Agile VC

AUGUST 9, 2012

Governance/Control – Founder/CEO Mark Pincus has sold a good amount of his stock and owns <20% of shares outstanding, but now essentially has unilateral voting control of the company. So I can appreciate why public stock investors would be leery of Zynga and why the stock price has been punished recently.

Stock 160

Stock LBO .Net Valuation 160

ReadWriteStart

JUNE 1, 2020

Let’s take an example – In the case of an internet or app business, the user traction and market penetration is a must. The shares given out can either be common stocks or preferred stocks. ? Debt investment. These phases are focused on inorganic growth, mergers, buyouts, acquisitions, and exit preparation for the business.

Startup 150

Startup Entrepreneur Elevator Pitch Seed Stage 150

Haystack

NOVEMBER 24, 2018

Typically in M&A, all-cash offers are more common when the acquirer dwarfs the target in terms of market cap; otherwise, M&A usually involves stock in the mix, which leads us to believe Cylance wouldn’t have accepted anything but cash — which makes sense given the company was reportedly booking $130M/year with 3,500 customers.

Acquisition 62

Acquisition Artificial Inteligence Balance Sheet Cofounder 62

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 8, 2019

File founder stock election so no taxes are due until exit. Even though the initial stock has no value or market, it is imperative that you document the division of ownership immediately between co-founders commensurate with their investment, contribution, and role. Upgrade your legal business entity to meet growth needs.

LLC 210

LLC Limited Liability Company Cofounder Preferred Stock 210

Agile VC

MAY 26, 2011

is the leading consumer internet company with Terry Semel as CEO. Online social networking is a concept still being evangelized even in Silicon Valley… Friendster is in private beta (wasn’t until Oct 2003 they received Google acquisition offer which they turned down for Kleiner/Benchmark round). link] leehower.

Term Sheet 178

Term Sheet Silicon Valley Technical Review Social Network 178

Agile VC

JUNE 5, 2011

It also puts another chink in the armor of the meme that monster internet companies can only be built in Silicon Valley (LivingSocial, Kayak, Gilt Groupe, CSN Stores, et al doing damage here too). Notes: None of the above should be considered investment advice or a recommendation to buy or sell Groupon stock.

North America 100

North America Chicago Boston Silicon Valley 100

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 17, 2017

It was a stock option incentive related “expense” but I bet you didn’t know that because in an era where we only read the headlines — they must be a train wreck losing billions. The first company represents a normal software company that sells its products directly (either via sales staff or directly off of the internet).

Stock Options 227

Stock Options Startup Dilution Venture Capital 227

YoungUpstarts

OCTOBER 5, 2019

Although it has been difficult for various multinational telecom companies to do acquisition in Iraq, this industry has been enormously growing. This gives it the ability to control this industry effectively and so are its stocks and shares. It completed the AOL acquisition in 2015. Verizon Communications Inc. And GTE Corp.

United Kingdom 104

United Kingdom United States China France 104

This is going to be BIG.

FEBRUARY 26, 2010

We are also one of the stickiest sites on the internet. Knewton's Online Marketing Director is the key partner to the VP, Online Marketing and is responsible for helping the team drive customer acquisition and revenue growth through SEM (paid search), SEO, Affiliate Marketing, and Email.

San Francisco 92

San Francisco CTO Hire Developer EC2 92

Cracking the Code

NOVEMBER 10, 2009

Thoughts from a Venture Capitalist on Software, Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), Cloud Computing, Internet and more. The acquisition of Omniture by Adobe for $1.8B and the second SaaS public transaction in history behind the acquisition of Webex by Cisco in 2007 for $3.2B. internet. (6). How the use of internet is transform.

Software Review 48

Software Review Technical Review IPO Cloud 48

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 16, 2011

Usually a small company can sell about 20 percent of its stock in an IPO. The timing of an IPO is driven heavily by the state of the economy in general and the stock market in particular, in concert with your profitability. Do you need the IPO for your acquisitions strategy? Which stock would you bet on as the leader?

IPO 223

IPO Social Media Media Exit Strategy 223

www.inc.com

SEPTEMBER 24, 2011

Internet and Online Business. Why Arizona Bay started taking stock from its customers instead of cash. Even with the turmoil in the capital markets in the second half of 2007, it was another record year for merger and acquisition activity. Leadership. Strategy and Planning. Human Resources (HR). Employee Benefits. Advertising.

