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. =. Pre-money valuation was approx.

Pre-Money Valuation 113

Pre-Money Valuation Liquidation Preference Dividend Common Stock 113

Haystack

NOVEMBER 12, 2018

Last night, SAP bought the company before it could IPO. In the wake of what is now considered the second-highest enterprise SaaS acquisition in history, below are some quick takeaways that are on my mind: 1/ The Efficiency Of Silicon Slopes – By now it should be no surprise that Utah’s tech ecosystem is on fire.

Acquisition 105

Acquisition Utah IPO Venture Capital 105

View from Seed

DECEMBER 4, 2019

Over the last 10 years, we’ve been in a bull market with considerable froth in late stage financing activity and valuations. The cases of WeWork and Uber cast a cloud of doubt over funds that are largely driven by one or two outlier companies that may have a tremendous valuation, but shaky underlying business metrics.

LP 256

LP IRR Distribution Portfolio 256

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 12, 2010

In the technology world there are a few websites that most startups track to keep up with the latest financings, acquisitions, product announcements and gossip: BusinessInsider, TechCrunch, Mashable, GigaOm, etc. Specifically we talked about Slide having gotten a $550 million valuation before being sold to Google for $182 million.

Seed Stage 232

Seed Stage Valuation Private Equity Venture Capital 232

Haystack

DECEMBER 29, 2018

More and more angels will be minted as the 2019 IPO class emerges. Also during this time, the underlying metrics in that business can change positively, potentially trapping companies to accept the initially-agreed upon valuation. by a mile, continued to soar in volume and valuation. That will take a long time to settle.

Technical Review 165

Technical Review Venture Capital Russia China 165

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 21, 2009

Projected IPOs for 2009 are an embarrassing 10 total deals, down from 86 just 2 years ago (it was 265 in the go-go years of 99-00) but at least up from 6 in 2008. Fred Wilson supports Montgomery’s view in this thoughtful post on the return of the tech IPO market. What have been your experiences in the past 6 months?

Technical Review 241

Technical Review IPO Southern California Venture Capital 241

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

YoungUpstarts

MARCH 11, 2015

With the daily demands of running a business along with the financial pressures and challenges inherent in early-stage companies, a business valuation may not be the first thing an entrepreneur thinks of when he awakes each morning. When does a startup company need a business valuation? The timing will vary depending on the purpose.

Valuation 100

Valuation Stock Options CPA Merger 100

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 22, 2020

The new investors you need at this stage are investment bankers, private equity, or competitors, to buy you out via merger or acquisition (M&A), or to go public with an Initial Public Offering (IPO). This is the exit stage for the entrepreneur, and for all earlier investors.

Angel Investor 370

Angel Investor Intellectual Property Investment Bankers Private Equity 370

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 15, 2010

I think everybody heard about this acquisition. billion valuation. They only recently raised $30 million at around a $300 million valuation and THAT raised eyebrows. On the founder’s side it’s about taking money off of the table and / or having strategic reserves for big acquisitions. M&A Discussion.

Venture Capital 271

Venture Capital Affiliate Valuation San Francisco 271

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 3, 2015

For financial reasons alone, an IPO is a statistically rare phenomenon, happening just 275 times in 2014 , out of almost 500,000 startups. As an advisor and mentor to startups, I try to make sure entrepreneurs understand both the pros and cons of an IPO as an exit strategy. Control moves to external directors and the public.

IPO 120

IPO Initial Public Offering Entrepreneur Private Equity 120

View from Seed

DECEMBER 6, 2018

It’s almost exactly 5 years since Aileen Lee first coined the term “unicorn” in reference to startups with $1 billion+ valuations. 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.

IPO 120

IPO Valuation San Francisco Silicon Valley 120

Agile VC

MAY 26, 2011

Google is still a private company (their IPO was Aug 2004). 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). It was a $4.7M link] leehower.

Term Sheet 178

Term Sheet Silicon Valley Technical Review Social Network 178

Start Up Blog

FEBRUARY 20, 2012

The upcoming Facebook IPO is a very interesting scenario. There are a lot of facts and figures being thrown around, but from my point of view I’m interested in just a few of them and what they mean for tech entreprepreneurs: 100 Billion Valuation: If the IPO is successful the expected valuation is 33 times their current revenue.

IPO 76

IPO Valuation Acquisition Stock 76

The Equity Kicker

APRIL 27, 2012

It is now two and a half weeks since Facebook announced its $1bn acquisition of Instagram yet people are still talking about how and why such a young startup with no revenues achieved such a high valuation. If the gossip and rumours are to be believed Instagram employed two pretty standard tactics to maximise their valuation on exit.

Valuation 109

Valuation Security IPO Acquisition 109

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

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

The Startup Magazine

SEPTEMBER 10, 2019

Asset valuation. The concept of asset valuation may seem counterintuitive, but it is an important idea. Most financial valuation formulas value an asset by discounting the asset using the cost of capital (interest rate) to the present day. Compared to Accounting, Finance is ruthlessly forward looking. Alpha generation.

Founder 118

Founder Valuation Dividend Startup 118

Steve Blank

MARCH 18, 2011

The signals are loud and clear : seed and late stage valuations are getting frothy and wacky, and hiring talent in Silicon Valley is the toughest it has been since the dot.com bubble. With Netscape’s IPO , there was suddenly a public market for companies with limited revenue and no profit. Carpe Diem. Breathtaking Scale.

Internet 334

Internet IPO Silicon Valley Agile 334

Start Up Blog

FEBRUARY 20, 2012

The upcoming Facebook IPO is a very interesting scenario. There are a lot of facts and figures being thrown around, but from my point of view I’m interested in just a few of them and what they mean for tech entreprepreneurs: 100 Billion Valuation: If the IPO is successful the expected valuation is 33 times their current revenue.

