A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

JANUARY 4, 2018

Of course a nice chunk is primary capital, i.e. for the company balance sheet, to invest in growth initiatives, security and quality, and advancing our existing strategic priorities through acceleration and de-risking. The majority of the funds pay back our early investors who believed in us enough to trust us with their money.

Engineer 152

Engineer Revenue San Francisco Security 152

VC Cafe

JANUARY 22, 2021

Amazon Corporate Development – Notable acquisitions include Whole Foods ($13.7B), smart doorbell system Ring ($1.2B, 2018) and autonomous mobility technology Zoox ($1.2bn). The company also occasionally invests in startups out of the balance sheet (i.e. The majority of that work is led by the Amazon Corp Dev team.

Technical Review 174

Technical Review Startup Venture Capital Incubator 174

Up and Running

JULY 22, 2014

Balance sheet. Major corporations use pro forma statements to illustrate projected numbers, like in the case of a merger or acquisition, or to emphasize certain current figures. Balance sheet . Your balance sheet is a snapshot of your business’s financial position—at a particular moment in time, how are you doing?

Balance Sheet 148

Balance Sheet Forecast Equity .Net 148

YoungUpstarts

MAY 14, 2018

Of course, these are important ingredients to growth, but the – perhaps unconventional – truth is that this kind of growth can be riskier and less compelling to investors than growth through acquisition. Set clear financial objectives for an acquisition and create benchmarks to gauge attractiveness of potential target companies.

Acquisition 124

Acquisition Finance Raleigh Mezzanine 124

The Equity Kicker

APRIL 15, 2015

This chart (which I saw on Broadstuff and was originally published in the Harvard Business Review ) is from audited company accounts following mergers and acquisitions: …we looked at the value of brands and customer relationships as revealed by M&A data covering over 6,000 mergers and acquisitions worldwide between 2003 and 2013.

Balance Sheet 60

Balance Sheet Merger Customer Product 60

Cracking the Code

MARCH 28, 2022

One of the 2020 giants also left this select club: Zoom, which was impacted by the failed acquisition of Five9 and people’s gradual return to offices. This number looks relatively low compared to $330B+ of cash and cash equivalents sitting on the balance sheet of the cloud giants and public companies in our global cloud Index.

Global 62

Global Europe Software Review 62

Agile VC

JUNE 13, 2019

I know some of the investors in Chewy prior to the PetSmart acquisition, but I am not a shareholder nor do I intend to purchase shares in the IPO. I’ll break down Chewy’s business based on their recent S-1 filing here. Chewy also appears to have cashflows going up to its parent PetSmart, which is owned by PE firm BC Partners.

Leadership 100

Leadership .Net Revenue Acquisition 100

VC Adventure

MARCH 17, 2022

Hopefully, you took advantage of the robust financing markets of the past few years to put some money on your balance sheet. Your burn should be based on the unit economics of the business, the fundamental core metrics of the company, taking into consideration your balance sheet and financing prospects.

Balance Sheet 121

Balance Sheet Burn Rate Valuation Metrics 121

David Teten

SEPTEMBER 6, 2015

Teten: For a large corporate, what are the advantages and disadvantages of a dedicated fund (possibly with external investors) vs. a 100% on-balance sheet investor? A lot of venture investing is done on the balance sheet, meaning there is no dedicated fund and investing is done more opportunistically.

Venture Capital 60

Venture Capital Balance Sheet Technical Review Portfolio 60

Occam's Razor

MAY 2, 2017

#tearsofpain One way of removing silos and focusing on the entire business is to leverage Acquisition, Behavior and Outcome metrics. A small change I’ll make in this post is that when I recommend the metrics, I’ll follow the Outcomes | Behavior | Acquisition structure throughout this post. Hence that’s the macro-outcome.

Metrics 141

Metrics Acquisition eCommerce Analytics 141

Haystack

JUNE 29, 2018

PillPack didn’t over-raise venture capital, likely had several million on the balance sheet when it was acquired, and the acquisition presents a terrific outcome for the Boston area.

Acquisition 65

Acquisition Cofounder Balance Sheet Boston 65

Up and Running

OCTOBER 16, 2019

The other two are your balance sheet and your income statement (P&L). . Down the road, you might decide that you want to sell your business or position yourself for acquisition. The other side of those major spending decisions is understanding and monitoring your business’s cash flow.

Business Plan 108

Business Plan Small Business Forecast Balance Sheet 108

Up and Running

OCTOBER 16, 2019

The other two are your balance sheet and your income statement (P&L). . Down the road, you might decide that you want to sell your business or position yourself for acquisition. The other side of those major spending decisions is understanding and monitoring your business’s cash flow.

