Q: It seems that the venture community is dominated by a very few large names (Kleiner, Sequoia, etc.). If I don’t get funded from one of those firms, is my company toast? A: (Jason) Nope! While Kleiner and Sequoia deserve their great reputations, the list of successful venture backed companies that had syndicates that didn’t […]
Q: My company is backed by VC firm to whom we also pay a $2k/month "consulting fee." We have raised approximately $2MM from them in a Series A. Is that type of consulting payment typical in an early stage venture? A: (Jason) I want to vomit again. We received this question just a few short […]
Q: From my limited perspective, venture debt in proximity to an A round seems awfully premature — restrictive debt coverage ratios, warrant coverage on preferred terms, etc — yet there seems to be an awful lot of venture debt investors out there who essentially have no response to these concerns but want me to take […]
Q: My lawyer is asking for a "success fee" for a referral to a potential investor in my business. Since he’ll be doing the legal work, he’s offered to charge only 3% on the amount funded (solely from this one contact) as opposed to a 5% that a typical investment banker would charge (even though […]
Q: In the era of "free" software, would a mobile software startup be committing short-sighted suicide by attempting to price their product at all? These days, it seems that "eyeballs" are considerably more valued than short-term monetization. Facebook being a prime example: they avg a mere $3.00 in gross revs per active user annually, but […]
Rick Segal has three great blog posts up this 4th of July weekend. He’s Canadian so I expect he is still working – maybe we’ll see a fourth from him. Term Sheets vs. Intent 3 VC Questions You Should Not Answer Dancing With the One Who Brung Ya Happy 4th Rick. Keep writing.
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