Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 21, 2020

Several years ago I made an appearance in a burgeoning new podcast called “20 Minute VC,” which by now needs no introduction. Biggest Advice I Give to Portfolio Founders? There are large sums of money to be invested and if investors can get comfortable with “downside protections” they’ll still write checks. Picking great talent.

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Founders Coop

JANUARY 11, 2023

Founders’ Co-op turns fifteen this year. But as a “company town” where most engineers come for a well-paying job, not as founders seeking like-minded peers, our region’s entrepreneurial support systems are surprisingly weak. First, the increment of learning in VC is investment decisions managed to maturity.

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Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 27, 2014

I started in 2007 with a thesis that my primary investment decision would be about the team (70%) and only afterward about the market opportunity (30%). But they are also a tax on your time with portfolio companies, looking for new investments, running your shop and honestly they are a tax on your family life. Co-founder discontent.

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Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 20, 2019

One of the things that founders have the most angst about is whom they should have on their board and at what stage of the business. This is smart because amazing board members can be transformative with important advice and access and can also help attract other great board members (and team members).

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This is going to be BIG.

JANUARY 18, 2024

These are people that didn’t make their money through a tech startup or startup investing. Some of these folks are founders and CEOs, but not at high-growth tech startups. They might have a more flexible time horizon than a VC because the money doesn’t come from a fund with a limited lifespan. Perhaps they inherited it.

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TechCrunch

OCTOBER 6, 2022

Atman Capital, a year-old early-stage venture firm partially backed by about 20 founders, is sweetening the deal for these individual limited partners. It’s an interesting twist for the firm, founded last year by Brazilian-born Pedro Sorrentino and Pedro Dias and that is investing in startups in the U.S. and Latin America.

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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. Expert Networks.

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Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 12, 2019

Seed investments are down by any measure (funds, deals, dollars) over the past 3 years in deals < $1 million AND in deals between $1–5 million. Over the past month a colleague ( Chang Xu ) and I sifted through data on the venture capital industry (as we do every year) and made a bunch of calls to VCs and LPs to confirm our hypotheses.

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David Teten VC

SEPTEMBER 21, 2023

Versatile VC is hosting a one-hour interactive webinar on Thursday, September 28, at noon EST. We’ll discuss Versatile VC ‘s strategy, how we see the market, and some of the opportunities we think are exciting. are an aggressive user of technology internally to manage the firm and make better investments.

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TechCrunch

JUNE 7, 2021

David Teten is founder of Versatile VC and writes periodically at teten.com and @dteten. How to win consulting, board and deal roles with PE and VC funds. 5 innovative fundraising methods for emerging VCs and PEs. Hey, founders between gigs: What now? Angel investing, venture capital and mentoring.

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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

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TechCrunch

AUGUST 31, 2022

Two weeks ago, longtime venture capitalist Chris Olsen, a general partner and cofounder of Drive Capital in Columbus, Ohio, settled into his seat for a portfolio company’s board meeting. ” He also says that it isn’t the first time a board meeting hasn’t happened as planned lately. Overbooked.

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TechCrunch

JANUARY 22, 2021

At the time, seven-figure seed investments in African startups were a rarity. These investments are usually made by third-party investors (friends and family), and range between $25,000-$150,000. Andreata Muforo is a partner at TLcom Capital, a pan-African early-stage VC firm. A recurring theme: Serial founders.

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TechCrunch

FEBRUARY 16, 2022

David Teten is founder of Versatile VC and writes periodically at teten.com and @dteten. What are the ‘jobs to be done’ of an investment manager? The macro trends forcing change on the investment management industry. To help our founders in transition. Scouts help promote diversity in VC.

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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. We not only have our Series A funds that can write $500k?—?$15

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Both Sides of the Table

MAY 24, 2018

In order to understand how to “get to yes” with a VC you first need to understand how VC partnerships make decisions and then you can understand how to increase your odds of closing a deal. VC Partnerships Start by understanding how many partners are at the firm you are approaching. It’s super easy to suss all this out.

