Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 3, 2010

This is part of my ongoing series on Understanding Venture Capital. I recently wrote a blog post on understanding how the size and age of a venture capital fund might affect you when you’re raising money. I believe these VC funds have suffered some amount of reputation fall out. Let me explain: 1.

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Venture Capital Seed Funding Pricing Invest 265

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 30, 2013

His imagination of what is wrong with VC has captured perfectly in satirical format what ails our industry. It is Nikolas Tesla pitching a VC firm. The reference to Andy Dunn and me is responding to this post I wrote (in response to Andy’s earlier post). Raising Venture Capital Tech Market Analysis'

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Venture Capital Rancho Palos Verdes Entrepreneur Ideas 315

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 27, 2014

I was having dinner with a friend last night and we were chatting about venture capital and a bit about what I’ve learned. 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. You can’t reference check your way into a “yes.”

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Venture Capital Invest Press Startup 374

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 2, 2010

This is part of my series on Understanding Venture Capital. I’m writing this series because if you better understand how VC firms work you can better target which firms make sense for you to speak with. It in not uncommon to see a VC talk about “total assets under management&# as in “We have $1.5

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InfoChachkie

MAY 22, 2012

The steps outlined below represent an ideal approach to raising capital from sophisticated investors. You might be at Step 2 with one VC and Step 3 with another. VCs collude all the time, it is only fair that entrepreneurs compare notes every now and again as well.”. Even the most jaded VC cannot resist authentic flattery.

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Venture Capital Capital Research Custom 236

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. The “Triple Play&# of VC Presentations. But take prompts from the VC.

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Venture Capital Slides Technical Advisors Startup 299

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 19, 2009

I had previously raised VC in 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2005. It included one firm who I asked not to call Salesforce.com as a reference (they were our largest pilot customer) and in their kindness they called Marc Benioff (the CEO) and asked his opinion. In case VC’s haven’t figured this out yet, shit rolls downhill.

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Venture Capital Blogging Startup Slides 274

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 19, 2018

Your historical trading information including financials and a “customer file” which shows the history of your transactions so that investors can run “cohort” analyses Customer reference, personal references, key team members, compensation, cap table, stock option plan, etc. Initial Call VC : “We enjoyed our meeting.

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Funding Venture Capital Startup Email 336

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 12, 2010

I recently got an email from a friend who had been approached by a well known VC. I’m an investor at [Big Name, Large Fund VC] and recently came across [Your Company]. They are at the tops of their classes and want to get into private equity or venture capital some day.

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Venture Capital Entrepreneur Email Equity 294

InfoChachkie

JULY 7, 2016

Entrepreneurs often suggest customer references that arose from a highly curated introduction or prior relationship. Because of this reality, we also seek references from customers that have an arms-length, dispassionate relationship with the company. You can follow John on Twitter: @johngreathouse. Image credit: Shutterstock.

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Venture Capital Product Software Review Technical Review 176

socalTECH

DECEMBER 10, 2018

The funding was led by Galaxy Digital via its Galaxy EOS VC Fund with investments from Breyer Capital, Blocktower Capital, Boost VC, Ken Howery, Blockchange Ventures, Cross Culture Capital, Troy Carter, Mitch Kapor, Peter Diamandis, Blake Mycoskie, Justin Rosenstein, and others.

Venture Capital 113

Venture Capital Equity Capital Los Angeles 113

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 1, 2010

In today’s post I want to talk about the concept of a VC flightpath. This is my description of a VC process, not one I’ve heard from other VCs so don’t expect it to be accepted nomenclature. Even when you’re getting the VC love this reality I imagined couldn’t be further from the truth.

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Venture Capital Entrepreneur Capital Ideas 275

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 26, 2020

She worked for 5 years as a VC at Battery Ventures and co-headed M&A at IAC working with Barry Diller. The fact that Kara doesn’t have what my wife likes to refer jokingly as my “Y chromosome problem” is beside the fact. He said to me (only 9 years ago), “I hope you’re not just hiring her because she’s a woman.” (I

Venture Capital 361

Venture Capital Startup Invest CitySearch 361

From the Venture Trenches

APRIL 11, 2013

While not wanting to dampen the VC’s enthusiasm for investing in the start-up, I did suggest that some of the investment capital should be used to build out the management team and bring in a seasoned leader. The VC did not see the necessity of such a move. In fact he was keen to keep the founder in charge of the business.

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Venture Capital Capital Startup Invest 45

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 7, 2014

Contrast that with a VC conversation I had. In case you don’t know – as VCs we have have 2 sets of customers: LPs (limited partners) who invest money in our funds and entrepreneurs (who we in turn give money to and help support them in building businesses we hope will be valuable). If not, somebody else will.

Customer 341

Customer Custom Venture Capital Software Review 341

From the Venture Trenches

APRIL 11, 2013

While not wanting to dampen the VC’s enthusiasm for investing in the start-up, I did suggest that some of the investment capital should be used to build out the management team and bring in a seasoned leader. The VC did not see the necessity of such a move. In fact he was keen to keep the founder in charge of the business.

Venture Capital 40

Venture Capital Capital Startup Invest 40

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. Subject: Reference for Twilio. As noted in What Does VC Traction Really Mean? ,

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Venture Capital Technical Review Software Review Southern California 100

Berkonomics

JANUARY 25, 2024

If the coach is also a significantly large investor such as a VC fund, the board member-coach will offer a limited amount of time outside of board work at no extra cost, all for the good of the investment. How do you pay a coach? The post Do you even need a business coach? first appeared on BERKONOMICS.

