Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 5, 2011

Early-stage investors in technology startups are only looking for growth-oriented companies that can achieve an “exit&# someday – either via selling your company to a larger company or via an IPO. million post-money valuation with no revenue. It was early 2000. There is no such thing as a uniform price.

Pre-Money Valuation 336

Pre-Money Valuation Valuation Silicon Valley Stock 336

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 23, 2014

The seeds of cheap cloud computing, social networking & mobile were planted and then the 2008 financial crisis brought a hurricane that swept much of the old, dead brush from the venture capital industry and ushered in a new phase perhaps best punctuated by Sequoia’s famous and now ironic presentation “ RIP Good Times.”.

Technical Review 398

Technical Review Venture Capital Valuation Pre-Money Valuation 398

ReadWriteStart

OCTOBER 7, 2010

Bottom line, early stage equity is very, very expensive. So at any point, if you are trying to raise money, and you are hearing from investors that you are too early and have too little validation, it may be a good thing. Then Liana Thompson pitched Trendy Loot , a very early stage deal site for low-end jewelry.

Valuation 119

Valuation Silicon Valley Pre-Money Valuation Bootstrapping 119

SoCal CTO

FEBRUARY 20, 2007

Ive personally been involved in the start-up world in Los Angeles for about 15 years, and have had the opportunity to work on many early-stage companies (e.g., Early Stage Marketing and Branding – Farida Fotouh. eHarmongy) as an acting CTO. ► February (2) CTO Founders / Cofounders Part-Time Startup CTO?

Technical Cofounder 150

Technical Cofounder Southern California Los Angeles CTO Hire 150

K9 Ventures

JUNE 5, 2015

I still wanted K9 to be the first institutional money in a company and work with “frighteningly early-stage” companies. As the check size increases, investors tend to look for more traction, established revenue models, proven unit-economics, and other metrics that were previously associated with later stage companies.

Seed Stage 48

Seed Stage Venture Capital Early Stage Valuation 48

ReadWriteStart

MAY 5, 2011

The smart home business is still in the very early stages in India, and it will take some time before Evolutech ramps up. From 2008 to 2010, Mitra was a columnist for Forbes. These resellers buy devices from the U.S. and Singapore at significantly higher prices and presumably would be open to sourcing lower-cost parts.

Costa Rica 115

Costa Rica Incubator Silicon Valley India 115

SoCal CTO

MARCH 5, 2007

However, Elgg could power 100,000 networks and it would make no difference - there is no revenue stream as we give everything away under a GPL license. Common revenue streams are consulting, training, support, customization, upgraded versions for corporate applications, etc. Early Stage Marketing and Branding – Farida Fotouh.

Open Source 150

Open Source Business Model Technical Cofounder Southern California 150

SoCal CTO

MARCH 20, 2007

Early Stage Marketing and Branding – Farida Fotouh. Technology Advisor Technology Roles in Startups Pricing Customer Acquisition Sunk Costs and More -. ► February (2) CTO Founders / Cofounders Part-Time Startup CTO? User Interface Beyond the Web Site ► November (7) Negative Customer Acquisition Costs - Creative Sta.

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital Technical Cofounder Southern California Los Angeles 150

SoCal CTO

MARCH 9, 2007

Early Stage Marketing and Branding – Farida Fotouh. Technology Advisor Technology Roles in Startups Pricing Customer Acquisition Sunk Costs and More -. ► February (2) CTO Founders / Cofounders Part-Time Startup CTO? User Interface Beyond the Web Site ► November (7) Negative Customer Acquisition Costs - Creative Sta.

Technical Cofounder 150

Technical Cofounder Southern California Los Angeles CTO Hire 150

ReadWriteStart

SEPTEMBER 23, 2010

First up was Brad Barrett presenting GrillGrate , a grill accessory with which Brad has built a year-to-date revenue of $400,000. I started doing my free Online Strategy Roundtables for entrepreneurs in the fall of 2008. If you missed the session, please listen to the recording before voting. GrillGrate.

