Start Up Blog

DECEMBER 30, 2013

I’ve been reviewing my notepad from 2013 and thought I’d share my insights into what’s changed and the big issues from my perspective in startups, business and technology. Still waiting for wearables: It feels like we are in early 2000′s phase for smart phones when it comes to wearable computing.

Technical Review 100

Technical Review Valuation Software Review Social Media 100

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. In addition to FOMO it is partly driven by massive increase in valuations for earlier-stage companies who raised money at bit seed prices but who still have product risk.

Saudi Arabia 309

Saudi Arabia Valuation IPO Technical Review 309

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. Perhaps that’s because where established companies might see risks or threats, startups see opportunity. Thank you for the kind introduction. Now look around.

Private Equity 325

Private Equity Metrics China Business Model 325

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 27, 2014

Venture capitalists (VCs) have long been seen as the top of the pyramid for startup funding sources, but in fact angel investors now fund over 60 times as many companies, according the Center for Venture Research. The cost of entry for tech startups continues to go down. Super Angels have greater scope to match talent with a startup.

Angel Investor 260

Angel Investor Silicon Valley Startup Portfolio 260

David Cohen

MARCH 30, 2020

In 2000, the Internet bubble burst. Founded in 2006, Techstars ran our first startup accelerator in 2007. Uber took the shockingly low valuation of $4m when raising it’s first $1.5m. 3m valuation. Less than a $2m valuation for their seed round. In 1999, we sold that business and I started angel investing.

Founder 174

Founder Valuation Startup IP 174

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 14, 2009

Five Quarters of Profitability During the 1980’s and through the mid 1990’s startups going public had to do something that most companies today never heard of – they had to show a track record of increasing revenue and consistent profitability. The world of building profitable startups as the primary goal of Venture Capital would end in 1995.

Silicon Valley 217

Silicon Valley Technical Review IPO Venture Capital 217

The Equity Kicker

JULY 1, 2015

He used this chart as evidence: Second, I read Josh Kopelman’s/First Round Capital’s Open Letter to Investors from May this year which says that seed valuations are up 3x from 2007-2015 without a corresponding increase in exits. Note that we can see a similar increase in Series A valuations in Fred’s chart above.

Valuation 60

Valuation Seed Stage Partner Marketing 60

OnlyOnce

OCTOBER 31, 2013

Fred Wilson has been a venture investor and director in Return Path since 2000, first with Flatiron Partners and then with Union Square Ventures. But – and this is an important but – you should expect to “pay” for quality in the form of slightly weaker terms (whether valuation or type of security). Selecting Your Investors.

Valuation 133

Valuation Term Sheet B2C Security 133

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 27, 2014

We both agree that the later-stage valuations are being driven up to a point that feels irrationally priced [he uses b-round SaaS valuations as an example and I am willing to be even more broad based]. Video 1 is here : Late stage valuations are in a mini bubble. Startup Lessons' And we ended.

Valuation 309

Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Later Stage Non-Compete 309

Agile VC

MAY 26, 2011

AGILEVC My idle thoughts on tech startups. Silicon Valley is still emerging from the tech bubble and massive downturn of late 2000-2002. Salesforce.com is a startup with 76,000 subscribers (over 2.1M As I’m fond of saying, startup fundraising isn’t about convincing skeptics but rather finding true believers.

Term Sheet 178

Term Sheet Silicon Valley Technical Review Social Network 178

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 20, 2011

As a courtesy if you enjoyed his write-up please check out his startup company, ChannelStack. Infonautics went public in 1996 and Half.com was sold to eBay in 2000. Twitter wanted to raise money for this new venture at a pre-money valuation which was quite a bit higher than First Round’s $10 million limit. and Half.com.

Pre-Money Valuation 284

Pre-Money Valuation Technical Review Cofounder Cram Down 284

Seeing Both Sides

NOVEMBER 30, 2013

We looked at the companies in New England (call them "Boston and surrounding") that had exited in the last 10 years (2003-2013) with greater than $500 million in market valuation. Apparently, successful Boston-based startups have an even greater concentration of immigrant influence. 2004), Kayak ($1.8B/2004) 2004) and Fleetmatics ($1.4B/2004),

Boston 55

Boston Technical Review Silicon Valley Software Review 55

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 17, 2016

One of the reasons that now is the time to be an entrepreneur is the explosion of startup assistance organizations, usually called incubators or accelerators. A few are still trying to make a profitable business out of nurturing startups, but it’s a challenge to make money when your customer startups don’t have many resources to give.

