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.” Today you have funders focused exclusively on “Day 0” startups or ones that aren’t even created yet. The legends of Silicon Valley?

Pre-Money Valuation 471

Pre-Money Valuation Valuation Venture Capital Early Stage 471

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. It was accept the terms or go into bankruptcy so we took the money. Those were the dog days of entrepreneurship. I turned them down. They were nonplussed. This is a shame.

Valuation 405

Valuation Liquidation Preference Pre-Money Valuation Term Sheet 405

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 17, 2011

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. million and you’re an early stage business this is probably a fair deal. So here’s my framework.

Pre-Money Valuation 303

Pre-Money Valuation Dilution Valuation PR 303

Berkonomics

NOVEMBER 4, 2016

Originally created in the mid 1990’s to help with the imprecise problem of how to value early stage companies, especially those in technology, I developed what soon became known as “The Berkus Method” when published in the popular book, “Winning Angels” by Harvard’s Amis and Stevenson with my permission in 2001.

Valuation 48

Valuation North Carolina Oklahoma City Silicon Valley 48

This is going to be BIG.

JULY 30, 2015

One of the first things I did when I joined the venture asset class as a lowly institutional LP analyst in 2001 was to build the VC fund cashflow model. You don't want the "average" fund, because average funds don't do well--just like you don't want to model the average startup, because you might as well draw a big flaming hole in the ground.

Venture Capital 60

Venture Capital Pre-Money Valuation IRR Valuation 60

Gust

OCTOBER 20, 2011

This method compares the target company to typical angel-funded startup ventures and adjusts the average valuation of recently funded companies in the region to establish a pre-money valuation of the target. In most regions, the pre-money valuation does not vary significantly from one business sector to another.

Valuation 146

Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Intellectual Property Technical Review 146

Professor VC

FEBRUARY 12, 2015

I doubt Aileen Lee of Cowboy Ventures believed that a horse with a horn existed when she wrote Welcome To The Unicorn Club: Learning From Billion-Dollar Startups in late 2013, but she probably had no idea that it would become a hot buzzword in Silicon Valley and hit the cover of mainstream business press, Fortune Magazine. And this is not it."

Las Vegas 28

Las Vegas IPO Pre-Money Valuation Valuation 28