View from Seed

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 214

Leadership .Net Revenue Acquisition 214

Ben's Blog

AUGUST 31, 2020

IN THIS EDITION Fintech products ease more Americans into the stock market In defense of the IPO, and how to improve it What’s inside your (mobile) bank? The proof is seemingly obvious: IPOs are 50x oversubscribed! An IPO is far from perfect, but this narrative is almost completely false. Thanks for signing up.

IPO 36

IPO Stock Software Review API 36

abovethecrowd.com

AUGUST 23, 2020

If you are looking past or through Covid — and why not, all of Wall Street is — the topic du jour in Silicon Valley is Special Purpose Acquisition Companies, or SPACs. So while the underpricing and true cost of capital of a traditional IPO is trending worse, the economics behind SPACs are actually improving.

IPO 118

IPO Silicon Valley Warrant Matching 118

David Teten

MARCH 5, 2021

We reviewed CB Insights’ global list of “40 of the Best VC Bets of all Time.” Kauffman Fellows Report (2020): “Diverse Founding Teams generate higher median realized multiples (RMs) on Acquisitions and IPOs]. What can we learn from the best 40 venture capital investments of all time? Of the 43 U.S.-based

Cofounder 78

Cofounder Founder Technical Cofounder Technical Review 78

Cracking the Code

NOVEMBER 10, 2009

Cracking The Code. 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. Subscribe in a reader.

Software Review 48

Software Review Technical Review IPO Cloud 48

Duct Tape Marketing

SEPTEMBER 29, 2022

Questions I ask Mike Evans: [1:46] Could you give us a high-level overview of the startup of Grubhub to IPO to what you’re doing now? 7:52] Was there competition that you had to buy up, and/or what type of acquisitions did you feel like you had to make? [9:19] Click on over and give us a review on iTunes, please!

Founder 82

Founder Chicago Kansas Startup 82

Steve Blank

AUGUST 19, 2013

has gone offshore primarily due to the toughened regulatory environment. For exits, acquisitions are the rule and IPOs the exception. Yep, it cost 80 times more to get a successful drug developed and approved today than it did 60 years ago. Pharma companies are staggering under the costs.

Venture Capital 301

Venture Capital Startup Lean Philadelphia 301

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

Rob Go

DECEMBER 28, 2011

So I thought I’d jot down some of the highlights I have seen from my vantage point in this 2011 Boston Consumer Web Year in Review. IPO’s/Exits. Kayak: Registered for an IPO but on hold. Zipcar: Ok, not exactly consumer web/software, but a great consumer tech company nonetheless. market cap.

Technical Review 54

Technical Review Boston Software Review IPO 54

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 12, 2018

We would have gladly followed Jamie (and Josh Roth, the CTO who is phenomenal and we’ve also known for a decade) right through an IPO if we could have. Hardware + Software The world is filled with investors who will tell you, “We don’t do hardware.” We funded the seed round, the A round, the B round, C round, D round and E round.

Security 247

Security Los Angeles Silicon Valley Video 247

VC Cafe

JANUARY 24, 2012

The communications and software sectors followed with 20% and 19% of the total investment respectively. Israeli companies are attractive acquisitions for International players such as Apple, HP, Microsoft, which contributes to their attractiveness for VCs. Mid and later stage companies attracted $1.48 million average in 2010.

Technical Review 111

Technical Review IPO Seed Stage 111

Ben's Blog

MAY 24, 2021

IPO market. Prior to joining Andreessen Horowitz, I held several executive positions in a publicly-traded software company and was previous to that an investment banker. With the benefit of increasing IPOs in the last few years, we are starting to see better growth: In 2020, there were close to 500 IPOs in the U.S.,

SEC 36

SEC Accredited Investor IPO Technical Review 36

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 14, 2009

On top of all this it was considered very bad form not to have at least four additional consecutive quarters of profits after an IPO.) The IPO Bubble – August 1995 – March 2000 In August 1995 Netscape went public, and the world of start ups turned upside down. Tech acquisitions went crazy at the same time the IPO market did.

Silicon Valley 217

Silicon Valley IPO Technical Review Venture Capital 217

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!” Fast early growth in a market is often eroded when competition gets fierce and prices are forced down due to competition. Not necessarily.

