Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 5, 2015

” Today I want to talk about how a VC thinks about equity pricing on your round and particularly if you’re coming off of a convertible note. So how DOES a VC think about financings at early stages? ” That is a problem for the founder and the VC. And the VC isn’t happy because he or she owns 17.4%

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Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 27, 2013

And I am often approached by entrepreneurs in cities which don’t have a vibrant VC community. They often ask whether they have to move to SF, NY or LA to get financed. It would be easier in terms of getting access to angels, VCs, the media, whatever. It’s a goal to help you understand the life of a VC.

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Both Sides of the Table

MAY 28, 2018

There’s a quick litmus-test conversation any early-stage VC will have with the founder and it’s one that you should be as prepared for as your elevator pitch. It goes something like this … VC: “How much money are you raising?” Founder: “$8–10 million” VC: “What’s your current burn rate?” A VC is looking for reasonableness.

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Dream It

DECEMBER 19, 2019

million Series A financing round led by San Francisco-based Builders VC. Partnering with Builders VC aligns us with a team of industry experts who understand both the challenges and opportunities in transforming the way behavioral health is addressed and treated.” This week, the company announced a $7.5

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Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 10, 2021

And the loosening of federal monetary policies, particularly in the US, has pushed more dollars into the venture ecosystems at every stage of financing. What Has Changed in Financing? However, to be a great VC you have to hold two conflicting ideas in your head at the same time. Of course we can’t. By definition?—?I’m

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This is going to be BIG.

JANUARY 22, 2018

This will be the post where I dangerously attempt to walk the minefield of a white male VC opining on the topic. Besides, how effective of a filter is it that someone can get coffee with a non-VC and convince them that you'd want to see the deal? That pitch has never excited any VC in the history of VC funding.

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Both Sides of the Table

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 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.).

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Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 29, 2013

” From the hyperbolic Jason Calacanis weighing in that “The petty VC’s did everything to deride [Naval, the co-founder of AngelList]” as though the industry was collectively s g its pants that AngelList was going to put us out of business. This is the same way VC firms, by the way. Bowery Capital).

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This is going to be BIG.

DECEMBER 28, 2013

The biggest question I think VC''s face right now is whether or not, in the future, the best founders will look and act like the best founders of the past. My own track record as a VC across First Round Capital and Brooklyn Bridge Ventures actually starts in January of 2010, *after* the Airbnb class of Winter 2009.

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Both Sides of the Table

MAY 13, 2018

The typical VC process is as follows: They say there are three rules in property: Location, location, location. The surest sign a fund-raising process has stalled is when you aren’t getting follow-up meetings or hearing from the VC or hearing from friends that they got a phone call or email asking about you. Same with VC.

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Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 13, 2014

Investment experience (5 years a VC at Battery Ventures). Kara has worked in finance in Boston, NYC and Silicon Valley. Upfront Ventures VC Industry' It is rare to find somebody who matches exactly what I’m looking for in a partner so when you find it you act: Academic rigor (Princeton undergrad, Stanford MBA).

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Both Sides of the Table

JULY 27, 2014

Scott and I agree on nearly everything: The VC structure is changing and there appears to be a bifurcation into small & large VCs with an impact on “traditionally sized” VCs. The only point we didn’t seem totally aligned on was what we happening to the “middle of the VC market.”

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This is going to be BIG.

DECEMBER 3, 2020

The partner at the fund, the VC, gets to do the fun part—the meeting with founders, vetting deals, negotiating, helping, etc. In fact, that number is probably even more than the average VC fund has the bandwidth to make. Fund investing, like adulting, is boring. You get, if you’re lucky, a Powerpoint and some financials once a quarter.

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Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 12, 2019

Over the past month a colleague ( Chang Xu ) and I sifted through data on the venture capital industry (as we do every year) and made a bunch of calls to VCs and LPs to confirm our hypotheses. why the hell has seed financing declined so much in the past 3 years?? So What Impact Did the Drop in Tech Founding Costs Have on VC?

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This is going to be BIG.

JANUARY 8, 2015

But Fab fell into the trap that many companies who go down the VC route fall into--too much money, too soon, and growing too fast. Small world, it turns out I also knew his husband from the finance world having met him over 10 years ago. That was the core of what Bradford brought to that company. It was built around his design sense.

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Both Sides of the Table

MAY 24, 2021

This “overnight success” was first financed in 2004. 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 . My first ever investment as a VC was Invoca. Maker Studios?—?sold Entrada Ventures? —?that

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This is going to be BIG.

FEBRUARY 19, 2014

Go pitch a VC with an idea, and they''ll tell you to build it. Finance is changing. Go to them with a prototype and they''ll tell you to launch it. Launch it, and they''ll tell you to get more users. Get users and they''ll tell you to get paying customers. Get paying customers and they''ll tell you to get bigger, enterprise clients.

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This is going to be BIG.

APRIL 6, 2015

You''ve been in VC long enough to see lots of different funds, partners and deals. You get a lot of choice as a VC as to who you want to spend your time with. I think we originally connected via your blog - it''s great and you''ve been one of the longest running VC bloggers (as far as I can recall). It''s been over 11 years now!

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This is going to be BIG.

