Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 15, 2022

<== Our conclusion was that this isn’t a temporary blip that will swiftly trend-back up in a V-shaped recovery of valuations but rather represented a new normal on how the market will price these companies somewhat permanently. By 2021 we had to write a $3.5m Except the music stopped.

Venture Capital

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 5, 2011

2 preamble issues having read the comments on TC today: 1: I know that the prices of startup companies is much great in Silicon Valley than in smaller towns / less tech focused areas in the US and the US prices higher than many foreign markets. You can be pissed off, but I don’t set prices. That’s stupid.

Startup

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 5, 2012

Some thoughts on raising angel money. When convertible debt first started being introduced as a “faster, cheaper way to get startups funded” they didn’t have pricing built into them. ” And some seed stage investors told me, “I prefer not to fight over price now. I just want into the hottest deals.

Startup

InfoChachkie

MARCH 18, 2013

In order to extract value beyond your Angel investors' cash, you must first assess three important parameters: (i) the relative strength of their personal brand, (ii) their ability to add operational value, and (iii) the amount of care and feeding they will demand from you. Four Common Angel Archetypes.

Angel

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 27, 2014

Angels have been prolific for years now and they, too, rely on downstream money to cover their bets. I know I can’t be in every deal and I know that the easy part of being a VC is writing the first check in a deal. If an accelerator is writing you they’re also writing 25 other VCs. I don’t.

Venture Capital

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 29, 2010

on the entrepreneur side of the table) when I raised at too high of a price. So don’t raise money at a cheap price, but don’t get too far ahead of yourself either. Pricing high also takes exit options off the table. Angels have a much lower threshold for returns than do VCs. This is wrong.

Venture Capital

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 15, 2010

Investors are writing checks for dots. This is happening with both angels and VCs. Pattern recognition requires a pattern. Entrepreneurs – you might be pumped up with that super quick round done at a high price. So here’s the thing: Investors – The market is moving uber fast on deals.

Invest

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 5, 2013

.” In the article I discussed the downside of raising capital at a too high of a price and referred people to a previous article I had written encouraging founders to raise “ At the Top end of Normal ” as opposed to stratospheric prices. If we count seed funds and large angels maybe that number goes up by 2x?

Pricing

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 29, 2013

My favorite new VC blogger, Hunter Walk, weighed in with some thoughtful comments about how Syndicates might actually pit, “ angel vs. angel.” AngelList 101 : As you know, AngelList is a platform where angels can invest in semi-screened tech deals. They will have to negotiate price and terms.

Venture Capital

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 27, 2021

When you first start your career as an investor (or when you first start writing angel checks) your main obsession is “getting into great deals.” Many angels I know have signed over more than their comfort level in just 12 months and then feel stuck. That’s return, not exit price of the company.

Funding

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

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 15, 2010

I give a sneak peek at a blog post I’m writing on the topic next week. Can you please explain convertible debt and specifically how it pertains to angel deals? If you’re an entrepreneur, all else equal you prefer convertible debt because the deal is priced at a later stage when you’re worth more.

Venture Capital

TechCrunch LA

APRIL 23, 2020

Representatives from the government and the utility managing the power of Los Angeles are proposing a sweeping infrastructure package worth roughly $150 billion centered on the broad electrification of transportation and industry. “Startups and small businesses are the engine of every local and regional economy,” writes Peterson.

Southern California

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 14, 2010

This is the third article in a series on what it takes to be a great angel investor (and why this should matter to entrepreneurs). But I prefer a certain naive optimism in founders but I can’t see that this extends to angel investors. Either scenario requires angel deals to be funded further. Not everybody agreed.

Invest

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 30, 2010

The prices of angel deals have recently crept up, VCs have also gotten their checkbooks out again, frothy deals are happening and people are feeling bullish. VCs have also gone back to writing checks because as an industry we can’t be seen as “sitting on the sidelines” for years at a time. We took $2.3

Entrepreneur

SoCal CTO

JANUARY 5, 2011

November 23, 2010 Entrepreneurs, Using Outsourcing to Obtain Capital Efficiency Needs to be Thought Through to be Effective - Robert Ochtel , June 7, 2010 Teen Entrepreneur, Brian Wong, Youngest Founder to Receive Angel Funding - teenentrepreneurblog.com , October 28, 2010 Build Your Own Silicon Valley?

Startup

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 27, 2011

This is a blog post I really didn’t want to write. I didn’t want to write it because I have mixed feelings about AngelList. I didn’t want to write it because the bloggosphere doesn’t always do nuance well. So why I am writing it then? What about “angel&# investors? A few reasons.

Venture Capital

Berkonomics

AUGUST 17, 2023

A personal story as an investor … [Email readers, continue here…] My very first investment as a professional angel was in a small startup where the entrepreneur’s vision fueled my imagination in the audio market niche where I had run a business in an earlier life.

Invest

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 27, 2010

And that was evident on today’s Angel vs. VC panel. A new group of investors have clustered around writing earlier-stage, smaller checks. If you’re an angel you invest your own money and you have nobody to answer to except your spouse. But you’re not an angel. Price creep hurts investors.

