VC Cafe

FEBRUARY 21, 2023

Some studies suggest that the best consumer subscription companies are able to retain 65% of their revenue after one year. Good and great net revenue retention ( source ) Another factor to consider when it comes to achieving these metrics is the cost of acquisition, or CAC. The benchmarks are based on the US market.

Retention 109

Retention Conversion Churn Rate B2C 109

VC Cafe

OCTOBER 25, 2024

Way to go Raz Zohar and team Mave on your $2 pre-seed for your AI Assistant for the Real Estate Industry! NEW FUNDS Congratulations Gili Raanan and team Cyberstarts on the new (and fourth) $60M fund to invest in seed stage Israeli cybersecurity startups! In total, generative AI companies received $35 billion in 2024.AI

Israel 78

Israel Generative AI Taiwan Arizona 78

VC Cafe

OCTOBER 22, 2024

This could transform how media and entertainment platforms engage their audiences and generate revenue. The ruling could potentially allow developers to retain more revenue by bypassing Google’ s fees and regulations. From GenAI to spatial computing: 5 Key Market Sectors Reshaping Tech in Q3 2024

Generative AI 78

Generative AI Technical Review Vertical Government 78

ReadWriteStart

JUNE 1, 2020

The primary source of your funds should be your paying customers, i.e., your business should generate enough revenues and profits to fund the growth and expansion. These usually play a role in the very early stage of your business, primarily pre-revenue. So, I would suggest that you bootstrap during the inception stage. ?

Startup 150

Startup Entrepreneur Elevator Pitch Seed Stage 150

Agile VC

FEBRUARY 5, 2014

This is a logical thing to do… when we started LinkedIn, my mentor Reid Hoffman instilled a mantra of Growth –> Usage –> Revenue which still holds for many consumer companies. Arguably revenue is the best signal of product-market fit for B2B startups. But B2B startups need to take a different tack.

Revenue 234

Revenue Product B2B Marketing 234

YoungUpstarts

AUGUST 10, 2017

For the last eight quarters, the number of angel and seed stage deals has declined, according to an Eisner Amper VC report. Investors want to see in-depth financial reports that reinforce the startup has an organized business model with potential for revenue growth. That downward trend includes the most recent quarter from 2017.

Software Review 124

Software Review Technical Review Due Diligence Startup 124

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 4, 2018

Most of these rhyme with what we’ve said in the past, but some have also evolved to fit the changing landscape and our own convictions about what really matters for founders and their investors at the seed stage. However, our overall goal is to invest in the full spectrum of seed. Belief #1: The best time to invest is early.

North America 120

North America Seed Stage Early Stage Lead Investor 120

Mucker Lab

OCTOBER 10, 2023

Sally suggests considering a full-time Sales Leader when a startup has two or more AEs and SDRs and is on the verge of hitting a $1 million Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR). However, for early-stage startups with limited resources, a fractional CRO (Chief Revenue Officer) can be a cost-effective option.

Early Stage 78

Early Stage Sales Developer Development Team Review 78

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 17, 2023

For example, if you have a proven product, real revenue, a big potential market, and are ready to scale up the business, every investor will be interested. On the other hand, if you are a new entrepreneur, still in the idea stage, professional investors will only tell you to come back later when you have traction (customers and revenue).

Angel Investor 313

Angel Investor Intellectual Property Investment Bankers Private Equity 313

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 11, 2022

Getting investors to trust you with their money is always a challenge, and it’s even more difficult in the early stages, where you don’t have a significant revenue stream, a few customers, or maybe even a product yet. At these stages, it’s all about you, and your ability to communicate and execute effectively.

Due Diligence 271

Due Diligence Intellectual Property Entrepreneur Preferred Stock 271

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

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 22, 2020

For example, if you have a proven product, real revenue, a big potential market, and are ready to scale up the business, every investor will be interested. On the other hand, if you are a new entrepreneur, still in the idea stage, professional investors will only tell you to come back later when you have traction (customers and revenue).

Angel Investor 370

Angel Investor Intellectual Property Investment Bankers Private Equity 370

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. Flexible VC: Revenue -based. Of the Inc.

Cofounder 78

Cofounder Technical Review Equity Dividend 78

Agile VC

JUNE 5, 2012

Both companies generate direct revenue from their platform in the form of a revenue share / platform tax (typically 30%) on software and digital goods sold through the respective platforms. Facebook’s direct platform revenue accounted for about 15% of the company’s overall sales whereas Apple’s was less than 1%.

Java 170

Java Flash Software Azure 170

View from Seed

JANUARY 27, 2021

In our first two funds, we’ve been fortunate to seed five unicorns ( Attentive , Whoop , Grove Collaborative , Skillz , and TripleLift ) and 10 companies with $100M+ exits or recent valuations. Thirteen of these 15 companies were seeded pre-revenue, and many were at concept stage or had rudimentary early products.

LP 411

LP Early Stage Seed Stage Venture Capital 411

View from Seed

NOVEMBER 14, 2019

But for less well known founders, a series A requires pretty significant revenue, growth, and retention metrics. Because of this, there is a glut of companies out there that can’t quite get to a series A and are raising second or third seed rounds. So, investors can wait around asking for more traction.

Seed Stage 331

Seed Stage Cofounder Retention Founder 331

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 11, 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. Now it’s time to set the stage with the early traction you have. Seed stage VCs are realistic about how much traction a very raw company might have. C) Post-Revenue Companies.

