Expert insights. Personalized for you.
The American venture capital world has staged an impressive comeback from the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Those tailwinds helped the venture capital world get back into its own game in a big way, leading to Q3 being an outsized quarter for domestic venture capital activity. MORE
October 2, 2019 – Techstars , the worldwide network that helps entrepreneurs succeed, and HBCUvc , a nonprofit fellowship program providing Black and Latinx students with training and mentorship in venture capital, today announced the launch of a joint 10-city Startup Weekend tour across the country. Some teams even started to generate revenue during the event, while others went on to raise funds from angel investors or venture capitalists. WASHINGTON, D.C. MORE
How has corporate venture capital changed? The post The Future of Corporate Venture Capital appeared first on 500 Startups. All International Investor Education Venture Capital InvestingThe following is an excerpt from 500’s CVC report. In the decade since the Great Recession, we have seen digital upstarts – taking advantage of disruptive technologies from AI to IoT – reshape the economy and the corporate pecking order. MORE
Andy Areitio is a partner at the early-stage fund TheVentureCity , a new venture and acceleration model that helps diverse founders achieve global impact. So, I’ve decided to share the main lessons about VC that I wish I’d known when I was a startup founder chasing venture capital. MORE
One of the first things I did when I joined the venture asset class as a lowly institutional LP analyst in 2001 was to build the VC fund cashflow model. You incorporate expected company returns, mortality rates, and fee structures to try to predict how a venture capital fund works from a cash in, cash out, and NAV standpoint. And no, the numbers don't exactly add up--but they're more than close enough for venture capital. MORE
The fact is, it''s just not cool to criticize the investing side of the venture capital market. For the most part, journalists give startups a free pass when venture capital money is raised or when companies that clearly seem to have failed get "acquired". Venture Capital & Technology The other day, I saw that one of my favorite products, Slack, just raised $120mm at a $1.12 Billion valuation. MORE
On a slightly smaller impact scale, there isn’t a lot of content out there about “How to build a venture fund.” Most of them won’t see a Fund II, and very few, if any, will become a permanent part of the venture fabric. While I don’t have the ambition to build “out” a huge fund with a huge team and scaling capital, raising successive funds is not easy and building out real firm infrastructure is a grind. MORE
Regular readers of The Exchange will recall that we last dug into overall wellness venture capital investment in August , noting that it was mental health startups inside the vertical that were seeing the most impressive results. The state of mental health venture investing. MORE
NextView Ventures, a Boston-based venture capital fund, has raised an $89.6 The NextView Ventures team did not immediately respond to request for comment. Despite the pandemic, Boston’s startup scene has continued to attract record numbers in venture capital volume. MORE
About seven years ago, I wrote a post on breaking into venture capital and I continue to point the five or six people a week who ask me how to break into venture. The candidates for venture capital roles are already out there and usually in plain sight and there simply wasn''t anyone out there doing what Amrit was doing who wasn''t already fulltime at a firm. but in a city like New York, with it''s access to capital, "getting in" shouldn''t be the hard part. MORE
I think of venture capital as a service business. In my effort to rewrite the deck for my next fund, I've been spending a lot of time reflecting on what it is that I try to do. A lot of people can say they work hard, or work smart, but that doesn't leave me off where I think I'm setting my goals. I've been trying to figure out if there's any differentiation in how I do my job versus how other people might assume it gets done. MORE
“More than 50% of our founders still are in their current jobs,” said John Vrionis, co-founder of seed-stage fund Unusual Ventures. Fundings & Exits Startups TC early stage Extra Crunch Live John Vrionis sarah leary Unusual Ventures MORE
The massive expansion of later-stage private capital continues unabated. The massive expansion of later-stage private capital continues unabated. MORE
Each quarter, a group of analysts, including me, publish analysis on the trends in the venture capital market. There’s a risk to those assessments: the data is incomplete since not all rounds founders close within a quarter are reported in that quarter. MORE
This year has shaken up venture capital, turning a hot early start to 2020 into a glacial period permeated with fear during the early days of COVID-19. Boston’s third quarter was strong, effectively matching the capital raised in New York City during the three-month period. MORE
