A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

OCTOBER 23, 2012

.” Here’s the summary of his track record (excerpted from the Fast Company article): Forefront — IPO’ed in 1995 by CBT — CBT stock fell 85% in 1998 and prompted class-action lawsuits. invested, IPO’ed in 2000 for $32/share — stock price now $2. from an IPO under a year ago of $10.

IPO 240

IPO Flash Bootstrapping Private Equity 240

The Equity Kicker

JULY 4, 2014

If you take the 1995 Netscape IPO as the start of the internet advertising market then that industry went from inception to decline in 19 years. Yesterday I noted that the desktop advertising has also peaked. There’s a similar story there.

IPO 110

IPO Advertising Revenue Internet 110

Feld Thoughts

MARCH 14, 2018

Dave Jilk turned me on to it when I was a freshman (he was a senior) and from 1983 to 1995 I read almost every issue cover to cover. Why do a play off the acronym IPO – call them something innocuous like “Papayas” instead. When I was in college and my early 20s, I read Forbes Magazine religiously.

Advertising 86

Advertising SEC Private Equity Equity 86

Berkonomics

MAY 31, 2018

After recounting this story, I then ask my audience to guess what an August 1995 angel stage investment in Amazon might have been worth at the IPO, getting lots of range in the responses. In one of the most understated several word paragraphs in history, I responded by email, “Gee, Tom. Good to hear from you. Keep me informed.”

Employee 90

Employee Private Equity Seattle IPO 90

ReadWriteStart

APRIL 2, 2012

IPOs by year, 1980-2011, with pre-IPO last 12-month sales less than (small firms) or greater than (large firms) $50 million (2009 purchasing power). But it could affect one thing right away: the level of buzz and information surrounding young IPOs, which no longer have to keep mum. Number of U.S. Credit: Prof.

IPO 121

IPO Startup Florida Seed Capital 121

David Teten

APRIL 1, 2011

I hope that you can join us Monday night, April 4, midtown NYC, at a panel on “Innovation in Private Company Liquidity-Online Merger Markets, Social Media, Secondary Markets, Non-US Markets, Private Equity, and the Disappearing IPO” The program is sponsored by the HBS Club of New York and the HBS Angels of NY.

Private Equity 68

Private Equity Merger IPO Equity 68

Steve Blank

AUGUST 5, 2010

In 1980 Genentech became the first IPO of a venture funded biotech company. One could argue that there’s nothing new here, as Internet distibution models started in 1995. Finally, the “ death of the IPO &# and the emergence of the “ small market M&A &# changes Consumer Internet economics.

Lean 258

Lean Internet Silicon Valley Venture Capital 258

Steve Blank

AUGUST 5, 2014

My first IPO wasn’t until 1995—the VC business takes patience. So I started Foundation Capital in 1995. Help people with their careers, their ideas, contacts—and I’m serious, good things come back years later. I also learned that the first time without a paycheck is a little scary. Find Your Obession. That might be neat.

Venture Capital 333

Venture Capital Silicon Valley Chicago Cofounder 333

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 24, 2017

— Unremarked and unheralded, the balance of power between startup CEOs and their investors has radically changed: IPOs/M&A without a profit (or at times revenue) have become the norm. In the 20th century tech companies and their investors made money through an Initial Public Offering (IPO).

Founder 245

Founder Technical Review CTO Hire IPO 245

Steve Blank

MARCH 9, 2016

We didn’t IPO it. In 1995, he co-founded the digital services firm, Razorfish and grew it from a two-man startup to more than $250 million and 2,200 employees. It was all strategic partnerships leading to IPOs. Drew : It wasn’t a successful startup. We didn’t sell it. If you can’t hear the clip, click here.

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley Cofounder Entrepreneur IPO 120

Seeing Both Sides

APRIL 10, 2011

In May 1996, Open Market completed a successful IPO and more than doubled on the first day of trading, ending with a $1.2 The Internet bull market continued to run for four more years after the Open Market IPO, finally ending in the spring of 2000. This IPO and others like it (e.g., billion market capitalization.