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Coach Organization Resource Equity 156

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 14, 2018

I know all of this because every VC knows this because we’ve all either funded companies that have marketing technology or we’ve seen a pitch with a company that does this. If you haven’t read the other VC fund-raising posts I’ve done as part of this series you can find the whole outline and this first in the series here.]

Funding 239

Funding Venture Capital IP Competition 239

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 12, 2013

Because my role as a VC requires me to take and endless stream of meetings I long ago decided I need to learn as much as I can from the meetings I attend so I often just ask tons of questions and assimilate knowledge. When I think about what defines us as a VC I think: Operationally knowledgeable / strong startup competence.

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Venture Capital GRP Partners Startup Invest 360

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 8, 2014

And there’s none that makes me happier than to announce that Jordan Hudson has been promoted to a Principal at Upfront Ventures. What is a principal at a VC firm and how does it work at Upfront Ventures? ” Associates have different functions at different VCs. VC firm admin. Portfolio community building.

Help 365

Help Invest Venture Capital Technical Review 365

socalTECH

MARCH 31, 2014

Update: Crossbar informs us that its investment announcement incorrectly identified the investor in this story as Tao Venture Capital Partners, when it should be an entirely different company -- Tao Invest, the investment fund of Nick and Joby Pritzker (also referred to as Tao LLC). The two funds are not related. READ MORE>>.

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Funding Develop Development Venture Capital 113

TechCrunch LA

SEPTEMBER 11, 2019

million in seed funding from Crosscut, a Los Angeles-based venture capital firm, and Female Founders Fund. then affirms the providers use research-backed methods and that they have vetted peer references and clients who can provide positive feedback. “When you look at health as a whole today in the U.S.,

Guide 241

Guide Research Journal Seed Funding 241

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 14, 2016

Today is amongst the proudest days I’ve had at Upfront Ventures — getting the chance to announce that Kevin Zhang has been promoted to Partner. years at Upfront has been both a pleasure and also has taught me a lot about venture capital. I mentioned at the start that Kevin has taught me something about Venture Capital.

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Venture Capital Startup Invest Course 150

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 19, 2011

And yes, VC’s, too. Often recruiters want to handle the final negotiations on package and/or do the reference calls. I’m also reluctant to hand over reference calling. But I doubt they’ll dig in as deep as you will in the reference checks. Unfortunately that’s how reference checking works.

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Venture Capital Pricing Startup Outsource 319

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 17, 2012

But honestly there are times when being a VC can feel like that, too. VENTURE CAPITAL. And finally that brings me to obvious topic of venture capital. Coincidentally my good friend Roger Ehrenberg wrote a post this past week on founders having trust in their VCs. After I posted I saw the following Tweet.

Startup 363

Startup Venture Capital Coach Press 363

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 18, 2014

If the deal is from out of your geography and/or out of your focus area or a deal is being referred by a well-know investor who normally co-invests with similar syndicates – at least ask yourself, “Why am I so lucky to be getting this call.” Fred Wilson said it best in his post about loss ratios in VC. VC Industry'

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Venture Capital Invest Ideas Entrepreneur 337

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 29, 2009

Handling PR with VCs. This is part of my series on How to Raise VC but could equally be filed under Startup Advice more generally. Just notice how many VC emails you get after your TechCrunch article or after you were on stage at TC50. In your VC pitch your PR page should take no longer than 30 seconds – Wait.

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Venture Capital Press News Startup 291

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 28, 2012

You’re on a first date with a VC – how much should you tell them? When is it appropriate for a VC to call your customers? There is no universal answer and my discussions with various VCs on these topics have yielded many differing opinions. Another VC called the co-founder & tech head – Parker Harris.

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Technical Review Venture Capital Customer Custom 316

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 19, 2017

Of course there is no right answer but it’s a function of how much capital you have raised, your prospects for raising more capital in the future, your growth rate and your company’s risk tolerance. Usually when an investor is asking you your burn rate he or she is referring to net burn — what cash are you consuming.

Startup 212

Startup Venture Capital .Net Capital 212

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 20, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series, “ Pitching a VC.&# Getting a meeting with a prominent angel or VC is difficult enough. Some advice on how to do that was covered in this link – Getting Access to a VC. If you haven’t read how to build VC relationships and demonstrate traction make sure to read it.

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Venture Capital Startup Email News 277

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.” They are both former entrepreneurs and current Partners at Foundry Group , a highly successful, early stage venture firm.

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Venture Capital Entrepreneur Writing Guide 205

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

InfoChachkie

JANUARY 12, 2012

Steve goes on to note that Chuck Eesley , one of his Stanford compatriots, has performed quantitative studies of the VC industry, finding that firms which have operationally experienced partners tend to generate superior financial results. He was worse than useless as his frame of reference seldom synced up with my portfolio company.

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Venture Capital Startup Entrepreneur SaaS 239

From the Venture Trenches

MARCH 29, 2013

Venture is driven by relationships and these are great places to hear new ideas and meet investors, although probably not the best place to whip out your business plan. How you get referred into these shops is a subject for another post. Here is a list of useful resources to help you in your search: News & Resources.

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Southern California Venture Capital Funding Los Angeles 45

socalTECH

NOVEMBER 12, 2012

For our Insights and Opinions section on a quiet holiday Monday, we're featuring some background on the concepts behind anti-dilution and how it's used by venture capital firms in fundings. This piece comes from Louis Wharton , Partner with Stubbs Alderton & Markiles, LLP.

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Venture Capital Pricing Equity Invest 149

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 3, 2009

This is part of my ongoing Raising Venture Capital (VC) series. When people refer to a strategic investor they are usually talking about an investor that comes from the industry you serve as opposed to an independent venture capital investor. The reality is that their core business is not venture capital.

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Venture Capital Startup Entrepreneur Framework 279