Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 22, 2011

I recently spoke at the Founder Showcase at the request of Adeo Ressi. I said that at the Founder Showcase, too. And for many of these they were (over) funded 7-10 years ago and don’t necessarily all represent great returns for investors or founders. some founders lose their life savings. That may be.

Saudi Arabia 309

Saudi Arabia Valuation IPO Technical Review 309

Austin Startup

NOVEMBER 25, 2018

Although bootstrapping is still an approach in Austin, a lot has changed since I wrote my original challenge to the Bootstrap Austin group back in 2005. Groups list on March 15, 2005. Still in business today and run by my co-founder. to date from some of the best, including most recently Workday and others. Almost too much so.

Bootstrapping 48

Bootstrapping Austin Equity Cofounder 48

Hearpreneur

JULY 1, 2020

We could either have the name represent our service, represent our values, represent us as founders, or just be a word without any other associations. (We We dug in deep looking for names that would somehow represent some part of us as founders. We began by creating multiple categories to start filling with ideas.

Naming 149

Naming Entrepreneur New Hampshire LLC 149

Austin Startup

FEBRUARY 9, 2019

I’ve given advice in this area to many entrepreneurs, and I pose this lesson to you as food for thought (the right answer very much depends on the unique nature of the startup and its co-founders). But remember that this was 2005?—?and We paid Jacob in stock only. How did my co-founders and I apply this lesson at data.world?

Stealth 48

Stealth Cofounder Los Angeles Technical Review 48

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 25, 2011

Founders don’t often think about “primary&# stock vs, “fully diluted&# stock in terms of voting rights. Or what “participating preferred&# stock is and how it can screw you. 3) VCs are anal about things like voting thresholds, seniority of their stock, protective provisions, etc.

Liquidation Preference 304

Liquidation Preference Term Sheet Cap Table Participating Preferred 304

VC Cafe

AUGUST 24, 2022

Disclaimer: I’m not a stock market analyst and this is not commentary on the performance of Meta in the public market. Mark Zuckerberg, Meta’s founder and CEO. But the recent blows were self inflicted, and they affect the company’s future growth plan: the Metaverse. The potential for the Metaverse remains huge.

France 88

France Spain Stock Cofounder 88

Feld Thoughts

FEBRUARY 9, 2016

Once again, as we find ourselves in the middle of a significant public market correction, especially around technology stocks, there’s an enormous amount of noise in the system, as there always is. I learned this lesson 127 times between 2000 and 2005. I have two simple rules for founders in my head from this experience.

Cap Table 70

Cap Table Down Round Liquidation Preference Founder 70

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2013

For starters let me use “CEO” as a proxy to include her “inner circle” which might mean co-founders or might just mean senior execs of the business. The Mind of the Founder. We funded one in 2005 and lost a lot of money. The mind of a founder is wired differently than most people. Sorry, brah.”

Startup 417

Startup Dilution San Diego Stock Options 417

Agile VC

MAY 26, 2011

Many assume it was a cakewalk, based on the success LinkedIn has enjoyed over time and the current stature of our founder/CEO Reid Hoffman (now Chairman). Yes… he was a very successful PayPal exec and previously co-founder & VP Product of SocialNet. But keep in mind at this point Reid’s a first-time CEO. Congrats! .

Term Sheet 178

Term Sheet Silicon Valley Technical Review Social Network 178

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 28, 2011

These two trends had a major impact on the computing industry from 2000-2005 but the effects weren’t yet felt by the VC industry. Every startup I knew in 2005 (when I started my second company) was using this. The Emergence of “Open Cloud&# Infrastructure. At least in the consumer & business web.

Venture Capital 334

Venture Capital Software PHP Open Source 334

YoungUpstarts

NOVEMBER 13, 2012

A volatile stock market and economic recession have since changed much of this thinking. The founders sold the two year old company to eBay in 2005 for $2.6 However, they have failed to generate profits and the stock has since sunk to less than $3 per share. Highly profitable. The current market cap is only $1.8

IPO 162

IPO Exit Strategy San Francisco Startup 162

genylabs.typepad.com

SEPTEMBER 24, 2011

Member since 01/2005. I often take stock in lieu of cash. I have a file drawer full of worthless stock certificates and I continue to add to it. Not all start-up stock is created equally. what kind of stock you are getting. where your stock sits in the liquidity preference stack. September 2011. August 2011.

