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. I have publicly said many times that there is a positive to crowd funding.

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Venture Capital Seed Funding Email Blogging 352

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 17, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series “ Pitching a VC “ There’s a great meme developing this morning on the need to simplify funding terms and documents. 2006 was the last time I went out to raise venture capital. I had multiple term sheets to do my Series A financing. I have this mentality, too.

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Funding Venture Capital Startup Blogging 252

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 19, 2009

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. On December 3rd Brad Feld wrote a one paragraph blog post titled “ Raising Venture Capital &# in which he linked to my blog. That changed very quickly.

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Venture Capital Blogging Startup Slides 274

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 20, 2019

Why you should set up a board at the seed round of funding I know these days with SAFE documents and rolling convertible notes many founders prefer not to set up a board early on. What happens at the A-round of venture capital? How does control start to change at the B-round of funding? But it’s quite rare.

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Startup Venture Capital Tips Capital 236

socalTECH

AUGUST 20, 2018

Nichols is a former Kauffman Fellow and investment director at Intel Capital, and tells us how his fund--which he co-founded with Atom Factory's Troy Carter--is looking to find companies solving large problems outside of the typical Silicon Valley bubble. Marlon Nichols: We are a three year old, early stage venture capital firm.

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Venture Capital Invest Capital Startup 100

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 24, 2019

I’ve been on boards with independent directors who are hugely responsive, read important legal documents, get briefed by the CEO and company counsel and know the company’s financials. I really like it when independent directors write a check into the company. But if they could even write $2,500?—?money

Startup 187

Startup Writing Venture Capital Oracle 187

SoCal CTO

JANUARY 5, 2011

500 Hats , January 10, 2010 Developing new startup ideas - Chris Dixon , March 14, 2010 Batch Processing Millions and Millions of Images - Code as Craft , July 9, 2010 jQuery Plugin: Give Your Characters a NobleCount - The Product Guy , March 23, 2010 How do the sample Series Seed financing documents differ from typical Series A financing documents?

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Startup Venture Capital Blogging CTO Coach 378

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 20, 2012

Frankly, I think venture capital is that way, too. I am inspired by the constant innovation in our industry by First Round Capital like the Dorm Room Fund , their expansion to Philadelphia (I hope they also have a secret plot to replace Andy Reid while there), the exchange fund and other initiative.

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Venture Capital Conference Ideas Entrepreneur 400

InfoChachkie

NOVEMBER 3, 2011

As the authors make clear in the book’s preface, their goal is to create a “definitive guide to venture capital deals” and “demystify the venture capital financing process.” Brad and Jason have been exposing venture capitalists’ secrets since 2005, when they began writing a blog series on Term Sheets at AskTheVC. What Not To Do.

Venture Capital 205

Venture Capital Entrepreneur Writing Guide 205

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 10, 2015

I write about sales often both because it’s the lifeblood of any organization and because in my experience it is the area in which more startups are least experienced or inclined. I also write and talk about it frequently because raising capital is a part of sales and this is important for entrepreneurs to understand.

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Sales Startup Venture Capital Funding 150

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 2, 2018

If your forte is a service, like consulting or web site design, it’s harder to find guidance on what will get you funded, and how you can scale your business. If you can’t quantify or document your service for repeatability and new employee training, you will kill yourself trying to grow the business. Capture your “secret sauce.”

Services 72

Services Startup Training Writing 72

Tech Zulu Event

AUGUST 27, 2014

With the proper tax planning, your company can greatly benefit from tax write-offs. These milestones become a tool for you to seek funding, if necessary, whether that comes in the form of VC capital, a bank loan. Your finance partner needs to be on top of new tax laws and credits to help you to maximize your finances.

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Venture Capital Outsource Help Writing 93

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 5, 2012

If I could persuade you that they’re already in these documents would you consider abandoning this structure? Those terms you fought so hard to get out of “clean term sheets” by using TheFunded, VentureHacks and the like are in your current documents. Enter “the cap.” So I get 10% of your company at worst.

Startup 354

Startup Pricing Equity Venture Capital 354

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 27, 2014

If your forte is a service, like consulting or web site design, it’s harder to find guidance on what will get you funded, and how you can scale your business. If you can’t quantify or document your service for repeatability and new employee training, you will kill yourself trying to grow the business. Capture your “secret sauce.”

