Steve Blank

OCTOBER 24, 2017

A 20th century VC was likely to have an MBA or finance background. And in later stage rounds an explosion of corporate VCs and hedge funds now want in to the next unicorns. This allows founder(s) to sell part of their stock (~10 to 33%) in a future round of financing. 4. Founder-friendly VCs.

Founder 281

Founder Technical Review CTO Hire IPO 281

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 5, 2011

The earlier you invest the higher the chances the company won’t work out and thus you pay a lower price than later-stage investors. That’s the deal you get when you’re raising in a good market for startup financing. So how exactly are prices determined? There is no great science to it. That’s fine.

Pre-Money Valuation 336

Pre-Money Valuation Valuation Silicon Valley Stock 336

The Startup Magazine

AUGUST 11, 2023

I will tell you brief details about seed stage funding, and deal sourcing on this page, so read the conclusion until the end. 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.

Seed Stage 148

Seed Stage Technical Review Early Stage Due Diligence 148

YoungUpstarts

APRIL 22, 2014

In other words, how much of the business is financed with equity (owner’s money) or debt (borrowed money). Marketing plans that worked during the early life cycle of your business might have to change during later stages based on a number of variables, such as the economy, your competition, and new products or services.

CPA 160

CPA Technical Review Later Stage Equity 160

David Teten

MAY 9, 2012

We are in the midst of two great disruptions to American business: the internet’s ongoing disruption of most traditional industries: finance, healthcare, retail, finance, fashion, etc. Founded in 1970, NAIC firms invest in venture (early stage/later stage) and private equity (growth/buyout/mezzanine/distressed/secondary funds).

Venture Capital 154

Venture Capital Programming Accredited Investor New York 154

VC Cafe

JANUARY 24, 2012

Reports on the drop of local VC financing in Israel don’t tell the whole story. Mid and later stage companies attracted $1.48 Seed stage companies attracted 5%, a slight increase from 3% in 2010, and Early stage companies accounted for 26% of the investment, down from 35% in 2010 and 29% in 2009.

Israel 111

Israel Technical Review IPO Startup 111

This is going to be BIG.

SEPTEMBER 30, 2012

David's firm most recently participated in the $77 million second round financing of SoFi, a one year old startup focusing on student loans. I suppose, more specifically, the bubble ended in the last two weeks of September--right after this financing. The other entrepreneur quoted in the story is from a guy pitching a Pinterest clone.

Venture Capital 120

Venture Capital Marketing Term Sheet Software Review 120

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 28, 2010

VC Financings: 1. Summit is a hugely respected firm in Silicon Valley and a long-term “institution&# but they’re better known as more of a “private equity&# investor meaning that they do later stage investments in much larger companies that are profitable. I keep meaning to get him drunk to spill the stories.

Venture Capital 270

Venture Capital Cofounder Spain San Diego 270

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 31, 2019

Learning everything you can about VC first is important for that reason, but also to ensure it’s the right form of financing for your business. In fact, it’s quite the opposite - making sure you have the same goals as your financing partner is probably the best thing you can do as an entrepreneur to maximize your chances for success.

Lean 108

Lean Venture Capital Conversion IPO 108

View from Seed

JUNE 7, 2016

Just to discuss a few benefits more in-depth… First and foremost, getting into a regular cadence readies the company to think and operate more professionally for later rounds of financing. She wanted to receive feedback early and get into the practice in anticipation of later rounds and later-stage problems and opportunities.

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage Founder Seed Capital Institutional Investors 120

thebarefootvc

JANUARY 27, 2014

I think that later stage valuations are frothy (for reasons I explain below) while earlier stage valuations are starting to stabilize from previous highs (with the exception of the superstar serial entrepreneur) - turns out scaling in a sea of competition (both startup and entrenched) is not so easy. The answer is yes and yes.

Technical Review 63

Technical Review Valuation Venture Capital Investment Bankers 63

VC Cafe

APRIL 29, 2020

According to the Covid-19 impact report by research firm Beauhurst: 5,070 UK companies are at a ‘severe’ or ‘critical’ risk 615K startup and scaleup jobs are at risk Later stage startups are at the most risk Across the board, tech sectors and verticals are the most likely to experience a positive or low impact.