If you take venture capital money. 3) You will almost certainly take more venture capital money after that. 8) There are smaller exit opportunities you will not be able to take because your capital structure makes them financially unattractive. 10) You will face more competition as venture investment signals that what you''re doing may be attractive. Venture Capital & Technology MORE
Many observers of the venture capital industry have questioned whether its best days are behind it. There are obvious reasons the industry has had less-than-desirable returns, including: massive over-funding of the sector, huge increases in inexperienced venture capitalists that took a decade to peter out, and the massive correction in the value of the public stock markets that closed many exit opportunities for half a decade. This article originally ran on PEHub. MORE
For years — decades, even — there was little question about whether you could become a venture capitalist if you weren’t comfortable financially. 1% of a fund capital commitment you expect from GPs makes it hard for POCs to raise funds. MORE
Today's top founders will undoubtedly start something new in the future, but they won't make up the majority of innovators going forward--just as prior generations of venture backed founders don't make up a majority of those who are succeeding today. Opening up our circle to create and scale genuine engagement for people outside of typical venture networks is how we do business—and we’re getting exceptional deal flow because of that. MORE
In venture, it’s all about getting an opportunity to make partner and being included in the carry—the economic upside of a fund. There are so many different ways to interpret the data on who gets venture and why. There are lots of problems with access to venture connections that account for some of this, but how you invest and pay your own team is the one indisputable thing that is in a VC firm’s control. MORE
There was an explosion in number of startups both because it was cheap and there was tons of available capital. The other major trend of 2012–2015 was the entrance of “non VCs” into late-stages of venture capital , which mostly consisted of hedge funds, mutual funds, corporate investors, sovereign wealth funds and even LPs doing direct deals. Be thoughtful about from whom you raise capital. MORE
After checking out The Information's "open dataset" on diversity in venture capital , I felt pretty disappointed. I went back and calculated the number of companies in the first Brooklyn Bridge Ventures portfolio who have at least one founder who is female, from an underrepresented minority group, or LGBT. Most people need a little bit of capital to bring a product to market--or they're an engineer. MORE
Not every company raises venture capital—most don’t. Venture Capital & TechnologyTweet. 1) You need it. Not raising gives you flexibility about the market size you want to go after, speed of growth, and de-risks your plan—because once you start spending someone else’s money, the clock starts ticking on your “out of cash” date. Slow and steady isn’t a bad thing. 2) Only 22 year old hacker dudes get funding. MORE
There aren't many people who get the chance to analyze venture capital fund return data. Analyzing venture returns without even looking at the 90's? Looking at interim IRRs of young funds, especially during boom periods in venture isn't predictive of outcomes. If you don't think that it's harder to put more money to work in venture than less, in a world where companies do more with less, and great deals are scarce, than I don't know what color the sky is in your world. MORE
I probably get around a dozen e-mails a week asking me how to get into venture capital. On top of that, anytime I talk to anyone who wants to get involved in startups but isn''t sure what they want to do, inevitably, I hear, "And then I was thinking maybe I should look into venture capital, too.". I''ve never really debated people on why they want to get into venture in the first place, even though a lot of people have misconceptions of it. MORE
Hopefully, the fund gets some nice wins early and you start to get your money back, but when you're in a venture fund, you're in for a really long haul. I recently met up with an investor who I'm not totally sure is a fit for my second fund , so it was important to me that I was upfront about all the reasons why he shouldn't come in. The last thing you want as either a founder or even a VC is to have an investor get stuck with you when you're not on the same page about expectations. MORE
You run X amount of capital and Y percentage of that is allocated to venture capital. They don't have a directive to be invested in venture and they're not aiming to make some target return to pay out benefits or university operating expenses, etc. Partnership investing is boring. You give someone your money and, once a quarter, they give you a report that says what they did with your money. MORE
