Wed.Dec 28, 2011

Gust

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IPOs, M&As, Liquidity, & You. (the entrepreneur)

Gust

In the “good old days,” angels invested in seed-stage startups and teed up promising companies for subsequent venture capital financing. If the company was successful, this quickly led to an IPO – a very happy ending for the entrepreneur, the angels, and the venture capitalists. My, my…how the world has changed. The two major differences in the exit environment in the past decade are (1) the disappearance of the IPO market and (2) the rapidly increasing size of the average VC fund.

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3 Good Reasons to Recheck Your Profitability Projections

Gust

One of my pet peeves in pitches is the triple whammy of absurdly high profitability projections. I’ve seen entrepreneurs promising 30, 40, even 50 percent profitability in their projections. Why triple whammy? Projecting excess profits, at rates way beyond the normal, are bad for at least three reasons: Kills credibility regarding industry knowledge and realistic projections.