Both Sides of the Table

MAY 15, 2010

It’s always fun chatting with Jason because he’s knowledgeable about the market, quick on topics and pushes me to talk more about VC / entrepreneur issues. We’re staring to get the hang of how to divide the show up into talking about deals but also talking about issues for entrepreneurs during funding.

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Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 1, 2009

In my previous post, The VC Ice Age is Thawing (for now) I wrote about the reasons why the VC market came to a screeching halt in September 2008 and remained largely shut until at least April 2009. There are now signs the VC market has gathered pace meaning it’s a great time to be fund raising.

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Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 14, 2010

I know that the tone of the title and post will seem a bit aggressive for a post from a venture capitalist on fund raising. It’s meant to be a bit provocative but the reality is that I give this advice to entrepreneurs all the the time and I usually leave the “e&# off of the end. Not so VC. It is 2010.

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venture capital capital ventures advice 289

This is going to be BIG.

SEPTEMBER 25, 2012

I'm so excited to hear that Indeed.com, a company that Union Square Ventures invested in while I worked there, just exited for a reported billion dollars. Back in 2005, I was a lowly analyst at Union Square Ventures with a million product ideas that I'd blog about all the time. Indeed did one thing. That was it.

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strategy VC ventures opportunity 300

AsiaTechDaily

JANUARY 30, 2023

In addition to his rich experiences working in the venture capital (VC) and private equity (PE) sectors, Joseph has also sharpened his investment acumen through his multiple years in the audit and stock-broking industry before deciding to finally launch his cross-border investment firm, Kairous Capital , in 2015.

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capital investing investment venture capital 96

TechCrunch

APRIL 5, 2021

million in a Series A round led by Silicon Valley VC firm Ribbit Capital. Kaszek Ventures, QED Investors and Greenoaks Capital also participated in the financing, which brings the startup’s total raised to $36.7 This isn’t the first venture for Cora co-founders Igor Senra and Leo Mendes. million since its 2019 inception.

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capital real estate disruption education 88

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 25, 2011

tl;dr version: If you’re an entrepreneur or VC or will be working in this industry - buy this. When I first started as a startup CEO in 1999 there were no guides on raising venture capital. 3) VCs are anal about things like voting thresholds, seniority of their stock, protective provisions, etc. Drag along rights?

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VC entrepreneurs advice venture capital 304

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.&#. A friend of mine is a serial entrepreneur and is running a high-profile, early stage company in NorCal. He’s been at it since 2005. VC’s who don’t get this are naive.

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founder VC advice pitching 329

This is going to be BIG.

DECEMBER 11, 2014

I''m super proud of Rob, Ben and the whole Backupify team--and this is particularly special for me because Backupify was the first investment I ever made as a VC, and the first board I ever sat on. Fundraising for the Series A looked like it was going to be difficult--and that''s when Rich Levendov from Avalon Ventures stepped in.

board 274

board venture capital entrepreneurship creativity 274

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. Understand how venture debt might shorten your projections. * If you have raised venture debt you might have even less time.

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startup VC frameworks capital 383

TechCrunch

NOVEMBER 24, 2020

In 2020, the venture industry continued to invest in startups, despite the COVID-19 crisis. While taxes are high, entrepreneurs won’t find the staggering income inequality so often seen in cities like San Francisco and New York. Nick Kalliagkopoulos , partner, Prime Ventures. • Bas Godska , founder, Acrobator Ventures.

opportunity 93

opportunity startup startup ecosystem education 93

Angel Capital Association

JULY 13, 2020

By: Sarah Dickey, ACA Membership Director Earlier this week the Clean Energy Venture Group (CEVG) and E8 Angels announced a partnership for national climate tech angel investing with the goal to achieve greater efficiencies and impact. We want to leverage the synergies allowed by this unique combination and complementarity across the country.

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energy innovation ventures collaboration 40

TechCrunch

APRIL 6, 2022

Austin made headlines in 2021 for being “the place” for startup founders and venture capitalists alike to set up shop. TechCrunch Live is a free weekly event featuring investors, founders, and startups with the goal of helping entrepreneurs build better venture-backed businesses. Register here. It’s free.

real estate 97

real estate VC angel investing culture 97

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 15, 2010

This is the third article in a series on what it takes to be a great angel investor (and why this should matter to entrepreneurs). I should say that I agree that naive optimism in entrepreneurs can produce higher beta (upside or flops) and that’s good from an investment standpoint if you’re looking for big returns.

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Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 14, 2010

This is the third article in a series on what it takes to be a great angel investor (and why this should matter to entrepreneurs). And if I were an entrepreneur I’d rather find investors who understood “my space&# so that in tough times they felt comfortable about “doubling down.&#. Not everybody agreed.

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angel investing investing investment VC 152

This is going to be BIG.

MARCH 15, 2012

So what would have happened had Sean met Joshua Schachter in 2005--would Josh have still sold out early to Yahoo! Seems to me that New York could use a guy who goes around broadening the visions of New York entrepreneurs. or would he have been convinced to take a financing round?

startup 278

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Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 20, 2011

They have totally changed the way you run a VC firm, investing heavily in systems & events for their founders that are pushing the boundaries of the way our industry works. It is clear that he is simply passionate about being a VC and participating in this industry. Howard is successful enough that he doesn't need to work.

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capital board VC pitching 284

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 9, 2011

Venture Capitalists typically have partners’ meetings on Mondays. I spent my days meeting companies, figuring out what areas of the market interested me and trying to get a sense for how VCs thought about fair valuations. Companies raised too much money in 2005-08 and had high burn rates. Why is that? tl;dr summary.

