Both Sides of the Table

MAY 24, 2021

This “overnight success” was first financed in 2004. Imagine if, say, Autodesk had purchased it in 2009 for $100 million? Of the first four investments I made as a VC in 2009, two have exited and two (Invoca & GumGum) still are independent and likely to produce $billion++ outcomes . Maker Studios?—?sold

venture capital 363

venture capital capital ventures VC 363

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 7, 2014

5 million was always the classic definition of an A-round between the late nineties (crazy financings aside) and say 2007. Entrepreneurs started demanding that VCs call their first-round financings “seed” rounds even if they were $3 million. and there''s always a but]. I saw this myself a few times in a row.

VC 399

VC advice financing finance 399

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 23, 2014

The “big boom” in startup financing started around March 2009?—?more Public-company tech investors creates competition in late-stage financings and these investors can afford to be less price sensitive if they choose. more than 5 years ago?—?and and hasn’t abated. But about that “bubble” we always hear about?

VC 398

VC venture capital peer-to-peer ventures 398

This is going to be BIG.

SEPTEMBER 30, 2012

David's firm most recently participated in the $77 million second round financing of SoFi, a one year old startup focusing on student loans. I suppose, more specifically, the bubble ended in the last two weeks of September--right after this financing. The other entrepreneur quoted in the story is from a guy pitching a Pinterest clone.

ventures 301

ventures venture capital disruption pitching 301

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 14, 2010

That would mean that the increased number of new business startups will lead to a “funding gap&# of deals that can’t get financed. But I’ll judge the angel class of 2009/2010 on a 7-10 year time horizon. in 2009 the market was completely constipated as investors focused on triage. I avoided much of this.

angel investing 299

angel investing investing investment real estate 299

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 24, 2014

As a result I didn’t write my first venture capital check until March 2009 – exactly 5 years ago. Helping companies get to next financing round successfully: I was just beginning this phase in Sept 2010 and said so. I’ve now been involved with many other successful foll0w-on financings. 5 years ago. Since then?

VC 387

VC venture capital financing finance 387

American Entrepreneurship

JULY 15, 2024

“Metropolis has developed a new growth buyout model, demonstrating how innovation and technology can evolve legacy industries for the 21st century,” said Tony Minella, Co-Founder and President of E ldridge Industries , an existing investor in Metropolis that led the recent financing transaction. The financing included $1.05

financing 105

financing finance real estate strategy 105

This is going to be BIG.

MARCH 15, 2012

He spotted Facebook in 2004 and Spotify in 2009. or would he have been convinced to take a financing round? Companies going for the long ball aren't discovered--they're juiced up to go for the homerun, with financing. Parker made a huge dent in the web as co-founder of Napster, then built Plaxo up to 20 million users.

startup 278

startup financing finance venture capital 278

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 14, 2014

It was 2009 and it was terribly difficult to get any financing (if you can remember a time like that!) We have witnessed one hell of a startup boom from 2009-2014 which has coincided with the boom in accelerators. They have raised company profiles and made follow-on financings easier. We had a specific goal in mind.

accelerator 290

accelerator mentorship peer-to-peer VC 290

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 11, 2022

Almost no financings, many VCs and tech startups cratered for the second time in less than a decade following the dot com bursting. Starting in 2009 I began writing checks consistently, year-in and year-out. During this era, from 2009–2015, most founders I knew were in it for building great & sustainable companies.

VC 466

VC culture sustainability capital 466

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 21, 2014

Since 2009 we’ve been in an unequivocal bull market. We’ve had an explosion of alternate sources of financing from crowd-sourcing, angels, accelerators, incubators, corporates, corporate incubators. Venture capitalists have raised increasing amounts of money from their investors (LPs) every year.

incubation 354

incubation board VC innovation 354

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 1, 2011

But they weren’t there in 2009 when you were up late nights shitting yourself whether you really were smart for pursuing this idea. I still have to get sales, operations, finance, HR & corp dev right to win. I agreed to finance a company today. If you’re a tech startup person I know you know what I mean.

