Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 19, 2009

I had previously raised VC in 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2005. They picked apart holes in our strategy and they were right. It included one firm who I asked not to call Salesforce.com as a reference (they were our largest pilot customer) and in their kindness they called Marc Benioff (the CEO) and asked his opinion.

VC 274

VC venture capital pitching capital 274

David Teten VC

MARCH 8, 2022

You can use multiple strategies. But I also invested in a number of VC funds in parallel. VC is truly a very separate, unique and complex asset class that requires real expertise to achieve returns. Invest in VC funds (or funds of funds) exclusively. My return multiple is excellent, nearly 5x.

investing 105

investing investment technology VC 105

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 28, 2012

You’re on a first date with a VC – how much should you tell them? When is it appropriate for a VC to call your customers? There is no universal answer and my discussions with various VCs on these topics have yielded many differing opinions. Having been on both sides of this sensitive topic, the following is my personal advice.

VC 316

VC strategy advice entrepreneurs 316

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 13, 2011

I recently filmed a show for This Week in Venture Capital in which I talked about how to prepare for a VC meeting: whom you’ll meet, who should attend from your side, what materials you should bring and how you should run the meeting. The “Triple Play&# of VC Presentations. But take prompts from the VC.

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VC board pitching venture capital 299

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 22, 2011

When this first ran on TechCrunch I got the greatest comment in the world that I had to repeat here, “VC’s are like martinis: the first is good, the second one great, and the third is a headache.&# I understand the appeal of having many VC firms on your cap table. In my second company I had only 1 investor. I love that.

VC 314

VC advice pitching investing 314

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 7, 2014

This was customer interaction at its finest and as a result they invited him to meet with our entire sales staff and offer advice on the sales process from a customer’s perspective. Contrast that with a VC conversation I had. I even once met with one very, very well known VC who told me, “I don’t attend LP meetings.

peer-to-peer 341

peer-to-peer VC entrepreneurs support 341

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 4, 2010

I’m not anti VC. But there are a lot of things that become norms in the VC industry that always drove me crazy from entrepreneur’s side of the table. One of them is when VCs say, “I’d like to ‘noodle’ on that for a while.&#. I’d love it if VCs gave more honest and direct feedback.

entrepreneurs 297

entrepreneurs VC advice strategy 297

TechCrunch

APRIL 25, 2023

Similarly, one VC may encourage newly minted CEOs to eat ramen and ride the bus, while another might suggest a salary in the low six-figures, depending on geography. Please share one piece of advice that can help a first-time founder stand out from the rest. Do not be afraid to say “I do not know” when asked a question by an investor.

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pitching incubation board opportunity 98

TechCrunch

MARCH 7, 2023

However, it appears that even though VCs are proceeding more cautiously than before and taking their time with due diligence, they are still investing. CB Insights recently found that two of the largest global VC firms, Sequoia Capital and Andreessen Horowitz, actually backed more fintech companies in 2022 than any other category.

advice 110

advice ventures sustainability investing 110

Andreessen Horowitz

FEBRUARY 12, 2024

And one of my biggest advice to those folks is, look, presumably, we all have the technical and functional skill set for this job. And then I also think with references, founders are typically showing up with their 5 to 7 reference questions. Let’s go ahead and figure out who’s gonna be able to do the job with you.

energy 85

energy entrepreneurs leadership advice 85

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 6, 2010

But in my experience as an entrepreneur and now spending my time amongst investors I can generalize that almost all VC investments in early stage technology & Internet investments come down to just four key factors. But if you identify investors with whom you’d like to work here’s my advice: 1. That’s OK, too.

startup 360

startup VC advice entrepreneurs 360

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 19, 2011

And yes, VC’s, too. Often recruiters want to handle the final negotiations on package and/or do the reference calls. I’m also reluctant to hand over reference calling. But I doubt they’ll dig in as deep as you will in the reference checks. Unfortunately that’s how reference checking works.

real estate 319

real estate VC pitching entrepreneurs 319

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 20, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series, “ Pitching a VC.&# Getting a meeting with a prominent angel or VC is difficult enough. Some advice on how to do that was covered in this link – Getting Access to a VC. If you haven’t read how to build VC relationships and demonstrate traction make sure to read it.

