Both Sides of the Table

JULY 16, 2010

The VC industry grew dramatically as a result of the Internet bubble - Before the Internet bubble the people who invested in VC funds (called LPs or Limited Partners) put about $50 billion into the industry and by 2001 this had grown precipitously to around $250 billion. So the people who invest in VC funds have two problems.

VC 311

VC startup real estate financing 311

This is going to be BIG.

MARCH 30, 2015

Sam Altman of YC recently pointed out that pulling back during the downturn in 2008 would result in several big misses: In October of 2008, Sequoia Capital—arguably the best-ever in the business—gave the famous “RIP Good Times” presentation (I was there). These sound fundamentals drive the venture capital market over the long term.

startup 419

startup venture capital disruption sustainability 419

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 27, 2013

We have previously raised funds in 1996 ($200 million), 2000 ($400 million) and 2008/9 ($200 million). Well, the venture capital industry has changed a lot in the past 20 years … and we have too. Like many modern VCs, we’re committed to investing in the community and in our portfolio companies. What’s up with that?

ventures 343

ventures venture capital advice VC 343

This is going to be BIG.

MAY 11, 2012

In fact, thanks to increased scrutiny of investment funds in a post-Madoff world, this imbalance will probably get bigger and bigger. But crowdfunding investments in startups is the answer to all our worries in life, right? Who wouldn't want in on the next Union Square Ventures or First Round Capital funds? I certainly would!

ventures 314

ventures incubation VC venture capital 314

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 15, 2009

This is a story of one of the risks of venture capital. But some companies have entrepreneurs that seem talented on paper, are in a space that seems interesting to investors and are able to raise venture capital early in the company’s existence. Our first big round of venture capital (our A round) was a whopping $16.5

startup founder 299

startup founder founder startup VC 299

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 2, 2010

This is part of my series on Understanding Venture Capital. billion under management.&# I don’t really understand why VCs do this since it’s mostly a meaningless number. It’s also meaningless if they had four $200 million funds and the last one they closed was in 2000. What is a VC fund?

VC 269

VC venture capital investing investment 269

A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

FEBRUARY 27, 2020

Back in 2009, I wrote a post called The Venture Capital Math Problem. In that post, I argued that the venture capital business could not sustain more than $20bn a year of new capital coming into it and continue to produce good returns to the investors in VC funds. link] — Ben Siscovick (@bsiscovick) February 26, 2020.

venture capital 199

venture capital capital ventures VC 199

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 25, 2010

We moved into the legal process and final due diligence in January and February of 2000. Our final closure was the first week of March 2000. It quickly became impossible to raise venture capital. It isn’t even a story about raising venture capital or M&A. They accepted my argument. It was December 1999.

venture capital 301

venture capital advice VC real estate 301

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 12, 2011

This week I sat down with Chris Dixon, co-founder / CEO of Hunch and Partner at Founder Collective in the most recent installment of This Week in Venture Capital. The firm focuses on early stage companies in the Northeast but occasionally invests in California startups. Such that during that time, Chris “learned how to learn.”.

entrepreneurship 281

entrepreneurship VC angel investing venture capital 281

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 22, 2011

I know that most people who are close to them tend to deny their existence, as we saw in the great housing bubble of 2002-2007 and the dot com bubble of 1997-2000. I guess that makes USV, Spark Capital, Foundry Group, Accel, Benchmark, Revolution (along with several others) pretty happy right now. source: Capital IQ.

real estate 309

real estate entrepreneurs financing finance 309

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 8, 2010

This is part of my ongoing series on Raising Venture Capital. Not so in venture capital. In fact, they will think better of you because you’re demonstrating that you’re the kind of thorough person that they wanted to invest money into in the first place. My chips were down in late 2000 / early 2001.