Venture Capital

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 14, 2016

There is much discussion online and also in small, private groups, about why the price of technology companies – public and private – are falling. It pains me to see the typical (and predictable) responses on Twitter, “VCs want prices to drop!” ” “Sure, prices are dropping.

Startup

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 21, 2010

When to get a lawyer - If you plan to be a venture or angel backed technology company (what I mostly write about) the best time to start meeting and getting to know lawyers is long before you ever start your company. I write about some of the lessons in my post on Startup Mistakes. Many people start companies arse backwards.

Startup

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 23, 2010

If a round of funding does happen then this debt is converted into equity at the price that a new external investor pays with a “bonus&# to the inside investor for having taken the risk of the loan. They also trust VC’s to determine the right price to pay for the company securities that they buy.

Startup

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 27, 2011

I find it amusing when a journalist writes an article about a prominent startup (either privately held or preparing for an IPO) and decries that, “They’re not even profitable!” Fast early growth in a market is often eroded when competition gets fierce and prices are forced down due to competition. Not necessarily.

Startup

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 29, 2013

I’ll write you an angel check, then. You helped so many figure out how to approach angels. ” Bill Price wrote. Is it true that you have 3% body fat? I know, I know. I shouldn’t eat the carbs. But this is Lemon Moon – at least we know it’s healthy. As long as you promise to stop pitching me!

Venture Capital

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 30, 2014

It’s true the some VCs have started writing so many checks that they resemble stock pickers but the majority of us still have less than 10 board seats at any time and tend to go pretty deep so the result is that we care deeply about where we commit our time. Could we produce this at cost? I am inspired by her ambitions and plans.

Technical Review

Berkonomics

JUNE 29, 2017

[Email readers, continue here…] My very first investment as a professional angel was in a small startup where the entrepreneur’s vision fueled my imagination in the audio market niche where I had run a business in an earlier life. A small venture firm and a few more angels rounded out the total investment.

Invest

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 12, 2019

Traditional VCs have raised larger funds that allow them to pay slightly higher prices and still hit preferred ownership sizes. And when seed deals have no where to go you end up with “seed extensions” where seed funds and angels are buying an extra 6–12 months of runway to try and reach a phase that can attract traditional venture.

Venture Capital

Berkonomics

MARCH 13, 2014

They told me all about why this is such a good idea: hard to manage price discovery in the commercial real estate market; fragmented information about vacancies obtained from landlords and brokers; and the large scale of transactions. They wanted to come to pitch to my angel network. They wanted to come to pitch to my angel network.

Invest

TechCrunch LA

MARCH 22, 2018

As BCG writes in its report: The good news for SoCal and any region with tech ambitions is that the Bay Area has in some ways been too successful. In fact, as is well-reported, the luster of Silicon Valley is fading.

Southern California

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 16, 2017

Every tech or major news journal in the country is preparing to write their Snap, Inc (creators of Snapchat, Spectacles, etc) stories and many of them seem to want a “How does it feel to have missed this investment story.” Lightspeed, Benchmark, IVP, General Catalyst, SV Angel and others. Mostly kidding.

Snapchat

socalTECH

JANUARY 23, 2013

With its latest product release, Los Angeles-based PromoJam is gambling on the first, and made managing and running social promotions much more like inhabiting a social network than running enterprise software. PromoJam debuted its brand new, self-service version of its social promotions tool today, PromoJam 2.0,

Tool

Berkonomics

JUNE 11, 2015

Our guest insight this week is from Frank Peters, well-known in the angel and in the bicycle worlds for his podcasts and passion. You just had to be lucky, write reasonably good code and land in an industry with some legs, and of course, treat the customer well. By Frank Peters. His personal story is full of lessons for us all.

Customer

socalTECH

NOVEMBER 7, 2011

That's something which Los Angeles-based VroomGirls (www.vroomgirls.com) is looking to change--with the backing of sponsors like Toyota, Ferrari, and Lamborghini. The other thing that struck me, is because it is only men, they tend to write with lots of testosterone. It's simply that there are so many men doing it.

Truecar

TechCrunch LA

FEBRUARY 6, 2022

The Facebook parent-company saw its stock price get bludgeoned after a bad earnings report showcased that Apple’s ad-blocking changes are shaving billions off its books and the company’s crown jewel — the Facebook platform — has stopped growing and actually shrank this quarter. Image Credits: Facebook. the big thing.

Marketing

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 27, 2013

In addition to helping manage the board Chris also helps represent the interests of the angel investors / common stock holders. Oh, and did I mention: Roger – NYC, Rob/Rory – NorCal, Nick/Chris – London & me – Los Angeles. Each of your angels or seed investors may have 20-30 investments. Rob does it.

Tips

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 5, 2011

In Los Angeles we don’t have “patron technology companies&# that are big enough to matter – we’re still hoping to see them emerge. I don’t write about LA but I write from LA. Local Angel Community / Recycled Capital. How do we make that happen? It’s important. That’s one model.

Venture Capital

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 16, 2010

We talked with Noah about how the company grew out of a business plan competition at the University of Southern California, his recent funding from the Maverick Angels, as well as how the firm hopes to stand out among a crowded list of comparison shopping sites. Noah, thanks for the interview.

USC