Most VCs did well academically and had enough career success that a venture firm was willing to give them an investment role or they were able to raise their own fund. Fundamentally venture capital is about human capital. In the end I know the only true differentiator in venture capital is the company you keep. Venture Capital is a people business. MORE
The venture capital industry’s comeback from fear in Q1 and parts of Q2 to Q3 greed is worth understanding. To get our hands around what happened to private capital in 2020, we’ve taken looks into both the United States’ VC scene and the global picture this week. MORE
I’ve heard a lot of people question whether there is too much money in venture capital chasing too few great deals. “We’re Others believe that new business models are emerging that could replace venture capital all together. Every year I try to answer the question of “what has changed in the Venture Capital industry” and this year my colleague Chang Xu and I took a deep dive through the data and called many of our peers for confirmation. MORE
We received so much positive feedback from our This Week in Venture Capital show walking through valuation calculations & term sheets that we decided to do a Q&A show this week to address topics that entrepreneurs want to learn about. Mike Stern (wasn’t sure which one so leave a comment if it’s you): Q: “is it possible to sell your startup without venture investment if the company has big traction and a large user base?&# MORE
We all have our inherent biases and what I am not arguing here is that the venture capital world is a fair playing field for anyone. I repeat: I AM NOT ARGUING THAT VENTURE CAPITAL IS FAIR TO ANYONE. billion went to women-led ventures.". We really don''t know, because we''re missing some critical information: HOW MANY WOMEN ARE SEEKING VENTURE CAPITAL? I AM NOT ARGUING THAT WOMEN AREN''T SEEKING VENTURE CAPITAL. MORE
I'm a lead investor. That means I'm usually the first person to put down a price on what your company is worth--a dollar value on months, if not years, worth of your work, blood, sweat, tears, stress, etc. Here's a piece of paper that says how much I think your dreams are worth." The reality is, any price that I put down at the stage that I invest isn't going to feel like enough--and if it doesn't feel like enough, I'm probably grossly overpaying. But, you don't feel like that as the founder. MORE
Precursor Ventures’ Charles Hudson shares his top tips for raising capital for an unconventional, out-there idea. founders startup venture-capital entrepreneurship vc MORE
On the phone … Me: So, you raised venture capital? I have never come across a sophisticated A, B or C round venture capitalist who thinks convertible notes are a smart move for entrepreneur or investor. ’ But do you want to start a relationship with your most important supplier – that of capital to fuel your business – by avoiding talking about his or her expectations in terms of rights or privileges? This week. MORE
Startups need capital to launch and grow. What many entrepreneurs don’t know is that startup capital comes in many different flavors. To be successful in fundraising an entrepreneur needs to understand what flavor(s) are a fit for them at each stage of their venture’s maturation. Here is a 2-page table summarizing each of the major flavors of capital, their pros, cons, and who they are good for. MORE
Back in 2009, I wrote a post called The Venture Capital Math Problem. This 2009 piece from @fredwilson (literally the best in the biz) predicted significant venture industry contraction when in fact the last 10yrs have seen massive expansion. In that post, I argued that the venture capital business could not sustain more than $20bn a year of new capital coming into it and continue to produce good returns to the investors in VC funds. MORE
Brooklyn Bridge Ventures , the pre-seed and seed stage VC fund I run in NYC, has invested in 64 companies in the last six and a half years. The diversity is the direct result of our mission—to build the most accessible venture capital fund in NY. When you conflate hyperbole for ambition and realism for lack of aggressiveness, you will ultimately wind up shutting out a lot of groups from the game of risk seeking capital and opportunity. MORE
500
OCTOBER 25, 2019
How has corporate venture capital changed? The post The Future of Corporate Venture Capital appeared first on 500 Startups. All International Investor Education Venture Capital InvestingThe following is an excerpt from 500’s CVC report. In the decade since the Great Recession, we have seen digital upstarts – taking advantage of disruptive technologies from AI to IoT – reshape the economy and the corporate pecking order.
This is going to be BIG.
FEBRUARY 18, 2019
Brooklyn Bridge Ventures , the pre-seed and seed stage VC fund I run in NYC, has invested in 64 companies in the last six and a half years. The diversity is the direct result of our mission—to build the most accessible venture capital fund in NY. When you conflate hyperbole for ambition and realism for lack of aggressiveness, you will ultimately wind up shutting out a lot of groups from the game of risk seeking capital and opportunity.
