Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 14, 2015

The truth is that the brutal reality of public markets is that they self correct much more quickly than our shitty little private equity illiquid corner of the universe. What is your revenue growth rate and what does this imply about your number of months of capital remaining? I put up this slide as part of my discussion.

Burn Rate 150

Burn Rate San Francisco Private Equity LP 150

Up and Running

AUGUST 1, 2017

What a lot of startup founders don’t realize is that when you take on VC funding, you also take on business partners. Venture capitalists essentially buy equity in your brand, which means they now have a say in how you operate. Groove founder Alex Turnbull had this in mind when he turned down a multi-million-dollar investment.

Venture Capital 113

Venture Capital Cofounder Finance Security 113

Gust

NOVEMBER 4, 2011

In brief, a cap acts to place a limit on the conversion price of a convertible note such that investors are guaranteed a minimum number of shares for their bridge loans if the startup does a priced equity round at a high pre-money valuation – “high” meaning above the cap, which is often a heavily negotiated term. (The

Valuation 98

Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Merger Vesting 98

Reid Hoffman

JANUARY 20, 2013

20 years ago, the classic startup model was to have young founders start a breakthrough company, then bring in “grey hair” in the form of experienced executives once it was time to scale the business. In other words, Ben asserts that bringing in a professional CEO should be a last resort for a founder. During the dot com era, Yahoo!’s

Founder 78

Founder Hiring Cofounder Hawaii 78

Software By Rob

JANUARY 8, 2019

To catch you up, here’s a brief summary of TinySeed: TinySeed is a remote accelerator designed for SaaS founders seeking mentorship from world-class experts, community with other talented founders, and enough funding to live for a year. And in exchange for this $6k-$18k and mentorship, YC asked for 7% equity.

Early Stage 46

Early Stage Valuation Seed Capital Revenue 46

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 14, 2010

Many companies that are raising B or C venture capital rounds right now raised their initial money in 2005-2008. management, founders, angel investors) get any money. If you want to raise venture capital more easily the advice could be quite practical and counter-intuitive. It is 2010. The list goes on. And herein lies the problem.

Venture Capital 289

Venture Capital Liquidation Preference Common Stock Dividend 289

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 5, 2011

I gave him the same advice I give nearly all over-worked, control-freak, do-everything-yourself startup founders: “Your number one priority isn’t any of these things. There’s you and your killer CTO co-founder. It’s a very cool vibe at Founder’s Coop. Passionate Entrepreneurs & Ambassadors.

Seattle 317

Seattle Silicon Valley Technical Review Los Angeles 317

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 26, 2020

There are two reasons to raise money: You have a killer idea that is only partially validated, that you think can get to $50M+ of revenue in 5 years with 80%+ gross margins (if margins are lower, you need a lot more revenue)and you need money to get to product-market fit, or. Not all startups need outside investment to grow.

Cofounder 429

Cofounder Seed Stage Valuation Metrics 429

Altgate

NOVEMBER 30, 2009

For one, the base salaries and total compensation for non-founder executives, which had grown at a 5% CAGR for the past 9 years, screeched to a halt and had nearly zero growth (for Tech companies). Below is another interesting chart on founder equity for tech companies. I’ve always found this chart amazing to me.

Startup 28

Startup Venture Capital Equity California 28

Bryce Dot VC

SEPTEMBER 28, 2015

What that meant is that six companies a year could achieve a hundred million in revenue or a billion in valuation. Back in 2005 we started a venture firm called OATV, O’Reilly Alpha Tech Ventures, myself, my partner Tim O’Reilly, and my partner Mark Jacobson. That founder has now raised almost $200M in funding. So we have.

Venture Capital 40

Venture Capital Valuation Los Angeles Chicago 40

Professor VC

JUNE 20, 2011

Since the iControl system chronicles all meetings, I was able to find the automatic picture snapped from my first meeting with the founders, Reza Raji and Chris Stevens on April 22, 2004. But of course, the model had us requiring only $10M equity to breakeven and to achieve $185M in revenues in 2008 (the magic Year 5 in all business plans).

San Jose 28

San Jose Angel Investor Term Sheet Venture Capital 28

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 25, 2020

And then from there, I was running a fitness company on the west coast by the name of 24 Hour Fitness, which was private equity backed and quite a bit of debt. I think about this in customers and protecting your employees and customers, always protect your P&L, your revenue. So, how are you investing in being even better?

