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. Underwriters realized that as long as the public was happy snapping up shares, they could make huge profits from the inflated valuations. Carpe Diem.

Internet 334

Internet IPO Silicon Valley Agile 334

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

Cracking the Code

MARCH 12, 2010

The SaaS growth recovery does not seem to take a "V" shape 2) Sales productivity is ramping up: bottom was hit in the first half of 2009 However, the sales and productivity of the group, measured by the median "Customer Acquisition Cost ratio" or "CAC ratio", seems to be recovering more steeply. SaaS 13 Index Valuation. My Investments.

Software Review 63

Software Review Technical Review Cloud Forecast 63

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 1, 2015

. “the ecommerce company gained fauxmentum by raising artificially high amounts of venture capital and spent lavishly on customer acquisition despite long payback periods and questionable LTV” __. I’m not saying you shouldn’t grow engineering or do PR. We live in heady times. limit your fixed costs.

Balance Sheet 150

Balance Sheet eCommerce Venture Capital Acquisition 150

Lightspeed Venture Partners

NOVEMBER 19, 2012

The company launched six months ago and so far has grown to 110 subscribers, with all customer acquisition coming from PR and referrals. They believed that they could get customer acquisition costs to the $10-12 range, but as Cuban points out, that was just hope, they had no evidence to back this up. The company charges $16/mth.

Pre-Money Valuation 161

Pre-Money Valuation Alabama Valuation Churn Rate 161

Hearpreneur

JANUARY 20, 2021

2- Cut down customer acquisition costs. As a result, we were able to lower the cost of our customer acquisition by ranking on top search results on our search keywords which is extremely important since we are in the event entertainment industry that took a huge hit. Thanks to Marina Shepelsky, Shepelsky Law Group ! #2-

Entrepreneur 118

Entrepreneur Mobile Valuation Global 118

Cracking the Code

OCTOBER 8, 2009

But does Larry hate cloud computing that much or is he hiding a potential future acquisition of Salesforce.com? Detailed SaaS Spreadsheet (Valuation and CAC benchmark). SaaS 13 Index Valuation. Impact of the recession on SaaS Sales&Marketing pr. A funny video of Larry Ellison, the CEO of Oracle on Cloud Computing.

Software Review 48

Software Review Cloud Technical Review Venture Capital 48

www.inc.com

SEPTEMBER 24, 2011

But with the help of Grahams company, which specializes in creating tech systems for start-ups, Jumpstart grew to more than $50 million in revenue--enough to make it an attractive acquisition for media conglomerate Hachette Filipacchi. Learn how from the experts at PR Newswire. Graham was happy for his client. Graham liked the idea.

Arizona 40

Arizona Equity Iowa Venture Capital 40

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 25, 2014

I’ve been having this PR discussion with three separate portfolio companies at once so I thought I’d just publish my thoughts more broadly. I have written many times about PR so if you want a deep dive on the “how” of PR you may enjoy reading some of these posts. PR pays dividends in Biz Dev.

PR 415

PR Early Stage Dividend Acquisition 415

View from Seed

MARCH 8, 2016

Jesse Derris is the founder and CEO of Derris & Company , a PR, branding, and communications firm based in New York. I think it’s important you do some sort of PR activation around launch across the board, because you can only launch once. His firm has worked with companies like Warby Parker, lululemon, Oscar, and more.

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage Conversion Startup PR 120

Agile VC

JANUARY 21, 2015

Not every round of funding is closed at a “monster” valuation. And even acquisitions painted as successes may look very different below the (typically confidential) surface. Don’t shrug off poor sales or user growth, a dysfunctional team, a wave of bad PR, or other challenges confronting the business.

Cofounder 188

Cofounder Seed Stage Employee PR 188

Hearpreneur

JANUARY 13, 2021

2- Cut down customer acquisition costs. As a result, we were able to lower the cost of our customer acquisition by ranking on top search results on our search keywords which is extremely important since we are in the event entertainment industry that took a huge hit. Thanks to Marina Shepelsky, Shepelsky Law Group ! #2-

Entrepreneur 62

Entrepreneur Mobile Valuation Global 62

View from Seed

JANUARY 20, 2015

Not every round of funding is closed at a “monster” valuation. And even acquisitions painted as successes may look very different below the (typically confidential) surface. Don’t shrug off poor sales or user growth, a dysfunctional team, a wave of bad PR, or other challenges confronting the business.

Cofounder 120

Cofounder Startup Employee PR 120

VC Cafe

SEPTEMBER 26, 2010

The newly formed teams then work for the entire weekend, with the help of some experienced mentors from the industry, who volunteer their time to share advice on product, technology, legal, PR and other issues. It’s nice to have protected IP, but that will mostly matter later on in the event of an acquisition. Who to raise from?

Elevator Pitch 102

Elevator Pitch Incubator Technical Review Startup 102

Agile VC

JANUARY 21, 2015

Not every round of funding is closed at a “monster” valuation. And even acquisitions painted as successes may look very different below the (typically confidential) surface. Don’t shrug off poor sales or user growth, a dysfunctional team, a wave of bad PR, or other challenges confronting the business.

