Tagged: venture capitalists

Why Crowdfunding Scares Most Entrepreneurs, But Doesn’t Have To

More people than ever are starting their own businesses. And as all these newly minted entrepreneurs enter the world of being their own bosses, they are all starving for much needed startup funding. Investors take two forms – angel or venture capitalists. Angles look more… Read More

Crowdfunding Sites Could Help VCs, Accelerators Raise Cash Too

Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons

Sites that enable technology startups to “crowdfund”–tap dozens of small-scale investors for needed capital–could help venture and seed investors raise their own funds online, VentureWire reports today (subscription required). At least one well-known seed-stage fund, Mountain View, Calif.-based 500 Startups, has tried a form of crowdfunding in… Read More

Crowdfunding vs. VC: Is there a win-win?

There’s been all sorts of overheated rhetoric about whether crowdfunding will crowd out venture capitalism. But the debate misses some big points, argues Roger Ehrenberg, a founder of IA Ventures. Writing in Fortune, Ehrenberg makes the case that a good venture capitalist (as opposed to… Read More

Venture capital vs. crowdfunding: Let’s get real

Crowdfunding is all the rage. Even the SEC recently blessed one type of crowdfunding for which there was risk of an enforcement action. Several in the early-stage ecosystem have called for venture capitalists to “up their game,” as alternative paths to financing create competitive threats to both… Read More

THE UPSTART MODEL: INVEST IN THE ENTREPRENEUR, NOT THE IDEA

True entrepreneurs don’t just have a business idea, execute it, and then move into a cushy corner office. They must continue to innovate and come up with new plans to disrupt a market. Investors need to start considering what they are backing — the idea… Read More

Is Equity Crowdfunding A Threat To Venture Capitalists?

It’s fun to ponder the awesome disruptive power that equity crowdfunding might have over the venture capital industry. The very people who spend their days plotting the disruption of any industry touched by technology are themselves displaced by hordes of technology-enabled angel investors. How ironic…. Read More

Interview with Korstiaan Zandvliet Managing Director at Equity Crowdfunding Platform Symbid

As a Dutch national (but born and raised in Hong Kong and living in the US since 1985) I thought it was particularly interesting that the Netherlands created one of the first equity crowdfunding platforms in the world – Symbid. Being ONE of the first… Read More

What 6 VCs Think Crowdfunding Means For Startups

ReadWriteWeb recently teamed with TriNet to publish this white paper that examines the current startup climate. Six venture capitalists offered their takes on where things were headed. Crowdfunding received “honorable mention.” From the paper… Conditions are starting to change in ways that promise a major… Read More

Hardware, the Ugly Stepchild of Venture Capital, Is Having a Glamour Moment

The old saw in Silicon Valley is that venture capitalists won’t touch hardware investments. It’s not because they hate gadgets and machines, it’s that the cost to launch a hardware startup is much higher compared to the price to code a new piece of software…. Read More

Crowdfunding: Threat or Opportunity for Venture Capitalists and Angel Investors?

When equity-based Crowdfund investing first came on the scene earlier this year, there was talk of how it might possibly “crowd out” venture capitalists. While historically venture capital firms and angel investors have been the dominant force in early stage financing for startups, Crowdfund investing, legalized by… Read More

Venture capital for startups hard to get

It’s suddenly a lot harder for venture capitalists and startups to raise funds, as investors fed up with low returns turn their backs on the sector. Most industry observers agree that lots of young firms will simply not be able to raise their next round of… Read More