Up and Running

AUGUST 18, 2014

In comparison to traditional business ventures, startups are expected to grow rapidly, at a rate of between 5% and 7% per week in their initial stage – Paul Graham, co-founder of Y Combinator. This is why many startup founders launch with exit strategies that focus on a buy-out. A word to the wise from the wise.

Small Business 154

Small Business Exit Strategy Cofounder Angel Investor 154

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 16, 2010

But VC is an “illiquid asset&# so funds didn’t disappear quickly - In 2000/01 the stock market quickly adjusted punishing investors in the NASDAQ and in individual public technology stocks. side note: our last fund at GRP Partners is currently ranked as the 5th best performing fund of the year 2000.

LP 311

LP Technical Review Early Stage Silicon Valley 311

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 15, 2010

I don’t believe that search is the only answer in 2010 as it was in 2000. On the founder’s side it’s about taking money off of the table and / or having strategic reserves for big acquisitions. In the former case many people scoffed at paying up for Google at IPO. How do founder get “liquidity&# (e.g.

Venture Capital 271

Venture Capital Affiliate Valuation San Francisco 271

Babbling VC

MAY 19, 2012

Without sounding all grim, I want to just reiterate what I told a ton of my portfolio companies back in 2000. They did not have a senior founder team of experienced players. There was a ton of founder fallout (see the movie). Hiccups in terms of regulations and roadblocks came up along the way en route to IPO.

Silicon Valley 81

Silicon Valley Technical Review IPO Social Network 81

Steve Blank

JULY 15, 2010

The collapse of the IPO market and dysfunctional math in the venture capital community has stacked the odds against you. 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. Here’s why. Source: NVCA.).

Venture Capital 297

Venture Capital IPO Liquidity Event Entrepreneur 297

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 28, 2009

Goldman Sachs (an investor in our company) told us we’d IPO within 18 months for $1 billion so not to take any offers. My competitors from those days STILL love to talk about how much money we raised in February 2000 (get over it already!). Reach out to the founders, not the staff. I acknowledge it was a mistake.

PR 331

PR Software Review Ireland Germany 331

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 27, 2014

Mark pointed out that on the one hand 6 months ago one of Silicon Valley’s best known ibankers told him that SaaS public valuations were the most over-valued since the dot com bubble in 2000. Yet Mark also pointed out that the recent corrections in the public market valuations and the scrutiny new IPOs have undergone is a health sign.

Valuation 309

Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Later Stage Non-Compete 309

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

Agile VC

MAY 26, 2011

Many assume it was a cakewalk, based on the success LinkedIn has enjoyed over time and the current stature of our founder/CEO Reid Hoffman (now Chairman). Google is still a private company (their IPO was Aug 2004). Google is still a private company (their IPO was Aug 2004). We have a long way to go baby! Thanks Lee.

Term Sheet 178

Term Sheet Silicon Valley Technical Review Social Network 178

Feld Thoughts

AUGUST 14, 2018

I spent the weekend with a friend from the last 1990s who was the lead banker on the Interliant IPO (I was a co-founder and co-chairman.) If you like to read IPO prospectuses, here’s the final S-1 filing after INIT went effective and started trading on July 8, 1999. My first moment with this was Black Monday in 1987.

Prospectus 80

Prospectus IPO Cofounder Internet 80

This is going to be BIG.

AUGUST 21, 2023

Before we get into a debate about how much a founder should own, there’s a context implicit in the question that is easily overlooked. Now that we’ve established that, let’s talk about founder blind spots. That doesn’t make you a bad founder. And as for the founder incentive thing, I have two comments. Did you spot it?

Cap Table 78

Cap Table Term Sheet Database Option Pool 78

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. Short answer – yes.

Burn Rate 263

Burn Rate Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Private Equity 263

Version One Ventures

JULY 22, 2014

More money is flowing in from a new crop of angels, newly wealthy from a number of tech IPOs. AngelList makes it easier for founders to reach angels and there are hundreds of accelerators and incubators to choose from. At the same time, funding opportunities have expanded for early-stage start-ups.

Finance 167

Finance Seed Money Bootstrapping Angel Investor 167

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. In the past ten years there have been several dramatic changes in venture capital.

Silicon Valley 74

Silicon Valley Early Stage Venture Capital Valuation 74

Feld Thoughts

JANUARY 11, 2021

We then co-founded Sage Networks (which changed its name to Interliant) with Raj Bhargava (NetGenesis co-founder) and Steve Maggs (whose company was also acquired by AmeriData.) I remember clearly a phone call on 12/1/2000 where Len called me from NYC. At Mobius, we invested in Vytek, another company Len co-founded.

SEC 164

SEC Cofounder Boston New York 164

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

Agile VC

JUNE 17, 2015

My first startup job was as an early employee at PayPal, where I took a job at the end of ‘1999 and started a few months later in 2000. We were a profitable company at that point with nearly $200M annualized revenue, one of the first tech companies to IPO after the dot-com bubble.

Startup 188

Startup Cofounder Seed Stage IPO 188

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. I [Reid] remember when Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky told me about the offer.).

Cofounder 28

Cofounder Business Model IPO Non-Compete 28

View from Seed

JANUARY 11, 2017

I was an early employee at PayPal and back in the 2000-2001 timeframe, and we ended up taking a fairly significant amount of strategic investment (tens of millions of $) from various banks in the US, Europe, and Asia. We recently led a large seed round for an autonomous vehicle company called Optimus Ride.

Strategic Investors 120

Strategic Investors Post-Money Valuation Seed Stage Cofounder 120

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 2, 2009

If a company has reached a level of success, has been around for a few years and you believe the company has potential to break out into a much bigger company then you should let the founders take money off of the table. Founders however are asked to take low salaries and never really get back the time they worked for free.