Technical Review 148

Technical Review Balance Sheet Texas Austin 148

Altgate

DECEMBER 11, 2008

Founder of New York law firm Dreier LLC bilked hedge fund investors out of nearly $400 million by selling bogus securities while impersonating other people. He is apparently the sole equity owner of this 250 attorney firm and reportedly spent $40 million on artwork hanging on the law office walls. What was this guy thinking?

SEC 28

SEC Boston Nashville Illinois 28

Altgate

MARCH 8, 2009

Growth stage investors are usually the Series B or C investors who come in when the product is in the market but there is little or no revenue and the team is probably in the 20-something range with the goal to ramp it up to 40-50 employees with the new money, build out a sales team, etc. But some will be saved. “dry powder&# ) and $1.5

Later Stage 34

Later Stage Early Stage Venture Capital Portfolio 34

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 26, 2010

of startup businesses as far back as 2005. How can you beat finding someone who has been there and done that, able to mentor Gen-Y, has lots of connections to people in your industry, and is often willing to work for equity alone? News & World Report , people over 40 were key players in 86.6% Angel Investor. Customer Service.

Advisory Board 189

Advisory Board Angel Investor Equity Salary 189

www.paulgraham.com

APRIL 28, 2010

November 2005 Venture funding works like gears. I think it would help founders to understand funding better—notjust the mechanics of it, but what investors are thinking. And if trouble withinvestors is one of the biggest threats to a startup, managing themis one of the most important skills founders need to learn.

Technical Review 76

Technical Review Startup Software Review Angel Investor 76

www.singlefounder.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

Company founders don’t have the luxury of ‘diversifying their portfolio,’ so to speak. They work at their company until funding is pulled, it goes bust, it’s sold, etc… It’s hard to be the founder at multiple companies at the same time. However, it could be more complete. 1 day ago Well, not most.

Software Review 40

Software Review Software Startup Massachusetts 40

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 12, 2010

Spark Capital is relatively new to VC (founded in 2005) yet has become one of the hottest new VCs having invested in Twitter, Tumblr, AdMeld, Boxee, KickApps and many more companies. Investors are the “who’s who” including: Steve Case, Ron Conway, Jack Dorsey, Dave Morin, Betaworks, Founder Collective, AOL Ventures. - $1 million seed round.

Venture Capital 217

Venture Capital Los Angeles Oakland Asia 217

techcrunch.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

One of the things I do as a founder of a later stage startup is to meet with early stage entrepreneurs to help them get their companies going. In later posts I’m going to get into more detail on specific topics like hiring, raising money, what types of ideas have the potential to get big, finding your founders, and the like.

Technical Review 84

Technical Review Cofounder Technical Cofounder Software Review 84

www.currentlyobsessed.com

MAY 28, 2010

The net effect was more money raised, higher valuation and the same percentage of equity sold. Snapvine was my first experience being in the driver’s seat of the fund-raising process, and in the 3 years prior to our acquisition we raised over $10mm in venture capital. I know this sounds crazy, but it’s not.

Valuation 42

Valuation Channel Pre-Money Valuation Term Sheet 42

Altgate

MARCH 4, 2009

The questions focus on cash and equity compensation for executives (about 20 titles covered) and board members and then it looks at a bunch of attributes of the executives and the company. For example, founder vs non-founder status (big difference in comp), geographic location, headcount, funding, revenue, etc.

United Kingdom 33

United Kingdom China India 33

VC Cafe

NOVEMBER 3, 2010

Wintegra founders Kobi Ben-Zvi and Robert O’Dell will join PMC-Sierra. “Given the strong strategic fit between the two companies, joining forces will allow us to further accelerate the industry’s transition to IP-based networks,&# Kobi Ben-Zvi, founder and chief executive officer of Wintegra, said. . billion, of which $2.5

Bandwidth 79

Bandwidth Framework Forecast 79

Occam's Razor

OCTOBER 19, 2010

Disclosure:] I am the co-Founder of Market Motive Inc and the Analytics Evangelist for Google. I do not have financial or equity or any other stake in any company mentioned in this blog post (except Google). Only a plea to obsessively obsess about measuring outcomes and compute economic value, not just revenue. The 10/90 Rule!

Analytics 135

Analytics Web Non-Compete Campaign 135

David Teten

JUNE 7, 2011

Redistribution of resources and services through social platforms is creating new business and new revenue streams by monetizing previously underutilized assets. Adam Berk, Founder of Neigh*borrow. Mr. Berk graduated from Emory University and began his career trading equities (not tools or electronics).

Darfur 122

Darfur Sudan Cofounder United Kingdom 122