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. Some verticals will be difficult to get revenue traction in. 2008-2009 was a terrible time to raise money.

Seed Stage 48

Seed Stage Valuation Vertical Demand 48

Hunter Walker

MAY 19, 2014

I don’t have enough data to concretely pronounce this a trend, but I’ll throw some ideas out there about (a) why this might be happening and (b) whether it’s a good option for seed stage founders. In order to go after them, they need to head earlier into seed. Why Are We Seeing More Piggy Rounds? (a)

Seed Stage 101

Seed Stage Syndication Syndicate Founder 101

Haystack

JANUARY 12, 2020

For those following this blog and the seed market over the past decade, you may have noticed that every year, we see increases across the board — more investors, newer funds, and funds that get larger. Much has been written about the fact that traditional seed stage funds have grown in size and dollars under management.

Seed Stage 106

Seed Stage Cram Down Early Stage Cofounder 106

VC Cafe

SEPTEMBER 9, 2020

New media platforms are enabling a new creator type: Digitally Native Vertical Creators , Eric Feng. New media platforms are enabling a new creator type: Digitally Native Vertical Creator s, Eric Feng. ” Eric Feng. ” Eric Feng. Take Twitch for example.

Aggregator 207

Aggregator Vertical Audience Seed Stage 207

Agile VC

FEBRUARY 5, 2014

Potential customers’ willingness to pay will help you segment your target market (by customer size, vertical, geography, etc) more effectively than simply “researching” your market in abstract. You will be benchmarked on revenue and paying customers when you seek Series A funding… conceivably even at seed stage.

Revenue 234

Revenue Product B2B Marketing 234

Hunter Walker

MAY 4, 2014

New VCs are vulnerable to fashionable verticals. For a seed stage fund like Homebrew, chasing hot markets seemed like madness. Our strategy isn’t to necessarily be contrarian but we decided there were certain verticals that we weren’t going to pursue in 2013. Chasing Hot Markets. For example, food delivery.

Software Review 102

Software Review Vertical Seed Stage Portfolio 102

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 14, 2021

Both early- and late-stage startup valuations are currently elevated. For context, seed-stage pre-money valuations are up 24% from H1 2020 to H1 2021. Early-stage valuations are up 70%, and late-stage valuations are up 103% (source Pitchbook ). Or are current values inflated and unlikely to converge with DPI?

Valuation 319

Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Distribution Early Stage 319

Austin Startup

FEBRUARY 21, 2011

ATI has served the entrepreneur community for over twenty years and focuses on the IT, Wireless, Clean Energy and Bioscience verticals. The Assistant Director will also help host the Texas Wireless Summit , the Wireless Seed Stage Forum and the Entrepreneur Lounge at SXSW (this alone is worth it).

Technical Review 70

Technical Review Intellectual Property Incubator Due Diligence 70

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 14, 2021

Both early- and late-stage startup valuations are currently elevated. For context, seed-stage pre-money valuations are up 24% from H1 2020 to H1 2021. Early-stage valuations are up 70%, and late-stage valuations are up 103% (source Pitchbook ). Or are current values inflated and unlikely to converge with DPI?

Valuation 295

Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Distribution Early Stage 295

View from Seed

AUGUST 2, 2017

Others take bets on certain verticals or business models, such as marketplaces, SaaS, or enterprise technology. That said, we realize that the starting point for companies at the seed stage may be much narrower than a company’s ultimate ambitions. Early-stage investing is still the only thing we do.

Seed Stage 273

Seed Stage Portfolio Cofounder B2B 273

David Cohen

AUGUST 29, 2013

It’s not our first rodeo, as we’d graduated from [name of an unrelated accelerator] but we wanted and needed some support around our vertical. We paused because it was an inaugural cohort but being that it was vertical-specific and the managing director worked for a highly lauded startup in our vertical, we decided to go for it. ([a

Cofounder 134

Cofounder Technical Review Vertical Programming 134

View from Seed

AUGUST 13, 2014

We at NextView Ventures invest exclusively in a startup’s seed-stage round , meaning that many if not most of our deals are made alongside individual angel investors. Investors in this category are usually operating executives who have spent their entire careers in a specific industry vertical, like internet travel, for example.