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Both Sides of the Table

MAY 27, 2013

He wrote a post this long weekend on how he manages the board of DataSift. In his post he asserts, “You get the VCs you deserve” and the corollary “You get the performance out of your board that you deserve.” It consists of a highly intelligent and opinionated founder – Nick Halstead.

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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.

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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. Pre-money ($8m) + investment ($2m) = Post-money ($10m) and the investors now own 20% of your company $2m / $10m. So how DOES a VC think about financings at early stages?

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Angel Capital Association

JANUARY 3, 2024

Angels often make their first real impact post-investment by helping a portfolio company develop a “real” Board, by insisting on documented processes, key metrics and measures and a more rigorous approach to corporate oversight and accountability. In the latter case, returns improved by 20%. with an average of 5.7 Director seats.

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Revolution

MARCH 1, 2023

VC dollars are at risk, we conducted a historical analysis of top quartile fund managers over the past quarter century (as far back as we could access reliable Cambridge Associates data). This post highlights what has happened and what might be coming for investors and founders. And what does this mean for founders? since 2011.

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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 We strive to invest in companies that are consciously working to create a diverse leadership team?—?one Ours is: upfront.com/inclusion. It takes a village.

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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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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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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. . So what is Revenue Based Investing? Absolutely not.

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TechCrunch

OCTOBER 17, 2022

Eric Tarczynski is managing partner and founder of Contrary Capital. We’re entering a messy middle where prices continue to drop and the “2021” deal, industry slang for an investment made at an exorbitant price, is long gone. More posts by this contributor. University entrepreneurship — without the university.

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A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

DECEMBER 15, 2020

This is a theme I have come back to many times over the last decade but in the wake of all of the headlines about high profile founders, VCs, and companies leaving the bay area, I thought I would return to it. In the first decade of USV, the 2000s, we mostly invested in NYC and Silicon Valley. We already have.

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Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 8, 2014

What is a principal at a VC firm and how does it work at Upfront Ventures? ” Associates have different functions at different VCs. VC firm admin. VC firm policy or fund analysis. Helping be the VC “presence” at key events. Smart founders use this extra resource to their advantage.

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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

SEPTEMBER 22, 2022

Matt Blumberg is the co-founder and CEO of Bolster. He is also the co-author of Startup Boards: A Field Guide to Building and Leading an Effective Board of Directors , and the author of Startup CEO , Startup CXO and the Startup CEO blog. Today, boards are lucky to have one in-person meeting a year (more on that later).

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TechCrunch

FEBRUARY 1, 2023

But one of the most common mistakes many early-stage startup founders make is calculating a TAM that’s not necessarily accurate or obtainable. Understanding TAM is essential for startup success — especially in a down market when VC dollars are harder to come by. She also led investments in Guideline, Formlabs, Evenly and Neural Magic.

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TechCrunch

FEBRUARY 21, 2023

-based Amadeus Capital Partners and Austria’s Apex Ventures are pooling their collective venture capital (VC) resources for a new fund specifically targeted at early-stage deep tech startups. “The partnership also allows for early-stage investments in other European markets outside the U.K.,

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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. Offering a sparring-partner function on strategic decisions.

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Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 6, 2015

Firms like Baseline, Felicis, ff Ventures, Founder Collective, Freestyle, HomeBrew, IA Ventures, K9, Lowercase, NextView, Resolute, Rincon, Crosscut and the countless other great firms we all now know didn’t exist. Some quick highlights include: The Role of a Seed Stage VC. I think they were all brand new or just forming.

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This is going to be BIG.

JULY 23, 2018

I've seen this so many times over: A founder pitches a VC, or several of them, and then they come back from that process with all sorts of new strategy goals or worries that they need to be doing something differently. So why is this feedback seemingly all over the board? They don't want to invest in your company.

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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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A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

JULY 19, 2021

” Unlike public markets, private market investments are held for many years, often a decade or more. It is unlikely that founders will be able to force investors out of their cap tables via the secondary markets, but a voluntary separation via the secondary market seems more likely to me. There is no divorce court for startups.

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