India 114

India Silicon Valley Incubator Bootstrapping 114

SoCal CTO

MARCH 20, 2007

Early Stage Marketing and Branding – Farida Fotouh. Technology Advisor Technology Roles in Startups Pricing Customer Acquisition Sunk Costs and More -. ► February (2) CTO Founders / Cofounders Part-Time Startup CTO? User Interface Beyond the Web Site ► November (7) Negative Customer Acquisition Costs - Creative Sta.

Technical Cofounder 150

Technical Cofounder Southern California Search Engineer 150

SoCal CTO

MARCH 13, 2007

Early Stage Marketing and Branding – Farida Fotouh. Technology Advisor Technology Roles in Startups Pricing Customer Acquisition Sunk Costs and More -. ► February (2) CTO Founders / Cofounders Part-Time Startup CTO? User Interface Beyond the Web Site ► November (7) Negative Customer Acquisition Costs - Creative Sta.

Technical Cofounder 150

Technical Cofounder Southern California Los Angeles Internet 150

SoCal CTO

FEBRUARY 28, 2007

Early Stage Marketing and Branding – Farida Fotouh. Technology Advisor Technology Roles in Startups Pricing Customer Acquisition Sunk Costs and More -. ► February (2) CTO Founders / Cofounders Part-Time Startup CTO? User Interface Beyond the Web Site ► November (7) Negative Customer Acquisition Costs - Creative Sta.

Technical Cofounder 150

Technical Cofounder Southern California Los Angeles Mobile 150

SoCal CTO

FEBRUARY 25, 2007

Early Stage Marketing and Branding – Farida Fotouh. Technology Advisor Technology Roles in Startups Pricing Customer Acquisition Sunk Costs and More -. ► February (2) CTO Founders / Cofounders Part-Time Startup CTO? User Interface Beyond the Web Site ► November (7) Negative Customer Acquisition Costs - Creative Sta.

Technical Cofounder 150

Technical Cofounder Southern California Los Angeles CTO Hire 150

SoCal CTO

FEBRUARY 17, 2007

Early Stage Marketing and Branding – Farida Fotouh. Technology Advisor Technology Roles in Startups Pricing Customer Acquisition Sunk Costs and More -. ► February (2) CTO Founders / Cofounders Part-Time Startup CTO? User Interface Beyond the Web Site ► November (7) Negative Customer Acquisition Costs - Creative Sta.

Technical Cofounder 150

Technical Cofounder Los Angeles Southern California CTO Hire 150

ReadWriteStart

NOVEMBER 17, 2011

Sramana Mitra is the founder of the One Million by One Million (1M/1M) initiative, an educational, business development and incubation program that aims to help one million entrepreneurs globally to reach $1 million in revenue and beyond. From 2008 to 2010, Mitra was a columnist for Forbes.

Early Stage 116

Early Stage India Entrepreneur Silicon Valley 116

Altgate

SEPTEMBER 16, 2010

The presentation was on outsourcing generally, not just software engineering and the audience was very early stage companies (some yet to be founded). But did you know that founder Markus Frind has just 3 employees for his $10MM+ revenue business? Unfortunately they will be very expensive (30-50% or more of gross revenue).

Software Review 65

Software Review Offshore Startup Boston 65

SoCal CTO

MARCH 1, 2007

Early Stage Marketing and Branding – Farida Fotouh. Technology Advisor Technology Roles in Startups Pricing Customer Acquisition Sunk Costs and More -. ► February (2) CTO Founders / Cofounders Part-Time Startup CTO? User Interface Beyond the Web Site ► November (7) Negative Customer Acquisition Costs - Creative Sta.

