Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 22, 2014

Picking a VC is hard. So I thought I’d write about out with what I would look for in a VC knowing what I know now and why. Most VCs are book smart. VCs should be more of a coach than proscriptively telling you what to do. You want a VC who will spar with you but then STFU and let you get on with things.

Venture Capital 364

Venture Capital Coach Writing SaaS 364

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 15, 2010

I was on This Week in Venture Capital (TWiVC) again this week with Jason Calacanis. You can watch this week’s TWiVC episode by clicking on the link and my summary notes are below. {if I won’t belabor this – I have an investment in this space ( ad.ly ) so I’m biased. In fact, it is Overture 2.0.

Venture Capital 271

Venture Capital Capital Google Platform 271

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 16, 2010

This is the fourth article in a series on what it takes to be a great angel investor (and why this should matter to entrepreneurs). The first three skills I espoused were: access to the highest-quality deal-flow, domain knowledge of the topic area in which you’re investing and access to VCs to help fund the next stages of development.

Invest 283

Invest Angel Startup Venture Capital 283

Berkonomics

JANUARY 14, 2021

If you seek funds from an organized investment group such as an angel fund, venture capital entity, or even an investment club, the first thing you want to do is to find one person to buy into your vision, become excited by your enthusiasm and be willing to become the internal champion for your fund-raising effort.

Technical Review 156

Technical Review Tech Coast Angels Summary Email 156

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 21, 2009

On the third Wednesday of every month I co-chair a meeting called the SoCal VCA (venture capital alliance), which represents participants from all of the top venture capital firms in Southern California as well as prominent members of the Tech Coast Angels (TCA). We feature a prominent speaker at every event.

Venture Capital 241

Venture Capital Technical Review Southern California Company 241

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 7, 2013

Based on the final report for 2012 from Thomson Reuters and the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA), it may appear that IPOs are back as a viable startup exit strategy. For the full year 2012, venture-backed initial public offerings raised $21.5 Identify the right people in the right venture firms.

Venture Capital 101

Venture Capital Startup Capital Seed Funding 101

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 13, 2011

I recently filmed a show for This Week in Venture Capital in which I talked about how to prepare for a VC meeting: whom you’ll meet, who should attend from your side, what materials you should bring and how you should run the meeting. I wrote the summary notes in this blog post. I funded them 8 weeks later.

Venture Capital 299

Venture Capital Slides Technical Advisors Startup 299

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 24, 2011

I just read the Q1 2011 report from CB Insights , which shows venture capital is back. Angels are also moving up-stage, leaving a bigger and bigger black hole for new startups. Back to VCs, Silicon Valley venture capital firms are still the most active. Overall, investors put $7.5 That represents a $1.5

Venture Capital 93

Venture Capital Startup Capital Seed Funding 93

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 14, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series Pitching a VC. I recently wrote a post on angel financing covering the topic of convertible notes but I realized I was thinking about the issue more from investor perspective and a very narrow topic of how to price the round. This post is for those who want to raise angel money.

Angel 291

Angel Funding Venture Capital Startup 291

Berkonomics

FEBRUARY 14, 2019

If you are looking for money, this question will certainly come up in one form or another when you approach professional or organized angel or VC investors. What if you were the investor and someone walked into your office handing you a business plan executive summary that floored you with its brilliance? A more complex answer.

Venture Capital 120

Venture Capital Ideas Entrepreneur Summary 120

Berkonomics

FEBRUARY 14, 2019

If you are looking for money, this question will certainly come up in one form or another when you approach professional or organized angel or VC investors. What if you were the investor and someone walked into your office handing you a business plan executive summary that floored you with its brilliance? A more complex answer.

Venture Capital 120

Venture Capital Entrepreneur Ideas Summary 120

Berkonomics

JUNE 19, 2014

If you seek funds from an organized investment group such as an angel fund, venture capital entity, or even an investment club, the first thing you want to do is to find one person to buy into your vision, become excited by your enthusiasm and be willing to become the internal champion for your fund-raising effort.

