Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 22, 2014

Picking a VC is hard. So I thought I’d write about out with what I would look for in a VC knowing what I know now and why. Most VCs are book smart. VCs should be more of a coach than proscriptively telling you what to do. You want a VC who will spar with you but then STFU and let you get on with things.

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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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This is going to be BIG.

JANUARY 22, 2018

The responses I got came at a time when I've been having a lot of conversations with female founders as well about their fundraising experiences. At this moment, I'm in the process of backing three companies that have at least one female founder and I just finished a round for a black female founder in December. Ducks head.]

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TechCrunch

NOVEMBER 17, 2021

And so, generally, the people who invested in tech companies — the traditional venture investors — could tap their extended talent networks and apply their knowledge to bring talented people into startups, or at least coach the founders on how to select the right talent to scale and grow. It’s a great time to be a founder.

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Both Sides of the Table

MAY 13, 2018

This is part of a series of advice for founders who need to raise money from venture capitalists. The most important advice I could give you before you set out in fund raising mode is to understand that fund-raising a sales & marketing process and needs to be managed. This is where most founders err. Same with VC.

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TechCrunch

OCTOBER 26, 2021

According to Sean McDermott, founder and CEO of RedMonocle, CISOs should meet executives where they are. So much so, Lightspeed Ventures handed the startup a term sheet even though its founders weren’t looking to raise. “You already know why cybersecurity investment is essential to your role.

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TechCrunch

AUGUST 6, 2021

Starting with the assumption that 90% of startups will fail and the most successful ones take an average of six years to IPO, founders must make careful decisions about whom they invite to join the core team. His initial advice? “Investors love founder-CEOs, and founders are often fantastic candidates for this role.

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Entrepreneur's Handbook

AUGUST 2, 2021

5 Ways to Encourage More Women Into Careers in Venture Capital It’s time to tear open the seemingly impenetrable ‘old boys’ network It’s no secret that founders seek out investors who value diversity and recognize the success that comes from having diverse teams. However, the question of how to make this a reality remains unanswered.

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TechCrunch

MARCH 31, 2022

A great VC will do so much more for you than just write a check. VCs should never give armchair product advice nor cross the line into micromanagement. The best founder and VC relationships are based on trust and partnership; it should be a relationship that’s nonjudgmental, supportive, and constructive.

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Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 27, 2013

And I am often approached by entrepreneurs in cities which don’t have a vibrant VC community. They often ask whether they have to move to SF, NY or LA to get financed. It would be easier in terms of getting access to angels, VCs, the media, whatever. It’s a goal to help you understand the life of a VC.

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David Teten VC

AUGUST 19, 2019

Does the traditional VC financing model make sense for all companies? VC Josh Kopelman makes the analogy of jet fuel vs. motorcycle fuel. VCs sell jet fuel which works well for jets; motorcycles are more common but need a different type of fuel. . Absolutely not. So what is Revenue Based Investing?

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Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 3, 2016

In the VC insider baseball world a discussion has gone on about “VC platforms” over the past 5 or so years. While firms define platforms differently, let’s just say they are the services that a VC offers outside of investment capital and partner time on boards or providing intros.

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Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 11, 2022

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). THE VC VALUATION GOD Valuation obsession wasn’t restricted to startups.

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TechCrunch

JANUARY 21, 2022

But to build one, founders must first define clear goals and create value for participants. 500 Global’s Christine Tsai shares her 2022 VC predictions. 2021 was a year like no other when it came to venture investment, and this year is poised to tread a similar path, writes 500 Global’s CEO and co-founder, Christine Tsai.

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David Teten VC

AUGUST 21, 2019

Most founders who are raising capital look first to traditional equity VCs. Revenue-Based Investing (“RBI”) is a new form of VC financing, distinct from the preferred equity structure most VCs use. For more background, see Revenue-Based Investing: A New Option for Founders who Care About Control.

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TechCrunch

MARCH 10, 2023

I’m not a market watcher or a financial expert, but here’s some advice: Panic is a luxury. billion in common stock to shore up its finances after the bank acknowledged that a reduced pace of deal-making and “elevated client cash burn pressuring balance of fund flows” were impacting its performance. Talk to some friends.

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Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 8, 2010

You’re tied at the hip to your VC. So my first advice is not to rush in the fund raising process. 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. I always tell entrepreneurs, “in good times of course everybody loves their VC.

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Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 8, 2009

I came across this blog post about getting a computer science degree as the best degree for getting into venture capital or working at a VC-backed start up. I just completed an exercise where I went out to hire a new associate for my VC firm, GRP Partners. I had to laugh a bit reading it. I installed Windows 3.1 THE FIVE C’S.

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TechCrunch

AUGUST 24, 2023

There was also a lot of talk around Tornado Cash as the two founders behind the crypto mixer were charged on Wednesday by U.S. This week in web3 Two founders behind crypto mixer Tornado Cash charged by U.S. Erik previously worked on Wall Street as a VP for AIG investments and was a co-founder and consultant of other startups.

