Steve Blank

JUNE 11, 2013

The test is: If you add one more sales person or spend more marketing dollars, does your sales revenue go up by more than your expenses? What are revenue strategy and pricing tactics? If you’re a scalable startup, you want to spend small amounts of money (seed capital) as you run experiments testing your hypotheses.

Venture Capital 335

Venture Capital IRR Liquidity Event Business Model 335

View from Seed

MARCH 26, 2015

In the last year or so, the debate over the definitions of seed versus pre-seed capital (sometimes called genesis rounds) has exploded. Much digital ink has been spilled about what dollar amount constitutes a pre-seed and how that might affect a startup’s ability to go raise a “normal” seed round from institutional investors.

Seed Capital 120

Seed Capital Institutional Investors Venture Capital Partner 120

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. Generate Real Revenue. Another approach to raise Series A is to drive meaningful revenue. These users/buyers then have a clearer LTV/CAC ratio with less focus on the top-line revenue metric.

Syndication 333

Syndication Syndicate Seed Stage Startup 333

Genuine VC

MARCH 24, 2014

We live in a demand-constrained world and if, with your Seed capital, you can show overwhelming top-level pull (whether consumer or businesses adoption), Series A investors can convince themselves that the rest will fall into place over time. Generate Real Revenue.

Seed Capital 212

Seed Capital Metrics Cofounder Revenue 212

Steve Blank

JUNE 11, 2013

The test is: If you add one more sales person or spend more marketing dollars, does your sales revenue go up by more than your expenses? What are revenue strategy and pricing tactics? If you’re a scalable startup, you want to spend small amounts of money (seed capital) as you run experiments testing your hypotheses.

Venture Capital 227

Venture Capital IRR Liquidity Event Business Model 227

David Teten

MAY 7, 2019

As a VC, I’m interested in working with companies with large-scale revenue potential, and that’s the company we envision. Once we’ve executed all the steps above, we go to VCs and raise seed capital of $1-2m. The company has a long-term vision far beyond politics. Q: What is your political philosophy? This work is unpaid.

America 60

America Technical Review Advisory Board Due Diligence 60

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?

America 60

America Technical Review Advisory Board Due Diligence 60

mashable.com

NOVEMBER 3, 2010

He goes on to add, “Having revenue is even better, though not applicable to every startup … Passion, skill, vision and maturity really matter.&# If you’re lucky enough to score a meeting with Gordon, make the most of it — and don’t forget to talk revenue potential. Just don’t call Feld on the phone.

Angel Investor 80

Angel Investor Startup San Francisco Social Media 80

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 11, 2019

At NextView we invest across the spectrum of seed stage companies so roughly 1/3rd of the companies we invest in are pre-product, roughly 1/3rd are post-product but pre-revenue, and perhaps 1/3rd have some very early revenue. You’re obviously not showing charts of user growth, number of customers, or revenue.

Seed Stage 149

Seed Stage B2B Seed Capital Revenue 149

Gust

NOVEMBER 29, 2012

If not, and they have neither savings nor parents to help them out, they need to find a paying gig (either a traditional job, or a revenue-generating lean startup such as Travis Corrigan describes) to fund their living expenses while they get the next startup off the ground working nights and weekends.

Seed Capital 121

Seed Capital Entrepreneur Lean Revenue 121

K9 Ventures

JUNE 5, 2015

Another thing I noticed was that I was now referring companies that I had invested in at a “pre-seed” (capitalization intentional) stage over to folks who would previously be considered my peer venture funds doing Seed-stage investments. In the 80s and 90s a company would go public when it hit $20M in revenue.

Seed Stage 48

Seed Stage Venture Capital Early Stage Valuation 48

ReadWriteStart

APRIL 2, 2012

That cap will now specifically apply to a broader group of small companies: those with annual gross revenues of $1 billion or less (adjusted for inflation), within a five-year interval from the sale of its first security. Crowdfunding is an efficient way for entrepreneurs to raise seed capital," the editors wrote.

