Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 5, 2015

” Today I want to talk about how a VC thinks about equity pricing on your round and particularly if you’re coming off of a convertible note. In the old days there usually weren’t convertible notes on early-stage deals and there weren’t party rounds with 20 angels or 6 seed funds. It’s very simple.

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital Pricing Startup Invest 150

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 28, 2010

One of things I’ve loved the most about doing now 11 weeks of This Week in VC is a chance to have an hour-long recorded conversation with investors. And in my interviews with many VCs I feel that people can watch these and get to know the VC’s as human beings a bit better. So how did Mike get into VC?

Venture Capital 230

Venture Capital Blogging Startup Fandango 230

TechCrunch LA

MAY 23, 2019

The Los Angeles ecosystem is $76 million stronger today as Fika Ventures , a seed-stage venture capital firm, announces its sophomore investment fund. Fika invests roughly half of its capital exclusively in startups headquartered in LA, with a particular fondness for B2B, enterprise and fintech companies.

Funding 218

Funding Startup Seed Funding Los Angeles 218

TechCrunch LA

MAY 25, 2019

Hello and welcome back to Startups Weekly, a newsletter published every Saturday that dives into the week’s most noteworthy venture deals, fundraises, M&A transactions and trends. Enter Seedlip , a non-alcoholic spirits company, for example. More Labs, for example, is backed with $8 million in VC funding.

Startup 223

Startup Venture Capital Newsletter Tips 223

socalTECH

DECEMBER 13, 2021

Los Angeles-based Sensible Weather, a new startup which reimburses travelers when bad weather impacts their trips, says it has raised $4M in a seed funding round.

Arcadia 113

Arcadia Seed Funding Research Examples 113

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 5, 2015

Even if you work every day in the world of new-venture funding, as I do, the options are confusing, and their meanings seem to change on a regular basis. I challenge any entrepreneur, for example, to define the difference between "seed-stage" and "early-stage" financing. A micro venture capital firm.

Funding 104

Funding Venture Capital Startup Seed Funding 104

InfoChachkie

FEBRUARY 29, 2016

As discussed in Why I Passed On Twilio , VC's love to talk about their successes, but seldom publicly acknowledge their mistakes. It is far more detrimental to one’s returns to make investments in companies which fail to return capital. Uber's development of its marketplace is a textbook example of how to do it right.

Venture Capital 100

Venture Capital Email Invest Services 100

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 21, 2023

For example, professional investors put great priority on your previous experience in building a business, and they expect to own a portion of the business equity and control for the funds they do provide. An example would be negotiating free office space by agreeing to support the computer systems for all the other office tenants.

Startup 106

Startup Capital Equity Funding 106

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 27, 2021

But these have been the major themes of our partners We try to have a few “wild, ambitious plans” in every portfolio and a few more businesses that are a new model emerging in an existing sector (video-based online shopping, for example). Since our funds are around $300 million each this returns 2–4x the fund if we do it right.

Funding 294

Funding Startup Writing Invest 294

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 29, 2020

For example, professional investors put great priority on your previous experience in building a business, and they expect to own a portion of the business equity and control for the funds they do provide. An example would be negotiating free office space by agreeing to support the computer systems for all the other office tenants.

Funding 174

Funding Startup Equity Examples 174

socalTECH

JANUARY 7, 2019

They also have to be willing to lead by example, while not being afraid to show vulnerability and honesty about their limitations. Matt Stodder is Co-Director of Startup Boost Los Angeles , an intensive program helps qualified early stage companies prepare for raising seed funds or apply for accelerator programs.

Technical Review 157

Technical Review Software Review Startup Coach 157

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 23, 2010

I’ll give you an example of information flow at its worst. When I was fund raising for my second company we had agreed a company-wide deal with Salesforce.com to use our product. I asked every VC not to call Salesforce. My advice: Do not mention the other VC firms, angels, seed funds, etc.

Pricing 292

Pricing Entrepreneur Technical Review Venture Capital 292

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 26, 2014

The best case I’ve seen is our portfolio company Osmo who had already built the product but used crowd-funding to handle inventory management, supply-chain logistics and perfecting the final version of the product. Contrary to popular opinion I actually believe crowd-funding is best used after seed capital or venture capital.

