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. The reason is that no VC wants to see the venture debt provider get burned if you become bankrupt.

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Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 16, 2014

The speaks to the continued confidence in the venture capital markets and as I had predicted some time ago the VC markets right now are a great place to invest – especially relative to other places to put one’s money. If you want to understand how the VC industry is changing there is a great primer in the link.

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Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 16, 2013

We’re excited to continue to grow our investment professional staff and will continue to do so over the course of 2013 & 2014 with our new fund. But … we had committed to setting up an EIR program where we would fund people to work on their ideas in our offices and also get the dual experience of working inside a VC.

pitching 372

pitching advice VC entrepreneurs 372

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 11, 2013

You can watch the video above for a very brief overview of why we rebranded and where we see our place in the VC ecosystem along with what has changed in our industry. Relaunching our brand is part of our larger initiative to build a VC firm of the future. Nearly four months ago we rebranded at Upfront Ventures.

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ventures VC strategy advice 324

A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

MAY 23, 2023

Back in 2014, USV got subpoenaed by the New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS) over our web3 investing activities. We hired a law firm, answered the subpoena, and that ultimately landed me in public testimony in front of the DFS staff.

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innovation investing investment technology 268

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 14, 2014

Throughout all of these years I was a full-time VC so Launchpad really came out of evenings and weekends for me. Adam had a full time startup and then was doing consulting (he later raised a VC fund). But by 2014 much had started to change. Between the group of us we were probably helping launch 75-100 companies / year.

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Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 8, 2014

” in 2014 the data seems pretty conclusive because LA has now become the fastest growing tech startup region by numbers of companies being started and those of us here have noticed this pace accelerating. billion in venture capital to LA’s technology startups and 2014 will shatter that figure.

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entrepreneurs creativity technology capital 376

A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

AUGUST 17, 2020

It comes with the territory in VC. Crypto was helpful for me back in 2013 and 2014 when I was going through one of those periods. I met the founders and was happy for them. Then I woke up. Investments that don’t work haunt me. It isn’t the losing money part. I have learned to live with that. The what could have been part.

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investing investment VC venture capital 205

A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

JULY 27, 2021

And our second Opportunity Fund, raised in 2014, has generated 7.3x Our 2014 Opportunity Fund has a higher cash on cash return but a lower IRR than our 2010 Opportunity Fund. Our 2008 vintage early-stage fund has generated about 5x cash on cash but only generated a 22.5% cash on cash but generated a 58.6% cash on cash but only 46.7%

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opportunity venture capital strategy investing 279

TechCrunch

NOVEMBER 16, 2022

Sopoong , a social impact-focused VC, intends to support environmentally minded tech founders in South Korea and Southeast Asia, while building a bridge between Korean conglomerates and startups in the sector. Korean VC Sopoong closes $8M fund for startups focused on environmental impact by Kate Park originally published on TechCrunch.

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TechCrunch

DECEMBER 8, 2021

In 2014, more than 40% of U.S. VC investment, according to “Beyond Silicon Valley,” a new report co-produced by venture firm Revolution and PitchBook. VC dollars have gone to Bay Area startups. Since launching the platform in 2014, Case and his teams have invested in 194 companies across 89 cities.

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VC ventures investing investment 101

This is going to be BIG.

MAY 13, 2019

It’s a tricky subject, because VCs only exist to make money—not really to oversee the running of these companies as beneficial to the world, unless it gets so bad that it affects the economic outcome. Not only that, we have other portfolio companies to worry about.

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Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 6, 2019

Yes, VC / Startup Funding is up Massively If you look at how much VC firms have raised from Limited Partners (LPs) over the past 2 decades you’ll see that we’ve returned to a level that we haven’t seen since 1999. If you want the whole deck you can find it on SlideShare but I’ve written up a short summary with commentary below.

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venture capital capital ventures peer-to-peer 292

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 14, 2015

I ran a VC AMA (ask me anything) last Monday on Meerkat and had > 1,000 simultaneous people asking me questions. For years when I did This Week in VC (now BothSides TV ) and one of the most magic parts was the people who watched the show live and could ask questions in realtime. Mark Suster (@msuster) November 7, 2014.

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energy networking VC innovation 325

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. There are a lot of things I think entrepreneurs should care about when raising from a VC: How big or small their fund is? Beezer did.

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entrepreneurs VC mentorship strategy 237

AsiaTechDaily

FEBRUARY 27, 2023

Register Asia Pacific-based early-stage VC Investible has announced the appointment of Charlie Ill to the newly-created role of group Chief Investment Officer, as well as the promotions of Jayden Basha to Principal and Ben Lindsay to Investment Manager.

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VC investing investment venture capital 92

TechCrunch

JUNE 8, 2022

The dynamics that play into this forecast, aside from the impact of COVID, include a youthful population (the youngest globally), rising smartphone adoption and internet penetration that has led to a burgeoning tech ecosystem backed by local and international VC dollars. Image Credits: Bill Gates Foundation Gallup report (2014)/Endeavor.

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Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 5, 2012

.” I applaud all efforts by people to take on this issue and especially be Adeo who – let’s be honest – was really the first champion of trying to make the VC world more transparent by launching TheFunded, which didn’t exactly endear him to VCs initially. They’ll get priced soon enough by a VC.”

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TechCrunch

MAY 17, 2023

Venture capital (VC) firm Lifeline Ventures today announced a fresh €150 million ($163 million) fund aimed at early-stage startups across Finland. ” Finnish VC firm Lifeline Ventures closes $163M fund for early-stage startups by Paul Sawers originally published on TechCrunch billion for a majority stake in 2016.