IPO 121

IPO Startup Florida Seed Capital 121

SoCal CTO

NOVEMBER 5, 2009

A few years ago “venture capital” was a revenue model. Today, there is still seed capital to be found, but you have to show the investors (especially very early stage investors) that you have a viable business. Many entrepreneurs have an idea but don’t know how to monetize it.

Los Angeles 150

Los Angeles Southern California Startup SEO 150

Feld Thoughts

AUGUST 12, 2011

Revenues and costs should both be based off of a robust set of assumptions. While they’ve been hard at work on their product, they’ve also incorporated the company, now named SayAhh (thanks Mac!) as a C-Corp in Delaware. Build a financial model that forecasts the P&L. This should tie to your GL for “Actuals” (i.e.

Balance Sheet 137

Balance Sheet Forecast Cap Table Early Stage 137

The Startup Magazine

MAY 7, 2024

Lastly, note that using free crowdfunding sites provides an excellent cost-effective solution compared to seed capital or personal loans with high-interest rates. The social proof and validation received from having numerous tangible backers can also be priceless.

Campaign 148

Campaign Seed Capital Social Network Global 148

View from Seed

MARCH 29, 2018

Outside of life-sciences, we’ve noticed something interesting emerging: There is a huge dearth of seed capital for health care services and software-driven health-tech companies. The seed ecosystem for health companies is much less robust than in traditional software.

Vertical 120

Vertical Stealth Portfolio Seed Capital 120

Growthink Blog

MAY 23, 2011

With this seed capital – more often than not totaling between $100,000 and $1,000,000 - the company accomplishes a number of key technical milestones, gets a beta customer or two, and then goes on a "road show" to venture capitalists around the country for capital to “scale” the business.

Angel Investor 112

Angel Investor Venture Capital Sweat Equity Cram Down 112

Gust

SEPTEMBER 5, 2012

Turn the question on its head: How could it make sense to lend money to a brand new, seed-stage company with no revenue, no products, and no collateral? (You In that sense it’s more like a warrant or option with a zero exercise price.). How can this possibly make sense? You won’t see banks doing that.)

Finance 134

Finance Convertible Security Equity Seed Stage 134

Growthink Blog

MAY 10, 2012

Put everything else on your "wish list" to buy with revenues from sales or additional financing. Stage #2: Seed Funding Seed funding (also called seed capital) typically ranges from $100,000 to $500,000 and is often provided by angel investors, and is usually structured as convertible notes or common stock.

Equity 88

Equity Mezzanine Later Stage Venture Capital 88

Business Plan Blog

NOVEMBER 6, 2012

Survival or Establishment Stage: Once initial seed capital is drying up and no profit has yet been earned, the challenge for a social enterprise will be to expand the customer base and increase the market penetration while preserving capital.

Subordinated Debt 45

Subordinated Debt Seed Capital Equity Finance 45

Hearpreneur

OCTOBER 20, 2019

It could be more revenue, hiring clients or launching a new product or service, where setting goals presents a fresh opportunity to achieve different objectives. 12- Raising $500,000 in pre-seed capital. Have a goal that’s third parties think is impossible? English, Chinese and Spanish are already being translated:).

Papua New Guinea 89

Papua New Guinea Hawaii Churn Rate Advisory Board 89

Haystack

NOVEMBER 24, 2018

1/ A Pre-Seed Reminder: According to Crunchbase, PlanGrid was founded and went through Y Combinator in 2012. The company only raised a bit over $1M as seed capital. AutoDesk Acquires PlanGrid For $875M.

Acquisition 62

Acquisition Artificial Inteligence Balance Sheet Cofounder 62

thebarefootvc

JULY 10, 2010

At the end of that period, if the business has generated at least five full-time jobs, attracted $1 million in additional capital, or hit $1 million in revenue, the founder would be granted a green card.

