Both Sides of the Table

MAY 23, 2010

Often when startups who have raised venture capital need another round of financing they will turn to their existing investors to give them money before raising from outsiders. It starts as a debt instrument (e.g. They likely are extending payments to debtors way beyond that expected payment terms and start damaging supplier relations.

Startup 290

Startup Funding Venture Capital Pricing 290

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 10, 2021

I’m over-paying for every check I write into the VC ecosystem and valuations are being pushed up to absurd levels and many of these valuations and companies won’t hold in the long term. Today you have funders focused exclusively on “Day 0” startups or ones that aren’t even created yet. of the fund. By definition?—?I’m

Venture Capital 471

Venture Capital Writing Invest Pricing 471

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 7, 2022

Most of you business professionals that I know have at least thought about or talked about starting their own business, to get more control, make more money, or to get more satisfaction out of their life. As a mentor to young aspiring entrepreneurs , I often get asked for tips on a strategy to get started.

Startup 114

Startup Tips Coach Satisfaction 114

socalTECH

OCTOBER 11, 2018

This morning, Moonshots Capital (www.moonshotscapital.com), led by Kelly Perdew and Craig Cummings , announced its first formal fund, a $19M seed stage fund. We had been doing that for several years, and decided we wanted to start syndicating deals in September of 2014, so we formed Moonshots Capital.

Capital 164

Capital Funding Startup Venture Capital 164

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 23, 2014

The rise of “micro VCs” or seed-stage funds. The rise of alternative sources of capital (crowd funding and the like). Lower costs to start a business (95% reduction), many more companies created & funded by angels / seed. ” Stated simply – if you seed funded Uber at $4.5m

Venture Capital 398

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Seed Funding 398

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 12, 2014

These tensions seep out in some angels or seed funds publicly or semi-privately deriding later-stage VCs for their “bad” behavior. Prorata investments rights given investors the right to invest in your future fund-raising rounds and maintain their ownership % in your company as your company grows and raises more capital.

Guide 336

Guide Venture Capital Startup Writing 336

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 1, 2016

At the Upfront Summit in early February, we had a chance to have many off-the-record conversations with Limited Partners (LPs) who fund Venture Capital (VC) funds about their views of the market. That’s money that fuels our startup ecosystems. …But LPs Have Been Putting Out More Money Than They Are Getting Back.

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital Capital Marketing Seed Funding 150

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 7, 2015

I love how open Danielle has been throughout the development of her startup Mattermark including honest reflections of when she has changed her opinion. I save room in literally every deal to invite angels (or seed funds) to co-invest with me. That’s what it feels like.”. All of my partners at Upfront do. Hua of Apptimize.

Angel 150

Angel Startup Seed Funding Invest 150

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2014

I was reading Danielle Morrill’s blog post today on whether one’s “ Startup Burn Rate is Normal. I love how transparently Danielle lives her startup (& encourages other to join in) because it provides much needed transparency to other startups. Let’s set up a framework. Gross Burn vs. Net Burn.

Startup 383

Startup Company Companies .Net 383

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 14, 2016

Most are sitting on large portfolios of private companies that are raising money now or will need to do so in the future and they know that they’re up against some headwinds. The Motive for Speaking Up. ” “Mark has a vested interest in talking down valuations of startups.” All of these are false.

Startup 150

Startup Company Companies Venture Capital 150

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 14, 2009

Good idea & plan: You must start with a good idea and a PowerPoint deck (my outline is here , scroll down mid way). Very few people fund individuals. And a great product starts with the founder. Their name alone is enough to get meetings set up. The key to getting money is that the people writing the check trust you.

Angel 291

Angel Funding Venture Capital Startup 291

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 17, 2019

I had just left Salesforce.com where I was VP, Products, after they had acquired my second startup. The first check I wrote was just over 10 years ago into a company called Invoca who just announced a new $56 million in funding led by Scott Hilleboe at HIG Growth Partners. We not only have our Series A funds that can write $500k?—?$15

Venture Capital 223

Venture Capital IP Startup Google 223

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 26, 2014

In that article I talked about how PR drives: recruiting, employee retention, biz dev deals, funding and even M&A and that often “attribution” to your PR activities is unknown. When to start PR? 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

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 23, 2020

Constance Curtis , the Founder and CEO of The List (www.getthelistapp.com), thinks so, and tells us about her startup's efforts to bring the world of matchmaking to the modern worldand how her own frustration with online dating let to her startup. With matchmaking, you hire someone to do everything for you, setting you up for dates.

