View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 3, 2015

In the 10th edition of Traction, we hear the story of Vin Vacanti , co-founder/CEO of Yipit.com (daily deals aggregator) and YipitData (analyzes web data for institutional investors). As a result, Vin has a great framework for deciding if this is a viable path for your product. So much tactical goodness rolled into one episode.

CTO Hire 120

CTO Hire Framework Cofounder Seed Stage 120

YoungUpstarts

JULY 19, 2019

Gui Costin , author of “ Millennials Are Not Aliens “, is an entrepreneur, and founder of Dakota, a company that sells and markets institutional investment strategies.

Software Review 154

Software Review Marketing Due Diligence Institutional Investors 154

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

JULY 24, 2012

Pin It Listen to this episode if you want to learn what a VC investor thinks about “Internet scale” and how you can usually simplify your idea by charging a fair price for your product. We’re building a product. Dan: Actually, the reason I called really wasn’t to discuss what we’re doing.

Silicon Valley 204

Silicon Valley Software Review Internet Technical Review 204

David Teten

MARCH 28, 2012

This study is effectively a sequel to the study David Teten led with Chris Farmer of General Catalyst on best practices of venture capital and private equity funds in originating new deals , published in Journal of Private Equity , Harvard Business Review , Institutional Investor , etc.

Portfolio 144

Portfolio Private Equity Venture Capital Early Stage 144

The Next Web

MAY 4, 2013

He is a part-time hacker, angel investor, and product advisor, and was selected from more than 300 people to “shadow” Dave McClure at 500 Startups. This will help you develop your network and get the legitimacy you need to show bigger investors. Previously, he worked in venture capital in Europe.

San Francisco 159

San Francisco Europe Technical Review Due Diligence 159

The Equity Kicker

OCTOBER 14, 2014

———————————– If you ask most VCs what they look for in a startup they will say great team, great product and great market. Now you know what investors are looking for you might be wondering how to approach them. Venture Capital'

Early Stage 123

Early Stage Institutional Investors Startup Venture Capital 123

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 4, 2018

Of the last 15 investments we’ve made, 8 have been pre-product or pre-seed style rounds. In two cases, these businesses were doing significant early revenue ($500K/month+), so could be considered “post-seed”, although both of these companies had not raised significant institutional capital before we led their rounds.

North America 120

North America Seed Stage Early Stage Lead Investor 120

David Teten

JULY 14, 2014

The most pervasive has been the expansion of passively managed portfolios, such as index funds and ETFs, which allow both retail and institutional investors access to a broad spectrum of investment opportunities at a much lower cost. The Wall Street Journal recently had a good article comparing the two.

Management 114

Management Portfolio Institutional Investors Government 114

David Teten

JANUARY 9, 2013

Aspen is looking for institutional investor and entrepreneur speakers willing to share their investing insights and personal experiences. The group is about 22 people; managing directors, partners and COO’s of major investments firms in Morocco, Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, and Tunisia. More details.

Tunisia 114

Tunisia Libya Mauritania Algeria 114

View from Seed

JUNE 7, 2016

Based on that reaction, we wanted to continue improving the product through both additional revs/design and continuing to evolve how we think about board meetings in the first place. At NextView, one founder we invested in last year proactively asked us, as her lone institutional investor, to start doing this.

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage Founder Seed Capital Institutional Investors 120

Gust

SEPTEMBER 27, 2014

In order to be competitive, a company needs to have just about everything in place, from its product to its team to market traction, before it is ready to seek funding. Your private profile is where investors will look with a critical eye on everything that makes you a business rather than just a product or a sexy idea.

Angel Groups 159

Angel Groups Elevator Pitch Software Review Deal Flow 159

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 11, 2020

I’m not talking about just making incremental improvements in their products and processes, but more fundamental changes to the business model, such as the following: Announce a new market launch that fits your core competency. Use outside investment and acquisition to expand your scope.

Customer 359

Customer Institutional Investors Channel Acquisition 359

David Teten

SEPTEMBER 5, 2014

I’ve also presented at a range of industry conferences on how institutional investors can use professional networks for research , origination , market research , and value creation. GLG Share is really a membership more than a product, and we want to serve our members however we can. Who are they?