Technical Cofounder 150

Technical Cofounder Networking Southern California Los Angeles 150

SoCal CTO

FEBRUARY 17, 2007

Early Stage Marketing and Branding – Farida Fotouh. Technology Advisor Technology Roles in Startups Pricing Customer Acquisition Sunk Costs and More -. ► February (2) CTO Founders / Cofounders Part-Time Startup CTO? User Interface Beyond the Web Site ► November (7) Negative Customer Acquisition Costs - Creative Sta.

Los Angeles 150

Los Angeles Technical Cofounder Southern California CTO Hire 150

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 1, 2016

” I suspect that over the next 18 months, they’ll see another phenomenon that they likely haven’t seen since 2008-09: mark-downs of the VCs’ portfolios. Of course, this raises a host of questions about conflicts of interest, valuations, and whether early-stage investors are well-suited to invest in later-stage deals.

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital LP Silicon Valley Marketing 150

ReadWriteStart

SEPTEMBER 10, 2010

They already have several customers including some telcos, and are at about $350,000 in revenues. Because customer financing equals revenue, not equity. That's why, I advised Gio to keep going with further execution on his business and build more revenue traction. In 1M/1M, our preferred financing strategy is customers.

Cloud 115

Cloud Silicon Valley Incubator Finance 115

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 14, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Tuesday, April 14, 2009 Validated learning about customers Would you rather have $30,000 or $1 million in revenues for your startup? All things being equal, of course, you’d rather have more revenue rather than less. And yet revenue alone is not a sufficient goal. More on that in a moment.

Customer 167

Customer San Francisco Lean Hockey Stick 167

SoCal CTO

MARCH 12, 2007

Early Stage Marketing and Branding – Farida Fotouh. Technology Advisor Technology Roles in Startups Pricing Customer Acquisition Sunk Costs and More -. ► February (2) CTO Founders / Cofounders Part-Time Startup CTO? User Interface Beyond the Web Site ► November (7) Negative Customer Acquisition Costs - Creative Sta.

Technical Cofounder 150

Technical Cofounder Southern California Los Angeles CTO Hire 150

SoCal CTO

FEBRUARY 27, 2007

Early Stage Marketing and Branding – Farida Fotouh. Technology Advisor Technology Roles in Startups Pricing Customer Acquisition Sunk Costs and More -. ► February (2) CTO Founders / Cofounders Part-Time Startup CTO? User Interface Beyond the Web Site ► November (7) Negative Customer Acquisition Costs - Creative Sta.

Technical Cofounder 150

Technical Cofounder Southern California Los Angeles CTO Hire 150

SoCal CTO

FEBRUARY 25, 2007

Early Stage Marketing and Branding – Farida Fotouh. Technology Advisor Technology Roles in Startups Pricing Customer Acquisition Sunk Costs and More -. ► February (2) CTO Founders / Cofounders Part-Time Startup CTO? User Interface Beyond the Web Site ► November (7) Negative Customer Acquisition Costs - Creative Sta.

Technical Cofounder 150

Technical Cofounder Southern California Los Angeles CTO Hire 150

SoCal CTO

FEBRUARY 17, 2007

Early Stage Marketing and Branding – Farida Fotouh. Technology Advisor Technology Roles in Startups Pricing Customer Acquisition Sunk Costs and More -. ► February (2) CTO Founders / Cofounders Part-Time Startup CTO? User Interface Beyond the Web Site ► November (7) Negative Customer Acquisition Costs - Creative Sta.

Incubator 150

Incubator Technical Cofounder Southern California Los Angeles 150

SoCal CTO

FEBRUARY 17, 2007

Early Stage Marketing and Branding – Farida Fotouh. Technology Advisor Technology Roles in Startups Pricing Customer Acquisition Sunk Costs and More -. ► February (2) CTO Founders / Cofounders Part-Time Startup CTO? User Interface Beyond the Web Site ► November (7) Negative Customer Acquisition Costs - Creative Sta.

