Up and Running

NOVEMBER 12, 2014

Common exit strategies include being acquired by another company, the sale of equity, or a management or employee buyout. We will cover them in more depth below: Acquisition. Initial Public Offering (IPO). Acquisition: The acquisition is often known as a “merger and acquisition.” Liquidation.

Exit Strategy 117

Exit Strategy Lock-up Period Merger IPO 117

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 6, 2014

" Current IPO activity feedback seems to support their excitement. IPO market showed more activity than any other first quarter since 2000, with 64 companies raising $10.6 That is more than double the number of IPOs in the first quarter of 2013. "If Facebook, Yelp and Twitter can do it, then why not me?"

IPO 236

IPO Initial Public Offering Startup Small Business Administration 236

View from Seed

JANUARY 24, 2018

He was previously VP Product at Runkeeper (sold to Asics), a General Manager and Director of Product at Zynga (IPO), and Director of Product at Conduit Labs (sold to Zynga). Reforge provides master classes for experienced practitioners around growth and customer acquisition. Brian Balfour, Founder & CEO of Reforge. Back to Top).

Operations 176

Operations Cofounder Technical Review Angel Investor 176

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 17, 2022

They have no understanding or patience for extra steps and delays caused by bureaucratic processes, disengaged employees, complex networks, or software usability problems. Maximize employee engagement by fitting roles to strengths. For many companies, the long game is choosing the right strategic partners and acquisitions.

Startup 361

Startup Social Media India Acquisition 361

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 21, 2021

Many entrepreneurs never get past their first-stage focus on their innovative product, to scaling the business globally, organizing a structure to handle thousands of employees, and concentrating their focus “on the business” rather than working “in the business.” Utilize mergers and acquisitions to accelerate growth.

Merger 379

Merger Due Diligence SEC IPO 379

Steve Blank

MARCH 16, 2016

This happens when you either sell your company ( M&A ) or go public (an IPO.) As the company goes from searching for a business model to growth , only then will they bring in a new “professional” management team to scale the company (along with a business development executive to search for an acquirer) or prepare for an IPO.

Liquidity Event 120

Liquidity Event Founder Liquidation Preference Venture Capital 120

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 8, 2019

A reverse merger is the acquisition of an already public company (usually a dormant shell) to avoid the Initial Public Offering (IPO) process and cost, to quickly get your startup on a public exchange for fund raising through visibility and selling stock. Yet reverse mergers are not all bad.

Merger 303

Merger OTC IPO Due Diligence 303

VC Cafe

JANUARY 15, 2024

With the IPO window closed, growth funding severely dwindled and multiples down as a result of the public market, unicorns face tough choices in 2024. With limited options for liquidity (M&A or IPO) and significantly less growth capital, unicorns face an uncertain future. trillion, according to CB Insights.

IPO 88

IPO Valuation Private Equity 88

YoungUpstarts

MAY 6, 2019

By offering the advantages of your company, you will be able to find some great employees. Further Customer Acquisition. You need to improve your customer acquisition process. There is a complete process to go for an IPO. After an IPO, you can retire and get a new management to work for the company. Acquisition.

Startup 113

Startup Technical Cofounder Merger Early Stage 113

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. Much of the press on the company’s IPO highlights this fact, which is easy to discern from a casual read of the S-1. What Are Chewy’s Prospects for Profitability?

Leadership 100

Leadership .Net Revenue Acquisition 100

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 16, 2011

It has been at least a decade since going public via an Initial Public Offering (IPO) has been considered a credible exit strategy for startups. Usually a small company can sell about 20 percent of its stock in an IPO. In 1999, there were 486 IPOs nationwide; just 10 years later, in 2009, there were only 63. How’s the timing?

IPO 223

IPO Social Media Media Exit Strategy 223

Up and Running

DECEMBER 1, 2015

If you’re thinking about extending equity to an employee or a vendor (as in the example above), you should know that the topic is multi-faceted. If however you are giving a “normal employee” an incentive stock option plan (more on that later), that’s entirely different. Finding great employees first. What is equity compensation?

Equity 60

Equity Employee Stock Options Vesting 60

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 14, 2009

In theory when you went public, everyone’s shares were now tradable on the stock exchange, but usually the underwriters required a six month “lockup” when company insiders (employees and investors) couldn’t sell. The IPO Bubble – August 1995 – March 2000 In August 1995 Netscape went public, and the world of start ups turned upside down.