Technical Review 207

Technical Review Tech Coast Angels Summary Email 207

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 5, 2023

That leaves only about fifteen percent that actually get their funding from investors, through crowdfunding, banks, angels, and venture capitalists. Many savvy entrepreneurs are able to convince high-potential customers that investing early in a high-value solution, perhaps through an advance on royalties, is in their best interest.

Statistics 98

Statistics Entrepreneur Funding Social Media 98

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 19, 2022

Yet as I mentor entrepreneurs around the country, crowdfunding 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. In the U.S., In Europe, other investors can buy equity, with platforms such as Seedrs.

Funding 141

Funding Startup Outsource Development Satisfaction 141

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 12, 2011

He and I once took different sides of an debate about whether “VC signaling&# in early-stage deals is a serious problem or not. So it was fun to turn the cameras on him for 45 minutes for a special “NY edition of This Week in VC&# and hearing his views. I’ve also found him to not be dogmatic either.

Technical Review 281

Technical Review Venture Capital Startup Artificial Inteligence 281

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 1, 2010

There has been much discussion about VCs doing seed funding in the past year. I’ve written about it myself (Is VC Seed Funding Dead?) and (Is There Really a Signaling Problem with VC Seed Funding?). Short summary of my posts: 1. There is a structural reason that VCs are investing at early stages, 2.

Seed Funding 298

Seed Funding Funding Venture Capital GRP Partners 298

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 22, 2020

That leaves only about fifteen percent that actually get their funding from investors, through crowdfunding, banks, angels, and venture capitalists. Many savvy entrepreneurs are able to convince high-potential customers that investing early in a high-value solution, perhaps through an advance on royalties, is in their best interest.

Funding 173

Funding Tips Startup Statistics 173

Berkonomics

FEBRUARY 10, 2012

What if you were the investor and someone walked into your office handing you a business plan executive summary that floored you with its brilliance? I would not, nor would most all of those I co-invest with. And what if that person admitted immediately that he or she had no team and was not the person to take this plan to market?

Venture Capital 240

Venture Capital Entrepreneur Summary Incubator 240

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 20, 2011

If you read this blog often you'll know that I'm a huge fan of First Round Capital. They have totally changed the way you run a VC firm, investing heavily in systems & events for their founders that are pushing the boundaries of the way our industry works. Investing Strategy. and Half.com. and Half.com.

Capital 284

Capital Venture Capital Startup Technical Review 284

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 11, 2016

Angel investors are still the lifeblood of early-stage startups, despite the surge of activity in crowdfunding and an increasing early interest from venture capitalists. According to the Angel Capital Association , at least 300,000 people have made angel investments in the last two years, totaling $24 billion in the U.S.

Angel 65

Angel Startup Technical Review Social Media 65

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 13, 2011

Or, as always, summary notes available below. My initial desire to blog came from something that’s always been my approach to investing – I’m a nerd and I love to play with the technology and part of my approach has really been to understand things both at a user level and at a reasonably deep tentacle level. Brad on blogging.

Venture Capital 288

Venture Capital Startup Technical Review Software Review 288

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 14, 2014

I have been involved with a high profile one in Los Angeles – Launchpad LA – and we’ve decided to make a shift so I thought this was a good time for reflection. Throughout all of these years I was a full-time VC so Launchpad really came out of evenings and weekends for me. And Jamie hers. And Adam his. Jamie did, too!

Venture Capital 290

Venture Capital Startup Idealab Funding 290

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 20, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series, “ Pitching a VC.&# Getting a meeting with a prominent angel or VC is difficult enough. Some advice on how to do that was covered in this link – Getting Access to a VC. If you haven’t read how to build VC relationships and demonstrate traction make sure to read it.

Venture Capital 277

Venture Capital Startup Email News 277

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.&#. I’ve written about the topic of convertible debt at length before specifically about how angels & entrepreneurs should think about pricing. angel, seed) you’re taking the most risk.