Services 105

Services Startup Training Writing 105

TechCrunch LA

MARCH 17, 2019

The new information, gleaned from recently unsealed court documents , provides new insight into the company’s past activities and what that might mean for its upcoming IPO. Uber is in talks with Softbank Vision Fund and Toyota to raise $1 billion for its self-driving unit Uber ATG. This brings the startup’s total funding to $3.85

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San Fernando Los Angeles Commerce News 217

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 17, 2016

If your forte is a service, like consulting or web site design, it’s harder to find guidance on what will get you funded, and how you can scale your business. If you can’t quantify or document your service for repeatability and new employee training, you will kill yourself trying to grow the business. Capture your “secret sauce.”

Services 61

Services Startup Training Writing 61

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 13, 2013

Almost certainly the startup would have raised some capital. And precisely because buyers usually prefer to have limited money go to investors – investors almost always have the ability to say “no” to transactions in the terms of their funding documents (aka “blocking rights”). I’m a VC.

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Press Startup Yahoo Venture Capital 357

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 1, 2010

Of course I knew that they sat on other boards that kept them busy but somehow it seemed like I had all of their attention to myself during the fund raising process – especially the ones who seemed to like me and spend time with me. Tags: Pitching VCs Raising Venture Capital VC Industry.

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Venture Capital Entrepreneur Capital Ideas 275

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 16, 2015

Boy wearing Oculus Rift via Wikipedia As an advisor to many entrepreneurs, I still hear frequently the irrational exuberance that crowdfunding is the quick alternative for startups that are passed over by overly demanding angels or venture capital investors. He points out that the word crowd precedes funding in crowdfunding.

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Startup Equity Entrepreneur Demand 53

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 22, 2010

This week I was preparing for my weekly This Week in Venture Capital web show and was researching some of the deals that were announced for the week. One of the companies that just announced $10 million in funding was a company I had never heard of called Huddle. I’m writing this post from Shanghai.

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Screening Screencast Web Yammer 266

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 19, 2010

I’m writing this post as part of my series with Advice on Raising Venture Capital but will file it under Sales Tips as well since it applies equally to both scenarios. 30% of our last fund went into deals in this sector. tip: write it down when asked / parked). Let me write that down.&#. - Congratulations.

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Venture Capital Startup Sales Writing 318

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 19, 2010

Most advisors will tell you to write the business plan first (20-30 pages), then distill the key points into a set of Microsoft PowerPoint slides for standup presentations to potential investors. Funding requirements and use of funds. What is the level of capital funding sought during this stage? Exit strategy.

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Slides Competition Sample Sales 94

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 7, 2011

A huge shout out to Ricky Wong of NYCSteals for helping me with the write-up. He grew up in Connecticut attended Yale undergrad and worked for IBM after graduation doing M&A, strategy and venture capital. Seth raised $100k in angel funding to fuel operations. Check out his website if you live in or are visiting New York!

Startup 286

Startup Venture Capital Web Ideas 286

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 10, 2011

When I meet with Tom offline it’s obvious that he immediately is thinking about product issues, technology trends, funding rounds, etc. At Sony, he didn’t feel like he could “steer the ship” and get his ideas heard so he left and started GUBA, GUBA had no seed funding. at a level of specificity you don’t always find in VCs.

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Angel Startup Ideas .Net 302

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 7, 2011

Microsoft Office ended up beating its competitors because it was able to read and write to file formats other than its own. A program manager would traditionally be responsible for: Writing the detailed specification for how the software should work. Communicating with the developers who write code. Defensibility in Software.

Software Review 285

Software Review Software Blogging Startup 285

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 funded them 8 weeks later. “Here’s how you upload a document.

Venture Capital 299

Venture Capital Slides Technical Advisors Startup 299

InfoChachkie

JULY 14, 2011

9) In Getting The Band Back Together , I write about the power of serial Founding teams. Why aren’t there a half-dozen well-funded startups running up your tailpipe? You have tremendous momentum and clearly could have raised capital from a variety of sources. Who do you view as your biggest competition? You’re right.

Marketing 209

Marketing Advertising Paid Search Startup 209