1998 Business Model IPO Revenue 
Steve Blank
MARCH 18, 2011
Dot.com Bubble ( 1995-2000): “ Anything goes” as public markets clamor for ideas, vague promises of future growth, and IPOs happen absent regard for history or profitability. VC’s worked with entrepreneurs to build profitable and scalable businesses, with increasing revenue and consistent profitability – quarter after quarter.
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.
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Both Sides of the Table
MAY 23, 2012
In 1998 there were around 850 VC funds and by 2000 there were 2,300. In an over-funding environment companies are encouraged to eschew revenues in a land grab to acquire eyeballs, clicks, page views or whatever other vanity metrics give VCs the false comfort that they’re sitting on a gold mine. The Funding Problem. The Exit Problem.
Seeing Both Sides
AUGUST 3, 2012
Facebook and Google would be obvious choices for this, but so much has been written about each of them and they represent such special business models, I worried that it would be both hard for entrepreneurs to relate and hard for me to develop new insights. The first year of revenue (1999) was $4 million – a remarkable achievement.
BeyondVC
DECEMBER 20, 2004
Before that time, the standard rule of thumb was that it took about 5-6 years for a company to reach maturity, profitability, and potentially become an IPO candidate. We did our own analysis of venture-backed software IPOs a couple of years ago (based on SEC filings, etc.) using pre-bubble data and this is what we found.
www.paulgraham.com
OCTOBER 23, 2010
Microsofts originalplan was to make money selling programming languages, of all things.Their current business model didnt occur to them until IBM droppedit in their lap five years later. Back in 1998 our CFOtried to talk me into it. They didnt talkWall Streets language when they did their IPO, and Wall Streetdidnt buy.
Cracking the Code
SEPTEMBER 2, 2008
The Deutsche Bank report has a very interesting chart on the topic presenting the Free Cash Flow margins vs. the revenue growth four years post IPO for select software leaders: As you can see, with 20% Free Cash Flow margin and a 50% growth rate, Salesforce is well positioned in the pack! and their 07/08 growth rate was around 13%.
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