Israel 124

Israel SBA Technical Review Startup 124

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.

Angel Groups 159

Angel Groups Elevator Pitch Software Review Deal Flow 159

David Teten

SEPTEMBER 5, 2014

Like many established finance & media companies, GLG knows that the tech startup sector is a growing part of the economy. For example, if you’re an early stage company dealing with complex regulation (think Uber in transportation, Oscar in healthcare, LendingClub in finance), we have people who can help.

New York 114

New York Technical Review Networking Advisory Board 114

Steve Blank

APRIL 12, 2013

The second wave of technology investors were Chinese banks, who provided the majority of the later stage investments in the Torch Program. By 1991, 70% of the Torch funded startups were getting bank financing for expansion and later stages of the new ventures, with local governments acting as guarantors.

Venture Capital 279

Venture Capital China Offshore SBIR 279

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 24, 2021

But markets have changed and I think investors, founders and experienced executives who want to join later-stage startups can all benefit from playing the long game. This “overnight success” was first financed in 2004. It literally drove FOMO. Case in point, Procore just went public and is trading at an $11 billion valuation.

Venture Capital 363

Venture Capital LP Valuation Later Stage 363

VC Cafe

JANUARY 24, 2012

Reports on the drop of local VC financing in Israel don’t tell the whole story. Mid and later stage companies attracted $1.48 Seed stage companies attracted 5%, a slight increase from 3% in 2010, and Early stage companies accounted for 26% of the investment, down from 35% in 2010 and 29% in 2009.

Israel 60

Israel Technical Review IPO Startup 60

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 27, 2014

We both agree that the later-stage valuations are being driven up to a point that feels irrationally priced [he uses b-round SaaS valuations as an example and I am willing to be even more broad based]. He said that a16z prefers to invest earlier stage in these types of businesses. And we ended.

Valuation 309

Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Non-Compete Later Stage 309

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 23, 2015

” If the “nut” is too high I usually veer them towards later-stage opportunities (post B or C round) where the comp is higher, the exit is more likely / nearer, the upside is still nice but obviously not the same as if you joined early). There is often money to be made in finding places with under-valued IP.

Technical Review 150

Technical Review Liquidation Preference Silicon Valley IP 150

YoungUpstarts

SEPTEMBER 3, 2018

Then you figure out all the finances. And lastly summarise all the above points for easy referencing at later stages. You then draw the hierarchy of your operational and managerial roles. Now you design a sales and marketing strategy. And lastly, you devise an optimised marketing strategy for your app.

Mobile 113

Mobile Developer Social Media Later Stage 113

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 25, 2011

All it says is that the VC has the right (but not obligation) to invest his/her proportional ownership in the next round of financing. They might own 8% of your company after the first funding but demand up to 33-50% of your next round of financing. Why would this happen? Often it’s when a larger fund (e.g. Two at a push.

Entrepreneur 310

Entrepreneur Dilution Finance Silicon Valley 310

Genuine VC

NOVEMBER 12, 2012

Dharmesh Shah had a great post up last week about the lessons learned from raising a mezzanine round of financing. However, there was one gem of a small section in there with a more widely acceptable takeaway: “It turns out that the terms from your Series A are most often cut and pasted into your later round deals.

Finance 128

Finance Mezzanine Valuation Seed Stage 128

Version One Ventures

MARCH 8, 2020

This puts the VC firm and its investors in a position to continue to exercise their pro-rata rights in later-stage rounds instead of giving them up. . Being intimately involved with a company past their Series A puts us in a position to have a better sense if we should double down on an investment in later rounds of financing.

Later Stage 193

Later Stage Portfolio Finance Partner 193

Feld Thoughts

MARCH 24, 2017

In general, these investments were rarely competitive at the time of their first financing. We know many firms that build portfolios with great logos by buying into companies at later stages and higher valuations. FC’s portfolio is made up exclusively of seed stage investments at seed valuations.

