Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 11, 2020

It is a company with a mission to create better access and more funding for Black entrepreneurs and executives. Venture firms wanted to meet talented Black founders but didn’t know where to start to find them. And Black entrepreneurs wanted access to decision makers but didn’t always have the easy connections. So let’s get it.

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founder peer-to-peer networking energy 314

David Teten VC

JUNE 9, 2021

(See How to negotiate a partner role at a VC or private equity firm.) You can work as a consultant, an interim executive, a board member, a deal executive partnering to buy a company, an executive in residence, or as an entrepreneur in residence. . At Versatile VC , we’ve used all these models. Board of Directors.

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consulting venture capital board capital 128

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 24, 2019

When you set up a board it is often initially a combination of the founders and the early investors. It can start 2–1 founders to investors and then sometimes moves to 3–2 but sometime around the A, B or C round the idea of “independent” directors comes up. When an entrepreneur takes on investors who take equity (i.e.

board 187

board peer-to-peer VC funders 187

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. VC recruiters list and compensation data.

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VC venture capital accelerator ventures 128

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 10, 2021

I’m over-paying for every check I write into the VC ecosystem and valuations are being pushed up to absurd levels and many of these valuations and companies won’t hold in the long term. However, to be a great VC you have to hold two conflicting ideas in your head at the same time. two founders in a garage?—?(HP By definition?—?I’m

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ventures VC venture capital funders 471

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 8, 2018

If you’re an entrepreneur who would like to see this clause in more startups please ask your VC to include it in future term sheets and link to it from their home page. “We Many of us had experiences of asking entrepreneurs, “Why are none of our candidates women?” Ours is: upfront.com/inclusion. Well, did you ask them to???”

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Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 5, 2015

” Today I want to talk about how a VC thinks about equity pricing on your round and particularly if you’re coming off of a convertible note. So how DOES a VC think about financings at early stages? If you’re a solo founder and haven’t built out your team or engineers I’m likely to want 15+%.

VC 364

VC financing finance board 364

Andreessen Horowitz

MAY 6, 2024

The Cultural Leadership Fund (CLF) team is often asked by portfolio founders how exactly cultural leaders can be a game-changing asset for their companies. The benefits of founder x cultural leader partnerships work both ways. For Founders Make It Make Sense Venture capital is where innovation meets investment.

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culture innovation founder leadership 105

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 17, 2019

I became a VC 12 years ago in 2007 when the pace of deals was much slower. As I was trying to figure out the role I wanted to play in the VC world I decided I wanted to focus on businesses that were building deeply technical products to solve problems for business users. VCs have different views and strategies on this.

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VC venture capital capital investing 223

TechCrunch

OCTOBER 4, 2022

Mar Hershenson , co-founder and managing partner at Pear VC. Mar Hershenson co-founded and serves as managing partner at Pear VC, a seed-stage investment firm in Palo Alto backing companies like Guardant Health, DoorDash, Gusto, Aurora Solar and Branch. He also serves on the board of Friends of Hudson River Park.

disruption 91

disruption VC ventures startup 91

David Teten VC

MARCH 5, 2021

(co-written with Katherine Boe Heuck , a MBA candidate at MIT Sloan (class of 2022); past intern at Versatile VC ; and a current intern at Metaprop NYC.). We reviewed CB Insights’ global list of “40 of the Best VC Bets of all Time.” All of the 40 companies’ 92 founders were male. Of the 43 U.S. Of the 43 U.S.-based

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VC investing investment founder 82

This is going to be BIG.

JUNE 10, 2016

It was from a top college endowment that was taking a look at the next fund of a widely known VC who had backed him. The truth of the matter is that their experience with this VC hadn't lived up to the hype. The VC firm was growing quickly, having raised two funds in just a few years, each quite larger than the previous one.

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VC construction board founder 231

TechCrunch

AUGUST 17, 2021

Prabhat Gusain is currently the chief of staff at Caffeinated Capital and was previously an intern with Versatile VC. David Teten is founder of Versatile VC and writes periodically at teten.com and @dteten. 6 career options for ex-founders seeking their next adventure. Next are VC firms looking for founders.

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investing investment founder VC 97

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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VC advice board leadership 364

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 6, 2014

I’ve written a few posts about boards recently as part of a series on the subject. I admit that I haven’t yet read it but I’ve had numerous discussions with Brad over the years about board structure & conduct and consider him a mentor on the topic.

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board mentorship media advice 325

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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VC culture sustainability capital 466

David Teten VC

JUNE 14, 2021

Hey, founders between gigs: What now? If you want outside capital, VCs will chase after you to invest. . Unfortunately, most founders are not in that position: 9 out of 10 startups fail. As someone with “founder” on your resume, you have an extra challenge in getting a traditional salaried job. So what should you do?

consulting 119

consulting founder investing investment 119

A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

JULY 19, 2021

If an investor and an entrepreneur find each other difficult to work with, there is no easy solution. And so the result is likely to be entrepreneurs and investors getting stuck in bad marriages. I also think startup boards need to evolve. Companies that have dysfunctional founder/investor relationships suffer from them.

board 276

board financing finance sustainability 276

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.

VC 198

VC peer-to-peer mix-use leadership 198

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 6, 2015

*. If you are a 20-something tech entrepreneur you could be forgiven for thinking that seed-stage investors, Angellist Syndicates and widely available angel money always existed. Some quick highlights include: The Role of a Seed Stage VC. Jeff and his peer group have done an excellent job at creating a new category of seed-stage VC.

