Babbling VC

AUGUST 10, 2011

It's about to get rough out there and I am not even alluding to valuations. I am seriously babbling like everyone else did in 2001, 2008 and now again in 2011. Keep your employees happy. What is the reality now? Well, as many have written, if you are out fundraising, I sure hope you're close to closing your round.

Germany 76

Germany Stock IPO Valuation 76

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 14, 2009

In theory when you went public, everyone’s shares were now tradable on the stock exchange, but usually the underwriters required a six month “lockup” when company insiders (employees and investors) couldn’t sell. The valuations for acquisitions were nothing like the Internet bubble, but there was a path to liquidity, difficult as it was.

Silicon Valley 223

Silicon Valley IPO Technical Review Venture Capital 223

Gust

SEPTEMBER 17, 2014

Me: Raising convertible notes as a seed round is one of the biggest disservices our industry has done to entrepreneurs since 2001-2003 when there were “full ratchets” and “multiple liquidation preferences” – the most hostile terms anybody found in term sheets 10 years ago. People seem concerned about valuation. At an accelerator ….

Liquidation Preference 153

Liquidation Preference Valuation Term Sheet Stock 153

YoungUpstarts

MARCH 3, 2020

Chris Kape: I established JAMCO in early 2001 in the wake of the dot-com bubble collapse. Anyone involved in Internet related high-tech businesses at the time learned much from the loss of easy to raise capital with high valuations and quick IPO/RTO exits.

Partner 147

Partner Uganda Angel Investor Bulgaria 147

View from Seed

JANUARY 11, 2017

I was an early employee at PayPal and back in the 2000-2001 timeframe, and we ended up taking a fairly significant amount of strategic investment (tens of millions of $) from various banks in the US, Europe, and Asia.

Strategic Investors 120

Strategic Investors Post-Money Valuation Seed Stage Cofounder 120

Feld Thoughts

APRIL 21, 2016

Also, they have a strong belief that any sign of weakness (such as a down round) will have a catastrophic impact on their culture, hiring process, and ability to retain employees. In 2001 and 2002 I learned a brutal set of lessons, including experiencing that $100 million of paper money going to $0 when Interliant went bankrupt.

Marketing 70

Marketing Down Round Startup IRR 70

Ben's Blog

JULY 16, 2013

You probably thought that valuations would be roughly the same as they were the last time you raised money. 3/30/2001: 26.3. And those are big companies with real earnings, so you can imagine how a private company’s valuation might fluctuate. In June of 2000, I raised money at an $820M post-money valuation. Things change.

Down Round 78

Down Round Marketing Preferred Stock Post-Money Valuation 78

genylabs.typepad.com

SEPTEMBER 24, 2011

I wont bother going into details on start-up financing terms ( see this post for an overview of typical VC terms) except to say if you dont know and understand: the firms cap table and valuation. The best start-up I ever invested in went bankrupt in 2001. My post looks at this from the consultant/employee point of view.

Equity 40

Equity Technical Review San Jose Stock 40

thebarefootvc

AUGUST 26, 2015

The third requirement to be a successful VC is finding resilient teams that are building companies and product that can stand up to external shocks such as recessions (in addition to “internal” shocks such as employee turnover, product delays, etc). Pay attention to who you’re taking money from and aim for a reasonable valuation.

Marketing 40

Marketing Investment Bankers Valuation China 40

thebarefootvc

AUGUST 26, 2015

The third requirement to be a successful VC is finding resilient teams that are building companies and product that can stand up to external shocks such as recessions (in addition to “internal” shocks such as employee turnover, product delays, etc). Pay attention to who you’re taking money from and aim for a reasonable valuation.

Marketing 40

Marketing Investment Bankers Valuation China 40

thebarefootvc

JULY 26, 2015

The third requirement to be a successful VC is finding resilient teams that are building companies and product that can stand up to external shocks such as recessions (in addition to “internal” shocks such as employee turnover, product delays, etc). Pay attention to who you’re taking money from and aim for a reasonable valuation.

Marketing 40

Marketing Investment Bankers Valuation China 40

Ben's Blog

OCTOBER 29, 2020

Interestingly the data for the 1990-98 and 2001-19 time periods are roughly the same – approximately one-quarter of deals priced above the initial filing range. Taken together, we can hypothesize that overall investor demand for IPOs was weaker in 1980-1989, in the middle in 1990-98 and again in 2001-2019, and highest in the dot-com bubble.

IPO 36

IPO Securities and Exchange Commission Demand SEC 36

Ben's Blog

JULY 16, 2013

You probably thought that valuations would be roughly the same as they were the last time you raised money. 3/30/2001: 26.3 And those are big companies with real earnings, so you can imagine how a private company’s valuation might fluctuate. In June of 2000, I raised money at an $820M post-money valuation. Things change.

Marketing 46

Marketing Preferred Stock Post-Money Valuation Down Round 46

Startup Company Lawyer

FEBRUARY 21, 2010

In response to the problem of worthless common stock, some companies have implemented employee retention plans, which are also referred to as M&A carveout plans. This was particularly common from 2001 to 2003, after the dot-com crash when companies had raised a large amount of venture financing at high valuations.

Retention 31

Retention Liquidation Preference Employee Common Stock 31

Professor VC

FEBRUARY 12, 2015

I''m not about to compare the current state of private company valuations to the real estate bubble or even the dot-com bubble. The question is whether the valuations can be supported. For example, Uber ( not a startup but someone should let TechCrunch know ) is private and has a valuation greater than 70% of the Fortune 500.

Las Vegas 28

Las Vegas IPO Pre-Money Valuation Valuation 28

VC Adventure

SEPTEMBER 4, 2015

It was a great chance to compare notes, meet far flung colleagues (“cousins” as we sometimes refer to employees at different portfolio companies) and discuss a variety of topics effecting companies selling with a recurring revenue model. But helpful to show the stark difference. So what causes this massive difference?

Burn Rate 48

Burn Rate Portfolio Revenue Valuation 48

Seeing Both Sides

AUGUST 3, 2012

With over $1 billion in revenue, 2000 employees and a market capitalization of over $6 billion, Akamai has become a role model for scalable start-ups. Despite the Internet bubble bursting, the company was able to generate over $160 million in revenue in 2001. But the second year (2000) was simply astounding: nearly $90 million!

Distribution 49

Distribution Lean Massachusetts Cofounder 49

ReadWriteStart

AUGUST 26, 2022

So this has always been our most significant focus area, whether in 2022, 2021, or 2001. . That’s a valuation number and pricing number. We think of it much more in terms of how many employees does the company have? All the companies we invest in have a similar value alignment, and we call this quality of growth.

Partner 132

Partner Cofounder Retention Acquisition 132

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 12, 2020

Commitments to respect their employees, their customers, their partners. Eric Ries : It's written on every employee badge, you were just mentioning. Every one of you listening probably have employees, or will, you have shareholders, you have customers or guests. What is an employee? Brian Chesky : Yes, exactly.

Silicon Valley 113

Silicon Valley Design Hiring Government 113

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 12, 2017

(there’s a great story from Jonah in the video but you have to watch to hear it :)) But it’s undeniable that it has become a digital media powerhouse having raised around $500 million in capital with a valuation reported at $1.7 billion and revenues likely exceeding $250 million (Wikipedia lists 2015 revenue at $167 million).

Media 210

Media Los Angeles Russia Viral 210