Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 26, 2016

profitable and companies like Amazon who chose to focus on growth > profitability were not losing money on each book sale (ie they were gross margin positive). CAC is often measured incorrectly and doesn’t often doesn’t capture the true costs of acquisition. Customer acquisition cost. Gross margin positive !=

Metrics 150

Metrics Cost Acquisition Startup 150

www.forentrepreneurs.com

FEBRUARY 2, 2010

Blog About Log in Register Startup Killer: the Cost of Customer Acquisition In the many thousands of articles advising entrepreneurs on what they have to focus on to build successful startups, much has been written about three key factors: team, product and market, with particular focus on the importance of product/market fit.

Acquisition 103

Acquisition Cost Customer Entrepreneur 103

ReadWriteStart

JUNE 1, 2020

Instead of funding, you pay the investors a structured royalty, which is a portion of the sales. The bridge or exit stage is generally of very large transactions and for companies with substantial valuation. 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

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 9, 2021

Even if you don’t have a formal board of directors, it pays to have trusted advisors who will give you regular unbiased feedback on your team strengths and weaknesses, financial and operating ratio norms, and an external view of current company valuation issues. Your valuation and salability depends on the credibility of this effort.

Exit Strategy 434

Exit Strategy Valuation Acquisition Metrics 434

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 21, 2021

When you see startups like SpaceX and Pinterest grow from a low valuation to a billion dollars in just a few years, it’s easy to assume that if you just keep doing what you are doing, you can get there as well. Switch your focus from product development to sales. Isolate marketing from sales for maximum customer focus.

Merger 379

Merger Due Diligence SEC IPO 379

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 24, 2017

This required a repeatable and scalable sales process, which required a professional sales staff and a product stable enough that customers wouldn’t return it. This often is a way for founders and early employees to turn some of their stock into cash before an IPO or sale of company. Hire a CEO to Go Public.

Founder 245

Founder Technical Review CTO Hire IPO 245

YoungUpstarts

MARCH 9, 2016

For a young entrepreneur, the mergers and acquisitions process can be exciting and potentially lucrative but it can also be the source of considerable stress. And, at the conclusion of your company’s sale, that you have achieved the post-deal involvement that you wanted, without leaving money on the table. and abroad.

Technical Review 100

Technical Review Due Diligence San Francisco Merger 100

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 26, 2020

For a Series A round you want to prove you have built a repeatable and scalable sales/revenue model and understand all parts of the business model. You need to begin to “instrument” your customer acquisition process with analytics. On the other hand, in a SaaS business $1 in recurring annual revenue equals ~10x in valuation.).

Cofounder 429

Cofounder Seed Stage Valuation Metrics 429

allthingsd.com

AUGUST 24, 2012

Fenwick VC Survey: Q2 Funding Valuations Shoot the Moon. According to Fenwick & West’s latest Silicon Valley Venture Capital Survey , fundings in the second quarter of this year showed the highest valuation increases in more than five years. CCIE - Senior Sales Support Engineering. ATDacquisitions (Acquisitions).

Valuation 45

Valuation Technical Review Silicon Valley Software Review 45

Mucker Lab

MAY 28, 2020

These lost startups land higher valuations, have larger teams, outsource more product development and spend more money on customer acquisition than their peers. Before you indulge in marketing, sales and blinged-out offices, find product-market fit. Why hire a sales team when you have nothing to sell yet?

Startup 78

Startup Cofounder Burn Rate Technical Review 78

Up and Running

APRIL 8, 2019

Perhaps you’re preparing for retirement or for a transition to a new owner —whether it involves a single private owner or a sale to employees. This will require an accurate valuation. While these ideas may seem foreign at first, it’s possible to become as well-versed in small business valuation as your intermediary might be.

Valuation 92

Valuation Small Business CPA Balance Sheet 92

Up and Running

MAY 17, 2017

The sad reality is that many business acquisitions do not work out as hoped. To make your business ripe for acquisition, make your business appealing to potential buyers. In sales, it is a common practice to take the needs, wants, and desires of your potential customer and to present your product or service as a solution.