advice 391

advice VC finance financing 391

Gust

DECEMBER 13, 2011

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. . For VCs, I chose to look at all seed stage VC deals (from MoneyTree©) as well as those in five of the most active regions in the country. All Seed-VC. Silicon Valley.

entrepreneurs 162

entrepreneurs angel investing VC venture capital 162

A Smart Bear

JANUARY 4, 2018

This week we closed $250M in financing from Silver Lake , the premier technology private equity firm. The Silicon Valley-oriented technology press outlets don’t cover us because we’re not in San Francisco, even though we’re more successful than most of the startups they cover. Every day, 5% of the entire online world (roughly 3.5

investing 175

investing investment leadership culture 175

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 5, 2015

I am reminded of this problem every time my firm does a financing where a note went before us but more specifically I was reminded by this great post by Brad Feld to talk about the pre-money vs. post-money conversion issue. This was until about 2009 because most the investments in companies came from one, maybe two, sources.

VC 364

VC financing finance board 364

This is going to be BIG.

SEPTEMBER 20, 2021

It had been written that NYC was built by industries of zero sum games like finance and real estate, and that DNA wouldn’t work in the startup community. It wasn’t until I helped Foursquare raise their seed round in 2009 that many outside VCs even took notice of NYC. You need both. New Yorkers help each other out.

communities 434

communities startup real estate mentorship 434

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 26, 2022

If I look back to the beginning of the current tech boom which started around 2009, we often wrote a $3–5 million check and this was called an “A round” and 12 years later in an over-capitalized market this became known as a “Seed Round” but in truth what we do hasn’t changed much at all.

ventures 408

ventures startup peer-to-peer venture capital 408

This is going to be BIG.

SEPTEMBER 25, 2018

Personal finance is a thing that no one likes to talk about. When I joined First Round Capital in October of 2009, I limped in with about $31,000 in credit card debt and no immediate savings. That’s when things really went off the rails and my debt started to pile up.

financing 274

financing finance pitching founder 274

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 1, 2009

In my previous post, The VC Ice Age is Thawing (for now) I wrote about the reasons why the VC market came to a screeching halt in September 2008 and remained largely shut until at least April 2009. As of near the end of September 2009, we’re up 46% since the March 9th nadir (yes, I need to find a way to use one of my SAT words ; – ).

VC 255

VC venture capital networking innovation 255

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 27, 2010

What micro VCs need to consider is what happens when several of your companies want to grow and require VC financing? Or when the economy turns downward and they all need financing extensions? We picked up activity aggressively in 2009. In public investing you can get in and out even in a bull market. VC is different.

disruption 308

disruption VC entrepreneurs finance 308

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 15, 2022

This happens slowly because while public markets trade daily and prices then adjust instantly, private markets don’t get reset until follow-on financing rounds happen which can take 6–24 months. In 2009 we could take a long time to review a deal. discipline & focus. This translates to about 12–15 investments.

VC 416

VC strategy investment investing 416

This is going to be BIG.

SEPTEMBER 19, 2012

In the early spring of 2009, the fundraising nuclear winter of the previous year hadn't yet thawed. Two Sigma is a technology and finance company in Soho filled with incredibly bright engineers and developers, so I’m really excited about leveraging that partnership in a number of cool ways.

ventures 280

ventures pitching VC startup ecosystem 280

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 3, 2012

But it was early 2009 and not many companies were getting new financings at all so I thought they should take the deal. But my other VC partner had a smaller fund and raising price would have a big impact on his ability to finance the company. The company agreed on a price but felt it was a bit lower than they had hoped for.

VC 356

VC finance financing investment 356

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 22, 2012

It encourages a bit too much FOMO (fear of missing out) and over-valuation in companies and a desire to do huge financing rounds to be perceived as the “knock-out winner.” It’s been high tide since 2009 so an entire batch of entrepreneurs don’t know what low tide even looks like.

startup 390

startup VC venture capital entrepreneurs 390

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 29, 2009

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. It helped me avoid chasing deals (and a house) in 2007/08 and it led to GRP’s fastest pace of investment in many years in the first three quarters of 2009 at a time when many others weren’t investing.

