Both Sides of the Table

MAY 19, 2018

When you raise money from investors you produce information that you are told they want and care about: A fund-raising deck that articulates your company strategy, plans, team, market, competitors and so forth. These collective sets of documents form the basis of what somebody looking at investing would call “financial due diligence.”

Funding 336

Funding Venture Capital Startup Email 336

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 25, 2013

Most top tier VCs return about 3x invested capital and outlier funds (the best of a vintage) might return 6-8x. But the larger funds usually have lower returns because they are often investing bigger dollars at later stages with less risk and therefore lower returns. Let’s look at some great companies. And Coach Campbell.

Venture Capital 374

Venture Capital Entrepreneur Invest Funding 374

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 30, 2010

Every investment so far in this YC batch (and there have been a lot) has been done on a convertible note.&#. Convertible debt is an investment that “converts&# into equity in the future usually at a discount to your next funding round price and sometimes has a “cap&# (maximum price). “Convertible notes have won.

Equity 319

Equity Pricing Venture Capital Entrepreneur 319

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 14, 2014

Companies were getting funded more easily and many more companies were actually being created. You can see Zach James & Rich Raddon who are standing next to a demo table pitching a small, yet-to-be-funded company called MovieClips – now the powerhouse ZEFR. By 2011 the market had started to change dramatically.

Venture Capital 290

Venture Capital Startup Idealab Funding 290

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 1, 2010

A good early-stage CEO needs to be accessible, to be accountable for producing results and should be establishing the cultural norms of the company through direct leadership at all levels. But issues do arise as your company grows. I see two common mistakes in companies (not just in startups, in fact).

Startup 308

Startup CTO Coach Technical Review CTO Hire 308

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 16, 2015

I recently wrote a post talking about how some VCs meddle in operating company decisions or some executive teams are too reliant on VCs to jump in and make hard calls for them. In practice it can be a fine line between sparring partner / coach and stepping over the line to brute-force persuasion. ” Of course I agree with this.

Startup 150

Startup Sales CTO Coach Course 150

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 6, 2014

When you first start your company and raise initial venture capital your board probably consists of 1-3 founders and 1-2 VCs. With small amounts of money invested (sub $3 million) the risks are reasonably low for most VCs and the consequences of bad decisions or decisions a VC has limited say in is tolerable. In the Early Days.

Startup 325

Startup Sales Technical Review Software Review 325

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 8, 2016

Unlike the mentor, who is a coach and teacher, the advocate inspires you to be the best that you can be. When the relationship is appropriate, condoned by the company, and welcomed by both parties, it can be positive from a personal and even a work perspective. That’s why investors say they invest in people, not ideas.

Mentor 70

Mentor Competition Entrepreneur Summary 70

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 4, 2013

Unlike the mentor, who is a coach and teacher, the advocate inspires you to be the best that you can be. When the relationship is appropriate, condoned by the company, and welcomed by both parties, it can be positive from a personal and even a work perspective. That’s why investors say they invest in people, not ideas.

Startup 99

Startup Mentor Entrepreneur Competition 99

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 16, 2010

Understand Personality Types – One of the benefits of working for a big company (Accenture) was that we had lots of speakers come in and train us in topics like leadership, creativity, presentations, strategy, etc. It’s usually people wanting to raise money and/or persuade me of something. Most of them sucked. Drain in quickly.

Slides 358

Slides Venture Capital Startup Summary 358

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 19, 2011

They have a wide set of existing relationships, they have teams of junior staff that cull databases (or increasing pile through LinkedIn), they are skilled in approaching prospective talent and they can “pre sell&# your company to get the recruit to the table in the first place. They’re also good at screening candidates.

Venture Capital 319

Venture Capital Pricing Startup Outsource 319

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 8, 2014

Not all of these products & companies came from Silicon Valley but the overwhelming majority did. Open source computing, which reduced costs to start a company by 90%. To be clear we will continue to see great infrastructure companies built and these will mostly come from Silicon Valley. All great communication companies.

Startup 390

Startup Venture Capital Capital Funding 390

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 29, 2011

If you don’t want to read that post, the summary is: Open source computing drove computing costs down 90%, which spurred innovation in technology. Some have moved into later stage investments in an effort to “put logos on their websites.&# The Blurring of Investment Lines. Will public investments come next?

Venture Capital 296

Venture Capital Capital Software Startup 296

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 16, 2012

I’ve raised money as a “hot company” and I’ve raised capital when no one would return my phone calls. I raised money as an entrepreneur, like you, in 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003 and 2005 for two different companies. Executive Summary. Partners make investment decisions. Do they have money to invest?

Develop 366

Develop Development Funding Venture Capital 366

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 12, 2015

Here is a summary of some key investor stereotypes that generally need to be avoided: Investment sharks. These are investors with such massive egos that they expect to dictate both the terms of the investment as well as all future strategic decisions of your startup. Academic coach investors. Legal eagle investors.

Entrepreneur 108

Entrepreneur Coach Invest Sample 108