Seed Capital From Angel Investors: Manu Kumar, Founder And Chief Firestarter, K9 Ventures (Part 4)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Ravi Bulusu Irina: And what character traits in a founder would clinch the deal for you? Manu: I will probably answer that in the negative, meaning I can definitely identify the traits of people who I would not invest in. The number one thing there would be integrity.

Seed Capital From Angel Investors: Manu Kumar, Founder and Chief Firestarter, K9 Ventures (Part 3)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Ravi Bulusu Irina: Do you think in terms of valuation when you invest in a company? Manu: Yes, I do look at valuation, and I definitely want to be the first money going into a company. And because the initial investment amount is relatively small, I also want the

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Seed Capital From Angel Investors: Manu Kumar, Founder And Chief Firestarter, K9 Ventures (Part 2)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Ravi Bulusu Irina: How many pitches do you receive every month? Manu: It is something that I want to track, but I have not had the time to do it yet. If I were to guess, I would say somewhere around fifty to sixty a month, and that includes

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Seed Capital From Angel Investors: Manu Kumar, Founder And Chief Firestarter, K9 Ventures (Part 1)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Ravi Bulusu This is the seventeenth interview in our series on financing for entrepreneurs. I am talking to Manu Kumar, the founder and chief firestarter at K9 Ventures, an early-stage venture fund that provides funding and support for concept-stage and seed-stage technology companies. It is based in Palo Alto,

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Seed Capital From Angel Investors: Ho Nam, General Partner, Altos Ventures (Part 7)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold Ho: Whenever we turn down companies, they always ask whether we can refer them to other investors. Sometimes the company would be better suited for certain investors who we might know and if there is a fit, we’ll refer them. But in general, we don’t like getting

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Seed Capital From Angel Investors: Ho Nam, General Partner, Altos Ventures (Part 6)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold Irina: When they come to you, should they have a complete team? Ho: It is usually two or three people, but we have backed single founders before. Irina: What’s the most important character trait a founder can have that will clinch the deal? Ho: One word that

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Seed Capital From Angel Investors: Ho Nam, General Partner, Altos Ventures (Part 5)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold Irina: Do you think about the total available market (TAM) when you invest? Ho: That’s a good question. We talk about that a lot. We do, obviously, like large market opportunities, but we also have the philosophy that it’s really hard to predict what the next giant

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Seed Capital From Angel Investors: Brad Feld, Managing Director, Foundry Group (Part 8)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold Irina: Could you compare TechStars to Y Combinator? Brad: They are similar types of programs. Y Combinator was the first, TechStars was the second. The historical difference between the two programs has been that when TechStars was started, it was very much mentor driven. So, if you

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