TechCrunch

OCTOBER 20, 2021

Backblaze, based in San Mateo, California, has a very limited venture capital history. million of convertible notes (which we also refer to as a Simple Agreement for Future Equity agreement (SAFE)) in a private financing round in August 2021, we had raised less than $3.0 million in outside equity since our founding in 2007.

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VC venture capital financing finance 97

This is going to be BIG.

DECEMBER 28, 2013

However, in this moment, I think one''s career in venture capital depends on changing your perspective. The biggest question I think VC''s face right now is whether or not, in the future, the best founders will look and act like the best founders of the past. YC''s best investing days may be behind it. That''s less than 10%.

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venture capital VC ventures capital 380

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 14, 2010

If you want to raise venture capital more easily the advice could be quite practical and counter-intuitive. Many companies that are raising B or C venture capital rounds right now raised their initial money in 2005-2008. It’s a bit like if you bought a $1 million home in 2007 and want to sell it for $1 million today.

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venture capital capital ventures advice 289

TechCrunch

NOVEMBER 20, 2021

Matthew Mendelsohn’s accession to become Yale’s new chief investment officer marks a milestone for the rise of university endowments investing in venture capital. This perpetuates the remarkably closed ecosystem of hiring in VC, where jobs are seldom even posted and warm introductions are practically essential.

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ventures education venture capital VC 96

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 24, 2014

I become a venture capitalist in September 2007 – exactly 6.5 As a result I didn’t write my first venture capital check until March 2009 – exactly 5 years ago. I divided success into the phases of venture capital and 18 months into writing my first check here was my view (details on each in the link above).

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VC venture capital financing finance 387

TechCrunch

APRIL 5, 2022

‘The tortoise and the hare’ story is playing out right now in VC. After the last few weeks of geopolitical volatility spilling over to the financial and crypto markets, it seems like all anyone can talk about is what startups and VCs can, should or will do in the anticipated downturn. More posts by this contributor.

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SaaS venture capital capital VC 64

Gust

OCTOBER 8, 2014

Cautionary note: No competent VC is actually fooled when you show up after raising $6M in seed financing and say you’re now raising an A! 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 If you''re newer to VC math here''s a great primer].

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VC advice financing finance 136

TechCrunch

FEBRUARY 11, 2021

Since M-Pesa’s mobile money infrastructure came into play in 2007, there has been a proliferation of fintech services ranging from wallets to savings and loans. came to East Africa in 2007 to work on philanthropic biofield projects. Today, the Africa-focused but U.S.-based Playford, who grew up in the U.K.,

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accelerator financing finance capital 93

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 10, 2010

This episode of This Week in Venture Capital featured Michael Montgomery, president of Montgomery & Co. You have to be selected to present and it is typically reserved for companies that have already raised early-stage capital and are well into revenue growth. Should you use investment banks to raise venture capital?

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VC venture capital ventures capital 242

Gust

DECEMBER 13, 2011

I’ve recently taken a look at seed stage funding by venture capitalists (VCs) and angel investors over the past five years. For VCs, I chose to look at all seed stage VC deals (from MoneyTree©) as well as those in five of the most active regions in the country. All Seed-VC. VCs in NYC invested, on average, only $2.4

entrepreneurs 162

entrepreneurs angel investing VC venture capital 162

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 27, 2010

And that was evident on today’s Angel vs. VC panel. There are real changes in the venture capital industry and it would have been fun to talk about them. The VC industry is segmenting – I have spoken about this many times before. So in the past we needed VC to really get a startup going. Answer: Not much.

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disruption VC entrepreneurs financing 308

TechCrunch

MARCH 9, 2021

New York-based private investment firm Avenir Growth Capital and U.S. New and existing investors who participated include DST Global, Early Capital Berrywood, Green Visor Capital, Greycroft Capital, Insight Ventures, PayPal, Salesforce Ventures, Tiger Management, Worldpay FIS 9yards Capital. .

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capital frameworks investing investment 145

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 14, 2010

This is where VC comes in and why it’s needed in the industry no matter how much populist sentiment exists agains the industry. got picked up early without raising a lot of VC. That is why I find it curious when angels start shouting that VC’s are dinosaurs, evil, money-grubbing and non-value-add.

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angel investing investing investment VC 152

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 22, 2011

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. It is great for entrepreneurs and great for VCs. source: Capital IQ.

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real estate entrepreneurs financing finance 309

Haystack

APRIL 10, 2018

Earlier today, the folks from Afore Capital hosted their inaugural “Pre-Seed Summit” in San Francisco. About 150 people showed up, a healthy mix of founders, seed-stage investors and big fund VCs, and a bunch of LPs of various sizes. OK, so microVC funds and smaller pre-seed financings could really be a thing.

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investing investment financing finance 60

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 14, 2010

They have marked-up paper gains propped up by an over excited venture capital market that has validated their investments. That would mean that the increased number of new business startups will lead to a “funding gap&# of deals that can’t get financed. Great businesses take 7-10 years to build. I avoided much of this.

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angel investing investing investment real estate 299

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 5, 2011

2007, 2011) and for the hottest of companies and in bad markets for fund raising (2003, 2008) prices test the bottom end of the range. That’s the deal you get when you’re raising in a good market for startup financing. I’m a VC so I have an obvious bias. There is no such thing as a uniform price.

