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Praying to the God of Valuation

Both Sides of the Table

Something happened in the past 7 years in the startup and venture capital world that I hadn’t experienced since the late 90’s — we all began praying to the God of Valuation. How might our next phase of the journey seem brighter, even with more uncertain days for startups and capital markets? What happened? There was no money train.

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5 Equity Crowdfunding Reflections Before You Sign Up

Startup Professionals Musings

Way back in 2015, the Kickstarter Pebble smartwatch raised $20.3 According to more recent statistics , fewer than a quarter of all crowdfunding operations end up being successful, and the rest have to return anything they do collect. Have you ever wondered what professional startup investors think about all this?

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5 Crowdfunding Concerns Worry Professional Investors

Startup Professionals Musings

Way back in 2015, the Kickstarter Pebble smartwatch raised $20.3 According to more recent statistics , fewer than a third of all crowdfunding operations end up being successful, and the rest have to return anything they do collect. Have you ever wondered what professional startup investors think about all this? billion to USD 3.62

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Accelerate Your Startup With Help From An Incubator

Startup Professionals Musings

One of the reasons that now is the time to be an entrepreneur is the explosion of startup assistance organizations, usually called incubators or accelerators. Most of these are non-profits, set up by a university to commercialize new technologies, or a municipality to foster business development for the local economy.

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7 Seed-Stage Funding Sources To Finance Your Startup

Startup Professionals Musings

Crowdfunding is rapidly becoming the major source of funding for seed-stage startups. This is a relatively new term loosely applied to angels who invest their own money in a portfolio of startups (typically 20 or more) and are willing to lead multiple rounds, usually starting with a seed round. Startup incubator seed funding.

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6 Reasons Smart Entrepreneurs Think Twice Before IPO

Startup Professionals Musings

The visibility of Google, Facebook and a few others continues to propagate the myth that the ultimate objective of every entrepreneur should be to take their startups public via an initial public offering at the earliest opportunity. Facebook, for example, ended up raising almost $16 billion through its IPO.

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Will Crowdfunding Replace Angel And VC Investors?

Startup Professionals Musings

Yet as I mentor entrepreneurs around the country, it still seems to be one of the least understood approaches to startup funding, with more myths than accredited angels and professional venture capital investors combined. With this model, a startup pre-sells their product early, at a cheaper price, in exchange for a pledge.