Angel Investor 334

Angel Investor Syndication Syndicate Early Stage 334

Haystack

JANUARY 18, 2020

To me, it makes sense, because “tech” is no longer a vertical – it’s seeping into every sector horizontally. There are too many angels, accelerators, scouts, and seed funds who are giving them checks early, potentially diverting deal flow. The AUM of many VC funds has increased dramatically.

Seattle 130

Seattle Seed Stage Deal Flow Vertical 130

Genuine VC

JANUARY 23, 2012

And along the way we’ve met with or observed a larger number of seed-stage startups attempting to start them. Often this focus can be on a specific geography or vertical. Piggyback off an existing marketplace. Develop/leverage meaningful relationships so sellers are patient during an initial phase.

Engineer 201

Engineer Vertical Portfolio Seed Stage 201

Feld Thoughts

JANUARY 20, 2017

As Techstars continues to selectively expand into new geographies and industry verticals, our mentors are important as ever. The AngelList funds will give mentors and alumni early investment access while providing companies with additional early stage capital. AngelList syndicates helps enable seed stage investing at scale.

Syndication 70

Syndication Syndicate Seed Stage Vertical 70

Genuine VC

AUGUST 3, 2012

The company’s familiarity is along what we consider to be the three most important criteria for an investment in a seed-stage startup – team, market, and product: Team – Two of the co-founders were well-known to the NextView partnership years before a line of code was even written.

Cofounder 199

Cofounder Seed Stage Portfolio Curation 199

Hunter Walker

DECEMBER 24, 2018

BuildingConnected , a leading construction tech SaaS startup, was acquired for $275m as part of Autodesk’s push into the vertical. BC sits in Homebrew I, a 20 company fund of $35m with initial investments made 2013 – 2015.

Cap Table 97

Cap Table Seed Stage Acquisition Vertical 97

Hunter Walker

MARCH 4, 2014

Ones which bring the efficiency of software into traditionally unsexy verticals via a new mobile app. There are other good blog posts about the economics of a venture fund, why we fetishize billion dollar “ unicorns ” (even if I think that’s a silly question to ask at seed stage ).

Seed Stage 134

Seed Stage Venture Capital Vertical Finance 134

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 14, 2021

Both early- and late-stage startup valuations are currently elevated. For context, seed-stage pre-money valuations are up 24% from H1 2020 to H1 2021. Early-stage valuations are up 70%, and late-stage valuations are up 103% (source Pitchbook ). Or are current values inflated and unlikely to converge with DPI?

Valuation 156

Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Distribution Early Stage 156

Hunter Walker

APRIL 24, 2017

Folks outside of seed stage venture often think “winning” deals is the most important part of being a great investor, but I’d argue it’s “seeing” the best opportunities that’s actually the strongest indicator of future fund success.

Cap Table 72

Cap Table LP Seed Stage Vertical 72

Hunter Walker

NOVEMBER 20, 2013

Additionally, funds such as Foundry Group and Google Ventures have taken their own approaches – the former creating a separate early stage entity , the latter encouraging their seed stage partners to create standalone personal syndicates. 2) The Bundled Expertise Syndicate. 3) The Alternate Liquidity Syndicate.

Syndication 100

Syndication Syndicate South America Cap Table 100

Version One Ventures

FEBRUARY 11, 2016

Since we’re typically investing at the seed stage, and companies usually don’t have network effects this early, we’re taking a higher risk that our investment may not work out the way we imagine. But, we’re happy to take this risk in exchange for a greater upside potential.

Seed Stage 60

Seed Stage Vertical Networking Artificial Inteligence 60

Hunter Walker

NOVEMBER 29, 2017

Heck, Satya and I could talk each other out of *any* investment at the seed stage – there’s always something “wrong” with an opportunity – but our job is to invest, not to *not* invest.

Seed Stage 104

Seed Stage Warrant Framework Vertical 104

Hippoland

JANUARY 23, 2018

I thought it might be useful to do a high level overview of what fundraising in 2018 looks like at the pre-seed / seed stage. This means that traction bar has gone up for both pre-seed and seed stage companies. This will depend A LOT on the idea and vertical.). The market had definitely shifted.

Early Stage 48

Early Stage Convertible Security Seed Stage SEC 48

Hippoland

JANUARY 23, 2018

I thought it might be useful to do a high level overview of what fundraising in 2018 looks like at the pre-seed / seed stage. This means that traction bar has gone up for both pre-seed and seed stage companies. This will depend A LOT on the idea and vertical.). The market had definitely shifted.

