Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 12, 2014

They often create the biggest tensions between investors who are investing at different stages in the business. These tensions seep out in some angels or seed funds publicly or semi-privately deriding later-stage VCs for their “bad” behavior. I have seen bad behavior from later-stage VCs, believe me.

Technical Review 336

Technical Review Later Stage Early Stage LP 336

Steve Blank

JANUARY 22, 2014

Part 2: Early-stage Regional Venture Funds. Success depends on finding startups that have identified acute customer pains in large markets where conditions are ripe for a new entrant. as a distribution channel have vastly reduced the amount of capital a startup needs at the early stage when the risk is greatest.

Early Stage 295

Early Stage Silicon Valley Oregon Technical Review 295

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 16, 2023

Who would not want to join the unicorns (recent startups with a current valuation of over $1 billion)? Excellent detailed resources are everywhere, including a classic book, “ The Startup Checklist ,” by serial entrepreneur and founder of the New York Angels, David S. Later cleanup can double your costs and risks.

Intellectual Property 261

Intellectual Property Entrepreneur Angel Groups Social Media 261

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 17, 2018

 —  @msuster 8/ Don't spend undue time advising other people's startups until your business is successful, scaling & stable. Negative employees affect others like a disease and you can't ever turn them around. There's never a perfect time - except now. Usually a terrible idea as runway extension.

Founder 242

Founder Dilution Software Review Later Stage 242

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 30, 2011

Or the Cliff Note’s version: Open Source & Cloud Computing (led by Amazon) drove down tech startup costs by 90%. The result was a massive increase in startups & a whole group of new funding sources: both angels & “micro VCs&#. Some are going later stage to not miss out on hot deals.

Venture Capital 289

Venture Capital Early Stage Valuation Angel Investor 289

View from Seed

JULY 8, 2020

Today I’m excited to announce the relaunch of our most popular resource ever: board meeting deck templates for seed-stage startups, now in conjunction with an investor update email template. We first released a version of the board meeting deck template template back in 2014 and then a revised version a couple of years later.

Email 331

Email Seed Stage Syndication Syndicate 331

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 27, 2013

I would say the norm for many early-stage companies is somewhere between 6-10 in-person meetings per year. The earlier stage the more likely it is 10 meetings and the later stage the more likely it is 6. Startup Advice' Ask for short conference calls. Don’t have calls for calls sake. Have topics.

Advisory Board 365

Advisory Board Fractional CTO CTO Hire Los Angeles 365

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 16, 2014

For all the things he’s likely known for, he probably hasn’t yet built a strong relationship as an early stage venture investor (he invests often in later-stage deals where he is very respected). Startup Advice' He wanted to know what I thought of his technology deal. My email back to him was a version of.

Silicon Valley 333

Silicon Valley Early Stage Later Stage Technical Review 333

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 24, 2017

. — Unremarked and unheralded, the balance of power between startup CEOs and their investors has radically changed: IPOs/M&A without a profit (or at times revenue) have become the norm. The startup process has become demystified – information is everywhere. Not every startup ended up this way. Board Control.

Founder 281

Founder Technical Review CTO Hire IPO 281

Gust

JANUARY 4, 2012

Last month we covered the basics of intellectual property (IP) for startups, including a simple taxonomy, some common issues and related documents for entrepreneurs to use when forming a new startup. The amount of investment in IP in any direct sense is generally small for early stage startups.

Intellectual Property 143

Intellectual Property IP Startup United States 143

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 4, 2013

When you are raising a large, later-stage round given by this time you’ve likely got a fairly large business to run. Advice to VCs Startup Advice' When you are trying to raise “strategic money” since these people are often hard to reach and they are often more used to being approached by bankers.

Early Stage 361

Early Stage Deal Flow Investment Bankers Technical Review 361

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 4, 2013

When you are raising a large, later-stage round given by this time you’ve likely got a fairly large business to run. But I think there is a down side that I see in startups that raise artificially at prices above what a normal market might value. And I’m seeing this even at some really well run startups.

Deal Flow 347

Deal Flow Early Stage Investment Bankers Technical Review 347

Steve Blank

JUNE 11, 2009

Posted on June 11, 2009 by steveblank When my students ask me about whether they should be a founder or cofounder of a startup I ask them to take a walk around the block and ask themselves: Are you comfortable with: Chaos – startups are disorganized Uncertainty – startups never go per plan Are you: Resilient – at times you will fail – badly.

