In the Beginning: Seed and Series A Venture Capital Investing

Napoleon Hill, author of the wildly popular Think and Grow Rich, once said, “All achievements, all earned riches, have their beginning in an idea.”1 In the corporate world, those words are certainly true. Think for a moment about the origins of Apple, Inc. In the 1970s, we weren’t all breathlessly waiting for the next iPhone or iPad release. As recently as 1976, Apple consisted of three guys building hand-made computers that sold for $666.66 at places like the Homebrew Computer Club. Apple Computer Inc. Incorporated in 1977, received $250,000 in funding from multimillionaire Armas Clifford “Mike” Markkula, Jr., and then doubled its revenues in each of the subsequent four years before going public in 1980 at $22 per share, creating about 300 millionaires in the process.