Incubator 120

Incubator Silicon Valley Startup Small Business Administration 120

Austin Startup

AUGUST 20, 2017

August 20, 2017: This is another in my series of posts all leading up to a book on Startup Decision Making. One of the most common mistakes I see in startups is making decisions that lose sight of the context , including the past, present, and future. Sooner or later everybody in a startup knows what everyone else is getting paid.

Technical Review 48

Technical Review Software Review Cap Table Securities and Exchange Commission 48

David Teten

SEPTEMBER 16, 2014

These companies can range from tech startups to food trucks to retail stores. Sohl: “The Angel Investor Market in 2009: Holding Steady but Changes in Seed and Startup Investments”. Villalobos & Payne: “Startup Pre-Money Valuation: The Keystone to Return on Investment” 117. More than 90% of startups fail.[2]

Angel Investor 114

Angel Investor Technical Review Venture Capital New Hampshire 114

Steve Blank

MARCH 18, 2011

The signals are loud and clear : seed and late stage valuations are getting frothy and wacky, and hiring talent in Silicon Valley is the toughest it has been since the dot.com bubble. What are they, how do they differ and what can startup do to take advantage of them? The world of building profitable startups ended in 1995.

Internet 334

Internet IPO Silicon Valley Agile 334

The Equity Kicker

AUGUST 25, 2015

Startups and venture funds run for 5-10+ years, are likely to see a recession at some point in their lives (maybe two) and hence need to be able to survive and prosper in both recessionary and growth environments. But at same time market crashes changes things for startups. I saw that in 2000 and then again in 2008.

Valuation 60

Valuation Startup Stock Portfolio 60

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 31, 2011

If you’ve taken the roller coaster ride that is a startup – you know what I’m talking about. The truth is that in my experience very, very few people really enjoy the “pure&# startup environment: months with no salary, months with no live product and lots of trial, error & rejection. It’s addicting. 8 beers that night.

Entrepreneur 384

Entrepreneur Startup Salary Egypt 384

500hats.com

AUGUST 2, 2012

It’s no coincidence we designed 500 Startups with these evolutions in mind, altho none of the required strategies have been easy to execute and we are still refining our approach. In short, we were a lot more geeky than the previous generation of fund managers , and we started blogging a lot about tech startups and best practices.

Silicon Valley 74

Silicon Valley Early Stage Venture Capital Valuation 74

Feld Thoughts

JULY 19, 2018

“Historically, the $10 million valuation mark has been somewhat of a ceiling for seed stage startups. For anyone that remembers 2000-2003, this obviously ended badly. In addition to our own funds, we are investors in a number of other early-stage VC funds as part of our Foundry Group Next strategy.

Early Stage 105

Early Stage Seed Stage Valuation Finance 105

VC Adventure

APRIL 2, 2020

I’ve been asked many times how I think the Covid-19 crisis will change investor behavior and fundraising for startups. Everyone is being cautious about valuations. Anecdotally I’ve heard that early stage valuations are already down 30-50%. TBH, I haven’t been thinking much about new investments at the moment.

Valuation 118

Valuation Portfolio Finance Early Stage 118

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. Startup lifecycle in an IPO Market.

Venture Capital 297

Venture Capital IPO Liquidity Event Entrepreneur 297

The Equity Kicker

FEBRUARY 12, 2016

Startup founders should expect that it will take seven or more years to exit their company. If I think back over the sixteen years I’ve been investing in startups the market for private company investing was tough from 2000-2004, from 2008-2011 and is getting tough again now.

Startup 60

Startup Metrics Valuation Operations 60

This is going to be BIG.

NOVEMBER 7, 2011

"Every investor and entrepreneur knows there is something scary about the current startup economy. At least nine out of ten high-quality angel-funded startups face an unnecessary death, because there is no Series A money to help them survive critical expansion. Is 2012 going to be 2000 all over again? Valuations.

Angel Investor 104

Angel Investor Valuation Startup Revenue 104

Version One Ventures

OCTOBER 15, 2020

Up until late August, Lightning Labs had capped the channel capacity and payment size for users of their popular implementation of the network to ~$2000 USD and ~$500 respectively to better protect user funds with experimental software. . I’m seeing a lot of experimentation and development on this front in the Lightning community.