Early Stage 48

Early Stage Convertible Security Seed Stage SEC 48

The Next Web

FEBRUARY 24, 2014

As is the case in other countries with a relatively new, rapidly growing tech sector, e-commerce is Russia’s fastest growing vertical. Much of the slack at seed stage funding is taken up by the Russian state. Last year, the Government adopted important regulations covering anti-piracy and online payments.

Russia 140

Russia Europe Government Vertical 140

Genuine VC

FEBRUARY 12, 2012

We at NextView Ventures often invest in a startup’s first round alongside other funds; either seed stage focused ones like ourselves or larger traditional firms. Investors in this category are usually operating executives who have spent their entire careers in a specific industry vertical, like internet travel, for example.

Angel Investor 257

Angel Investor Syndication Syndicate Early Stage 257

Cracking the Code

SEPTEMBER 19, 2017

Comparing the list to the top 300 leading SaaS companies in the US, some interesting trends emerge: Europe is showing strength in data/ analytics and security, driven by the booming ecosystem in Israel but is less represented in developer/infrastructure and vertical applications.

Europe 83

Europe Cloud API Israel 83

Hunter Walker

OCTOBER 13, 2019

We invest at the seed stage so companies are still very embryonic. I’m very interested to see what happens 12-36 months down the road when firms realize that one of their GPs has essentially blocked them out of a category with a seed bet. And seven years into Homebrew I believe we have.

Portfolio 58

Portfolio Term Sheet Seed Stage Vertical 58

www.informationarbitrage.com

FEBRUARY 24, 2010

And from my perspective as an engaged seed stage venture investor, this makes them unfundable. And from my perspective as an engaged seed stage venture investor, this makes them unfundable.

CTO Hire 40

CTO Hire Founder Cap Table Vesting 40

View from Seed

NOVEMBER 17, 2016

LEE: The reason why I’m bullish is that–we talk about the fact that we take risks as seed-stage investors, but if you win, you win big. Their thinking seems to be that the only way to get a fully autonomous vehicle to market is purely vertical like that Ford example. TIM: Google is taking a page from that, no?

Startup 120

Startup Vertical Seed Stage United States 120

Genuine VC

FEBRUARY 12, 2012

We at NextView Ventures often invest in a startup’s first round alongside other funds; either seed stage focused ones like ourselves or larger traditional firms. Investors in this category are usually operating executives who have spent their entire careers in a specific industry vertical, like internet travel, for example.

Angel Investor 128

Angel Investor Syndication Syndicate Early Stage 128

Hippoland

OCTOBER 16, 2016

These are some of the most important criteria to investing in seed-stage teams. Obviously within this category there are a LOT of verticals that are looked at very different — everything from e-commerce to B2B SaaS to marketplaces. Is the company already in the middle of overcoming regulatory hurdles?

Startup 48

Startup Vertical Early Stage Bootstrapping 48

Hunter Walker

DECEMBER 21, 2014

17 core investments have been made, I’d say our investment model was, and continues to be, consistent with the type of firm we want to build but if you’re not constantly evaluating how to get better and serve entrepreneurs, you won’t last very long in the early stage venture business.

Cofounder 105

Cofounder Seed Stage Syndication Syndicate 105

Rob Go

AUGUST 21, 2013

One point he makes is that in even established vertical, new companies tend to rise on the back of new distribution channels. One reason he points to is “product/distribution fit” I think this is a really insightful comment, and a really great lens to think through the early stages of building a company and a product.

Distribution 48

Distribution Founder Product Seed Stage 48

Steve Blank

AUGUST 27, 2009

We’ll look at the model stage-by-stage. Concept and Seed Stage In the Concept and Seed Stage, founders capture their passion and vision for the new company and turn them into a set of key ideas, which quickly becomes a business plan, sometimes on the back of the proverbial napkin.

Silicon Valley 271

Silicon Valley Product Startup RSS 271

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 24, 2009

Seed-stage investors are learning the metrics of traction, and are getting better at identifying those companies that are really achieving validated learning about customers. The problem is that there are no other metrics they can look at to judge the content of a book to know if it’s worth reviewing.

San Francisco 113

San Francisco Lean Technical Review Distribution 113