Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 4, 2013

They don’t realize that this option would likely be their worst nightmare, since it costs millions for the road show, usually dilutes your equity to a tiny fraction, and takes away all your entrepreneurial control. IPOs in 2008, the market was up to a still trivial 128 in 2012 (compared to 675 in 1996). After a record low of 39 U.S.

IPO 224

IPO Founder Exit Strategy Investment Bankers 224

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 16, 2010

So as of 2008 total LP commitments were still at nearly $250 billion. So even within the “alternative class&# our LPs are looking at other asset investment choices such as distressed buyout funds, private equity or hedge funds. Our current fund was raised in 2008/09.] Importantly, what does this all mean for startups?

LP 311

LP Technical Review Early Stage Silicon Valley 311

Altgate

DECEMBER 15, 2010

@altgate Startups, Venture Capital & Everything In Between Skip to content Home Furqan Nazeeri (fn@altgate.com) ← No one wants to tell you your baby is ugly More on Liquidation Preferences → Pre-Money Valuation vs Number of Founders Posted on December 15, 2010 by admin Here’s a chart of the day worth sharing.

Pre-Money Valuation 66

Pre-Money Valuation Valuation Cofounder Founder 66

Altgate

AUGUST 25, 2012

—————– Dead equity — equity held by employees and founders no longer working at the company — is a large and growing problem. Choe opted to forgo a cash payment “in the thousands” for the equity equivalent at the time. Re-posted from post co-authored with Prof.

Equity 28

Equity Vesting Cap Table Technical Review 28

YoungUpstarts

NOVEMBER 17, 2020

New business applications are the highest since 2008, reports the Wall Street Journal. Start building your network of support – it may be a co-founder, a mentor, a contractor, an employee, or an investor. Keep that in mind as you lie awake at night worrying about sales, or you are struggling to close an equity round.

Entrepreneur 259

Entrepreneur Cofounder Startup SEO 259

Altgate

SEPTEMBER 16, 2010

We tried to provide a framework for startups to think about what activities should be outsourced and why. What kind of startup outsources everything? Well, you’re right, most don’t, but one example of a startup that does is PlentyOfFish. Also, most startup attorneys will do deferred payment plans.

Software Review 65

Software Review Offshore Startup Boston 65

Up and Running

NOVEMBER 27, 2013

Adi Bittan, co-founder of a startup that failed due to a bad partnership. They even suggested that I should get less equity in the company because I didn’t bring the same amount of skill to the table.” They were just about to launch their product when the financial collapse happened in 2008.

Partner 126

Partner Cost Technical Review Cofounder 126

David Teten

AUGUST 6, 2013

A few weeks ago, I had my first-ever opportunity to visit the Miami startup ecosystem. I was visiting as part of Terrapinn Private Equity World, a leading private equity conference for the Latin American technology community. Miami is one of the fastest growing new startup hubs in the US.

Miami 114

Miami Private Equity Florida Technical Review 114

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 19, 2010

Another topic we debated early in the program was “lean startup” vs. “ fat startup ” where we both took the obvious hedge and said “it depends.” But truthfully both Dana and I are more aligned with the lean startup principles and believe you only go FAT when you’ve really proved out your product / market fit.

Partner 240

Partner New York City Cofounder Syndicate 240

Steve Blank

MARCH 31, 2014

Just look at the disruptive challenges that businesses face today– globalization, China as a manufacturer, China as a consumer, the Internet, and a steady stream of new startups. Perhaps that’s because where established companies might see risks or threats, startups see opportunity. We legalized robbing the corporate treasury.

Private Equity 325

Private Equity Metrics China Intellectual Property 325

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. But this mania to not miss out on the next big thing is driving some investors to pay growth-equity prices for traditional market risk (as in, they’re paying up before it is clear there is product / market fit).

Saudi Arabia 309

Saudi Arabia Valuation IPO Technical Review 309

rapidrollout.wordpress.com

JANUARY 15, 2011

Web Startup Lessons Advice from a CTO and Entrepreneur Home About Startup Advice: When to Use a Consulting CTO There are not many to be found. Most likely, this is a person who is a serial entrepreneur and was the chief technology officer for two or more web startups. .&# I’ll list other consultants I know about, as well.

Fractional CTO 40

Fractional CTO CTO CTO Hire Fractional VPE 40

The Next Web

JANUARY 14, 2014

If you’re a startup founder, how much should you pay yourself? The company collected salary data from 11,160 startups around the world that use its benchmarking tool. In Silicon Valley, 75% of founders pay themselves less than $75,000 per year and 66% pay themselves less than $50,000 per year, according to the data.

