View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 4, 2018

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. Of the last 15 investments we’ve made, 8 have been pre-product or pre-seed style rounds.

North America 120

North America Seed Stage Early Stage Lead Investor 120

View from Seed

APRIL 30, 2015

Use good judgment, talk to your co-founders/investors/lawyers, and partner with a bank that values transparency and relationships such as SVB.]. And it’s that important because all companies will go through good times and tough times, and we’ll want to make sure we’ve got the right partner on the other side. Traction and revenue?

Term Sheet 120

Term Sheet Equity Startup Seed Stage 120

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 17, 2009

Ability to Pivot – I don’t like to invest in people that I’ve never met before who come through my office wanting to have a term sheet within 30 days. Yes, there is the mythical company you all heard about that walked into Sequoia and had a term sheet 24 hours later. I’m sure that happens.

Entrepreneur 291

Entrepreneur Term Sheet Early Stage Affiliate 291

The Next Web

SEPTEMBER 13, 2013

In India, the leading firms are slightly more concentrated with Sequoia India , Accel Partners , and Nexus Venture Partners being a cut above the rest. The term sheets tend to be fairly standardized and straightforward as well. Term sheets are littered with many more obscure protective provisions and onerous terms.

Asia 132

Asia Silicon Valley India Term Sheet 132

Austin Startup

NOVEMBER 12, 2017

Is third-year revenue of $10M good or bad? In that case, you are not making a specific offer; you are soliciting a terms sheet. Those investors will have terms sheets at the ready, and most of them will have some pesky MBA’s who will grind through all your assumptions, models, and market data.

Term Sheet 48

Term Sheet Technical Review Due Diligence Merger 48

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 13, 2018

If an investor isn’t engaging then they’re not suddenly going to get a term sheet. If we feel a mutual connection then my goal is to make your life easier by offering you a term sheet before you’re even raising and I’ll spend the time and effort trying to prove that it isn’t worth running a process.

Term Sheet 332

Term Sheet Due Diligence Campaign Sales 332

This is going to be BIG.

MAY 5, 2023

She’s already a seasoned pro—three term sheets got signed in her room at the NICU where she spent the first 80 days of her life. I’ll also continue to work within the NYC tech community—now thriving at a level I could hardly have imagined when I first got the pitch deck for USV’s first fund as a Limited Partner at the GM pension fund.

Later Stage 218

Later Stage Venture Capital Term Sheet Limited Partner 218

Hunter Walker

FEBRUARY 15, 2016

My business is about investing in extraordinary founder talent so it pains me that I can’t write a Homebrew Term Sheet to Laura Weidman Powers. We partnered with Google for Entrepreneurs in 2015 to begin to bring our work national, with a focus on entrepreneurial ecosystems.

Programming 48

Programming Term Sheet Revenue United States 48

This is going to be BIG.

OCTOBER 12, 2020

One just got a seed term sheet for twice the valuation I put in at in the pre-seed and the other is doing $200k/month in revenue. Meanwhile, I’ve got another company out of the five I invested in out of this new fund also approaching $200k/month in revenue and I just want to go back to investing.

LP 122

LP Technical Review Software Review Valuation 122

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 14, 2010

They had received a term sheet from a VC and were wondering whether to work with this firm. As in real life – those that rush into marriage often find out what their partner is really like after the fact. But what about once you have a term sheet? And in each firm you have partners who are different.

Term Sheet 298

Term Sheet Venture Capital Stealth Cofounder 298

Rob Go

SEPTEMBER 4, 2018

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. Of the last 15 investments we’ve made, 8 have been pre-product or pre-seed style rounds.

North America 36

North America Seed Stage Early Stage Lead Investor 36

www.bothsidesofthetable.com

MAY 13, 2012

My company never became Google but at $14 million in recurring revenue and $36 million in backlog revenue we certainly had enough big clients to necessitate a very solid program management function. He joined GRP Partners in 2007 as a General Partner after selling his company to Salesforce.com. Term Sheets (1).

Fractional VPE 89

Fractional VPE Part-Time VPE Fractional CTO CTO Hire 89

ReadWriteStart

DECEMBER 1, 2011

At today's roundtable, we announced 1M/1M Premium company Freshdesk's $1M funding from Accel Partners. As a result, they were able to get multiple competitive term sheets and negotiate both valuation and terms to their advantage with confidence. Loyaltepays.com.

