Dream It

AUGUST 29, 2019

At the seed stage, talking about exit strategy always seems a bit premature, even presumptuous. But this topic is always in the back of mind for VCs and other investors, so it’s important to formulate a plan around the topic, even if those exit strategies might change as you grow your startup. Take Google as an example.

strategy 299

strategy VC energy disruption 299

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. If you don’t live in a major VC zone, I have some tips for how to make it easier to raise Venture Capital. ” Most VCs view it as their responsibility to mentor, debate, cajole and generally assist with investments they make.

VC 365

VC board communities pitching 365

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 30, 2018

VC firms see thousands of deals and have a refined sense of how the market is valuing deals because they get price signals across all of these deals. It’s not uncommon for a VC to ask you how much capital you’ve raised and what the post-money valuation was on your last round. So why does a VC ask you?

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Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 10, 2021

I’m over-paying for every check I write into the VC ecosystem and valuations are being pushed up to absurd levels and many of these valuations and companies won’t hold in the long term. However, to be a great VC you have to hold two conflicting ideas in your head at the same time. two founders in a garage?—?(HP By definition?—?I’m

ventures 471

ventures VC venture capital funders 471

This is going to be BIG.

FEBRUARY 21, 2019

While most of the money that goes into VC funds comes from institutions that are highly experienced in the asset class, some family offices and high net worth individuals also invest in VC. No current non-accredited founders, please. Could you have led any of these deals? If you’re not sure if you qualify, e-mail me.

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VC investing investment strategy 267

This is going to be BIG.

JUNE 5, 2016

Just don't go picking someone who really doesn't compliment you just because it's some kind of VC rule. I've heard a lot of VCs tell founders they need co-founders--and that they wouldn't look at a business at a very early stage without a co-founder. The same holds true for VC funds.

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founder board VC construction 284

Entrepreneurs' Organization

SEPTEMBER 8, 2023

Shivani Gupta, EO Queensland, multi-business founder, author, speaker and coach Profit from profit My big learning from EO Malaysia member Fong Leng Wong is: Profit from profit. My first female mentor was the incredible Janine Allis , founder of Boost Juice. Express your view in a calm and professional way.

founder 262

founder advice entrepreneurship entrepreneurs 262

This is going to be BIG.

FEBRUARY 21, 2021

I’m a female founder. I don’t have a technical co-founder. These are all of the things I heard from a founder that I recently backed. So what about all of the above statements—things that founders widely hold to be true barriers to fundraising? Nearly half of the teams I’ve backed have female founders.

advice 476

advice pitching venture capital VC 476

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.”

VC 309

VC SaaS strategy ventures 309

This is going to be BIG.

MARCH 24, 2014

Not every potentially good VC previously worked for Fred Wilson and Josh Kopelman. Not every VC used to get pitched by VC funds for a living and has seen hundreds and hundreds of VC pitch decks. So what about a Techstars-like program for new VCs? How can we leverage them to help create the next generation of VCs?

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accelerator mentorship VC incubation 388

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 16, 2013

If you are a super young, well-connected, Stanford CS or EE, worked at Facebook early, have a bit o’ dosh and have VCs chasing you … you are exempt. Delaying going out of business gives you way more chances at product / market fit than any other strategy I know of. Your VC is right. You’re full of s**t!

VC 412

VC advice strategy accelerator 412

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 17, 2019

I became a VC 12 years ago in 2007 when the pace of deals was much slower. As I was trying to figure out the role I wanted to play in the VC world I decided I wanted to focus on businesses that were building deeply technical products to solve problems for business users. VCs have different views and strategies on this.

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VC venture capital capital investing 223

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 8, 2014

What is a principal at a VC firm and how does it work at Upfront Ventures? ” Associates have different functions at different VCs. VC firm admin. VC firm policy or fund analysis. Helping be the VC “presence” at key events. Smart founders use this extra resource to their advantage.

investing 365

investing investment VC board 365

American Entrepreneurship

OCTOBER 17, 2024

With the recent funding of AirOps, marketers have a platform that builds and scales go-to-market strategies using human + AI content workflows that produce best-in-class brand content. Halliday joins with co-founders Berna Gonzalez who was Tech Lead at Rootstrap and Matt Hammel was Vice President-Sales at Bungalow.

creativity 98

creativity VC entrepreneurship strategy 98

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 15, 2014

Much has been written about when it is time to hire a “professional CEO” to run a startup company and of course that has long been a norm in Silicon Valley when founders find that their inexperience may be a limiting factor in company growth ( know as the Peter Principle ). I like technical founders so this wasn’t an issue.

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founder leadership board innovation 309

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 10, 2016

And Greg has had the most influence on Upfront Ventures’ strategy since he joined. I joined Upfront Ventures in 2007 and took over as co-Managing Partner in 2011 along with the founder, Yves Sisteron. I asked for the responsibility of setting out the firm’s future strategy and our daily operating tasks.

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disruption VC communities ventures 226

Revolution

MARCH 8, 2023

population, but in 2022, companies with solely female founders garnered just 2% of the total capital invested in venture-backed startups. The long and short of it: Female founders face systemic barriers to founding, funding, and scaling their businesses. As a leader, I welcome questions on our business, growth metrics, and strategy.”

founder 278

founder leadership strategy support 278

Founders Coop

JANUARY 11, 2023

Founders’ Co-op turns fifteen this year. But as a “company town” where most engineers come for a well-paying job, not as founders seeking like-minded peers, our region’s entrepreneurial support systems are surprisingly weak. First, the increment of learning in VC is investment decisions managed to maturity.

founder 154

founder peer-to-peer VC sustainability 154

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 16, 2014

Our last fund was $200 million but as you may already know since we raised that fund we added new partners Greg Bettinelli and Kara Nortman and Venture Partner Hamet Watt – all of whom are busy looking at new deals for the firm in addition to Yves Sisteron (the founder), Steven Dietz (also part of founding team) and myself.

ventures 396

ventures VC venture capital real estate 396

This is going to be BIG.

