Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 13, 2014

Investment experience (5 years a VC at Battery Ventures). Helped merge company with Seedling – on track to do $20 million combined revenue in 2015 – will now become Chairman). Upfront Ventures VC Industry' Competitive (Athlete: skier & rowed at Princeton, hates losing at everything she does).

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VC networking board ventures 408

This is going to be BIG.

JANUARY 5, 2015

Anyway, 2015 marks a couple of big career anniversaries for me. You can''t rise up as fast taking a job at a VC firm in NYC the same way you could 10 years ago--and you can''t get that USV job as easily as you could. Who''s the VC that everyone *isn''t* trying to network with. I had something VC firms were interested in.

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startup ecosystem VC networking venture capital 342

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 23, 2015

One of the questions we discussed is, “How much capital should a startup raise?” ” Fred & I are both in agreement that there is a tension between capital constraints and creativity. Fred is generous with his time and advice and I hope has shaped a generation of VCs for the better. VC investing is hard work.

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advice board VC investing 327

Startup Grind

AUGUST 15, 2018

Prior to co-founding CCV, Marlon was an investment director at Intel Capital where he completed his Kauffman Fellowship. We started to invest out of our inaugural fund, Cross Culture Ventures I in April 2015. Thus, we invested in Fair and our thesis has proven correct to this point. When did you start your current fund?

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culture VC pitching investing 111

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 1, 2016

At the Upfront Summit in early February, we had a chance to have many off-the-record conversations with Limited Partners (LPs) who fund Venture Capital (VC) funds about their views of the market. However, they have been sending VCs far more investment checks in the last ten years than they’ve gotten back as distributions.

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venture capital capital ventures VC 205

A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

JANUARY 1, 2023

While many have gotten their burn rates way down, most startups still are losing money and will eventually need to raise capital in 2023. Good businesses with product market fit, positive unit economics, and strong leadership teams will raise capital although it will be at the new normal in terms of valuation.

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leadership VC capital venture capital 267

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 14, 2016

What is the True Sentiment of VCs? I recently survey more than 150 VC friends from all stages and geographies what they thought about the market by asking “Which of the following statements best describes your mood heading into 2016?” In 2015 in the US there were $77 billion written into startup tech companies.

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startup VC entrepreneurs investing 285

TechCrunch

NOVEMBER 17, 2020

Italy’s ecosystem for tech venture capital and startups has been in development for years and has made decent strides in the last decade. However, while many startups exist in cities like Turin, Bologna, Naples and Rome, Milan is generally seen as a bigger ecosystem because of its mercantile culture and a significant share of VC funds.

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VC venture capital mix-use accelerator 122

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 18, 2016

We try to look at the sources of capital, the valuations, exits and trends. Our last thoughts on the VC funding markets heading into 2016 was published here and I followed up with a little more context on the resetting of the venture industry , some thoughts on how startups are valued and how to think about burn rates at startups.

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peer-to-peer VC advice ventures 277

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 26, 2022

2021 saw phenomenal returns for our industry and it topped off more than a decade of unprecedented VC growth. When we get involved in Seed investments we usually represent 60–80% in one of the first institutional rounds of capital, we almost always take board seats and then we serve these founders over the course of a decade or longer.

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ventures startup peer-to-peer venture capital 408

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 14, 2014

I had witnessed a number of early-stage tech startups in LA raise seed capital from the Bay Area and relocate. 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). And Jamie hers.

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accelerator mentorship peer-to-peer VC 290

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 26, 2020

She worked for 5 years as a VC at Battery Ventures and co-headed M&A at IAC working with Barry Diller. Venture capital is about backing the leaders of tomorrow who imagine the world as it should be and aren’t constrained by what it is today. I promise you, he really said this out loud.)

