In a recent study, the Kaufman Foundation points to the “accelerator” model as the new approach to funding early-stage startup – something the report describes as “Amercan Idol” for entrepreneurs. Using examples like The Foundry, TechStars, The Accelerator, and YCominator as examles, the report describes how these accelerators provide early funding and in some cases even a management team to get startups off the ground.
Monthly Archive for July, 2007
The Portland Business Journal reported last Friday that Portland startup SplashCast has signed a deal with NPR for the latter to use of SplashCast’s photo/audio/video web syndication tools. The Journal reported that SplashCast just closed a $750K bridge round, on top of $1.3 million raised last year.
In a blog post, VC and former entrepreneur Jeff Bussgang explains how VCs make money (the "VC carry") and how the recent moves in congress to tax equity funds also applies to the carry.
An Arizona Daily Star article claims that solar power is hot again, partly due to soaring energy costs.
A recent New York Times article explained why some researchers concluded that investing in patents often does not pay off for public companies. One of the culprits: increasing patent litigation.
In a recent blog post, Rick Segal of JLA Ventures suggests that VCs don’t always treat angels well … but they should.
According to a National Venture Capital Association release, 68 venture firms raised $7.2 billion in Q2 – a decrease in the number of funds but an increase in the total dollars.
VC Josh Kopelman, in a recent blog entry, talked about how high B and C series valuations can be bad for his seed fund and for the entrepreneur. His rule of thumb for returns expected are:
Series A: 10x
Series B: 4-7x
Series C: 2-4x
So big B and C valuations imply a requirement for a very big exit.
According to a Seattlepi.com article, Robbie Cape, CEO of Cozi, talked to a few venture capitalists when he started looking for financing two months ago. But he quickly decided to go another route,
raising all of the startup’s new $4 million financing round from
Seattle-area angel investors.
According to TechJournal South, “seed” stage start-ups are likely to have a hard time raising private equity investment for the foreseeable future.
Part of the reason for this lies in the implicit challenges of
investing in the earliest stages of company development. These
challenges are compounded by systemic issues in the venture capital
markets.
