Good news for venture capital firms and those seeking venture funding – in Q4 2011. According to Thomson Reuters and the National Venture Capital Association (NVTC), venture funds raised $5.6 billion last quarter. That was up more than $3 billion from the prior quarter and nearly $2 billion fromQ4 2010. Now the bad news: All…
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For anyone involved in the startup scene, you know that last year, VC activity was a little off. Today, Dow Jones confirmed that – VC activity dropped by 14% compared to 2010 – an uphill climb for any entrepreneur who is exhausted and ready to cash out. The news isn’t all bad, though. The same…
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We have covered, sliced, diced and analyzed the startup accelerators for awhile now and even produced the first startup accelerator rankings this past year. Yesterday, TechStars, a Boulder-based startup accelerator program, took a step to help simplify the process by offering a unified application form for startup accelerators at accelerato.rs. The website gives startup founders…
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I have been hearing more than a few entrepreneurs whine that venture capitalists just don’t get it. Lately, I’m also hearing more startup founders complain that angel investors are not acting like angel investors – and I’m left wondering, “How should they act?” So, here are some of my thoughts on that: Angels invest in…
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I’m a Dingman Angel, which is an angel network sponsored by the University of Maryland’s Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship. As a member of the group, I recently encountered a disgruntled entrepreneur who was incredulous that his startup was eliminated during the screening process – before having a chance to present to the group. He couldn’t…
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Steve Case and Ted Leonsis, the pioneering founders of AOL, want to give back to the community that played home to their media enterprise’s early success. Frustrated by local businesses having to look toward Silicon Valley for the financial assistance necessary to grow, Case, Leonsis, and partner Donn Davis have raised enough capital to start…
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Participating Preferred Stock…it’s not an evil thing. It is a real and significant thing that affects valuation and the quality of an exit. Therefore it is prudent that entrepreneurs seeking funding should understand its implications. Preferred stock is a cross between a debt/loan and a equity/stock instrument. In venture financing the preferred shares have the…
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Investors seek familiar investments that are analogous to companies that they admire. They would like to believe that you can be successful because you are like another company that has been successful. Therefore, when you create your business plan, base it on a successful, public company that is similar to yours. (Public is preferable, because…
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Another local DC-area company has successfully raised capital from venture capital and angel investors. Only this time, despite the efforts of out-of-region investors in New England and the Research Triangle to lure Seva Search away, the founders have planted their flag in Potomac, Maryland, bucking the trend to pack up and say goodbye to our little government town. What’s…
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According to the latest PWC MoneyTree Survey, New Enterprise Associates (NEA) traded places with Kleiner Perkins for the number 1 spot in total deals closed by venture capital firms in Q3. NEA finished with 27 deals to Kleiner’s 23, which exceeds the 21 deals closed in Q2 by Kleiner. As usual, Silicon Valley firms dominated…
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Smarter money is available for less innovative companies Although game-changing innovation is expensive, laborious, time intensive and unplumbed, companies relying on existing technology find the market place (especially the ITC market) to be crowded, competitive, and cheap. Because starting a company is so much less expensive in 2011, many tech startups can succeed without taking…
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Until 2001, information technology and communications investments (ITC)—the bread and butter of VC portfolios—outperformed the economy by 50% for almost 40 years, owing largely to immaturity of the sector. There were periods during this time when VC-backing conveyed a kind of celebrity status on its recipients. Venture capital infusion was viewed as a success in…
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Over the past few weeks several entrepreneurs have been asking me about my opinion on convertible notes with caps. Jason Mendelson has posted a good summary of capped convertible notes on his blog here, which is mostly positive about the instrument while also acknowledging that entrepreneurs would like to avoid them. David Hornik, on the other…
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Startup incubator TechStars announced today that is has raised $24M from Foundry Group, IA Ventures, Avalon Ventures, DFJ Mercury, SoftBank Capital, SVB Financial Group, RRE Ventures, Right Side Capital Management, TechStars Alumni and several individuals. This new funding will be used to offer every new TechStars company an additional $100,000 in funding in the form…
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According to Dealogic, 15 scheduled IPOs were withdrawn in August. That’s the highest number of IPOs withdrawn from SEC filing since April 2001. You remember April 2001, don’t you? That was a market bubble or two ago, but it was also the beginning of a startup nuclear winter. That’s the bump in the road that, when compared…
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Living the startup life can be exhilarating , yet exhausting, as entrepreneurs are often faced with more items on their “To-Do List” than hours in the day. Just finding trusted resources and making the connections you need can be a full-time job. Foster.ly is helping Washington, DC-area entrepreneurs by corralling the information they’re looking for…
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There are a number of startup accelerator and incubator programs in the United States. We are fans of these programs (not to be confused with... Read More
Two months after the iPad 2 debuted in March, around 40% of users surveyed said their iPad was their primary computer, up from around 30%... Read More
With our Startup Mixology Conference coming up next week followed by our classic Tech Cocktail DC Summer mixer which will showcase a handful of early-stage... Read More
Coming off of one of our biggest Tech Cocktail mixer events in Chicago this past week, which showcased 14 early-stage start-ups, we thought it would... Read More