IPO 48

IPO Valuation Acquisition Stock 48

ReadWriteStart

JANUARY 3, 2011

That's a five-fold increase from the 8 IPOs that raised $903 million in 2009. Exit activity is staging a comeback but capital netted lagged as large M&As and IPOs were still uncommon in 2010," said Jessica Canning, director of global research for Dow Jones VentureSource. 514 companies achieved liquidity in 2010, netting $39.3

IPO 118

IPO .Net Capital Gains Acquisition 118

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 19, 2018

The new investors you need at this stage are investment bankers, private equity, or competitors, to buy you out via merger or acquisition (M&A), or to go public with an Initial Public Offering (IPO). This is the exit stage for the entrepreneur, and for all earlier investors.

Angel Investor 184

Angel Investor Intellectual Property Investment Bankers Private Equity 184

Cracking the Code

NOVEMBER 10, 2009

While poised with a limited number of transactions this year, the world of public Cloud Computing and SaaS companies has been marked by two events in the past few months: the acquisition of Omniture by Adobe and the high profile IPO of LogMeIn, a leading provider of PC remote access and support with a very interesting freemium model.

Software Review 48

Software Review Technical Review IPO Cloud 48

Rob Go

DECEMBER 28, 2011

IPO’s/Exits. Kayak: Registered for an IPO but on hold. Raised $174M in its IPO in April, current market cap ~$550M. in its IPO, current market cap of $282M. Ebay’s third largest acquisition in the last 3 years. Tripadvisor: An amazing entrepreneurial story. market cap. 61M in Q3 revenue, up 28% YoY.

Technical Review 54

Technical Review Boston Software Review IPO 54

Version One Ventures

OCTOBER 7, 2014

Its customer acquisition costs are roughly 85 times that of Moz (if Krager’s figures are accurately comparing apples to apples). After the IPO, they can recover those losses. As soon as your business stops growing, your valuation multiples come crashing down and you can be in serious trouble. Hubspot made $161.8 Moz made $72.5

Initial Public Offering 148

Initial Public Offering IPO SEC Valuation 148

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. Plus Facebook has ample cash on hand today and will get a huge slug more from the IPO. How to Evaluate Firms for a Seed VC. How To Think About The Future. February 2, 2012.

IPO 100

IPO South Korea Venezuela Revenue 100

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

David Teten

JANUARY 19, 2021

The value ascribed by subsequent investors (in a secondary); buyers (acquisition); or the public markets (IPO). Yes, via conversion rights at a valuation cap. Yes, via conversion rights at a valuation cap. Yes, typically preferred equity. 15-20% sold per round. Volatile, uncapped. Flexible VC: Revenue -based.

Cofounder 78

Cofounder Technical Review Equity Dividend 78

Version One Ventures

JUNE 30, 2021

It is also the first IPO in the Version One family and hence, a special milestone for us as a fund. Ada, Outreach and Shippo all raised hefty rounds this quarter and reached the one-billion-unicorn valuation mark! valuation. . valuation. . Shippo raised a $50M round led by Bessemer Venture Partners at a $1B valuation. .

Portfolio 60

Portfolio Valuation Canada IPO 60

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

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 8, 2010

We covered the following and much more: - FourSquare ( rumors of both an $80m pre money or a $100 million acquisition ). My answer: “no.&# I believe that the team is high potential but the valuation seems stratospheric to me for the stage of the company. Quora ( funding led by Benchmark at a crazy valuation: $86 million ).

Venture Capital 232

Venture Capital IPO Valuation Deal Flow 232

Growthink Blog

APRIL 15, 2015

For those in the bubble camp, Domo is “ Tech Unicorn ,” a recent start-up worth, either through a financing, an acquisition or IPO, more than $1 billion usually without any meaningful profits to speak of and thus instead valued via reasonings and justifications far outside of the pale of traditional finance and accounting.

Valuation 48

Valuation Venture Capital Finance Acquisition 48

Gust

NOVEMBER 4, 2011

Entrepreneurs and investors who have spent any time dealing with convertible debt seed financing transactions are likely to have encountered the subject of valuation caps. Valuation caps can come into play in settings other than seed-stage convertible note financing rounds. Read on for a fuller explanation. by February 2006).

Valuation 98

Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Merger Vesting 98

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 22, 2008

is an elegant way to model any service-oriented business: Acquisition Activation Retention Referral Revenue We used a very similar scheme at IMVU, although we werent lucky enough to have started with this framework, and so had to derive a lot of it ourselves via trial and error. The AARRR model (hence pirates, get it?)

San Francisco 167

San Francisco CPA SEM CTO Hire 167

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 4, 2014

The new investors you need at this stage are investment bankers, private equity, or competitors, to buy you out via merger or acquisition (M&A), or to go public with an Initial Public Offering (IPO). This is the exit stage for the entrepreneur, and for all earlier investors.

Angel Investor 232

Angel Investor Intellectual Property Investment Bankers Private Equity 232

The Equity Kicker

APRIL 11, 2012

I’m just back from a week skiing and visiting relatives and the big news whilst I’ve been away is undoubtedly Facebook’s $1bn acquisition of Instagram. I think the answer is pretty clear – it’s all about Facebook’s IPO price. In this case Facebook’s pending IPO make it particularly easy to understand the logic.

IPO 110

IPO Valuation Forecast Acquisition 110

View from Seed

MARCH 24, 2015

These are private sales of a minority position in these companies, not IPOs or acquisitions. There is a shocking disconnect between public market valuations and private market valuations. In particular, I feel a few things really strongly: 1. $1 1 billion private financings do not equate $1 billion of company value.

Valuation 120

Valuation Startup IPO Finance 120