10 Seed Investors Discuss Startups in Their Portfolios via the Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum

During my many conversations with seed investors, I’ve asked everyone to talk about their current investment portfolios to help inform early-stage entrepreneurs interested in financing. Here are ten investors who generously share details on what they have invested in, the notable exits, and how they decide which startups to invest in.

Mackey Craven, Partner at OpenView Venture Partners, discusses what Series A VCs are looking for in the realm of software investments. We talk at length about the Series A gap from the perspective of a fund that focuses on Series A and beyond.

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An Open Letter to ALL Accelerators

Friends,

Recently, the NetApp Accelerator granted scholarships to the 1Mby1M Program as an augmentation to their offering. You can find out more about this partnership here. It offers an opportunity for startups to readily access ALL of 1Mby1M’s extensive knowledge base, mentoring support and network in Silicon Valley and elsewhere.

I would like to take this opportunity to invite ANY technology startup incubator and/or accelerator anywhere in the world to do the same. Please review the 1Mby1M Incubator-in-a-Box for Accelerators and if you’re interested, please get in touch with us.

Think of us as a chip that you can install onto your own program, and enhance its power.

We look forward to working with you!

Yours, Sramana

Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum On The Startups Investors Invest In

To help entrepreneurs to learn which qualities VCs and seed investors are looking for in the startups they will invest in, we have asked a variety of investors to share their specific perspectives as part of our Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum. Naturally, different investors have different interests. As we teach within our virtual accelerator, an entrepreneurs seeking funding needs to figure out who are the best matches for the type and stage of their business. My interviews with the following investors share a range of options available for different sorts of startups that are looking for funding.

Vinny Lingham, Co-founder and CEO, Civic.com, and Managing Partner of Newtown Partners, discusses his investment thesis in B-to-C seed ventures. We also discuss the role ICOs are playing in filling the gaps in certain seed-stage ventures.

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Virtual Accelerator Advantages?

Is Y Combinator Asking for Too Much Equity for 120k Worth of Funding?

I don’t think it’s a bad deal. $120k is decent seed funding, 7% is reasonable equity for that amount. Their previous deal, I thought, sucked (6-10% equity for $15k-20k). This one is reasonable.

Recently, Sam Altman released some statistics … they’ve funded about 900 companies of which about 7 unicorns have emerged. That part of the story is great.
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Incubators and Accelerators FAQs

This post answers some commonly asked questions about incubators and accelerators. I have answered these questions on Quora as well.

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YCombinator’s Further Evolution Into A Seed Fund

YCombinator has just announced that it will replace its $17k for 7% pre-seed equity investment with a $120k for 7% seed investment deal. From the WSJ:

Previously Y Combinator’s standard deal was about $17,000 for 7% of the company, plus an $80,000 note from a group of venture investors and firms eventually known as YCVC, which most recently included Andreessen Horowitz, General Catalyst, Maverick Capital and Khosla Ventures.

So, startups will now get $120,000 from Y Combinator, instead of $97,000 from a combination of Y Combinator and select venture firms. That means the implicit valuation for YC startups rises to about $1.7 million from the previous $1.4 million (YC might deviate from the standard deal “in exceptional cases,” presumably for an ultra-hot startup that merited a higher valuation).

The $120,000 will come directly from YC and a fund it manages that has limited partners, though the accelerator itself has no limited partners, Altman said.

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Harvard Business Review Series on the Seed Capital Gap