Cofounder 100

Cofounder Seed Stage Employee PR 100

Eric Friedman

JUNE 11, 2019

Here are a few I have seen work: PR Opportunity – for the LargeCo. The moves I have seen work here are: Fundraising Event – something is happening on the valuation of the company and you can get someone to start before a third party mark of the stock options/RSU package offered. and they move at a glacial pace.

Term Sheet 68

Term Sheet Stock Options Early Stage Agile 68

Diego Basch

AUGUST 12, 2012

However, the quality of the service had degraded noticeably after the Twitter acquisition (e.g. However, if I had written that email I could have made it much more friendly, as I understand the value of PR (especially with developers and bloggers). I loved Posterous; I thought it was simple, pretty and convenient.

Product 66

Product Customer Stock Green 66

Scalable Startup

JULY 19, 2011

Great PR and finance firms, but not many startups. If you seek maximum scalability, the best capital providers, the best people, the highest valuations, you gotta be in Cali. If you plop your company here, great things could happen. Houses were cheaper, you couldn’t get good engineers, etc. That has all changed.

California 20

California Southern California San Francisco Silicon Valley 20

betashop.com

OCTOBER 8, 2012

Never, ever, choose your investors based on valuation. Alignment of business objectives and personal relationships means tons more than valuation. That means if you’re taking money with a $5M post-money valuation, the expectation is that you are building for a minimum $50M exit. $10M 10M post-money valuation = $100M target.

Technical Review 108

Technical Review Technology Software Review Valuation 108

www.paulgraham.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

So the acquisition came toa screeching halt while we tried to sort this out. If you give an investor new shares equal to 5% ofthose already outstanding in return for $100,000, then youve donethe deal at a pre-money valuation of $2 million. Almost everyone who worked for us was an animal at what they did. Thereis no rational way.

Startup 105

Startup Cofounder Software Stock 105

ReadWriteStart

MARCH 27, 2011

The idea is to build a hit that would make the founder(s) an appealing and quick talent acquisition (sometimes referred to as an acq-hire). Flips, on the other hand, thrive on trends: what better time for an entrepreneur to create a startup than when valuations are up, investments are quick, exits are plenty and deal flow is increase?

Lean 144

Lean Startup Agile Coder 144

Cracking the Code

MARCH 10, 2008

Lets call this ratio the Customer Acquisition Cost ratio or CAC ratio. Detailed SaaS Spreadsheet (Valuation and CAC benchmark). SaaS 13 Index Valuation. Impact of the recession on SaaS Sales&Marketing pr. S&M productivity (CAC ratio) for the SaaS 13 Index. My Investments. CornerstoneOnDemand. anecdotes. (13).

Sales 79

Sales Software Review Marketing Technical Review 79

Cracking the Code

OCTOBER 10, 2008

The top performing SaaS companies typically achieve annual customer renewal rates above 90% - with most of the churn due to death (bankruptcies) or marriage (acquisitions) - and over 100% renewals on a dollar value basis due to up-sells into this installed base. upfront acquisition cost, making the CLTV equal to $2.5-$0.7= means a $0.7

Software Review 48

Software Review North America Europe Metrics 48

Haystack

JANUARY 13, 2020

Plaid is known within the startup and VC community as a strong company, but it is also a relatively quiet company in terms of its own PR and social media chatter. Windfall events are almost required to extend one’s lifespan in the Bay Area these days, and this acquisition certainly qualified as one for those involved. 2/ API FTW.

Acquisition 74

Acquisition Cap Table API Venture Capital 74

Cracking the Code

FEBRUARY 4, 2008

Among others, I would quote the Bladelogic IPO, the acquisition of Postini by Google for $625m, the two largest SaaS deals in history signed by Cornerstone OnDemand (160k and 350k seats), Eloqua almost doubling its revenues and LinkedIn adding more than 10m users. Detailed SaaS Spreadsheet (Valuation and CAC benchmark). anecdotes. (13).

Software Review 48

Software Review South Korea IPO Portfolio 48

This is going to be BIG.

SEPTEMBER 12, 2022

It didn’t help that her and her co-founder cashed out a pile of money during one of their fundraising rounds without saying anything to early investors—who, at that valuation, could have gotten something like a 15x+ return if I recall correctly. As a generally active board member when I invest, I lay a lot of this blame on the board.

Cofounder 121

Cofounder Venture Capital Community PR 121

crowdSPRING Blog

JUNE 19, 2015

The Secret Math of Airbnb’s $24 Billion Valuation - buff.ly/1MMxkB5. Why CEOs Need a Talent Acquisition Strategy crowdspring.co/1MGkmFF. Important Financial Indicators for Startups at Every Stage of Growth | Mattermark – buff.ly/1MN374Y. What Shape is Your Competitive Advantage? Coding VC – buff.ly/1FnIg2x. 1IYclxm.

Small Business 48

Small Business Design Tennessee Social Media 48

steveblank.com

JULY 8, 2011

I sold to you & PR function back in the day (SuperMac) and others to the many companies dating back, but finally E.piphany ~ MediaMap (now is Cision). Thanks for a Great Post. Reply Mary B. , on June 5, 2011 at 1:15 am said: Stumbled on your page by serendipity. Amazing list. The best part though is the tenacity link.

Software Review 110

Software Review Startup Silicon Valley Analytics 110