Acquisition 92

Acquisition Technical Review Revenue Exit Strategy 92

Software By Rob

FEBRUARY 28, 2012

This is final installment of a 3-part series covering my acquisition of HitTail. Could you talk a bit about the diligence you did during the acquisition? Due diligence is the most important part of the process because it dictates whether you should move forward with the acquisition, and at what price. Photo by psiaki.

Acquisition 53

Acquisition Software Review Technical Review NDA 53

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. Those who do, often believe they can hire from the open market without the hassle of an acquisition. of the time my answer is no f **g way].

Early Stage 117

Early Stage Cap Table Acquisition Sales 117

Duct Tape Marketing

FEBRUARY 3, 2022

Since 2015, her company, Barney, has guided over 150 media, marketing & tech companies through acquisitions. 10:25] Are you seeing anybody selling parts of their companies rather than an entire acquisition? [11:19] Look, if you work in sales, wanna learn how to sell or just peek at the latest sales news.

Entrepreneur 79

Entrepreneur Technical Review Cofounder Valuation 79

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 14, 2017

How long does it take me to pay back my original customer acquisition costs? It wasn’t just front-end processes like sales tools, marketing funnels, dynamic pricing, driver routes and so forth but we also had to build comprehensive systems to manage numerous warehouses across four different cities.

Operations 286

Operations New York City Technical Review Startup 286

Steve Blank

APRIL 1, 2020

Sales pipeline/forecast. Others are cutting their valuations. I listened in on a board call with an enterprise software company this week, and when the CEO said, “Our VP of sales assured me our pipeline won’t be affected.” How can you shift focus to customer retention versus acquisition? Internal Assessment.

South Korea 333

South Korea Salary Business Model China 333

Up and Running

JANUARY 14, 2022

Our major challenge was how do we compete with companies that have billion-dollar valuations, millions in investor funding, and millions in revenue? Of those competitors, a few of them have marketing and sales budgets equal to millions of dollars which are used on paid advertising, media mentions, influencers, and more.

SEO 104

SEO Software Review Search Acquisition 104

The Next Web

OCTOBER 7, 2013

As an aside for founders, there is an interesting approach on how to arrive at equity offers outlined by Fred Wilson that may be worth checking out once there is a sense of valuation. Overlooked here is the valuation of the specific startup along its growth trajectory. Are they especially acquisitive? Are there many of them?

Engineer 129

Engineer Dilution Option Pool Vesting 129

Up and Running

OCTOBER 16, 2019

From there, you can seamlessly adjust your forecasts and make adjustments in your business (marketing, sales strategies, production, inventory) as you learn what works and what doesn’t. . Your business plan is a great place to map how your sales and revenue goals fit with your expense budget.

Business Plan 108

Business Plan Small Business Forecast Balance Sheet 108

Up and Running

OCTOBER 16, 2019

From there, you can seamlessly adjust your forecasts and make adjustments in your business (marketing, sales strategies, production, inventory) as you learn what works and what doesn’t. . Your business plan is a great place to map how your sales and revenue goals fit with your expense budget.

Business Plan 108

Business Plan Small Business Forecast Balance Sheet 108

YoungUpstarts

MAY 29, 2011

(However, this does not mean that investors don’t have a significant effect on valuations and M&A). more likely to successfully scale with sales driven startups than with product centric startups. Solo founders take 3.6x longer to reach scale stage compared to a founding team of 2 and they are 2.3x less likely to pivot.

Silicon Valley 207

Silicon Valley Cofounder Technical Cofounder Startup 207

Cracking the Code

MARCH 10, 2008

Measuring sales and marketing effectiveness of SaaS companies. Lets call this ratio the Customer Acquisition Cost ratio or CAC ratio. Labels: SaaS , sales and marketing , software. a new entrant trying to gain awareness in the marketplace investing in various mktg programs and sales to get the lead-gen engine flywheel started)?