Technical Cofounder 150

Technical Cofounder Southern California Los Angeles CTO Hire 150

SoCal CTO

MARCH 20, 2007

Early Stage Marketing and Branding – Farida Fotouh. Technology Advisor Technology Roles in Startups Pricing Customer Acquisition Sunk Costs and More -. ► February (2) CTO Founders / Cofounders Part-Time Startup CTO? User Interface Beyond the Web Site ► November (7) Negative Customer Acquisition Costs - Creative Sta.

Technical Cofounder 150

Technical Cofounder Southern California Los Angeles CTO Hire 150

ReadWriteStart

APRIL 14, 2011

a group of entrepreneurs from TiE Chennai gathered at the Indian Institute of Technology-Madras (IIT-M) Research Park campus, and we spent the next four hours discussing strategy and tactics of early-stage entrepreneurship. From 2008 to 2010, Mitra was a columnist for Forbes. At 11 a.m.,

India 126

India Technical Review Entrepreneur Silicon Valley 126

BeyondVC

JANUARY 3, 2019

The 10 year bull market where every company’s revenue chart is up and to the right is over. Look at 2001 and 2008’s Lehman collapse and Sequoia RIP Good Times deck for lessons learned. Either you’re a mega fund or an early stage fund, being caught in the middle is a place you don’t want to be.

Stealth 79

Stealth Advisory Board Cloud Virginia 79

Scalable Startup

JULY 20, 2013

In 2008 I was working on a post-merger integration project for a small company being acquired by a Fortune 100 behemoth. Angel Investor early stage founder Hawaii SaaS Scalability startup startup CEO Tom Nora angel investor CEOing first revenue leadership software Software Development The Next Level tom nora twitter venture capital'

Mobile 22

Mobile Hawaii Angel Investor Early Stage 22

ReadWriteStart

SEPTEMBER 16, 2010

I started doing my free Online Strategy Roundtables for entrepreneurs in the fall of 2008. Its mission is to help a million entrepreneurs globally to reach $1 million in revenue and beyond, build $1 trillion in sustainable global GDP, and create 10 million jobs. You can pitch to be featured on my blog following these instructions.

Cloud 117

Cloud Fractional CTO Entrepreneur Bandwidth 117

SoCal CTO

FEBRUARY 23, 2007

Early Stage Marketing and Branding – Farida Fotouh. Technology Advisor Technology Roles in Startups Pricing Customer Acquisition Sunk Costs and More -. ► February (2) CTO Founders / Cofounders Part-Time Startup CTO? User Interface Beyond the Web Site ► November (7) Negative Customer Acquisition Costs - Creative Sta.

Los Angeles 150

Los Angeles Technical Cofounder Southern California Networking 150

VC Cafe

JULY 15, 2021

The iOS app store officially launched on July 10 2008 with 500 apps. Worldwide mobile app revenues in 2014 to 2023 (in billion U.S. So while ads can be an effective way to grow, spending on user acquisition before figuring out monetisation is a sure way to shorten runway for early stage startups.

Mobile 190

Mobile Social Media Distribution PR 190

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 17, 2016

In the last few years, perhaps in reaction to the business integrity issues leading to the recession back in 2008, I am seeing a renewed focus on other less tangible attributes which can set your startup apart. Relevancy for an early-stage company is the discovery and understanding of the real addressable market for a product or service.

Startup 120

Startup Early Stage Vertical Sales 120

Altgate

DECEMBER 17, 2009

it's up to the Board or CEO) One or more financial metrics Balanced scorecard For very early stage startups (e.g. pre-revenue and maybe even pre-product), I recommend a discretionary plan, particularly when you're dealing with annual plans. then you can start to think about a balanced scorecard approach to your pay plan.

Venture Capital 47

Venture Capital Metrics Startup Software Review 47

Startup Lessons Learned

NOVEMBER 17, 2008

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, November 17, 2008 The four kinds of work, and how to get them done: part one Ive written before about some of the advantages startups have when they are very small, like the benefits of having a pathetically small number of customers. And if you neglect maintenance, you may not have a business left at all.

San Francisco 88

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 88