Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 16, 2012

If you are new to the entrepreneurial world of startups, you are likely confused by the terminology of seed-stage, lean startups, micro-VCs, and Super Angels. Seed-stage means promising companies that don’t yet have a revenue stream, and may not yet have a proof of concept. Series-seed round. Super Angels.

Early Stage 253

Early Stage Finance Seed Stage Entrepreneur 253

View from Seed

MAY 21, 2020

In some respects, one of the often non-intuitive privileges of a seed stage fundraising process is that the company is so new. The reality is that when fundraising for a successive financing round along the seed stage continuum , all startups are graded on a curve based on the amount of time and capital which has gone into the company.

Seed Stage 274

Seed Stage Finance Lean Revenue 274

The Startup Magazine

JULY 25, 2024

[link] Business News Daily reports that a startup needs around $184,830 a year at its initial stages, with around five employees on board. However, as told by FasterCapital, seed-stage startups can usually raise between $500,000 and $2 million from investors and venture capitalists.

Security 130

Security Hungary Poland Startup 130

David Teten

JANUARY 19, 2021

More and more startups are pursuing Revenue-Based VCs , but “RBI” doesn’t fit everyone. Flexible VC 101: Equity Meets Revenue Share. By tying payments to actual revenues, founders and investors remain aligned around the company’s real-time performance, good or bad. Of the Inc. 5000 companies, only 6.5% raised from angels.

Cofounder 78

Cofounder Technical Review Equity Dividend 78

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 23, 2014

The rise of “micro VCs” or seed-stage funds. The “big boom” in startup financing started around March 2009?—?more Public-company tech investors creates competition in late-stage financings and these investors can afford to be less price sensitive if they choose. On the surface the narratives have been.

Technical Review 398

Technical Review Venture Capital Valuation Pre-Money Valuation 398

View from Seed

JANUARY 27, 2021

This is a fresh $100M fund with the same high-conviction, hands-on seed strategy that we’ve been pursuing since the start of NextView over 10 years ago. 100M is a meaningful increase from our $50M third fund, though it’s still quite small in the grand scheme of venture, especially amid the recent wave of late stage financings and SPACs.

LP 411

LP Early Stage Seed Stage Venture Capital 411

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 16, 2010

So angel and seed stage investors’ returns will be dependent on good times continuing or on the ability of their portfolio companies to get financed. Revenue must come from a primary source (as opposed to advertising or other third party sources). Nobody understands this better than First Round Capital.

LP 311

LP Technical Review Early Stage Silicon Valley 311

View from Seed

MARCH 15, 2017

VC evaluation of seed-stage startups can seem arbitrary or imitative at times. Internally, the scarcity of tangible business metrics – product usage or revenue multiples for example – can make an investment decision feel daunting. Any seed stage company’s strategy is a constant work-in-progress.

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Due Diligence Seed Stage Portfolio Metrics 265

Gust

JULY 8, 2012

If you are new to the entrepreneurial world of startups, you are likely confused by the terminology of seed-stage, lean startups, micro-VCs, and Super Angels. Seed-stage means promising companies that don’t yet have a revenue stream, and may not yet have a proof of concept. Series-seed round. Super Angels.

Early Stage 177

Early Stage Finance Seed Stage Entrepreneur 177

View from Seed

OCTOBER 15, 2014

Over the summer, based on feedback from our portfolio and the broader startup community, NextView created pre-formatted board deck templates for seed-stage startups — part of our Growth Guides series. As Rob Go wrote , board decks and board meetings can waste loads of time at the seed stage.

Seed Stage 331

Seed Stage Cap Table Metrics Burn Rate 331

Hunter Walker

JULY 22, 2014

Hey founders, want to hear something incredibly frustrating about seed financing? You know the one that inevitably has you at $100 million in revenue by Year Three? Just* committing to grow customers or revenue or usage can still create a hollow company. I don’t believe the forecast you show me. Yeah, that one.

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Forecast Early Stage Seed Stage Startup 97

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 23, 2019

*This post is part of our “pitch deck” series where we dissect the seed stage pitch deck and discuss the ideal flow for a pitch. To provide relevant perspective, listing past convertible note(s) and/or equity financing(s) including total round size and valuation (caps) is helpful. Here we are, at (one of) the final slides.

