Ben's Blog

MAY 24, 2021

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. double the rate of the prior year, 103 of those being venture-backed companies.

SEC 36

SEC Accredited Investor IPO Technical Review 36

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 6, 2010

Options are gravy - I lived through the first dot com era where we used stock options as a recruiting tool. I freely admit this (along with nearly everything between 1999-2000) was a mistake. We give out stock options. But I thought I should do a quick post on the topic. I hope they’re worth money to you some day.

Stock Options 294

Stock Options Stock Valuation Liquidation Preference 294

Gust

JANUARY 31, 2013

Modern theories of economics and finance teach us that in a world of perfect information, the market will decide what a fair price is for any company’s stock at any point in time based on its current financial condition, results of past operations, analysts’ forecasts of future performance, industry conditions and so on.

SEC 158

SEC Prospectus United States Technical Review 158

Up and Running

AUGUST 18, 2014

Startups have some unique struggles, especially in regard to financing. You’ll be entirely responsible for the future of your company and it will be down to you whether or not you run it for the rest of your life or decide to sell, merge or launch it on the stock market. Key difference #2 – the relationship with funding.

Small Business 154

Small Business Exit Strategy Cofounder Angel Investor 154

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 13, 2010

Within a year, by late 2000 / early 2001 consulting firms were firing people en masse. Since that date the S&P 500 is up 2.45% while Accenture stock is up 206% with revenue of $23 billion and a market cap of $32 billion. Ameet said, “Don’t worry, we’ll be fine, just wait for the next downturn.&#.

Turkey 302

Turkey Differentiation IP Technical Review 302

abovethecrowd.com

AUGUST 23, 2020

Most potential buyers of stocks are blocked out of the IPO process. Below is a marketing email sent around by one of the participating investment banks after the recent nCino IPO (which was underpriced in record-setting fashion, 195% first day “pop” – “the biggest first-day surge since the 2000 tech bubble”).

IPO 118

IPO Silicon Valley Warrant Matching 118

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 22, 2011

I know that most people who are close to them tend to deny their existence, as we saw in the great housing bubble of 2002-2007 and the dot com bubble of 1997-2000. Or worse yet they may never get financed. Raise at “ the top end of normal &# but not so high that future financings in a corrected market become impossible.

Saudi Arabia 309

Saudi Arabia Valuation IPO Technical Review 309

Feld Thoughts

JANUARY 16, 2018

.” In 2000 I was co-chairman of a public company called Interliant. By the end of 2000, the stock price was at $13. I was on a walk at my house in Eldorado Springs with one of the VPs who asked me how low the stock could go. ” In 2002 Interliant went bankrupt and the stock went to $0.

Stock 134

Stock IPO Finance Technology 134

Feld Thoughts

FEBRUARY 28, 2023

Corporate law: In Germany, most companies in general and most VC-financed companies are structured in the legal form of a “Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung” (GmbH). Often, this integration results in VC-financed GmbH companies having little to do with the GmbH as envisaged by the law.

Germany 165

Germany Liquidation Preference Option Pool Advisory Board 165

Eric Friedman

NOVEMBER 2, 2021

Luck and risk play huge roles in finance. “Don’t blow up” is a common refrain I have heard from “finance” people and it rings true. Everything happens in the tails – 2000 to 2008 was nothing compared to 2008-2000. This is the highest dividend in finance. .

Dividend 103

Dividend Finance Stock Salary 103

www.inc.com

SEPTEMBER 24, 2011

Finance | Tuesdays. Financing a Small Business. Financing A Small Business. Personal Finance. Before Roving Software could receive its first round of financing from professional investors, in early 1999, he had to put all the stock arrangements in writing. Start-up | Mondays. Technology | Thursdays.

Fractional CTO 40

Fractional CTO Equity Iowa Technical Cofounder 40

Steve Blank

MARCH 31, 2014

I’m honored to be at a university noted for knowledge, and in a city with 2000 years of history – home of Gaudí one of the 20 th century’s greatest innovators. The stock market clearly values companies that can deliver disruptive innovation. Thank you for the kind introduction. I’d like to start with a request. Now look around.

Private Equity 325

Private Equity Metrics China Intellectual Property 325

Steve Blank

JULY 15, 2010

The two decades from 1979 when pension funds fueled the expansion of venture capital to 2000 when the dot-com bubble burst were the Golden Age for entrepreneurs and venture capital firms. VC’s invested their limited partners’ “risk capital” in a portfolio of startups in exchange for illiquid stock. Here’s why. Source: NVCA.).

