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. August 1995 – March 2000: The Dot.Com Bubble. With Netscape’s IPO , there was suddenly a public market for companies with limited revenue and no profit.

Internet 334

Internet IPO Silicon Valley Agile 334

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 27, 2014

Institutional venture capital dispensed thus far in 2014 has been up significantly over the last few years, but is still less than half of the peak hit way back in the year 2000 (over $100 billion). The cost of entry for tech startups continues to go down. Mobile and web software apps may cost even less.

Angel Investor 260

Angel Investor Silicon Valley Startup Portfolio 260

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 29, 2009

Just ask anybody who was trying to close funding the fateful week of September 11, 2001 or even March 2000. Three reasons: There is a relative valuation between the price a VC pays and their expectations of what it will exit for in an IPO or trade sale. While the company continues to perform well it has come at a cost.

Burn Rate 263

Burn Rate Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Private Equity 263

Version One Ventures

JULY 22, 2014

With lowered costs to build and run websites, acquire and retain users, virtually anybody can pick up coding and start a tech company. More money is flowing in from a new crop of angels, newly wealthy from a number of tech IPOs. The ability to raise money no longer determines one’s fate.

Finance 167

Finance Seed Money Bootstrapping Angel Investor 167

Pascal's View

AUGUST 12, 2009

economy: “… Sarbanes-Oxley compliance costs, Eliot-Spitzer’s stock analyst settlement and the economic downturn have created an historic drought in venture-backed companies going public. . It boggles the mind that Washington would enact new policies sure to prolong this (IPO) drought and strike at the heart of American innovation.”

IPO 28

IPO Silicon Valley Merger Sweat Equity 28

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

abovethecrowd.com

AUGUST 23, 2020

But in light of where we are in 2020, especially with regard to the degrading efficiency and sky-rocketing cost of capital through the structurally broken IPO process, SPACs may emerge as a legitimate third option for helping Silicon Valley companies efficiently and cost-effectively transition into the public markets.

IPO 118

IPO Silicon Valley Warrant Matching 118

Scalable Startup

DECEMBER 15, 2011

the barriers are now very low for actually forming a business, as is the cost. amazing shining examples of success and IPOs, even though they a 1 in a thousand. when many vaporware and vapor-businesses crash or fade away they leave damage, possibly fueling the recession (remember 1999-2000? micro funding ($25K). millionaires.

Angel Investor 24

Angel Investor Startup IPO Software Developers 24

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 23, 2012

Cloud computing and the open source movements have brought down the costs of starting a company by more than 90%. They need a combination of capital and experience to separate from the rest of the pack – the low cost of starting a business means it is even more vital to become the market leader more quickly. The Funding Problem.

Venture Capital 347

Venture Capital Technical Review LP Mobile 347

thebarefootvc

JANUARY 15, 2020

I had seen the beginning of this evolution during the Internet boom…my first venture investment, in 2000, was in a company called Yodlee, which later went on to IPO and was eventually bought by Envestnet.

Disintermediation 69

Disintermediation Aggregator China API 69

abovethecrowd.com

JULY 10, 2014

According to Ferenstein, “AAA estimates that the average cost of car ownership per year is about $9,000.” The fixed costs of this marginal car are very high (DMV registration, insurance, depreciation), yet the usage of that car is much lower. AAA estimates that the average annual cost of owning a car is $9,000.

San Francisco 111

San Francisco San Jose Marketing Technical Review 111

The Equity Kicker

AUGUST 24, 2012

Firstly, the fundamentals for start-ups are stronger than ever: innovation is still required, the cost of innovation continues to fall, the pace of change continues to increase, and the best people increasingly want to work in start-ups. That worked for a while, but following recent losses for IPO investors I suspect those days are over.

IPO 101

IPO Valuation Silicon Valley Venture Capital 101

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 26, 2013

Initial Public Offerings (IPO) are back as an exit strategy. That is a 65% increase in the number of IPOs over 2012, and the highest proceeds raised since the year 2000. Cost of entry for a startup is at an all-time low. business entrepreneur investment IPO social media startup' It’s not too late to start.

