Steve Blank

MARCH 17, 2020

They triage their deals – first worrying about liquidity of their late stage deals which have the highest valuations. In every major downturn inflated valuations disappear and the few VC’s still writing new checks find it’s a buyer’s market. ” exercise. Hence the term “Vulture Capitalists.”).

Burn Rate 436

Burn Rate Startup Valuation Sales Cycle 436

Feld Thoughts

JANUARY 2, 2023

For those of you older than 40, it sort of felt like 2000. Almost all of the prognosticating I heard in 2022 was similar to what I heard and often said in 2000. If you are younger than 40, a massive tech bubble just burst. I expect you know that. I think the best VCs didn’t prognosticate. 2001 was a dreadful year for me.

Valuation 172

Valuation Revenue Portfolio Leadership 172

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 26, 2013

There is additional encouraging news for aspiring entrepreneurs on many fronts, just in case you are thinking about joining the existing ranks: Valuations of successful startups have hit an all-time high. That is a 65% increase in the number of IPOs over 2012, and the highest proceeds raised since the year 2000.

IPO 273

IPO Entrepreneur Social Media Startup 273

Start Up Blog

DECEMBER 30, 2013

Still waiting for wearables: It feels like we are in early 2000′s phase for smart phones when it comes to wearable computing. Tech valuations & bubblenomics: Crazy company valuations continue to astound. We are absolutely in another technology bubble, this time it is a valuation bubble, rather than an investment boom.

Technical Review 100

Technical Review Valuation Software Review Social Media 100

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. They should heed the age old advice that raising slightly more money while you can is always better than trying to optimize future valuations. Market downturn – We all know that investors move in herds. Short answer – yes.

Burn Rate 263

Burn Rate Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Private Equity 263

Ben's Blog

MARCH 24, 2011

As we do so, keep in mind that the relevant bubble statistic is not valuation. High valuations are fine if the underlying value is there. In the great bubble of 1998-2000, the boom in public valuations mirrored the boom in private valuations. If too much venture capital hits the streets, valuations will bubble up.

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Venture Capital Valuation Database 78

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

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 19, 2015

There is additional encouraging news for aspiring entrepreneurs on many fronts, just in case you are thinking about joining the existing ranks: Valuations of successful startups have hit an all-time high. Last year was the most active year for IPOs in the United States since 2000.

IPO 120

IPO Angel Investor Startup Incubator 120

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. billion valuation. They only recently raised $30 million at around a $300 million valuation and THAT raised eyebrows. The question will be “at what price?&# And for investors, “at what valuation did they get in?&#. $10

Venture Capital 271

Venture Capital Affiliate Valuation San Francisco 271

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

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. Look at the valuations of companies like Tesla, Illumina, and Twitter. 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

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. This can’t all be driven by increased company performance).

Valuation 309

Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Later Stage Non-Compete 309

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 14, 2009

The IPO Bubble – August 1995 – March 2000 In August 1995 Netscape went public, and the world of start ups turned upside down. Yahoo would hit $104/share in March 2000 with a market cap of $104 billion.) The boom in Internet startups would last 4½ years until it came crashing down to earth in March 2000. billion.)

Silicon Valley 217

Silicon Valley IPO Technical Review Venture Capital 217

Feld Thoughts

FEBRUARY 28, 2023

The boom years of 1998 (79 IPOs), 1999 (175 IPOs), and 2000 (142 IPOs) are long gone. Since the attractiveness of investments is also largely related to exit channels, this aspect affects the availability of capital and company valuation at every stage. While there was a major law reform in 2021, the regulations are still inadequate.

Germany 165

Germany Liquidation Preference Option Pool Advisory Board 165

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 20, 2011

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. Prior to First Round Capital, Howard had invested in two of Josh’s companies Infonautics Corp. and Half.com.

Pre-Money Valuation 284

Pre-Money Valuation Technical Review Cofounder Cram Down 284

YoungUpstarts

MAY 5, 2017

The early 2000’s was also when the likes of legendary serial entrepreneurs Musk, Branson, and Jeff Bezos founded their own space tourism companies. In 2000, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos established Blue Origin. Anderson, and Mike McDowell charged a wealthy Californian $20 million for eight days of space orbit. Named after Alan B.

New Mexico 138

New Mexico Albuquerque Mexico Egypt 138

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. In order to have a reasonable population of companies to assess, we tweaked Aileen''s definition. 2004), Kayak ($1.8B/2004) 2004) and Fleetmatics ($1.4B/2004),

Boston 55

Boston Technical Review Silicon Valley Software Review 55

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. 1999-2000 51.6% Time Period IPO Pop % Above IFR 1999-2000 51.6% 1999-2000 37.5%

SEC 36

SEC Accredited Investor IPO Technical Review 36

Agile VC

MAY 26, 2011

Silicon Valley is still emerging from the tech bubble and massive downturn of late 2000-2002. The terms and valuation for both offers were comparable and when the team debated which path to choose, we all agreed both firms would have made good partners. It was a pretty good valuation for the time. It was a $4.7M link] leehower.