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VC ventures startup investing 88

A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

JANUARY 28, 2021

Had you done that in the summer of 2014, you would be looking at roughly 1,000 times your money right now. Whether it is crypto (Coinbase) or day trading (Robinhood), the retail investor now has the tools to get into the game and win the game. The new startup investing is buying into the Ethereum crowdsale.

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media investment investing development 280

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! Marc Andreessen (@pmarca) October 7, 2014. No VC will be so naive as not to see straight through it. When I first became a VC, seed rounds were typically $500k – $1.5 Nobody cares.

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VC advice financing finance 136

A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

JUNE 27, 2022

The Gotham Gal and I own five EVs and have been driving electric-powered cars since 2014. I don’t drive gas-powered cars and haven’t for a few years now. We have purchased two Chevy Bolts, two Tesla Model Ss, and one Rivian truck.

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accelerator 237

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 26, 2014

I suppose it depends how much money you’ve raised but if hiring critical staff, raising VC and streamlining your biz dev or sales is important to you then you might consider putting a small amount of spend against PR. If you haven’t yet raised an A-round my recommendation would be that you not yet hire a big, well-known PR firm.

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Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 6, 2014

Most experienced VCs won’t push you to give up founder control at this stage of the business nor should they. With small amounts of money invested (sub $3 million) the risks are reasonably low for most VCs and the consequences of bad decisions or decisions a VC has limited say in is tolerable.

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Both Sides of the Table

MAY 2, 2015

I love the enthusiasm, the boundless energy and the sense of possibility that comes from having an idea that hasn’t yet been beat up in the marketplace of competing ideas, customer contracts, VC skepticism, jaded journalists or fickle consumers who are on the The New, New Thing. But alas I must scale with businesses and make money.

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board energy financing finance 338

TechCrunch

AUGUST 4, 2021

The Series C was led by Japanese VC firm Incubate Fund, with additional investment from partnerships managed by Innovation Engine, funds managed by SBI Investment Co., Incubate Fund’s investments in ispace stretch back to the company’s seed round in 2014. Ispace’s total funding now stands at $195.5 million.

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support incubation startup VC 101

A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

JULY 2, 2019

Facebook paid $2bn (or possibly more) for Oculus in the spring of 2014 and maybe a couple million Oculus headsets have been sold since then. If there is a technology that has overpromised and underdelivered more than AR/VR over the last five years, I am not sure what it is. So when is all of this investment going to pay off?

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technology investment investing 187

TechCrunch

MARCH 22, 2023

This isn’t the first time we’ve talked about de Raphélis Soissan, as she used to be an entrepreneur herself and I first covered her startup, Clustree, back in 2014. Two things help Emblem stand out from other French VC firms. As many VC firms start raising ever larger funds, everything else starts to look like a micro fund.

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VC angel investing venture capital SaaS 79

TechCrunch

DECEMBER 15, 2021

Hatch: It’s bringing liquidity back to the investors that invested in those space companies years ago, I think looking back, Skybox, which was one of the first venture backed companies that had an exit was sold to Google for about half a billion dollars in 2014, after it was created in 2010.

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SaaS VC ventures investing 87

TechCrunch

DECEMBER 28, 2020

Levin joined Heartcore Capital in 2019 from Global Founders Capital, the billion-dollar VC arm of Rocket Internet, where he was responsible for investments in Canva, Heyjobs, Instarem, Anyfin and others. Homejoy expanded internationally in 2014 in a rush to squash a new German competitor Helpling. Image Credits: Homejoy/Helpling.

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incubation strategy frameworks VC 127

Tomasz Tunguz

APRIL 1, 2019

In 2014, I published a post called Do Startup Require Less Capital to Succeed than 10 Years Ago ? In other words, at IPO, how much revenue per VC dollar did the company generate. In other words, at IPO, how much revenue per VC dollar did the company generate. It’s been five years and time to see how things have changed.

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SaaS capital startup VC 111

Revolution

SEPTEMBER 29, 2022

According to PitchBook , VC investments were down 30% in Q2 2022 compared with 2021, and IPOs hit a 50-year low. When deal-making slows, VC dollars typically favor the perceived market leader, starving other venture-backed businesses in the same space of capital.

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TechCrunch

AUGUST 15, 2023

Brett Calhoun Contributor Share on Twitter Brett Calhoun is the managing director and general partner at Redbud VC. Amid these turbulent times, the VC accelerator industry has emerged as a stalwart player. At the dawn of 2022, there were 2,900 active VC firms, marking a 225% increase since 2008. psychedelics or construction).

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TechCrunch

MARCH 30, 2021

Finch Capital , the early-stage fintech VC with a presence in London and Amsterdam, is acquiring Wirecard Turkey, a subsidiary of Wirecard, the disgraced fintech out of Germany. In 2014, it was wholly acquired by Wirecard Issuing & Acquiring Gmbh, which is a subsidiary of Wirecard AG.

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TechCrunch

MARCH 9, 2021

In fact, among the earliest use cases for the company was helping startups track engagement with their pitch decks at VC firms. million, according to Crunchbase, but Heddleston says that he wanted to build a company that was self-sufficient and raising more VC dollars was never a priority or necessity.

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A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

AUGUST 22, 2019

Back in May 2014, Duolingo launched something called the Duolingo Test Center. Our portfolio company Duolingo is known for their super popular language learning app. According to Wikipedia over 300mm people all over the world have used Duolingo. The idea was to compete with expensive and inconvenient foreign language tests like TOEFL.

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education founder 35

TechCrunch

JULY 13, 2022

In 2014, Mr. Eazi launched Phonetrader, an online used phone marketplace backed by a now-defunct startup incubator, 440NG, which was run by two investment firms, L5Lab and 88mph. According to him, powering artists and people in the creative space should be done in a startup/VC manner. Go team @Yoco_ZA go [link].

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