MAY 4, 2022

I’m a straight white dude who grew up in NYC and worked in finance. I’m the on-paper poster child for “who can get VC dollars”. Will the money have been worth it if you find yourself out on the street, fired from your own company, just a few years later—replaced by some guy that was in the same fraternity as your lead VC?

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Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 22, 2012

” This is a frequent theme of mine when asked to speak to audience about the VC industry. And this is fueled by the VC culture in Silicon Valley. I was recently talking to a VC about a business I was looking at and I was asking whether he found the business interesting, too. It is VC math, like it or not.

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Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 24, 2014

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. “I think the best VCs help drive exits alongside their entrepreneurs. Sourcing high-quality leads : 9/10. Since then?

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Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 11, 2021

Trust, which today has announced a $9 million financing (Upfront is an investor), is a platform designed to help make the most of marketing investment by providing both analytics and a community of likeminded executives to share what’s working, and what’s not, across platforms. Why Did I Invest in Trust?

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A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

DECEMBER 31, 2020

So today, I will write about 2020 in the context of tech/startups/VC/crypto. And they finance the trend that they are directionally correct about. There is no question that crypto is in yet another speculative bubble, but like I said, it is speculative bubbles that allow emerging technologies to go mainstream and finance themselves.

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A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

JULY 19, 2021

Over the last 18 months, the early-stage financing market has seen dramatic changes characterized by these three things: A shift from in-person fundraising to virtual fundraising A reduction in financing process timelines from months to weeks A continued increase in the amount of capital available for early stage companies.

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A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

FEBRUARY 1, 2021

Had we taken a 30 year self amortizing home equity loan to finance the solar installation, we would be paying $1900 a year in principal and interest payments at current home equity rates. I believe that with some additional conservation efforts, we can get to 75%+ solar. USV TEAM POSTS: Andy Weissman — Jan 26, 2021 USV 2021 Fund.

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A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

JANUARY 1, 2021

This will lead investors to continue to allocate capital to new forms of money (crypto) and new ways of creating and financing innovation (decentralized projects and organizations). The idea of financing and executing innovation inside of a global decentralized autonomous organization is such a powerful idea and one whose time has come.

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Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 19, 2014

We are often asked how companies get funded, why VCs make the decisions we make and what we’re looking for in entrepreneurs. I think this is a Seriously great example of how this process works for at least one VC – Upfront Ventures. So I hope that offers you insights into how companies move through the VC system.

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media education VC finance 373

This is going to be BIG.

FEBRUARY 27, 2023

That’s what every VC is telling their portfolio companies these days. If you don’t realize that, just imagine you’re a VC fund with some dry powder in the second half of 2023. The one question every VC needs to be able to answer on the way to getting to a “yes” is, “Can this return a big chunk of my fund one day?”

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A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

OCTOBER 12, 2020

My partner Albert told me that when you factor in the financing costs of this swap, the average home in the Northeast United States could save $1000 to $2000 a year by doing this swap. It has gotten less expensive to do this swap out as solar and heat pump costs have come down.

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energy financing finance innovation 363

TechCrunch

OCTOBER 4, 2022

million seed funding led by Los Angeles–based early-stage VC firm MaC Venture Capital. The investment will see Spleet scale its products: the flagship residential rent management and rent financing solution. monthly to finance rent payments. Closing on $103M, MaC VC is changing the face of venture capital.

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A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

AUGUST 8, 2022

Most commonly they are a bridge to a round of financing with new investors (outsiders). That is a real round of financing and it is not a bridge. While that can sometimes be the right answer for a startup, I strongly prefer bringing new investors/new capital into a company in every financing round.

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Founder Bounty

JANUARY 8, 2025

Our content is informative as well as education from VC-backed founders who have experience in building companies from scratch and helps you navigate the online world this year. At founderbounty we understand the importance of creating content that turns eyeballs. Google rewards legit good and high quality content.

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Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 6, 2013

Hire admin / office management after you raise a reasonable size VC round. Equally – a great VP Finance can be leveraged well to take on finance, legal, HR and much of the operational tasks. Maybe you’d make a better part-time Chairman and let the COO run the business? Be careful about board construction.

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A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

APRIL 20, 2020

If you search for “vc open for business” on Twitter , you will see almost universal scorn for the idea that VCs are open for business right now. We have mostly seen VC firms live up to the commitments they made pre-pandemic and in the cases where terms changed, it has not been not gratuitous.

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Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 9, 2014

Generally speaking in venture capital financings the legal documents will specify that only “major investors” (a threshold set in the agreement – which can be $500,000 investor or more). Fundraising / Negotiations Startup Lessons VC Industry' How party rounds can burn you if it takes time to find your groove.

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A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

SEPTEMBER 17, 2020

Our team is planning to submit a formal request for Apple to allow its users to earn crypto and see a list of decentralized finance apps. We'll keep you updated on what we hear back. — Brian Armstrong (@brian_armstrong) September 11, 2020. Coinbase, Epic, and Spotify are not alone in their struggles with Apple and Google.

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TechCrunch

NOVEMBER 18, 2021

All these inefficiencies, asides from being time-consuming, lead to errors and affects cash flow and finance, which is why almost nine out of 10 small businesses in the country fizzle out in the first five years. The startup’s new financing round was led by Berlin-based VC Target Global. million in pre-seed funding.

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