Category: Seed

Mastering the Hardest Slide in the Pitch Deck

December 6, 2017

This article was written by XSeed Capital Partner, Jeff Thermond.

Almost half of the initial pitches we view at XSeed do not contain a Five Year Projected Financials slide. Another quarter have a forecast, but it only goes out two years. So, three quarters of the entrepreneurs we meet start out with a pitch deck missing an

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How To Run Your First Board Of Directors Meeting

April 16, 2015

This XSeed blog was written by Venture Partner, Jeff Thermond, and originally appeared on Forbes.

I remember my first Board of Directors meeting. It was a disaster. I made the naïve mistake of laying out several different business model options for our startup and then asked for the board’s opinion without first putting forth my

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Help! My Funding Round Is Oversubscribed

May 9, 2014

This XSeed blog was written by XSeed Capital Partner, Robert Siegel, and originally appeared on VentureBeat.

Oh, you lucky dog! When you started the process of raising money you hoped it would go well, but you didn’t really know for sure. The first few fundraising pitches were a little rough, and you had some doubts

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How To Field Investor Questions Like A Pro

April 10, 2014

This XSeed blog was written by Venture Partner, Jeff Thermond, and originally appeared on Forbes.

When asking entrepreneurs how their pitch went to a new VC firm, I often hear, “It was going really great until I got asked this question which really threw me. It was completely off topic. Things didn’t go so great

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How To Use A Capitalization Table

September 5, 2013

A capitalization table (often referred to as a “cap table”) is a tool used to display the ownership of a company. Given that venture-backed firms are constantly raising new capital, the ownership structures of these companies can be relatively complex as each round of funding may bring in new owners and is often based on different valuations. Consequently, it

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