socalTECH

OCTOBER 11, 2018

This morning, Moonshots Capital (www.moonshotscapital.com), led by Kelly Perdew and Craig Cummings , announced its first formal fund, a $19M seed stage fund. In October of last year, we did a first close on our first committed fund, which we're announcing. We have fourteen operating companies under our belts.

Capital 164

Capital Funding Startup Venture Capital 164

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2014

But what IS the right amount of burn for a company? Burn rate in case you don’t know is the amount of money a company is either spending (gross) or losing (net) per month. (it Conversely if you’re burning $600,000 per month (yes, some companies do) then you only have 5 months of cash left. Gross Burn vs. Net Burn.

Startup 383

Startup Company Companies .Net 383

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 23, 2014

The rise of “micro VCs” or seed-stage funds. The rise of alternative sources of capital (crowd funding and the like). Lower costs to start a business (95% reduction), many more companies created & funded by angels / seed. ” Stated simply – if you seed funded Uber at $4.5m

Venture Capital 398

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Seed Funding 398

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 12, 2014

These tensions seep out in some angels or seed funds publicly or semi-privately deriding later-stage VCs for their “bad” behavior. Prorata investments rights given investors the right to invest in your future fund-raising rounds and maintain their ownership % in your company as your company grows and raises more capital.

Guide 336

Guide Venture Capital Startup Writing 336

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 1, 2016

At the Upfront Summit in early February, we had a chance to have many off-the-record conversations with Limited Partners (LPs) who fund Venture Capital (VC) funds about their views of the market. A normal VC fund raises a new fund every three years if they are strong performers.

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital Capital Marketing Seed Funding 150

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. So I recommend a high-level “state of the company” email a couple of times a year but a message that you assume might get shown to others.

Venture Capital 352

Venture Capital Seed Funding Email Blogging 352

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 14, 2009

Very few people fund individuals. Great companies are built by having great products. One great company, AppFolio , filmed all of this user interaction and made the DVD available to me. They are people who built and sold companies and have a bit of money. It helps that my first company was actually founded in Ireland!

Angel 291

Angel Funding Venture Capital Startup 291

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 23, 2010

This happens when the company has been making steady progress but hasn’t built enough “ proof &# to raise its next round of financing from external investors. If no financing happened then this “note&# may not be converted and thus would be senior to the equity of the company in the case of a bankruptcy or asset sale.

Startup 290

Startup Funding Venture Capital Pricing 290

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 17, 2019

The first check I wrote was just over 10 years ago into a company called Invoca who just announced a new $56 million in funding led by Scott Hilleboe at HIG Growth Partners. We not only have our Series A funds that can write $500k?—?$15 15 million first checks but we also have three growth funds. $15

Venture Capital 223

Venture Capital IP Startup Google 223

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 26, 2014

Yesterday I wrote a post about The Silent Benefits of PR in which I pointed out that most young companies I encounter don’t fully grasp the benefits of PR because they are less measurable than product milestones or customer acquisition analyses (like CAC/LTV). It super charges a business that is closer to product delivery.

Press 319

Press Startup Writing Training 319

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 15, 2010

We started this week’s show with a Q&A session where I answered viewer questions about fund raising and the VC industry. Heck, stick around and watch me discuss the seed funding debate that is going on right now and what is happening in the VC industry overall.

Venture Capital 210

Venture Capital Seed Funding Pricing Southern California 210

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 7, 2015

I save room in literally every deal to invite angels (or seed funds) to co-invest with me. Many angels may also not know the exact health of the start-up they have invested in when asked by others, which can give the perception that the company is not doing well.” All of my partners at Upfront do. Hua of Apptimize.

Angel 150

Angel Startup Seed Funding Invest 150

TechCrunch LA

NOVEMBER 4, 2019

million in funding from Rebecca Minkoff and other unnamed investors. A company like Moe will help legitimize the industry,” Bernstein tells TechCrunch. The company was co-founded by Eric Wei, a former product manager at Instagram who focused on the creator and influencer side of the business.