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TechCrunch
OCTOBER 23, 2020
This year has shaken up venture capital, turning a hot early start to 2020 into a glacial period permeated with fear during the early days of COVID-19. Boston’s third quarter was strong, effectively matching the capital raised in New York City during the three-month period.
TechCrunch
NOVEMBER 23, 2020
Regular readers of The Exchange will recall that we last dug into overall wellness venture capital investment in August , noting that it was mental health startups inside the vertical that were seeing the most impressive results. The state of mental health venture investing.
A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC
OCTOBER 14, 2020
The massive expansion of later-stage private capital continues unabated. The massive expansion of later-stage private capital continues unabated.
Both Sides of the Table
OCTOBER 11, 2016
Most VCs did well academically and had enough career success that a venture firm was willing to give them an investment role or they were able to raise their own fund. Fundamentally venture capital is about human capital. In the end I know the only true differentiator in venture capital is the company you keep. Venture Capital is a people business.
|
TechCrunch
NOVEMBER 10, 2020
Andy Areitio is a partner at the early-stage fund TheVentureCity , a new venture and acceleration model that helps diverse founders achieve global impact. So, I’ve decided to share the main lessons about VC that I wish I’d known when I was a startup founder chasing venture capital.
This is going to be BIG.
DECEMBER 8, 2014
If you take venture capital money. 3) You will almost certainly take more venture capital money after that. 8) There are smaller exit opportunities you will not be able to take because your capital structure makes them financially unattractive. 10) You will face more competition as venture investment signals that what you''re doing may be attractive. Venture Capital & Technology
This is going to be BIG.
NOVEMBER 3, 2014
The fact is, it''s just not cool to criticize the investing side of the venture capital market. For the most part, journalists give startups a free pass when venture capital money is raised or when companies that clearly seem to have failed get "acquired". Venture Capital & Technology The other day, I saw that one of my favorite products, Slack, just raised $120mm at a $1.12 Billion valuation.
Both Sides of the Table
SEPTEMBER 18, 2014
On the phone … Me: So, you raised venture capital? I have never come across a sophisticated A, B or C round venture capitalist who thinks convertible notes are a smart move for entrepreneur or investor. ’ But do you want to start a relationship with your most important supplier – that of capital to fuel your business – by avoiding talking about his or her expectations in terms of rights or privileges? This week.
This is going to be BIG.
OCTOBER 17, 2011
Not every company raises venture capital—most don’t. Venture Capital & TechnologyTweet. 1) You need it. Not raising gives you flexibility about the market size you want to go after, speed of growth, and de-risks your plan—because once you start spending someone else’s money, the clock starts ticking on your “out of cash” date. Slow and steady isn’t a bad thing. 2) Only 22 year old hacker dudes get funding.
|
TechStars
OCTOBER 2, 2019
October 2, 2019 – Techstars , the worldwide network that helps entrepreneurs succeed, and HBCUvc , a nonprofit fellowship program providing Black and Latinx students with training and mentorship in venture capital, today announced the launch of a joint 10-city Startup Weekend tour across the country. Some teams even started to generate revenue during the event, while others went on to raise funds from angel investors or venture capitalists. WASHINGTON, D.C.
This is going to be BIG.
JUNE 10, 2015
Hopefully, the fund gets some nice wins early and you start to get your money back, but when you're in a venture fund, you're in for a really long haul. I recently met up with an investor who I'm not totally sure is a fit for my second fund , so it was important to me that I was upfront about all the reasons why he shouldn't come in. The last thing you want as either a founder or even a VC is to have an investor get stuck with you when you're not on the same page about expectations.
TechCrunch
OCTOBER 21, 2020
“More than 50% of our founders still are in their current jobs,” said John Vrionis, co-founder of seed-stage fund Unusual Ventures. Fundings & Exits Startups TC early stage Extra Crunch Live John Vrionis sarah leary Unusual Ventures
TechCrunch
NOVEMBER 13, 2020
NextView Ventures, a Boston-based venture capital fund, has raised an $89.6 The NextView Ventures team did not immediately respond to request for comment. Despite the pandemic, Boston’s startup scene has continued to attract record numbers in venture capital volume.