Networking 168

Networking Global OTC Security 168

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 11, 2010

Recently I’ve been debating with a number of young startup companies that are raising money in the next few months, “what is the right about of capital to raise at a startup?&#. 24 months for most tech startups is usually too much money. - This is part of my ongoing series on Raising Venture Capital. add a buffer.

Venture Capital 319

Venture Capital Silicon Valley Startup Warrant 319

The Equity Kicker

JANUARY 15, 2016

Yesterday I wrote that there are clouds on the horizon in the world of startup finance, but it was unclear whether valuations will continue to drop, level off, or even go back up. Today the new data from PWC shows that investment dropped sharply in Q4 but is still at historically high levels.

Valuation 60

Valuation Cloud Finance Startup 60

This is going to be BIG.

MARCH 30, 2015

Will this bubble also end in a blaze of glory with companies shutting down left and right in a massive startup apocalypse? I have a feeling that a lot of these "on demand" companies aren''t going to be as gamechanging as we think--and will come back down to earth with valuations that look more like temp agencies than the next big thing.

Hockey Stick 60

Hockey Stick Valuation Startup Maryland 60

View from Seed

JANUARY 20, 2015

The startup ecosystem is often full of hyperbole, which is perfectly understandable when you think about it. Not every startup is going to “crush” their original milestones and financial projections. Not every round of funding is closed at a “monster” valuation. Do No Harm. Don’t Blindside Them.

Cofounder 120

Cofounder Startup Employee PR 120

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 17, 2011

When times are really good for fund raising many teams delay to maximize their valuation. I’m a very big believer in the “Lean Startup&# principles as espoused by Steve Blank and Eric Ries. In the seed phase startups are typically raising between $500k-$1m in today’s market. How do you push valuation?

Pre-Money Valuation 303

Pre-Money Valuation Dilution Valuation PR 303

www.inc.com

SEPTEMBER 24, 2011

Advisor. ); STARTUP. Jumpstart was one of Grahams first clients; it signed on shortly after he founded Arizona Bay, in 2000. In the past few years, hundreds of small companies have been snatched up by private equity firms willing to agree to ever-rising valuations. Entrepreneur news from reporter Eric Markowitz. Newsletters.

Arizona 40

Arizona Equity Iowa Venture Capital 40

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 28, 2011

The trend of funding anything from the first $25k to funding $50 million at a billion+ valuation is unlikely to last as the skills and style to be effective at all stages are diverse enough to warrant focus. These two trends had a major impact on the computing industry from 2000-2005 but the effects weren’t yet felt by the VC industry.

Venture Capital 334

Venture Capital Software PHP Open Source 334

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. Tags: Startup Advice. This is mostly true.

Stock Options 294

Stock Options Stock Valuation Liquidation Preference 294

The Equity Kicker

MARCH 21, 2017

It’s fashionable in certain quarters now to slate some of the billion dollar startups that have been created recently and the investors that helped them get there. Five of the six largest companies in the world today were venture backed startups and just about all net new job creation comes from young companies.

Cap Table 90

Cap Table San Francisco Angel Investor .Net 90

Agile VC

JANUARY 21, 2015

The startup ecosystem is often full of hyperbole, which is perfectly understandable when you think about it. Not every startup is going to “crush” their original milestones and financial projections. Not every round of funding is closed at a “monster” valuation. Do No Harm. Don’t Blindside Them.

Cofounder 188

Cofounder Seed Stage Employee PR 188

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 22, 2011

If you’ve taken the roller coaster ride that is a startup – you know what I’m talking about. The truth is that in my experience very, very few people really enjoy the “pure&# startup environment: months with no salary, months with no live product and lots of trial, error & rejection. It’s addicting. 8 beers that night.

Entrepreneur 176

Entrepreneur Startup Salary Egypt 176

ReadWriteStart

MAY 25, 2018

Cryptocurrency startups, much like the dot-coms, are experiencing an influx of capital that’s boosting the valuations of solid, innovative companies along with their relatively worthless counterparts — Dogecoin comes to mind as a cautionary tale. In November 2000, an index of 280 internet stocks was down by $1.7

South Korea 114

South Korea Silicon Valley Sweden Africa 114