Startup 418

Startup Revenue Technical Review Flash 418

VC Cafe

FEBRUARY 15, 2017

Orcam was created by the founders of Mobileye (NYSE: MBLY and one of Israel’s largest IPOs ), Prof. YouAppi (2011)- YouAppi creates adtech to streamline mobile user acquisition. Dragonera (2016) – AI based software development service. Amnon Shashua and Ziv Aviram (great interview with them here ).

Artificial Inteligence 122

Artificial Inteligence Technical Review Startup 122

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. =. Kayak Software Corporation.

Pre-Money Valuation 113

Pre-Money Valuation Liquidation Preference Dividend Common Stock 113

Cracking the Code

OCTOBER 10, 2008

Cracking The Code. Thoughts from a Venture Capitalist on Software, Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), Cloud Computing, Internet and more. Save Asia for post-IPO Single instance, multi-tenant, single datacenter - Have only one version of the code in production. Labels: SaaS , sales and marketing , software.

Software Review 48

Software Review North America Europe Metrics 48

online.wsj.com

SEPTEMBER 23, 2012

Computer Software. Media & Marketing. Small Business. More Industries. Accounting. Advertising. Broadcasting & Entertainment. Computer Hardware. Consumer Products. Defense & Aerospace. Financial Services & Insurance. Food & Tobacco. Hospitality. Industrial Goods & Services. Marketing & Strategy. Media Agencies. Metals & Mining. NAME Comcast.

Venture Capital 107

Venture Capital Software Review Rhode Island North Dakota 107

venturebeat.com

JULY 12, 2012

Acquisition. Additionally, he’s looking for companies that have a long-term potential to be Microsoft partners or acquisitions. It was fiercely independent, and was, until its HP acquisition, one of the few PC makers still assembling computers in North America. Backup Software. Blog Software. CRM Software.

Detroit 69

Detroit Incubator Technical Review Venture Capital 69

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 23, 2012

Looking ahead at the next decade I am excited by what I believe will be viewed as one of the best and most rational investment periods for venture capital due to seven discrete factors: 1. If you want to understand the details of why this is, I covered it in detail in this post, Understanding Changes in the Software Industry.

Venture Capital 347

Venture Capital Technical Review LP Mobile 347

ConversionXL

NOVEMBER 29, 2018

If freemium still seems like a barrier to acquisition, you’ve got plenty of money in the bank, and you’re crossing your fingers for a buyout by Google or Facebook, a fully free product may make the most sense. Nonetheless, sharpening targeting for user acquisition or offering a trial only to some users (e.g. Free-trial models.

Customer 119

Customer Conversion Acquisition B2B 119

VC Cafe

JANUARY 24, 2012

The communications and software sectors followed with 20% and 19% of the total investment respectively. Israeli companies are attractive acquisitions for International players such as Apple, HP, Microsoft, which contributes to their attractiveness for VCs. Mid and later stage companies attracted $1.48 million average in 2010.

Technical Review 60

Technical Review IPO Seed Stage 60

www.vccafe.com

MARCH 11, 2013

VC Cafe highlights everything you need to know from hosting your code in hackathons to open source legal docs. s the new way to code, and quite easy to learn. You can write back end code in javascript, one language conquers all! Code Igniter. Code Hosting and Version Control. code spaces (svn). WorkingPoint.

Software Review 53

Software Review Technical Review Startup 53

Austin Startup

APRIL 27, 2019

HomeAway is another one of our five tech IPOs in the last five years. the business was the same and through acquisitions it became to be worth $1.33 voice of their customers and talk them off the ledge that negative reviews wouldn’t tank their overall sales. As of today, RetailMeNot is worth $1.33 It is just four-years old?—?for

B2C 51

B2C Austin Cofounder IPO 51

David Teten

JANUARY 10, 2012

Michael was the lead research analyst for the IPOs of Internet companies like UUNET, Yahoo!, He has been granted two software patents, and has multiple patents pending. He was named among the World’s Top 100 Young Innovators by MIT Technology Review and received the TR100 award in 2002.

Technical Review 128

Technical Review Technology North Carolina Switzerland 128

paulgraham.com

SEPTEMBER 23, 2012

Writing software is a great way to solve (b), but you can still end up constrained in (a). If you write software to teach Tibetan to Hungarian speakers, youll be able to reach most of the people who want it, but there wont be many of them. If you make software to teach English to Chinese speakers, however, youre in startup territory.