VC 288

VC advice entrepreneurs venture capital 288

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 29, 2017

I am so proud and humbled to be able to formally announce that Upfront Ventures has raised its 6th venture capital fund in the past 21 years. Upfront VI is our latest core fund and is $400 million to invest in early stage entrepreneurs. 88% of the deals we do are Seed or A-Round investments and our median check size is $2.8

ventures 287

ventures venture capital VC capital 287

A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

SEPTEMBER 15, 2019

This simple and short blog post by the folks at Correlation Ventures contains the key to venture capital returns – the hit rate. In the Correlation post, they define “hit rate” as: the percent of invested dollars generating a 10X or greater return. I think that is all about the amount of capital in the business now.

venture capital 184

venture capital VC sustainability capital 184

Tomasz Tunguz

JUNE 5, 2021

What does it mean for venture capital and Startupland? Let’s examine the relationship between total venture capital investment and the 10 year Treasury in some detail. The y-axis tracks enture capital investment by year and the year of the data point resides in the reddish circle.

venture capital 142

venture capital capital ventures VC 142

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 18, 2010

What a pleasure that I got to spend an hour talking with both Om Malik (whom I’ve always respected his views) and Paul Jozefak , a venture capital partner at Neuhaus Partners in Germany (and formerly the head of Europe for SAP Ventures). DST invested $180mm last fall. Founded in 2000 in New Brunswick, NJ. 406 Ventures.

VC 225

VC social gaming venture capital networking 225

TechCrunch

NOVEMBER 10, 2020

When you’re running your own venture — especially if it’s your first — it’s unlikely you will find the time to deep dive into how venture capital firms work. million Series A round, passed the due diligence process, and the investment committee had approved the deal. I had signed a term-sheet (a nonbinding agreement) for a €2.5

venture capital 107

venture capital capital ventures founder 107

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 15, 2010

Next Wednesday we’ll have Dana Settle of Greycroft Partners, a New York / LA early-stage venture capital fund. We spoke about the changes to an “accredited investor&# proposed by Chris Dodd – This would be bad for angel investing. Invidi is based in New York and founded in 2000. We spoke briefly about why.

VC 285

VC financing finance capital 285

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 4, 2010

The framework of his book has profoundly altered how I think about the technology market and affects how I thought about building my businesses and how I think about investing in venture capital. In 1999-2000 they weren’t doing enterprise-wide installations at Merrill Lynch, Dell and Cisco. Enter Salesforce.com.

incumbents 376

incumbents disruption frameworks innovation 376

TechCrunch

JUNE 24, 2022

Alomar, who led startups through the dotcom bust of 2000 and the Great Recession of 2008, will talk about whether investors are still prioritizing growth over profits, and identify which proof points founding teams must define before their next raise. 3 tips for biotech startups seeking non-dilutive capital to weather the downturn.

angel investing 84

angel investing pitching capital investing 84

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 25, 2013

“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). The industry is dying, except for the top 2%.

VC 374

VC peer-to-peer entrepreneurs investing 374

Gust

OCTOBER 25, 2011

Assume you have the right factors to get angel investment: experienced team, good product-market fit, growth potential, defensibility, and a reasonable shot at a successful exit. This might seem awkward on this site, suggesting that you don’t want angel investment. But angel investment isn’t for everybody.

angel investing 133

angel investing investing investment board 133

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 14, 2016

I recently read a blog post by Beezer Clarkson, Managing Director of Sapphire Ventures about why entrepreneurs should care about from whom their VC funds raise their capital. How much money will they reserve from their fund for future investments in your startup? How much pull that investment professional has within his or her fund?

entrepreneurs 237

entrepreneurs VC mentorship strategy 237

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 5, 2011

Look more modern than our previous website, which had a very 2000 feel to it. I wanted to be whimsical and have a blog as cool as Spark Capital. We wanted to emphasize the number of truly big wins that have been created by the partners at GRP in their 20+ years of investing. Anything that works well was her implementation.

real estate 260

real estate investing investment entrepreneurs 260

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 5, 2011

If you invested in the first angel round of a startup company it is usually very hard to sell your stock – usually for many years if ever at all. The earlier you invest the higher the chances the company won’t work out and thus you pay a lower price than later-stage investors. It was early 2000. That’s fine.

startup 336

startup advice pitching investing 336

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 2, 2009

We could do more in 2010 with more VC investment; the doubling assumes only ratable increase in marketing spend to achieve profitability. Coupled with my participating preferred from 1999 and 2000 I had more than $55 million of liquidation preferences. The net effect for [my company] for example is we are now doing reasonably well.

