Seed Capital From Angel Investors: Christina Brodbeck, Silicon Valley (Part 2)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold Irina: When you see a promising pitch, what is your next step? Christina: It’s two ways. If I just read about something that I like, or hear from somebody, I’ll usually reach out to [the entrepreneur], and say, “Hey, I’m really interested. Let’s sit down and grab

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Seed Capital From Angel Investors: Mike Hirshland, General Partner, Polaris Ventures (Part 9)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold Irina: You were talking about public debate about angels versus VCs, throughout the blogosphere and how in some instances it has gotten pretty colorful. Mike: Yes, it doesn’t make sense to be antagonizing an entire category of investors that you’re going to need to be partnering with.

Seed Capital From Angel Investors: Christina Brodbeck, Silicon Valley (Part 1)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold This is the thirty-eighth interview in our series on financing for entrepreneurs. I am talking to Christina Brodbeck, a Silicon Valley angel investor and the co-founder of a soon-to-be-launched startup called TheIceBreak. Christina was part of the YouTube founding team. She designed YouTube’s first user interface and

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Seed Capital From Angel Investors: Mike Hirshland, General Partner, Polaris Ventures (Part 8)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold Mike: If a company is not coalescing into something where you think it’s a very big outcome, in that case, what you want to do is think about either getting cash flow positive on the existing positive, or if there’s going to be a need for more

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Seed Capital From Angel Investors: Mike Hirshland, General Partner, Polaris Ventures (Part 7)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold Irina: What are some character traits that you look for in entrepreneurs? Mike: You know, if we had to generalize, the things that most likely to get us excited, that correlate to success are extraordinary product abilities, in terms of functional expertise, and then that intangible but

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Seed Capital From Angel Investors: Mike Hirshland, General Partner, Polaris Ventures (Part 6)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold Mike: For seed deals, typically we get a small amount of the ownership. In many instances, we’re less sensitive than angel investors for whom the seed is . . .  that’s when they buy shares. That’s their investment. For us, maybe we’ll invest $100,000 or $200,000 in

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Seed Capital From Angel Investors: Dave McClure, Founder, 500 Startups (Part 9)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold Irina: What do you think angels could do to improve the entire entrepreneurial ecosystem? Dave: It seems the most important thing is providing small amounts of capital early on when companies are getting started and providing advice and support, either in business or product development or marketing.

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Seed Capital From Angel Investors: Dave McClure, Founder, 500 Startups (Part 8)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold Dave: When I receive a referral from someone, I always ask, “Are you investing?” If he’s not investing, I really want to understand why. Why does he think if he’s not going to invest that it’s a good opportunity for us to invest? I sort of hold

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