Startup 203

Startup Entrepreneur Southern California Netflix 203

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 9, 2014

We all know that funding markets have changed for startups. The trends are well understood: more angels, more seed funds, more crowdsourcing and so forth. We are doing what we do – writing larger checks and playing an active role at the company. What is less understood are the consequences of these changes.

Venture Capital 352

Venture Capital Seed Funding Email Blogging 352

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 15, 2016

There is much talk these days that startup valuations have decreased and may continue to do so and that the amount of time it takes to fund raise may take longer. months for fund raising start to finish and make sure you have at least 6 month’s of cash if it takes longer.

Startup 150

Startup Capital Funding Invest 150

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 15, 2010

We started this week’s show with a Q&A session where I answered viewer questions about fund raising and the VC industry. Heck, stick around and watch me discuss the seed funding debate that is going on right now and what is happening in the VC industry overall. Finally we covered this weeks deals.

Venture Capital 210

Venture Capital Seed Funding Pricing Southern California 210

TechCrunch LA

NOVEMBER 4, 2019

Naturally, the next step in Bernstein’s evolution from blogger to businesswoman was a technology startup. million in funding from Rebecca Minkoff and other unnamed investors. Karat, a startup building a bank for creators. Podfund , for example, writes checks sized between $25,000 to $50,000 to emerging podcasters.

Platform 170

Platform Marketing Tool Venture Capital 170

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 19, 2009

On December 2nd, 2006 I wrote the blog post published later in this post when I was CEO of startup Koral about my experiences in pitching VCs. I had seen many cycles and decided that since I was going to do it all over again I should write about it. I decided to write about my experience and to be blunt. And covered we did.

Venture Capital 274

Venture Capital Blogging Startup Slides 274

InfoChachkie

JUNE 9, 2015

With top-ranked accelerators Lauchpad LA closing its doors and Y Combinator rebranding itself as a seed fund, it seems fair to ask the question, “Are Accelerators Dead?”. My Forbes co-contributor Geri Stengel concurs that something is happening in the Volunteer State, writing last month about that state’s emerging women entrepreneurs.

Startup 100

Startup Class LAMP Santa Barbara 100

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 30, 2014

As I’ve written about recently, at Upfront Ventures we started talking a couple of years ago about wanting to fund stuff with more meaning. I think this is a combination of being realists as venture capitalists that outsized returns in our funds must come from taking on bigger, more impactful projects that can move markets.

Technical Review 418

Technical Review Software Review CTO Hire IP 418

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 10, 2018

Whether you’re fund raising from angels, seed investors and VCs?—?as I mention this because it’s critical that you not let the fund raising process psyche you out. The “sure, let’s continue the process” by definition are not yeses so the no’s rack up and the yeses stay stuck at zero. Reid Hoffman is in?

Press 232

Press Funding Venture Capital Technical Review 232

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 5, 2015

Over the years I’ve written extensively about the downsides of convertible notes for startups such as here , here and here. In the old days VCs funded off of a “pre-money” valuation. If that’s the case I’d only own 18.18%, which wasn’t my expectation when I offered to fund the company.

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital Pricing Startup Invest 150

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 27, 2011

I attempted to do a fair balance job of an increasingly important service – AngelList – started by a friend of mine – Nivi with the feelings of a colleague who I respect – Bryce – who has opted out of the service. This is a blog post I really didn’t want to write. So why I am writing it then?

Venture Capital 267

Venture Capital Writing Blogging Startup 267

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 23, 2015

Of course you could start your own company. As I talked about in “ Is it Time to Learn or Time to Earn ” – overwhelmingly the best economics go to those that start successful companies. But not everybody has the right skills to build a highly successful and valuable startup from scratch.

Technical Review 150

Technical Review Startup Venture Capital IP 150

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 5, 2013

If we count seed funds and large angels maybe that number goes up by 2x? I always tell entrepreneurs, “ Clean Your Own S**t Up First. ” (before fund raising). It’s the one post where my wife actually complained I went too far in trying to come up with an authentic image to represent the post.