Term Sheet 178

Term Sheet Silicon Valley Technical Review Social Network 178

VC Cafe

OCTOBER 2, 2020

in 2000, M-Systems, inventor the disk-on-key, was acquired for $1.6 billion valuation when it was acquired by Google. Lucent acquired Chromatis for $4.8b Billion by Sandisk in 2006, etc. Since then, Israel has produced unicorns in many software categories, from health to cyber and enterprise to consumer.

Venture Capital 183

Venture Capital Acquisition IPO 183

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). Super Angels sometimes drive up valuations. The cost of entry for tech startups continues to go down.

Angel Investor 260

Angel Investor Silicon Valley Startup Portfolio 260

David Cohen

MARCH 30, 2020

In 2000, the Internet bubble burst. 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. We raised a lifetime grand total of $100,000 for that business in the form of advance payment from early customers. Or even working for one?

Founder 174

Founder Valuation Startup IP 174

Ben's Blog

JUNE 18, 2011

If they have, then we should be able to see some evidence that the dominant public technology companies are moving towards bubble valuations. Apple’s valuation is now a case for business historians to discuss because I don’t think there are modern precedents. In the last bubble, the S&P hit 44x in January 2000.

Technical Review 76

Technical Review Software Review Valuation Internet 76

VC Adventure

APRIL 2, 2020

Everyone is being cautious about valuations. Anecdotally I’ve heard that early stage valuations are already down 30-50%. First, the overall trends, which show both a steady increase of returns post the 2000 bubble and show the specific increases post 9/11 and post the 2008 market crash.

Valuation 118

Valuation Portfolio Database Early Stage 118

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

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. August 1995 – March 2000: The Dot.Com Bubble. Carpe Diem. We’re now in the second Internet bubble. Thus began the 5-year dot-com bubble.

Internet 334

Internet IPO Silicon Valley Agile 334

David Teten

SEPTEMBER 16, 2014

Villalobos & Payne: “Startup Pre-Money Valuation: The Keystone to Return on Investment” 117. Sohl: “The Angel Investor Market in 2009: Holding Steady but Changes in Seed and Startup Investments”. approx 2004-09. DeGennaro & Dwyer: “Expected Returns to Angel Investors” 603. approx 1999-07. 1961- 1996.

Angel Investor 114

Angel Investor Technical Review Venture Capital Pre-Money Valuation 114

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. . It seems that Telegram’s best shot at monetization was a $1B nixed ICO.

Networking 168

Networking Global OTC Security 168

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

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. As I said yesterday, private markets react slowly.

Valuation 60

Valuation Cloud Finance Startup 60

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. During the decade between 1991 and 2000, nearly 2000 venture backed companies went public. Here’s why. Take a look at the chart below. (It

Venture Capital 297

Venture Capital IPO Liquidity Event Entrepreneur 297

Pascal's View

AUGUST 21, 2011

Welcome to the latest passionate debate over the ‘valuation bubble or not?’ For me Bubble will always be inexorably linked to what went down in 1999 and 2000 in the internet sector. Specifically, too much money has gone into VC-backed Internet companies at too high a valuation. question in venture capital. It is intentional.

Valuation 50

Valuation Social Media Media IPO 50

www.inc.com

SEPTEMBER 24, 2011

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. Jumpstart wasnt much at the time, just four employees working from home offices.

Arizona 40

Arizona Equity Iowa Venture Capital 40

VC Cafe

JANUARY 20, 2014

New data from research firm Pitchbook makes it official: valuations are at an all-time high. 222 firms held initial public offerings last year, raising $55 Billion, the most since 406 companies went public for $97 million in 2000. Across all investment stages, median pre-money valuations last year rose dramatically. million.

Venture Capital 155

Venture Capital Pre-Money Valuation IPO 155

Cracking the Code

JULY 15, 2020

As a consequence, SaaS public multiples and private company valuations are at an all time high, and the pace of cloud innovation is accelerating. 3B, including 11 nine figure rounds, in particular UiPath ($226m), Algolia ($110m) and Celonis ($290m), with 3 additional companies passing the $2B valuation mark. at the time of this post.

Europe 71

Europe Cloud Valuation 71

ConversionXL

MAY 1, 2017

Reporting in the Harvard Business Review on a major study of growth stalls they conducted, Olson and his colleagues cite the case of the iconic brand Levi Strauss, which hit a historic high mark of sales in 1995, reaching revenue of $7 billion, but then, starting in 1996, saw a decline in sales so precipitous that by 2000, revenue was down to $4.6

Technical Review 127

Technical Review Algorithm Channel Analytics 127

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 17, 2011

When times are really good for fund raising many teams delay to maximize their valuation. 5 million raised at a $9 million pre-money valuation or 35.7% How do you push valuation? What might future markets hold in terms of valuations? Today’s $15 million pre-money valuation might be tomorrow’s $20 million.

Pre-Money Valuation 303

Pre-Money Valuation Dilution Valuation PR 303