Cap Table 211

Cap Table Seed Stage Valuation Dilution 211

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 19, 2013

Yet our initial customer success didn’t translate into big revenue growth and we faced issues such as: Do we support developers, end-users or both? I have a very public seed stage investment policy and awe.sm Do we price for volume of consumption or for enterprise integration with other platforms? I saw it first hand.

Technical Review 303

Technical Review Cofounder Analytics Founder 303

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 13, 2010

Since that date the S&P 500 is up 2.45% while Accenture stock is up 206% with revenue of $23 billion and a market cap of $32 billion. “Reality is, at the seed stage, most rocketships look more like the cardboard variety you’d make as a kid than something NASA developed. The things that always differentiated Accenture?

Turkey 302

Turkey Differentiation IP Technical Review 302

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. Generate Real Revenue. Craft a Small Scale Machine.

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Syndication Syndicate Seed Stage Startup 333

K9 Ventures

JUNE 5, 2015

Almost two years ago, in a private/closed meeting with K9 Ventures’ LPs only, I claimed that: What was being referred to in the press as the “Series A Crunch” was not because fewer Series A deals were being done, but because there were too many Seed deals being done. Seed stage was super tough. Implications for Founders.

Seed Stage 48

Seed Stage Venture Capital Early Stage Valuation 48

This is going to be BIG.

AUGUST 22, 2012

Let’s start out with the basic functions of a tech company: 1) Engineering 2) Marketing 3) Sales 4) Business development 5) PR 6) Design 7) Product Management 8) HR 9) Operations 10) Finance Ok, that's just overwhelming. Ready to start simplifying? The last two are pretty basic.

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PR Technical Review Seed Stage Design 160

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 1, 2011

If you are new to the entrepreneurial world of startups, you are likely confused by the terminology of seed-stage, lean startups, micro-VCs, and Super Angels. Seed-stage means promising companies that don’t yet have a revenue stream, and may not yet have a proof of concept. Series-seed round. Super Angels.

Early Stage 231

Early Stage Seed Stage Angel Investor Silicon Valley 231

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. Or so it seems.

Technical Review 63

Technical Review Valuation Venture Capital Investment Bankers 63

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. .” A convertible note financing is not a loan in the conventional sense. Convertible debt?

Finance 134

Finance Convertible Security Equity Seed Stage 134

Genuine VC

MAY 29, 2014

It’s been five years now since large VC ‘signaling’ entered the seed stage entrepreneur’s lexicon. It seems as though it’s been talked about ad nauseum in the blogosphere, but we see first-hand as entrepreneurs we’re investing in at NextView Ventures work through building their seed round syndicates, it really is a tough issue.

Syndication 166

Syndication Syndicate Seed Stage Valuation 166

David Teten

JULY 10, 2019

As a VC, I’m interested in working with companies with large-scale revenue potential, and that’s the company we envision. This work is unpaid, as with any other startup at the pre-seed stage. Once we’ve executed all the steps above, we go to VCs and raise seed capital of $1-2m. Q: Is this civic tech? A nonprofit?

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America Technical Review Advisory Board Due Diligence 60

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 25, 2019

*This post is part of our “pitch deck” series where we dissect the seed stage pitch deck and discuss the ideal flow for a pitch. Investors want to know the critical thinking behind the inputs and value-drivers of the business, and how that results in the outputs on the critical metrics and finances.

Seed Stage 166

Seed Stage Retention Restful Valuation 166

Haystack

FEBRUARY 17, 2019

And this week, the company announced it had raised a super-sized $20M Series A financing co-led by Kent Bennett from Bessemer Venture Partners and also Goldman Sachs. On the other hand, solid businesses like SecondMeasure which have found product-market fit within the seed stage have more leverage on when to take financing and from what firm.

Seed Stage 106

Seed Stage Retention Finance Conversion 106

The Next Web

FEBRUARY 27, 2014

This is typically in conjunction with an upcoming financing or pending takeover offer. A competitive commodity business, or a “me too” story , will be less demanded, and hence, will require a lower valuation to close your financing. Freshman are a piece of paper to beta site (bootstrap financed—raise $50K to $500K).

