Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 19, 2011

I recently sat down with Matt Coffin , the founder of LowerMyBills, which sold for $400 million but was very nearly a bankruptcy only a few years early, and talked “startups.&#. He is very hands-on and helpful – especially for any company looking into customer acquisition. He told them it was now or never.

Acquisition 304

Acquisition Warrant Customer Term Sheet 304

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 28, 2021

No matter how passionately you believe that everyone needs one, and positive feedback from friends and early adopters (false positives), before you invest in scaling the business, make sure you set and meet good metrics in cost of customer acquisition, recurring sales, and margin. Mergers and acquisitions also require new skills.

Technical Review 329

Technical Review Merger Software Review Acquisition 329

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 6, 2023

The Founder needs to remember that meetings up to this point have been primarily off-site, with staged demos, and managed personally by the CEO or a small team. Sales and distribution channel activity will be analyzed, as well as cost of customer acquisition, to make an independent assessment of your financial projections.

Technical Review 296

Technical Review Due Diligence Term Sheet Bankruptcy 296

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 15, 2022

What You Can Learn From Public Markets It doesn’t really take a genius to realize that what happens in the public markets will filter back to the private markets because the ultimate exit of these companies is either an IPO or an acquisition (often by a public company whose valuation is fixed daily by the market). What is a VC To Do?

Technical Review 416

Technical Review Pre-Money Valuation San Francisco Valuation 416

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 14, 2022

The key elements of leadership in a company, both individual and organizational, are less tangible, but very critical in setting a market value for investment, acquisition, or going public. For startups, the entrepreneur and founder is almost always the face of the company.

Technical Review 323

Technical Review Due Diligence Valuation Leadership 323

Steve Blank

MARCH 16, 2016

To most founders a startup is not a job, but a calling. Founders can now access the largest pool of risk capital that ever existed –in the form of Private Equity (Angel Investors, family offices , Venture Capitalists (VC’s) and Hedge Funds.). (BTW, What does this mean for startup founders? Here’s the thing most founders miss.

Liquidity Event 120

Liquidity Event Founder Liquidation Preference Venture Capital 120

The Startup Magazine

AUGUST 15, 2022

There are many benefits of selling your startup through a mergers and acquisitions advisor. When selling your startup with a mergers and acquisitions advisor, it’s essential to identify the key employees who have made the most valuable contributions to the business. Hiring a Mergers and Acquisitions advisor.

Merger 130

Merger Acquisition Due Diligence Valuation 130

Haystack

FEBRUARY 1, 2019

In one of the podcast company pitches I said “no” to, the founder (who was very gracious) and I got into a great conversation about why podcasts are so good but also stuck — and he convinced me that the underlying RSS distribution for them is outdated and needs to be built from the ground up.

Acquisition 134

Acquisition Media Audio Technical Review 134

SoCal CTO

MARCH 1, 2010

Startup Killer: the Cost of Customer Acquisition | For Entrepreneurs , February 2, 2010 Looks at the critical equation around customer acquisition cost vs. customer lifetime value similar to what I discussed in Startup Metrics but in more depth. This relates to another great post Freemium Founders: Start Charging for Things Today!

Acquisition 150

Acquisition Cofounder Technical Cofounder Cost 150

The Startup Magazine

DECEMBER 13, 2018

As part of The Startup Magazine Female Founder Series, we interviewed Ms. The two challenges to growth are getting talent acquisitions and developing scalable methodologies and training to onboard and mentor the growing team. . Gabriela Rodil. Gabby is the CEO and Parachuter Par Excellence of Gabriela Rodil & Company.

Technical Review 84

Technical Review Founder Due Diligence Early Stage 84

Version One Ventures

JULY 28, 2014

That’s why we’ve seen example after example of “acqui-hires” in the past few years as well as some very large acquisitions where a big driver was the talent behind a start-up (e.g. However, only a few big companies have truly figured out how to keep founders around after the acquisition. Nest, Beats).

Acquisition 157

Acquisition Silicon Valley Founder Hiring 157

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 26, 2020

You better have lined up a major international expansion, some major acquisition candidates, or a wealth of unfilled orders. Public ownerships usually lends prestige and credibility to your sales, marketing, and acquisition efforts, but it may work counter to your vision of saving the world. Analysts want escalating profits.

Cost 319

Cost IPO Exit Strategy Initial Public Offering 319

This is going to be BIG.

AUGUST 21, 2014

No one wants to be *that* founder--the non-technical founder poking around developer meetups asking for a unicorn with a Github account. Maybe they''re locked up in golden handcuffs post-acquisition of their startup. They can help vet what you''re building, give you credibility in the hiring process and help assess candidates.

