Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 26, 2020

Today we’re announcing that my partner Kara Nortman is becoming Co-Managing Partner at Upfront Ventures and I can’t tell you how thrilled I am to welcome her to her new role. She worked for 5 years as a VC at Battery Ventures and co-headed M&A at IAC working with Barry Diller. She had all of the skills and traits we sought?

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Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 30, 2014

Today I’m handing her the largest A-round check I’ve ever written as a VC as we lead her $10 million A-Round at uBeam. As I’ve written about recently, at Upfront Ventures we started talking a couple of years ago about wanting to fund stuff with more meaning. Upfront Ventures'

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Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 2, 2010

This is part of my series on Understanding Venture Capital. I’m writing this series because if you better understand how VC firms work you can better target which firms make sense for you to speak with. It in not uncommon to see a VC talk about “total assets under management&# as in “We have $1.5

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Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 5, 2016

Non VC Growth Rounds. 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. The fact that I still see it referred to in pitch decks is farcical.

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Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 3, 2013

Back to Mr. Christensen, “We subsidize their education in fields for which there are no jobs” he said in referring to the fact that many courses at universities are still taught with skills that aren’t relevant to the 21st century needs of the US workforce. Venture Capital. Freemium. .” Neither does Clayton.

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Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 23, 2016

Kobie Fuller, Partner at Upfront Ventures We set out to build a venture capital firm that would not only be a beacon for the rapidly growing LA tech ecosystem but also one that would compete and collaborate nationally with the best firms in the country. Kobie scored highly on all fronts.

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Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 12, 2013

Because my role as a VC requires me to take and endless stream of meetings I long ago decided I need to learn as much as I can from the meetings I attend so I often just ask tons of questions and assimilate knowledge. When I think about what defines us as a VC I think: Operationally knowledgeable / strong startup competence.

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Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 8, 2014

And there’s none that makes me happier than to announce that Jordan Hudson has been promoted to a Principal at Upfront Ventures. 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. Portfolio community building.

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Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 19, 2014

We are often asked how companies get funded, why VCs make the decisions we make and what we’re looking for in entrepreneurs. I think this is a Seriously great example of how this process works for at least one VC – Upfront Ventures. So I hope that offers you insights into how companies move through the VC system.

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This is going to be BIG.

APRIL 29, 2011

Then I realized that it's probably not obvious what the dynamics are around how VCs tend to get introduced to companies and what works best for people, so I figured I'd blog about it. A lot of VCs ask to be introduced through someone. Talking to a VC is never a one shot deal. The Cold Intro. Multiple Touchpoints.

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Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 27, 2010

And that was evident on today’s Angel vs. VC panel. There are real changes in the venture capital industry and it would have been fun to talk about them. The VC industry is segmenting – I have spoken about this many times before. We need people at all stages of the funding lifecycle and not just VCs.

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This is going to be BIG.

JULY 14, 2013

We used Dumbo as a reference and talked about how the critical mass of Two Trees buildings created a neighborhood with multiple destinations. There was no strategic goal to build venture backed startup companies, but yet at least three companies in her community got VC investment last year. Venture Capital & Technology'

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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. How to get a job in venture capital.

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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.

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Both Sides of the Table

JULY 9, 2012

I knew him well before he became a VC. I knew his as he considered becoming a VC and we talked a lot about how it was going for me in my early years. These engagements went well and he came highly referred by my friend Gary Swart who runs oDesk. When my pal Dave started his venture fund, 500 Startups, he was ridiculed.

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This is going to be BIG.

MAY 27, 2010

Kinda seems like that sometimes, right—that the venture capital community seems to chase after the bright shiny object of the moment in droves and then just as quickly moves on to the next new new thing. Back when I was at Union Square Ventures, Fred started to get really excited about podcasting. Geolocation is so 2009.

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A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

MARCH 28, 2022

So I saw this tweet by Semil Shah yesterday: A friend who works in an industry far from tech startups & VC asked what would be the single article I’d share to read on each topic. So I am reposting it below: The venture capital business is highly competitive. It is about how a VC can compete and win a deal that many others want.

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David Teten VC

SEPTEMBER 13, 2022

It’s hard enough to raise capital from VC, private equity fund, and family offices. The vastly larger universe of B2B companies, many of which have teams focused on pushing VC and private equity funds to evangelize their product to their portfolio. See my list of due diligence questions for VC and private equity funds. .

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Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 1, 2010

In today’s post I want to talk about the concept of a VC flightpath. This is my description of a VC process, not one I’ve heard from other VCs so don’t expect it to be accepted nomenclature. Even when you’re getting the VC love this reality I imagined couldn’t be further from the truth.

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This is going to be BIG.

