Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 26, 2020

Today we’re announcing that my partner Kara Nortman is becoming Co-Managing Partner at Upfront Ventures and I can’t tell you how thrilled I am to welcome her to her new role. and of course a relentless pursuit of helping founders succeed. So mostly we just had to listen to customer feedback from founders, VCs and LPs.

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Dream It

JANUARY 13, 2021

The venture capital screening call is an important step to get right in due diligence. In this Dreamit Dose, associates Alana Hill and I, Elliot Levy , offer five things we wish founders knew after screening over 1,000 startups in the last year. It’s honestly refreshing when we hear a founder that’s no BS and succinct during the Q/A.

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This is going to be BIG.

NOVEMBER 1, 2016

Yesterday, I met with a founder with an interesting model who was raising $400k to bring the finishing touches to her product to make it customer-ready. First off, the vast majority of venture dollars goes to white men. This blog post is not about debating if "enough" diverse founders get funding--whatever that might mean.

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Revolution

NOVEMBER 28, 2023

In 2017, we partnered with iconic leaders in American business to turn the thesis we developed on the road — that great companies can start and scale anywhere when given a chance — into an investment vehicle. In the last decade, we’ve socialized several Rise of the Rest-isms to describe investments that check those boxes.

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This is going to be BIG.

FEBRUARY 18, 2019

Brooklyn Bridge Ventures , the pre-seed and seed stage VC fund I run in NYC, has invested in 64 companies in the last six and a half years. Twenty-five of them have at least one female co-founder. Fifteen had co-founders over 40. Five have LGBTQ+ founders. Three teams have African-American founders.

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Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 12, 2019

Seed investments are down by any measure (funds, deals, dollars) over the past 3 years in deals < $1 million AND in deals between $1–5 million. 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.

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Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 22, 2015

What Cham rarely tells people – he’s both private and humble – is that he started making some small co-investments with me in tech firms starting with Maker Studios where he was one of the earliest investors. They make a great pair.

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Dream It

APRIL 2, 2019

Press Release The venture fund and growth-focused accelerator accepted the cohort from a field of nearly 2,000 pre-Series A companies NEW YORK CITY, NY — April 2, 2019 — Dreamit Ventures, an early stage venture fund and growth-focused accelerator, announced its latest batch of startups this week.

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Both Sides of the Table

JULY 26, 2022

Photo by Scott Clark for Upfront Ventures (no, Evan is not standing on a box) Last year marked the 25th anniversary for Upfront Ventures and what a year it was. We are excited to share the news that we have raised $650 million across three vehicles to allow us to continue making investments for many years ahead.

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Revolution

FEBRUARY 13, 2023

Since the beginning of modern venture capital investing — a relatively nascent asset class — the industry has been biased toward funding what it knows best: founders with familiar demographics (white, male) in familiar geographies (Silicon Valley).

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Dream It

FEBRUARY 5, 2021

co-founder). If they hesitate, respond with, “Okay, can you tell me the 2 or 3 things you would need to see in order to invest?” This shows that you’re comfortable at “trial closing” and the type of founder who actively looks for the “obstacles to sale.” Say something like, “We hope you want to invest and join us on our journey.

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American Entrepreneurship

DECEMBER 11, 2024

Companies in every sector are investing in the latest technologies with an eye toward winning in their markets with AI, said Misha Herscu, CEO and co-founder of Cake. The post Googles early-stage AI Fund Gradient Invests in Cakes Open-Source AI Platform for All Businesses appeared first on American Entrepreneurship Today.

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Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 11, 2016

Most VCs did well academically and had enough career success that a venture firm was willing to give them an investment role or they were able to raise their own fund. We then help surround founders with other talent who want to join important causes but don’t have the startup idea themselves. The role of VC is sparring partner.

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American Entrepreneurship

JANUARY 21, 2025

Two prominent entrepreneurs share their views on starting a business plus 10 tips every first-time founder should have. A founders journey when taking on the challenge of launching a startup is filled with highs and lows.Their path to success will have challenges, setbacks, and moments of doubt.

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Dream It

FEBRUARY 14, 2020

Via TechCrunch by Arman Tabatabai: Venture capital has been flooding the various subverticals under the robotics umbrella in recent years, and the construction space is one of the largest beneficiaries. Last November, we surveyed 13 of the top robotics-focused VCs to find out which areas of robotics are exciting them most going into 2020.

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Dream It

APRIL 21, 2020

So the question remains: what is the appropriate amount of funding founders should request? This framework helps founders position their fundraising targets and avoid red flags with investors. Here are some common red flags for venture investors: Red Flag #1 : Ask isn’t tied to specific fundable milestones. Don’t do this.

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Dream It

APRIL 12, 2020

During our recent Dreamit Kickoff week, Bullpen Capital Founder and General Partner Paul Martino ( @ahpah ) spoke with our Spring 2020 cohort about the state of the VC ecosystem in the current economic crisis. Will a financial crisis affect how venture funds deploy capital? Startups should know how VCs work. startup) per month.

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Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 3, 2015

It’s something Yves Sisteron & I have been talking about for years at Upfront Ventures. The initial investment certainly wasn’t a consensus decision at Upfront, but that’s how we invest. In our industry we always talk about funding big ideas or funding things with more meaning. We loved the idea. With conviction.

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This is going to be BIG.

OCTOBER 22, 2018

In almost every single investment I’ve ever made, I can think of a singular moment in my relationship with a founder that, no matter what came before or what might come after, defined our relationship. Not only that, but the venture community is extremely small when it comes to investor reputations.

