Fireside with a VC

Episode #77 of Fireside with a VC, talking startup valuations and the current environment for VC financings as well as the impact of generative AI on startups, angels, VCs and LPs with U.S. Angels, one of the most active investor groups in the U.S. and an LP in 7BC Venture Capital.  

· How to price the pre-money valuation for a startup?

· How much cash should a startup raise in its next round?

· What is changing with regards to valuations, size of rounds, terms, exit expectations?

· The connection between the stock market and the private markets from seed to late stage pre-IPO funding and secondaries?

· What does AI mean for capital requirements, competition and everything?

· What to expect from this vintage of startups and VC funds?

· Roundtable discussion with John Ricci and U.S. Angels

Special thanks to John Ricci, a friend of more than 15 years!

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jfricci/

https://spotifyanchor-web.app.link/e/yCRhe7cD7zb

https://www.youtube.com/c/AndrewRomansVC/videos

[email protected]

https://www.linkedin.com/in/romans/

Episode

*Discussing how investors and founders can think about new generative

*What this new technology means for developing moats or barriers to

*Early days of emerging managers with SoftTech VC / Uncork Capital and

*Founding a new VC emerging manager and migrating from small ticket

*Portfolio construction for early seed and strategies for follow on

YouTube: https://youtu.be/qTz9frTbkq8

[email protected]

https://www.linkedin.com/in/romans/

Thanks to our sponsor Pacific Western Bank, Startup Banking & Venture Debt, Mark

Episode #76, Claus Skaaning, CEO of DigiShares tokenizing real estate assets

· Discussing tokenization of real estate and other assets via white label solutions as well as launching their own real estate crypto exchange in the US and Europe enabling users to not touch crypto on or off ramps with everything working legally, licensed and compliantly.

· Why tokenization is important?

· How it lowers backend costs saving money and improving the performance of customers?

· What kind of assets are being tokenized other than real estate?

· The importance of fractionalization and democratization of the asset class.

· Creating trading liquidity and growing the demand for finite real estate supply.

· Raising money from investors in the current marketplace.

· How the world will be different as a result of all this digitization of large asset classes in 5 or 10 years from now?

Contact: [email protected]

https://digishares.io/

https://spotifyanchor-web.app.link/e/yCRhe7cD7zb

https://www.youtube.com/c/AndrewRomansVC/videos

[email protected]

https://www.linkedin.com/in/romans/

Episode #75, Hadley Harris, cofounder, ENIAC Ventures, NYC Seed Fund

· Discussing strategies for Seed investment as well as Opportunity Funds for doubling down in winners.

· How much diversification is required for optimal risk mitigation and impact of winners to fund results

· Evolution of the New York startup ecosystem over the past 13 years since ENIAC’s first fund

· Acquisition market in New York

· How to price a seed round and determine the right amount of capital to raise.  

· How much dilution is expected in a first pre-seed round.

· What milestones are expected to get to the next late stage seed round.

· Convertible notes vs SAFE notes vs priced rounds

· What tech sectors are getting the most interest

· Making sure startups have more than a thin layer on top of ChatGTP

https://youtu.be/Lj0OffldWyQ

https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/firesidevc

[email protected]

https://www.linkedin.com/in/romans/

Recording of the VC Insight Panel at the sold out 7BC Venture Capital event in New York City at Pillsbury March 7, 2023.

VC Insight Panel

Andrea Lamari, General Partner, Manhattan Venture Partners (MVP)

Steve Brotman, Managing Partner, Alpha Partners, Senior Advisor, Pritzker Group

Wiz, Chief Astronaut, Spacecadet Ventures, The Marketing VC

Jonathan Shriftman, Partner, Expanding Capital

Andrew Romans, General Partner, 7BC Venture Capital, moderator

Talking about everything from seed to growth stage capital, dynamics around pro rata equity rights to complex structured secondaries.

Many thanks to sponsors and partners Fidelity, Better Engineering by Salsa Mobi, neonVest and Pillsbury.

Join us for our next event in Seattle April 4th which is nearly sold out with more than 50% VCs, family offices, angels and LPs registered. https://7BC-neonVest-Seattle.eventbrite.com

YouTube: https://youtu.be/CYyZt6aKKy4

[email protected]

https://www.linkedin.com/in/romans/

Episode #72, Krishna Srinivas, cofounder, LiveOak Venture Partners on Fireside with a VC

Ahead of SXSW very happy to share our podcast with one of Austin’s VC OGs discussing:

YouTube: https://youtu.be/1zRJeFouxPA

All podcast platforms: https://anchor.fm/FiresideVC

Registration is open for 7BC’s in-person VC insight panels, startup presentations & networking receptions

New York City, March 7, 2023 – https://7BC-neonVest-NYC.eventbrite.com.

Seattle, April 4, 2023 – https://7BC-neonVest-Seattle.eventbrite.com.

Planning events in cities in key tech corridors across the U.S. Get in touch if you want to host or sponsor any of our events.

[email protected]

https://www.linkedin.com/in/romans/

Thanks to our sponsor Pacific Western Bank, Startup Banking & Venture Debt, Mark diTargiani, [email protected]

Episode #71, Andrea Lamari, General Partner, Manhattan Venture Partners (MVP) on Fireside with a VC

Meet Andrea at 7BC's in-person event in New York City on March 7, 2023 - https://7BC-neonVest-NYC.eventbrite.com.

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/AndrewRomansVC/videos.

All podcast platforms: https://anchor.fm/FiresideVC

Registration is open for 7BC’s in-person VC insight panels, startup presentations & networking receptions

New York City, March 7, 2023 – https://7BC-neonVest-NYC.eventbrite.com.

