Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 17, 2019

I became a VC 12 years ago in 2007 when the pace of deals was much slower. As I was trying to figure out the role I wanted to play in the VC world I decided I wanted to focus on businesses that were building deeply technical products to solve problems for business users. We not only have our Series A funds that can write $500k?—?$15

Venture Capital 223

Venture Capital IP Startup Google 223

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. Google’s investment in Zynga.

Venture Capital 210

Venture Capital Seed Funding Pricing Southern California 210

socalTECH

APRIL 8, 2014

There seems to a perpetual shortage of local venture capital investors in the region, despite the huge growth in startup activity here, particularly along Silicon Beach. Among those funds is TYLT Lab (www.tyltlab.com), which recently announced a new, $20M early stage investment fund specifically focused on companies here.

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Seed Funding Santa Monica Funding Startup 220

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 12, 2014

They often create the biggest tensions between investors who are investing at different stages in the business. These tensions seep out in some angels or seed funds publicly or semi-privately deriding later-stage VCs for their “bad” behavior. I have seen bad behavior from later-stage VCs, believe me.

Guide 336

Guide Venture Capital Startup Writing 336

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 27, 2021

In short: Access to great deals, ability to be invited to invest in these deals, ability to see where value in a market will be created and the luck to back the right team with the right market at the right time all matter. billion When Ring started, even the folks at Shark Tank wouldn’t fund it. Hint: don’t do only 2–3 deals!!

Funding 294

Funding Startup Writing Invest 294

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 19, 2009

I had previously raised VC in 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2005. I had seen many cycles and decided that since I was going to do it all over again I should write about it. In case VC’s haven’t figured this out yet, shit rolls downhill. No prizes for guessing which VCs I didn’t work with (and still won’t).

Venture Capital 274

Venture Capital Blogging Startup Slides 274

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. Pre-money ($8m) + investment ($2m) = Post-money ($10m) and the investors now own 20% of your company $2m / $10m. So how DOES a VC think about financings at early stages?

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital Pricing Startup Invest 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. We led an investment round in a company a while ago in which we wrote a seven-figure check and have taken a board seat. Has written a book on venture capital.

Venture Capital 352

Venture Capital Seed Funding Email Blogging 352

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 29, 2013

If you track the venture capital industry it would be hard to miss the conversation going on this week over AngelList “Syndicates.” My favorite new VC blogger, Hunter Walk, weighed in with some thoughtful comments about how Syndicates might actually pit, “ angel vs. angel.” Bowery Capital).

Venture Capital 356

Venture Capital Invest Course Technical Review 356

InfoChachkie

NOVEMBER 23, 2015

VC's love to talk about their successes. Yet most VC's bury their failures under six feet of denial. In the startup world, the former happens when a VC makes a bad investment, and the latter occurs when they miss a great opportunity. In retrospect, our decision was both perfectly rational and completely lame. Unicornless.

Venture Capital 100

Venture Capital Technical Review Software Review Southern California 100

socalTECH

OCTOBER 11, 2018

In 2014, a West Point buddy of mine, and also a serial entrepreneur, Craig Cummings started working together to find entrepreneurs we liked, to help them an invest in them, along with Luis Villalobos of the Tech Coast Angels. We did our first close on the fund, and have made a number of investments. or $2M on a round.

Capital 164

Capital Funding Startup Venture Capital 164

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 7, 2015

” I found myself nodding through all of it with quotes like, “Seed investing is the status symbol of Silicon Valley,” said Sam Altman. They now have a strong VC lead from Foundry Group and from experience when you get advice from Foundry it comes with authority, experience, empathy and the right amount of straight talk.

Angel 150

Angel Startup Seed Funding Invest 150

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2014

otherwise I prefer to invest less and risk less). We want money to make some acquisitions (investors would prefer to fund M&A if they know specific deals – not to encourage bad behavior. Plus, most early-stage M&A fails so this isn’t likely a good use of capital for a young company).

Startup 383

Startup Company Companies .Net 383

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? That’s less interesting for me as a VC.

Venture Capital 267

Venture Capital Writing Blogging Startup 267

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 26, 2014

The best case I’ve seen is our portfolio company Osmo who had already built the product but used crowd-funding to handle inventory management, supply-chain logistics and perfecting the final version of the product. Contrary to popular opinion I actually believe crowd-funding is best used after seed capital or venture capital.

Press 319

Press Startup Writing Training 319

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 5, 2013

There is an important psychology that exists in investments. But psychology DOES play a big role in investment decisions. Well, a down round is even more complicated than having no demand for your investment round. If we count seed funds and large angels maybe that number goes up by 2x? ” What does that mean?