IPO 273

IPO Entrepreneur Social Media Startup 273

500hats.com

AUGUST 2, 2012

While a flood of new VCs came into existence during the late 90’s internet boom, many had difficulty raising new funds after the crashes of 2000-2001 and 2008 , and as a result significantly fewer fund managers exist now compared to a decade ago. Why bother with all the extra costs, people, programs, etc?

Silicon Valley 74

Silicon Valley Early Stage Venture Capital Valuation 74

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. the 1990s. ."

Private Equity 68

Private Equity Merger IPO Equity 68

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. And, as the industrial revolution showed us, there are some real costs to scale.

Cofounder 28

Cofounder Business Model IPO Non-Compete 28

BeyondVC

NOVEMBER 17, 2006

I am not sure if you saw the news , but Salary.com recently filed for an IPO to raise up to $50 million. I would usually put IPO filings in the nonevent category but as I dug deeper into the company and financial performance, it did raise some interesting questions for me. The post Is the bar lower for a tech IPO?

IPO 60

IPO Investment Bankers Demand Revenue 60

ReadWriteStart

APRIL 26, 2012

There used to be the Four Horsemen of the IPO world, back in the '80s and '90s. They all went away; they got rolled up in 1999 and 2000 into these too-big-to-fail banking operations," Davidson tells us. When they exited the scene, the small IPO market followed suit. Brown & Sons, Montgomery Securities. Number of U.S.

IPO 115

IPO Stock San Francisco Lean 115

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 19, 2015

Initial Public Offerings (IPO) are back as an exit strategy. Last year was the most active year for IPOs in the United States since 2000. 275 IPOs were completed in 2014, topping the 2013 total of 222 by more than 23%. Cost of entry for a startup is at an all-time low.

IPO 120

IPO Angel Investor Startup Incubator 120

David Teten

MAY 16, 2011

Geleerd also co-managed the IPO of Manufactured Home Communities, LLC, now Equity LifeStyle Properties, LLC which owns and operates the highest quality portfolio of resort communities in the United States. Mr. Geleerd has been a member of YPO since 2000. In addition Geleerd was recognized by Crain’s Business Chicago 40 Under 40.

Naming 122

Naming Government Intellectual Property LLC 122

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 31, 2011

And also there are a large number of people who would like to do startups in theory, but have high cost bases (family, real estate, school loans, whatever) that makes it very difficult to take the kinds of risks required. The days of quick flips, quick IPOs and astronomic returns had come to a close. Nobody really talks about this.

Entrepreneur 384

Entrepreneur Startup Salary Egypt 384

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 10, 2008

He wrote it in 2000, and as far as I know has never updated it. Automated testing dramatically reduces the cost of certifying changes, because it removes all of the grunt work QA traditionally does in software. To see why, take a look at Joels Top Five (Wrong) Reasons You Dont Have Testers.

Software Review 144

Software Review Technical Review San Francisco Continuous Deployment 144

ReadWriteStart

NOVEMBER 16, 2010

The big enterprise software companies almost all bootstrapped their way to profitability before they got their first external investors (typically via an IPO). You cannot use freemium strategies without this type of user experience (and freemium is the first fundamental change to the cost of customer acquisition).

Software 127

Software Startup Architecture Bootstrapping 127

Seeing Both Sides

AUGUST 3, 2012

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. But the second year (2000) was simply astounding: nearly $90 million! The chart below shows the company’s strong financial performance from 2009 to the present. Gross Profit. $(60).

Distribution 49

Distribution Lean Massachusetts Cofounder 49

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 22, 2011

And also there are a large number of people who would like to do startups in theory, but have high cost bases (family, real estate, school loans, whatever) that makes it very difficult to take the kinds of risks required. The days of quick flips, quick IPOs and astronomic returns had come to a close. Nobody really talks about this.

Entrepreneur 176

Entrepreneur Startup Salary Egypt 176

Pascal's View

MAY 13, 2011

ii. Bubble period 1996-2000 totals $243.6 Number of IPO’s has shrunk while average size has increased. i. Pre-bubble average 520 IPO’s per year. 80% of IPO’s <$50MM. And let’s remember that, at the time of these IPO’s, few if any of these companies were household names. cents or 6.25

Equity 31

Equity Securities and Exchange Commission IPO Marketing 31

Start Up Blog

FEBRUARY 10, 2022

Remember the dot com boom between 1995-2000? Any IPO touting the word ‘ com’ had investors lining up. The bust started on March 11th in 2000. We get paid in dollars – and we need know what something costs us, when we buy it, in the currency we earn. Currencies are what we call a natural monopoly.

