How Can I Get Startup Funding Without Giving Away Half the Company?

By Tim Berry

I’m surprised how often I get asked the question in the title, or variations of it, from people in startups. And you will hear discussions in which experts recommend ways to get investors who take less equity and demand less control. That seems short-sighted or worse.  I posted here years ago dumb investors is a... Read More »

Video: Startup Funding. Bootstrap. Then “Be So Good They Can’t Ignore You.”

By Tim Berry

I stumbled on this brilliant video of an after-hours startup funding event at the Stanford business school, a panel discussion putting two of the best-known, most influential, and most successful investors (Marc Andreessen and Ron Conway) together with another successful entrepreneur (Parker Conrad, founder of Zenefits), a moderator, and a group of interested entrepreneurs. The... Read More »

10 Reasons Angel Investors Don’t Like Your Plan

By Tim Berry

Once again, for the eighth year in a row, I’m involved as an angel investor with the Willamette Angel Conference and screening investments. We’ll announce a decision in May, and between now and then, we’re looking at startups. About a fourth of them get what we call due diligence, and about half of those become... Read More »

Self-Assessment: Will Your Startup Get Angel Investment?

By Tim Berry

Is your startup a good candidate for angel investment? If you can’t answer “yes” to the four questions here, then it probably isn’t. Angel investors are as hard to predict as any other group of individuals, all operating in their own self interest. There are about a quarter of a million angel investors in the... Read More »

Where Startups Get Their Money

By Tim Berry

Where do young companies get money? I ran into this three-minute video over the weekend. It’s a great summary. If you’re not already up to speed on the range of startup options from personal savings to venture capital, just watch this: (Note: Here is the link to the original on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U470xXKfDyE) My thanks to the... Read More »

Quick Quiz: What Do Investors Cite as the Common Cause of Failures?

By Tim Berry

What do venture capitalists and angel investors cite as the common cause of the failures in their portfolios? That’s a great question, which somebody posed in Quora. And as I write this post, it has several really interesting answers. Jason Lemkin, who runs Storm Ventures, has my favorite answer. It’s also the overwhelming favorite of those... Read More »

Reality Check on Crowdfunding

By Tim Berry

I’m seeing more and more marketing showing up about so-called crowd funding these days. Sorry, but no. Not yet. Reports of crowdfunding in the U.S. are, as of today, just wishful thinking. That is, to be sure, unless you play with definitions. For example, if you call KickStarter crowdfunding, then yes, Kickstarter is a great source... Read More »

What’s the Difference Between Angel Investor and VC?

By Tim Berry

I see this confusion a lot: People use the terms “venture capital,” “venture capitalist,” and “VC” to apply to any outsider investing in a startup. However, it’s really useful to draw some distinctions in this area, between three important classifications: venture capital, angel investors, and anybody else. Venture capital means big-money investment managed by professional... Read More »