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ventures leadership mentorship venture capital 361

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 3, 2015

. — Scott Belsky (@scottbelsky) April 29, 2015. It spoke to me because it so resonates with my nearly daily advice to entrepreneurs and VCs alike. I went as far as to call it the best Tweet of 2015 so far because it encapsulated my advice so succinctly. He took two words where I take 1,000! Only the best survive.

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advice peer-to-peer startup frameworks 332

TechCrunch

JANUARY 18, 2022

Maria Lepskaya is a senior associate at Runa Capital , leading investments in different branches of quantum technologies and advanced materials. Although many VCs seem to be new to quantum technologies, some investors foresaw this movement several years ago and are now making their first quantum exits. Image Credits: Runa Capital.

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VC consulting technology enablement 141

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 We knew better than to start funding raising in August, when larger VC firms have a harder time assembling full decision teams – so in August we would plan and September we would commence.

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SaaS VC board financing 236

TechCrunch

JANUARY 25, 2021

Microtraction , an early-stage venture capital firm based in Lagos, Nigeria, saw funding nearly quadruple for its portfolio. ” Badamosi, who returned to Nigeria from the UK in 2015, worked as the general manager for Starta Africa, an online community for African tech entrepreneurs.

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VC accelerator venture capital startup accelerator 138

This is going to be BIG.

DECEMBER 21, 2017

Nothing seems to apply--you're not a tech company, you bootstrapped your way to millions in revenues before taking on capital, and you sell mostly through brick and mortar. When Ample Hills first raised $4 million in 2015, people asked if it was a seed round. Adam Struck brought on significant additional capital from his network.

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pitching VC strategy investing 255

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 24, 2015

You thought media twitter was bad… You thought tech twitter was bad… — Hunter Walk (@hunterwalk) August 24, 2015. If markets come back quickly then you’ll see a return to normal 2015 funding timeframes (which I can tell you are much quicker than in times past). My favorite Tweet of the morning came from Hunter Walk.

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financing finance ventures real estate 344

David Teten VC

MARCH 5, 2021

(co-written with Katherine Boe Heuck , a MBA candidate at MIT Sloan (class of 2022); past intern at Versatile VC ; and a current intern at Metaprop NYC.). What can we learn from the best 40 venture capital investments of all time? We reviewed CB Insights’ global list of “40 of the Best VC Bets of all Time.”

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VC investing investment founder 82

TechCrunch

MARCH 4, 2023

One of the quieter conversations in venture capital has only grown louder, in my DMs and interviews, over the past few months: The known bias in venture capital has been a branding issue for some of the emerging, diverse fund managers just now splashing onto the scene. I interviewed the past and present guard over at Kapor Capital.

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venture capital capital ventures VC 99

TechCrunch

JUNE 3, 2021

Early-stage startups are increasingly looking for alternative ways to access capital, meaning not every company wants to raise money from VCs or take on debt. VC is highly dilutive and should be used for ROI activities such as hiring engineers and building great teams,” Sagan told TechCrunch. Think Pipe , for example.).

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capital real estate financing finance 91

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 10, 2015

Because even in 2015 I still see people riffing on ideas and working on business plans, product flows or coding on projects without first forming a company, signing contracts that assign intellectual property to that company and trusting that “friends” would never sue you. Lawsuits are particularly common amongst co-founders.

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startup advice board founder 352

AsiaTechDaily

JANUARY 30, 2023

In addition to his rich experiences working in the venture capital (VC) and private equity (PE) sectors, Joseph has also sharpened his investment acumen through his multiple years in the audit and stock-broking industry before deciding to finally launch his cross-border investment firm, Kairous Capital , in 2015.

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capital investing investment venture capital 96

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. million jobs due to Google’s $1 billion investment in the continent.

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VC investing investment transportation 97

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 6, 2014

When you first start your company and raise initial venture capital your board probably consists of 1-3 founders and 1-2 VCs. Most experienced VCs won’t push you to give up founder control at this stage of the business nor should they. how & when to raise capital. Easy peasy 101 discussions for VCs.