New York 114

New York Technical Review Networking Advisory Board 114

ithacaVC

MARCH 9, 2017

The importance of the Board is why institutional investors (like VCs) often get a seat on the Board after an investment. But don’t be fooled, there is an element of control as investors want a say in critical decisions. We followed in line with the lead investor and went along with the structure.

Seed Stage 58

Seed Stage Software Review Institutional Investors Lead Investor 58

YoungUpstarts

JANUARY 3, 2018

But you’ve got to start somewhere, so start with a look at what went wrong with some of the 2017 activist investor targets. Activist Investor Target: Procter & Gamble. If what made you successful isn’t working anymore, don’t wait for an activist investor to force the shift to a new way of competing.

Agile 113

Agile Malaysia Private Equity Non-Compete 113

David Teten

MARCH 24, 2014

As the CIO, I am constantly looking to improve productivity of my office, and I have created many productivity tools and processes that have saved a lot of money and time since I first started. For Professional Institutional investors: agency risk is a huge problem. It is not investment performance.

Software Review 114

Software Review Due Diligence Venture Capital Portfolio 114

Rob Go

OCTOBER 14, 2012

In over half of our portfolio companies, we have invested pre-product. Although the resumes of these founders differ quite a bit, for the most part, we back entrepreneurs with deeply authentic founding stories and a strong focus on product. Probably our biggest “missed-opportunity” was a seed extension. 9 that are B2B.

New Hampshire 50

New Hampshire Croatia Omaha Institutional Investors 50

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 22, 2020

Tie payments to your product or service revenue. With “cash flow” obligations, investors receive a percentage of your operating cash flow (if any) until they have been repaid in full, or have achieved a specified percentage return on their investment. Try to avoid obligations with fixed repayment schedules.

Management 308

Management Cram Down Angel Investor Equity 308

Steve Blank

JUNE 15, 2011

And it was hammered home with Color —a startup without a product —raising $40 million, at a reputed $100 million valuation, from brand name VCs who should have known better. When they did launch their product, it was compared to boo.com, and entered the dot.com bubble hall of infamy. The higher the price, the more investments pour in.

Silicon Valley 331

Silicon Valley Stealth Valuation Mississippi 331

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 4, 2014

This will include the first version of many critical processes that can be split out later, including market opportunity, requirements, product definition, business model, sales process, and organization. Product development process. Write down the key elements of your business plan very early, and keep it current as things evolve.

Startup 268

Startup Institutional Investors Angel Investor Bootstrapping 268

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 7, 2011

This will include the first version of many critical processes that can be split out later, including market opportunity, requirements, product definition, business model, sales process, and organization. Product development process. Write down the key elements of your business plan very early, and keep it current as things evolve.

Startup 255

Startup Institutional Investors Angel Investor Bootstrapping 255

David Teten

DECEMBER 3, 2019

Sabena Quan-Hin, Marketing Manager at Flow Capital , wrote, “There are two crucial aspects of marketing that investors often overlook: automation and analytics. Automation allows you to spend less time on tedious tasks and will help boost productivity, especially within a small marketing team. Deer Isle Group has built the D.I.G.

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Software Review Analytics Private Equity 78

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 1, 2010

This will include the first version of many critical processes that can be split out later, including market opportunity, requirements, product definition, business model, sales process, and organization. Product development process. Write down the key elements of your business plan very early, and keep it current as things evolve.

Startup 239

Startup Institutional Investors Angel Investor Bootstrapping 239

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 31, 2013

This will include the first version of many critical processes that can be split out later, including market opportunity, requirements, product definition, business model, sales process, and organization. Product development process. Write down the key elements of your business plan very early, and keep it current as things evolve.

Institutional Investors 230

Institutional Investors Angel Investor Bootstrapping Database 230

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 10, 2014

Tie payments to your product or service revenue. With “cash flow” obligations, investors receive a percentage of your operating cash flow (if any) until they have been repaid in full, or have achieved a specified percentage return on their investment. Try to avoid obligations with fixed repayment schedules.

