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 VC’s $1 million still buys them 25% of your company – it’s you who has diluted to 60% ownership rather than 75%. Those were the dog days of entrepreneurship.
Both Sides of the Table
SEPTEMBER 10, 2021
In 2001 companies IPO’d very quickly if they were working, by 2011 IPOs had slowed down to the point that in 2013 Aileen Lee of Cowboy Ventures astutely called billion-dollar outcomes “unicorns.” So in a way it’s self selecting.
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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.
Both Sides of the Table
FEBRUARY 17, 2011
A year ago I blogged about one of my most common mantras that applies to sales, biz dev & fund raising alike: “ Time is the Enemy of all Deals.&#. If you are able to raise money from credible sources at a reasonable dilution percentage then I personally favor getting the round done now and building your business.
Duct Tape Marketing
DECEMBER 17, 2015
But with fast growth, that promise can be diluted. As hard as it can be to find the time, when your company is growing quickly you must regularly check to make sure you’re still meeting your promise to your customers, you’ve got the right people in place, and that your processes are keeping up with the sales.
Both Sides of the Table
APRIL 27, 2010
Most of what I learned about operating startups I learned from the really tough years at my first company from 2001-2003. My company had raised venture capital in April 2001 but we were told that there may never be any more coming. But in our first year of sales (and those were really shitty years to be selling software) we sold $2.1
The Next Web
OCTOBER 10, 2013
Too dilutive.”. 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. You know what is definitely the wrong number of cofounders? Too many.”.
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