Founder 76

Founder LP Technical Review Seed Stage 76

Steve Blank

JUNE 15, 2010

Certain VC’s like the new class of Super-Angels and small VC funds specialize in the early stage of a startup where you are searching for a business model. And some larger funds that specialize in later stage deals may have a partner or two who likes to invest at this stage. Is it for your technology? (In

Founder 232

Founder Vesting Later Stage Early Stage 232

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 24, 2015

At least later stage investors. This could have an impact on later-stage valuations. The one thing that has become clear to me over the last couple of months is the skepticism that many late-stage VCs (and LPs) have had about late-stage valuations. I have to assume other investors feel the way I do.

Stock 150

Stock Finance Marketing Valuation 150

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

Feld Thoughts

JULY 13, 2014

But I’ve also invested in a number of companies that have had exits between $100m and $1b that resulted in much larger returns for me, both on an absolute basis as well as a relative basis, than unicorns have for their later stage investors. Financing Entrepreneurship fundraising unicorn VC'

Later Stage 195

Later Stage Early Stage Valuation Seed Stage 195

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 3, 2013

I’m super proud to announce that DataSift has just completed a $42 million financing round coming at the end of a year where its revenue grew several hundred percent year-over-year. I’m an early-stage investor. Considering our revenue is SaaS revenue this achievement is even more remarkable. Not so DataSift.

Iran 358

Iran API San Francisco Nigeria 358

Genuine VC

FEBRUARY 3, 2011

Much of the VC blogosphere commentary about startups covers venture and angel financing with advice focused on company founders. The first decision, and the most critical decision, of what type of startup to join is based on the current stage of the company. And that derisking is only for 12 +/- 6 months.

Startup 241

Startup Later Stage Angel Financing Seed Stage 241

YoungUpstarts

JUNE 1, 2016

Full disclosure – any kind of financing comes with costs, whether it’s interest payments, equity, and/or your very valuable time which, as an entrepreneur, is the thing you will always wish you had more of. Purchase order financing. The good news is that technology has opened up avenues that didn’t exist 10 years ago.

Finance 100

Finance Angel Investor Cofounder Later Stage 100

VC Adventure

AUGUST 15, 2018

These reports are generally quite lengthy and not always particularly comprehensible to non-finance professionals. A number of factors go into the calculation and I assumed that the FMV of common as a % of preferred would vary both by company stage and by the time between the valuation and the last financing round. I was wrong.

Valuation 48

Valuation Common Stock Cap Table Software Review 48

YoungUpstarts

NOVEMBER 19, 2017

Venture capital fundraising can be divided into three stages: seed, early stage, and later stage. According to the same report by KPMG, the median deal size is the largest for later-stage funding, at $26 million. The constant innovation thus drives development in technology throughout the region.

Venture Capital 196

Venture Capital Asia Later Stage Artificial Inteligence 196

Genuine VC

MAY 20, 2013

Compared to most other areas of finance, venture capital is practiced as more of an art, as opposed to a science. REALITY: The earlier-stage an investment is for a venture firm, the more the bet is on the team, the more reticent they are to want to change the core DNA of the company.

Venture Capital 244

Venture Capital Cap Table Portfolio Early Stage 244

www.mint.com

MARCH 9, 2010

Check out the personal finance topic by clicking here. This is a very good excercise, and will make it much easier for me to explain the idea to potential investors at a later stage. I hope you will join the team and relieve me of some of this burden.” So easy on the eyes! 1 like Mackeran 448 days ago I read a few topics.

Software Review 68

Software Review Startup Post-Money Valuation Technical Review 68

Feld Thoughts

DECEMBER 10, 2014

So – I’ll start with that – this is not a prediction, rather it’s a hypothesis, which is as long as there isn’t a cataclysmic macro event, Q115 financing activity is going to be insane. The number of large, “later stage” financings are remarkable – both in size and velocity.

Later Stage 142

Later Stage Syndication Syndicate Portfolio 142

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 27, 2021

We’ve had two companies where we had to bridge finance them several times before they eventually IPO’d We had a portfolio company turn-down a $350 million acquisition because they wanted at least $400 million. Consider: When GOAT started it was a restaurant reservation booking app called GrubWithUs … it’s now worth $3.7

Bankruptcy 294

Bankruptcy Bridge Financing Portfolio Angel Investor 294