Partner 113

Partner Tennessee Nashville India 113

K9 Ventures

APRIL 27, 2011

The day before we were supposed to sign the term sheet for the investment, Like.com sued Ugmode (the parent company of Modista.com) for patent infringement. Modista had only had modest revenue to date (~5K) and had by no means gotten to the point where it was having an impact on the revenues of Like.com.

Software Review 134

Software Review Technical Review IP Finance 134

Feld Thoughts

JANUARY 9, 2017

The first to play by the rules of your partner. On one hand, you want revenue, and if you break/bend the rules, you can get more of it. We firmly believed that breaking/bending the rules would yield an incrementally small amount of revenue, and never actually let the business get as big as it could. He kept asking questions.

Term Sheet 70

Term Sheet Cofounder Revenue Partner 70

The Next Web

FEBRUARY 27, 2014

George Deeb is the Managing Partner at Chicago-based Red Rocket Ventures , a startup consulting and financial advisory firm based in Chicago. Juniors have achieved a full proof of concept around their business, with rapid user or revenue growth, approaching up to $1MM in revenues (Series A venture capital—raise $1MM to $5MM).

Valuation 167

Valuation Forecast Seed Stage .Net 167

This is going to be BIG.

JULY 23, 2018

First, let's be clear--when you walk out of a VCs office and don't get a term sheet in the next week or at least another meeting with the partners necessary to make a decision, it's a pass. So why is this feedback seemingly all over the board? They don't want to invest in your company.

Term Sheet 60

Term Sheet Founder Revenue Partner 60

Eric Friedman

JUNE 11, 2019

Partnership Forcing Functions can be tricky because they typically don’t involve revenue, which drives most business decisions, but there are other reasons to do the deal. Exclusivity – This can be great if you have another partner, or frame things in a way that could leave them out. and they move at a glacial pace.

Term Sheet 68

Term Sheet Stock Options Early Stage Agile 68

Up and Running

DECEMBER 30, 2015

Overestimating future revenue. Founders should pay attention to the liquidation preference in the term sheet to ensure it does not become detrimental to them in a less than favorable exit. We worked closely with someone at a firm who wasn’t a partner and couldn’t make the funding decision himself.

Due Diligence 84

Due Diligence Valuation Liquidation Preference Redemption 84

reidhoffman.org

NOVEMBER 12, 2013

× At Greylock , my partners and I are driven by one guiding mission: always help entrepreneurs. we had no revenue. In a single year, the classic general partner in a venture firm is exposed to around 5,000 pitches; decides to look more closely at 600 to 800 of them; and ends up doing between 0 and 2 deals. Reid Hoffman.

Entrepreneur 111

Entrepreneur Viral Revenue Networking 111

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 25, 2010

We had many term sheets (it was 1999 and we had a pulse) and we were deciding which one to take. We were trying to optimize around a few criteria: price, size of round, number of syndicate partners and, of course, terms. We ended up agreeing a term sheet for $16.5 Second time he also kept shopping.

Technical Review 301

Technical Review Term Sheet Due Diligence Venture Capital 301

Up and Running

JULY 26, 2013

You never know who will end up being an investor, partner, or referral to the right person. Q: When and how should you discuss investor incentives (perks, % of revenue, etc)? Most sophisticated investors will already have terms they typically prefer in a deal, but they should be open to discussion.

Elevator Pitch 79

Elevator Pitch Angel Investor Term Sheet Business Model 79

David Teten

DECEMBER 3, 2019

But in business, you want a lot of partners. In the private equity universe, most Partners have primary training as deal-makers, not as managers. See Bessemer Venture Partners’ A comprehensive guide to security for startups. Cobalt for General Partners helps GPs to optimize their fundraising strategy. 1) Manage the firm

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Software Review Analytics Private Equity 78

Gust

SEPTEMBER 5, 2012

” Yet in my little corner of Wonksville, Founder Institute CEO Adeo Ressi and Yoichiro “Yokum” Taku , a partner at my “alma mater” law firm Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati , created quite a stir this past week by announcing a new set of template deal documents dubbed “ Convertible Equity.”

Finance 134

Finance Convertible Security Equity Seed Stage 134

Up and Running

JANUARY 7, 2020

We ended up receiving a $5m term sheet from investors, dozens of government customers from all across the western United States, and several offers to acquire us for 10x the initial investment. Just imagine what we assumed our first year’s revenue would be. Getting there was a struggle. percent a year. Learning Lesson.