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startup advice pitching VC 336

Tomasz Tunguz

MARCH 31, 2015

Private market rounds were 14x as common as IPOs in 2014, compared to the 2004-2007 era, when IPOs were about as equally common as large private financings. As Bill Gurley wrote, “These large, high-priced private financings are the defining characteristic of this particular technology cycle.”

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financing finance VC investing 40

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.

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incubation angel investing pitching venture capital 40

Founders Coop

FEBRUARY 21, 2024

This post is an attempt to unpack the changes we observed both during and after our time with Techstars, to draw out potentially useful lessons about how things might have gone differently. ——— In the Beginning: Champions of the Local Startup Ecosystem Techstars launched its first program in Boulder in 2007.

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startup ecosystem accelerator communities support 195

abovethecrowd.com

FEBRUARY 8, 2016

He bootstrapped the company in New York for five years before raising venture capital from high-quality investors like Jeff Bezos and Union Square Ventures, then managed the business to a successful sale to Adobe in 2012. In 2007 he founded 99U, an annual conference attended by thousands of design leaders and creative professionals.

creativity 56

creativity entrepreneurship venture capital entrepreneurs 56

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 12, 2010

We had a special edition of This Week in Venture Capital this week shooting out of the Next New Networks offices in New York. Our guest was Mo Koyfman of Spark Capital. Topics we discussed in the first 45 minutes of the video include: What is VC like in NY? Mo & I both have double majors with one being finance / econ.

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VC capital venture capital networking 217

Andreessen Horowitz

SEPTEMBER 21, 2023

In 2007, it became one of the first markets in the world to issue contactless (tap-to-pay) cards. (A You can’t get a license without capital to absorb potential losses and be financially sound. This enabled them to unlock further funding as VC-backed growth companies over time. A full 8 years earlier than the U.S.)

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innovation disruption enablement support 118

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 5, 2010

Having street smarts with no inspirational ability to build teams can yield a great small business but will be difficult to scale into a large VC-backed business. So we as VCs search for entrepreneurs/founders who have the whole package or as much of it as possible. In the book they profile how VC worked in the early days (60s / 70s).

entrepreneurs 293

entrepreneurs VC advice consulting 293

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 14, 2016

What is the True Sentiment of VCs? I recently survey more than 150 VC friends from all stages and geographies what they thought about the market by asking “Which of the following statements best describes your mood heading into 2016?” This is how VCs feel. That’s the beauty of markets and of capitalism.

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startup VC entrepreneurs real estate 285

Dream It

FEBRUARY 14, 2020

Via TechCrunch by Arman Tabatabai: Venture capital has been flooding the various subverticals under the robotics umbrella in recent years, and the construction space is one of the largest beneficiaries. Last November, we surveyed 13 of the top robotics-focused VCs to find out which areas of robotics are exciting them most going into 2020.

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construction investing investment opportunity 259

David Teten VC

MARCH 1, 2022

The easiest way to work with and for VC funds is to become a part-time scout, getting paid for sourcing investments. How to win consulting, board, operating, and investment roles with private equity and venture capital funds (video). How to find a job as a VC scout. How to get a job in venture capital.

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VC venture capital accelerator ventures 128

TechCrunch

APRIL 24, 2022

They salvaged the software side of their business and made its own standalone company – Wheelhouse, which Kitchell describes as “fintech platform for the $500 billion-plus flex rental space” that includes pricing and financing. Finance teams are typically asked to do more with less. So why do these stories make me irrationally happy?

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founder startup financing finance 86

TechCrunch

DECEMBER 8, 2020

. “The invoicing company” “When they started, they didn’t position themselves so much as a startup or as a tech company,” recalls Skype founder Niklas Zennström, whose venture capital firm Atomico would eventually become a Klarna investor in 2012. People referred to them as the invoicing company.”.

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investing investment mix-use media 143

TechCrunch

DECEMBER 8, 2020

. “The invoicing company” “When they started, they didn’t position themselves so much as a startup or as a tech company,” recalls Skype founder Niklas Zennström, whose venture capital firm Atomico would eventually become a Klarna investor in 2012. People referred to them as the invoicing company.”.

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investing investment mix-use media 82

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 9, 2011

When I first got into the industry it was 2007. Finance where needed. But I guess you could say the same about VC. Stock market declines would bring back dog days of VC. VC Ice Age Part 2 – Why the Market Started Moving Again? VC Ice Age Part 3 – What The Future Holds. Yesterday was a Monday.

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VC disruption entrepreneurs venture capital 305

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 30, 2010

My original thinking from Oct ’09 was, while I didn’t (and still don’t) have a crystal ball I worried that: consumers were over-stretched with debt (and make up 77% of the economy), unemployment would continue to rise, which in turn would drive the stock market south and cut the rate of M&A activity and VC investment even further.

entrepreneurs 298

entrepreneurs real estate VC advice 298

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 6, 2017

Every year Upfront Ventures surveys Limited Partners (LPs) who are the main source of capital that invests in VC funds and thus the main source of capital that goes to startups to get an early-warning sense of the year ahead, leaving aside any Black Swans. Will they have enough capital?” Will it last?

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ventures startup venture capital VC 286

abovethecrowd.com

JUNE 2, 2021

After all, in the year 2020, investors that had access to VC-backed IPOs, earned $206 million in average one-day gains for each of 165 separate offerings, for a total of $34B in one-day wealth transfers (including over-allotments). of VC-backed companies vs Buyout-backed companies. Are We Too Gullible or Naive? I don’t think so.

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peer-to-peer VC advice capital 82