Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 6, 2017

It was only a year ago that many in the Venture Capital industry were predicting that “winter was coming” and to be fair the author of this post was chief amongst them. Yet as we enter February 2017 the VC funding markets are booming, Snap, Inc has filed for its IPO, AppDynamics was just purchased for $3.7

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Venture Capital Capital Funding Startup 150

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JUNE 2, 2021

Los Angeles-based Master Ventures said today that it has launched a new, $30M venture capital fund, called the Master Ventures Polkadot VC Fund. The new fund is led by founder and CEO Kyle Chasse, who is based in Los Angeles, per his LinkedIn profile.

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Venture Capital Funding Los Angeles Capital 100

L.A. Business Journal

MARCH 29, 2021

MaC Venture Capital, a seed-stage venture capital firm launched in 2019, announced March 25 that it had raised an inaugural $103 million fund for investments in early stage startups.

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MARCH 16, 2017

Los Angeles-based Embark Ventures , a new venture capital fund led by Yipeng Zhao and venture capitalist Peter Lee, is raising a $50M venture capital fund, according to a recent SEC filing by the firm. The firm has yet to announce any details of its funding. READ MORE>>.

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JANUARY 20, 2022

Los Angeles-based Untapped Ventures said on Wednesday that it has launched a new, early-stage venture capital fund, which it says invests in companies that "help people live the best version of themselves, personally and professionally." The size of the new fund was not announced.

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APRIL 1, 2019

founded by Michael Jones, Peter Pham, Gregory Gilman, and Tom Dare, appears to be launching efforts to raise a new fund. The firm already has an existing venture capital fund which invests in its portfolio companies. Santa Monica-based startup studio Science Inc. READ MORE>>.

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Dollar Shave Club Venture Capital Capital Funding 140

L.A. Business Journal

OCTOBER 18, 2018

Manufacturing software maker FactoryFour, which recently opened a new Culver City office, received a $5 million round of funding led by Menlo Park, Calif.-based based venture capital firm August Capital, with participation from Refactor Capital.

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Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 29, 2014

It’s not hard to find people willing to write the narrative that “venture capital is not an asset class” or “venture capital has performed terribly.” It had an influence on the people who fund our industry in a negative way as many asset managers who fund our industry read this flawed report.

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Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 5, 2016

The funding environment for tech startups is an ever shifting ground as we go through predictable shifts that go hand-in-hand with the slowing of the overall market. In other words, it isn’t that VCs suddenly got smart, it’s that the costs of starting a company went down dramatically. Explosion in Seed Funds. Rise of Seed.

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TechCrunch LA

NOVEMBER 11, 2020

New research has found that San Francisco and London have become two of the world’s leading hubs for VC investment into tech solutions that address one or more of the 17 UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), more commonly referred to as “Impact Tech” They are followed by Paris, Berlin, Stockholm, Shanghai and Beijing.

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OCTOBER 17, 2017

Illumina Ventures , the early-stage venture capital investor which was founded by San Diego-based life sciences equipment maker Illumina , says it has raised $230M for its first fund. The fund launched in summer of 2016 with $100M from Illumina. The venture investment fund was founded by Nicholas Naclerio, Ph.D.,

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FEBRUARY 9, 2021

Sherman Oaks-based Joystick Ventures, a new venture capital fund looking to invest in the videogame industry, has raised $3M as part of an ongoing, $10M venture capital fundraising, according to a regulatory filing by the firm.

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Both Sides of the Table

JULY 23, 2014

There has been much discussion in the past few years of the changing structure of the venture capital industry. The rise of “micro VCs” or seed-stage funds. The rise of alternative sources of capital (crowd funding and the like). ” Stated simply – if you seed funded Uber at $4.5m

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Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Seed Funding 398

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 23, 2012

Many observers of the venture capital industry have questioned whether its best days are behind it. I can’t help feel a bit of rear-view mirror analysis in all of “VC model is broken” bears in our industry. This has led to the creation of incubators, accelerators and seed funds. The Funding Problem.

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Venture Capital Capital Technical Review Startup 347

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 13, 2018

The most important advice I could give you before you set out in fund raising mode is to understand that fund-raising a sales & marketing process and needs to be managed. I always tell founders … “An investors job is to deploy capital and make a return. In sales there are also three rules: Qualify, qualify, qualify.

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Both Sides of the Table

MAY 28, 2018

There’s a quick litmus-test conversation any early-stage VC will have with the founder and it’s one that you should be as prepared for as your elevator pitch. It goes something like this … VC: “How much money are you raising?” Founder: “$8–10 million” VC: “What’s your current burn rate?” A VC is looking for reasonableness.

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APRIL 15, 2020

The National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) says that Q1 2020 venture capital investments had a "strong showing" in Q1, however, it expects that the impending economic downturn due to the COVID-19 pandemic will slow activity through the rest of the year.

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Venture Capital Capital Report Invest 113

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JUNE 29, 2017

We've summarized the funds that have announced new funds in the last nine months or so, or that are in the midst of raising funds--a total of more than $1086 million in total funds. List ordered by fund size). Upfront Ventures. Greycroft Ventures. Fund size: $230M fund. Okapi Ventures.

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Southern California Venture Capital Artificial Inteligence Capital 178

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 7, 2009

This is part of my series on Raising Venture Capital. I’m sure I’ll spark the ire of some VC’s for saying so, but there is certainly such a thing as black-out days in venture capital. It is very difficult to raising venture capital between November 15 – January 7th.

