Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 12, 2019

Over the past month a colleague ( Chang Xu ) and I sifted through data on the venture capital industry (as we do every year) and made a bunch of calls to VCs and LPs to confirm our hypotheses. As a result of the IPO window shifting we saw a massive inflow of public-market capital into the latest stages of venture. What gives?

Venture Capital 328

Venture Capital Invest Seed Funding Startup 328

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 11, 2010

Modern investors love to first read a two-page summary of your business plan, formatted like a glossy marketing collateral sheet, with text well laid out in columns and sidebars, and a couple of relevant graphics. You may have already found several articles, web pages, or books about writing the perfect executive summary.

Summary 55

Summary Writing Competition Metrics 55

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 29, 2010

We received so much positive feedback from our This Week in Venture Capital show walking through valuation calculations & term sheets that we decided to do a Q&A show this week to address topics that entrepreneurs want to learn about. In fact, far better if you haven’t raised venture capital. A: It’s not best.

Venture Capital 282

Venture Capital Capital Startup Pricing 282

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 10, 2023

Here is my edited summary of their ten principles, which I like and may convince you that you don’t need a business plan at all, or at the very least will help you write a better one later: A new venture is a means, not an end. Build and use social capital. Social capital is people and connections.

Startup 142

Startup Capital Resource Research 142

InfoChachkie

SEPTEMBER 4, 2012

Most sophisticated investors ignore them, focusing their attention on an entrepreneur's pitch and presentation materials, financial forecast and executive summary. As such, the primary goal of your executive summary is to open the door to an in-person meeting. Entrepreneurs routinely seek my advice regarding their executive summaries.

Venture Capital 211

Venture Capital Summary Technical Review Template 211

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 29, 2016

GOAT just announced it raised $5 million in venture capital led by our friends at Matrix Partners. It’s a Chanukkah story where 18 months of venture capital funding ends up lasting more than 4 years and where against all odds the underdog succeeds. On the surface that sounds unremarkable — fundings happen daily.

Venture Capital 199

Venture Capital Summary Writing Funding 199

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 19, 2019

This is often true when the action of the board could dramatically affect shareholders such as raising new capital, acquiring new businesses (that drain existing cash or dilute shareholders), selling the company or raising a lot of debt. I plan to write a series of posts on the topic. Who Should be on Your Board?

Startup 204

Startup Writing Framework Summary 204

SoCal Tech Calendar

JUNE 5, 2019

The panels of seasoned and newer investors will focus on Early-Stage Venture Investing: How to meet investors, pitch them, and what it really takes to get them to write you a check! As an additional benefit, entrepreneur 1/4 page summaries will be given to the investor speakers and attendees. See [link] (more)

San Diego 100

San Diego Venture Capital Angel Summary 100

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 23, 2014

There has been much discussion in the past few years of the changing structure of the venture capital industry. The rise of alternative sources of capital (crowd funding and the like). 15 years ago we were at the peak of Internet hype with the launch of many over-capitalized businesses with a market size & opportunity was limited.

Venture Capital 398

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Seed Funding 398

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 17, 2019

Just as I was getting the swing of things the world shifted beneath my feet and the stock market went into a free fall and venture capital all but shut down for nearly a year. We not only have our Series A funds that can write $500k?—?$15 15 million first checks but we also have three growth funds. Over the past 2.5

Venture Capital 223

Venture Capital IP Startup Google 223

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 17, 2020

Here is my edited summary of their ten principles, which I like and may convince you that you don’t need a business plan at all, or at the very least will help you write a better one later: A new venture is a means, not an end. Build and use social capital. Social capital is people and connections.

Startup 143

Startup Capital Resource Research 143

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. ”. 3) If you were writing your book Pitching Hacks today, how would your advice differ ?

Startup 273

Startup Software Review Summary Technical Review 273

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 27, 2011

I interviewed Eric for an hour for - This Week in Venture Capital. Or if you’re pinched on time the summary is below and the time coding can help you watch a brief snippet on topics that interest you. 26:44 Too much capital is not good. 36:30 Eric: Social media is great for people with social capital. Little money.

Social Media 301

Social Media Startup Metrics Media 301

SoCal CTO

MARCH 3, 2011

This overview (executive summary) needs to include: Product and Business What is the product? Have you raised capital? Do I have to write up the overview? If you primary questions right now are how to raise capital, that's not us. However, there are lots of other people who help companies raise capital.

CTO Hire 264

CTO Hire Startup Technical Review Development Team Review 264

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 12, 2011

Chris Dixon is one of my favorite people in tech and writes one of the few blogs I read religiously. I think you’ll really enjoy this video , but as always I have summary notes for those with less time. If you like the quick summary notes, please check out Adam’s blog on tech, entrepreneurship & VC as a thank you.

Technical Review 281

Technical Review Venture Capital Startup Artificial Inteligence 281

SoCal CTO

MARCH 3, 2011

This overview (executive summary) needs to include: Product and Business What is the product? Have you raised capital? Do I have to write up the overview? If you primary questions right now are how to raise capital, that's not us. However, there are lots of other people who help companies raise capital.

CTO Hire 259

CTO Hire Startup Technical Review Development Team Review 259

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 4, 2018

Here is my edited summary of their ten principles, which I like and may convince you that you don’t need a business plan at all, or at the very least will help you write a better one later: A new venture is a means, not an end. Build and use social capital. Social capital is people and connections.

Startup 94

Startup Capital Resource Research 94

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 21, 2017

of all Statistics are Made Up ” My summary is an example I use often: when I consumed reports from Goldman Sachs about the future predictions of mobile phone penetration for a report I was working on for a client I would call the analyst to ask how she calculated her data because I wanted to be sure of my conclusions.