Arizona 40

Arizona Equity Iowa Venture Capital 40

ReadWriteStart

APRIL 18, 2018

Tech stocks blew expectations out of the water in 2017, outpacing the S&P 500 by 21 percentage points. While 2017 certainly marked an exceptional year for tech stocks, it was also a harbinger of things to come. The Internet of Things has already seen some notable acquisitions, including SmartThings , Nest , and Dropcam.

Merger 70

Merger Acquisition Stock Valuation 70

Up and Running

JULY 6, 2021

It’s a business type that minimizes risk and allows you to operate a business remotely without needing to manage stock. As you won’t be holding stock and most likely won’t have a retail premises, your dropshipping business can operate from anywhere in the world with an internet connection. billion by 2025. . Work remotely.

eCommerce 163

eCommerce Startup Business Model Demand 163

The Equity Kicker

SEPTEMBER 5, 2012

Anyone reading this blog will have noticed that the internet has transformed retail. Here’s a definition of drop shipping from the Shopify blog : Drop shipping is a retail method in which you don’t keep products in stock. Retailers managed customer acquisition, stock and logistics.

Stock 104

Stock Acquisition eCommerce .Net 104

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.” You are either bought for stock or for equity.

Valuation 316

Valuation Balance Sheet Dilution Term Sheet 316

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 2, 2008

But the investor is already being compensated for that risk in the low price of the stock, so it is unfair to delay. Its the same with acquisitions. When a company is only two months old, every day you wait gives you 1.7% more data about their trajectory. Fair or not, investors do it if you let them. Even VCs do it.

San Francisco 125

San Francisco Software Review Technical Review Continuous Deployment 125

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 24, 2017

To turn your company’s stock into cash, you engaged a top-notch investment bank (Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs) and/or their Silicon Valley compatriots (Hambrecht & Quist, Montgomery Securities, Robertson Stephens). VCs competing for unicorn investments have given founders control of the board. Not every startup ended up this way.

Founder 245

Founder Technical Review CTO Hire IPO 245

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 25, 2010

High on my list is the joy and satisfaction of having helped many entrepreneurs face-to-face this year, and hopefully many more by my blog reaching out over the Internet. The stock market is up 7.2%, which is finally providing some liquidity relief to concerned investors and startups alike. Mergers and acquisitions pace improving.

Merger 201

Merger Venture Capital United States Acquisition 201

Agile VC

FEBRUARY 28, 2013

I had read somewhere that Apple’s cash pile was equivalent to Hungary’s GDP so I tweeted out the suggestion that perhaps an activist shareholder should push an acquisition of Hungary rather than thinking small (e.g. increasing dividends or issuing preferred stock). My bet is that Apple does none of these things of course.

Hungary 168

Hungary Dividend Vertical Preferred Stock 168

ConversionXL

JUNE 5, 2014

Much of this success can be attributed to their acquisition campaigns that often combine humor with a serious tone that let you know they take pest control very seriously. But for as successful as their acquisition strategies were, they found that it was too easy for customers to cancel & they were losing ?

Retention 115

Retention Customer Developer Programming 115

ConversionXL

JUNE 5, 2014

Much of this success can be attributed to their acquisition campaigns that often combine humor with a serious tone that let you know they take pest control very seriously. But for as successful as their acquisition strategies were, they found that it was too easy for customers to cancel & they were losing ?

Retention 112

Retention Developer Customer Programming 112

ConversionXL

JUNE 5, 2014

Much of this success can be attributed to their acquisition campaigns that often combine humor with a serious tone that let you know they take pest control very seriously. But for as successful as their acquisition strategies were, they found that it was too easy for customers to cancel & they were losing ?

Retention 105

Retention Customer Developer Programming 105

BeyondVC

JULY 23, 2007

The Wall Street Journal announced another Nokia mobile internet purchase today of a company called Twango which allows users to share photos, video, and media. What is at stake is a bigger opportunity that will bring Apple, Nokia, RIM and others head-to-head with the large Internet players like Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft.

Internet 60

Internet Acquisition Vertical Software 60

ConversionXL

JUNE 5, 2014

Much of this success can be attributed to their acquisition campaigns that often combine humor with a serious tone that let you know they take pest control very seriously. But for as successful as their acquisition strategies were, they found that it was too easy for customers to cancel & they were losing ?