Cofounder 230

Cofounder Founder Silicon Valley Technical Cofounder 230

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 22, 2010

I also won’t say there is never a time for “participating preferred&# but it tends to be in later-stage rounds and particularly in the case where the founders are getting an exceedingly high valuation relative to the norm. Tags: Startup Advice This Week in Venture Capital. You reap what you sow.

Valuation 405

Valuation Liquidation Preference Pre-Money Valuation Term Sheet 405

YoungUpstarts

MAY 11, 2019

For startups and their founding teams, it’s easy to spend too much time designing a website, yet not enough getting the developmental side of things right. If you want your startup to have a solid footing in a digital marketplace, this has to change. Acing the Developmental Side of Startup Website Design. MVP Approach.

Web Development 113

Web Development Developer Los Angeles Architecture 113

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 11, 2017

In the old days, every entrepreneur dreamed of easily taking their startup public, and making it big. Today the rate of startups going public (IPO – Initial Public Offering) is up from the dead zone, but is still half the rate of 15 years ago. Startups going public are laid open to competitors and critics.

IPO 218

IPO SEC Prospectus Technical Review 218

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 4, 2016

The number of startups rose in 2015 for the first time in five years, with the largest year-over-year increase in two decades. Who would not want to joint the unicorns (recent startups with a current valuation of over $1 billion)? Successful startup teams today have a mix of remote employees, freelancers, and contractors.

Intellectual Property 120

Intellectual Property Startup Angel Groups Social Media 120

YoungUpstarts

JUNE 18, 2012

And while many companies start with a great idea and loads of confidence, a startup company requires a solid business model and a proper plan in place in the earliest stages of its development for the best chance for success.

Technical Review 174

Technical Review Later Stage Incubator Business Model 174

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 1, 2015

In the old days, every entrepreneur dreamed of easily taking their startup public, and making it big. Today the rate of startups going public (IPO – Initial Public Offering) is up from the dead zone, but is still less than half the rate of 15 years ago. Startups going public are laid open to competitors and critics.

IPO 120

IPO SEC Prospectus Startup 120

VC Cafe

MAY 16, 2023

LLMs leadeboard in ChatBot Arena High competition and no moat is giving investors jitters According to the State of AI Q1’23 report by CB Insights, during Q1 2023, AI startups raised $5.4B, a 66% drop from the previous year’s figure and a 43% decline quarter-over-quarter.

Artificial Inteligence 178

Artificial Inteligence ChatGPT Generative AI Open Source 178

The Next Web

SEPTEMBER 13, 2013

Thomas Clayton has started and run numerous high-tech startups in Silicon Valley. He is currently CEO of Bubbly , a social media startup backed by Sequoia Capital, SingTel Innov8, and JAFCO. The company is one of the largest VC–backed startups in Southeast Asia, having raised over $60M in funding. Sequoia , Accel , NEA , etc.).

Asia 132

Asia Silicon Valley India Term Sheet 132

Up and Running

AUGUST 19, 2014

An angel investor is a high net worth individual who invests their own money into startup companies in the hopes of gaining a return on their money. I was the CEO of both startups, so it was my job to pitch to the angels. The post How to Impress Angel Investors and Make It into “Startup Heaven” appeared first on Bplans Blog.

Angel Investor 161

Angel Investor Technical Review Due Diligence Startup 161

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 24, 2011

And normally the rest of the team are young & inexperienced because that’s all the startup could afford to bring on. The “team beneath the team&# was as talented as any top team that pitches me startups. Who are the key hires we need to make?&# Management, SVP North American Sales and SVP European Publishing.

Later Stage 310

Later Stage South America Mobile Silicon Valley 310

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. The post below first appeared as a guest post by me on the Web Summit Blog. Marc Andreessen wrote about this once.

Early Stage 123

Early Stage Institutional Investors Startup Venture Capital 123

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 2, 2010

In an early stage deal that fund might reserve 2x their initial investment or if it’s a larger round or later stage they might reserve 1x. You can ask around to startup lawyers and other entrepreneurs who know these things. That fund “reserves&# money for NewCo’s “follow on&# investments.

