Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 6, 2010

I freely admit this (along with nearly everything between 1999-2000) was a mistake. We set our sites on our IPO price and then worked back to our current valuation and showed potential employees what we thought they could earn (with all legal caveats) if the company was successful. rounds and still be competitive.

Stock Options 294

Stock Options Stock Valuation Liquidation Preference 294

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 23, 2012

There are obvious reasons the industry has had less-than-desirable returns, including: massive over-funding of the sector, huge increases in inexperienced venture capitalists that took a decade to peter out, and the massive correction in the value of the public stock markets that closed many exit opportunities for half a decade.

Venture Capital 347

Venture Capital Technical Review LP Mobile 347

www.inc.com

SEPTEMBER 24, 2011

Sales & Marketing | Wednesdays. SALES & MARKETING. Online Marketing. Bringing Innovation to Market. a 50-employee provider of e-marketing solutions to small and midsize businesses, based in Needham, Mass. Copyright © 2000 inc.com. The Goods: Your Business Toolbox | Thursdays. Finance | Tuesdays. Newsletters.

Fractional CTO 40

Fractional CTO Equity Iowa Technical Cofounder 40

This is going to be BIG.

NOVEMBER 7, 2011

Companies that find product/market fit deserve to grow--and if there are enough of those, there will be enough capital to follow them. Is 2012 going to be 2000 all over again? Valuations. There are a ton of companies being funded at $500+ million valuations--seriously limiting exit opportunities. stock market."

Angel Investor 104

Angel Investor Valuation Startup Revenue 104

Feld Thoughts

FEBRUARY 9, 2016

Once again, as we find ourselves in the middle of a significant public market correction, especially around technology stocks, there’s an enormous amount of noise in the system, as there always is. I learned this lesson 127 times between 2000 and 2005. But, as you raise more money at higher valuations, this will normalize.

Cap Table 70

Cap Table Down Round Liquidation Preference Founder 70

finance.fortune.cnn.com

AUGUST 21, 2012

The information is based on part of a confidential year-end 2011 investment report distributed to investors in a fund-of-funds that made commitments between 1999 and 2001. Overall, the fund-of-funds is 97% called for 45 funds raised between 1999 and 2002. Accel Partners VII (1999): 89% (74%). Onset Ventures IV (2000): 31% (4%).

Naming 49

Naming Term Sheet Private Equity Equity 49

Ben's Blog

JULY 16, 2013

You probably thought that valuations would be roughly the same as they were the last time you raised money. What about the efficient market hypothesis? Aren’t markets rational? If markets behave rationally, one might expect the ratio of price to earnings to be reasonably stable over the period (click here for complete data set).

Marketing 46

Marketing Preferred Stock Post-Money Valuation Down Round 46

Austin Startup

JULY 23, 2010

Having been founded in 1999, Zilliant is hard to categorize as a startup anymore. The cash looks good on the balance sheet, and venture investors want to pile on money at low valuations before the valuation increases by 10x as a public stock. Most people don’t really think of pricing as an elastic thing. Austin Ventures.

Balance Sheet 67

Balance Sheet Private Equity LP IPO 67

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 15, 2009

M y company had raised a seed round of capital in late 1999 even before either of us were full time in the company (ominous side note: on the way to pitch our seed investor, Delta Partners, a man walking right in front of me died of a massive heart attack making me late to the meeting. True story.) million were enormous.

Founder 299

Founder Technical Review Startup Venture Capital 299

Seeing Both Sides

DECEMBER 27, 2013

A rising stock market makes everyone feel good. The NASDAQ is up 30% this year and achieved its highest level since September 2000. When the stock market is down, we VCs like to say that our little tech companies are not affected and simply keep their heads down and build valuable companies.

IPO 49

IPO Stock Valuation Portfolio 49

Seeing Both Sides

AUGUST 3, 2012

But once the company has honed in on a strong value proposition and found initial product-market fit, what is the best approach to scaling it? With over $1 billion in revenue, 2000 employees and a market capitalization of over $6 billion, Akamai has become a role model for scalable start-ups. After all, scaling is hard.

Distribution 49

Distribution Lean Massachusetts Cofounder 49

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 25, 2010

When I was raising money for my first company we had closed a seed round in 1999 and were working on our A round. We had many term sheets (it was 1999 and we had a pulse) and we were deciding which one to take. million at a $15 million pre-money valuation. It was December 1999. Let me start with a story.

Technical Review 301

Technical Review Term Sheet Due Diligence Venture Capital 301

Ben's Blog

OCTOBER 29, 2020

Demand matters: IPOs are a bull market product Gauging demand for an IPO can be difficult, in part because so many IPO order books are over-subscribed. Once again, the 1999-2000 dot-com bubble period shows the highest percentage of pricing above the initial filing range – 44% of deals were priced above.

IPO 36

IPO Securities and Exchange Commission Demand SEC 36

VC Cafe

JANUARY 20, 2014

Last year, the VC industry partied like its 1999. New data from research firm Pitchbook makes it official: valuations are at an all-time high. The bull market will celebrate its 5 th anniversary in March (NASDAQ grew 38.3% last year, more than any other major index), and the IPO market is booming. Bubble 2.0 $4.2

Venture Capital 155

Venture Capital Pre-Money Valuation IPO 155

Ben's Blog

MAY 24, 2021

House of Representatives’ Subcommittee on Investor Protection, Entrepreneurship, and Capital Markets (Committee on Financial Services) hearing on “Going Public: SPACs, Direct Listings, Public Offerings, and the Need for Investor Protections” May 2021. IPO market. In the first quarter of 2021 alone, SPACs raised $87.9

SEC 36

SEC Accredited Investor IPO Technical Review 36

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 17, 2017

And while many of the people bringing you the great applications and infrastructure you now rely on are benevolent, there is of course an inbuilt incentive for these companies to use their scale advantages to continue to dominate the markets they’re in, making it harder for upstarts to compete. It’s Hobbesian economics 101.

Government 280

Government Distribution Stock United States 280