Venture Capital 297

Venture Capital IPO Liquidity Event Entrepreneur 297

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 27, 2014

Scott pointed to B-round SaaS valuations in excess of $100 million in $15m+ financing rounds with companies with very limited proof of customer traction or revenue. We pointed out; however, that some of the recent trends have moved in the opposite direction notably Uber trying to crack down on who can sell stock and to whom.

Valuation 309

Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Later Stage Non-Compete 309

www.inc.com

SEPTEMBER 24, 2011

Finance | Tuesdays. Financing a Small Business. Financing A Small Business. Personal Finance. Why Arizona Bay started taking stock from its customers instead of cash. Jumpstart was one of Grahams first clients; it signed on shortly after he founded Arizona Bay, in 2000. Start-up | Mondays. Franchises.

Arizona 40

Arizona Equity Iowa Venture Capital 40

Up and Running

MAY 1, 2018

I did my research, prepared my business plan, and sent it to several financial companies for financing. When 9/11 happened, we had finished our most profitable year in 2000. Once, it resulted in a visit by the photographer Clyde Butcher; another time, the chairman of the board of one of the largest stock brokerage firms in the U.S.

Florida 102

Florida CPA Dallas America 102

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. The professor plotted data and showed us statistically that most people buy stocks when they are booming (e.g. The best MBA class I took was an investment strategy class. overvalued) and sell when the fall precipitously.

Burn Rate 263

Burn Rate Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Private Equity 263

Feld Thoughts

AUGUST 5, 2011

Today is Finance Friday and post #2 has been drafted by the Finance Friday team from University of Chicago Booth and is waiting for my edits. This one is more specific than “ignore the macro economy&# – instead, it’s “ignore the Dow and the stock market and get back to work on your business.&#.

Stock 155

Stock Entrepreneur Chicago Finance 155

The Startup Magazine

MARCH 18, 2020

It should be stated that the stocks have practically always been good assets to own because they have survived big crashes before like 1929, 2000 and 2008. But if you have the discipline to hang in there during downswings, or if you’re new to the market and see a dip as a buying opportunity, it usually pays off in the long-term.

Stock 116

Stock Portfolio Reputation Government 116

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 17, 2017

Our own government in the US regularly looks for cases of racketeering, crack down on the drug trade, try to prevent illegal sex trafficking, looks out for insider trading on stocks, tries to stop child pornography and so forth. I understand why people are turned off by regulation and of course undue regulation can stifle business.

Government 280

Government Distribution Stock United States 280

The Startup Magazine

NOVEMBER 26, 2021

On the other hand, you shouldn’t be in a hurry to increase your earnings from $1000 to $2000. If you are confused between stock and forex trading, then it’s better to try both options. It means that when you consider $1000, you can bear the risk of just $10 for every trade.

Forecast 129

Forecast Stock Management Marketing 129

online.wsj.com

JULY 11, 2012

Virtual Stock Exchange. Loading… Personal Finance. Personal Finance. Stock Quotes. Facebook went public in May with two classes of stock that give founder and Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg about 57% of the voting power even though he only owns about 28% of the shares. Finance Jobs |. MarketWatch.

Silicon Valley 42

Silicon Valley Founder Software Review Technical Review 42

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. Go read it now – I’ll wait. Or you might need to raise it.

Cap Table 70

Cap Table Down Round Liquidation Preference Founder 70

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. Support.com — On 2.5m

IPO 240

IPO Flash Bootstrapping Private Equity 240

The Equity Kicker

AUGUST 25, 2015

I saw that in 2000 and then again in 2008. I remember this most clearly from 2000 when I was in a fund that was investing heavily pre and post crash and the VC adjustment took 8-9 months. Mark Suster set out a number of the dynamics at play in his post Making Sense of the Stock Market Drops in Relation to Venture Financing.

Valuation 60

Valuation Startup Stock Portfolio 60

online.wsj.com

SEPTEMBER 23, 2012

Virtual Stock Exchange. Stock Quotes. The results were similar when he examined data for companies funded from 2000 to 2010, he says. Finance, Banking, Loans, etc. stock quotes reflect trades reported through Nasdaq only; comprehensive U.S. International stock quotes are delayed as per exchange requirements.