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Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 14, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series Pitching a VC. I recently wrote a post on angel financing covering the topic of convertible notes but I realized I was thinking about the issue more from investor perspective and a very narrow topic of how to price the round. And a great product starts with the founder. They exist in every town.

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TechCrunch

OCTOBER 1, 2021

At TechCrunch Disrupt, Houseparty founder Ben Rubin emphasized decentralization as Web3’s central feature. In conversation with reporter Taylor Hatmaker, Rubin said NFTs show that individuals can benefit from Web3 adoption, while decentralized finance and cryptocurrency trading are more commercialized forms. Any advice?

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Both Sides of the Table

MAY 4, 2013

Should I trust my instincts for founders and products or should I be more focused on the market size or business plan? As a VC you want to feel like you have “proprietary sources” of deal flow. ” As far as “terms” go I’m 100% aligned to have the most vanilla, founder-friendly terms I can.

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Gust

SEPTEMBER 17, 2014

It’s like we need a finance 101 course for entrepreneurs. In finance they call it “terminal value” but the truth is the price is as arbitrary at your A round as it is at your seed round. I know how to structure around that to protect the founders from getting screwed on a multiple liquidation preference. There were no metrics.

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Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 14, 2010

I was recently speaking with some founders about their fund raising process. They had received a term sheet from a VC and were wondering whether to work with this firm. You’re tied at the hip to your VC. So my first advice is not to rush in the fund raising process. Not so in venture capital. After Sept 11th?

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Hunter Walk

SEPTEMBER 12, 2022

An Investor and a Founder Postmortem a Mistake. The common VC passes are pretty cliche. And while I passed on leading their seed, I did contribute a smaller amount into the financing, along with three subsequent pro rata/super pro rata investments. The Four (!!!) Would Have In The First Place.

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Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 25, 2010

When I first read Paul Graham’s blog post on “High Resolution&# Financing I read it as a treatise arguing that convertible notes are better than equity. Most early-stage entrepreneurs who have worked with me (either as an angel or as a seed VC) know that I don’t rely at all on the social proof of other investors.

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Entrepreneurs' Organization

DECEMBER 15, 2023

Raising funding is no easy feat, especially for first-time founders. Yet founders often trip up when it comes to investor relations — the ongoing communication and relationship building after that first check clears. Being aware of this bias can help founders take a balanced perspective. However, not all money is created equal.

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Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 7, 2014

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 There weren’t a lot of seed funds in 2007 so this was often done by angels, funding consortia or sometimes early-stage funds that existed then (First Round Capital, True Ventures, SoftTech VC, etc.).

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David Teten VC

AUGUST 20, 2019

A new wave of Revenue-Based Investors are emerging who are using creative investing structures with some of the upside of traditional VC, but some of the downside protection of debt. In addition, their portfolios look far more diverse than VC industry norms. Who are the major Revenue-Based Investing VCs?

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TechCrunch

AUGUST 3, 2021

Design expert Scott Tong outlines 4 concepts founders should consider when designing products. At Early Stage 2021, design expert Scott Tong shared some ways founders should think about design and branding. Design expert Scott Tong outlines 4 concepts founders should consider when designing products. Treat it like an app.

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TechCrunch

NOVEMBER 9, 2020

Ximena Aleman is co-founder and chief business development officer at Prometeo , an open banking platform that serves Latin America. Year-in, year-out, the gender gap in venture capital investment continues to be a problem women founders face. VC went to startups with at least one woman on the founder team.

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AsiaTechDaily

APRIL 16, 2023

I spent the first seven years of my career in corporate finance and advisory, helping entrepreneurs in either raising capital (through IPO) or growth through M&A. The idea was to learn as much as possible in fund management, especially in VC and Growth. What mistakes do you see founders make when raising money?

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David Teten VC

MARCH 21, 2024

My Partner Winter Mead, Founder & CEO of Coolwater Capital , the accelerator for emerging VC fund managers, said: “Fewer than 5 of the 180 emerging managers we’ve worked with are raising via 506c, in order to get in front of more retail LPs, who are generally already following the GP, e.g., through the GP’s newsletter or community.

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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. It became a huge kerfuffle with many VC partners writing to thank me for the post, which exposed those that gave their industry a bad name.

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Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 11, 2016

Gregg Johnson, CEO of Invoca For the first 5 years or so after I became a VC I didn’t talk much about what I thought a VC should be excellent at since frankly I wasn’t sure. The number one advice I give is “stop trying to be too smart”. That’s why I often say The role of VC is “chief psychologist.”

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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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Entrepreneur's Handbook

OCTOBER 18, 2022

You’ll receive the best practical startup advice straight to your inbox every week. In this week’s edition, we share: How VCs choose which startups to fund. How you can sell your startup to VCs with a one-pager. You won’t believe how VCs decide which startups to fund Aaron Dinin, PhD teaches entrepreneurship at Duke.

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