Tag: Entrepreneur
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The best founders in the world have their choice of investors. So I’m not waiting for them to contact me — I’m going to them. When I started as an angel in 2021, I let the deals come to me. These days, I’m doing a lot more outbound. Here’s how…
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Deel is one of the most successful startups today, valued at $12 billion. So when I found their pre-seed deck this week, I was really intrigued. Deel’s deck from 2019 is simple and effective. Let’s dig in… Framing the Problem Founders Alex and Shuo do a great job of framing…
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I found myself in the kitchen last night, cracking an egg into a frying pan. This wasn’t a normal dinner — this was research. Decks and deal memos are great. But to really understand what a startup does, you have to use the product. So when I had the chance…
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If you’re having trouble raising money, it’s not just you. Angel, pre-seed, and seed funding in January fell to the lowest level since before ZIRP, according to a new Crunchbase report. Those earliest rounds totaled just $2.1 billion in January. This funding slowdown happened even as total venture funding actually…
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+ Entrepreneur, Finance, Investing, Money, Silicon Valley, Small Business, Startups, Venture Capital+
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“I have to be a little bit skeptical, or I’d invest in everything. But it’s also my job to ask myself ‘What if it works?’.” If you invest in startups, you have to hit a delicate balance. You can’t give everyone a check . And yet, you have to believe…
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+ Entrepreneur, Finance, Investing, Money, Silicon Valley, Startups, Tech, VC, Venture Capital, Work-Life Balance+
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So much for the down market. Seed valuations reached an all-time high in 2023, according to a new report from Pitchbook. Median pre-money valuations hit $12 million last year. This was higher even than the peak of the 2021 bubble, when they sat around $8 million. For seed valuations, there…
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+ Entrepreneur, Finance, Investing, Money, Silicon Valley, Startups, Stock Market, Stocks, Tech, Venture Capital+
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I look at around 2,000 startups a year. Certain ideas pop up over and over — and keep failing. Today, I thought I’d break down a few common startup ideas I see, and why they tend to go wrong. 1) Geolocation – “An app to find your friends and hang…
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+ Angel Investing, Apps, Entrepreneur, Finance, Investing, Money, Startups, Tech, VC, Venture Capital+
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Note: This is not investment or legal advice. Once you’ve decided to invest in a startup, how do you actually finalize the deal? This morning, I’m signing and wiring for a new investment. Here’s how it works… 1) Term Sheet. The lead investor generates a term sheet. This document tells…
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+ Angel Investing, Entrepreneur, Finance, Investing, Money, Silicon Valley, Startups, Tech, Venture Capital+
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“Make it new.” Ezra Pound Uber and Airbnb are the biggest winners of the last cycle. Their markets are very different, but here’s what they have in common: both were fundamentally new. Until Airbnb, no one had ever made it easy to rent someone’s spare room. And the first time…
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Series A may be the hardest round to raise. But new data shows that cutting burn can give you a huge advantage. Startup advisory firm Kruze Consulting released an extensive report yesterday based on data from about 100 seed stage startups. All tried to raise a Series A in 2023.…
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+ Entrepreneur, Finance, Investing, Money, Series A, Silicon Valley, Startups, Tech, VC, Venture Capital+
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Tremendous 