We at NextView Ventures often invest in a startup’s first round alongside other funds; either seed stage focused ones like ourselves or larger traditional firms.  Just as often, however, we’re investing alongside individual angel investors who are participating in the […]

There are plenty of places throughout the blogosphere which talk about the typical VC meeting, delivering both advice and tips. (In that corpus, a while ago I blogged about seven mistakes that entrepreneurs often make during a pitch session.) Along […]

At NextView Ventures, we have a number of companies in our portfolio which are “marketplace” businesses, where buyers and sellers meet to exchange a good or service.  And along the way we’ve met with or observed a larger number of […]

Your office space is the face of your startup. Not only does it communicate an outward message, but like a face, a startup office provides insight into what’s going on underneath the surface. A startup’s space tells a story to […]

I recently received a email from an entrepreneur who I know with a genuine question about terms of his financing: “How do you guys at NextView feel about one of our investors holding super pro–rata rights for the next round?”  We at NextView […]

Over the past fifteen years on the internet we’ve seen a few waves of e-commerce innovation.  From the initial humble beginnings of simply selling books online, to shopping/pricing comparison engines for electronic and other feature-laden items, to this current wave […]

When is the right time of the year to fundraise for a venture round?  There’s a lot of conventional wisdom disguised as insight which entrepreneurs follow about optimizing the timing of their fundraising.  It’s correct in principle, but in reality […]

Whether a startup’s initial Seed round is comprised of individual angels, seed-focused funds, larger VCs , or some combination of the three, when it’s time for the entrepreneur to raise a true Series A round, of course the goal is […]

Last September I wrote a post outlining my view of the venture capital industry: increasingly evolving like the beer industry as it continues to mature.  Large VC firms resemble Budweiser-type macrobrews, competing based on scale and brand with a standardized product […]

Everything in startups is selling.  Selling to financiers.  Selling to customers.  Even for consumer-facing online services, UI and product design is about selling users on what actions you’d like them to take.   Recruiting new employees is one of the […]