IPO 48

IPO IRR Brazil Government 48

Reid Hoffman

MARCH 19, 2019

And from a financial perspective, any investor would be better off buying stock in Amazon than buying and share of a corner bookshop; if you invested $100 in Amazon’s 1997 initial public offering (IPO), those shares would have been worth about $120,000 in 2018. Blitzscaling is a strategic technique for moving faster, not a reckless gamble.

Cofounder 28

Cofounder Business Model IPO Non-Compete 28

VC Adventure

MARCH 22, 2010

You already know the about the state of the venture capital industry in 2009: venture investing down (32%), exits down (14%; slowest exit year for VC backed companies since 1995), fundraising down (56%), IPO’s almost non-existent (8 venture backed IPOs in 2009).

Venture Capital 90

Venture Capital IPO Conversion Marketing 90

Berkonomics

MAY 7, 2011

After recounting this story, I then ask my audience to guess what an August, 1995 angel stage investment in Amazon might have been worth at the IPO, getting lots of range in the responses. In one of the most understated several word paragraphs in history, I responded by email, “Gee, Tom. Good to hear from you. Keep me informed.”

Private Equity 66

Private Equity Seattle IPO Equity 66

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 11, 2011

In 1995 Netscape IPO’d and browsers started to become more prevalent. IdeaLab has created 75 companies, leading to 8 IPOs, 35 or so acquisitions and more than 5 companies worth in excess of $1 billion. That gave Google a huge cost advantage.

Product 350

Product Tuvalu Dilution Incubator 350

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 31, 2011

Let’s say you became a partner in a VC fund in 1995 and started investing heavily in 1997-99. The days of quick flips, quick IPOs and astronomic returns had come to a close. It was well past the Internet boom, well into Web 2.0, before the really profitable years of social networking and when many in the industry were despondent.

Entrepreneur 384

Entrepreneur Startup Salary Egypt 384

Seeing Both Sides

APRIL 1, 2013

My first time jumping into the start-up world was as a freshly minted Harvard MBA in 1995. If you are more conservative, want a good salary and prefer to pick a "safe" winner, then a highway phase company that is pre-IPO or recently IPO'ed is the right choice. . Pick a Winner.

Boston 52

Boston B2C Salary Cofounder 52

VC Cafe

OCTOBER 24, 2022

It remains to be seen what the outcomes will be in 2022 as the exit markets are less active and the IPO window is closed, but assuming the merger gets approved, we’ve already seen Activision’s $70 billion acquisition by Microsoft and Twitter’s potential $40 billion takeover by Elon Musk. appeared first on VC Cafe.

B2C 103

B2C IPO B2B 103

ReadWriteStart

APRIL 5, 2012

"A lot of the noise in the market right now is about bringing back irresponsible IPOs. Our objective is to bring back quality IPOs, the kind that we had in the late '80s and the early '90s.". We had institutional public IPO buyers on the task force, they got two votes. (I It was a diverse group.".

IPO 118

IPO SEC Silicon Valley Startup 118

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 13, 2011

In addition, due to Sarbanes-Oxley and other regulations, accounting costs have gone up an estimated four times for all businesses, and 2008-2009 represented the worst IPO market in forty years. Rates around the world are still going down, while U.S. rates have remained fixed for the last ten years.

Technical Review 230

Technical Review Taiwan Silicon Valley Ireland 230

Start Up Blog

FEBRUARY 10, 2022

Remember the dot com boom between 1995-2000? Any IPO touting the word ‘ com’ had investors lining up. But like any burgeoning technology, it must go through a speculative boom and bust before it can settle into the economic infrastructure.

Technical Review 62

Technical Review Stock IPO Social Media 62

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 22, 2011

Let’s say you became a partner in a VC fund in 1995 and started investing heavily in 1997-99. The days of quick flips, quick IPOs and astronomic returns had come to a close. It was well past the Internet boom, well into Web 2.0, before the really profitable years of social networking and when many in the industry were despondent.