TechCrunch
OCTOBER 22, 2020
The venture capital industry’s comeback from fear in Q1 and parts of Q2 to Q3 greed is worth understanding. To get our hands around what happened to private capital in 2020, we’ve taken looks into both the United States’ VC scene and the global picture this week.
This is going to be BIG.
JULY 30, 2015
One of the first things I did when I joined the venture asset class as a lowly institutional LP analyst in 2001 was to build the VC fund cashflow model. You incorporate expected company returns, mortality rates, and fee structures to try to predict how a venture capital fund works from a cash in, cash out, and NAV standpoint. And no, the numbers don't exactly add up--but they're more than close enough for venture capital.
A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC
FEBRUARY 27, 2020
Back in 2009, I wrote a post called The Venture Capital Math Problem. This 2009 piece from @fredwilson (literally the best in the biz) predicted significant venture industry contraction when in fact the last 10yrs have seen massive expansion. In that post, I argued that the venture capital business could not sustain more than $20bn a year of new capital coming into it and continue to produce good returns to the investors in VC funds.
This is going to be BIG.
OCTOBER 1, 2014
We all have our inherent biases and what I am not arguing here is that the venture capital world is a fair playing field for anyone. I repeat: I AM NOT ARGUING THAT VENTURE CAPITAL IS FAIR TO ANYONE. billion went to women-led ventures.". We really don''t know, because we''re missing some critical information: HOW MANY WOMEN ARE SEEKING VENTURE CAPITAL? I AM NOT ARGUING THAT WOMEN AREN''T SEEKING VENTURE CAPITAL.
This is going to be BIG.
JUNE 15, 2020
In venture, it’s all about getting an opportunity to make partner and being included in the carry—the economic upside of a fund. There are so many different ways to interpret the data on who gets venture and why. There are lots of problems with access to venture connections that account for some of this, but how you invest and pay your own team is the one indisputable thing that is in a VC firm’s control.
This is going to be BIG.
OCTOBER 3, 2017
I'm a lead investor. That means I'm usually the first person to put down a price on what your company is worth--a dollar value on months, if not years, worth of your work, blood, sweat, tears, stress, etc. Here's a piece of paper that says how much I think your dreams are worth." The reality is, any price that I put down at the stage that I invest isn't going to feel like enough--and if it doesn't feel like enough, I'm probably grossly overpaying. But, you don't feel like that as the founder.
Tomasz Tunguz
OCTOBER 10, 2020
Each quarter, a group of analysts, including me, publish analysis on the trends in the venture capital market. There’s a risk to those assessments: the data is incomplete since not all rounds founders close within a quarter are reported in that quarter.
This is going to be BIG.
MAY 16, 2016
There aren't many people who get the chance to analyze venture capital fund return data. Analyzing venture returns without even looking at the 90's? Looking at interim IRRs of young funds, especially during boom periods in venture isn't predictive of outcomes. If you don't think that it's harder to put more money to work in venture than less, in a world where companies do more with less, and great deals are scarce, than I don't know what color the sky is in your world.
This is going to be BIG.
SEPTEMBER 18, 2019
Today's top founders will undoubtedly start something new in the future, but they won't make up the majority of innovators going forward--just as prior generations of venture backed founders don't make up a majority of those who are succeeding today. Opening up our circle to create and scale genuine engagement for people outside of typical venture networks is how we do business—and we’re getting exceptional deal flow because of that.
This is going to be BIG.
MARCH 5, 2014
About seven years ago, I wrote a post on breaking into venture capital and I continue to point the five or six people a week who ask me how to break into venture. The candidates for venture capital roles are already out there and usually in plain sight and there simply wasn''t anyone out there doing what Amrit was doing who wasn''t already fulltime at a firm. but in a city like New York, with it''s access to capital, "getting in" shouldn''t be the hard part.
This is going to be BIG.
