Venture Capital Archives - The 411 On Startups (tm)

Introduction To A Venture Capitalist? There’s An App For That

Jun

2015

Warm introductions are still the best way to meet an investor, however, scrappy venture capitalists know that ideas can come from anywhere – including from outside of their network. The venture capital industry exists because of entrepreneurs but it you’re an entrepreneur you’d hardly think you existed in the eyes of VCs. And you’d be ...

Startup Orphans and the Series A Crunch – Is There One?

May

2013

The Series A Crunch is a supply-demand imbalance that will result in over 1000 seeded startups being orphaned and more than $1 billion of investment evaporating. It is all part of a healthy natural selection process. Our Seed Investing Report analyzes 4056 seed investments made into US-based technology companies since Q1 2009. For clarification, seed ...

Fred Wilson: what crowdfunding means for the VC business

May

2012

For the past couple of decades, venture capitalists have had the upper hand. They’ve had the funding and, traditionally, they’ve held most of the power in the startup ecosystem. But, Fred Wilson, managing partner of Union Square Ventures (and beloved blogger), believes that balance of power is shifting (As noted in Stacey’s take on a similar notion ...

Kauffman Foundation Bashes VCs For Poor Performance, Urges LPs To Take Charge

May

2012

The Kauffman Foundation, which has ties to the venture industry, has issued a damning study of the business that addresses long-running concerns about poor performance and concludes that the limited partners who invest in funds have no one but themselves to blame. The report, “We Have Met The Enemy…And He Is Us,” draws on lessons ...

Angel vs. VC: Which Investor Is Best for Your Startup?

May

2012

Getting financing for your startup is rarely easy, but if you approach the wrong investor, you can make it even harder than it has to be. “How can there be a ‘wrong investor’?” you might be thinking. “Don’t I just go with whoever is willing to give me the money?” It’s not quite that simple. ...

How Much Venture Capital Should You Raise For Your SaaS Venture?

Apr

2012

The short answer is “as much as you need”. The more tactical answer is “as much as you can raise cheaply”. The latter is a pragmatic view. Raise more than you need when times are good. Just because you raise it does not mean you need to spend it – capital efficiency is always good! ...

The Top Ten VC Blogs To Follow

Apr

2012

Every so often, venture capitalist Larry Cheng puts out a list of the top VC blogs. Previously, he ranked the blogs by how many subscribers they have on Google Reader. But now he’s changed his methodology and is ranking them by average monthly unique visitors, based on Compete data. He just came out with his ...

IBM Banks On Small Start-Ups For Big Growth

Aug

2011

Streetline Inc. has been selling its parking-sensor technology for only a year and it has just 30 employees, but International Business Machines Corp. is depending on it and hundreds of young start-ups like it to reach ambitious financial targets. By 2015, IBM expects to add about $30 billion to its 2010 revenue of $99.9 billion, ...

What VCs Look For and How to Pitch

Nov

2009

Not all VC firms are the same. Fund size, fund tenure (how far into the current fund is the firm?), firm’s track record, partner’s areas of interest and the firm’s areas of focus all affect the types of deals a fund wants to do and their expectations for returns. It is essential to understand this ...

VC Crash Course – Feb 24 2009

Nov

2009

If you want to get a quick understanding of how VCs work, what make them tick, and what they look for, take a look at this short set of slides.