Venture Capital 182

Venture Capital Statistics Writing Report 182

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 13, 2011

Or, as always, summary notes available below. Huge thank you to Steve De Long for the write up. Yeah, that was when I changed for me…” “…there was so much positive feedback on demystifying this one element of venture capital. But, in fact, I would rather have an executive summary than a pitch deck. was starting.

Venture Capital 288

Venture Capital Startup Technical Review Software Review 288

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 22, 2014

So I thought I’d write about out with what I would look for in a VC knowing what I know now and why. And so is venture capital. Summary: Team Leadership skills, operating knowhow and industry knowledge are all tremendously important. and I realized that without years of experience it is tough to answer this question.

Venture Capital 364

Venture Capital Coach Writing SaaS 364

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 19, 2011

Or read the quick, informative summary below the image! What better than to have capital from somebody who has actually done it in the trenches? Matt’s commitment to re-investing in tech startups is reminiscent to this great Fred Wilson post of “recycling capital. &#. Here’s a summary of our interview.

Acquisition 304

Acquisition Startup Customer Custom 304

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 Surprisingly, friends and family contributed nearly three times the amount of capital to thousands of startups each year.

Funding 90

Funding Startup Blogging Invest 90

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 24, 2016

Here is my edited summary of their ten principles, which I like and may convince you that you don’t need a business plan at all, or at the very least will help you write a better one later: A new venture is a means, not an end. Build and use social capital. Social capital is people and connections.

Startup 68

Startup Capital Entrepreneur Resource 68

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 12, 2015

Here is my summary of some major considerations that every entrepreneur needs to evaluate against the cost and effort to attract equity investors: Completing a grant application is real work. Otherwise find an inexpensive class on grant writing. Of course, nothing is really free in the business world.

Pricing 100

Pricing Equity Technical Review Research 100

InfoChachkie

JANUARY 3, 2012

The more you play around with ideas and you write them down, the better. This is a lead up into an executive summary. Resources – what contacts, capital, facilities and other assets will be required to execute the idea? Seth notes that, "Ideas are a lot like exercising. According to Seth, "This is how I evaluate an idea.

Ideas 266

Ideas Guide Startup Santa Barbara 266

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 31, 2012

I got an email recently from my friend & fellow VC, Jeff Bussgang from Flybridge Capital Partners in Boston. The idea that the course asks students to write public blog posts is a testament to its more modern teaching style. In Summary. And that leads me to today’s post.

Startup 319

Startup Sales Course Competition 319

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 23, 2015

” It was meant both as a call to those writing angel checks into other people’s companies that they ought to think about putting that capital toward themselves either by becoming a startup founder or (and this was my real point) by taking an under-market salary in a company where they can learn the right skills to do it in the future.

Technical Review 150

Technical Review Startup Venture Capital IP 150

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 22, 2010

Back in 1999 when I first raised venture capital I had zero knowledge of what a fair term sheet looked like or how to value my company. I’m not sure I really even need to write this at length because Nivi absolutely nailed the topic in his article “ The Option Pool Shuffle.&#.

Venture Capital 405

Venture Capital Pricing Startup Funding 405

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 17, 2017

I found a good summary of these attributes in a recent book, “ The Old School Advantage ,” by an expert on interpersonal communication, J. You can also establish authority by writing and public speaking. Facebook initially capitalized on exclusivity by allowing only Harvard students to join their social network.

Social Media 58

Social Media Custom Customer Entrepreneur 58

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 25, 2013

In the original version of his post, Andy writes. “I don’t know the exact math, but I hear it again and again: the top 2% of firms generate 98% of the returns in venture capital.” According to FLAG Capital there are 100 active VCs (as defined by making at least $1 million in VC per quarter for 4 consecutive quarters).

Venture Capital 374

Venture Capital Entrepreneur Invest Funding 374

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!” Exec Summary: Most companies (98+%) in the world (even tech startups) should be very profit focused. One of them is profitability.

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. That’s wise.

Venture Capital 296

Venture Capital Capital Software Startup 296

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. That notes only told part of the story.

Venture Capital 299

Venture Capital Slides Technical Advisors Startup 299

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 17, 2012

I recommend that you start by writing down the attributes you would want people to think about when they think about your brand. Think about venture capital. But if you were going to start a venture capital fund today, you’d want to stand out. In Summary. Some Other Thoughts on Branding / Positioning.

Startup 304

Startup Venture Capital Los Angeles Santa Monica 304

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 16, 2011

Below is a nice summary of our interview with some great quotes from Joanne. In the next generation everybody (including women (are going to write code).&#. In 18 months from $1.5m to $12m in sales. She did this because she had great rapport with buyers. She knew their business needs because she had been on both sides of the business.

Startup 311

Startup Venture Capital Sales Entrepreneur 311

InfoChachkie

JANUARY 8, 2018

The more you play around with ideas and you write them down, the better. This is a lead up into an executive summary. Resources – what contacts, capital, facilities and other assets will be required to execute the idea? Seth notes that, “Ideas are a lot like exercising. The quality of your ideas is actually going to improve.”.

Ideas 69

Ideas Startup Technical Review Santa Barbara 69

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 1, 2010

Short summary of my posts: 1. It’s just that he’s a “super seed&# investor in a firm, Founder Collective , that I really respect (and with whom I’ve done two deals and hope to do a third) and I’m a partner in a venture capital firm, GRP Partners. Knowing What the Seed Funding Policy of your VC is.

Seed Funding 298

Seed Funding Funding Venture Capital GRP Partners 298