Startup 45

Startup Incubator Seed Capital Venture Capital 45

www.thestartup.eu

OCTOBER 23, 2010

Posted by Stefano Bernardi On June - 21 - 2010 It’s a known fact that seed capital is very scarce in Italy. Oh, my company has grown a bit too much i guess Reply – Quote Steph says: 21 June, 2010 at 19:56 Hi, I hate to ask, but where is the revenue model? TheStartup.eu Meet Tipsandtrip. CEO Marco Magnocavallo.

Bootstrapping 49

Bootstrapping Italy Sweat Equity Europe 49

Hippoland

DECEMBER 15, 2015

From my purview at 500 Startups in talking with many seed investors – both angels and VCs – this is what I predict will happen in 2016. Note: these are my opinions and not my employer’s): 1) Raising seed capital from VCs who invest in all stages will become challenging. Keep your burn low.

Seed Stage 48

Seed Stage Angel Investor Bootstrapping Startup 48

VC Cafe

JULY 26, 2020

In a capital scarce environment following the Dot Com crash, startups needed to do more with less and survive long enough to generate revenue. Capital resources alone don’t do the trick. ” The Lean Startup movement started out of necessity. Cash (alone) isn’t king.

Lean 214

Lean Seed Capital Startup Burn Rate 214

YoungUpstarts

JULY 31, 2019

Of course, a certain amount of initial capital without financial performance is absolutely necessary to get a business off the ground, especially in regulated industries. Founders need seed capital to get their operations up and running, and to begin generating revenue. This also applies in acquisition conversations.

Cofounder 127

Cofounder Burn Rate Technical Cofounder Seed Capital 127

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 13, 2018

Over the past five years, we’ve witnessed an Atomization of the Seed Stage. Early fundraising is no longer a one-and-done fundraise of a single round of Seed capital subsequently followed by a Series A 12–18 months later. Seed stage startups are now graded on a curve.

Seed Stage 136

Seed Stage Post-Money Valuation Valuation Startup 136

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 23, 2010

I’ve seen way too many startups spend all their energy getting channel deals done only to find out that they don’t produce ANY revenue. The price points are not as high as your beautiful Excel spreadsheet had forecasted when you raised your seed capital. Full Stop for you Brits.)

Channel 293

Channel Startup Sales Partner 293

maplebutter.com

JANUARY 8, 2013

I would focus on one product and set a goal to generate $1M in yearly revenue from it. Outsourcing is something a big company, with a known customer / problem (that has revenue & traction) does to save cost. I have a proposal written up including full cost and revenue projections. Once you’ve done that – then. 5% I believe.

Technical Review 44

Technical Review Startup Cofounder Software Review 44

Scalable Startup

AUGUST 9, 2018

Raising seed capital is a tricky business. Most are making major mistakes in their approach when seeking capital. If you’ve already soft launched, have a product available, are telling the world about your awesome company but don’t have revenue/user growth, you’re probably in the red zone.

Technical Cofounder 20

Technical Cofounder Silicon Valley Early Stage Cofounder 20

Software By Rob

JANUARY 8, 2019

We don’t have a maximum revenue cut-off, but if you’re generating $150k in annual revenue then you’re probably able to make things work on your own. We are happy to speak with you at any revenue level, but somewhere in the $150k-range is when founders may start to look for seed capital.

Early Stage 46

Early Stage Valuation Seed Capital Revenue 46

techcrunch.com

FEBRUARY 19, 2010

Respondents deemed between 12%-16% of companies generating revenues to be essentially “worthless” and deemed 20%-26% of their pre-revenue investments to be “worthless.” Spend the time raising money yourself, using oblique sources of revenue such as contract work or any one of a hundred others. Add to this that 72.7% Translation?

Venture Capital 62

Venture Capital Technical Review Sweat Equity Valuation 62

View from Seed

APRIL 23, 2015

Additionally, if you’re talking to VCs, it’s implied that you’re thinking big and thinking about a large acquisition or IPO, as well as generating hundreds of millions in revenue. Note that many were included in our pitch deck templates for raising seed capital. You can find those here. ).

Founder 120

Founder Distribution Viral Seed Stage 120