A startup or start-up is a company or project undertaken by an entrepreneur to seek, develop, and validate a scalable economic model. While entrepreneurship refers to all new businesses, including self-employment and businesses that never intend to become registered, startups refer to new businesses that intend to grow large beyond the solo founder. At the beginning, startups face high uncertainty and have high rates of failure, but a minority of them do go on to be successful and influential. Some startups become unicorns; that is privately held startup companies valued at over US$1 billion.
Venture capital (VC) is a form of private equity financing that is provided by venture capital firms or funds to startups, early-stage, and emerging companies that have been deemed to have high growth potential or which have demonstrated high growth. Venture capital firms or funds invest in these early-stage companies in exchange for equity, or an ownership stake. Venture capitalists take on the risk of financing risky start-ups in the hopes that some of the firms they support will become successful. Because startups face high uncertainty, VC investments have high rates of failure. The start-ups are usually based on an innovative technology or business model and they are usually from the high technology industries, such as information technology (IT), clean technology or biotechnology.
Brent Shawzin Hoberman is a British entrepreneur. Together with Martha Lane Fox, he founded Lastminute.com in 1998, an online travel and gift business. As CEO, Hoberman successively floated and later sold Lastminute.com Ltd to Sabre who purchased the company's equity and bond debt for £577 million. In 2006, Hoberman handed over the CEO position to Ian McCaig, although he remained as chairman and chief strategic officer until 2007.
Jason McCabe Calacanis is an American Internet entrepreneur, angel investor, author and podcaster.
Reid Garrett Hoffman is an American internet entrepreneur, venture capitalist and author. Hoffman was the co-founder and executive chairman of LinkedIn, a business-oriented social network used primarily for professional networking. He is currently a partner at the venture capital firm Greylock Partners. On the Forbes 2019 list of the world's billionaires, Hoffman was ranked #1349 with a net worth of US$1.8 billion.
Bambi Francisco is the founder and CEO of Vator, one of the largest social networks dedicated to high-tech entrepreneurs and investors. Vator properties include VatorX, a platform licensed by organizations to host entrepreneur communities and competitions; VatorNews, which provides news, analysis and editorials about entrepreneurship and innovation, and Vator Events, which runs the popular Splash startup event and competition.
Founders Fund is a San Francisco-based venture capital firm. Formed in 2005, Founders Fund had more than $6 billion in aggregate capital under management as of 2020. The firm invests across all stages and sectors, including aerospace, artificial intelligence, advanced computing, energy, health, and consumer Internet, with a portfolio that includes Airbnb, Lyft, Spotify, Stripe, and Oscar Health. Founders Fund was the first institutional investor in Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) and Palantir Technologies, and one of the earliest investors in Facebook. The firm’s partners, including Peter Thiel, Ken Howery and Brian Singerman, have been founders, early employees and investors at companies including PayPal, Google, Palantir Technologies, and SpaceX.
Luke Nosek is a Polish-born American entrepreneur, notable for being a co-founder of PayPal.
The Business Association of Stanford Entrepreneurial Students (BASES) is a student group at Stanford University focusing on business and entrepreneurial activities. One of the largest student-run entrepreneurship organizations in the world, BASES' mission is to promote entrepreneurship education at Stanford University and to empower student entrepreneurs by bringing together the worlds of entrepreneurship, academia, and industry. BASES organizes the flagship 150K Challenge, Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders' Seminar, the SVI Hackspace, E-Bootcamp, and the Freshman Battalion.
Joseph Todd Lonsdale V is an American entrepreneur and technology investor. He is a founder of 8VC, a technology investment firm, and a co-founder of Palantir Technologies, Addepar, and OpenGov, and was an early investor in a number of companies, including the e-commerce platform Wish.
Blueseed is a Silicon Valley-based startup company and a seasteading venture to create a startup community located on a vessel stationed in international waters near the coast of Silicon Valley in the United States. The intended location would enable non-U.S. startup entrepreneurs to work on their ventures without the need for a US work visa (H1B), while living in proximity to Silicon Valley and using relatively easier to obtain business and tourism visas (B1/B2) to travel to the mainland. After the conclusion of their incubation on the vessel, successful startups may relocate to Silicon Valley and employ a local workforce. The project received wide media coverage and the promise of funding from venture capitalist Peter Thiel, who also supports the Seasteading Institute, who ultimately did not invest in the seed round. Blueseed later obtained US$300,000 in seed funding, Bitcoin investments, and $9M from an undisclosed investor, and planned to lease a ship for its platform. Launch was planned for summer 2014, provided that $18M more was raised.
Wil Schroter is a serial entrepreneur who has started 9 companies since 1994 and sold 4 of them to date. He is currently the CEO and founder of Startups.com, the world's largest startup launch platform.
CircleUp is a financial technology company based in San Francisco that focuses on consumer goods startups. Since its official launch in April 2012, CircleUp has helped several consumer companies raise equity including Back to the Roots, Halo Top Creamery, Little Duck Organics, Rhythm Superfoods and others. General Mills has an investment fund that is partnered with CircleUp to invest in companies listed on the platform.
Silicon Valley Bank, a subsidiary of SVB Financial Group, is a U.S.-based high-tech commercial bank. The bank has helped fund more than 30,000 start-ups. SVB is on the list of largest banks in the United States.
Chris Hollod is a venture capitalist, angel investor, and advisor in Los Angeles, and Hollod is also the co-founder and CEO of Tailwind Acquisition Corp., a $300 million public special-purpose acquisition company. Hollod is an expert negotiator, and over the course of his career, he has completed more than 150 deals across five different investment entities, including investments in Uber, Airbnb, Houzz, Spotify, Pinterest, Duolingo, Airtable, Oscar Health, Flexport, Casper, and Warby Parker.
Onevest, formerly Rock The Post, is an investment crowdfunding site for startups where entrepreneurs are able to raise capital from accredited investors. As of July 2014, startups launching on Onevest had collectively raised over $66 million.
Kerala Startup Mission is the central agency of the Government of Kerala for entrepreneurship development and incubation activities in Kerala, India. KSUM was primarily founded to undertake the planning, establishment, and management of the Technology Business Incubator (TBI), a startup accelerator in Kerala, to promote technology-based entrepreneurship activities, and to create the infrastructure and environment required to support high-technology-based businesses.
Startup India is an initiative of the Government of India. The campaign was first announced by Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi during his speech in 15 August 2015 address from the Red Fort, in New Delhi.
Toba Capital is a venture capital firm based in Newport Beach, California with an office in San Francisco. It was founded in late 2012 by Vinny Smith, former CEO of Quest Software. The company makes seed- and late-round investments in software and technology services companies. It is the largest venture capital firm in Orange County, with US$1.3 billion invested in about 36 companies as of February 2020.
Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator is an American seed accelerator launched in January 2011.