Press 319

Press Startup Writing Training 319

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 21, 2014

Venture capitalists have raised increasing amounts of money from their investors (LPs) every year. An impressive number of new VCs have been created – most of them with new seed funds. It’s when the noise stops and you can actually get customer attention, press articles and VC meetings.

Marketing 354

Marketing Case Study Metrics Sales 354

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 5, 2016

Rise of Seed. Prior to then the concept of “seed funds” barely existed and as I’ve argued before the seed fund phenomenon was largely driven by: Open source + horizontal computing + Amazon AWS. In other words, it isn’t that VCs suddenly got smart, it’s that the costs of starting a company went down dramatically.

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital Capital Funding Seed Funding 150

socalTECH

AUGUST 29, 2014

For example, if you are watching the World Cup streaming from ESPN or your favorite WB show, you can grab your favorite moments and share them across any medium, whether that''s a chat platform, Snapchat, or anywhere. I personally was a technology VC and digital media investor. What does Bubbl do? How are you financed and backed?

Content 113

Content Los Angeles Seed Funding Hollywood 113

From the Venture Trenches

APRIL 30, 2013

As a fourteen-year veteran of the venture industry I have often heard the phrase, “value added investors”, which is usually touted by certain VC’s as their biggest differentiating quality. The value that is being “added” is often at arms length or via a specialist who interacts with the entrepreneur.

Web Design 103

Web Design Social Media Seed Funding Design 103

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 10, 2018

For example, professional investors put great priority on your previous experience in building a business, and they expect to own a portion of the business equity and control for the funds they do provide. An example would be negotiating free office space by agreeing to support the computer systems for all the other office tenants.

Entrepreneur 96

Entrepreneur Startup Equity Funding 96

TechCrunch LA

NOVEMBER 4, 2019

“And just like any other business, you need capital to grow faster, services to make you more money, tools to manage it all.”. Podfund , for example, writes checks sized between $25,000 to $50,000 to emerging podcasters. Another company, Tribe , has similarly raised VC to grow its American footprint. million Series A in March.

Platform 170

Platform Marketing Tool Venture Capital 170

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 25, 2016

For example, professional investors put great priority on your previous experience in building a business, and they expect to own a portion of the business equity and control for the funds they do provide. An example would be negotiating free office space by agreeing to support the computer systems for all the other office tenants.

Funding 107

Funding Startup Equity Examples 107

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 14, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series Pitching a VC. Quick caveats: having fewer investors (3-5) is better than many investors (10-15) and PLEASE make sure you hire a great lawyer who has experience in doing start-ups to avoid pitfalls that will make VC harder down the line. They might be as hard as raising VC.

Angel 291

Angel Funding Venture Capital Startup 291

socalTECH

OCTOBER 23, 2012

One of the biggest complaints that local entrepreneurs have with Los Angeles has been a dearth of local sources of venture capital. However, the recent surge in startup activity has attracted a lot more capital into the area, including a significant amount of capital from LA's latest fund: Karlin Ventures (www.karlinvc.com).

Funding 253

Funding Startup Invest Commerce 253

socalTECH

MARCH 8, 2013

For example, Cirro is a data federation engine, which links big data with corporate data in a very effective eway. We have our own small seed fund, which we trigger to fund that company and hire a team, a CEO and a CTO. Predixion is a great example of that. Also, we have a lot of corporate investors.

Incubator 208

Incubator Startup CTO Hire Ideas 208

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 23, 2015

I often tell people in this scenario to focus on a VC “fixer upper.” You will learn about running board meetings, setting up the ultimate financial plan, leading a team from the top, dealing with the press, raising capital, etc. Incoming into a VC fixer-upper you often have leverage over personal compensation.

Technical Review 150

Technical Review Startup Venture Capital IP 150

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 12, 2014

For example, professional investors put great priority on your previous experience in building a business, and they expect to own a portion of the business equity and control for the funds they do provide. An example would be negotiating free office space by agreeing to support the computer systems for all the other office tenants.

