A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

DECEMBER 29, 2021

It reminds me of the early days of web2 in 2001/2002/2003, when we started USV. As such Web3 can, if properly developed and with the right kind of regulation, provide a meaningful shift in power back to individuals and communities. The good news is there are literally tens of thousands of teams building new things on a web3 stack now.

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finance financing development communities 274

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 29, 2009

Just ask anybody who was trying to close funding the fateful week of September 11, 2001 or even March 2000. I would argue that the shut-down of September 2009 was equally severe yet there are signs that this “VC Ice Age” has begun to thaw. Why did the VC markets freeze so quickly? Short answer – yes.

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Angel Capital Association

JUNE 27, 2024

During this past upcycle, many micro VCs raised significant funds and pursued earlier stage deals in earnest. Their DNA was wrapped up in a VC mindset that starting valuations were less important given the lofty later stage valuations and frothiness at that end of the market (hence over 1000 “unicorns” today vs only 8 in 2008 and 1 in 2001).

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funders peer-to-peer mix-use angel capital 52

TechCrunch

MAY 17, 2022

The judges for this pitch-off will be Yoon Choi (Muirwoods Ventures), Mar Hershenson (Pear VC) and Gabriel Scheer (Elemental Excelerator) on day one; and Sven Strohband (Khosla Ventures), Victoria Beasley (Prelude Ventures) and John Du (GM Ventures) on day two. ” Mar Hershenson — Pear VC. Victoria holds an MBA and M.S.

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pitching energy startup consulting 76

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 27, 2010

And that was evident on today’s Angel vs. VC panel. The VC industry is segmenting – I have spoken about this many times before. The VC industry has different segments in it that have different fund sizes, different investment amounts and different risk / return expectations. It’s just not a VC investment.

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disruption VC entrepreneurs financing 308

Dream It

APRIL 12, 2020

During our recent Dreamit Kickoff week, Bullpen Capital Founder and General Partner Paul Martino ( @ahpah ) spoke with our Spring 2020 cohort about the state of the VC ecosystem in the current economic crisis. Liquidation preferences may change in later financing rounds, but probably too significantly.

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ventures startup capital board 334

TechCrunch

APRIL 11, 2022

Whether we will see as dramatic a correction in the next few years as we did in 2001 to 2003, however, is anyone’s guess.”. “If We look for founders where other VC firms said they aren’t the best founders, but really, they outperform and are high-performing founders and are resourceful when VCs didn’t give them money,” she added.

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venture capital investment investing ventures 97

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 13, 2010

Within a year, by late 2000 / early 2001 consulting firms were firing people en masse. On July 27th, 2001 Accenture IPO’s and many of the partners grew fabulously wealthy. Don’t be psyched out by your competitors big financing round, latest product release or business development deal.

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consulting leadership entrepreneurs advice 302

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 29, 2010

People assume that I’m biased because I’m a VC and think you should always get the highest valuation possible. The A round was done in February 2000 (end of the bull market) and my B round was done in April 2001 (bear market). But if you do this early (pre VC) then the price points are pretty low. This is wrong.

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venture capital capital ventures angel investing 282

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 22, 2011

I spoke about how Amazon Web Services deserves far more credit for the last 5 years of innovation than it gets credit for and how I believe they spawned the micro-VC category. I said that I felt that Micro-VCs were the most important change in our industry. It is great for entrepreneurs and great for VCs. I believe that.

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real estate entrepreneurs financing finance 309

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 29, 2010

Our first big institutional round of VC was $16.5 We went “nuclear&# and slimmed down to 33 people (yes, I know, still large by today’s standards but this was 2001), raised $10 million and we built a real company. I learned everything I know about startups in these lean years: 2001-2004.

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culture construction startup advice 333

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 18, 2009

You’ve got to be able to come out of unsuccessful VC meetings, pull your socks up, and go into the next pitch. As a VC if I can tell that you’ve survived tough times and you don’t appear beaten down that’s a huge plus. This was soon after the bursting of the dot com bubble – in early 2001.

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entrepreneurs advice VC SaaS 298

Tomasz Tunguz

AUGUST 14, 2014

And as DeCambre points out, so far through 2014, the ten largest startup financings have yielded about twice as much capital as the ten largest IPOs. The chart above compares the total number of MegaRounds, those VC investments of $50M or more, from 2001 through 2013. Last year, there was 1 MegaRound for every 2 IPOs.

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finance financing VC capital 40

TechCrunch

JANUARY 29, 2021

Some readers say they use our surveys to study up on an individual VC before pitching them, so let us know which format you prefer. 10 VCs say interactivity, regulation and independent creators will reshape digital media in 2021. On January 15, 2001, then-college student Dries Buytaert released Drupal 1.0.0,

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VC founder media education 107

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 19, 2009

I had previously raised VC in 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2005. In case VC’s haven’t figured this out yet, shit rolls downhill. My blog linked to Brad Feld’s blog because I was so grateful for his series on term sheets and he was one of the biggest reasons that as a VC I felt compelled to blog.

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VC venture capital pitching capital 274

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 11, 2010

It also takes options off the table if you eventually find out that this isn’t a VC backable business. I’ve spoken about this in a post entitled, “ Do you even need VC ?&# Let’s assume that the $2 million buys 25% of your company, which is the norm in an equity financing. Should you take it?

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startup advice venture capital VC 319

TechCrunch

DECEMBER 6, 2021

Since BCV’s first fund in 2001, the firm has invested over $4.5 The move to VC felt like a natural transition,” Melas-Kyriazi said. billion to fund young startups, and young VC firms, too. The firm currently has $9.2 billion in assets under management. In May, it closed two funds valued at a combined $1.3

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capital ventures angel investing VC 79

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 16, 2012

I raised money as an entrepreneur, like you, in 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003 and 2005 for two different companies. And of course I’ve sat on the other side of the table: As a VC. This is not just the perspective of a VC although I can’t say I have zero VC bias. Neither can any VC. Executive Summary.

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strategy development VC advice 366

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 7, 2011

I asked him if he’d be willing to allow me to interview him for This Week in VC and we filmed it in the offices of Stack Overflow – his new company. There’s a big business in Finance working with Excel, but that’s an outlier. Lesson: Joel had been building a community of readers since 2001.

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peer-to-peer communities development innovation 285