Entrepreneur 176

Entrepreneur Startup Salary Egypt 176

David Teten

JANUARY 10, 2012

Michael was the lead research analyst for the IPOs of Internet companies like UUNET, Yahoo!, After graduating from the ACL in London, he began his career in financial markets in 1995 as an equity and portfolio manager at Standard & Poor in London, taking up further posts at Alfred Berg/ABN AMRO in Moscow and PBS in Switzerland.

Technical Review 128

Technical Review Technology North Carolina Switzerland 128

Seeing Both Sides

MAY 26, 2009

  It is scary to reflect on how few of the 7,000 professionals active in the industry today were general partners before Netscape’s IPO in 1995. (3)   It is scary to reflect on how few of the 7,000 professionals active in the industry today were general partners before Netscape’s IPO in 1995. (3)

Private Equity 20

Private Equity Boston Massachusetts IPO 20

Seeing Both Sides

APRIL 29, 2009

The large media companies, too, were seen as great early customers and hotbeds of innovation (I remember how thrilled we were when we secured Time Warner's ground-breaking Pathfinder division as a customer at Open Market back in 1995, thinking we had landed what would be the 800 lb gorilla of the Internet age). My how things have changed.

New York 20

New York Washington New York City DC 20

Ben's Blog

MARCH 24, 2011

In fact, 2010 venture capital fundraising is at the same level as it was in 1995 and 1996. For example, the 1998 IPO class had average revenue of $120 million (and net losses of $65 million to boot). Approximately $90 billion has been invested by the venture capital industry from 2008-2010—less than half of the 1998-2000 level.

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Venture Capital Valuation Database 78

Reid Hoffman

JANUARY 20, 2013

In another study of 212 startups , Wasserman found that it was rare for Founder-CEOs to run their companies in the long term; less than half were still CEO after 3 years, and less than a quarter of the CEOs of the companies that reached an IPO were Founder-CEOs. presents a particularly fascinating example of these principles at work.

Founder 78

Founder Hiring Cofounder Hawaii 78

online.wsj.com

JULY 11, 2012

In the 1990s Internet boom, easy money helped founders maintain more control early in a companys evolution, but founder CEOs without voting control often got replaced by a professional manager ahead of an IPO. ignited the current trend by adopting a dual-class voting structure before its IPO in 2004. Enlarge Image Close. Google Inc.

Silicon Valley 42

Silicon Valley Founder Software Review Technical Review 42

Steve Blank

JUNE 22, 2011

In 5 to 10 years most of them will be worth a fraction of their IPO price. Is this tech bubble as broad as the 1995-2000 dot.com bubble – no. Prices for both private and public tech valuations exceed any rational valuation to their current worth. A few will be worth much, much more.

Internet 295

Internet Silicon Valley United States .Net 295

Duct Tape Marketing

APRIL 3, 2014

’s purchase by Symantec, he founded SalesLogix in 1995 and led its revenue growth to $108 million, successful IPO and repurchase of ACT! That may explain why after he became Co-Founder and CEO of ACT!, over 6 million salespeople paid for it out of their own pockets. Following ACT!’s

Email 61

Email Cofounder Turkey SBA 61

www.paulgraham.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

They didnt talkWall Streets language when they did their IPO, and Wall Streetdidnt buy. Since I couldnt bear the thought of programming in another language (this was 1995,remember, when "another language" meant C++) the only option seemedto be to start a new company using Lisp. Im happy to see Google is bucking that trend.

Startup 105

Startup Cofounder Software Stock 105

Seeing Both Sides

SEPTEMBER 15, 2015

In 2014, for example, 18 IPOs raised a record-breaking $9.8 From 1995–2010, the Israeli startup ecosystem was not focused on creating big companies. What was once the story of ICQ’s $287 million exit to AOL is now the story of MobileEye’s NYSE IPO and $12 billion market capitalization. billion, compared to just $1.2

Cofounder 20

Cofounder Technical Review United States 20

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 22, 2010

For example, over 25% of the technology companies founded between 1995-2005 had a key immigrant founder. For example, over 25% of the technology companies founded between 1995-2005 had a key immigrant founder. Substantial research shows that immigrants play a key role in American job creation.

San Francisco 121

San Francisco Indiana Lean Startup 121