Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with venturecapital

How can a network engineer move into venture capital deals?

arimathea — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 09:46:34 -0800

How can a technology professional move into venture capital? I'm a technology professional (engineering type) with no formal education but a lot of experience and a long history in the industry i'm in (networks). I have a strong interest in learning more about investing - VC, private equity, that kind of thing. With the background I have, how can I best insert myself into this field given that i'm not in the Valley and don't have a strong network of people with investment background? I think the role that appeals most to me is learning about the deals and being mentored, but i'd love to eventually some day evolve this into an advisory role for a VC based on my experience.

How will the credit crisis affect the tech industry?

jacobian — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 12:02:05 -0800

How will the current credit crisis and bank failures affect the tech industry and particularly the availability and quality of venture capital? I'm working for a tech startup, and as a geek many of my friends are doing the same. I've been carefully reading the analysis of the failures of Bear Sterns, AIG, Lehman, et al., and trying to work out how they're going to affect us, particular with regards to venture capital investments.

Last time we had an economic "incident", it ended with a (temporary) stoppage in venture capital availability, which led directly to many folks like me losing their jobs. This time, the economic instabilities aren't the tech industry's fault, but it seems the general drying up of the credit markets could have the same effect.

Has anyone been looking at the effect the mortgage/credit crisis is having on the tech industry and the venture capital system? Anyone have any predictions?

Target ROI for a late stage investment in a biotech startup

alms — Fri, 16 May 2008 13:10:59 -0800

How much ROI would a VC be looking for in a late-stage biotechnology startup? A late-stage biotechnology startup just closed a final round of private financing and is now talking about an IPO at the end of this year or early 2009. The IPO hinges on positive results from a phase-2 drug trial that is currently underway. This calendar would have been known to the investors in the final round.

If this last round of investment was at $5/share, what ballpark IPO price would the final investors have been hoping for? This would be a pretty quick return (12 to 18 months), and on the scale of biotech startups it is a lower risk investment than most. But it is still a biotech startup.

I know that ultimately the answer is, "as much as possible," or "at least $5/share," but I'm hoping for something more specific than that. What prospect would the company need to show to close the deal? A reasonable possibility of a 20% return? 50% return? 100% return?

I've got a meeting with venture capital people on Friday, help!

signalnine — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 15:37:15 -0800

A while ago, I started this open-source project called StupidFilter. Things are proceeding well, albeit a bit more slowly than my initial rather optimistic estimates. Recently, a local venture capital firm contacted me about the project and I've got a meeting with them on Friday. Now, I've got a business plan, and I think it's a pretty good one, but I'm not sure what they'll be expecting or looking for. Anyone have experience with getting a tech startup off the ground with VC funding? Like I say, I've think I've got the business model down, and I'd rather not discuss those details at this juncture, as this has been a pretty high-profile project so far. Basically, what I'm looking for is general advice, relevant anecdotes and the like. I'm a young, fairly talented technologist with good business sense, but I've never dealt with investment capital before and I feel like I'm getting a little out of my depth here. Thanks in advance!

VC Firm Interviews

NotMyselfRightNow — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 08:47:25 -0800

Do you work in venture capital, or have you applied for a job at a VC firm? What was the interview process like?

Format and topics to cover in a business plan?

ac — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 10:21:39 -0800

I'm looking for ~$10,000 to start a simple business and need to write a business plan. Essentially, I have the best price and the best quality for a new tech gadget than no one is seriously marketing in the US. I'm trying to figure out the business plan's formatting, what topics to cover, questions to answer, information to include. Any samples or suggestions are much appreciated. The funding would pay for an initial order of 100 units from the manufacturer, some sales & marketing, packaging, and administrative/legal overhead. I'm trying to figure out how long my document should be, what it should and shouldn't talk about, what sections it should have, etc. Thanks!

Tech companies founded in 2002?

nyterrant — Thu, 06 Jul 2006 10:56:17 -0800

I'm looking for names of prominent technology companies that were founded or took their first round of VC investment in 2002, during the post-bubble nadir. So far I have Ludicorp (the company behind Flickr) and Skype. Can anyone think of more? I'm trying to limit the list to IT/Internet and perhaps a few biotech companies - the sectors that suffered most during the bust.

VC?

megatherium — Fri, 20 Jan 2006 17:04:04 -0800

How would one search out willing venture capitalists? A client of mine has a business plan, a good market, and a group of capable people, but just found her source of funding has dried up. If she can find one or more investors who can commit to funding, she believes that she can make it happen. But how would we find such people? (For the curious, this is a non-tech venture.)

How would I go about finding an investor for a game I'm working on?

Savvas — Thu, 30 Dec 2004 03:14:05 -0800

How would I go about finding an investor for a game I'm working on? [MI] Without giving too much away about the game, it's a fairly whimsical browser-based RPG with a quite unique method of traversing game space and which, when finished, has the potential to earn a lot of money from ads, sponsors and character upgrades.

I've been working on it for the past few months but it's becoming rapidly obvious that I am going to need to secure some funding to hire a few artists and coders to get it finished, and also still have a little to pay myself a small wage to support myself during the development cycle.

Is securing such funding likely or even possible? Where would I go to seek out investors? How should I approach them? Is it even legal to pay myself a wage like that? What kind of legal issues are there? What am I obligated to give in return? I'm in South Australia so travelling to places outside of Adelaide isn't really an option, so anything internet-based would be awesome.

I'm really out of my depth here, so any advice would be greatly appreciated.

How much should Google's stock be worth?

rkent — Fri, 06 Aug 2004 09:18:43 -0800

Amateur economists, VCs, MBA students: what's a fair price for a google share? Based on what assumptions? Some background info to assist your calculations. Centrally from this NYTimes article:

24.6 million shares will be sold
The distribution structure will be Dutch Auction, where (basically) the top 24.6 million bids will get a share, but only pay the amount of the 24.6 millionth-place bid.
They hope to make around $3 billion, so that puts the expected share price at over $100.

I'll start the estimating with an extremely simple calculation, assuming that a stock "should" have a P/E ratio of no more than 20. Based on earnings of $105.6M last year, this puts the (backwards-looking) "correct" market cap at $2.1B, for a share price of around $85. So maybe the $100+ isn't so unreasonable if you expect the earnings to increase this year?

VCs in the UK

reklaw — Fri, 16 Jul 2004 18:02:45 -0800

If you thought you had a great business idea, but it was too expensive to just go for it on your own, how would you go about getting venture capital funding (in England)? Or would you do something completely different?

How can I prepare for an interview for a research/intern position at a VC firm?

PenDevil — Mon, 09 Feb 2004 00:19:00 -0800

Any Mefites out there in the world of venture capital. I'm interviewing for a research/intern position at a VC firm later this week and having no business training (I will hopefully be getting my M.Sc in Comp Sci later this year), I need to study up on the industry and fast. Anyone got any good advice on some decent introductory sites? What buzzwords should I be using in the interview? How badly will my lack of business skills hurt me and how can I minimise that?