Both Sides of the Table

JULY 22, 2010

Due to competitive markets we ended up with a pretty good term sheet until we needed to raise money in April 2001 and then we got completely screwed. The more senior members you have (say you already have a CEO, CTO, VP marketing, VP Biz Dev, VP Products) then the less options you’ll need and vice versa. That’s normal.

Valuation 405

Valuation Liquidation Preference Pre-Money Valuation Term Sheet 405

BeyondVC

JANUARY 3, 2019

Tony Saldanha (P&G Next Gen Svces, Transformant), Farhan Shah (Allstate, CTO, Head of Platform Eng), Munu Gandhi (VP Infrastructure, AON), Virginia Lyons (CISO, Williams Sonoma) and GTM advisors?—?Natalie Look at 2001 and 2008’s Lehman collapse and Sequoia RIP Good Times deck for lessons learned. New CXO advisors join?—?

Stealth 79

Stealth Advisory Board Cloud Virginia 79

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 19, 2009

After my company was acquired by Salesforce.com I was asked to stop blogging and they took over my blog as an asset in the sale of the company. I had previously raised VC in 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2005. Another called Parker Harris, the co-founder and CTO. My blog was wiped out. Biggest lessons ….

Venture Capital 274

Venture Capital Term Sheet San Diego Viral 274

The Next Web

OCTOBER 10, 2013

Of course, Excite also went bankrupt in 2001, so maybe five is a terrible number? Since we bootstrapped Backblaze, early on we would have months when the company did not have enough cash from sales to buy the additional servers it needed. Excite became the fourth most popular website in the late 90’s, so maybe five is a great number.

Cofounder 143

Cofounder Technical Cofounder Kenya Dilution 143

SoCal CTO

NOVEMBER 11, 2009

We downsized from 35 people in 2001 and are now a size that allows us to work directly with clients. Right now we're working on a multi-platform sales support program for Daylight Transport, a mid-sized LTL (Less Than Truckload) carrier and logistics company. Clients use our templates for things like sales sheets.

Early Stage 150

Early Stage Southern California Los Angeles Marketing 150

Gust

OCTOBER 20, 2011

Product/Technology 0-15%. Marketing/Sales Channels/Partnerships 0-10%. The company needs some additional work on building sales channels and partnerships (80% of norm). Product/Technology. Marketing/Sales/Partnerships. TARGETCOMPANY.

Valuation 146

Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Intellectual Property Technical Review 146

blog.expensify.com

APRIL 24, 2012

I think the real moral of this story is, (1) if you want to work at a startup, make sure the CTO cares about problem solving and not technology religion, (2) if you’re cooking steaks on a gas grill and you see your CTO warming up a dead squirrel over a book of matches, starting looking for a new job. Michael Chan.

Java 107

Java PHP Software Review Coder 107