Equity 319

Equity Pricing Venture Capital Entrepreneur 319

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 17, 2012

Brad Feld visited Los Angeles this past week. ” Many people on the Westside of Los Angeles are using the term Silicon Beach these days to describe the amazing renaissance that is truly happening here. Let my try those for Los Angeles as an example: Second largest city in America with 13 million people. LA should be LA.”

Startup 304

Startup Venture Capital Los Angeles Santa Monica 304

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 27, 2011

You have to understand whether they’re likely to yield revenue growth in the near term OR whether you have access to cheap enough capital to fund your losses until your investments pay off. Exec Summary: Most companies (98+%) in the world (even tech startups) should be very profit focused. ” The Details.

Startup 418

Startup Venture Capital Sales Technical Review 418

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 29, 2011

Yesterday I wrote Part 1 of the series on the changes to the software industry over the past decade that has led to changes in the venture capital industry itself. 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. Funny, that.

Venture Capital 296

Venture Capital Capital Software Startup 296

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 7, 2013

This followed an investment late last year by Time Warner in the company in a round totaling $36 million , led by Rachel Lam , head of their investment group. If you want to understand my thesis behind Maker you can read this article that outlines the trend , but in summary: People watch 5.3 hours of TV / day.

Media 320

Media CTO Coach CTO Hire Los Angeles 320

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 15, 2014

Venture Capital is a tricky industry. When the early teams: angels, lowercase capital & first round capital funded Uber they had no idea it would be one of the most revolutionary ideas of our time. ” So other partners at the firm might sling mud at your ideas as you go for approval on an investment.

Funding 362

Funding Technical Review Ideas Startup 362

InfoChachkie

AUGUST 11, 2011

What follows is a summary which paraphrases Naval’s responses. Venture Hacks is educating entrepreneurs on the game theory of how to raise venture capital. We are productizing the raising of capital for startups. ”. 5) Rincon Venture Partners recently invested in The Resumator , which we identified via AngelList.

Startup 273

Startup Software Review Summary Technical Review 273

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 26, 2015

Here is a summary of the key terms to expect on the term sheet, or the contract between the founder and investor: Consideration given for the money invested. For later investments, the price is equity, with a percentage of the owner stock to be assigned to the investor. Definition of investment delivery in "tranches."

Demand 105

Demand Startup Equity Invest 105

Tech Zulu Event

MARCH 16, 2015

According to Shayne, only 1 out of 1000 business plans might get VC funding. His best advice: take capital where you can get it. If you go this route, be careful to make the stakes clear: i.e., that they could lose their whole investment. Angels (invest their own money) and super angels. Crowdfunding.

Startup 40

Startup Venture Capital Equity Funding 40

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 30, 2017

One of the most common complaints I hear from new business owners and startups is about the pain and difficulty raising capital. The “venture capital” model is the only option they know, where they feel they get no mercy, giving up equity and control. Document the investment types you are willing to consider.

Technical Review 88

Technical Review Equity Capital Entrepreneur 88

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 23, 2015

For some aspiring to be tech entrepreneurs, I often suggest a two-step process, as I argued in this post that “ The First Startup Founder You Need to Invest in Is You.” ” The punch line from this post was “angel yourself.” I often tell people in this scenario to focus on a VC “fixer upper.”

Technical Review 150

Technical Review Startup Venture Capital IP 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. Most experienced VCs won’t push you to give up founder control at this stage of the business nor should they. when to build out our offices in Silicon Valley, New York & Los Angeles.

Startup 325

Startup Sales Technical Review Software Review 325

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 31, 2010

By Adam Hoeksema According to a report distributed by the Angel Capital Education Foundation , total startup funding from venture capital funds, state funds, and angel investors totals approximately $20.8 Angel investors and venture capitalists want to know how you intend to grow their investment.

Funding 90

Funding Startup Blogging Invest 90

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 28, 2010

Even more importantly, you should expect these members of your team to be your advocates to angel or VC investors, or even be part of your friends and family financing round. For this, you should expect participation in monthly strategy and review meetings, and unlimited access via phone or email for questions, mentoring, and advice.

Invest 50

Invest Technical Review Software Review High Tech 50