Venture Capital 269

Venture Capital Balance Sheet Early Stage Software Review 269

YoungUpstarts

JULY 30, 2019

Startups and SCRUM. Why SCRUM for startups? Each sprint is reviewed to minimize the errors so that the confusions during the later stages are avoided. Employing SCRUM for startups. There is also a stand-up meeting for a maximum of 15 minutes where we have a sprint review. And here comes the role of scrum master.

SCRUM 113

SCRUM Software Review Hiring Agile 113

VC Cafe

APRIL 29, 2020

Source: NVCA , “Startup Ecosystem Faces Capital Crunch over Coming Months” USA – SBA Loans and PPP. The $349 billion aid package issued by the US Government and distributed in the form of SBA loans was quickly gobbled up by a large number of applications, many of which were from venture-backed or PE-backed startups.

Israel 124

Israel SBA Technical Review Startup 124

Up and Running

MARCH 31, 2021

The standard Seed round was once around $75,000 to $150,000 startup. This is because Angels make their money by investing in startups. With over one-half of small businesses closing their doors this year or last year, there is now far less competition for startups to gain an investor’s attention. It is now up to $300,000.

Small Business 116

Small Business Angel Investor Technical Review Elevator Pitch 116

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 6, 2014

I know that in later-stage growth equity deals some firms even hire third-parties who will do the reference calls. Startup Lessons' I have been part of one deal where this happened and the level of detail from a professional reference checker was unbelievable. People with attitude problems. Negative people.

Technical Review 302

Technical Review Hiring Later Stage Employee 302

The Startup Magazine

AUGUST 11, 2023

pexels You need to have enough resources by having a seed-stage investor who will financially support your company in the long run. These investments are a tremendous help to your startup because they will serve as a stepping stone to reach your target eventually. With startup funding, these companies can get through this phase.

Seed Stage 148

Seed Stage Technical Review Early Stage Due Diligence 148

View from Seed

JANUARY 5, 2016

I realize sports analogies for startups can feel trite, but as you think about the different phases of team-building in a startup, this one is actually pretty spot on. At the beginning, a startup team is typically just a couple of co-founders. Basketball or football? Below, I take a look at each. Below, I take a look at each.

Founder 120

Founder Cofounder Startup Early Stage 120

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 11, 2020

One of the reasons that now is the time to be an entrepreneur is the explosion of startup assistance organizations, usually called incubators or accelerators. A few are still trying to make a profitable business out of nurturing startups, but it’s a challenge to make money when your customer startups don’t have many resources to give.

Incubator 398

Incubator Silicon Valley North America Startup 398

The Startup Magazine

SEPTEMBER 18, 2020

Crosscutting will ensure it is impossible for prying eyes to glue the pieces back together at a later stage. The post 5 Crucial Security Features for Your Home Office appeared first on The Startup Magazine. Household cameras are an absolute must for any home, especially one with a home office.

Security 156

Security Later Stage Technical Review Mobile 156

View from Seed

APRIL 30, 2015

There’s been a lot of digital ink spilled around the various types of capital available to startups today. As a startup grows, venture debt becomes a viable option to continue that growth. Glen is an active contributor to the local tech ecosystem and well-versed in how and when startups can use venture debt to their advantage.

Term Sheet 120

Term Sheet Equity Startup Seed Stage 120

Steve Blank

MARCH 17, 2020

With the Covid-19 virus a worldwide pandemic, if you’re leading any startup or small business, you have to be asking yourself, “What’s Plan B? If you’re running a startup or small business, your first priority (after your family) is keeping your employees and customers safe. “Winter is coming.”. And what’s in my lifeboat?”.

Burn Rate 436

Burn Rate Startup Valuation Sales Cycle 436

The Next Web

JULY 29, 2013

That’s how “the early days” look for a lot of founders and I believe if you rent a space in the center of a startup hub, you will find it much easier to connect with likeminded people and share ideas. Nowadays, it is starting to be more challenging, as you are competing with a lot more startups, but it’s still incomparable to San Francisco.

San Francisco 125

San Francisco Cofounder Germany Europe 125

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 31, 2019

He’ll be speaking at this year’s Lean Startup Conference , and also has a new book (for which I very happily wrote a short foreword) coming out next month: Secrets of Sand Hill Road: Venture Capital and How to Get It. It used to be that startups went public about 6-7 years from founding; that number is now 10-12 years.

Lean 108

Lean Venture Capital Conversion IPO 108