Startup 113

Startup Entrepreneur Funding Equity 113

InfoChachkie

APRIL 14, 2014

ABC has even created an incubator-style program in which startup non-profits compete for $100,000 in seed funding. In many ways, you act as a venture capital firm, with returns measured in impact, rather than profits. What are the key factors you look when assessing to fund a non-profit? JG: I love it!

Organization 199

Organization Startup Technical Review Invest 199

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 1, 2014

But there are notable examples of for-profit incubators that are thriving, including YCombinator , led by Paul Graham in Silicon Valley, and TechStars , led by David Cohen and located in several key cities around the country, that have an excellent reputation and track record. Mentoring and technical assistance from volunteer or paid experts.

Incubator 98

Incubator Startup Help Resource 98

From the Venture Trenches

APRIL 30, 2013

As a fourteen-year veteran of the venture industry I have often heard the phrase, “value added investors”, which is usually touted by certain VC’s as their biggest differentiating quality. The value that is being “added” is often at arms length or via a specialist who interacts with the entrepreneur.

Web Design 40

Web Design Social Media Seed Funding Design 40

socalTECH

JULY 10, 2019

For this morning's interview, we spoke with Los Angeles-based Halla , a venture backed startup, focused on personalized recommendations for the food ordering industry. in seed funding, from E&A Venture Capital and SOSV. Food is the perfect example. The company has raised $1.9M What is Halla?

Pricing 113

Pricing Startup North Hollywood Platform 113

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 30, 2009

Los Angeles-based Crosscut Ventures (www.crosscutventures.com) is one of the newest venture capital funds in the area, and has quietly been working on funding local companies over the last year. in initial seed funding for an early stage company. How tough was it to start up a new fund?

Southern California 153

Southern California Startup Palomar Rustic Canyon 153

socalTECH

JULY 20, 2010

CSK Ventures in Japan is on eof the largest data center operators, and they have their own venture capital firm, which provided us with our seed funding. A good example of that is the Apache web server, where no one pays for support--they just download it and use it.

Southern California 242

Southern California Startup Cloud Computing El Segundo 242

socalTECH

OCTOBER 24, 2011

We're providing seed funding, office space, and put them through a three month, structured program. If you're familiar with YCombinator or TechStars, you know that companies also get access to a deep network of top tier mentors and advisors, who help them with a variety of things, such as product marketing, go-to-market, and funding.

Technical Advisors 176

Technical Advisors Startup Southern California Los Angeles 176

socalTECH

MAY 21, 2009

We got started after our seed funding on August first of last year and immediately went to work with platform companies. You mentioned you're VC funded? Brian Nilles: Yes, we're funded by a VC, Rho Ventures. Some might only want children, for example. Brian Nilles: It is a difficult problem.

Tool 113

Tool Platform Venture Capital Startup 113

Xconomy

JULY 12, 2016

SlantRange raised $5 million less than three months ago from a consortium of investors in a Series A round of venture funding led by The Investor Group, a San Diego investment firm. Ritter and co-founder Mike Milton raised much of their initial seed funding from farmers in Nebraska and Iowa.

San Diego 40

San Diego Seed Funding Guide Technology 40

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 14, 2016

What is the True Sentiment of VCs? I recently survey more than 150 VC friends from all stages and geographies what they thought about the market by asking “Which of the following statements best describes your mood heading into 2016?” Let me give you a non tech & thus non politically charged example. Mostly, no.

Startup 150

Startup Company Companies Venture Capital 150

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 27, 2010

My company had raised venture capital in April 2001 but we were told that there may never be any more coming. Hell – we fought against the VC’s together! Think about me as an example. They seed funded my second company and even let me buy some IP in exchange for debt to get started.

Startup 285

Startup Venture Capital Sales Software Review 285

SoCal CTO

SEPTEMBER 8, 2010

Pricing models, the freemium myth and why you may not be charging enough for your product - Seth Levine's VC Adventure , August 12, 2010 I’ve been pulled into a number of product and pricing meetings recently (for reasons unknown I’ve become the Foundry pricing and productization guy). Example: Netflix). clearly didn’t cause this.”

Startup 191

Startup Venture Capital Blogging CTO Hire 191