118 Articles found for subject: Venture Capital

New data highlights five things incumbent businesses could learn from venture capitalists and unicorns.

Content: Article | Authors: Jerome Königsfeld, Kai Vollhardt, Leo Leypoldt, Markus Berger-de León | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Venture Capital

Can an algorithm outperform the average angel investor? And if it can, does that also mean it will make less biased investments? Researchers put these questions to the test: They built an investing algorithm and put it head to head with 255 angel investors in a simulation, asking it to select the most promising investment opportunities among 623 deals from one of the largest European … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: Charlotta Siren, Dietmar Grichnik, Ivo Blohm, Joakim Wincent, Malin Malmstrom, Torben Antretter | Source: Harvard Business Review | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Finance, Venture Capital

Two years ago, our team at First Round, led by Partner Bill Trenchard and VP Platform Brett Berson, began to quietly build out a program to help our founders navigate the choppy waters of follow-on fundraising. Long had we observed founders caught off guard by what was needed to raise their Series A after having a relatively easy time at the seed stage.

Realizing how … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: Bill Trenchard, Brett Berson | Source: First Round Review | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Venture Capital

I’ve seen hundreds of startup pitch decks and have found total addressable market (TAM) slides to be among the most frequently mis-executed. I get the sense they are often included as a formality in an attempt to get VCs to check a mental box and continue on hearing about other important things: the product, the team, the progress, the go-to-market, etc.
 
In this piece, I’m going … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Jared Sleeper | Source: For Entrepreneurs | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Venture Capital

After graduating from college in June, I had the chance to spend three months at Union Square Ventures, helping with a project that created anonymous aggregate insights for USV portfolio companies by analyzing data across stages, customers, and industries. In order to not put a lot of extra reporting effort on our companies, we approached this project by drawing from data in existing board decks. … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Max Heald | Source: Union Square Ventures | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Venture Capital

Jenny Lefcourt is general partner at Freestyle Capital, a venture capital firm that specializes in seed and early-stage investments. She knows what it takes to be an entrepreneur because she’s been there. Lefcourt co-founded two companies — WeddingChannel.com and Bella Pictures — after dropping out of Stanford Business School. Meetings with investors to pitch the business and raise capital left her with a deeper understanding … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Jenny Lefcourt | Source: Knowledge@Wharton | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Venture Capital

Founders will often ask me, “Do you want to go through our deck?”
 
It’s not about the slide deck. We have made the decision to invest in entrepreneurs without slides, whose ambition, passion, depth of understanding of an opportunity and compelling vision come through crystal-clear in conversation.
 
But…that’s a high bar for communication. Most of the time, putting a business plan on paper helps you structure a … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Sarah Guo | Source: LinkedIn | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Venture Capital

In my short career as a VC, I’ve reviewed thousands of pitch decks and helped hundreds of founders refine their pitches. Additionally, I’m often approached by founder friends to provide feedback on their slides before they go to market. Given pitch decks are frequently discussed and they’re essential in the fundraising process, I thought it would be useful to create a simple guide to building … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Steve Schlafman | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Venture Capital

VCs turn down 99% of the companies they’re introduced to. Most of those don’t make it to a face to face meeting. If you’ve made it to an in-person meeting, here are the numbers you need to know to get a VC excited.

Content: Article | Author: Ash Rust | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Venture Capital

Startup guru Guy Kawasaki explains why asking investors for money is like online dating.

Content: Article | Authors: Guy Kawasaki, Ian Chipman | Source: Stanford University | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Venture Capital

Your round isn’t anywhere near closed unless you have enough investors who are very serious about investing. However, it can often be difficult to figure out if an investor is actually serious about investing or just being positive about your business. So how can you tell who is actually serious and who isn’t?

Content: Article | Author: Elizabeth Yin | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Venture Capital

A new study asked hundreds of VCs to rank the factors that drive their investment decisions.

Content: Article | Author: Martin J. Smith | Source: Stanford University | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Venture Capital

Specific staffing choices and high investment levels can prolong the lifespan of corporate venture capital units.

Content: Article | Author: Vibha Gaba | Source: INSEAD Knowledge | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Venture Capital

Ultimately, fundraising success requires:

fundraising execution + a compelling story/vision + evidence of traction + sheer determination + good fortune (luck)

This article focuses on the first of these five variables: fundraising execution. Below I lay out a 7 step framework to guide you through your fundraising process, and share some lessons learned having now successfully raised money for three separate ventures (and made plenty of mistakes … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Adam Healey | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Venture Capital

The first part of fundraising is getting the meeting and 90% of startups fail at this point. Here’s how to make sure you get meetings with the right investors.

Content: Article | Author: Ash Rust | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Venture Capital

Scott Kupor of Andreessen Horowitz attempts to clear some of the opacity of how the VC industry works, by defining some basic terms, beginning with a bit of history.

Content: Article | Author: Scott Kupor | Source: Andreessen Horowitz | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Venture Capital

There’s a lot of advice on the web about what to do once you’ve raised money, but not when to do it. This is unfortunate, because poor timing can kill a company. This post will describe some common timing issues, as well as a framework for avoiding them.

Content: Article | Author: Leo Polovets | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Venture Capital

Rafe Furst of Quantitative VC uses data analysis and poker references to try to understand if VCs are good at investing in startups or if it is all just luck.

Content: Article | Author: Rafe Furst | Source: Medium | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Venture Capital

The WSJ wrote a story on venture capital returns that claims “Andreessen Horowitz’s Returns Trail Venture-Capital Elite.” Andreessen Horowitz’s Scott Kupor offers a rebuttal by explaining how arcane and obtuse venture capital valuations can be.

Content: Article | Author: Scott Kupor | Source: Andreessen Horowitz | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Venture Capital

How to improve your fundraising with investor segmentation, storytelling and specific follow-up.

Content: Article | Author: Edith Yeung | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Venture Capital