For private market investors, waiting for liquidity can be a period of anticipation. As a portfolio company grows, achieves new milestones, and raises additional capital at higher valuations, it is natural for an investor to track valuation growth and attempt … Continue reading
startup investing
When investing in private market startups, investors may come across priced and unpriced rounds. Understanding these investment structures can help investors understand how capital is deployed, how ownership is structured and allocated between founders and investors. In this blog, MicroVentures … Continue reading
When a startup is raising capital, it typically wants to paint itself in a positive light in order to attract investors. As investors conduct due diligence, how can they tell the difference between flowery marketing language and reliably sourced claims? … Continue reading
When investing in startups, understanding how the startup plans to use the money from the funding round is an important component of due diligence. An investor probably wants to know the money will be used wisely to help scale and … Continue reading
Stripe is a financial services and software-as-a-service company that provides application programming interfaces (APIs) for payment processing and other commerce-related operations. Founded in 2010, it has evolved from a developer-focused startup into a comprehensive global financial infrastructure platform that has … Continue reading
Voting vs. Non-Voting Shares: Why the Difference Matters Understanding the difference between voting and non-voting shares can be important for startup investors when looking at investment terms. In the private markets, the structure of share classes can have implications about … Continue reading
Developing Your Investment Thesis An investment thesis, or a concise key framework from which to make investment decisions, is important for any investor to develop. It can serve as a measuring stick to compare potential opportunities against during the due … Continue reading
With the high risk associated with startup investments, and failure of 9 out of 10 startups, it is almost certain that active startup investors will experience a failed investment at some point or another. What lessons can be learned from … Continue reading
While startups may claim that they have found product-market fit, how can investors actually tell if good product-market fit has been found? How can investors differentiate genuine need from a temporary spike in viral interest from a founder’s well-intentioned optimism? … Continue reading
With convertible notes as a common way for startups to raise capital, investors should understand valuation caps, a mechanism designed to help early investors by setting a maximum company valuation at which their investment can convert into equity. In this … Continue reading