Seed Stage 149

Seed Stage B2B Seed Capital Revenue 149

VC Cafe

JULY 5, 2010

-based Angel capital with early stage technology companies in Israel, and do so in a way that substantially mitigates the risk of seed stage investing. Essentially, investors are receiving equal shares of 10 Israeli seed stage start-ups for relatively small capital. VCs are investing in later stage companies.

Israel 106

Israel Technical Review Software Review Seed Stage 106

Gust

NOVEMBER 15, 2012

And there are others that people think are teeny little wannabes with a dozen or so employees…that have $25 million in highly profitable revenues with hockey stick growth and zero debt!

Seed Stage 131

Seed Stage Hockey Stick Cap Table Liquidation Preference 131

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 5, 2023

Here is a summary of the key stages along the way: Idea and seed stage. In this first stage, a specific idea or passion is solidified into an executable plan. The development stage normally begins with designing and prototyping a product or service, and creating the company legal entity. Funding and rollout stage.

Matching 270

Matching Entrepreneur Startup Seed Stage 270

Steve Blank

APRIL 12, 2010

In contrast, in a startup following the Customer Development process, this is when the founders realize that something is wrong with the business model (because revenue is not scaling.) At the seed stage, microcap funds/ superangels understand that companies are still searching for a business model – they get Pivots.

Business Model 335

Business Model Agile Customer Development Startup 335

View from Seed

AUGUST 3, 2021

As seed stage investors here at NextView Ventures , we have the privilege of working with a wide profile of founders at the company conception stage — from early-career first time entrepreneurs , to seasoned execs turned founders , to repeat successful entrepreneurs.

Cofounder 156

Cofounder Seed Stage Portfolio Revenue 156

View from Seed

AUGUST 3, 2021

As seed stage investors here at NextView Ventures , we have the privilege of working with a wide profile of founders at the company conception stage — from early-career first time entrepreneurs , to seasoned execs turned founders , to repeat successful entrepreneurs.

Cofounder 156

Cofounder Seed Stage Revenue Acquisition 156

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 14, 2020

Getting investors to trust you with their money is always a challenge, and it’s even more difficult in the early stages, where you don’t have a significant revenue stream, a few customers, or maybe even a product yet. At these stages, it’s all about you, and your ability to communicate and execute effectively.

Due Diligence 308

Due Diligence Intellectual Property Preferred Stock Startup 308

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.

Due Diligence 265

Due Diligence Seed Stage Portfolio Metrics 265

BeyondVC

JANUARY 29, 2017

It is truly an art form when it comes to striking that steady balance between developer and community love versus generating revenue and potentially alienating those who supported you. Optimizing for Price at Seed Stage is a Mistake. At the Series B stage it is a whole different ball game. also published on Medium.

Revenue 60

Revenue Developer Open Source Seed Stage 60

Hippoland

JULY 24, 2016

Valuation is a nebulous topic amongst early stage startups, so I thought I’d really spell it out in detail. In short: Valuations for seed stage companies are fairly arbitrary and driven solely by supply and demand. Your startup’s valuation is not based on a proforma of your revenue. This just doesn’t happen.

Seed Stage 48

Seed Stage Valuation Vertical Demand 48

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

View from Seed

AUGUST 3, 2021

As seed stage investors here at NextView Ventures , we have the privilege of working with a wide profile of founders at the company conception stage — from early-career first time entrepreneurs , to seasoned execs turned founders , to repeat successful entrepreneurs.

Cofounder 136

Cofounder Seed Stage Portfolio Revenue 136

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

View from Seed

APRIL 30, 2015

NVV: Let’s talk about the seed stage specifically. With venture debt as a source of low-cost capital to fuel growth or buy time during later stages, should a founder approach their fundraising from VCs any differently today ? Traction and revenue? NVV: What do debt providers look for in a company’s track record?

Term Sheet 120

Term Sheet Equity Startup Seed Stage 120

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.

Forecast 97

Forecast Early Stage Seed Stage Startup 97

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

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 10, 2020

Here is a summary of the key stages along the way: Idea and seed stage. In this first stage, a specific idea or passion is solidified into an executable plan. The development stage normally begins with designing and prototyping a product or service, and creating the company legal entity. Funding and rollout stage.

Matching 317

Matching Seed Stage Angel Investor Business Model 317

K9 Ventures

APRIL 28, 2010

– a seed-stage fund. is a $6.25M fund that is designed to do concept and seed-stage investments in technology companies. Direct Revenue : The company must have a direct revenue model. I’m pleased to announce the formation of K9 Ventures, L.P. K9 Ventures, L.P.

Seed Stage 61

Seed Stage San Francisco IP Portfolio 61

Austin Startup

MAY 8, 2018

All of that being said, the early employees will of course expect their compensation to move closer to market as the startup raises funds and hits revenue milestones. In the very early days, employees are often paid more than founders / senior executives. It all depends on the relationships and context.

Employee 48

Employee Seed Stage Startup Equity 48

View from Seed

DECEMBER 6, 2018

Almost seven years ago, I wrote a post about the difference between a “no” answer and a “no yet” when pitching early-stage VCs. This was back in January 2012, a simpler time… when there was only one kind of seed round, when Series A firms invested pre-revenue, etc. No, this is not some waxing nostalgic post.

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage Early Stage Differentiation Lead Investor 120