Seattle, April 4, 2023 – https://7BC-neonVest-Seattle.eventbrite.com.

https://www.eventbrite.com/o/7bc-venture-capital-52957202553#events

Planning events in cities in key tech corridors across the U.S. Get in touch if you want to host or sponsor any of our events.

[email protected]

https://www.linkedin.com/in/romans/

Thanks to our sponsor Pacific Western Bank, Startup Banking & Venture Debt, Mark diTargiani, [email protected]

Episode #70, John Frankel, cofounder, ff Venture Capital on Fireside with a VC discussing:

· Learnings from Goldman Sachs applied to VC

· Launching the largest VC fund in Ukraine

· Launching a VC fund in Poland

· Managing the 6 VC funds based in New York, but investing across the US

· What percentage of companies get to $100m of ARR and how this drives portfolio construction

· What is the true work and lifestyle in running a VC business from raising capital, sourcing and diligencing deals, reporting, helping startups, numbers, and repeating

· The types of investors John got into fund I and how this changed with characteristics of raising a fund II, III, IV up to fund VI

· The true time table of starting to getting to exits and into carry

· The difference between investing early, mid stage and late stage within the context of a changing dynamic economy

· QSBS tax breaks for LPs, VCs and founders. No tax on the greater of 10x cost or $10m

· Details on why convertible notes are bad and SAFEs are worse

· The best way to construct a board of directors from pre-seed onwards

· Where is the market going? When is the bottom of the market and why?

· Breaking "the economy" into at least 6 different economies

· How the standoff on falling valuations will play out as we recover

· The complex relationship of public markets and private markets

Twitter: https://twitter.com/john_frankel

YouTube: https://youtu.be/DDCqJMVgUsc

All podcast platforms: https://anchor.fm/FiresideVC

Registration is open for 7BC’s in-person VC insight panels, startup presentations & networking receptions

New York City, March 7, 2023 – https://7BC-neonVest-NYC.eventbrite.com.

Seattle, April 4, 2023 – https://7BC-neonVest-Seattle.eventbrite.com.

Planning events in cities in key tech corridors across the U.S. Get in touch if you want to host or sponsor any of our events.

[email protected]

https://www.linkedin.com/in/romans/

Thanks to our sponsor Pacific Western Bank, Startup Banking & Venture Debt, Mark diTargiani, [email protected]

Episode #69, Martin Tobias, founder, Incisive Ventures in Seattle on Fireside with a VC discussing:

· How is Seattle different from Silicon Valley, Austin, or New York startup VC ecosystems?

· Getting away the very last IPO as CEO before the dot-com crash and lessons learned and how these apply to today’s climate.

· Old days of Microsoft and becoming a super angel and launching a Seed VC fund.

· Investing in Google, DocuSign, Ron Conway’s SV Angel I and II Funds

· Figuring out which of his 200 angel investments were the best and developing an investment thesis around this.

· Top meta themes & screening process

YouTube: https://youtu.be/iCl0_4i_rqM

Spotify: https://rb.gy/chjrsf

All podcast platforms: https://anchor.fm/FiresideVC

Martin writes notes to himself on how to live the good life at DeepGreenCrystals.com.

Registration is open for 7BC’s in-person VC insight panels, startup presentations & networking receptions

New York City, March 7, 2023 – https://7BC-neonVest-NYC.eventbrite.com.

Seattle, April 4, 2023 – https://7BC-neonVest-Seattle.eventbrite.com

Planning events in cities in key tech corridors across the U.S. Get in touch if you want to host or sponsor any of our events.

[email protected]

https://www.linkedin.com/in/romans/

Episode #68, Steve Brotman, Managing Partner, Alpha Partners & Advisor to the Pritzker Family Office discussing:

· The Alpha model to partner with Seed to Series A VC funds to invest in their pro-rata growth rounds of top winners and share carry with the Seed to Series A VC funds.

· Dynamics of early-stage VC funds deciding to double down or create an SPV to put more capital into winners versus partnering with growth specialists like Alpha Partners.

· Is it bad to let your fund LPs get overexposed to single deals via SPVs.

· The trend of LPs trying to do more directs coinvesting with their GPs and now LPs pulling back from making direct investments and “coinvestments” becoming a bad word.

· Investing in growth rounds in this new 2023 macro-economic environment.

· Expectation of multiples and holding times for growth stage investing.

· What are sensible multiples of ARR to pre-money valuations?

· What revenue year-on-year growth rates are expected for growth stage venture backed startups?

· How growth companies can get to profitable unit economics for growth companies and restructure businesses that were selling $100 to customers for $50.

· Are we heading into a worse economy or is the economy improving over the next 6, 12, 18 months?

YouTube: https://youtu.be/3EXtUiunpcQ

All podcast platforms: https://anchor.fm/FiresideVC

https://alphapartners.com/

Registration is open for 7BC’s in-person VC insight panels, startup presentations & networking receptions

New York City, March 7, 2023 – https://7BC-neonVest-NYC.eventbrite.com. Steve Brotman will be one of the panelists on the VC panel in NYC and will be joined by over 37 VCs, family offices and angel investors already registered for the event as of Jan 31, 20223. Waiting list starts at 100 delegates.

Seattle, April 4, 2023 – https://7BC-neonVest-Seattle.eventbrite.com.

Planning events in cities in key tech corridors across the U.S. Get in touch if you want to host or sponsor any of our events.

[email protected]

https://www.linkedin.com/in/romans/