Business Plan 108

Business Plan Small Business Forecast Balance Sheet 108

David Teten

AUGUST 6, 2015

It’s misleadingly precise to have two digits to the right of the decimal in a CAC/LTV multiple for year 3 of your forecast (“Customer Acquisition Cost”/”LifeTime Value of Customer”). A good model needs to factor in cash collections, disbursements, and other working capital considerations with a Balance Sheet and Statement of Cash Flows.

Balance Sheet 60

Balance Sheet Software Review Forecast Acquisition 60

YoungUpstarts

APRIL 12, 2019

This means that both parties have equal rights to the property bought/gained during the official marriage, and it does not matter who made a more significant contribution to the acquisition. ” This method implies that the assets of the company are as they claimed in the company’s balance sheet.

Small Business 113

Small Business Valuation .Net Balance Sheet 113

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 22, 2010

One of the ways our VC’s kept track of our progress was by taking a monthly look at three financial documents: Income Statement, Balance Sheet and Cash Flow Statement. To be clear – Income Statements, Balance Sheets and Cash Flow Statements are really important at two points in your startup. Customer Acquisition.

Balance Sheet 298

Balance Sheet Startup Burn Rate Metrics 298

Haystack

NOVEMBER 24, 2018

price tag squeezed out by BlackBerry represented *over half* of the actual cash reserves it had sitting on its balance sheet. It’s been a few years now since BlackBerry made phones, and this represents its largest purchase to date (by a factor of 3) since its 2015 acquisition of Good Technology. 1/ Cash Is King: The $1.4B

Acquisition 62

Acquisition Artificial Inteligence Balance Sheet Cofounder 62

ReadWriteStart

NOVEMBER 3, 2011

Parallel6 is already clocking over $1 million in revenue and is looking to enhance its customer acquisition and also raise some financing. Then Prashant Singh from Bangalore, India, discussed Statisco Economic Analytics , a risk management technology for managing company balance sheets, interfacing with their ERP systems.

North Carolina 116

North Carolina San Diego Entrepreneur Balance Sheet 116

Up and Running

NOVEMBER 12, 2018

CAC (customer acquisition cost). Balance sheet : Make sure your assets and liabilities balance out to show financial health. Your balance sheet is a snapshot of your businesses’ financial health. Here’s a balance sheet template you can use to get started. MRR (monthly recurring revenue).

Business Plan 63

Business Plan Curation Balance Sheet Intellectual Property 63

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 14, 2012

“it’s smart to use an impending investment valuation to drive a higher acquisition valuation” I would like to amend her statement slightly to read, “it’s smart to use an impending investment valuation to drive an higher acquisition.” Just checked their balance sheet. Christin goes on.

Valuation 316

Valuation Balance Sheet Dilution Term Sheet 316

Steve Blank

JUNE 23, 2016

It’s a lot easier to get these numbers to look great by outsourcing everything, getting assets off the balance sheet and only investing in things that pay off fast. Capital is returned to these investors through liquidity events (originally public offerings, but today mostly acquisitions).

Architecture 227

Architecture IRR Balance Sheet Liquidity Event 227

The Startup Magazine

SEPTEMBER 10, 2019

This is a classic example of Goodwill: Trello’s accounting statement doesn’t justify their $425 million acquisition, but its strong user community and reputation does. From this, founders can learn that Goodwill impacts acquisition pricing in conjunction with current revenue rates and profits. Alpha generation.

Founder 117

Founder Valuation Dividend Startup 117

David Teten

DECEMBER 16, 2015

Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC). Paul took on this initiative after realizing how alarmingly little a P&L and Balance Sheet alone can tell you about what’s really happening at a startup. In addition, we typically ask portfolio companies to report on the following non-financial metrics: Universal Metrics. Users/Customers.

Metrics 60

Metrics Analytics Balance Sheet .Net 60

YoungUpstarts

MAY 23, 2017

Then design, propose and get concurrence on the specific ways you will deliver their personal win and fulfill the hidden and unique motivations that are often not found on contracts, income statements and balance sheets. Demonstrate Your Reliability. Be unreasonably accountable when the unexpected happens.

Balance Sheet 145

Balance Sheet Seattle Retention LLC 145

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 1, 2015

“the ecommerce company gained fauxmentum by raising artificially high amounts of venture capital and spent lavishly on customer acquisition despite long payback periods and questionable LTV” __. In the ecommerce arena I see some great companies spending heavily on customer acquisition. __. faux·men·tum.