Technical Review 62

Technical Review Stock IPO Social Media 62

Ben's Blog

MARCH 24, 2011

In the great bubble of 1998-2000, the boom in public valuations mirrored the boom in private valuations. The inflation-adjusted data from the last bubble tells the story: In the 3-year period from 1998-2000, venture capital firms raised more than $200 billion, which represented about 0.55% of the national GDP. Much better.

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Venture Capital Valuation Database 78

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 2, 2009

At some point, this breaks if their isn’t an exit or IPO. Coupled with my participating preferred from 1999 and 2000 I had more than $55 million of liquidation preferences. The very modest salary that I drew didn’t come anywhere near meeting my monthly costs so I had to eat into savings.

Founder 329

Founder Liquidation Preference Term Sheet Participating Preferred 329

Austin Startup

MARCH 7, 2021

In 2000 or 2010, it made sense to build in San Francisco. With Bumble’s recent historic IPO, Whitney Wolfe Herd became the youngest woman to take a company public and one of only about 20 to ever do so.

Texas 90

Texas San Antonio Houston Dallas 90

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 8, 2009

That is just currently a full personal money sucking process, as you're taxed on income and have no business breaks yet, besides supplies, the majority of costs to start up a business have no tax advantages to creating a start up. Since 2000 we have passed a number of laws and regulations that are killing innovation in the US.

DC 90

DC Washington San Francisco SBIR 90

VC Cafe

JANUARY 20, 2014

last year, more than any other major index), and the IPO market is booming. 222 firms held initial public offerings last year, raising $55 Billion, the most since 406 companies went public for $97 million in 2000. Now the cost of entry to the Party is rising. Seed-stage deals now require $5.1 million; Series A rounds reached $9.4

Venture Capital 155

Venture Capital Pre-Money Valuation IPO 155

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 9, 2020

This was supposed to be Airbnb's biggest year by many measures, including its IPO, which was one of the most anticipated since the 2008 financial crisis. That meant of course initially raising money and cutting costs. We have to manage our stakeholders, raise money, diversify our business, and cut costs." So 20 years ago.

Silicon Valley 60

Silicon Valley Hosting Cofounder Employee 60

Agile VC

APRIL 13, 2012

And going even further back there have been a few random ones have been built before like Salesforce.com and e-tailer RedEnvelope (IPO’d in 2003 though now defunct as a company). If my memory serves me, <10% of our pre-IPO employees at PayPal lived in SF and literally 1 of the first 40-50 folks at LinkedIn were city-dwellers.

Silicon Valley 185

Silicon Valley San Francisco San Jose Startup 185

Ben's Blog

MAY 24, 2021

IPO market. There are a number of trends concerning IPOs and capital formation to note: First, the raw number of IPOs has declined significantly: From 1980-2000, the US averaged roughly 300 IPOs per year; from 2001-2016, the average fell to 108 per year. In the first quarter of 2021 alone, SPACs raised $87.9

SEC 36

SEC Accredited Investor IPO Technical Review 36

online.wsj.com

SEPTEMBER 23, 2012

The results were similar when he examined data for companies funded from 2000 to 2010, he says. Less than 1% are currently in IPO registration. Low Cost Franchises. DJVentureWire : Friday IPOs Fail to Price as Thursdays Rally Doesnt Carry [link]. Venture capitalists "bury their dead very quietly," Mr. Ghosh says.

Venture Capital 107

Venture Capital Software Review Rhode Island North Dakota 107

Scalable Startup

FEBRUARY 1, 2013

And that’s been reflected in the entrepreneurial community, where entrepreneurs, especially between 2000 and 2008, entrepreneurs really only wanted to do — for the most part wanted to do consumer software, because that’s the only software that they could actually get anybody to adopt. So that’s the big, big, big change that’s happened.

Software Review 22

Software Review Startup Venture Capital Stock 22