Startup 111

Startup Technical Review Software Review Acquisition 111

Austin Startup

MARCH 2, 2019

I made very few edits to the original post, mostly in the area of readability and grammar (not in substance of content): Spurred on by my recent Lucky7 post on how capital efficient Bazaarvoice was on its path to IPO , two friends sent me great posts this week on entrepreneurship and risk. I served as Chairman leading up to the acquisition.]

Advisory Board 51

Advisory Board Cofounder Greece Bootstrapping 51

Cracking the Code

FEBRUARY 4, 2008

Cracking The Code. Thoughts from a Venture Capitalist on Software, Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), Cloud Computing, Internet and more. A few times per year, Bessemer organizes a CxO event for our portfolio companies and we decided to focus our first session of 2008 on Software-as-a-service (SaaS). Save Asia for post-IPO.

Software Review 48

Software Review South Korea IPO Portfolio 48

crowdSPRING Blog

NOVEMBER 11, 2011

Zynga Leans On Some Workers to Surrender Pre-IPO Shares – [link]. From Deadpool to Acquisition: Lessons From Sprouter’s Almost Fail – [link]. Legal Contracts for Software Developers Who Hate Contracts (w/free contract template tco use today) – [link]. Very shady, if true.

Social Media 94

Social Media Small Business Design CTO Hire 94

prosperati.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

As a result, local universities here churn out thousands of new graduates each year who can spell Microsoft but understand nothing about proper software engineering. Silicon Valley is a great place for technology startups in no small part due to its culture of entrepreneurship and innovation. Culture creation is not easy.

Offshore 40

Offshore Malaysia Developer Stock Options 40

Cracking the Code

MARCH 10, 2008

Cracking The Code. Thoughts from a Venture Capitalist on Software, Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), Cloud Computing, Internet and more. Lets call this ratio the Customer Acquisition Cost ratio or CAC ratio. Labels: SaaS , sales and marketing , software. Cracking The Code on Facebook. software. (10).

Sales 79

Sales Software Review Marketing Technical Review 79

www.paulgraham.com

APRIL 28, 2010

I wassurprised recently when I realized that all the worst problems wefaced in our startup were due not to competitors, but investors.Dealing with competitors was easy by comparison. In an IPO, it might not merely addexpense, but change the outcome. Those remedial actions can delay, stall or even kill the IPO.

Technical Review 76

Technical Review Startup Software Review Angel Investor 76

discuss.joelonsoftware.com

NOVEMBER 1, 2010

(Not logged on) | Register | Log On Home Discuss Jobs About The Business of Software A community discussing the business of software, from the smallest shareware operation to Microsoft. A part of Joel on Software. This community works best when people use their real names. Please register for a free account.

Sweat Equity 40

Sweat Equity Equity Angel Investor Affiliate 40

Mucker Lab

APRIL 6, 2023

You engage the marketing team and you do a lot of acquisition and people are coming. You can begin to work on position a little bit, but the early acquisitions are there to give you more users to work on to continue to build out the product. Then, any marketing budget or any acquisition effort you do at large scale is not wasted.

Product 78

Product CTO Hire Startup Fractional CTO 78

pandodaily.com

NOVEMBER 29, 2012

Meanwhile, the rash of early liquidity and recent IPOs — unsatisfying as they were — gave liquidity to thousands of employees at large companies, and a subset of those made very real money. This time around, there has been an explosion at the early stages, and the very late pre-IPO growth stages. The Week in Review.

Technical Review 93

Technical Review Silicon Valley Incubator Syria 93

Duct Tape Marketing

JULY 27, 2023

Click on over and give us a review on iTunes, please! You just wake up one morning, you get an email and say, yeah, yeah, we're excited that later today there'll be a press release announcing our acquisition through this company. Like this show? You don't know when these things are gonna happen. And you're like, dividend.

Cofounder 57

Cofounder Artificial Inteligence New Zealand Analytics 57

BeyondVC

APRIL 1, 2004

I was with a banker today talking about the influx of new IPO filings and the end result of our discussion was the following: 1. In this quarter, we failed to close several transactions due to customers’ merger and acquisition activities. What this also shows is the enterprise software business is a tough game.

Software Review 60

Software Review IPO Merger Revenue 60