Pricing 302

Pricing Seed Funding Invest Venture Capital 302

Tech.Co

MAY 9, 2017

He ended up building a digital agency that did everything from custom apps and web development to branding and digital marketing. I’ve always been super into hardware tech and future technology and the only way I could think of actually getting my hands on a headset was to start a meetup group,” Taylor said. And UploadVR was born.

Startup 70

Startup Web Development Design Education 70

From the Venture Trenches

APRIL 30, 2013

But like a Darwinian experiment, the extent to which these gifts are utilized remains entirely up to each individual entrepreneur. We heard how Jeff transitioned from a start-up founder to an institutional investor when he helped found Amplify towards the end of 2011. Setting up for Eric Garcetti.

Web Design 103

Web Design Social Media Seed Funding Design 103

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 27, 2010

I never implied that startups are all great and job hoppers are all at fault. No rule is ever absolute no matter how it sounds when one writes a blog. Most of what I learned about operating startups I learned from the really tough years at my first company from 2001-2003. Yes, I know that many employers are bad.

Startup 285

Startup Venture Capital Sales Software Review 285

Tech Zulu Event

APRIL 17, 2012

I had met Richard at a MaiTai tech networking trip of kiteboarders in Maui and ended up traveling again with her later that year with a fragment of the group to explore the tech scene in Australia. You have to come check out the startup scene here in Toronto (for I am a bad Canadian, and have not visited most of my country).

Startup 109

Startup Incubator Seed Funding Platform 109

socalTECH

OCTOBER 11, 2010

The competition is set up to award $50,000 to the best team each year, and is also tied to a class on entrepreneurship for engineering students. Fariborz Masseh: The idea of funding a business plan competition is not a new idea. Can you talk about your background and how you ended up here?

Competition 154

Competition Southern California Mentor USC 154

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 30, 2010

My original thinking from Oct ’09 was, while I didn’t (and still don’t) have a crystal ball I worried that: consumers were over-stretched with debt (and make up 77% of the economy), unemployment would continue to rise, which in turn would drive the stock market south and cut the rate of M&A activity and VC investment even further.

Entrepreneur 298

Entrepreneur Venture Capital Technical Review Startup 298

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 10, 2011

In my ongoing quest to get you good transcripts of the wonderful interviews we’ve done in the past, I present you with one amazing interview here with Tom McInerney – a friend, co-investor, former entrepreneur turned angel investor and “wizard of Oz&# behind the scenes at the uber hot startup Klout. 0:28:00) & (0:31:27).

Angel 302

Angel Startup Ideas .Net 302

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 23, 2010

When I was fund raising for my second company we had agreed a company-wide deal with Salesforce.com to use our product. My advice: Do not mention the other VC firms, angels, seed funds, etc. Corporations need startups. If you love Jon Stewart and have time start at minute 5. Tags: Startup Advice.

Pricing 292

Pricing Entrepreneur Technical Review Venture Capital 292

Tech Zulu Event

APRIL 17, 2012

I had met Richard at a MaiTai tech networking trip of kiteboarders in Maui and ended up traveling again with her later that year with a fragment of the group to explore the tech scene in Australia. You have to come check out the startup scene here in Toronto (for I am a bad Canadian, and have not visited most of my country).

Startup 56

Startup Incubator Seed Funding Platform 56

From the Venture Trenches

APRIL 30, 2013

But like a Darwinian experiment, the extent to which these gifts are utilized remains entirely up to each individual entrepreneur. We heard how Jeff transitioned from a start-up founder to an institutional investor when he helped found Amplify towards the end of 2011. Setting up for Eric Garcetti.

Web Design 40

Web Design Social Media Seed Funding Design 40

Steve Reich

AUGUST 15, 2015

If you can’t raise from a few strong angels, from seed funds or from a VC then raising from a ton (let’s say 20+) angels is a perfectly acceptable strategy. ” Everyone has a vision that one or two “Super Angels” will write million dollar checks and all will be well. ” Well said, Mark. .

Angel 40

Angel News Pasadena Angels Seed Funding 40