Sales 79

Sales Software Review Marketing Technical Review 79

David Teten

DECEMBER 3, 2019

I previously posted a detailed presentation with sales technology tools useful for B2B sales. Many VC funds rely on general-purpose CRM and sales funnel solutions like Copper , Pipedrive, Salesforce , Streak , and ZenDesk. She is a model for us all! 5) Manage relationships (CRM). If you have one, please contact me.

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Software Review Analytics Private Equity 78

Cracking the Code

FEBRUARY 23, 2011

The sales productivity ratio (measured with the Customer Acquisition Cost or CAC ratio) are also fairly similar for the two groups (except for a small cap dip in Q4 09) and therefore do not explain the difference Why is scale so much rewarded by public markets? Detailed SaaS Spreadsheet (Valuation and CAC benchmark).

Software Review 101

Software Review Technical Review Valuation Europe 101

Steve Blank

MAY 29, 2011

(However, this does not mean that investors don’t have a significant effect on valuations and M&A). more likely to successfully scale with sales driven startups than with product centric startups. Solo founders take 3.6x longer to reach scale stage compared to a founding team of 2 and they are 2.3x less likely to pivot.

Technical Cofounder 333

Technical Cofounder Early Stage Startup Silicon Valley 333

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

The Startup Magazine

APRIL 24, 2020

Whether you’re interested in selling a website you built from scratch, or want to sell your Amazon-based B2C brand, there are many different baseline factors that go into determining an appropriate website valuation number. While it’s true that valuations can get quite technical, the basics are relatively easy to understand.

eCommerce 91

eCommerce Valuation B2C Revenue 91

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 117

Founder Valuation Dividend Startup 117

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

YoungUpstarts

JANUARY 29, 2020

Because of this development, many business owners are concerned about business valuation and ideas for transitioning their businesses. There are a number of trusted methods on how to value a private company , describing some of the common business valuation principles. For many, your business is your baby. Set Yourself Apart.

Valuation 142

Valuation Revenue Differentiation America 142

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 13, 2020

If you insist on projecting $100 million in sales the first year, smart investors will likely run for the nearest exit. They prefer a liquidity event such as an IPO or an acquisition by an existing large industry player, with a valuation at that time of five multiples or more of your projected revenues.

Liquidity Event 308

Liquidity Event Forecast Exit Strategy Bootstrapping 308

Hunter Walker

AUGUST 8, 2023

At the time, this is last quarter and the stock market has trended upwards nicely since then (a potential leading indicator of private tech valuations), we all agreed venture portfolios were probably still 25-40% overvalued. Valuations. Soft Acquisition Market. As The Information proclaims, “ Unicorn Fire Sales Ahead.”

Portfolio 98

Portfolio Cap Table LP Valuation 98

ReadWriteStart

MARCH 24, 2011

Additional work in figuring out the precise go-to-market consumer, academic institution, or enterprise - each is a different business), and consequent business model and pricing model will help enhance the company's valuation. Campus sales reps is a good strategy that Chris is experimenting with, as well as marketing to camp directors.

Illinois 114

Illinois Entrepreneur Silicon Valley Chicago 114

ConversionXL

AUGUST 11, 2021

A sponsorship strategy should cover five areas: Assets Audience data Asset valuation Activations Market identification. Sponsors will have different reasons for backing your project: sales, lead generation, brand awareness, product launches , corporate social responsibility, etc. Asset valuation. Audience data.

Audience 139

Audience Social Media Email Ruby 139

Berkonomics

FEBRUARY 9, 2023

Offering too little in an acquisition to satisfy the seller? Satisfy the seller’s need to claim a higher sales price victory by moving a substantial part of the price into a future earn–out or using the target company’s own cash to pay part of the price, or asking the seller to finance a significant piece of the sale.

Naming 62

Naming Warrant Private Equity Valuation 62

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 14, 2012

Did raising money at a $500 million valuation help secure the $1 billion deal? “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.”

Valuation 316

Valuation Balance Sheet Dilution Term Sheet 316