Venture Capital 107

Venture Capital Software Review Rhode Island North Dakota 107

Ben's Blog

JUNE 18, 2011

Here is a telling statement from an analyst on Apple’s most recent quarter: Apple’s stock price to earnings ratio has dropped to 16.72. In the last bubble, the S&P hit 44x in January 2000. Ex-cash it’s 13.5. On a forward basis (my estimates) it’s 8.3. Currently, the S&P is trading at 22x.

Technical Review 76

Technical Review Software Review Valuation Internet 76

The Startup Magazine

FEBRUARY 6, 2020

s form of no-holds-barred capitalism, our financial markets were slow to adopt the idea, with the trend really only taking hold during the heady securitization period of the mid-2000’ s. trillion, it is by far the largest of its sort in the world and financed projects that in other settings may not have passed investment criteria screens. [3].

Private Equity 129

Private Equity New York City Chicago Investment Bankers 129

VC Cafe

DECEMBER 5, 2010

ClickFox , the Israeli-American startup developing optimization software for customer service centers, announced it has raised $18 million in financing from a syndicate led by Morgan Stanley Alternative Investment Partners (AIP). Founded in 2000, Clickfox was started by Tal Cohen and Nissim Harel. JVP holds a 14.5

Stock 90

Stock Syndicate Syndication Database 90

abovethecrowd.com

FEBRUARY 27, 2019

In 2000, Eric Baker and Jeff Fluhr founded StubHub , a secondary ticket exchange marketplace. The estimated annual GMV of GOAT and its leading competitor Stock X is already over $1B per year (on a combined basis). The company was acquired by ebay in January 2007. Despite this narrow focus, the company has been remarkably successful.

Internet 88

Internet Matching Vertical Hosting 88

Startup Company Lawyer

MAY 13, 2009

One proposal would dramatically improve the treatment of “ qualified small business stock &# issued after February 17, 2009. If enacted, this would significantly enhance the tax incentives currently available for qualified small business stock. ELIMINATE CAPITAL GAINS TAXATION ON INVESTMENTS IN SMALL BUSINESS STOCK.

Capital Gains 47

Capital Gains Stock Small Business Redemption 47

SVPG

SEPTEMBER 30, 2016

Hate mail started streaming in from everywhere - including emails directly to Bill Gates who would forward them on to the team with messages like "this is depressing MSFT's stock price. The year was 2000, and the hardest part about the AdWords project was simply getting agreement that they could work on it.

Product 60

Product Technical Review Software Review Engineer 60

Ben's Blog

JULY 16, 2013

3/31/2000: 73.4. In June of 2000, I raised money at an $820M post-money valuation. In fact, if you are like most companies, your managers probably implied to your employees that your stock price would only rise as long as you were private. As if the common stock were actually the same as preferred stock.

Down Round 78

Down Round Marketing Preferred Stock Post-Money Valuation 78

David Teten

AUGUST 7, 2019

The second strategy is Value Investing , a strategy which “seeks to maximize returns by finding stocks that are undervalued by the market…Investors assess a stock’s intrinsic value…and compare that value with the stock price. As booms progress, more and more investors adopt a Momentum model.

Venture Capital 60

Venture Capital Valuation Stock NDA 60

ReadWriteStart

APRIL 26, 2012

They all went away; they got rolled up in 1999 and 2000 into these too-big-to-fail banking operations," Davidson tells us. The answer is, they couldn't make any money trading, [or on] giving analyst support for small stocks because the spread got too small.". When small fluctuations in stock value changed from 12.5¢

IPO 115

IPO Stock San Francisco Lean 115

Austin Startup

AUGUST 20, 2017

Messy cap tables can come back to haunt you when you do a financing or sell the company. Between day one and your first confrontations with those issues, particularly if you’ve raised any outside capital, you will have formed a board and stocked it with people you can really get to work on your behalf.

Technical Review 48

Technical Review Software Review Cap Table Securities and Exchange Commission 48

Steve Blank

JUNE 22, 2011

Is this tech bubble as broad as the 1995-2000 dot.com bubble – no. They finance companies that invest in new technologies, new ideas and new products. Our financial systems (banks, stock market, credit cards, mortgages, etc.) Prices for both private and public tech valuations exceed any rational valuation to their current worth.

Internet 295

Internet Silicon Valley United States .Net 295