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SEPTEMBER 25, 2020

Venice, California-based Riot Ventures , led by Stephan Marcus and William Coffield, has launched an effort to raise $75M for its second venture capital fund, the firm disclosed this week in a regulatory filing.

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Venture Capital Capital Funding Venice 113

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 11, 2016

Gregg Johnson, CEO of Invoca For the first 5 years or so after I became a VC I didn’t talk much about what I thought a VC should be excellent at since frankly I wasn’t sure. It’s easy to think the role of a VC is to have strong opinions about markets, trends, tech dynamics and so forth. The role of VC is sparring partner.

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Venture Capital Capital CTO Coach Startup 150

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SEPTEMBER 16, 2014

Startups related to the many University of California campuses in Southern California may soon have a new source of funding: The University of California itself, via a new, $250M venture capital. The fund would seek to invest in companies started on campus, from University research, and from students. READ MORE>>.

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TechCrunch LA

NOVEMBER 10, 2018

Jason Rowley is a venture capital and technology reporter for Crunchbase News. The SaaS VC gap: China & other markets trail the US. Early-stage SaaS VC slip snaps recovery as public software stocks soar. 2018 is already a record year for venture funding worldwide. Contributor. 2018 in perspective.

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Venture Capital SaaS News Los Angeles 231

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MARCH 19, 2014

Women''s Venture Capital Fund , a venture capital investment fund focused on investing in what it calls "gender diverse" teams, said today that it has added a Harvard Business School professor to its advisory board. The fund said it added Professor Janice H. READ MORE>>.

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Venture Capital Capital Funding Invest 164

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 30, 2018

One of the hardest things about the fund-raising process for entrepreneurs is that you’re trying to raise money from people who have “asymmetric information.” VC firms see thousands of deals and have a refined sense of how the market is valuing deals because they get price signals across all of these deals. So why does a VC ask you?

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Venture Capital Pricing Startup Invest 324

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 5, 2020

I had originally signed up to talk about the “VC Market Trends” overall but it seemed inauthentic to speak about VC funding without addressing the virus in the room. So I wrote a brand new deck outlining some Upfront views on what we may see in the funding markets ahead. I welcome any feedback.

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Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 18, 2017

Union Square Ventures (USV) has been one of the most successful venture capital firms of the past 10–15 years and continues to be a leader in our industry. Lindel is no stranger to thorny venture capital issues — he was arguably amongst the most successful LPs of his generation. Maybe that’s USV, too.

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Venture Capital Funding Capital Startup 161

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JULY 7, 2021

Ventura-based advertising technology developer The Trade Desk is launching its own venture capital arm, and has made its first investment, the company said this morning. The company said that the new investment fund, TD7, will invest in open Internet startups.

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JANUARY 31, 2020

The National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) said this week a proposed modification to the Volcker Rule would allow commercial banks to once again invest in venture capital funds as limited partners (LPs), which it says would allow more capital to be available for venture firms to invest in startups.

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Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 6, 2017

I titled this post “We Must Have Zero Tolerance in Venture Capital” but of course I could just say “zero tolerance anywhere” because that’s true. As a VC let me specifically just speak out for our industry. I have known Shervin, liked him and respected his big bets as a VC like Uber and Hyperloop. I was wrong.

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Venture Capital Capital Course Report 254

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 16, 2014

We’ve been dying to tell you all for a while that we had raised a new venture capital fund and of course given SEC filing requirements the story was somewhat already scooped by the always-in-the-know Dan Primack a few weeks ago. If you want to understand how the VC industry is changing there is a great primer in the link.

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Venture Capital Funding Technical Review Startup 396

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 17, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series about Raising Venture Capital. A few years ago it became fashionable for large VC’s to do seed funding. If the large VC doesn’t agree to do your A round then you’re in a bit of trouble. If a VC term sheet comes in they begin their due diligence process.

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Seed Funding Venture Capital Funding Software Review 283

TechCrunch LA

MAY 31, 2022

Bonfire Ventures , a Los Angeles venture capital firm, invests in seed-stage business-to-business software companies and aims to change the odds so that more than the average 33% of companies in this sector make it to Series A. It says over 85% of its portfolio companies raise follow-on funding — a collective $1.15

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JANUARY 29, 2018

Los Angeles-based Bonfire Ventures said this morning that it has officially launched with its first fund, a new $60M fund aimed at early stage startups. READ MORE>>.

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NOVEMBER 20, 2015

Irvine-based videogame accessory and hardware maker Razer is planning on launching a new, corporate venture capital fund, starting next year, according to a report. Razer, which is led by Min-Liang Tan, reportedly plans to invest in companies, which it plans to incubate and help with its international business.

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SoCal Tech Calendar

AUGUST 30, 2018

Wednesday, September 5, 2018 -- Thinking Like a VC. Featuring: Rob Vickery, Partner and Co-Founder: Stage Venture Partners. Cal Lutheran Center for Entrepreneurship.

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Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 18, 2014

On the phone … Me: So, you raised venture capital? How about you close your first capital (say $500,000) and put in the docs that you have up to [90] days to raise an additional $1 million at the same price at your discretion. I often will fund 80+% of a round and move quickly. We raised a seed round.

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Venture Capital Capital Pricing Doc 417