Founder 329

Founder Liquidation Preference Term Sheet Participating Preferred 329

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. I think they believed it, too.

Stock Options 294

Stock Options Stock Valuation Liquidation Preference 294

Feld Thoughts

SEPTEMBER 8, 2011

In this case, BigDoor gains access to a team of incredibly talented entrepreneurs (led OneTrueFan co-founders Eric Marcoullier and Todd Samson ), thousands of publishers, and tech that fits perfectly into BigDoor’s gamified loyalty platform. When there is a great fit, I love seeing our portfolio companies make acquisitions.

San Francisco 115

San Francisco Acquisition Cofounder IPO 115

Scalable Startup

DECEMBER 15, 2011

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? funding is more prevalent than ever for early early (read “ideas”) stage companies. micro funding ($25K).

Angel Investor 24

Angel Investor Startup IPO Software Developers 24

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. They prepare an S-1.

IPO 118

IPO Silicon Valley Warrant Matching 118

View from Seed

JUNE 17, 2015

My first startup job was as an early employee at PayPal, where I took a job at the end of ‘1999 and started a few months later in 2000. We were a profitable company at that point with nearly $200M annualized revenue, one of the first tech companies to IPO after the dot-com bubble. When we started LinkedIn , it was a similar situation.

Startup 120

Startup Cofounder Seed Stage IPO 120

Agile VC

JUNE 17, 2015

My first startup job was as an early employee at PayPal, where I took a job at the end of ‘1999 and started a few months later in 2000. We were a profitable company at that point with nearly $200M annualized revenue, one of the first tech companies to IPO after the dot-com bubble.

Startup 100

Startup Cofounder Seed Stage IPO 100

www.huffingtonpost.com

MAY 10, 2011

I was lucky to sign on as advisor and investor the founder of a very high-profile consumer Internet site who happens to also be a former engineer, who I will call Richard. To sum up, heres what I would do again as a non-technical founder looking for a technical co-founder or CTO.

CTO 43

CTO CTO Hire PHP Cofounder 43

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 13, 2009

My Story: The public coming out for my first company, BuildOnline, was in early 2000. I sat next to Irwin Jacobs (founder of Qualcomm) on a bus ride. There was talk of an IPO in 12 months. Fame and adoration corrupts first timers. And if you’re not careful you might start to believe your own hype. We were hot.

South Africa 310

South Africa Europe Disintermediation Poland 310

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 31, 2011

The days of quick flips, quick IPOs and astronomic returns had come to a close. If you became a principal or a new partner in 2000/01 you had a good salary but as it turns out you were very unlikely to see a large upside “carry” return for quite some time. Nobody really talks about this. So here’s the deal. It looks so easy.

Entrepreneur 384

Entrepreneur Startup Salary Egypt 384

David Teten

JANUARY 28, 2013

AngelList co-founder Naval Ravikant concludes , “The real winners here are going to be the seed funds and early stage VCs that can write a $1 million to $2 million check. All exits occurred between 1990 and 2007—the vast majority after 2000. Those firms are only going to do a few Series A deals a year.”

IRR 114

IRR Angel Investor Angel Groups Cofounder 114

online.wsj.com

JULY 11, 2012

Andreessen Horowitz is telling entrepreneurs it prefers situations where the founders have controlling stakes, reckoning that theyll be better able to resist outside distraction and focus on making great products. One of its champions includes Jason Goldberg, the co-founder and CEO of online design retailer Fab.com Inc., Stock Quotes.

Silicon Valley 42

Silicon Valley Founder Software Review Technical Review 42

Up and Running

APRIL 4, 2014

million ad featured in the 2000 Superbowl. In a move that can be described as gross negligence, Hummer Winblad didn’t bother to do any independent market research in its push for an IPO. The 1999 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade even featured a balloon created in its image. And…the company was out of business later that year.

Sales 126

Sales IPO Texas Advertising 126

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! Even more tragically, the company's founder, Danny Lewin, was killed on one of the 9/11 airplanes.

Distribution 49

Distribution Lean Massachusetts Cofounder 49

Agile VC

JULY 11, 2012

Burr, Egan, Deleage [Boston] –> Huge wins in the 1980s and early 90s included Continental Cablevision (sold for $5.3B – now a big chunk of what is Comcast), Qwest Communications, Cephalon (biotech IPO, acq by Teva), and Powersoft (Burr, Egan made 35x when it went public and then was acquired by Sybase). link] Fred Destin.

Silicon Valley 240

Silicon Valley Carried Interest Cofounder Boston 240

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 10, 2008

He wrote it in 2000, and as far as I know has never updated it. ► August (2) SXSW Case Study: SlideShare goes freemium ► July (4) Case Study: kaChing, Anatomy of a Pivot Some IPO speculation Founder personalities and the “first-class man&# th. No departments The Five Whys for Startups (for Harvard Business R.

Software Review 144

Software Review Technical Review San Francisco Continuous Deployment 144

ReadWriteStart

NOVEMBER 16, 2010

But you don't have any lords and masters to answer to and the pay out goes entirely to the founders and management team. The big enterprise software companies almost all bootstrapped their way to profitability before they got their first external investors (typically via an IPO). Photo by LotusHead.

Software 127

Software Startup Architecture Bootstrapping 127

Cracking the Code

MARCH 28, 2022

The cloud IPO market has also been very active with 32 IPOs vs. 17 in 2020. It’s worth noting though that while the number of IPOs increased, the companies were smaller and raised less capital than those last year. 60% of the cloud IPOs had a market cap of $5B+ vs. only 28% this year. in Sept 2020. In 2020, c.

Global 62

Global Europe Software Review 62