Platform 170

Platform Marketing Tool Venture Capital 170

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 29, 2013

” And even the venerable Fred Wilson weighed in with how people “ leading vs. following ” in funding rounds play different roles and have different skills. If you know, VCs end up writing sizable checks into their own funds, which is important in better aligning interests. So there you have it. and much more.

Venture Capital 356

Venture Capital Invest Course Technical Review 356

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 30, 2014

As I’ve written about recently, at Upfront Ventures we started talking a couple of years ago about wanting to fund stuff with more meaning. I think this is a combination of being realists as venture capitalists that outsized returns in our funds must come from taking on bigger, more impactful projects that can move markets.

Technical Review 418

Technical Review Software Review CTO Hire IP 418

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 5, 2013

First, a down round sends a signal that something is wrong with your company. If we count seed funds and large angels maybe that number goes up by 2x? ” (before fund raising). Have you been involved in companies with a down round? That’s why. Something didn’t go to plan. We know that.

Pricing 302

Pricing Seed Funding Invest Venture Capital 302

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 15, 2016

There is much talk these days that startup valuations have decreased and may continue to do so and that the amount of time it takes to fund raise may take longer. But the hardest question to actually answer is, “What is the right burn rate for your company?” Who are Your Existing Investors?

Startup 150

Startup Capital Funding Invest 150

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 5, 2015

In the old days VCs funded off of a “pre-money” valuation. Pre-money ($8m) + investment ($2m) = Post-money ($10m) and the investors now own 20% of your company $2m / $10m. This was until about 2009 because most the investments in companies came from one, maybe two, sources. How much is in the option pool?

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital Pricing Startup Invest 150

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? Most VCs fund companies with a degree of traction.

Venture Capital 267

Venture Capital Writing Blogging Startup 267

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 23, 2020

Constance Curtis: The list is a modern matchmaking company. The other option in the dating space was to hire a traditional, matchmaking company. We've taken matchmaking onto a mobile application, as a modern matchmaking company. How did you start the company? Before this, I had an event planning company.

Startup 203

Startup Entrepreneur Southern California Netflix 203

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 23, 2010

They’re not in search of price fixing or collusion, they’re in search of diligence information about the company. When I was fund raising for my second company we had agreed a company-wide deal with Salesforce.com to use our product. My advice: Do not mention the other VC firms, angels, seed funds, etc.

Pricing 292

Pricing Entrepreneur Technical Review Venture Capital 292

From the Venture Trenches

APRIL 30, 2013

Amplify’s portfolio companies are schooled on every challenge they need to master in order to achieve success. All the companies that graduate from the accelerator’s program work from the same office and can literally reach out and touch their investors at any time. Jeff looks for these same qualities in the companies he backs.

Web Design 103

Web Design Social Media Seed Funding Design 103

Tech.Co

MAY 9, 2017

We started traveling to Sundance and SXSW and these shows with awesome companies, but no one was writing about it,” Taylor said. The company caught the attention of investor from China and secured a seed-funding round around $1.5 And UploadVR was born. Read more about virtual reality trends. Taylor said.

Startup 70

Startup Web Development Design Education 70

InfoChachkie

JUNE 9, 2015

With top-ranked accelerators Lauchpad LA closing its doors and Y Combinator rebranding itself as a seed fund, it seems fair to ask the question, “Are Accelerators Dead?”. My Forbes co-contributor Geri Stengel concurs that something is happening in the Volunteer State, writing last month about that state’s emerging women entrepreneurs.

Startup 100

Startup Class LAMP Santa Barbara 100

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 26, 2022

Considering that many of our funds are in the $200–300 million range, these returns were more meaningful than if we had raised billion dollar funds. Obviously the funding environment has changed considerably in 2022 but as early-stage investors our daily jobs stay largely unchanged. What do you do with a $650 million platform?