VC 277

VC pitching advice strategy 277

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 3, 2009

This is part of my ongoing Raising Venture Capital (VC) series. When people refer to a strategic investor they are usually talking about an investor that comes from the industry you serve as opposed to an independent venture capital investor. OK, I know this is true with VC also, but to a lesser extent. Great question.

advice 279

advice venture capital frameworks VC 279

David Teten VC

NOVEMBER 18, 2021

One of the first decisions we had to make in setting up our new VC fund, Versatile Venture Capital , was our CRM and marketing technology infrastructure. . I’m very interested in the tech stack of private equity/VC firms , both to improve the efficiency of Versatile VC and also as a focus area for our investing.

venture capital 123

venture capital capital ventures VC 123

TechCrunch

OCTOBER 29, 2021

Dear Sophie: Any advice for living my dreams in Silicon Valley? Any advice? Dear Sophie: Any advice for living my dreams in Silicon Valley? Heavily VC-backed salad chain Sweetgreen heads toward public markets. ” Heavily VC-backed salad chain Sweetgreen heads toward public markets.

SaaS 82

SaaS pitching advice VC 82

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 25, 2010

This is an updated post from my ongoing series on Startup Advice that I learned from founding two companies. . On Losing in VC. I know I won’t win every deal I want to in VC. We assumed they would take our advice and upgrade. In the corporate world this strategy is flawed. I HATE LOSING. I hate it.

consulting 328

consulting advice collaboration VC 328

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 27, 2011

But should you actually write one if you’re a startup, an industry figure (lawyer, banker) or VC? I was meeting regularly with entrepreneurs and offering (for better or for worse) advice on how to run a startup and how to raise venture capital from my experience in doing so at two companies. By definition, you read blogs.

startup 373

startup advice communities VC 373

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 25, 2010

This is an updated post from my ongoing series on Startup Advice that I learned from founding two companies. . On Losing in VC. I know I won’t win every deal I want to in VC. We assumed they would take our advice and upgrade. In the corporate world this strategy is flawed. I HATE LOSING. I hate it.

consulting 333

consulting advice collaboration VC 333

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 6, 2014

Most experienced VCs won’t push you to give up founder control at this stage of the business nor should they. With small amounts of money invested (sub $3 million) the risks are reasonably low for most VCs and the consequences of bad decisions or decisions a VC has limited say in is tolerable. Startup Advice'

board 325

board mentorship media advice 325

Gust

JULY 23, 2014

So, putting all that together, to get a pitch meeting with me, an entrepreneur would probably have the best result with the following strategy: Read up on the kinds of investments I make, and the kinds of opportunities I am seeking. With all this referring and applying, it’s still conceivable that you might not hear back from me.

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pitching angel investing investing investment 153

abovethecrowd.com

JUNE 2, 2021

Interestingly, many years later, Square would use other innovative “cash giveaway” strategies to steal market share from Paypal (in addition to copying the give $5, get $5 model ). Is it disrespectful to imply that the founders, executives, VC-backers, and the boards of these companies are gullible or naive? I don’t think so.

peer-to-peer 82

peer-to-peer VC advice capital 82

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 8, 2010

I guess let’s file this under sales & marketing advice. Much of my traffic is through referring websites and/or social media. Now I’m a VC. My strategy was to keep it advice based for the first 6 months so I never really employed this as a strategy to drive traffic. Some search.

advice 286

advice mix-use entrepreneurs strategy 286

Y Combinator

JULY 15, 2019

When people refer to setting up a board, what they usually mean is the process of adding outside directors, after the company raises money. We recommend getting to know partners at VC firms on your list at least 6 to 9 months before your fundraise. I’ll share our collective advice on navigating these below. option grants).

board 96

board frameworks advice peer-to-peer 96

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 29, 2009

Handling PR with VCs. This is part of my series on How to Raise VC but could equally be filed under Startup Advice more generally. Just notice how many VC emails you get after your TechCrunch article or after you were on stage at TC50. In your VC pitch your PR page should take no longer than 30 seconds – Wait.