VC 263

VC board investment investing 263

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 15, 2010

But if 2011 & 2012 look more like 2008-2009 than 2010 then one of the most important skills of angel investors will be whether they can get their companies financed (or ramen profitable, but this is harder to sustain over a long period of time).

angel investing 284

angel investing investing investment VC 284

Dream It

APRIL 12, 2020

In 2008-2009, the financial markets seized up, and there were quarters of complete uncertainty, but ultimately VCs started investing again and things normalized. The crisis began in August 2008, but by March 2009, deal activity in venture had picked up again and economic activity in the venture ecosystem normalized.

ventures 334

ventures startup capital board 334

Innovation 2 Enterprise

NOVEMBER 29, 2020

i2E made a concept investment through the OCAST Technology Business Finance Program (which iThryv repaid) early in the company’s life, and then in June of 2009, we invested again from the Oklahoma Seed Capital Fund (OSCF).

venture capital 117

venture capital capital health ventures 117

abovethecrowd.com

JUNE 17, 2014

In July of 2009, the UK instituted a new network known as Faster Payment Service with same day settlement to replace their equivalent of ACH. Many blame Dodd-Frank and the consolidation post 2009 for the loss of free checking. I can ping Madagascar from my desktop in California in 368ms, but it takes 72 hours for a U.S.

disruption 83

disruption financing finance incumbents 83

StartupNation

SEPTEMBER 23, 2021

Business financing is often an essential component to any successful business. Whether it’s financing new ways to help reach your current business goals, or accessing extra working capital when you’re in a bind, Rapid Finance can help. Real results. Marita’s Cantina. For years, Marita’s Cantina had its ups and downs.

financing 77

financing finance funders capital 77

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 5, 2012

Was Paul Graham right in his “high resolution” financing post? This has worked very well in the 2009-2012 time frame because the tech market has boomed in this period. To better understand the arguments for / against convertible equity I suggest you read my posts on those topics: Is convertible debt preferable to equity?

startup 354

startup VC entrepreneurs financing 354

This is going to be BIG.

JUNE 12, 2018

Billion acquisition, Quentis Therapeutics picking up $48 million in financing, and Paige.ai I first met Matt Brimer in the Ace Hotel lobby back in 2009 when he was interviewing companies to join his new co-working space called "Superconductor", which obviously became General Assembly. raising $25 Million--all to fight cancer.

SaaS 167

SaaS pitching financing finance 167

Gust

OCTOBER 8, 2014

Cautionary note: No competent VC is actually fooled when you show up after raising $6M in seed financing and say you’re now raising an A! 5 million was always the classic definition of an A-round between the late nineties (crazy financings aside) and say 2007. Marc Andreessen (@pmarca) October 7, 2014. and there''s always a but].

VC 136

VC advice financing finance 136

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 14, 2016

As you can see below, investments have skyrocketed – up 300% since 2009. In 2009 many deals got done at $4-5 million pre and in the past few years some of these deals have gotten done at $10-12 million pre (or higher). Why Financing in Falling Markets is So Damn Difficult. And so it goes.

startup 285

startup VC entrepreneurs investment 285

TechCrunch

FEBRUARY 2, 2021

In a region where more than half of the population is either unbanked or underbanked , these open finance players are trying to improve financial inclusion on the continent. However, for Hassan, Mono’s play overlaps open finance and open banking. Getting into the accelerator helps Mono with one of its biggest challenges.

startup 108

startup financing finance accelerator 108

Tomasz Tunguz

JULY 22, 2018

Median round sizes have increased from 2009 dramatically across seed and Series A-C. In the chart above, I’ve drawn dashed lines from the values in 2009 across the graph. The dashed blue line is the median series A from 2009. Seed rounds have not surpassed 2009 Series A levels. How do you skip a round of financing?

startup 78

startup financing finance investment 78

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 30, 2016

Invoca had grown steadily and consistently since 2009 and by 2015 SaaS companies with scale had become hot – trading at a median of 7.3x Great companies get financed. And the narrative may tell you something about your own journey one day. We started planning our fund raising as much as 14 months ago.

SaaS 236

SaaS VC board finance 236