MARCH 25, 2013

Back in 2006, when I started working on putting together some community groups for entrepreneurs and tech people, I looked for a better name to reference this collection of people. Anyone who was doing something new and cutting edge should feel connected to each other--whether or not they are building a venture backed startup.

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This is going to be BIG.

NOVEMBER 15, 2020

In late 2018, the company raised $75 million Series C from Sequoia, arguably the top VC firm in the world. After being largely ignored by Valley investors (the biggest checks in her seed, Series A, and Series B came from men on the East Coast), she finally found support from the VC elite. VC David Sacks tweeted “??

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Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 8, 2010

Greycroft is Alan’s venture capital firm that recently raised its second fund ($130 million) with offices in both New York and LA. My favorite two quotes of the weekend were: “Never trade your cat for somebody else’s dog” (referring to selling your company for stock to another privately held company – quote was from Alan.

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StartupNation

JANUARY 6, 2022

Venture capital or VC. They also provide a method of helping new companies find investors before they’re ready for traditional venture capital investment. How Angel and Venture Capital Funding Shape the Future of Innovation. Venture capital is always an option. Angel investment. Decentralized crowdfunding.

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Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 3, 2011

As many of you know I run a weekly webcast called This Week in VC that’s getting between 25-35,000 weekly views across ThisWeekIn.com, YouTube & mostly iTunes. there was no frame of reference for the value. My key take away – frame of reference in pricing is important. Yesterday’s show floored me.

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Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 7, 2014

Contrast that with a VC conversation I had. In case you don’t know – as VCs we have have 2 sets of customers: LPs (limited partners) who invest money in our funds and entrepreneurs (who we in turn give money to and help support them in building businesses we hope will be valuable). If not, somebody else will.

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TechCrunch

FEBRUARY 16, 2022

David Teten is founder of Versatile VC and writes periodically at teten.com and @dteten. Akshat Dixit is a senior at North Carolina State University, an intern at Versatile VC , and a past intern with the HBS Alumni Angels Association and the Innovation Quarter in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Scouts help promote diversity in VC.

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Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 17, 2012

But honestly there are times when being a VC can feel like that, too. VENTURE CAPITAL. And finally that brings me to obvious topic of venture capital. Coincidentally my good friend Roger Ehrenberg wrote a post this past week on founders having trust in their VCs. After I posted I saw the following Tweet. No exceptions.”

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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. And VC’s are tough customers. I’ve talked before about how to build long-term relationships with VCs.

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startup VC advice entrepreneurs 360

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 21, 2014

When you’re hiring most reference checkers focus on the person’s former bosses. Just literally this week I had breakfast with a guy giving a reference who said, “He’s brilliant. Stuart Lander has joined Upfront Ventures to help us run operations. In many ways that can be way more telling. But he knows it.

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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. The reality is that their core business is not venture capital.

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This is going to be BIG.

MAY 27, 2010

Kinda seems like that sometimes, right—that the venture capital community seems to chase after the bright shiny object of the moment in droves and then just as quickly moves on to the next new new thing. Back when I was at Union Square Ventures, Fred started to get really excited about podcasting. Ok, so we’re all doing social TV now.

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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.

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This is going to be BIG.

JANUARY 28, 2013

I don't know if it was by design that I reference Descartes when I think about risk and uncertainty or by accident, but I wish I had started doing that earlier. If I were to break down my job as a venture capitalist, I'd say the top five skills needed are as follows: The ability to relate to and understand a wide variety of people.

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TechCrunch

OCTOBER 15, 2021

VC Lab , an accelerator for venture capital firms, wants to create investors who will back the rest of the world. Today, VC Lab is providing a set of freely available boilerplate documents intended to streamline the process, save everyone time and money and make fund governance structures more accessible. “We

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Both Sides of the Table

MAY 23, 2010

Often when startups who have raised venture capital need another round of financing they will turn to their existing investors to give them money before raising from outsiders. VC’s money comes from mostly institutional investors called LPs (limited partners). But I used to jokingly refer to bridge loans as “pier&# loans.

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AsiaTechDaily

JULY 25, 2023

Register Venture capital firm Goodwater has concluded its latest funding round, raising $1 billion in capital commitments for its fifth early-stage and third opportunity-style funds. Founded in 2014 by industry veterans Chi-Hua Chien and Eric Kim, Goodwater is the largest venture capital fund focused on consumer tech investments.

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TechCrunch

NOVEMBER 20, 2020

Index Ventures, a London- and San Francisco-headquartered venture capital firm that primarily invests in Europe and the U.S., Well-regarded by founders and co-investors, his transition to a full-time role in venture capital feels like quite a natural one. Another bucket is venture capitalists.

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