JULY 8, 2013
I probably get around a dozen e-mails a week asking me how to get into venture capital. On top of that, anytime I talk to anyone who wants to get involved in startups but isn''t sure what they want to do, inevitably, I hear, "And then I was thinking maybe I should look into venture capital, too.". I''ve never really debated people on why they want to get into venture in the first place, even though a lot of people have misconceptions of it.
This is going to be BIG.
FEBRUARY 23, 2016
You run X amount of capital and Y percentage of that is allocated to venture capital. They don't have a directive to be invested in venture and they're not aiming to make some target return to pay out benefits or university operating expenses, etc. Partnership investing is boring. You give someone your money and, once a quarter, they give you a report that says what they did with your money.
Both Sides of the Table
JUNE 5, 2016
There was an explosion in number of startups both because it was cheap and there was tons of available capital. The other major trend of 2012–2015 was the entrance of “non VCs” into late-stages of venture capital , which mostly consisted of hedge funds, mutual funds, corporate investors, sovereign wealth funds and even LPs doing direct deals. Be thoughtful about from whom you raise capital.
Both Sides of the Table
MAY 23, 2012
Many observers of the venture capital industry have questioned whether its best days are behind it. There are obvious reasons the industry has had less-than-desirable returns, including: massive over-funding of the sector, huge increases in inexperienced venture capitalists that took a decade to peter out, and the massive correction in the value of the public stock markets that closed many exit opportunities for half a decade. This article originally ran on PEHub.
Both Sides of the Table
JULY 29, 2010
We received so much positive feedback from our This Week in Venture Capital show walking through valuation calculations & term sheets that we decided to do a Q&A show this week to address topics that entrepreneurs want to learn about. Mike Stern (wasn’t sure which one so leave a comment if it’s you): Q: “is it possible to sell your startup without venture investment if the company has big traction and a large user base?&#
TechCrunch
OCTOBER 30, 2020
For years — decades, even — there was little question about whether you could become a venture capitalist if you weren’t comfortable financially. 1% of a fund capital commitment you expect from GPs makes it hard for POCs to raise funds.
Entrepreneur's Handbook
OCTOBER 12, 2020
Precursor Ventures’ Charles Hudson shares his top tips for raising capital for an unconventional, out-there idea. founders startup venture-capital entrepreneurship vc
Haystack
SEPTEMBER 5, 2018
On a slightly smaller impact scale, there isn’t a lot of content out there about “How to build a venture fund.” Most of them won’t see a Fund II, and very few, if any, will become a permanent part of the venture fabric. While I don’t have the ambition to build “out” a huge fund with a huge team and scaling capital, raising successive funds is not easy and building out real firm infrastructure is a grind.
Both Sides of the Table
FEBRUARY 6, 2019
I’ve heard a lot of people question whether there is too much money in venture capital chasing too few great deals. “We’re Others believe that new business models are emerging that could replace venture capital all together. Every year I try to answer the question of “what has changed in the Venture Capital industry” and this year my colleague Chang Xu and I took a deep dive through the data and called many of our peers for confirmation.
Paul G. Silva
MARCH 17, 2020
Startups need capital to launch and grow. What many entrepreneurs don’t know is that startup capital comes in many different flavors. To be successful in fundraising an entrepreneur needs to understand what flavor(s) are a fit for them at each stage of their venture’s maturation. Here is a 2-page table summarizing each of the major flavors of capital, their pros, cons, and who they are good for.
This is going to be BIG.
OCTOBER 7, 2015
After checking out The Information's "open dataset" on diversity in venture capital , I felt pretty disappointed. I went back and calculated the number of companies in the first Brooklyn Bridge Ventures portfolio who have at least one founder who is female, from an underrepresented minority group, or LGBT. Most people need a little bit of capital to bring a product to market--or they're an engineer.
This is going to be BIG.
MAY 5, 2015
I think of venture capital as a service business. In my effort to rewrite the deck for my next fund, I've been spending a lot of time reflecting on what it is that I try to do. A lot of people can say they work hard, or work smart, but that doesn't leave me off where I think I'm setting my goals. I've been trying to figure out if there's any differentiation in how I do my job versus how other people might assume it gets done.
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