Salary 167

Salary Silicon Valley San Francisco Founder 167

femgineer.com

JULY 18, 2010

HOME About the Femgineer Speaking Engagements Reading List Recruiting Startup Engineers With the startup market taking off, there is always a clamor to find good engineers, developers, and designers. There are a lot of engineers out there who have been burned by founders who pull and push them in a variety of directions.

Engineer 41

Engineer Software Review Startup Technical Review 41

Altgate

OCTOBER 1, 2010

To the right of that are five charts one each for: Current Equity Equity at Hire Base Salary Target Bonus Actual Total Cash Each of these bar charts shows the respective compensation for the management team on a percentile scale (compared to the cohort). I would love to hear your thoughts. Bookmark the permalink.

Part-Time VPE 39

Part-Time VPE Startup Salary Equity 39

blog.captainrecruiter.com

MARCH 8, 2012

Technical Co-Founders Are A Myth. Two years ago I got the bug to do an online recruiting startup and I began the hunt to find a technical co-founder - a software engineer who works for no cash - to help me build my dream website. I learned something: technical co-founders are a myth. Sunday, August 15, 2010.

Cofounder 40

Cofounder Technical Cofounder Founder Software Engineering 40

Up and Running

SEPTEMBER 5, 2017

While private equity has a history in the U.S. that dates back over a century , the “boom or bust” period of the 1980s to early 1990s is considered the period that marks the rise in private equity and venture capital funding as we know it today. According to Fortune , in 2006, female founders were involved in only 2.95

Venture Capital 82

Venture Capital Lean Cofounder Technical Review 82

David Teten

SEPTEMBER 5, 2014

I was excited to see that GLG (formerly Gerson Lehrman Group), the industry leader, is now offering a professional network service geared to the needs of the startup community: GLG Share. Like many established finance & media companies, GLG knows that the tech startup sector is a growing part of the economy.

New York 114

New York Technical Review Networking Advisory Board 114

Agile VC

APRIL 17, 2011

AGILEVC My idle thoughts on tech startups. Kayak was started here in my backyard of Boston… co-founder & CTO Paul English and the product/engineering team is based here in Concord MA. Co-founder & CEO Steve Hafner and the business team are based in Norwalk, CT. How to Evaluate Firms for a Seed VC. April 17, 2011.

Pre-Money Valuation 113

Pre-Money Valuation Liquidation Preference Dividend Common Stock 113

The Startup Magazine

NOVEMBER 13, 2018

The global financial crisis started in 2007 and it went on for much of 2008. He started enjoying success in 2008 when Inc. The name of this startup was Flipkart and they started it with $6,500. Peter is the founder of Bay Street Capital Partners. Guss is 28 years old and he is the co-founder of Octane Lending.

Cofounder 142

Cofounder Venture Capital India Valuation 142

Austin Startup

NOVEMBER 25, 2018

As I mentioned at the beginning of this series/ebook, over the years I’ve noticed that I tend to frequently share certain Lucky7 posts with entrepreneurs we’ve backed , team members at data.world, or other startup investors I know. Still in business today and run by my co-founder. 2008 Harvard Business Review.

Bootstrapping 48

Bootstrapping Austin Equity Cofounder 48

Austin Startup

AUGUST 9, 2021

It is the first senior appointment to Chargify’s C-suite level team since it was first announced in April 2021 that Battery Ventures led a combined majority growth-equity investment of more than $150 million in Chargify and SaaSOptics. To learn more about Chargify, visit www.chargify.com.

Revenue 72

Revenue Georgia Texas Colorado 72

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 30, 2012

They don’t realize that this option would likely be their worst nightmare, since it costs millions for the road show, usually dilutes your equity to a tiny fraction, and takes away all your entrepreneurial control. IPOs in 2008, the market was up to a still trivial 159 in 2011. After a record low of 39 U.S.

Exit Strategy 239

Exit Strategy IPO Investment Bankers Entrepreneur 239

The Next Web

JANUARY 28, 2014

As the trees parted ways, attendees tumbled out into the grassy pastures of Kalu Yala , a sustainable village that talks about itself in the language of startups and entrepreneurship as if it were a software product, making it the perfect home for the very first TEDx Adventure event. “We Photo by Nate Mook. Photo by Ramy Nassar.

Panama 166

Panama Cofounder Startup America 166

The Startup Magazine

MAY 4, 2017

The perfect startup pitch helps entrepreneurs separate their companies from a growing amount of competition. Startup activity in the United States increased in 2016, continuing an upward trend that began in 2015 , according to the Kauffman Foundation. How to Make a Startup Pitch. Design is critical to a startup pitch.

