Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 11, 2022

Something happened in the past 7 years in the startup and venture capital world that I hadn’t experienced since the late 90’s — we all began praying to the God of Valuation. How might our next phase of the journey seem brighter, even with more uncertain days for startups and capital markets? What happened? Until we weren’t.

VC 466

VC culture sustainability capital 466

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. Janine Sickmeyer, Overlooked Ventures.

venture capital 97

venture capital investing investment ventures 97

This is going to be BIG.

NOVEMBER 9, 2015

When I first started in venture capital, back in 2001, I used to fund funds. I worked for an institutional investor that invested in both venture capital funds and later stage growth deals. My job was to figure out why certain firms were winning and why they might continue to win.

sustainability 289

sustainability angel investing venture capital VC 289

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 American venture capital and growth investments through 2018 had averaged less than $2 billion per year. Share on Twitter. He formerly worked with J.P.

venture capital 95

venture capital capital VC opportunity 95

TechCrunch

JUNE 7, 2022

Imagine a world where founders boasted about how much growth they’ve driven, as opposed to their fundraising prowess. The ability to raise capital is less impressive than finding sustainable ways to build a base of paying customers. “Across the board, the variance in metrics is stark,” says Townshend. PDT/11 a.m.

SaaS 87

SaaS sustainability venture capital ventures 87

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 14, 2015

One of the points I tried to make is that as venture capital investors as an industry we seem to have a healthy disdain for public market investors. We have an entire generation of startup founders who don’t have muscle memory from getting their burn rates back into shape from 2008/09 or 2001-2005.

VC 392

VC capital culture venture capital 392

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.”. There are still so many hard problems left to solve, especially within fintech and commerce-tech and I am excited to continue to work with great founders and back the next generation of mission-driven fintech founders.”.

capital 79

capital ventures angel investing VC 79

Dream It

APRIL 12, 2020

Paul Martino, General Partner at Bullpen Capital. 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.

ventures 334

ventures startup capital board 334

StartupNation

DECEMBER 6, 2020

We live in a world with a stereotypical representation of what a startup founder looks like, so it’s no wonder that a large portion of the population feels underrepresented. So, why should startup founders care about attracting and retaining a diverse workforce? Myth 1: Startup founders are young . Fastest growing 0.1

innovation 97

innovation startup creativity funders 97

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 28, 2010

This lasted from about 2001-2004. Since then Mike his built his career by investing in early-stage companies (seed or series A), which is remarkable given that Polaris Ventures is a $1 billion fund. And Mike believes that entrepreneurs often need less capital to get started these days. Founded in Sunnyvale, CA in 2001.

VC 230

VC ventures venture capital capital 230

Feedough

SEPTEMBER 30, 2020

But, still, every startup, especially those seeking angel and venture capital funding, are conditioned to project this growth curve – because investors love it. Usually, founders haven’t quit their jobs at this stage. Surging Growth: This period started in 2001. Today, disruption is rather slow-paced.

disruption 111

disruption sustainability entrepreneurs energy 111

StartupNation

DECEMBER 6, 2020

We live in a world with a stereotypical representation of what a startup founder looks like, so it’s no wonder that a large portion of the population feels underrepresented. So, why should startup founders care about attracting and retaining a diverse workforce? Myth 1: Startup founders are young . Fastest growing 0.1

innovation 45

innovation startup creativity funders 45

TechCrunch

SEPTEMBER 13, 2022

EDT, we’re talking with M13 partner Anna Barber about what today’s founders can learn from the dot-com bubble bursting. 2001, a Starbucks Odyssey : In August, Starbucks got things percolating with plans for a blockchain-based loyalty program and NFT community. PDT / 3:00 p.m. The TechCrunch Top 3. You can sign up here.). Big Tech Inc.

micromobility 89

micromobility SaaS capital VC 89

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 8, 2010

This is part of my ongoing series on Raising Venture Capital. Not so in venture capital. when you missed your targets, when your co-founder quit, when the competition chose your competitor or when the other investors around the table lost confidence? My chips were down in late 2000 / early 2001. Except GRP.