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VC disruption entrepreneurs venture capital 305

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 24, 2012

He knows every startup & VC in town.” This was 2005 when I had no exits under my belt, no blogs … nobody was looking. When I first arrived in LA my good friend Matt Pillar (a long-term veteran of tech, media & VC) who had been in LA for some time told me, “in LA there’s none better than David.”

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Venture Hacks

APRIL 17, 2019

You can’t build a portfolio of pre-traction companies at $8-10M pre-money and expect to make a venture return. Valuations for pre-traction companies between 2005-2010 were $1-5M pre-money for the first non-friends-and-family round. Without these large exits, your portfolio will not achieve a venture return. Otherwise, pass.

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angel investing investing investment incubation 181

This is going to be BIG.

APRIL 11, 2011

Back in 2005, when I was with Union Square Ventures, we changed our brochureware homepage into a blog. A few other VCs had been blogging before, but no one had gone as far as to make the whole front facing effort of their firm into something so interactive. It changed the way we worked with entrepreneurs.

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innovation media development technology 279

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 5, 2011

I’m an entrepreneur at heart so I’m always inspired when I hear stories about innovation. It’s why my investment philosophy is called, “ the entrepreneur thesis.&#. I need to take some VC meetings. This article originally ran on TechCrunch. I’m in Seattle this week. Of course I have.

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communities VC innovation entrepreneurs 317

Entrepreneur's Handbook

MAY 4, 2021

Gil Dibner, the general partner at Angular Ventures noticed : “… we live in an era where there are tremendous short-term benefits to successful pseudo entrepreneurship. A survey of US-born founders of 502 engineering and technology companies, founded between 1995 and 2005, showed that only 10% of founders had a Ph.D.

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startup founder founder startup entrepreneurship 53

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 13, 2011

In 2004 / 2005 I was starting to get intrigued with user-generated content. Yeah, that was when I changed for me…” “…there was so much positive feedback on demystifying this one element of venture capital. This time frame – 2005/2006 – web 2.0 RSS was something that had appeared.” “….I was starting.

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venture capital pitching communities entrepreneurs 288

TechCrunch

JANUARY 21, 2021

million on average, the largest payout to employees in Israeli high tech at the time, and the exit created a pool of new entrepreneurs and angel investors. It wasn’t long before venture capital firms started up and major tech companies like Microsoft, Google and Samsung had R&D centers and accelerators located in the country.

startup ecosystem 88

startup ecosystem startup incubation culture 88

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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strategy development VC advice 366

Gust

NOVEMBER 4, 2011

Entrepreneurs and investors who have spent any time dealing with convertible debt seed financing transactions are likely to have encountered the subject of valuation caps. The spin-out took a few months to negotiate and didn’t actually close until February 2005. Part of the deal was bringing in a new CEO, Richard Rosenblatt.

incubation 98

incubation financing finance mix-use 98

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 3, 2009

On the other hand were everybody else including those that tried to make a full time of it like Robert Scoble as well as those that did it as a side job like VCs, CEO’s and start-up entrepreneurs. Bill Gurley , a well known VC from Benchmark Capital, seemed to have a 2-year hiatus from blogging and has now picked up the pace.

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VC creativity networking media 219

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 6, 2015

When I counsel startup entrepreneurs I give them my blunt dose of reality, “If you can’t easily identify target leads who have a problem you can solve then hang up your cleats – you’re not going to succeed.” Let me give you another simple example from my experience as a VC at Upfront Ventures.

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SaaS VC strategy entrepreneurs 315

Tomasz Tunguz

MARCH 18, 2014

Just a few months ago, Pure Storage raised $150M in the largest ever venture investment in a storage company. Each chart shows the number of rounds raised bucketed by size from $0 to $5M and up to $150M to $200M from 2005 to 2013. All of this is good news for entrepreneurs. But there are a few outliers.

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VC financing finance enablement 40

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 22, 2011

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 said that I felt that Micro-VCs were the most important change in our industry. I believe that.

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real estate entrepreneurs financing finance 309

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 16, 2010

This is the fourth article in a series on what it takes to be a great angel investor (and why this should matter to entrepreneurs). The first three skills I espoused were: access to the highest-quality deal-flow, domain knowledge of the topic area in which you’re investing and access to VCs to help fund the next stages of development.

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Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 3, 2011

As many of you know I run a weekly webcast called This Week in VC that’s getting between 25-35,000 weekly views across ThisWeekIn.com, YouTube & mostly iTunes. In 2005 they realized that this business was going to evaporate over night with the introduction of YouTube. Yesterday’s show floored me. Here’s the link.

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mix-use VC advice creativity 303

TechCrunch

DECEMBER 8, 2020

Siemiatkowski also shares what’s next for the company as it ventures further into the world of retail banking after gaining a bank license in 2017. We also learn how, under his watch and as the company began to scale, Klarna missed the next big opportunity in fintech, instead being usurped by Adyen and Stripe.

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investing investment mix-use media 143

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 25, 2016

In our industry we applaud the efforts for entrepreneurs to have tried and we know that today’s failure can bring the experience for tomorrow’s success. The questions that a VC mulls before writing a check are precisely the questions you should be asking yourself. Market Size. How much ad revenue does TripAdvisor make?

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incumbents startup peer-to-peer incubation 277

Don Dodge

APRIL 6, 2015

They were part of the Ycombinator Cambridge class of 2007, after being rejected by YC in 2005 and 2006. I remember the Demo Day in 2007 where DropBox presented to about 30 Boston area Angels and Venture Capital investors. None of the local VC firms invested. Classic VC funding is a well-understood model.

incubation 40

incubation angel investing pitching venture capital 40

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 7, 2011

One of the great joys of doing the web series This Week in VC every week is that I get to spend time with great people debating the issues of our day including how our industry is evolving as well as insights into how companies got started, got their initial traction and dealt with adversities. Oh, yeah. And when there is a spark, go for it.

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