Founder 254

Founder Cram Down Angel Investor Equity 254

Rob Go

AUGUST 11, 2011

Unless you are talking to someone with very deep and relevant experience in your sector (but isnt invested in a competitor) you will hear the same feedback after talking to 2 or 3 investors. It usually focuses on issues around the team, market, or product. Figure out if you have a “do-able” deal.

Software Review 62

Software Review Florida Institutional Investors Lean 62

David Teten

APRIL 13, 2021

They had 154 visits, 97 due diligence requests, 33 second visits, and 12 reference requests, to ultimately produce 9 institutional investors. In general, outsourced salespeople are much better at selling commodities than unique products. The world’s best salesperson can’t sell a mediocre product. million venture fund.

Private Equity 60

Private Equity Technical Review Management LP 60

VC Adventure

MAY 21, 2014

We did this in house (the production quality does not have to be stellar, just clear) and put it as an unlisted video on YouTube. Product demo video. Product shots / screen shots. Current investors and total investment amount for this round. If not, record your audio and put that with your slides.

Syndication 93

Syndication Syndicate Technical Review Due Diligence 93

View from Seed

JULY 14, 2022

But until now, individual investors have been faced with a choice of buying the whole index with these products or trying to pick individual stocks to invest in. Investors can start investing in their personalized index today with no minimum up-front investment.

Finance 156

Finance Institutional Investors Stock Mobile 156

Up and Running

MARCH 21, 2016

Particularly if you are a first-time entrepreneur, it will be much easier to get investments on good terms (particularly from non-institutional investors) if you have some traction first,” he explains. Investors want proof that your idea is going to work, and nothing proves this better than having real, paying customers.

Cofounder 60

Cofounder Metrics Angel Investor Silicon Valley 60

Austin Startup

JANUARY 3, 2019

Feedback to investors about what helps and doesn’t help founders when fundraising. I originally asked this question to several founders with the intent of addressing angel investors but I’ve found it doesn’t exclude other institutional investors either. Quick No Now onwards to positive behavior that founders love!

Founder 48

Founder Angel Investor Technical Review Due Diligence 48

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 23, 2010

There is a primary reason that inside investors give companies convertible debt rather than just giving you the money as equity. VC’s money comes from mostly institutional investors called LPs (limited partners). They might decide to delay new product features or upgrading technology infrastructure.

Startup 290

Startup Burn Rate Warrant Bankruptcy 290

Rob Go

SEPTEMBER 4, 2018

Of the last 15 investments we’ve made, 8 have been pre-product or pre-seed style rounds. In two cases, these businesses were doing significant early revenue ($500K/month+), so could be considered “post-seed”, although both of these companies had not raised significant institutional capital before we led their rounds.

North America 36

North America Seed Stage Early Stage Lead Investor 36

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 3, 2015

In the 10th edition of Traction, we hear the story of Vin Vacanti , co-founder/CEO of Yipit.com (daily deals aggregator) and YipitData (analyzes web data for institutional investors). As a result, Vin has a great framework for deciding if this is a viable path for your product. So much tactical goodness rolled into one episode.

Framework 120

Framework Cofounder Seed Stage B2C 120

David Teten

SEPTEMBER 23, 2017

Early stage investors are also mining product crowdfunding sites ( Indiegogo *); lists of product launches ( Producthunt ); angel group platforms ( Gust , Proseeder ); and equity crowdfunding sites ( AngelList , CircleUp , FundersClub , OurCrowd , SeedInvest ) for leads.

Private Equity 60

Private Equity Venture Capital Equity Technical Review 60

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 1, 2009

I can tell you first hand than bankers are out making road shows to gin up interest in VCs and institutional investors. There has already been at least one high profile funding from this class, which is Thread – a product that raised $1.2 There is a lot of pent-up demand. – IPO-able in any normal market.

IPO 255

IPO Investment Bankers Venture Capital Marketing 255

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 9, 2018

Tie payments to your product or service revenue. With “cash flow” obligations, investors receive a percentage of your operating cash flow (if any) until they have been repaid in full, or have achieved a specified percentage return on their investment. Try to avoid obligations with fixed repayment schedules.

Cram Down 148

Cram Down Angel Investor Equity Dividend 148