Gary Edwards's List: Entrepreneur

Once we were up and running, we made a commitment: To help other entrepreneurs whenever possible; to share our stories and advice; and to try to help them avoid the bumps and dead-ends we experienced.

I’ve gone through three startups now. I’ve raised over $49 million in venture capital and witnessed countless rejections from investors. I’ve gone through the joyous experience of raising too much capital, trying to do too much and target too many markets, facing corporate bankruptcy and closing our $7.5 million Series B at the last hour (which led us to the road of profitability). I’ve also raised too little capital when we could have raised more and suffered those consequences.

The following is a presentation I have given several times before focusing on the basics of the startup and raising capital process.

entrepreneur.venturebeat.com/...startup-fundraising-101 - Preview

vc bernard-moon on 2009-07-08 and saved by 3 people

This is one post/chapter in a serialized book called Startup 101. For the introduction and table of contents, please click here.

Fear of VCs is a common problem for first time entrepreneurs. It is a natural fear. You are going to be negotiating with somebody who is older, richer, and way more experienced in this than you are. You have heard a bunch of horror stories. They have the one thing you need to turn your dream into reality.

But chill out. Read this eight-step guide, and keep going.

Note: the term "VC" is used here to include the professional angel investors who do this for a living. They may just invest their own money, but they are in the venture investing business. This does not apply to friends and family who loan you money because they like and trust you.

www.readwriteweb.com/...-not-to-get-screwed-by-vcs.php - Preview

vc funding entrepeneur on 2009-06-19 and saved by 7 people

We need a few more Internets.

Easy to say, extraordinarily hard to do. Especially within a system that has created a fundamental problem compensating speculators way above creators. (See "Capitalism 2.0: Speculator vs. Creator.") Besides that, we have systemic challenges of risk-aversion rampant at the moment, with venture capitalists behaving like bankers, and Wall Street's obsession with quarterly results that discourages long term R&D.

www.forbes.com/...ogy-enterprise-innovation.html - Preview

innovation sramana-mitra silicon-valley vc investment on 2009-04-13

June 3, 2009, NYC: .... Entering the Startup 2009 competition is free .... Our expert panel will choose 10 winners from the pool of applicants ..... There's also the Entrepreneur-Appreciation conference-and-promotion package for $295. .....

Log-in to <a href="http://angelsoft.net/business-plan-competition/silicon-alley-insider-startup2009">Angelsoft</a>, a web site that connects entrepreneurs and investors, which we have modified for Startup 2009. http://angelsoft.net/business-plan-competition/silicon-alley-insider-startup2009

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vc silicon-alley business-insider wiki-word on 2009-04-06

Many stories focus on what Google Chrome means for Microsoft, Firefox, and the fate of the current online world. But what does it mean for up-and-coming Web start-ups? Here are six implications for the start-up world that I can see. These assume that Chrome lives up to its hype. T

news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10030718-2.html - Preview

chrome google bob-walsh vc on 2008-11-25

If we've learned one thing from funding so many startups, it's that they succeed or fail based on the qualities of the founders. The economy has some effect, certainly, but as a predictor of success it's rounding error compared to the founders.

Which means that what matters is who you are, not when you do it. If you're the right sort of person, you'll win even in a bad economy. And if you're not, a good economy won't save you. Someone who thinks "I better not start a startup now, because the economy is so bad" is making the same mistake as the people who thought during the Bubble "all I have to do is start a startup, and I'll be rich."

So if you want to improve your chances, you should think far more about who you can recruit as a cofounder than the state of the economy. And if you're worried about threats to the survival of your company, don't look for them in the news. Look in the mirror.

www.paulgraham.com/badeconomy.html - Preview

vc silicon-valley entrepreneurship startup on 2008-10-21 and saved by 41 people

Paul Graham, whose Y Combinator is the best-known incubator of the Bubble 2.0 era, sends out a hopeful message to would-be startups: Now's a fine time to launch. Or at least it's as good as it two years ago, when the bubble was still inflating.

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vc startup entrepreneurship silicon-valley on 2008-10-21

Insights Into the iPhone, iFund, and iFund Companies

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webkit iphone ria vc silicon-valley ifundVC on 2008-09-24

The group behind the $100 million iPhone developers fund, has some thoughts about where mobile is headed.

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iphone kleiner-perkins vc on 2008-09-24

Venture funding works like gears. A typical startup goes through several rounds of funding, and at each round you want to take just enough money to reach the speed where you can shift into the next gear. .... Y Combination founder Paul Graham explains the many issues and considerations involved with funding a startup.

Few startups get it quite right. Many are underfunded. A few are overfunded, which is like trying to start driving in third gear.

I think it would help founders to understand funding better—not just the mechanics of it, but what investors are thinking.

paulgraham.com/startupfunding.html - Preview

yc vc entrepeneur entrepreneurship investment startup angels on 2008-09-15 and saved by 28 people

Y Combinator is a new kind of venture firm specializing in funding early stage startups. We help startups through what is for many the hardest step, from idea to company.

We invest mostly in software and web services. And because we are ourselves technology people, we prefer groups with a lot of technical depth. We care more about how smart you are than how old you are, and more about the quality of your ideas than whether you have a formal business plan.

ycombinator.com - Preview

VC entrepeneur entrepreneurship investment on 2008-09-15 and saved by 120 people

“The reality is that our deal terms are going to be the same as a VCs,” says Ian Sobieski of the Silicon Valley-based Band of Angels. “We also want five to 15X returns, it’s just that since we’re only investing $500,000, we can get it at a much lower exit than a VC.”

gigaom.com/...cks-for-closing-an-angel-round - Preview

vc angels investment entrepreneurship on 2008-09-15 and saved by 6 people

At SKMurphy, Inc. we offer business development services for software entrepreneurs. We provide sound strategy and a workable plan to grow your business. Our focus is on early customers and early revenue for software startups.

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vc entrepeneur startup tutorial on 2008-09-09 and saved by 2 people

www.punctuative.com/vcdb - Preview

vc on 2008-08-13 and saved by 8 people

List of all VC in Silicon Valley and beyond. Links to web sites and blogs as well as conferences and meeting places

venturecapital.alltop.com - Preview

vc silicon-valley venture-capital on 2008-08-13 and saved by 9 people

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kawasaki entrepreneurship vc on 2008-08-13 and saved by 301 people

eremiah Owyang
SF Bay Area, USA
Sr Analyst at Forrester Research:

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silicon valley web vc on 2008-05-01 and saved by 2 people

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funding vc on 2007-12-23

Excerpt: Every startup needs to “pick a major” among three drivers of growth. It’s simply too hard to focus on more than one. This choice has to be made at the level of strategy, because the tactics between involved in each driver are quite similar. Startups may pivot from one driver to another as they experiment. But failure to identify a clear driver of growth leads many entrepreneurs into dangerous territory.

There are a number of models that you can use to understand any business in an abstract way. For most service startups, I recommend Dave McClure’s AARRR framework.

This model (required reading in startups all over Silicon Valley) is an elegant way to build any service-oriented business. It is based around five key metrics:

entrepreneur.venturebeat.com/...your-business-model-choose-one - Preview

AARRR-Framework startup entrepreneur vc on 2009-09-01 and saved by 7 people