Equity 40

Equity Technical Review San Jose Stock 40

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. The spin-out took a few months to negotiate and didn’t actually close until February 2005.

Valuation 98

Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Merger Vesting 98

Seeing Both Sides

NOVEMBER 1, 2011

The CEOs on the panel were (from left to right): Michael Simon, CEO/founder of LogMeIn (2009 IPO) . Colin Angle, CEO/cofounder of iRobot (2005 IPO). The implication, which resonated with the others on the panel, was to avoid creating a culture that is inconsistent with your identity and your authentic core as a founder.

Technical Cofounder 45

Technical Cofounder Cofounder IPO Boston 45

ConversionXL

JUNE 5, 2014

As a founder, one of the most painful things in the world to hear is criticism of your baby. Popular eCommerce site Threadless has had a “feature request” thread on their customer forum since 2005. Do you think they even notice when you leave? Especially sharp, stinging criticism from a customer that you’ve now let down[.]

Retention 115

Retention Customer Developer Programming 115

ConversionXL

JUNE 5, 2014

As a founder, one of the most painful things in the world to hear is criticism of your baby. Popular eCommerce site Threadless has had a “feature request” thread on their customer forum since 2005. Do you think they even notice when you leave? Especially sharp, stinging criticism from a customer that you’ve now let down[.]

Retention 112

Retention Developer Customer Programming 112

ConversionXL

JUNE 5, 2014

As a founder, one of the most painful things in the world to hear is criticism of your baby. Popular eCommerce site Threadless has had a “feature request” thread on their customer forum since 2005. Do you think they even notice when you leave? Especially sharp, stinging criticism from a customer that you’ve now let down[.]

Retention 105

Retention Customer Developer Programming 105

ConversionXL

JUNE 5, 2014

As a founder, one of the most painful things in the world to hear is criticism of your baby. Popular eCommerce site Threadless has had a “feature request” thread on their customer forum since 2005. Do you think they even notice when you leave? Especially sharp, stinging criticism from a customer that you’ve now let down[.]

Retention 98

Retention Customer Developer Programming 98

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. Liquidation preference is the amount of money that an investor gets paid before the common stock (e.g. management, founders, angel investors) get any money. It is 2010.

Venture Capital 289

Venture Capital Liquidation Preference Common Stock Dividend 289

YoungUpstarts

AUGUST 13, 2012

In June 2012, Fanning and fellow Napster co-founder Sean Parker launched a new live social video mirco-sharing platform called Airtime. The phrase “reddit” came to RedditM co-founder Alexis Ohanian while in the library of the University of Virginia in 2005. He would eventually gross $73 million in his first year of trading.

Intellectual Property 127

Intellectual Property New York City Pennsylvania Cofounder 127

crowdSPRING Blog

JUNE 5, 2017

Toyota founder Sakichi Toyoda created the “5 Whys” technique to uncover issues with his company’s manufacturing process. Created by Toyota founder Sakichi Toyoda as a way to uncover technical issues with his company’s manufacturing process, the 5 whys are a simple but effective process.

Design 78

Design Missouri Differentiation Advertising 78

YoungUpstarts

MAY 21, 2012

Simply put, smart businesses tend to follow the money, and sometimes that means growing into a business the founders hadn’t ever imagined. Multinational conglomerate holding company Berkshire Hathaway is best known for its control investor, Warren Buffett, who has grown the company by investing not just in stocks, but in entire companies.

Mississippi 209

Mississippi San Francisco Minnesota Bankruptcy 209

YoungUpstarts

AUGUST 21, 2012

As founders of Barefoot Cellars, the company that transformed the image of American wine from staid and unimaginative to fun, lighthearted, and hip — and we owe it all to this unconventional method of marketing. It may be a reason why they decide to bring in extra stock and promote your product. won’t support an ad campaign?

Marketing 213

Marketing Distribution Partner Advertising 213

Ben's Blog

JULY 16, 2013

3/31/2005: 22.8. In fact, if you are like most companies, your managers probably implied to your employees that your stock price would only rise as long as you were private. They might have said something ridiculous like: “Based on the current price of the preferred stock, your offer is already worth $5M.” 3/29/1996: 22.3.

Down Round 78

Down Round Marketing Preferred Stock Post-Money Valuation 78

om.co

FEBRUARY 5, 2013

Om Malik is the founder of GigaOM. He is the founder of Desiparty.com. Evolution of a Founder: Lessons I have learned. Being a startup founder is hard, tough, frustrating and rewarding – possibly all within the space of a nanosecond. Are You Winning As a Founder? He is a venture partner at True Ventures.

