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

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

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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venture capital investing investment ventures 97

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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pitching energy startup consulting 76

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 29, 2015

It’s my hypothesis of why so many founding teams have 3-4 founders. In part because as a VC I reached the longevity where you see some things fail and have to ask yourself, “would I readily work with that person again? I saw this in 2001-2003 and in 2008-2010. I fund both types all the time. Yet failure smells.

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creativity culture entrepreneurs energy 378

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

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ventures VC venture capital funders 471

A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

APRIL 13, 2021

It is a little known part of my career, but for a brief period from 1997 to 2001, I was part of a small group of investors who helped to create a startup ecosystem in Latin America. ” So began a five year investment partnership between Flatiron Partners (our VC firm) and Susan’s Latin American private equity business.

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entrepreneurship startup ecosystem VC pitching 192

TechCrunch

JANUARY 29, 2021

Edtech needs to reach beyond underfunded public school systems to become more sustainable, which is why more investors and founders are focusing on lifelong learning. Jan Lynn-Matern , founder and partner, Emerge Education (a leading edtech seed fund in Europe with portfolio companies like Aula, Unibuddy and BibliU). citizenship!

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VC founder media education 107

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. In similar fashion to many Silicon Valley startups, the founders simply scratched their own itch: they loved track running and single-mindedly dedicated their life to designing the best shoes to do so.

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startup entrepreneurship culture communities 40

Angel Capital Association

JUNE 27, 2024

During this past upcycle, many micro VCs raised significant funds and pursued earlier stage deals in earnest. Their DNA was wrapped up in a VC mindset that starting valuations were less important given the lofty later stage valuations and frothiness at that end of the market (hence over 1000 “unicorns” today vs only 8 in 2008 and 1 in 2001).

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funders peer-to-peer mix-use angel capital 52

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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founder VC advice pitching 329

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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VC venture capital pitching capital 274

Gust

SEPTEMBER 17, 2014

Me: Raising convertible notes as a seed round is one of the biggest disservices our industry has done to entrepreneurs since 2001-2003 when there were “full ratchets” and “multiple liquidation preferences” – the most hostile terms anybody found in term sheets 10 years ago. Could be a VC seed lead, a VC lead an angel lead.

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VC financing finance entrepreneurs 153

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 25, 2010

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. VC, sales, biz dev, M&A or otherwise. Especially in VC. I was resolute. Any deal.

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venture capital advice VC real estate 301

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

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 12, 2017

That is why I invited the Founder & CEO, Jonah Peretti , to come talk at the 2017 Upfront Summit and make the case himself. Around 2001 Jonah was studying at MIT Media Lab and began running experiments in viral stories in an era before smart phones (2007) and before social networks took off (2004–2007) and before YouTube (2005).

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media leadership innovation VC 210

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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This is going to be BIG.

NOVEMBER 9, 2015

When I first started in venture capital, back in 2001, I used to fund funds. There were a million reasons not to do Uber, for example--regulatory hurdles, first time VC backed founder (Remember, Ryan Graves raised the seed round as CEO, not Travis), the fact that it required individual launches in each city, premium product, etc, etc.

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Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 29, 2010

Justyn Howard, founder of Sprout Social has a blog post that he’s written about his experiences of migrating from scrappy tools to more efficient ones (i.e. Our first big institutional round of VC was $16.5 I learned everything I know about startups in these lean years: 2001-2004.

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culture construction startup advice 333

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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Both Sides of the Table

JULY 29, 2010

People assume that I’m biased because I’m a VC and think you should always get the highest valuation possible. The A round was done in February 2000 (end of the bull market) and my B round was done in April 2001 (bear market). But if you do this early (pre VC) then the price points are pretty low. This is wrong.

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venture capital capital ventures angel investing 282

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 22, 2010

It’s still important advice for startup founders and something that I’m passionate about. You’re a startup founder. You start fighting with your co-founder whom you thought you understood. And good VC’s feel the same way. This is part of my startup advice series. I’m sure of that.

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advice peer-to-peer consulting startup founder 392

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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startup advice SaaS consulting 327

TechCrunch

DECEMBER 27, 2022

Andre Maciel is the founder of Volpe Capital. Jennifer Queen is the founder of Pina , a PR firm focused on startups and venture capital firms. Latin America became the fastest-growing VC region globally, and the market expanded to $16 billion in 2021. Andre Maciel. Contributor. Share on Twitter. He formerly worked with J.P.

venture capital 95

venture capital capital VC opportunity 95

Gust

OCTOBER 20, 2011

We also have data points for VC investments in seed/startup companies (but not necessarily pre-revenue companies). The following chart from Dow Jones VentureSource shows very little variation in pre-money valuation of VC seed stage deals over the past decade. Is the founder coachable? million to a high of $3.4 — No.

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angel investing investing investment opportunity 146

TechCrunch

DECEMBER 12, 2020

While several marketplace unicorns prepare IPOs, a VC digs into the data (EC). Alex Wilhelm hears from one startup founder who has taken a bit of an alternative approach to building a SaaS company. Chatting with CEO and co-founder Tomas Gorny, I got to dig a little under the skin of the company’s history. DoorDash, C3.ai

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venture capital capital startup SaaS 122

This is going to be BIG.

MAY 5, 2023

Last August, I passed the point at which I had spent literally half my entire life working in this asset class, having started at the General Motors pension fund doing institutional investments in venture funds and late-stage directs back in February of 2001. No more founder pitch meetings. No new investments.

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ventures investing investment VC 545

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 8, 2010

You’re tied at the hip to your VC. Get to know VCs over a long period of time so that when you’re ready to get engaged you feel you know their character. How do you then reference check your VC to be sure that you’ve chosen a good firm and partner? Ask the CEO’s about the VC when the chips were down.

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VC advice entrepreneurs venture capital 288

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 11, 2022

2001–2007: THE BUILDING YEARS The dot com bubble had burst. 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).

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VC culture sustainability capital 466

TechCrunch

SEPTEMBER 13, 2022

EDT, we are talking with Andrew Chan about why Gen Z VCs are trash, and at 12:00 p.m. EDT, we’re talking with M13 partner Anna Barber about what today’s founders can learn from the dot-com bubble bursting. Startups and VC. TechCrunch+ is our membership program, which helps founders and startup teams get ahead.

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micromobility SaaS capital VC 89

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. Neither can any VC. Executive Summary.

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strategy development VC advice 366

Tomasz Tunguz

AUGUST 14, 2014

The chart above compares the total number of MegaRounds, those VC investments of $50M or more, from 2001 through 2013. In short, MegaRounds are increasingly common, while the number of VC-backed IPOs is relatively constant. The rise of MegaRounds as a new financing tool for founders is a terrific development for founders.

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financing finance VC capital 40

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 13, 2009

I sat next to Irwin Jacobs (founder of Qualcomm) on a bus ride. We then had a piece in Time Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, Europe, we ran front cover of Tornado Insider (the top VC magazine in Europe at the time). 2001-2004 were very humbling but we built a real company. If you need VC, no better time than the present.

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media advice VC capital 310

David Teten VC

OCTOBER 31, 2024

We’re fortunate to interview Victor Orlovski, Founder and Managing Partner of R136 Ventures. Between 2001 and 2005, I worked on a pioneering mobile banking platform for a young bank, that became the de-facto best-in-class standard among banks in Central and Eastern Europe, well before the iPhone era.

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ventures peer-to-peer mix-use VC 52