Silicon Valley 217

Silicon Valley IPO Technical Review Venture Capital 217

Agile VC

APRIL 17, 2011

GameFly filed in 2010 and remains in registration, though 2011 has seen a positive start for VC-backed IPOs with 14 in Q1 2011. Now that Google’s acquisition of ITA is closed, following lenghty FTC review, it would appear Kayak is poised to proceed with their IPO in the coming months. =. Quinstreet priced at $15.00/sh

Pre-Money Valuation 113

Pre-Money Valuation Liquidation Preference Dividend Common Stock 113

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 3, 2021

For example, if you have ever watched the Shark Tank show on TV, they always ask about the cost of customer acquisition. You need to talk about partnerships, employee roles, distributors, and strategic alliances. Equity investors realize that they won’t see any real return until an exit occurs, such as a sale, merger, or IPO.

Exit Strategy 406

Exit Strategy Merger Angel Investor IPO 406

The Next Web

OCTOBER 7, 2013

From the perspective of my outside friends, why are employees that so clearly impact the growth trajectory of a company look like they’re getting screwed? Startup employees are granted common shares out of something called an option pool. These common shares are granted to founders from the beginning, not employees.

Engineer 129

Engineer Dilution Option Pool Vesting 129

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 13, 2018

A reverse merger is the acquisition of an already public company (usually a dormant shell) to avoid the Initial Public Offering (IPO) process and cost, to quickly get your startup on a public exchange for fund raising through visibility and selling stock. Yet reverse mergers are not all bad.

Merger 198

Merger OTC IPO Due Diligence 198

Haystack

DECEMBER 29, 2018

More and more angels will be minted as the 2019 IPO class emerges. Governments blocking acquisitions, the curtailment of company expansion, more scrutiny on overseas operations of U.S. Influenced by the rapid growth of the bike-sharing craze in China, a savvy Uber employee spun out to create Bird. 3/ Crypto Hibernation.

Technical Review 165

Technical Review Venture Capital Russia China 165

VC Cafe

SEPTEMBER 24, 2021

Another challenge with keeping this list current is that many of the Israeli unicorns ‘graduate’ by getting acquired or going public via SPACs or traditional IPOs. For example, in the case of Ironsource alone, Israeli newspaper Calcalist estimated that over 230 employees made over $1 million.

Lock-up Period 218

Lock-up Period Merger IPO 218

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 15, 2019

They have no understanding or patience for extra steps and delays caused by bureaucratic processes, disengaged employees, complex networks, or software usability problems. Maximize employee engagement by fitting roles to strengths. For many companies, the long game is choosing the right strategic partners and acquisitions.

Social Media 218

Social Media India Acquisition China 218

NZ Entrepreneur

SEPTEMBER 29, 2021

When an employee is not the right fit that person needs to be moved on quickly (kindly and legally) for everyone’s sake, but most acutely because there is very little latitude in a startup for anything slowing progress. Generating liquidity usually entails either selling the venture or an IPO. pivot the business. change the CEO.

Technical Review 88

Technical Review Software Review New Zealand Due Diligence 88

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 3, 2014

A reverse merger is the acquisition of an already public company (usually a dormant shell) to avoid the Initial Public Offering (IPO) process and cost, to quickly get your startup on a public exchange for fund raising through visibility and selling stock. entrepreneur funding IPO reverse merger Stock Exchange' Marty Zwilling.

Merger 246

Merger OTC IPO Stock 246

View from Seed

DECEMBER 6, 2018

To analyze what’s become of the OG Unicorns, it’s first worth noting that at the time of the 2013 post about 2/3rds of the 39 on the list had already been realized via IPO or $1B+ acquisitions. Most startups that hit this level did so via IPO or acquisition value. IPO value, $2.8B IPO value, $1.5B

IPO 120

IPO Valuation San Francisco Silicon Valley 120

Hunter Walker

MAY 13, 2023

Especially in the early days of mobile/iOS engineering, if you hired strong technical talent into your early stage company, you basically created an acquisition outcome floor. Sometimes you’d even get lucky and receive stock in the acquirer, which was how I gained pre-IPO equity in high growth stars like Pinterest and Facebook.

Early Stage 117

Early Stage Cap Table Acquisition Sales 117

This is going to be BIG.