Startup 408

Startup Venture Capital Writing Invest 408

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 19, 2009

After my company was acquired by Salesforce.com I was asked to stop blogging and they took over my blog as an asset in the sale of the company. 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. Tempus Fugit.

Venture Capital 274

Venture Capital Blogging Startup Slides 274

socalTECH

OCTOBER 11, 2010

Fariborz Masseh: The idea of funding a business plan competition is not a new idea. Even though they usually end up innovating and creating at the idea level, they usually need to have a business partner or someone else, to either become CEO of a company, or help them translate their innovation into practical use.

Competition 154

Competition Southern California Mentor USC 154

Steve Reich

AUGUST 15, 2015

If you can’t raise from a few strong angels, from seed funds or from a VC then raising from a ton (let’s say 20+) angels is a perfectly acceptable strategy. ” Everyone has a vision that one or two “Super Angels” will write million dollar checks and all will be well. ” Well said, Mark. Send that email.

Angel 40

Angel News Pasadena Angels Seed Funding 40

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 23, 2015

Of course you could start your own company. As I talked about in “ Is it Time to Learn or Time to Earn ” – overwhelmingly the best economics go to those that start successful companies. Of course I’m not suggesting people shouldn’t start a company. For many people that’s the right answer.

Technical Review 150

Technical Review Startup Venture Capital IP 150

Tech Zulu Event

APRIL 17, 2012

It turns out there are a lot of big tech companies with talent to offer. At 25 years old, Richard saw an opening in the marketplace for a Canadian version of Bankrate (although, she would describe the development different at the time, but bankrate.com is the most comparable company) and went full throttle into building Ratehub.ca.

Startup 109

Startup Incubator Seed Funding Platform 109

From the Venture Trenches

APRIL 30, 2013

Amplify’s portfolio companies are schooled on every challenge they need to master in order to achieve success. All the companies that graduate from the accelerator’s program work from the same office and can literally reach out and touch their investors at any time. Jeff looks for these same qualities in the companies he backs.

Web Design 40

Web Design Social Media Seed Funding Design 40

InfoChachkie

NOVEMBER 23, 2015

This latest round valued the company in excess of a billion dollars, entering them into the overly-hyped Unicorn Club. In contrast, low-volume, high-conviction investors like Rincon only invests in a handful new companies each year, making it much more costly (in dollars and effort expended) to invest in a loser. Unicornless.

Venture Capital 100

Venture Capital Technical Review Software Review Southern California 100

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. Valuing any company can be difficult because it requires a degree of forecasting future growth & competition and ultimately the profits of the organization.

Startup 150

Startup Company Companies Venture Capital 150

Tech Zulu Event

NOVEMBER 5, 2012

His main company Providence Holdings has invested in real estate and several small businesses. Beyond that he owns his own branding company where he takes on two clients per month in addition to his duties with Huddlewoo and Providence Holdings. Any funding yet? Two great companies! Who are the founders/ background?

Mentor 94

Mentor Platform Social Network Chief Technology Officer 94

Tech Zulu Event

DECEMBER 18, 2012

Members can also enhance their expert status by writing informative articles and position themselves as a contact person for other professionals to get information from. The idea for exploreB2B resulted from my own experience in business development for a young consulting company and my brother’s enthusiasm for tech and social media.

Networking 71

Networking Help Social Media Platform 71

Tech Zulu Event

APRIL 17, 2012

It turns out there are a lot of big tech companies with talent to offer. At 25 years old, Richard saw an opening in the marketplace for a Canadian version of Bankrate (although, she would describe the development different at the time, but bankrate.com is the most comparable company) and went full throttle into building Ratehub.ca.

Startup 56

Startup Incubator Seed Funding Platform 56

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 10, 2018

Whether you’re fund raising from angels, seed investors and VCs?—?as I mention this because it’s critical that you not let the fund raising process psyche you out. While I tell founders not to let the lemons get to them I also have to remind people that “It only takes one yes to have a successful fund-raising round!”

Press 232

Press Funding Venture Capital Technical Review 232