VC 288

VC advice entrepreneurs venture capital 288

TechCrunch

DECEMBER 12, 2020

Alex Wilhelm hears from one startup founder who has taken a bit of an alternative approach to building a SaaS company. Here’s more: Now north of $200 million in revenue, [ Nextiva ] is a quiet giant and, notably, has not taken venture capital funding along its path to scale. How to bootstrap to $200m+ in revenue.

venture capital 122

venture capital capital SaaS startup 122

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. On December 3rd Brad Feld wrote a one paragraph blog post titled “ Raising Venture Capital &# in which he linked to my blog. Thus is venture capital. Tempus Fugit.

VC 274

VC venture capital pitching capital 274

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 27, 2010

There are real changes in the venture capital industry and it would have been fun to talk about them. And people like Jeff Clavier, Aydin Senkut, Dave McClure, Chris Sacca & Eric Paley (at Founder Collective) are leading the charge. The hardest thing is deciding what the right time to allow founder liquidity is.

disruption 308

disruption VC entrepreneurs financing 308

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 22, 2011

I recently spoke at the Founder Showcase at the request of Adeo Ressi. I said that at the Founder Showcase, too. In any given year there are about 50 venture-backed companies or so that are bought for $100 million or more. some founders lose their life savings. This post originally ran on TechCrunch.

real estate 309

real estate entrepreneurs financing finance 309

Gust

SEPTEMBER 17, 2014

Me: So, you raised venture capital? 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. On the phone ….

VC 153

VC financing finance entrepreneurs 153

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 16, 2010

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. So the people who invest in VC funds have two problems.

VC 311

VC startup real estate financing 311

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. Rather, they empower startups to remain private longer and continue to grow, which enables them to command higher valuations and raise more capital at IPO. Last year, there was 1 MegaRound for every 2 IPOs.

financing 40

financing finance VC capital 40

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 2, 2009

If a company has reached a level of success, has been around for a few years and you believe the company has potential to break out into a much bigger company then you should let the founders take money off of the table. Founders however are asked to take low salaries and never really get back the time they worked for free.

founder 329

founder VC advice pitching 329

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 13, 2009

I’m not going to cover in this post the obvious post-show marketing tasks such as following up on all those business cards you grabbed, communicating with all those people who registered at your site and leveraging your new found fame to score venture capital. I sat next to Irwin Jacobs (founder of Qualcomm) on a bus ride.

media 310

media advice VC energy 310

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. It quickly became impossible to raise venture capital. I lived through this again September 2001. It isn’t even a story about raising venture capital or M&A. Any deal.

venture capital 301

venture capital advice real estate VC 301

OurCrowd

FEBRUARY 21, 2021

Co-Founder and CEO Noam Levavi previously co-founded and led YCD Multimedia, a digital media provider helping some of the world’s biggest brands deliver personalized content to their customers. Is venture investing too risky in the current climate? These virtual pop-ups have shown great value in terms of audience engagement and sales.

media 41

media technology collaboration investing 41

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. You need to build genuine relationships with these portfolio startup founders as well as trust with them and the rest will follow. So why would raising venture capital be any different. Always be fund raising.

strategy 366

strategy development VC advice 366

Gust

OCTOBER 20, 2011

Is the founder coachable? – Need venture capital. This article was originally written in May 2001, revised extensively in January 2011 and again October 2011. Experience in sales or technology. — No business experience. Willing to step aside, if necessary, for an experienced CEO. — Unwilling. — No.

angel investing 146

angel investing investing investment opportunity 146

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.

startup 40

startup entrepreneurship culture communities 40

abovethecrowd.com

FEBRUARY 27, 2019

Founded by Michael Bruno in Paris in 2001, 1stdibs (*) is the world’s largest online marketplace for luxury one-of-a-kind antiques, high-end modern furniture, vintage fashion, jewelry, and fine art. If you are a founder who is excited about starting a new marketplace, there are two caveats that are important to remember.

opportunity 88

opportunity enablement networking education 88

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. Joel met his co-founder for Fog Creek software and learned a valuable management lesson. Lesson: Joel had been building a community of readers since 2001. But I loved reading them and so did my team.

peer-to-peer 285

peer-to-peer communities development innovation 285