Founder 120

Founder Software Developers Software Development Venture Capital 120

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 14, 2022

Don’t forget a viable financial model of costs, margins, customer acquisition, and break-even. All too often, founders fall in love with their products or technology, ignore negative feedback from customers, and spend years building a product based on a vision that no one else shares.

Angel Investor 359

Angel Investor Technical Review Incubator Business Model 359

Feld Thoughts

OCTOBER 3, 2010

As I’ve written in the past, I encourage companies I’m an investor in to continually explore small acquisitions when entrepreneurs have created something that is on their roadmap. AgileZen was one such company and the acquisition has been a successful one for everyone.

Founder 122

Founder Acquisition Software Developers Software Development 122

ConversionXL

OCTOBER 7, 2022

Customer acquisition cost (CAC) is an important metric for any ecommerce business. Put simply, you need a healthy customer acquisition cost for your business to succeed. It’s up to every ecommerce business to find the middle ground between investing too little in customer acquisition and spending beyond your means.

Acquisition 22

Acquisition eCommerce Cost Customer 22

Up and Running

OCTOBER 7, 2019

However, as a founder of a small business or startup, you’re juggling many things. KPIs Every Founder Should Track. Cost per conversion or acquisition: represents the total cost paid for an advertisement in relation to its effectiveness in generating a conversion. . “What gets measured gets done.” .

Founder 71

Founder Retention Metrics Technical Review 71

The Startup Magazine

DECEMBER 13, 2018

As part of The Startup Magazine Female Founder Series, we interviewed Ms. The two challenges to growth are getting talent acquisitions and developing scalable methodologies and training to onboard and mentor the growing team. . Gabriela Rodil. Gabby is the CEO and Parachuter Par Excellence of Gabriela Rodil & Company.

Technical Review 67

Technical Review Founder Due Diligence Early Stage 67

The Startup Magazine

FEBRUARY 11, 2022

With over three decades of experience in private equity investments, acquisitions and mergers, Mark Hauser has developed a keen ability to recognize trends and do his due diligence. In tandem with these efforts toward organic growth, they will also explore opportunities for inorganic growth through acquisitions.

Private Equity 129

Private Equity Equity Technical Review Software Review 129

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 24, 2021

The Founder needs to remember that meetings up to this point have been primarily off-site, with staged demos, and managed personally by the CEO or a small team. Sales and distribution channel activity will be analyzed, as well as cost of customer acquisition, to make an independent assessment of your financial projections.

Technical Review 379

Technical Review Due Diligence Term Sheet Bankruptcy 379

Duct Tape Marketing

DECEMBER 2, 2021

Scaling Your Business Through Acquisition written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing. Roland is an investor, business mentor, Co-founder, and/or Principal of five different Inc. Key Takeaway: Acquisition is a fast way to grow your business. In this episode, Investor and Co-Founder of 5 different Inc.

Acquisition 92

Acquisition Cofounder Audio Portfolio 92

ConversionXL

FEBRUARY 3, 2022

GrowthHackers founder and former Head of Growth at Dropbox, Sean Ellis , coined the term: “A growth hacker is a person whose true north is growth. In his course on Growth Mindset (part of CXL’s Growth Marketing Minidegree ), WeTheFuture.org founder John McBride describes three key components of a successful growth marketer: 1.

Retention 113

Retention Marketing Acquisition Channel 113

Entrepreneurs-Journey.com by Yaro Starak

JUNE 21, 2021

In the previous episode of Vested Capital (EP2), we talked with David Horne and Marty Balkema, founders of Calm Capital. On this episode, Baird Hall, one of the co-founders of Wavve, shares the other side of that acquisition, as the seller of Wavve. They had recently acquired the company Wavve. Baird takes us back in […].

Cofounder 98

Cofounder Acquisition Vesting Founder 98

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 15, 2020

The key elements of leadership in a company, both individual and organizational, are less tangible, but very critical in setting a market value for investment, acquisition, or going public. For startups, the entrepreneur and founder is almost always the face of the company.

Valuation 311

Valuation Technical Review Due Diligence Leadership 311

View from Seed

OCTOBER 11, 2022

Through all of this, what has been obvious is her hunger to serve founders and desire to work with entrepreneurs to bring about the kind of world changing impact we seek to be a part of at NextView. We have a model that allows us to be very flexible in how we engage with founders and co-investors.