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The Seraf Compass

NOVEMBER 16, 2022

Melissa Bradley is the Founder and Managing Partner of 1863 Ventures, an investment fund that accelerates New Majority entrepreneurs from high potential to high growth by bridging entrepreneurship and racial equity. This profile is the sixth in a series of interviews highlighting the work of interesting impact investors.

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American Entrepreneurship

JANUARY 28, 2025

Learn what investors want to hear that triggers their investment decisions. Marc Andreessen, co-founder of Andreessen Horowitz, a leading venture capital firm, says, “The thing that gets me most excited is the founder whos obsessed with solving a problem that matters, and is determined to keep going no matter what.”

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This is going to be BIG.

NOVEMBER 4, 2018

It’s an entirely fair question—and the risk is that limited partners, founders, or other VCs might not want to work with me because I’m vocal about my political views. I suspect, though, there are even some founders out there who could be put off by the things I write and probably how I write them. We get judged all the time.

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This is going to be BIG.

SEPTEMBER 18, 2019

Today's top founders will undoubtedly start something new in the future, but they won't make up the majority of innovators going forward--just as prior generations of venture backed founders don't make up a majority of those who are succeeding today. I didn’t say venture investing was easy—but at least we got a look.)

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American Entrepreneurship

NOVEMBER 13, 2024

Co-founders of sportsbook FanDuel, Nigel Eccles and Rob Jones, announced this week the public launch of their cryptocurrency casino and sportsbook B etHog and its closing of a $6 million seed funding round. We are thrilled to be backing Nigel and the entire team at BetHog on this investment,” says Serge Kassardjian, General Partner at 6MV. “We

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Source Link

APRIL 14, 2021

From Elizabeth Hobbs Keckley, a former slave who ran a prosperous dressmaking business that eventually led to her designing and sewing dresses for Mary Todd Lincoln, to Anne Wojcicki, founder of genetic testing and analysis firm 23andMe, women have proved they have what it takes to reach the top of the entrepreneurial mountain.

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500

JUNE 9, 2020

Supply chains have been disrupted, businesses have had to close or operate at limited capacity for months, and even founders have had to expand their fundraising timeframes as we saw in our 2020 Female Founders Data Report. The post Our Investment Framework Post-COVID-19 appeared first on 500 Startups.

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A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

AUGUST 17, 2020

I woke up to a dream this morning where I was playing a game that was very similar to Turntable.fm , a failed effort to create a social music experience that had a moment back in 2011 and that I had invested in via USV. I met the founders and was happy for them. Investments that don’t work haunt me. Then I woke up.

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Hunter Walk

APRIL 21, 2025

I entered venture capital with some beliefs – many of which still hold true (such as ‘your LPs are your business partners, not your customers’). That is, they rather have a 5x with $300m in the company than a 10x with only $30m invested. Soon I’ll have spent more time on cap tables than org charts.

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This is going to be BIG.

OCTOBER 24, 2021

In the beginning of my venture career, I knew of a firm that was involved in a highly competitive funding round that they ultimately failed to win. For years, he went on to advise other founders about how to generate VC interest, which really could have amounted to, “Be a warm body with a pulse in a sector that firm got shut out of a deal in.”

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Dream It

MARCH 6, 2020

Jeff Berman is General Partner at Camber Creek , one of the first venture funds dedicated to real estate technology and the built world. The team owns, operates and manages over 150 million square feet of real estate, making Camber Creek one of the biggest value-add venture partners for real estate tech startups.

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This is going to be BIG.

OCTOBER 3, 2016

That was a question posed to me by a new analyst at a venture capital fund. While there are lots and lots of really kind, generous people working in venture capital--the recently retired Howard Morgan, Hunter Walk, Brad Feld, and Karin Klein for example--it's really tough to argue that there isn't widespread jerkery.

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American Entrepreneurship

MARCH 12, 2025

Six startups showcased at Investopia 2025 represented a diverse range of industries, demonstrating the breadth of innovation within Crimson Founders 2025. The week-long initiative, held from February 24-28, 2025, marked a significant milestone in integrating 19 high-impact startups into the UAEs dynamic investment and innovation ecosystem.

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This is going to be BIG.

JUNE 9, 2020

If you’re a white professional in venture, you might feel uncomfortable tweeting or blogging about race. Besides, if you’re not comfortable with making mistakes and learning from them—what are you even doing in venture? Founders from communities of color are less likely to have personal wealth to fall back on.

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Revolution

MARCH 26, 2025

Post-AOL, I dedicated myself to backing and supporting the next generation of entrepreneurs as Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Revolution. When I started AOL, not far from here in the fields of Northern Virginia, most of our venture dollars came from investors in Silicon Valley and New York. were on the platform.

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Dream It

DECEMBER 10, 2020

In this guest Dreamit Dose, Jason Calacanis (@jason), a technology entrepreneur, angel investor, and the host of the popular podcasts This Week in Startups and Angel, answers the top 5 questions he gets about angel investing. It is very common for angel investors to be former founders who have already accumulated wealth.

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Revolution

MARCH 7, 2024

In Their Own Words: Female Founders and CEOs Discuss the Discourse That’s Missing (and Hitting) the Mark This year’s International Women’s Day theme is “ Inspire Inclusion ” — a call to recognize the unique perspectives and contributions of women from all walks of life, in all facets of life, including the innovation economy.

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Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 13, 2014

After years of trying to persuade Kara Nortman to become a partner at Upfront Ventures I can officially announce now that she’s joined us effective immediately. Investment experience (5 years a VC at Battery Ventures). Let me start with the news that I’m excited to share with you.

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