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VC peer-to-peer frameworks board 348

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 27, 2014

Of course these are great places to network with other investors, meet great entrepreneurs and keep your connections strong with senior execs at larger companies like Yahoo!, I know I can’t be in every deal and I know that the easy part of being a VC is writing the first check in a deal. Co-founder discontent. Web Summit.

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VC investing investment entrepreneurs 374

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 5, 2014

But as I rose in my career (and post MBA) I moved into a role in which I was to advise board-level executives on topics where I was expected to rapidly become an expert. In my experience many VC’s fall into this “I’m expected to know all the answers” trap. We are their sparring partners, their sounding boards.

peer-to-peer 337

peer-to-peer entrepreneurs consulting VC 337

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 30, 2013

I’m sure you know, but Elon was the co-founder (and largest shareholder) of PayPal, the most important payment transfer technology of its era and still the most instrumental to date. Dorrian is an entrepreneur. His imagination of what is wrong with VC has captured perfectly in satirical format what ails our industry.

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VC pitching venture capital innovation 315

TechCrunch

NOVEMBER 2, 2022

Lyubov Guk is a founding partner at Blue Lake VC. She supports early-stage international founders working in the U.K. Entrepreneurs who set up a business in a new country encounter more challenges. Designing an international founders open office hours pilot. Lyubov Guk. Contributor. Share on Twitter. Robyn Klingler-Vidra.

founder 86

founder entrepreneurship sustainability pitching 86

Gust

MAY 31, 2014

A company’s board of directors is technically elected by the company’s shareholders. So before a startup receives outside funding, the board is “elected” by—and usually consists of—the founders (although it may exist in name only.). original post can be found on Quora @ [link] *.

board 159

board startup VC founder 159

This is going to be BIG.

JULY 16, 2014

There''s been some writing about how VCs and founders interact with each other and it inspired me to take a step back and reflect on what my role is supposed to be with regards to the investments I make and the founders I deal with. Here''s what I am not: I am not necessarily an entrepreneur''s friend.

VC 405

VC frameworks venture capital entrepreneurship 405

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. If you don’t live in a major VC zone, I have some tips for how to make it easier to raise Venture Capital. This afternoon (Saturday) I have a coffee meeting with a portfolio company founder. Ask SuperCell.

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VC board communities pitching 365

Entrepreneur's Handbook

FEBRUARY 18, 2021

I had a great idea for a tool the market was crying out for, and a technical co-founder to build it. No one decides to be an entrepreneur because it’s easy?—?but As they say, to be forewarned is to be forearmed, so here are the 10 things no one ever tells you about being an entrepreneur: 1. I look back and chuckle. No pressure.

entrepreneurs 114

entrepreneurs advice VC venture capital 114

TechCrunch

FEBRUARY 16, 2023

The most interesting story for the VC and startup nerds among us comes from Connie today. Funding for Black founders remains dismal, and the problem was never that the money wasn’t there. What a jerk : So that founder you backed turned out to be problematic. A trial — even a settlement — could have widespread ramifications.

board 96

board hospitality VC founder 96

David Teten VC

MARCH 5, 2021

(co-written with Katherine Boe Heuck , a MBA candidate at MIT Sloan (class of 2022); past intern at Versatile VC ; and a current intern at Metaprop NYC.). We reviewed CB Insights’ global list of “40 of the Best VC Bets of all Time.” All of the 40 companies’ 92 founders were male. Of the 43 U.S. Of the 43 U.S.-based

VC 52

VC investing investment founder 52

A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

APRIL 21, 2021

A well-known entrepreneur turned VC, who will go unnamed because I am not sure he would want me to share this conversation publicly, once told me “if you remove a founder, you must sell the company within a couple of years or it will start to decline in value.” Most are not.

leadership 279

leadership VC advice sustainability 279

TechCrunch

JUNE 29, 2022

Varanium Capital partner Aparajit Bhandarkar will join GetVantage’s board. Many online entrepreneurs are underserved, he added, because “the VC model is somewhat broken and really based on who you know.” For founders without the right network, it’s hard to find investors.

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financing finance founder incubation 94

TechCrunch

APRIL 20, 2023

In recent years, calling oneself a startup founder was certainly seen as a flex. In 2019, a report showed that 72% of surveyed entrepreneurs self-reported mental health issues, according to Forbes. In 2019, a report showed that 72% of surveyed entrepreneurs self-reported mental health issues, according to Forbes.

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health capital founder board 79

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 16, 2012

It has always surprised me that founders were so quick to fight over how many board members there were and so quick to agree to have as many board observers as people wanted. I have always been vehemently against board observers and wrote some of the reasons in this previous post. The Case for a Silent Observer.

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board VC entrepreneurs investing 289

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 8, 2011

We have significant VC commitments (listed below) – every entering company will get $50,000 in funding, mentorship from top VCs and successful entrepreneurs plus free office space. Of these 19 have received funding (10 have received significant amounts of VC funding) and 5 have been acquired (2 for more than $30 million).

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VC mentorship incubation startup 287

TechCrunch

JUNE 28, 2022

EF’s co-founders Alice Bentinck and Matt Clifford said in an interview that around $100 million will be used to continue investing in more entrepreneurs and their startups, and it will be converting that investment effort into an evergreen fund.

entrepreneurs 93

entrepreneurs VC startup ecosystem investing 93

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. Optionality.

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