Cofounder 156

Cofounder San Francisco Portfolio Limited Partner 156

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 27, 2023

Even though initial stock has no value or market, it is extremely valuable in dividing entity ownership between multiple co-founders, commensurate with their investment, contribution and role. Startup owners need to assume a three to five year wait for a liquidity event, such as acquisition or going public, before they can cash out.

Stock 240

Stock .Net Vesting Founder Vesting 240

VC Cafe

AUGUST 2, 2022

Tim Sweeney, the founder and CEO of Epic is a long term visionary of our online future and the Metaverse. Tim Sweeney, Epic Games’ founder and CEO. billion acquisition of Weta Digital, Peter Jackson’s VFX company, gives Unity capabilities in creating hyper realistic virtual environments using RT3D (real-time 3D) technology.

IP 206

IP Cofounder Valuation Acquisition 206

YoungUpstarts

SEPTEMBER 11, 2013

Just a week after Tech in Asia ( Techinasia.com ) completed its acquisition of fellow Singapore-based blog SGEntrepreneurs (SGE) for an undisclosed sum, the startup and technology blog today announced that it has also acquired Indonesia-based gaming blog GameSaku from Apps Foundry. In the News acquisition Asia GamesInAsia.

Asia 251

Asia Acquisition Indonesia Singapore 251

VC Cafe

FEBRUARY 21, 2023

This is a question startup founders ask themselves multiple times a week. It’s not just the competition against the incumbents and the large tech platforms that founders has to worry about, but most importantly is the company’s performance and product market fit. How are we doing? Hope you find this helpful.

Retention 109

Retention Conversion Churn Rate B2C 109

ReadWriteStart

OCTOBER 2, 2021

Why should a founder entertain this idea? No founder wants to start a business that would only survive for one or two years. One primary consideration in creating a tech startup is the long-term strategy, per the owner/founder’s goals, especially regarding exit. As a founder, explore all your options to play your cards right.

Technical Review 158

Technical Review LLC IPO Stock 158

Entrepreneurs-Journey.com by Yaro Starak

JUNE 18, 2021

David Horne and Marty Balkema are founders of Calm Capital, a holding company with at the time of this recording, 10 companies under management with $8 Million in total annual revenue. The holding company model, popularized by Warren Buffet and Charlie Monger with Berkshire Hathaway, is becoming more and more common in the world of […].

Holding Company 98

Holding Company Acquisition Finance Founder 98

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 1, 2020

In the spirit of helping you prepare and respond positively, I offer my list of the most common new venture founder unexpected realities, with some thoughts on how to mitigate each one: The business seems to be driving you, rather than you driving it. You need all the positive traction you can get to survive and prosper.

Due Diligence 306

Due Diligence Entrepreneur Startup Acquisition 306

YoungUpstarts

MAY 14, 2018

Marks, founder and managing partner of High Rock Partners and author of “ Middle Market M & A: Handbook for Investment Banking and Business Consulting “ Conventional wisdom says that a company grows by reaching new customers, increasing its workforce, expanding marketing or launching new products or services. by Kenneth H.

Acquisition 109

Acquisition Finance Raleigh Mezzanine 109

Hearpreneur

FEBRUARY 1, 2019

Toronto’s Mark Attanasio , co-founder of Hillcrest Merchant Partners, has years of significant experience with advising clients on mergers and acquisitions raising capital and navigating the landscape of general capital markets. In 2017, he embarked on a new venture, founding. Hillcrest Merchant Partners with Donato Sferra.

Cofounder 48

Cofounder Venture Capital Partner Leadership 48

ReadWriteStart

OCTOBER 28, 2010

Do More Faster: TechStars Lessons to Accelerate Your Startup is the new book by David Cohen , founder and CEO of TechStars, and Brad Feld , managing director of Foundry Group. Below is his chapter, Avoid Co-Founder Conflict. A perennial favorite is to decide that each founder should own an equal share. Can any of us be fired?

Cofounder 128

Cofounder Founder Equity Dilution 128

YoungUpstarts

JULY 31, 2019

by Anish Sebastian and Juan Pablo Segura, co-founders of Babyscripts. Founders need seed capital to get their operations up and running, and to begin generating revenue. When founders are wrong (which happens often), that initial seed round runs out quickly, requiring another round of funding — typically referred to as a bridge round.

Cofounder 118

Cofounder Burn Rate Technical Cofounder Seed Capital 118

This is going to be BIG.

JANUARY 18, 2024

Some of these folks are founders and CEOs, but not at high-growth tech startups. Helpful investors should use their sage advice and support of the founder to make them into better, data-driven decision makers to impact a company, instead of relying on their contractually held voting rights. Perhaps they inherited it.

.Net 88

.Net Cap Table Startup Technical Review 88