Product 82

Product Marketing Silicon Valley Term Sheet 82

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 12, 2023

Angels will likely agree to simpler term sheets, better valuations, and less restrictive terms on potential dilution, voting rights, exit options, and executive roles. They tend to have partners focused on a given business area, with current insights, executive connections, and the ability to bring in new team members.

Angel Investor 246

Angel Investor IRR Venture Capital Valuation 246

Eric Friedman

AUGUST 18, 2021

He is also co-founder and Managing Partner of Deciens Capital, an early stage investment fund. I think there are some real virtues to that, however, when I talk to my business partner, Ishan [Sachdev], about it, I use a slightly different metaphor: I talk about Jiro [Ono], Nobu [Matsuhisa], and Benihana. On Sushi and VC.

Silicon Valley 88

Silicon Valley Venture Capital Cofounder Africa 88

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 26, 2020

There are two reasons to raise money: You have a killer idea that is only partially validated, that you think can get to $50M+ of revenue in 5 years with 80%+ gross margins (if margins are lower, you need a lot more revenue)and you need money to get to product-market fit, or. Not all startups need outside investment to grow.

Cofounder 433

Cofounder Seed Stage Valuation Metrics 433

This is going to be BIG.

JANUARY 22, 2018

Another thing that skews the process is the lack of accessibility of many partner-level VCs, especially to diverse communities. You're a partner at a firm, you're married, have kids, etc., I offered a term sheet to lead a $1.6mm financing. Look, I get it. Maybe, but there's very little objective way to fish that out.

Founder 97

Founder Conversion Naming Term Sheet 97

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 5, 2009

Did the partner have a good or bad day, etc. A Progress Graph on the right visually shows how far you’ve come (in whatever units of goodness you’re tracking – revenue, units, users, etc.) Good if you have your own money, better if the cash comes from investors, but best if it’s revenues from customers.

Customer Development 270

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 270

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 13, 2020

Angels will likely agree to simpler term sheets, better valuations, and less restrictive terms on potential dilution, voting rights, exit options, and executive roles. They tend to have partners focused on a given business area, with current insights, executive connections, and the ability to bring in new team members.

Angel Investor 314

Angel Investor Entrepreneur IRR Valuation 314

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 17, 2020

As she recalls, "once we as a team and ecosystem of stakeholders got our plan together--and a big part of that was our incredible school partners, who said, 'We are going to feed as many kids and families as we can,'-- within a week, we were building at light speed what would be the next iteration of Revolution Foods and our feeding system."

Cofounder 60

Cofounder Security Founder Entrepreneur 60

www.paulgraham.com

APRIL 28, 2010

There never has to be atime when you have no revenues. The fund managers, who are called"general partners," get about 2% of the fund annually as a managementfee, plus about 20% of the funds gains. One experienced CFO said: The better ones usually will not give a term sheet unless they really want to do a deal.

Technical Review 76

Technical Review Startup Software Review Angel Investor 76

abovethecrowd.com

APRIL 20, 2016

All Unicorn participants — founders, company employees, venture investors and their limited partners (LPs) — are seeing their fortunes put at risk from the very nature of the Unicorn phenomenon itself. A high performing, high-growth SAAS company that may have been worth 10 or more times revenue was suddenly worth 4-7 times revenue.

IPO 40

IPO Term Sheet Silicon Valley Valuation 40

techcrunch.com

NOVEMBER 2, 2010

Most of my initial venture partner meetings ended up in a conference room. I wouldn’t recommend this if you’re meeting with more than 2 people, but this meeting was one of my best and resulted in a term sheet. Every venture partner has his or her own ideal approach to learning about your business. Why did this work?

Technical Review 100

Technical Review San Francisco Framework Term Sheet 100

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 2, 2014

Angels will likely agree to simpler term sheets, better valuations, and less restrictive terms on potential dilution, voting rights, exit options, and executive roles. They tend to have partners focused on a given business area, with current insights, executive connections, and the ability to bring in new team members.

Angel Investor 266

Angel Investor Entrepreneur Venture Capital IRR 266

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 30, 2016

Mark dutifully went to partner meetings, back-channel references began, firms started calling existing VCs to “test prices” and we started debating whom our best partner would be. Here are some stats to give you a sense: • Year over year revenue grew 51% in 2015 and we’re forecasting the same again for 2016.

Balance Sheet 150

Balance Sheet Burn Rate Valuation Forecast 150