founder 329

founder VC advice pitching 329

Tomasz Tunguz

FEBRUARY 9, 2023

Amy Cortese published “Venture Capital, Withering & Dying” in the New York Times on Oct 21, 2001. So far this year, 29 venture-backed companies have tried initial offerings, compared with 252 in 2000. Venture capital funds lost 18.2 In Venture capital investment pace has slowed.

venture capital 84

venture capital capital ventures investing 84

TechCrunch

APRIL 5, 2023

Lux Capital, known for investing in life science and frontier tech startups, is back in the market to fundraise for its latest vehicle — but this time without a dedicated late-stage entity. The fund will combine the firm’s early and late-stage investing strategies into one pool. million to the fund.

opportunity 99

opportunity capital strategy investing 99

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 3, 2011

<Small plug> – I invested in an awesome company called … awe.sm … that is a performance tracking tool that let’s you measure efficacy of channels like this (email, facebook, twitter, linkedin, etc.) They never did any PR or marketing to get their videos to first get shown on the news during the 2000 election.

mix-use 303

mix-use VC advice creativity 303

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 27, 2014

We both are concerned about non-traditional capital entering the late stages and the impact that may have in the next downturn in the economy to the startups who merely trying to optimize for short-term valuation maximization. He said that a16z prefers to invest earlier stage in these types of businesses.

VC 309

VC SaaS strategy ventures 309

This is going to be BIG.

AUGUST 29, 2016

You shouldn't, because it's still your fault they didn't invest. You're still a wonderful person, I'm sure, but your idea or company could be one that is disproportionately unlikely to return investor capital in multiples given the risk. Getting an investment is very difficult thing. How difficult? That's the top 0.5%.

founder 244

founder pitching board investing 244

Gust

OCTOBER 17, 2012

I began studying angel investing returns about 10 years ago as a result of a problem I couldn’t resolve: The investing world seemed certain that angel investors were rubes. Conventional wisdom dictated that they made reckless investments in very early-stage ventures mostly doomed to fail. So which is it? Only they’re not.

angel investing 152

angel investing venture capital investing investment 152

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 14, 2016

I’d like to explain as best I can my opinion on what is going on because most of what I hear from entrepreneurs is not only wrong but is reminiscent of what I heard in 1997-2000. We write about $40 million of first-checks into new deals / year and about $40 million of follow-on investments. What is the True Sentiment of VCs?

startup 285

startup VC entrepreneurs investing 285

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 29, 2009

When venture capitalists scale back investing activities it can be very swift and leave many companies that are in the process of fund raising hung out to dry. Just ask anybody who was trying to close funding the fateful week of September 11, 2001 or even March 2000. The best MBA class I took was an investment strategy class.

VC 263

VC board investing investment 263

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 13, 2010

Within a year, by late 2000 / early 2001 consulting firms were firing people en masse. Investment in training, adherence to process, global knowledge sharing systems, quality control / partner reviews and campus recruitment programs that attracted the right talent. Most of the Internet startup consulting firms went bankrupt.

consulting 302

consulting leadership entrepreneurs advice 302

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 12, 2010

Deals are getting done with a lot less capital which is creating a healthy debate in the industry. Is there a bubble going on in seed investing? Retail investors were burned in IPOs in 2000, Consumers getting burned by services disappearing) Minutes 31-35. Tags: This Week in Venture Capital. Minutes 8 – 10. o ShopKick.

VC 232

VC venture capital entrepreneurs ventures 232

Onevest

MARCH 19, 2015

Join the rest of the nation including equity crowdfunding platforms like 1000 Angels , the private investor network that connects startups with investors, where currently only accredited investors are allowed to invest. Even the more realistic projection, $300 billion , is 10 times the current VC investment market. So why the hold up?

advice 189

advice investing investment startup 189

TechCrunch

JUNE 9, 2022

I have experienced two major financial disruptions in my career: the bubble burst in 2000 and the financial crisis of 2008. Growth investors have become far more reserved when making new investments, and many are redefining how they approach valuations. Founders must consider a new timeline for the investment process.

disruption 97

disruption health capital investing 97