Silicon Valley 62

Silicon Valley Startup Maryland Angel Investor 62

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 5, 2012

This time by the efforts of Adeo Ressi to introduce a new kind of structure called “ convertible equity.” My initial reaction to Adeo when we spoke was that while it may have solved some issues (debt versus equity) it didn’t solve the ones that I’ve been warning entrepreneurs about most loudly.

Ratchet 354

Ratchet Liquidation Preference Equity Stock 354

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 14, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Thursday, May 14, 2009 The Lean Startup Workshop - now an OReilly Master Class My rate of posting has been much lower lately, and this is mostly due to preparations for the upcoming Lean Startup Workshop on May 29. I joined a financial services tech startup in 1999. You can click here to learn more.

Lean 60

Lean San Francisco Continuous Deployment Software Review 60

The Equity Kicker

SEPTEMBER 8, 2016

In 2008, that was 2 out of every 3 people on the planet. When things don’t go according to plan, balancing the need for positivity with the need for realism is one of the most difficult tasks founders face. Many paid thousands of dollars to travel around the globe to be there. What the hell is going on here?

Founder 60

Founder Startup Entrepreneur 60

Reid Hoffman

JANUARY 26, 2021

Last week, we explored the topic of startup boards of directors. The primary goal of this conversation was to explain how and why a great startup board can be a powerful tool to help the CEO make the company successful. But every so often another founder also sits on the board. HOW SHOULD I SELECT MY BOARD MEMBERS?

Startup 36

Startup Equity Early Stage Green 36

www.instigatorblog.com

MARCH 2, 2010

Home About Contact My thoughts & lessons learned on startups, entrepreneurship, marketing and other stuff. The Importance of Advisory Boards for Startup CEOs Tweet When a startup receives financing it will need to setup a Board of Directors. The Board probably existed beforehand, but was made up only of the founders.

Advisory Board 40

Advisory Board Startup Cofounder Equity 40

SoCal CTO

DECEMBER 1, 2010

I continue to collect great content that is the intersection of startups, products, online and technology. Equity-Only CTO and Equity-Only Developers - SoCal CTO , November 1, 2010 I had a recent email dialog with the founder of a company looking for a CTO for their startup. Was it a Startup Founder Developer Gap

Technical Review 175

Technical Review Technology Product CTO Hire 175

View from Seed

JANUARY 26, 2016

It’s become increasingly common for startups to raise several seed rounds, and this has led to a bifurcation in the seed stage between what are known as “pre-seed” (or “genesis”) and institutional seed rounds. So, between 2008 and 2013, the early-stage landscape looked more like the middle segment of the chart.

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage Early Stage Cofounder Finance 120

500hats.com

AUGUST 2, 2012

It’s no coincidence we designed 500 Startups with these evolutions in mind, altho none of the required strategies have been easy to execute and we are still refining our approach. Or, as my friend Marc Andreessen might say, Software Eats the Private Equity World. Ok, let’s dive in and discuss in more detail.

Silicon Valley 74

Silicon Valley Early Stage Venture Capital Valuation 74

The Equity Kicker

FEBRUARY 12, 2016

Startup founders should expect that it will take seven or more years to exit their company. If I think back over the sixteen years I’ve been investing in startups the market for private company investing was tough from 2000-2004, from 2008-2011 and is getting tough again now.

Startup 60

Startup Metrics Valuation Operations 60

Startup Company Lawyer

MARCH 14, 2010

After the recent announcement of the Series Seed Financing documents by Marc Andreesen, Brad Feld points out that there are now four sets of “open source&# equity seed financing documents: TechStars Model Seed Funding Documents (by Cooley). Y Combinator Series AA Equity Financing Documents (by WSGR). under $500K).

Finance 70

Finance Software Review Term Sheet Liquidation Preference 70

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. We have an entire generation of startup founders who don’t have muscle memory from getting their burn rates back into shape from 2008/09 or 2001-2005.

Burn Rate 150

Burn Rate San Francisco Private Equity LP 150

www.copelandfirm.com

OCTOBER 21, 2010

Home About Fee Arrangements Location Referrals Testimonials Business Law HUB Certification Mergers & Acquisitions Startup Advice Intellectual Property Copyrights Trademarks Securities Law Debt and Bridge Financing Series A Startup Law Entity Formation Corporation LLC Series LLC RSS Founders Shares: How do you split them up?

Intellectual Property 40

Intellectual Property Founder Vesting Bridge Financing 40