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board media mentorship advice 325

TechCrunch

SEPTEMBER 9, 2021

Amit Anand is a founding partner of Jungle Ventures and an early pioneer and leader in the development of Southeast Asia’s venture capital industry. billion, about four times more than they did in 2015. The region is also rising in prominence as a destination for investment capital relative to the rest of Asia. times to $8.2

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VC venture capital investing investment 97

David Teten VC

AUGUST 19, 2019

Does the traditional VC financing model make sense for all companies? VC Josh Kopelman makes the analogy of jet fuel vs. motorcycle fuel. VCs sell jet fuel which works well for jets; motorcycles are more common but need a different type of fuel. . Absolutely not. So what is Revenue Based Investing?

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founder investing investment VC 99

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.

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accelerator peer-to-peer startup VC 96

TechCrunch

NOVEMBER 10, 2021

from Seoul when she was a child and started a global accelerator in 2015. The fund’s first close was in February 2020, but she had to stop when the global pandemic hit, and start deploying the capital into the portfolio. Chang’s plan is to deploy capital into 30 new investments and keep some back for follow-on investments.

ventures 98

ventures VC accelerator culture 98

David Teten VC

MARCH 5, 2021

(co-written with Katherine Boe Heuck , a MBA candidate at MIT Sloan (class of 2022); past intern at Versatile VC ; and a current intern at Metaprop NYC.). What can we learn from the best 40 venture capital investments of all time? We reviewed CB Insights’ global list of “40 of the Best VC Bets of all Time.”

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VC investing investment founder 52

TechCrunch

JULY 13, 2022

Thus, for Black Coffee , who backed Andela, a tech talent incubator and unicorn launched from Lagos in 2015, his win meant Africa’s tech scene could, for the first time, brag about having a homegrown Grammy Award-winning artist as an investor in its startups. based and Africa-focused mobile payments company through Zagadat Capital.

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TechCrunch

FEBRUARY 7, 2022

Reports say healthtech in Africa should reach a market value of over US$11 billion by 2025 and Reliance Health is looking to play a pivotal role in the continent reaching that capitalization. In 2015, the three co-founders launched Kangpe, a telemedicine-focused startup in Nigeria with a “doctor in your pocket” slogan.

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health hospitality startup capital 135

TechCrunch

JULY 25, 2021

It recently completed its fourth VC round that values it at a whopping $6 billion , triple the price it fetched a year earlier, and it has so far raised at least half a billion dollars. China doesn’t need any more good platforms,” Tang told his team in an internal email in 2015, “but it does need good products.” billion this year.

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TechCrunch

JUNE 23, 2022

Paris-originated VC Breega wasn’t enormously well known in the VC world (it only closed its first fund in 2015) until, perhaps, it started attracting attention with its second €110 million seed fund, just under a year go. It’s portfolio now includes a number of scaleups including Moneybox, Cuvva, Coverflex and Libeo.

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startup financing finance VC 98

TechCrunch

MARCH 13, 2021

Stephen Harper, the country’s prime minister from 2006 to 2015, famously quipped that the region suffered from “ a culture of defeatism.” VC firms have taken notice: notable investors in Atlantic Canadian startups include Breakthrough Energy Ventures , a fund supported by Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson. venture capital.

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venture capital capital culture advice 137

TechCrunch

NOVEMBER 8, 2021

The round, which marks Fidelity’s first investment in an African company, also saw the participation from fintech giant Visa and London-based investment management firm Kingsway Capital. South African fintech startup Jumo raises second $50M+ VC round.

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capital finance financing investing 104

TechCrunch

MARCH 30, 2023

Pepea will target early-stage businesses that have been in existence for one to five years, and are generating revenues but yet to raise capital. MENA VC Flat6Labs’ new fund to back startups in East, West Africa The fund will finance startups in Kenya, Uganda, and Ethiopia, markets where Oxfam, and Goodwell have a presence.

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