the terms of each subsequent financing grow in size, scope, and the number of lawyers’ fingerprints on them. Outline multiple tranches. Anti-dilution protection.

Term Sheet 227

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

Gust

SEPTEMBER 27, 2014

To begin with, it is important to understand some basic facts about the world of entrepreneurial finance: There are many more entrepreneurs than there are investors, with the result that only one company out of every 400 that seeks venture funding actually receives it. This will almost always be the best approach to an investor.

Angel Groups 159

Angel Groups Elevator Pitch Software Review Deal Flow 159

K9 Ventures

JUNE 5, 2015

Together this means that Seed stage companies need to run longer and at a higher expense structure, meaning they need to raise a lot more capital. In that presentation, I said that Seed is not the first round of financing any more and that K9’s investments were mostly “pre-seed”. Seed is the New A.

Seed Stage 48

Seed Stage Venture Capital Early Stage Valuation 48

Gust

OCTOBER 17, 2011

When a company is at its earliest seed stage, the terms tend to be the least complex. As the company grows and the second or third group of investors comes in, the terms of each subsequent financing grow in size, scope, and the number of lawyers’ fingerprints on them. Outline multiple tranches. Anti-dilution protection.

Term Sheet 158

Term Sheet Pre-Money Valuation Due Diligence Angel Investor 158

ReadWriteStart

NOVEMBER 5, 2019

According to a study by CB Insights (2017), a software that gathers essential data from investors, companies and industries, more than 70% of startups do not exceed the first stage of venture capital investment. These results were obtained after the following rounds of financing of more than 1000 technology companies in the United States.

Venture Capital 77

Venture Capital Cofounder Finance United States 77

YoungUpstarts

OCTOBER 15, 2014

Procuring venture capital funding or business angels who put up with seed capital or expansion capital can be helpful and exciting. Ta is the founder and CEO of Sqeeqee, the first-of-its-kind networthing ® site. A start-up venture critically depends on outside sources of funding to run its day to day operations.

Vietnam 171

Vietnam Venture Capital Seed Capital Exit Strategy 171

mashable.com

NOVEMBER 3, 2010

For the first-time entrepreneur or founder looking for seed stage funding, this circle can be especially difficult to penetrate. Mashable Mashable reached out to angels, seed stage investors and VC firm partners and asked them to share their wisdom with the rest of us.

Angel Investor 80

Angel Investor Startup San Francisco Social Media 80

Steve Blank

APRIL 28, 2016

Ajay Kshatriya , co-founder and CEO of Biota Technology , which applies DNA sequencing technology to the energy industry. Steven Cohn , founder and CEO of Validately , which helps user researchers, product managers and others validate demand or usability for prototypes and live sites. There I learned about how to raise capital.

Entrepreneur 120

Entrepreneur Cofounder Seed Capital Texas 120

Steve Blank

APRIL 28, 2016

Ajay Kshatriya , co-founder and CEO of Biota Technology , which applies DNA sequencing technology to the energy industry. Steven Cohn , founder and CEO of Validately , which helps user researchers, product managers and others validate demand or usability for prototypes and live sites. There I learned about how to raise capital.

Entrepreneur 120

Entrepreneur Cofounder Seed Capital Texas 120

Haystack

NOVEMBER 24, 2018

4/ The Big Winners: Cylance raised around ~$280M in financing, with large equity stakeholders being Khosla Ventures, Fairhaven, and Blackstone. The company only raised a bit over $1M as seed capital. 5/ The Crowd Saw X, We Saw Y: One of my favorite quotes about startups and technology comes from Instagram’s co-founder Systrom.

Acquisition 62

Acquisition Artificial Inteligence Balance Sheet Cofounder 62

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 14, 2014

I had witnessed a number of early-stage tech startups in LA raise seed capital from the Bay Area and relocate. It was 2009 and it was terribly difficult to get any financing (if you can remember a time like that!) They have raised company profiles and made follow-on financings easier. We had a specific goal in mind.

Early Stage 290

Early Stage Venture Capital Los Angeles Coder 290

Business Plan Blog

DECEMBER 10, 2013

When raising pre-seed capital from friends, family, and founders (FFF) you’ll want to consider the milestones that Angel investors care about and be sure to raise enough capital to reach those milestones. Below are the milestones that you will need to achieve in order to attract seed investment from Angels: Business Plan.

Angel Investor 55

Angel Investor Intellectual Property Seed Capital Advisory Board 55

Feld Thoughts

AUGUST 12, 2011

When we were last with Dick and Jane on Finance Fridays, our fearless entrepreneurs were figuring out how to split up their founders equity and account for an investment from Jane. QuickBooks and other accounting software programs will do this for your finances, but you should also implement tools for tracking other key metrics (e.g.

Balance Sheet 136

Balance Sheet Forecast Cap Table Early Stage 136

Feld Thoughts

JULY 14, 2015

A company raises $1m of seed money from angels in a convertible note with a $6m cap. Assuming equity is raised at or above that cap, the total dilution, before the new money, is 16.6% (equivalent to an equity financing of $1m at a $6m post money valuation. But in this cycle, I hadn’t seen it in a seed round.

Recapitalization 70

Recapitalization Pre-Money Valuation Post-Money Valuation Angel Investor 70

Growthink Blog

MAY 23, 2011

The typical wisdom regarding the appropriate financing course for a new company goes as follows: 1. This venture capital financing - usually between $3 and $10 million - is the first of a number of rounds of outside investment over a period of three to five years.

Angel Investor 112

Angel Investor Venture Capital Sweat Equity Cram Down 112

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. The reality is you must be great at HR, PR, finance AND product. It super charges a business that is closer to product delivery. ” Many CEOs act like VPs of product or CFOs.

PR 319

PR Venture Capital Hiring Seed Capital 319

The Startup Lawyer

JANUARY 20, 2010

Founders: Well-rounded founder teams >1 person, demonstrated understanding of entrepreneurship, relevant technical and business knowledge. Tags: Startup Lawyer dallas seed capital. -Location: Come from anywhere, willing to locate to Dallas for the program. Apply to TechWildcatters here.

Dallas 44

Dallas Seed Capital Angel Investor Bootstrapping 44

Growthink Blog

MAY 10, 2012

Seed Funding 3. Mezzanine Financing Most companies that raise equity capital and are eventually acquired or go public receive multiple rounds of financing first. No right or wrong answer here, but if this is your vision then it's important to consider when negotiating deal terms on earlier stage financing rounds.

Equity 88

Equity Mezzanine Later Stage Venture Capital 88

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