Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 4, 2016

.” There are a lot of data points that one can observer to get a sense of the venture capital markets – both LP fundings into venture and VC financings of startups. They point to some widely known facts: financings & valuations are up massively over the past 7 years and non-VC money has entered the system.

VC 214

VC peer-to-peer financing finance 214

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 4, 2013

As a VC you want to feel like you have “proprietary sources” of deal flow. And they have access to some of the most talented technology entrepreneurs so this is a worthy goal for them. ” I love businesses that don’t lend themselves well to VC Panels at conferences or Demo Days. I love complexity.

VC 347

VC advice pitching entrepreneurs 347

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

health 195

health financing finance collaboration 195

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 23, 2012

I can’t help feel a bit of rear-view mirror analysis in all of “VC model is broken” bears in our industry. What the explosion in startups really means for our industry is a much bigger pipeline of potential deals if we VC’s can be patient. In 1998 there were around 850 VC funds and by 2000 there were 2,300. The Funding Problem.

venture capital 347

venture capital capital ventures VC 347

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.

venture capital 407

venture capital VC ventures capital 407

This is going to be BIG.

FEBRUARY 19, 2014

Go pitch a VC with an idea, and they''ll tell you to build it. Technology is moving faster, markets are changing more quickly and uncertainty seems to be increasing. Finance is changing. Venture Capital & Technology' Go to them with a prototype and they''ll tell you to launch it. No risk, no return. TVs are changing.

venture capital 392

venture capital pitching health VC 392

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. Venture Capital & Technology' That was the core of what Bradford brought to that company.

venture capital 409

venture capital creativity VC financing 409

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.

startup 390

startup VC venture capital entrepreneurs 390

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?

investing 328

investing investment VC venture capital 328

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 technology based products and services are benefitting from these losses. 3/ Technology based commerce solutions gain when less people venture into stores to buy groceries, clothes, and other consumer products. That’s just how things are.

real estate 279

real estate energy VC financing 279

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

venture capital 363

venture capital capital ventures VC 363

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?

VC 387

VC venture capital ventures financing 387

This is going to be BIG.

MARCH 5, 2014

If you need to introduce yourself to a VC firm, you''re probably not getting the job. VC firms are going back to being mostly partner driven shops, where dealflow and decisions stay up top. VC firms are going back to being mostly partner driven shops, where dealflow and decisions stay up top. That''s a benefit to the VC firm.

venture capital 291

venture capital capital ventures peer-to-peer 291

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 30, 2014

Today I’m handing her the largest A-round check I’ve ever written as a VC as we lead her $10 million A-Round at uBeam. I said simply, “That’s the most ambitious project I’ve seen since I became a VC.” The practical uses for uBeam technology is limitless. That was three months ago this week.

VC 418

VC ventures leadership board 418

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 11, 2022

Between 2006–2008 I sold both companies that I had started and became a VC. SEEING THINGS FROM THE VC SIDE OF THE TABLE While I was a VC in 2007 & 2008 those were dead years because the market again evaporated due the the Global Financial Crisis (GFC). THE VC VALUATION GOD Valuation obsession wasn’t restricted to startups.

VC 466

VC culture sustainability capital 466

A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

JANUARY 1, 2021

At USV, we have begun that reallocation of capital and we will be investing heavily in companies and technologies that can help the world address this existential threat. We are already seeing that happen in the finance sector, with breakout projects in decentralized finance in 2020 like Compound, Yearn, and Uniswap (a USV funded project).

real estate 279

real estate financing finance accelerator 279

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 6, 2013

Tech teams are comprised of three distinct managements skills: people, process & technology. 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. Know the difference.

startup 388

startup consulting construction board 388

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 19, 2013

And of course the most successful technology companies: Google, Facebook, Salesforce.com [duh], Oracle, Microsoft all have loads of sales people. But they’re technology people not sales people! That it is non-dilutive financing? But the “no sales people” mantra isn’t what I’m here to take on.

startup 403

startup financing finance strategy 403

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 21, 2014

An impressive number of new VCs have been created – most of them with new seed funds. We’ve had an explosion of alternate sources of financing from crowd-sourcing, angels, accelerators, incubators, corporates, corporate incubators. And importantly we’ve had revenue. It’s when the game slows.

incubation 354

incubation board VC innovation 354

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.

peer-to-peer 236

peer-to-peer VC financing finance 236

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 1, 2011

And even the best teams combined to create big innovations sometimes don’t time markets well, are surprised by unexpected technology breakthroughs by competitors or just don’t find the magic the leads to mass customer adoption. I hope to offer experiences from being an entrepreneur and being a VC.&#. It’s marketing.

advice 391

advice VC financing finance 391

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 12, 2014

Prorata rights are one of the most important rights of a private market technology investors and yet are seldom fully understood. These tensions seep out in some angels or seed funds publicly or semi-privately deriding later-stage VCs for their “bad” behavior. Thus begins the dance.

