Both Sides of the Table

JULY 23, 2014

There has been much discussion in the past few years of the changing structure of the venture capital industry. The rise of alternative sources of capital (crowd funding and the like). But it still takes VC to scale a business (thus large capital into industry winners like Uber, Airbnb, SnapChat, etc). Where are we today?

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VC venture capital peer-to-peer ventures 398

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 11, 2022

Something happened in the past 7 years in the startup and venture capital world that I hadn’t experienced since the late 90’s — we all began praying to the God of Valuation. How might our next phase of the journey seem brighter, even with more uncertain days for startups and capital markets? What happened? Until we weren’t.

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VC culture sustainability capital 466

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 7, 2014

There weren’t a lot of seed funds in 2007 so this was often done by angels, funding consortia or sometimes early-stage funds that existed then (First Round Capital, True Ventures, SoftTech VC, etc.). 5 million was always the classic definition of an A-round between the late nineties (crazy financings aside) and say 2007.

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VC advice financing finance 399

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 24, 2014

I become a venture capitalist in September 2007 – exactly 6.5 As a result I didn’t write my first venture capital check until March 2009 – exactly 5 years ago. In 2010 somebody posed the question on Quora, “Is Mark Suster a Successful Venture Capitalist?” years ago.

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VC venture capital financing finance 387

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2014

by Michael Woolf that is worth any startup founder reading to get a sense of perspective on the reality warp that is startup world during a frothy market such as 1997-1999, 2005-2007 or 2012-2014. There are many times when being overly capitalized before you’re ready is a negative. Availability of Capital.

startup 383

startup VC frameworks capital 383

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 19, 2010

Our guest this week on #TWiVC was Dana Settle , partner at Greycroft Partners , a venture capital firm with offices in New York and Los Angeles. Current round: $20mm in Series C by Accel Partners (Jim Breyer, board member at Wal-Mart, Dell, and FaceBook), KPCB, and DAG Ventures. Note that I’m not defining who numbers 1,2 are.

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VC peer-to-peer advice ventures 240

This is going to be BIG.

DECEMBER 2, 2014

It''s kind of a funny answer to "When did you start Brooklyn Bridge Ventures?". What might be a more relevant date is May 22nd, 2007. So when did I really start Brooklyn Bridge Ventures? I got my first job in venture--at GM--in February 2001. Venture Capital & Technology' Getting a domain name.

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venture capital VC ventures technology 293

A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

MAY 5, 2021

Half of all venture funds outperform the stock market which is the benchmark most institutions measure VC funds against. And I suspect it is getting more profitable, not less, as the capital markets and M&A markets are providing robust liquidity options for managers. Well, it turns out that is not right.

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VC board investing investment 279

This is going to be BIG.

DECEMBER 11, 2014

I didn''t actually get to meet him in person until SXSW in 2007. Fundraising for the Series A looked like it was going to be difficult--and that''s when Rich Levendov from Avalon Ventures stepped in. Venture Capital & Technology' That was the year Twitter took off. He took a long term view and jumped in with a check.

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board venture capital entrepreneurship creativity 274

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 10, 2016

My partner Greg Bettinelli (worth following on Twitter) was recently named by The LA Business Journal as the “ Top deal maker in Los Angeles in Venture Capital.” And Greg has had the most influence on Upfront Ventures’ strategy since he joined. From 2007-2012 I scoured LA constantly. I sat on panels.

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disruption VC communities ventures 226

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 started in 2007 with a thesis that my primary investment decision would be about the team (70%) and only afterward about the market opportunity (30%). Upfront Ventures'

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VC investing investment entrepreneurs 374

This is going to be BIG.

OCTOBER 12, 2011

More importantly, I know them both for a while--Hilary since August of 2007 through twitter and, of course, getting to work with her at Path 101, and Kara since I used to e-mail her about her Boomtown columns in the WSJ over ten years ago. That's how you win out in the venture and startup world. Don't get me wrong.

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data analysis venture capital communities entrepreneurs 298

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). Paul discussed his perspective having been at SAP Ventures.

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VC social gaming venture capital networking 225

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 6, 2015

At the time almost nobody had heard of the following funds: FirstRound Capital, TrueVentures, Floodgate and SoftTech. Firms like Baseline, Felicis, ff Ventures, Founder Collective, Freestyle, HomeBrew, IA Ventures, K9, Lowercase, NextView, Resolute, Rincon, Crosscut and the countless other great firms we all now know didn’t exist.

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VC peer-to-peer frameworks board 348

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. But any entrepreneurs raising capital should keep in mind that this opening of the markets could possibly be temporary. overvalued) and sell when the fall precipitously.

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VC board investing investment 263

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 3, 2009

When Twitter first became popular with niche crowds in 2007 it seemed to take hold initially with bloggers. Bill Gurley , a well known VC from Benchmark Capital, seemed to have a 2-year hiatus from blogging and has now picked up the pace. My LA VC colleague Peter Lee of Baroda Ventures has started a blog about VC.

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VC creativity networking media 219

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 27, 2010

There are real changes in the venture capital industry and it would have been fun to talk about them. We need venture debt, factoring companies and public markets. Dave McClure argued passionately that since the overwhelming majority of exits are sub $100 million we need to readjust how much capital goes in.

disruption 308

disruption VC entrepreneurs financing 308

Gust

DECEMBER 13, 2011

I’ve recently taken a look at seed stage funding by venture capitalists (VCs) and angel investors over the past five years. Here are the trends in venture capital financings from 2006 through 2010 – the number of seed stage deals funded and total investment by region in millions of dollars. . Southern California*. Deals. $$$$.

