Both Sides of the Table

JULY 16, 2010

Lots of discussion these days about the changes in the VC industry. The VC industry grew dramatically as a result of the Internet bubble - Before the Internet bubble the people who invested in VC funds (called LPs or Limited Partners) put about $50 billion into the industry and by 2001 this had grown precipitously to around $250 billion.

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Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 19, 2009

I had previously raised VC in 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2005. Another called Parker Harris, the co-founder and CTO. In case VC’s haven’t figured this out yet, shit rolls downhill. A number of VC’s stopped by our booth or watched our demo on the DEMO website and we had about 5 proactive inquiries.

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Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 29, 2009

Just ask anybody who was trying to close funding the fateful week of September 11, 2001 or even March 2000. I would argue that the shut-down of September 2009 was equally severe yet there are signs that this “VC Ice Age” has begun to thaw. Why did the VC markets freeze so quickly? Short answer – yes.

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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. The founder negotiated with the fund and ultimately accepted a 15% lower price.

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TechCrunch

APRIL 11, 2022

For example, Leading Edge Capital closed on nearly $2 billion for its sixth fund, Base10 Partners brought in $460 million for its third fund, Founders Fund secured $5 billion for two funds, Freestyle raised $130 million for its sixth fund and the list goes on and on. Overlooked Ventures co-founders Janine Sickmeyer and Brandon Brooks.

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Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 14, 2010

I believe the rise in angel investing is here to stay and the professionalization of this class (aka “super angels&# or “micro VC&# ) is a good thing for the VC industry and for entrepreneurs. Mostly, this segment of the market (like all of VC) is stacked in favor of the few. Unfortunately that’s a myth.

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Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 27, 2010

And that was evident on today’s Angel vs. VC panel. The VC industry is segmenting – I have spoken about this many times before. The VC industry has different segments in it that have different fund sizes, different investment amounts and different risk / return expectations. Answer: Not much. It’s a shame.

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TechCrunch

DECEMBER 6, 2021

Since BCV’s first fund in 2001, the firm has invested over $4.5 I love working with founders at that stage.”. The move to VC felt like a natural transition,” Melas-Kyriazi said. Her commitment to entrepreneurs’ success is second to none; she always goes the extra mile for founders,” . The firm currently has $9.2

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capital ventures angel investing VC 79

TechCrunch

MAY 17, 2022

Hailing from around the United States and the globe, founders will pitch on the main stage, for four minutes, followed by an intense Q&A with our expert panel of judges. Join us on Wednesday, May 18 and Thursday, May 19 to watch these incredible founders take the stage. I know you want to see who made the cut.

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Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 5, 2010

I’ve been meaning to write this post since September of last year when Brad Feld first wrote about the The Founders Visa Movement. Two weeks after Brad’s post I was at the 140 Conference in LA and I held open office hours for any entrepreneur who wanted to spend 15 minutes talking with a VC about their business.

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Both Sides of the Table

JULY 29, 2010

We received so much positive feedback from our This Week in Venture Capital show walking through valuation calculations & term sheets that we decided to do a Q&A show this week to address topics that entrepreneurs want to learn about. on the entrepreneur side of the table) when I raised at too high of a price. This is wrong.

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venture capital capital ventures angel investing 282

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 22, 2011

I recently spoke at the Founder Showcase at the request of Adeo Ressi. This was an audience of mostly first-time entrepreneurs. I spoke about how Amazon Web Services deserves far more credit for the last 5 years of innovation than it gets credit for and how I believe they spawned the micro-VC category. I believe that.

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Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 2, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series “ Start Up Advice &# but I’d really like to call this post, “VC Advice.&#. On a panel that I sat on with Ron in LA in 2008 he stated that there were no circumstances in which the founder should take money off of the table. VC’s who don’t get this are naive.

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Both Sides of the Table

JULY 29, 2015

” And yet we entrepreneurs who will sign up for the journey accept that failure is a possibility and the true entrepreneurs know that they must stick with the ship even if it’s sinking. It’s my hypothesis of why so many founding teams have 3-4 founders. First time entrepreneurs can fall prey to hubris.

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creativity culture entrepreneurs energy 378

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 13, 2009

I know you’re thinking that you have your head on straight but I promise you the experience of finding yourself in this maelstrom will leave any first time entrepreneur spinning. I sat next to Irwin Jacobs (founder of Qualcomm) on a bus ride. 2001-2004 were very humbling but we built a real company. Listen to the data.

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Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 16, 2012

I raised money as an entrepreneur, like you, in 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003 and 2005 for two different companies. And of course I’ve sat on the other side of the table: As a VC. This is not just the perspective of a VC although I can’t say I have zero VC bias. I’ve raised seed rounds and A-D rounds.

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Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 25, 2010

A reminder that it is important for all entrepreneurs is to remember to be careful about “deal drift.” My co-founder and other management team members wanted us to hold off and see whether we could get the deal done at a higher price. I lived through this again September 2001. Many deals – VC or otherwise – didn’t close.

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Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 22, 2009

Please don’t also confuse this with whether a VC should invest in a CEO who’s done it before – that’s a given. This was a reasonable achievement when you consider that it was 2001-02, one of the worst years to be selling enterprise software and we were selling it SaaS style, which was still evangelical back then.

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Gust

OCTOBER 20, 2011

million and is established by negotiations between the entrepreneur and the angel investors. We also have data points for VC investments in seed/startup companies (but not necessarily pre-revenue companies). Strength of Entrepreneur and Team. Strength of the Entrepreneur and the Management Team. Is the founder coachable?

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Unvalidated Learnings

OCTOBER 5, 2016

And yet, this is the story Phil Knight, Nike’s founder and long time CEO recounts in his brilliant autobiography Shoe dog. and yet so familiar to every contemporary entrepreneur. A VC treating an entrepreneur that way today wouldn’t stay in business for long… 7. This post highlights my key takeaways from the book?—?I

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Both Sides of the Table

MAY 7, 2011

Blogs weren’t popularized yet so it was an oddity for me to read the founder of a software company spewing out advice. I asked him if he’d be willing to allow me to interview him for This Week in VC and we filmed it in the offices of Stack Overflow – his new company. But I loved reading them and so did my team.

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