Feld Thoughts

OCTOBER 30, 2014

He had just read my post on being uncomfortable with the phase of the current cycle and told me an anecdote from the great Internet bubble of 2001 that I hadn’t heard. He’d gotten a random note asking about his valuation when we invested relative to another financing that was just announced.

Valuation 143

Valuation Stock Angel Investor IPO 143

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. Ex-cash it’s 13.5. Thirdly, the market is far bigger.

Technical Review 76

Technical Review Software Review Valuation Internet 76

Babbling VC

AUGUST 10, 2011

OK, hands up, who's truly surprised by the drop in the stock markets or the postponed tech IPO's or even the upcoming slowdown in venture financing? 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. This is nothing new.

Germany 76

Germany Stock IPO Valuation 76

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. It’s like we need a finance 101 course for entrepreneurs.

Liquidation Preference 153

Liquidation Preference Valuation Term Sheet Stock 153

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 Startup Magazine

NOVEMBER 13, 2018

Belnick founded BizChair.com with $500 in 2001. This company’s valuation peaked at $10 billion in 2013/2014. What have entrepreneurs been up to since then? Well, here is a comprehensive list of 10 of the most successful investors of the last 10 years. Source: Pexels. Sean Belnick. He was 14 years old at the time. Olaf Carlson Wee.

Cofounder 142

Cofounder Venture Capital India Valuation 142

Scalable Startup

AUGUST 26, 2014

As further market proof of the power of Drupal in the enterprise, Acquia has received about $100 million in funding in the past 3 months, which puts its valuation at over $1 billion. Drupal was launched in 2001, and Acquia started in 2007. There’s a lot of buzz about the Amazon acquisition of TWITCH this week. Acquia, Inc.

Founder 42

Founder Los Angeles PHP Open Source 42

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 14, 2009

Underwriters realized that as long as the public was happy snapping up shares, they could make huge profits on the inflated valuations (regardless of whether or not the company should have ever been public.) The valuations for acquisitions were nothing like the Internet bubble, but there was a path to liquidity, difficult as it was.

Silicon Valley 217

Silicon Valley IPO Technical Review Venture Capital 217

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. Not all start-up stock is created equally. what your rights are.

Equity 40

Equity Technical Review San Jose Stock 40

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 11, 2010

I know the standard line, “I want to do a small round now and raise a larger round later when we get A,B,C deal done and I can raise at a higher valuation.&# If it works you’re a hero. Let’s assume that the $2 million buys 25% of your company, which is the norm in an equity financing. Should you take it?

Venture Capital 319

Venture Capital Startup Silicon Valley Warrant 319

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

VC Adventure

FEBRUARY 17, 2016

Price shifts at the top of the market, starting with the public markets and quickly spreading to the public market investors who had been dipping into the late stage private markets and continuing from there, will and are clearly changing pricing across all stages of private market financings.

Marketing 48

Marketing Balance Sheet Valuation Venture Capital 48

Feld Thoughts

APRIL 21, 2016

Bill Gurley wrote an incredible post yesterday titled On the Road to Recap: Why the unicorn financing market just became dangerous … for all involved. 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

finance.fortune.cnn.com

AUGUST 21, 2012

FORTUNE -- Its no secret that venture capitalists were hit hard by last decades dotcom bust, considering that median returns for 1998-2001 vintage funds are all underwater. The information is based on part of a confidential year-end 2011 investment report distributed to investors in a fund-of-funds that made commitments between 1999 and 2001.

Naming 49

Naming Term Sheet Private Equity Equity 49

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

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

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

Startup Company Lawyer

FEBRUARY 21, 2010

For example, if a company has raised $20M in venture financings by issuing non-participating preferred stock , the holders of common stock will not receive any proceeds from an M&A transaction unless the transaction value exceeds $20M.

Retention 31

Retention Liquidation Preference Employee Common Stock 31

Eric Friedman

AUGUST 18, 2021

This doesn’t concern any specific industry, but that kind of behavioral finance. We do that primarily through leading financings. Dan Kimerling: I love 2001: a Space Odyssey. They conflate flow businesses or they conflate usage-based businesses with contractual, recurring revenue businesses, and so on. That scares me.

Silicon Valley 88

Silicon Valley Venture Capital Cofounder Africa 88

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. 44% 2001-2019 13.7% First, as the below chart shows, IPO pops are not a new phenomenon.

SEC 36

SEC Accredited Investor IPO Technical Review 36