Balance Sheet 150

Balance Sheet eCommerce Venture Capital Acquisition 150

Steve Blank

APRIL 8, 2010

They collected information that justified their assumptions about the problem, opportunity, market size, their solution and competitors and the their team, They rolled up a 5-year sales forecast with assumptions about their revenue model, pricing, sales, marketing, customer acquisition cost, etc. It was an exquisitely crafted plan.

Business Model 328

Business Model Business Plan Customer Cap Table 328

Up and Running

MARCH 9, 2022

Everyday business events such as expansion projects, acquisitions, low cash on hand, increased fixed expenses, increased borrowing, and even an increase in sales can be signs that it’s time to reevaluate your business risk. You can find these values on your corporate balance sheet, or you can calculate them on your own.

Equity 136

Equity .Net Balance Sheet Operations 136

Growthink Blog

MAY 30, 2018

Here, a great (and for most mature small businesses, under-utilized) solution is to “strengthen the balance sheet” through an outside capital raise. Then, when deal opportunities present themselves - like strategic partnerships, new hires, marketing campaigns, growth-by-acquisitions, etc.

Balance Sheet 48

Balance Sheet Artificial Inteligence Business Model Acquisition 48

Feld Thoughts

SEPTEMBER 9, 2015

If private capital is no longer available in the future, these companies will seek a public offering or acquisition. Others, Lee acknowledged, may never see their balance sheets add enough zeros to justify the title. In fast growing companies with a balance sheet > $25m I can stomach a $1m / month net burn.

Liquidation Preference 70

Liquidation Preference Burn Rate Balance Sheet .Net 70

The Equity Kicker

FEBRUARY 15, 2013

Most companies choose not to share it widely when they are in acquisition talks because it is destabilising for employees who will start worrying about whether they will keep their jobs and what it might mean for their careers. There is, of course, some information that it isn’t appropriate to share.

Balance Sheet 103

Balance Sheet Acquisition Employee Revenue 103

Steve Blank

MARCH 4, 2014

(A consequence of using these corporate finance metrics like RONA and IRR is that it ‘s a lot easier to get these numbers to look great by 1) outsourcing everything, 2) getting assets off the balance sheet and 3) only investing in things that pay off fast. Corporate KPI’s, Policy and Procedures: Innovation Killers.

IRR 335

IRR Startup Business Model Agile 335

Up and Running

FEBRUARY 8, 2016

Here’s what they discovered: They found firms that quickly institute formal mechanisms such as operation budgets, cash budgets, and financial monitoring systems (tools that measure profitability, customer acquisition costs, variance from actual budget, and so forth) had higher growth rates in terms of revenues and headcount.

Entrepreneur 60

Entrepreneur Software Review Balance Sheet Partner 60

Agile VC

DECEMBER 6, 2012

Unlike a startup that might raise equity financing across several rounds all combined in a single balance sheet, VC’s do not simply commingle these funds into a single bucket to be allocated across all the companies in that firm’s portfolio.

LP 178

LP Balance Sheet Differentiation Limited Partner 178

Ben's Blog

AUGUST 31, 2020

In the past month, Amex announced it would acquir e Kabbage for up to $850 million, while Enova announced it would acquire OnDeck for $90 million; both acquisitions were facing distress due to COVID-related delinquencies. Square, for example, started with its POS payments product and later layered in lending.

IPO 36

IPO Stock Software Review API 36

Agile VC

SEPTEMBER 3, 2013

Microsoft doesn’t need the cash… despite limited growth and paying a substantial dividend, MSFT still generates good cashflow and has >$70B on it’s balance sheet. 3) Triple down on cloud infrastructure & services with Azure and acquisitions. Want names?

Cloud 113

Cloud Azure Phoenix Non-Compete 113

ReadWriteStart

JULY 15, 2020

As a unicorn approaches an exit, the balance sheet needs to make sense. One of their investors, JTC Group has developed a specialty in this arena through a recent acquisition. Venture capitalists and early-stage investors have told all of us, founders are critical to a startup’s valuation.

Valuation 91

Valuation South Carolina San Jose Balance Sheet 91

YoungUpstarts

JULY 31, 2015

IBM leveraged this acquisition with the Catalyst Startup Program , which offers free technical services and mentorship to startups. To start, look at your balance sheet and determine where you spend the most money. In 2013, for example, IBM set out to expand its cloud business. Know Your Options.

Small Business 100

Small Business Balance Sheet Cloud Programming 100