VC 291

VC advice pitching entrepreneurs 291

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 15, 2009

We had every reference client we worked with call their senior team members (we had already won a major project at Scottish Water, Anglian Water and another at a large water company in Paris, France). We assumed they would take our advice and upgrade. In the corporate world this strategy is flawed. I will embrace my losses.

consulting 151

consulting advice collaboration support 151

Dream It

APRIL 3, 2020

Duncan Davidson , General Partner of Bullpen Capital , is a highly experienced VC and a serial entrepreneur, having founded, been on the executive team, or a Board member of multiple billion-dollar companies. Newer businesses can elect to use the first two calendar months of 2020 as their reference period. You can borrow 2.5x

startup 286

startup board VC ventures 286

Entrepreneur's Handbook

JUNE 17, 2022

( Any views expressed in the below are the personal views of the author and should not form the basis for making investment decisions, nor be construed as a recommendation or advice to engage in investment transactions. which we affectionately referred to as “floaters”?—?surfaced Do not take this as financial advice.

culture 125

culture capital enablement technology 125

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 25, 2011

They wanted advice. I gave them advice I don’t think they were expecting from a VC, “Don’t raise venture capital for this business. It is advice I give entrepreneurs often as I have written here on why most businesses should never raise VC. Why Shouldn’t Most Services Businesses Raise VC?

VC 332

VC advice financing finance 332

TechCrunch

MARCH 12, 2021

The advice is to “be frugal to accommodate to the new situation and roll on.”. How has COVID-19 impacted your investment strategy? What is your advice to startups in your portfolio right now? How has COVID-19 impacted your investment strategy? What is your advice to startups in your portfolio right now? Lukáš Kone?ný

opportunity 108

opportunity mix-use advice startup ecosystem 108

Andreessen Horowitz

APRIL 29, 2024

This article is the final installment in our series, How Fintech Companies Can Simplify Their Funding Strategy. We also sought the advice of several software providers who work with fintech borrowers to get their best approaches to managing one or more debt facilities. Read part 1 on Choosing the Right Funding Structure here.

capital 89

capital financing finance strategy 89

TechCrunch

DECEMBER 8, 2020

million in early stage funding to date — with investment coming from European VC firm Earlybird; Dominik Schiener ( Iota co-founder); and the Swedish authentication and payment services company, Thales AB. Europe puts out advice on fixing international data transfers that’s cold comfort for Facebook.

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frameworks networking technology development 100

Andreessen Horowitz

APRIL 9, 2024

The number one input to whether or not someone buys that next incremental piece of software or potentially engages that service provider is actually how well it interacts and interoperates with the other technology decisions they’ve already made to drive it some kind of bigger strategy. And that is absolutely transformational and huge.

SaaS 115

SaaS strategy disruption energy 115

TechCrunch

MAY 7, 2023

Interestingly, prior to joining Index, Fiorentino helped build and lead business strategy and finance at Stripe from 2015 to 2019. Index Ventures’ Mark Fiorentino led two funding rounds totaling $26 million into the company in 2021. Fintech projected to become a $1.5 seed round And elsewhere Digital wallet for insurance Marble bags $4.2M.

health 116

health financing finance ventures 116

TechCrunch

JULY 13, 2022

She says of the union, “Pursuing M&A as a route to product and user growth has long been a strategy for larger tech companies, but the last several months have seen a number of M&A deals surface among smaller players, too, as funding sources become less free flowing, performance targets are tightened and valuations drop.”.

development 91

development leadership advice technology 91

TechCrunch

MARCH 14, 2022

based VC firm Optum Ventures, as it gears up to hop over the pond. This means the app may be serving up exercise programs alongside diet advice or a course of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) to combat insomnia or mood-related issues, or indeed another combination of customized support programs. Vira Health , a U.K. Vira’s £1.5

health 86

health support digital therapeutics disruption 86

TechCrunch

MAY 21, 2021

According to data gathered by Rob Olson, partner and head of data strategy at venture engine M13, startups that have two or more experienced founders tend to exit 33% faster and raise 34% less capital. When a company chooses supervised learning, it needs to have a strategy that allows it to label data as quickly as it acquires it.

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startup accelerator construction VC 97