New Venture Evaluation #17: Debt

The purpose of this Phenotype element is to determine what if any debt the business may have at the time of the financing, and more importantly if that debt will be serviced immediately upon closure of the round. What one isn’t looking to do is to fund a company only to have all the cash [...]

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North Mindmeld: The Rise of Pitch Farms

The scarcity of capital for early stage companies in recent years has lead to the creation of literally thousands of businesses focused on helping entrepreneurs raise money for their start-ups. At North, this subject is close to our hearts, as we’ve made it our mission to make the entire process for fostering, filtering, and funding [...]

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DIY or Farm It Out?

Entrepreneurs are an interesting bunch. While nearly all of them have an “I can do it myself” attitude, which is crucial to get the ball moving, that same attitude usually ends up preventing the company from scaling. The truth is there are some situations where you simply can’t be the most effective person for the [...]

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Focus On Effiency

The following excerpt is taken from Breaking Through The Broken: The Transparent Guide To Overcoming The Inefficiencies In Early Stage Venture Capital.
A good presentation with a good PowerPoint given by an individual with a strong personality can easily sway a room full of investors into cutting a check. Investors need to be sure they’re [...]

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Understanding your Competition: Venture Analysis Element #12

Did McDonalds take Starbucks seriously? Think they do now?

A crucial undertaking of any new venture analysis is doing a thorough assessment of the Competition.  All new products are judged by consumers relative to existing products in the market. If there’s not a clear understanding of what’s already available (inside and outside of category), a business [...]

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A Crime or Worth Your Time?

Many new gimmicks and stunts marketed at entrepreneurs now exist as ways to rise to the top of the sea of investment opportunities. While we have to admit there is an intoxicating rush from pitching your innovative venture in front of an audience, the end result usually feels more like a hangover. Investors leave with [...]

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Are Your Advisors Advising? New Venture Evaluation #6

While the management team for the company is the one holding the steering wheel for the business, the strategic advisors can either be a GPS navigator guiding the business turn by turn or a sleeping passenger who is only along for the ride. One must determine the strength of the advisory board based upon several [...]

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Venture Evaluation Element #5. Is your IP protected?

Many early stage investors focus intently upon intellectual property protection, advantages, and ownership. This narrow focus can be a bit misleading as IP strategies are often overvalued when compared to the value of flawless execution. However, that doesn’t mean that they can be ignored completely. When looking at  IP, there are some minimal thresholds that [...]

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