Founder 80

Founder Conversion Distribution Silicon Valley 80

David Teten

APRIL 1, 2011

Successful private companies such as Facebook and Zynga now have active secondary markets in their stock, blurring the meaning of their ‘private’ status. Confirmed Panelists David Weild, formerly Vice Chairman of The NASDAQ Stock Market (moderator) Barry Silbert, CEO, Secondmarket.

Private Equity 68

Private Equity Merger IPO Equity 68

Ben's Blog

JULY 16, 2013

3/31/2005: 22.8 In fact, if you are like most companies, your managers probably implied to your employees that your stock price would only rise as long as you were private. They might have said something ridiculous like: “Based on the current price of the preferred stock, your offer is already worth $5M.” 3/29/1996: 22.3

Marketing 46

Marketing Preferred Stock Post-Money Valuation Down Round 46

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

Up and Running

APRIL 1, 2015

David Daneshgar, Gregg Weisstein, and Farbod Shoraka, the founders of BloomNation.com. But, of course, they need funding—and wouldn’t you know it, one of the founders is a world class poker player. So, from the consumer end, the founders believed they could do better. Creating a better experience for both florists and consumers.

Venture Capital 60

Venture Capital Startup Cofounder Chicago 60

Ben's Blog

APRIL 7, 2021

And since VC dollars tend to concentrate around high-tech R&D areas, it’s notable that more than 90% of the nation’s innovation-sector growth (2005-2017) is accounted for by just five metro areas — Boston, San Francisco, San Jose, Seattle, and San Diego.

Silicon Valley 36

Silicon Valley Non-Compete San Francisco Government 36

Austin Startup

APRIL 26, 2020

In honor of Netflix’s big beat today in the very unfortunate age of COVID-19, I decided to revisit my four-part Bazaarblog series while I was CEO of Bazaarvoice (from our inception in 2005 to our IPO in 2012). Blockbuster introduced their “End of Late Fees” program on January 1, 2005. Blockbuster’s stock rose from a low of around $3.8/share

Technical Review 62

Technical Review Campaign Video Naming 62

www.paulgraham.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

March 2005 (This essay is derived from a talk at the Harvard ComputerSociety.) And since a startup thatsucceeds ordinarily makes its founders rich, that implies gettingrich is doable too. Ideally you want between two and four founders. But you dont want so many founders that the company starts to looklike a group photo.

Startup 105

Startup Cofounder Software Stock 105

Altgate

MAY 1, 2009

I’m a visual person so here’s how I see it: Entrepreneurs start companies and the founders (“F&# in my chart) invest capital which they grow with sweat equity and then limited partners (“LPs&# ) invest capital via VCs which in turn grows the pie to the eventual “exit&# (which comes in the form of M&A or IPOs).

Sweat Equity 28

Sweat Equity Private Equity IPO Venture Capital 28

abovethecrowd.com

FEBRUARY 27, 2019

In his 2005 book, The World Is Flat , Thomas Friedman recognizes that the Internet has the ability to create a “level playing field” for all participants, and one where geographic distances become less relevant. Launched in 2005, Etsy is a leading marketplaces for the exchange of vintage and handmade items. annual GMV.

Internet 88

Internet Matching Vertical Hosting 88

Altgate

AUGUST 16, 2010

Go ask a stock picker at Goldman how much of her work is science a la Black Scholes options pricing model versus predicting the “mood&# of the market (or getting inside information, as the case may be). Or perhaps Adeo at the Founder Institute will just do it outside the system!

Sales 49

Sales Term Sheet Michigan Sales Cycle 49

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 26, 2020

What most founders don’t realize is: Every stage of a startup requires a different set of metrics and milestones and founder skills. Knowing these will help a founder position her pitch to get investors’ attention. Founders need to keep their eye on the prize — not just the next funding round. Step 5: Series, C, D….

Cofounder 429

Cofounder Seed Stage Valuation Metrics 429

The Next Web

SEPTEMBER 24, 2013

A fortnight ago, Boris interviewed Reed Hastings on his business lessons and experience, but now I’m shaking it up with a look at a 26-year-old founder who is disrupting the mobile and social networking spaces: Kik CEO and founder Ted Livingston. I went to university in Waterloo in 2005 for engineering.

Entrepreneur 167

Entrepreneur CTO Hire Startup Mobile 167