VC 336

VC investing investment entrepreneurs 336

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.

energy 363

energy financing finance innovation 363

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 5, 2014

What would the right technology strategy for Telecom Italia be in 5 years. In my experience many VC’s fall into this “I’m expected to know all the answers” trap. The more self-assured the VC is and the more impressionable the entrepreneur is the worse the outcome. It is unknowable. I don’t know.

peer-to-peer 337

peer-to-peer entrepreneurs consulting VC 337

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.

board 276

board financing finance sustainability 276

A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

JANUARY 1, 2020

Asian crypto exchanges, unchecked by cumbersome regulatory restraints in Europe and the US and leveraging decentralized finance technologies, will become the dominant capital markets for all types of financial instruments. The biggest consumer technology successes of this decade will be in the area of privacy.

real estate 279

real estate financing finance capital 279

This is going to be BIG.

MARCH 2, 2015

The founders I backed aren''t VCs (well, except Dave ) so I don''t know if that is such a great signal. I asked another VC why they do this and they answered, "So we don''t have to go through all the random crap.". Venture Capital & Technology' Great, so you went to coffee with someone I know or maybe even funded once.

pitching 343

pitching peer-to-peer venture capital creativity 343

TechCrunch

JANUARY 13, 2022

There’s financial technology (fintech) companies out there targeting all sorts of different segments of the population, as well as companies at various stages of growth. We’re on a mission to help startups grow — with technology and without dilution.”. We founded Arc to give founders an alternative to the status quo.

SaaS 99

SaaS financing finance startup 99

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 6, 2016

In 2008 I started VC blogging. I started doing SnapStorms, which are short burst of video around a certain startup or financing topic. But how can you invest in technology unless you’re going to use the tools and understand them? They thought it was like MySpace and why did I need a MySpace page? Look how stupid that guy is!”

networking 230

networking advice VC financing 230

A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

MAY 30, 2019

And they blame the founder(s) or us for it and it is honestly not anyone’s fault other than the harebrained structure (notes) they used to finance their company. The Series A focused VC firms that often lead the first priced rounds get to see this nightmare unfold all the time.

financing 210

financing finance VC venture capital 210

A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

SEPTEMBER 3, 2020

For most of my career as a VC, the IPO has been the holy grail. I don’t take as much offense to this situation as others in the VC business have. I have viewed it as a mutually beneficial relationship between the top banks, VC firms, and the founders and CEOs who lead our portfolio companies. We will see.

VC 279

VC capital board founder 279

TechCrunch

NOVEMBER 2, 2020

Even after the collapse of WeWork, the investors are doubling down on a similar business model as part of a syndicate investing $700 million into REEF Technology. Meanwhile, REEF Technology and Oaktree are collaborating on a $300 million real estate investment vehicle, the Neighborhood Property Group, as Bloomberg reported on Monday.

technology 119

technology real estate health accelerator 119

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 4, 2013

As a VC you want to feel like you have “proprietary sources” of deal flow. There is one source I never liked and no early-stage VC should – investment bankers. Before I tell you my reasons for never doing a deal that a banker intro’d I have to preface by where I think bankers are enormously helpful on VC deals.

advice 361

advice VC pitching entrepreneurs 361

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.

financing 265

financing finance leadership capital 265

A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

JUNE 18, 2019

When USV invested in Coinbase in early 2013, our rationale was that digital currencies and digital assets (like Bitcoin and beyond) were a breakthrough technology, similar to TCP/IP, HTTP and SMTP. We believe Libra has the potential to be the catalyst that brings the entire cryptocurrency and cryptoasset market into the mainstream.

incubation 206

incubation financing finance technology 206

Revolution

MAY 11, 2023

Our findings confirmed a significant shift away from the traditional tech hubs of the Bay Area, New York City, and Boston, with the proportion of seed- and early-stage VC dollars funneling into the Bay Area falling below 30% for the first time in more than a decade.

real estate 296

real estate energy innovation VC 296

A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

FEBRUARY 18, 2020

I have been investing in developer tools since the earliest days of my VC career. The first investment I led in the late 80s was a financing that provided the funds to acquire a programming editor called Brief. It was a text-based editor for PCs. That investment worked out but we didn’t make a lot of money on it.

VC 193

VC sustainability financing finance 193