Retention 98

Retention Customer Developer Programming 98

Gust

NOVEMBER 4, 2011

Never missing an opportunity for a good war story, I’d like to revisit one high-profile transaction, the $650 million acquisition of MySpace by Fox Interactive Media in 2005, on which I spent many sleepless nights along with the rest of the deal team. Read on for a fuller explanation.

Valuation 98

Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Merger Vesting 98

This is going to be BIG.

MAY 18, 2012

2) Facebook will be hungry for growth in its ad business, and since it is running out of internet connected humans to connect to, it will need tools to make more out of each person. 3) It will get much harder for Facebook to recruit talent, since the promise of the pre-IPO stock pop is gone. Bigger acquisitions?

IPO 115

IPO Seed Stage Early Stage Green 115

Feld Thoughts

OCTOBER 23, 2016

We were all investing in Internet-related stuff at the end of the 1990s. Jerry and Fred had one of the most successful VC funds during this time period until the Internet bubble burst and blew us all up for a while. 1/4 on the Nasdaq Stock Market.” ” Jerry was Fred Wilson ‘s partner at Flatiron Partners.

Merger 70

Merger Stock Internet America 70

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 23, 2012

There are obvious reasons the industry has had less-than-desirable returns, including: massive over-funding of the sector, huge increases in inexperienced venture capitalists that took a decade to peter out, and the massive correction in the value of the public stock markets that closed many exit opportunities for half a decade.

Venture Capital 347

Venture Capital Technical Review LP Mobile 347

Growthink Blog

JUNE 18, 2014

This has mirrored a solid rise in the Public Stock Market, which despite its extremely Poor Long-Term Performance , is up 5.5% And as good as the news has been in the Housing and Stock markets, it pales in comparison to this Golden Age of technology and venture investing that we are currently experiencing. Year-over-Year increase.

Accredited Investor 78

Accredited Investor Private Equity United States Valuation 78

Feld Thoughts

JANUARY 25, 2015

We funded the business with $10 (for ten shares of stock) and my dad personally guaranteed a $20,000 line of credit with his bank. Sure, every now and then something magical happens (very high price point, very low cost of customer acquisition, zero churn), but that’s a serious edge case. Well – almost no money.

Finance 70

Finance Bootstrapping Acquisition Revenue 70

Growthink Blog

JUNE 4, 2012

Why the full future for Facebook and the performance of its stock is yet to be written, as of today it is selling at prices significantly less than at which it traded on popular, private secondary markets like SharesPost and Second Market as recently as three months ago. Compare that to today's financial markets.

Private Equity 72

Private Equity Stock IPO Equity 72

ReadWriteStart

AUGUST 26, 2022

He focuses on investments in fintech, the internet, and software. The vast majority of their customer acquisition is word of mouth. When you put those two things together, you get high-quality customers, high LTV, and acquisition at super low costs. The churn rate increased, and then the stock plummeted by 70 percent.

Partner 132

Partner Cofounder Retention Acquisition 132

Agile VC

FEBRUARY 2, 2012

These companies report gross ad revenue but then subtract out “TAC” (Traffic Acquisition Costs) which is basically accounting-speak for the revenue share they pay to the partner sites where the ads actually appear. Facebook estimates they already have 60% of addressable US internet users. billion in cash profit last year.

IPO 100

IPO South Korea Venezuela Revenue 100

Entrepreneurs-Journey.com by Yaro Starak

NOVEMBER 8, 2010

A friend of mine was into investing in the stock market. I spent a few days with him looking at his 3 monitors set up next to each other and being wowed by all the numbers flying across the screen on the stock tickers. After “studying&# the stock market for 2 weeks, I decided to go all in. MAN, I was so excited.

Internet 75

Internet Affiliate Marketing Germany 75

YoungUpstarts

AUGUST 13, 2012

Others, like Def Jam, have been transformed through mergers and acquisitions. The story of Harvard sophomore Mark Zuckerberg, or at least Hollywood’s version of it, should be familiar to anyone who’s seen The Social Network or spends more than five minutes each week surfing the Internet.

Intellectual Property 118

Intellectual Property New York City Pennsylvania Cofounder 118

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 5, 2010

The Bridge Between Online Services & The Internet: AOL. It was an online community like CompuServe and eventually started offering people dial-up access to the Internet for a monthly fee. AOL was controlled by one company and the Internet was distributed. AOL was closed, the Internet was open. And then came AOL.

Social Network 318

Social Network Networking Internet Technical Review 318