MAY 18, 2012

3) It will get much harder for Facebook to recruit talent, since the promise of the pre-IPO stock pop is gone. 5) Stories of how much money people made as early employees will trickle down to students, who will be more likely to join big companies and start there own businesses. Bigger acquisitions? Entrepreneurs.

IPO 115

IPO Seed Stage Early Stage Green 115

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 7, 2016

Despite the fact that the number of IPOs (Initial Public Offerings) for startups have continued to decrease, I still hear it touted often as the preferred exit strategy. I suspect the exuberance for an IPO is still being driven by the highly visible successes of several companies a few years ago, including Facebook, Yelp, and Twitter.

IPO 120

IPO Initial Public Offering SEC Stock Options 120

Agile VC

FEBRUARY 2, 2012

Facebook S-1: The Most Anticipated IPO in a Decade. Here’s my first look at Facebook viewed through the lens of their IPO filing. 3) Employee Stock Purchases Are a Near-Term ATM - Facebook has issued a combination of stock options and more recently restricted stock units (RSUs) as compensation to employees.

IPO 100

IPO South Korea Venezuela Revenue 100

VC Cafe

AUGUST 3, 2023

Meta of course has an interest in championing B2C startups – most of them use Meta for user acquisition (it’s easier to acquire consumers on consumer platforms like Meta and Instagram, which drives a big proportion of Meta’s revenue. Much has changed since then.

B2C 148

B2C Generative AI Artificial Inteligence 148

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 27, 2011

I find it amusing when a journalist writes an article about a prominent startup (either privately held or preparing for an IPO) and decries that, “They’re not even profitable!” They got a bigger office space so their employees would feel comfortable and they could improve employee retention.

Startup 418

Startup Revenue Technical Review Flash 418

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 31, 2019

He's been with the firm since its inception in 2009 and has overseen its rapid growth, from three employees to 150+ and from $300 million in assets under management to more than $10 billion. Scott Kupor is the managing partner at Andreessen Horowitz, where he’s responsible for all operational aspects of running the firm.

Lean 108

Lean Venture Capital Conversion IPO 108

Haystack

NOVEMBER 24, 2018

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. With this purchase, AutoDesk brings with it 400 employees, 12,000 customers, and software that touches over 120,000 paid users.

Acquisition 62

Acquisition Artificial Inteligence Balance Sheet Cofounder 62

Ben's Blog

OCTOBER 29, 2020

Since then, the debate over IPOs has continued, with a particular focus on allegedly underpriced offerings that jump shortly after opening — the dreaded “pop.” ” As some criticism has it, this supposedly deprives companies of millions of dollars that should have been theirs if not for underpricing the IPO.

IPO 36

IPO Securities and Exchange Commission Demand SEC 36

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 14, 2017

They have no understanding or patience for extra steps and delays caused by bureaucratic processes, disengaged employees, complex networks, or software usability problems. Maximize employee engagement by fitting roles to strengths. For many companies, the long game is choosing the right strategic partners and acquisitions.

Social Media 163

Social Media India Acquisition China 163

Steve Blank

JULY 15, 2010

The collapse of the IPO market and dysfunctional math in the venture capital community has stacked the odds against you. Startup lifecycle in an IPO Market. Netscape’s 1995 IPO changed the rules. Depending on your industry, in this decade it’s 5 to 10x less likely that your company will have an IPO as an exit.

Venture Capital 297

Venture Capital IPO Liquidity Event Entrepreneur 297

prosperati.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

In order for stock options to work, your employees must first have a vision of what stock options can do for them. There must be a healthy acquisition or IPO pipeline in the market. Malaysia unfortunately does not have a good technology IPO pipeline. How do you emulate this culture outside of Silicon Valley?

Offshore 40

Offshore Malaysia Developer Stock Options 40

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 15, 2015

A reverse merger is the acquisition of an already public company (usually a dormant shell) to avoid the Initial Public Offering (IPO) process and cost, to quickly get your startup on a public exchange for fund raising through visibility and selling stock. Yet reverse mergers are not all bad.

Merger 120

Merger OTC IPO Due Diligence 120

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 10, 2010

For entrepreneurs who want to learn about how to work with investment banks, how to position yourself to be acquired and what the IPO markets look like this is the episode to watch. How to investment banks help with the M&A (mergers & acquisitions) process? Should you use investment banks to raise venture capital?

IPO 242

IPO Venture Capital Private Placement Cofounder 242