Valuation 167

Valuation Forecast Seed Stage .Net 167

K9 Ventures

OCTOBER 10, 2017

This post is intended to be a dynamic document, and I will attempt to update it from time to time with new questions that may arise or as financing trends evolve. And I sincerely hope that this post does a good job of addressing what Pre-Seed really is. Q: Define Pre-Seed? Q: What amount of financing is considered Pre-Seed?

Seed Stage 82

Seed Stage Finance Later Stage Equity 82

View from Seed

JANUARY 26, 2016

In the next post, I’ll talk about how we think about pre-seeds at NextView. It’s become increasingly common for startups to raise several seed rounds, and this has led to a bifurcation in the seed stage between what are known as “pre-seed” (or “genesis”) and institutional seed rounds.

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage Early Stage Cofounder Finance 120

VC Adventure

MAY 5, 2022

In markets like this, funds that deploy quickly generate markups on their full portfolio; those that show more patience suffer from an IRR perspective as a larger portion of their fund is yet to be marked up by subsequent financing rounds. Both were valued at greater than 50x revenue (one was, I think, 70x revenue).

IRR 116

IRR Metrics Valuation LP 116

K9 Ventures

JUNE 12, 2012

While it it may not feel that way, the data suggest that there is indeed too much capital in the system — especially so at the seed stage, with more and more individuals and larger funds trying to invest in companies at this stage.). This situation is not always in the best interest of founders.

Venture Capital 117

Venture Capital Silicon Valley Founder Seed Stage 117

Genuine VC

JANUARY 3, 2013

According to all of the blogosphere chatter over the past month, seed-funded internet startups are entering this year gearing up for the now-near-infamous Series A Crunch. to become not just ramen-profitable, but sustainably profitable.

Seed Stage 166

Seed Stage Venture Capital Audience New York 166

Diego Basch

MARCH 14, 2013

I avoid the entertainment industry, and anything where the revenue stream is based on advertising. I prefer investing in health, transportation, education, and (under some very specific circumstances) finance. If your seed-stage company fits the criteria above, please contact me.

San Francisco 55

San Francisco Startup Silicon Valley Seed Stage 55

K9 Ventures

JUNE 12, 2012

While it it may not feel that way, the data suggest that there is indeed too much capital in the system — especially so at the seed stage, with more and more individuals and larger funds trying to invest in companies at this stage.). This situation is not always in the best interest of founders.

Venture Capital 105

Venture Capital Silicon Valley Founder Seed Stage 105

K9 Ventures

APRIL 9, 2014

Instead, it was more of a result of over-funding at the seed stage. There was simply too much money coming in to the seed stage, which increased the supply of companies at the seed stage. Threshold for an IPO is higher Ten years ago, if you had $20M in revenue you were ready to go public.

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Mezzanine Seed Stage Early Stage IPO 134

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 15, 2020

That's why the Corona Initiative is a Public Benefit Corporation--a for-profit company dedicated to the public good that aims to fund its research with its revenues. He worked as an engineer and then went into finance for many years and then was recruited to be president of a biotech company, diagnostics company.

Technical Review 68

Technical Review Software Review Finance San Francisco 68

The Equity Kicker

APRIL 21, 2016

But it got me thinking about the trade off between short term clarity and long term upside in seed stage investing. That plan will show short term activities that generate value and significant revenues in the out years. Not when they’re at the seed stage.

Seed Stage 60

Seed Stage Venture Capital eCommerce Partner 60

This is going to be BIG.

MARCH 16, 2020

As a seed stage investor, I know the math. Some key existings who didn’t want to see their prior money get lost wouldn’t budge on a dilutive financing, despite the fact that they knew where we were headed. Half the companies I invest in won’t provide a financial return. The answer, unfortunately, was to declare bankruptcy.

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Bankruptcy Private Equity Seed Stage Dilution 102

VC Adventure

APRIL 18, 2019

And most major investors will also require annual audits (we sometimes waive this for seed stage companies, although even then it can make sense). There’s convenience to this for startups – especially with limited finance staff – but as you grow it’s more typical to use a different firm for audit and tax.

Seed Stage 83

Seed Stage Portfolio Revenue Finance 83