JULY 8, 2019

Just the immediate priorities seem to take up more than one person’s potential working hours—so it’s no surprise that when it comes to something like social media, many founders have trouble making it a priority. The consequences of failing to position a founder’s profile aren’t always obvious—and it’s usually all about missed opportunities.

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media leadership founder opportunity 284

This is going to be BIG.

APRIL 23, 2012

I have one failed attempt at a startup under my belt as a founder and I don't have any particularly usable skills that anyone would pay for like selling, designing, building, etc. So much of this is gut feel with a thin later of strategy retrofitted to seem more than random. Why should that stop me, though? Not special?

advice 417

advice startup VC strategy 417

This is going to be BIG.

JULY 23, 2018

I've seen this so many times over: A founder pitches a VC, or several of them, and then they come back from that process with all sorts of new strategy goals or worries that they need to be doing something differently. The fundraising process is not intended to be a feedback process. If it was, you'd run it very differently.

VC 170

VC advice pitching strategy 170

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?”

VC 415

VC startup accelerator financing 415

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 27, 2013

Your goal should be to turn your VCs into extended members of your team to get real value from them. Understanding where your VC partner sits in their respective fund and where their fund is in the cycle of its investment lifecycle will help you understand your VCs behavior. What Rob wrote in his post is right. Rob does it.

board 365

board VC advice pitching 365

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 13, 2013

has now employed the same strategy. I’m supposed to believe that my best innovation can only come from scores of startup founders who just made millions and have now become CVOs at my company? ” Mark – doesn’t the acquiring company mostly care about the super innovative founders? And who cares, right?

strategy 357

strategy venture capital advice entrepreneurs 357

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

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 11, 2016

Gregg Johnson, CEO of Invoca For the first 5 years or so after I became a VC I didn’t talk much about what I thought a VC should be excellent at since frankly I wasn’t sure. It’s easy to think the role of a VC is to have strong opinions about markets, trends, tech dynamics and so forth. The role of VC is sparring partner.

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venture capital capital ventures VC 363

Haystack

DECEMBER 29, 2018

It’s that time of year, time to look back and reflect on the most significant storylines in the tech, startup, and VC world. And as more economies worldwide seek to shift their investment strategies offshore and seek out technology, hubs like Silicon Valley and Shanghai, among others, have reaped the benefits.

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VC startup venture capital mix-use 165

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.).

VC 399

VC advice financing finance 399

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 9, 2018

I left the meeting and had to attend a 3-hour board meeting where two founders have been fighting and each want the other one fired. At night I had a group dinner where I met 6 new entrepreneurs and hung out with some old friends from law firms, banks and other VC funds. Some were interesting, some weren’t. That wasn’t you. I remember.

pitching 381

pitching board funders entrepreneurs 381

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. But this strategy great depends on point 3. it is also the title of a fabulous book from Internet 1.0 Availability of Capital.

startup 383

startup VC frameworks capital 383

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 14, 2015

I spoke at Michael Kim’s excellent annual Cendana VC/LP conference today. You can read it in VCs discussions about hedge fund managers, activist investors or the need to have dual-share voting structures. Today I called it, “our own little VC led, portfolio-by-portfolio company version of RIP Good Times from 7 years ago.”

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VC capital culture venture capital 392

David Teten VC

FEBRUARY 17, 2025

At Coolwater Capital , the Y Combinator for VC funds, we assess this as part of our diligence process. However, forming your new fund also typically requires making important decisions about firm strategy, culture, how you make decisions, budget, data ownership, and other issues. The firms long-term goal is [long-term aspirations].

culture 52

culture strategy venture capital financing 52

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 24, 2014

Working with early-stage teams : coaching, mentoring, setting strategy, rolling up sleeves: 9/10. “I think the best VCs help drive exits alongside their entrepreneurs. I have done 6 VC investments – all within the past 20 months. Sourcing high-quality leads : 9/10. Since then? None have exited.

VC 387

VC venture capital financing finance 387

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 12, 2014

Their strategy might be to have 25 companies of $3-7 million total invested and thus $10 million might be more risk in one deal than they typically like to have. Neither case is better or worse – they more depend on investor strategy and their outlook on the potential of the company.

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VC investing investment entrepreneurs 336

Revolution

AUGUST 2, 2022

miles to visit founders, college campuses, co-investors, ecosystem builders, and communities in rising cities. Rise of the Rest Senior Associate, James Barlia , and Senior Director of Strategy, Jamie Rodota , also headed to the Palmetto State to meet with local investors and judge the College of Charleston Founders Club’s pitch competition.

economic growth 344

economic growth innovation communities startup ecosystem 344

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 7, 2015

They now have a strong VC lead from Foundry Group and from experience when you get advice from Foundry it comes with authority, experience, empathy and the right amount of straight talk. Another founder … “When I pitched the idea to Adam, he was super on board,” Mr. Sloyan said. All of my partners at Upfront do.

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startup advice pitching VC 323