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entrepreneurs angel investing VC venture capital 162

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

JUNE 18, 2015

I know that I had things easier as a new VC because I came into the business in 2007 when the market was frenzied like today but an order-of-magnitude less so and the world wasn’t living in public. Not less work but fewer “things.” It’s true that my job requires more travel than I’d like.

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advice VC entrepreneurs transportation 398

TechCrunch

NOVEMBER 20, 2021

Founder and managing partner at Ripple Ventures , Matt Cohen is a business operator turned early-stage investor. Matthew Mendelsohn’s accession to become Yale’s new chief investment officer marks a milestone for the rise of university endowments investing in venture capital. More posts by this contributor.

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ventures education venture capital VC 96

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 10, 2010

This episode of This Week in Venture Capital featured Michael Montgomery, president of Montgomery & Co. You have to be selected to present and it is typically reserved for companies that have already raised early-stage capital and are well into revenue growth. Should you use investment banks to raise venture capital?

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VC venture capital ventures capital 242

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 5, 2011

2007, 2011) and for the hottest of companies and in bad markets for fund raising (2003, 2008) prices test the bottom end of the range. I saw this kind of pricing when I first entered the VC market in 2007. So rounds tend to be “range bound&# where the top end of the valuation spectrum often being done in boom markets (i.e.

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startup advice pitching investing 336

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 2, 2009

By then I was still on the board of my first company but it hadn’t yet sold (it ended up selling in 2007 to a publicly traded French company). Otherwise, what incentive exists for the VC to put in more capital or to have the founders earn money. Many term sheets ensued. So by this point I hadn’t had an exit.

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founder VC advice pitching 329

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 14, 2010

They have marked-up paper gains propped up by an over excited venture capital market that has validated their investments. For venture capitalists this isn’t troubling. Bad times often require more capital but ironically this is when capital is dried up. It is slowly becoming Florida Condos.

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angel investing investing investment real estate 299

TechCrunch

JULY 13, 2022

Booz Allen Hamilton, the Virginia-based, defense-focused IT consulting firm, today announced the launch of a corporate venture capital arm, Booz Allen Ventures, that will initially put $100 million toward “strategic” defensive and offensive technologies. In the U.S.,

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ventures incumbents startup venture capital 93

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 2, 2010

This is part of my series on Understanding Venture Capital. If you imagine that they did most of their initial investments between 2002-2007 then it’s been 3 years of mostly doing follow-on investments in those old deals. Tags: Pitching VCs Raising Venture Capital VC Industry.

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VC venture capital investing investment 269

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 21, 2009

On the third Wednesday of every month I co-chair a meeting called the SoCal VCA (venture capital alliance), which represents participants from all of the top venture capital firms in Southern California as well as prominent members of the Tech Coast Angels (TCA). 2009 has been the worst year for M&A in a decade.

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VC venture capital ventures capital 241

AsiaTechDaily

OCTOBER 20, 2023

Register Venture investment is a high-stakes game that demands vision, persistence, and adaptability. Although venture capital is often viewed as a maze, there are those who have paved the way, making the journey smoother for others. Despite the prevailing economic chaos, Mr. Kim embraced the challenge with fervor.

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ventures investing investment sustainability 105

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 5, 2010

Brands didn’t advertise their web pages they advertised “AOL Keywords.&# If you were a newly minted, venture-backed consumer Internet company you had to have a deal with AOL to reach your customers. Facebook had grown stratospherically from 2004-2007 to 100 million users and was everything that MySpace wasn’t.

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networking innovation development opportunity 297

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. Just as I was getting the swing of things the world shifted beneath my feet and the stock market went into a free fall and venture capital all but shut down for nearly a year. Accel led the B, Morgan Stanley the C and now HIG the D. Over the past 2.5

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VC venture capital capital investing 223

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 25, 2013

By now you will likely have read Andy Dunn’s scathing post about Venture Capitalists in which he decries the industry’s masses. “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.” So let’s look at the main assertions.

VC 374

VC peer-to-peer entrepreneurs investing 374

Gust

OCTOBER 8, 2014

There weren’t a lot of seed funds in 2007 so this was often done by angels, funding consortia or sometimes early-stage funds that existed then (First Round Capital, True Ventures, SoftTech VC, etc.). 5 million was always the classic definition of an A-round between the late nineties (crazy financings aside) and say 2007.

VC 136

VC advice financing finance 136

TechCrunch

NOVEMBER 7, 2022

Travel booking startup Hopper today announced that it closed a $96 million follow-on investment from Capital One, bringing the company’s total raised to $740 million. Travel app Hopper raises $96M from Capital One to double down on social commerce by Kyle Wiggers originally published on TechCrunch.

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capital leadership disruption ventures 107

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 28, 2018

Today the company officially announced its most recent round of capital ?—?having Capital of course drives scale advantages and when you have “winner take most” markets it also has a way of scaring away some investors from investing in the 3–5th “me too” competitors. having raised $300 million?—?less There is nothing viral!

transportation 256

transportation innovation leadership capital 256

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 31, 2010

We raised a seed round of capital in 1999 and our first venture capital round was the first week of March 2000 (e.g. We were now set to close at $46 million in new capital. We found a way to get a round of venture capital closed after all of this. We were based in London.

entrepreneurs 308

entrepreneurs advice real estate venture capital 308

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. Many experienced partners are funds have 7-10 boards and most of these will need more capital. That’s the beauty of markets and of capitalism.

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startup VC entrepreneurs investing 285