Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 5, 2018

As a reminder, the Dot Com bubble was a five-year period from August 1995 (the Netscape IPO ) when there was a massive wave of experiments on the then-new internet, in commerce, entertainment, nascent social media, and search. Massive liquidity awaited the first movers to the IPO’s, and that’s how they managed their portfolios.

Lean 335

Lean Burn Rate Startup IPO 335

Hunter Walker

JANUARY 15, 2016

Dogster launched January 12, 2004 (Happy 12th Birthday Dogster!) I wish I could claim I deftly foresaw this, but I was just seeking recurring revenue to to cover OneMatchFire’s office expenses. This was pre-Google images, pre-MySpace/Facebook. I spent 6 months coding and building Dogster myself.

Technical Review 48

Technical Review Startup Cofounder SMS 48

ConversionXL

JANUARY 18, 2022

He was swiftly followed by Richard Branson and Virgin Galactic in 2004. And yet, revenue went up by 45% YoY. Your brand values should permeate through your entire business and marketing strategy , from external interactions (including social media content) to internal culture (more on that in a bit). The solution: build a brand.

Marketing 109

Marketing Social Media Non-Compete Audience 109

Gust

NOVEMBER 4, 2011

Never missing an opportunity for a good war story, I’d like to revisit one high-profile transaction, the $650 million acquisition of MySpace by Fox Interactive Media in 2005, on which I spent many sleepless nights along with the rest of the deal team. Redpoint, led by Geoff Yang , invested $11.5

Valuation 98

Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Merger Vesting 98

Hearpreneur

OCTOBER 30, 2015

After taking another year to build a second email marketing startup (with Anvil running in the background), I finally decided it was time for me to commit to building my own team and Anvil grew in earnest in 2004. Thanks to Kent Lewis, Anvil Media. #4 This was, instead, monthly recurring revenue and a real product.

Entrepreneur 48

Entrepreneur Australia Software Review LLC 48

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 24, 2021

Silicon Valley and the media industry that surrounds it values youth. It has historically been the case that VCs would rather fund the promise of 100x in a company with almost no revenue than the reality of a company growing at 50% but doing $20+ million in sales. This “overnight success” was first financed in 2004.

Venture Capital 363

Venture Capital LP Valuation Later Stage 363

Gust

MAY 24, 2012

This is nothing new; long favored by family-controlled media empires such as Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation , among Internet firms alone, Google took a dual-class approach when going public in 2004. If these terms sound onerous and lopsided, it’s because they are.

IPO 159

IPO Equity Common Stock Stock 159