Pricing 302

Pricing Seed Funding Invest Venture Capital 302

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 23, 2010

Often when startups who have raised venture capital need another round of financing they will turn to their existing investors to give them money before raising from outsiders. VC’s money comes from mostly institutional investors called LPs (limited partners). It starts as a debt instrument (e.g.

Startup 290

Startup Funding Venture Capital Pricing 290

TechCrunch LA

NOVEMBER 4, 2019

We are in phase three of the influencer economy,” Bain Capital Ventures senior principal Jamison Hill, who led the firm’s investment in the influencer shoutout marketplace Cameo , tells TechCrunch. 2020 will be a watershed year for investment in businesses around the creator economy,” Neil Robertson tells TechCrunch.

Platform 170

Platform Marketing Tool Venture Capital 170

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 14, 2016

Most venture capitalists who have been in this business for a long time foresaw this correction and have been talking about it privately for the better part of the last year or two. What is the True Sentiment of VCs? Brad was openly writing about this and it felt like he was giving the VC playbook away for free!

Startup 150

Startup Company Companies Venture Capital 150

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 30, 2014

Today I’m handing her the largest A-round check I’ve ever written as a VC as we lead her $10 million A-Round at uBeam. 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. When I first met Meredith Perry she was 24.

Technical Review 418

Technical Review Software Review CTO Hire IP 418

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 14, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series Pitching a VC. Quick caveats: having fewer investors (3-5) is better than many investors (10-15) and PLEASE make sure you hire a great lawyer who has experience in doing start-ups to avoid pitfalls that will make VC harder down the line. They know that the money they invest may be lost.

Angel 291

Angel Funding Venture Capital Startup 291

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.” I often tell people in this scenario to focus on a VC “fixer upper.” ” The punch line from this post was “angel yourself.”

Technical Review 150

Technical Review Startup Venture Capital IP 150

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 30, 2010

My original thinking from Oct ’09 was, while I didn’t (and still don’t) have a crystal ball I worried that: consumers were over-stretched with debt (and make up 77% of the economy), unemployment would continue to rise, which in turn would drive the stock market south and cut the rate of M&A activity and VC investment even further.

Entrepreneur 298

Entrepreneur Venture Capital Technical Review Startup 298

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 15, 2016

As I have pointed out in previous posts , 91% of VCs surveyed believe prices are declining (30% believe substantially) and 77% believe that funding will take longer than it has in the past. If they’re only 1 of 5 they might rather just take the write off. Are Your Existing Investors Over Their Skis?

Startup 150

Startup Capital Funding Invest 150

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 10, 2011

Part 1: Inside the mind of an angel investor and how it differs from professional seed investors and VC. 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. As an angel, do you reserve money for follow-on investments?

Angel 302

Angel Startup Ideas .Net 302

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. .

Angel 40

Angel News Pasadena Angels Seed Funding 40

SoCal CTO

SEPTEMBER 8, 2010

Pricing models, the freemium myth and why you may not be charging enough for your product - Seth Levine's VC Adventure , August 12, 2010 I’ve been pulled into a number of product and pricing meetings recently (for reasons unknown I’ve become the Foundry pricing and productization guy). We had to write a CRM to keep track of them all.

Startup 191

Startup Venture Capital Blogging CTO Hire 191

Frank Addante

JUNE 4, 2006

► August (1) Invest in Transparency & Active Communication ► July (1) The Fear of Success ► May (2) Optimized for Speed = 30% Waste Happy 1st Birthday Rubicon Project! ► August (3) Venture Capital - What's the rush? Venture Capital Funding 7. ► October (1) New Video!

Startup 40

Startup Venture Capital Email CTO Hire 40

SoCal CTO

JANUARY 5, 2011

My 1,000th Post on This Blog - Tim Berry's Blog - Planning Startups Stories , July 21, 2010 HTML5 video markup, compatibility and playback - Niall Kennedy's Weblog , February 8, 2010 Your Product Needs a Soul - ArcticStartup , February 12, 2010 Product Friday: Monetizing Content is a Product Problem - This is going to be BIG.

Startup 378

Startup Venture Capital Blogging CTO Coach 378

SoCal CTO

AUGUST 3, 2010

Welcome to the Lost Decade (for Entrepreneurs, IPO’s and VC’s) - Steve Blank , July 15, 2010 If you take funding from a venture capital firm or angel investor and want to build a large, enduring company (rather than sell it to the highest bidder), this isn’t the decade to do it. Angel vs VC? - Here’s why.

Startup 217

Startup Venture Capital Blogging Software Review 217