Agile VC

JUNE 13, 2019

The company launched in 2011 and then was acquired by PetSmart for over $3 billion in 2017 (PetSmart itself owned by PE firm BC Partners), but Chewy is now preparing for life as a standalone public company. 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.

Leadership 100

Leadership .Net Revenue Acquisition 100

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 7, 2008

In addition to presenting the IMVU case, we tried for the first time to do an overview of a software engineering methodology that integrates practices from agile software development with Steves method of Customer Development. Ive attempted to embed the relevant slides below. What about a hardware business with some long-lead-time components?

Customer Development 131

Customer Development Engineer San Francisco Developer 131

Agile VC

MARCH 8, 2012

Tech IPOs Are Back – So Now What? Three of the five “blockbuster” tech IPOs I predicted have happened (LinkedIn, Groupon, Zynga) and the biggest of all (Facebook) has filed and will likely go public within the next 90 days. I see several dynamics at work in today’s IPO markets. March 8, 2012.

IPO 100

IPO Silicon Valley Revenue Seed Stage 100

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. =. Quinstreet priced at $15.00/sh

Pre-Money Valuation 113

Pre-Money Valuation Liquidation Preference Dividend Common Stock 113

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 27, 2014

Many have disappeared, and others have forgotten how to be agile and innovative. They have too many highly paid partners, fat fees, an aging corporate infrastructure and difficulty raising money from institutions. VCs tend to carry their partners much longer, in hopes of a big public offering (IPO) that could produce a windfall.

Angel Investor 260

Angel Investor Silicon Valley Startup Portfolio 260

Agile VC

FEBRUARY 2, 2012

Facebook S-1: The Most Anticipated IPO in a Decade. My partner Rob also wondered if Facebook is the next Yahoo! , 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.

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. VC’s invested their limited partners’ “risk capital” in a portfolio of startups in exchange for illiquid stock. Startup lifecycle in an IPO Market. Netscape’s 1995 IPO changed the rules.

Venture Capital 302

Venture Capital IPO Liquidity Event Entrepreneur 302

Agile VC

MAY 26, 2011

Google is still a private company (their IPO was Aug 2004). The terms and valuation for both offers were comparable and when the team debated which path to choose, we all agreed both firms would have made good partners. And obviously all the liq prefs went away in the IPO when pref stock converted to common. great insight.

Term Sheet 178

Term Sheet Silicon Valley Technical Review Social Network 178

Agile VC

MARCH 13, 2012

And at PayPal we were hit with a couple patent disputes while in the midst of our IPO process. With Facebook in the late innings of its IPO process, Yahoo! in court if necessary even if it meant delaying their IPO slightly. So put in the context of Facebook’s IPO process and a new Yahoo! execs involved.

IP 100

IP IPO Social Network Silicon Valley 100

Agile VC

NOVEMBER 7, 2019

Companies are retrenching, VC firms are going through their own upheavals, and IPOs are non-existent. But overall this is a period where the IPO market remains largely closed to VC-backed startups. And even Facebook has a shambolic first day of trading and trades below its IPO price for over a year. Rowe Price, hedge funds, etc.

IPO 100

IPO Early Stage Cofounder B2C 100

Steve Blank

AUGUST 5, 2010

I think you can blame Customer and Agile Development for a small part of it. In 1980 Genentech became the first IPO of a venture funded biotech company. Second, and full disclosure, I’ve invested in a few of these funds ; and third my teaching partner Ann Miura-Ko is a partner in one of these funds. Here’s why.

Lean 262

Lean Internet Silicon Valley Venture Capital 262

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 30, 2009

I thought Id share a little bit of that, too: I’ve been interested in different approaches to software development going back to 1987 when – in my first company Feld Technologies – my partner Dave Jilk and I started talking about “semi-custom software development&# (way ahead of its time). Expo SF (May.

Lean 68

Lean San Francisco Continuous Deployment DC 68

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 28, 2008

We pitch to potential partners, vendors, publishers, conferences, employees, and even lawyers. Dont keep banging your head against the wall - if you cant convince your potential partners that your startup is printing money, try to figure out why. Experiment with different narratives. Expo SF (May.

San Francisco 128

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 128

Steve Blank

JULY 6, 2010

One of those students, Shawn Carolan , is now a partner at Menlo Ventures. When we were looking for funding for IMVU (the company where Eric Ries first implemented Customer and Agile Development and where the Lean Startup was born,) I thought of Shawn. The Greycroft team and Mark Suster of GRP Partners provided lots of local color.

Venture Capital 197

Venture Capital Agile Customer Development 197

www.vccafe.com

MARCH 11, 2013

Agile project management tool that enables real time collaboration. Agile project management. agile product management. agile product management and Scrum tool. Agile project management tool collaborative product life-cycle. Automates Agile / Scrum development. Agile eLearning. Pivotal Tracker â??

Software Review 53

Software Review Technical Review Startup 53

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 12, 2008

You might get a bunch of inbound emails from other press and partners, and all of these things can contribute to a feeling that you’re on your way to getting tons of traffic. It’s easy to overestimate the impact of this kind of traffic because it just feels good to have your name and company featured. It strokes your ego.

Audience 119

Audience San Francisco Continuous Deployment Lean 119

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 26, 2009

As a result, the companies get a lot of exposure to VCs, investors, and partners in larger, more traditional startup hubs. Thank you @ericries for drastically altering my perception of agile startup Thank you all so much for your kind words. Some of the mentors are based in Boulder, but many are not. I was really overwhelmed this time.

San Francisco 113

San Francisco Silicon Valley Startup Lean 113

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 5, 2010

But be philosophically consistent: periodically take the time to question your own expertise and that of your friends, partners and investors. But be philosophically consistent: periodically take the time to question your own expertise and that of your friends, partners and investors. Make the effort to test your assumptions.

Customer Development 166

Customer Development Developer San Francisco Customer 166

Steve Blank

JULY 25, 2011

In the late 1950’s Silicon Valley’s first three IPO’s were companies that were founded and run by scientists and engineers: Varian (founded by Stanford engineering professors and graduate students,) Hewlett Packard (founded by two Stanford engineering graduate students) and Ampex (founded by a mechanical/electrical engineer.)

Engineer 310

Engineer Silicon Valley United States Venture Capital 310

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 13, 2009

Establish credibility with potential partners. You need to combine your product with others, and this requires partners like OEMs or system integrators. A marketing launch can help you get in the door with those partners, if youre having trouble getting their attention. Do some Customer Development instead.

San Francisco 168

San Francisco PR Lean Early Stage 168

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 27, 2009

It uses principles of agile software development, open source and web 2.0, Herein lies the reason my partner and I started Dillotronics - as well as the reason your take on the matter resonated so well here. and lean manufacturing to guide the creation of technology businesses that create disruptive innovation. Expo SF (May.

Lean 60

Lean Austin San Francisco Continuous Deployment 60

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 6, 2008

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, October 6, 2008 When NOT to listen to your users; when NOT to rely on split-tests There are three legs to the lean startup concept: agile product development , low-cost (fast to market) platforms , and rapid-iteration customer development. Were doomed! Or the press. Or to some passionate customers.

San Francisco 128

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment Agile 128

Agile VC

JULY 16, 2014

We’re thrilled for the company to have a great investment partner joining the syndicate and one with deep payments expertise having backed companies like Square, Stripe, Fundbox, and others. As investors, once we join with entrepreneurs as capital partners we are 100% committed to their success.

Boston 208

Boston Silicon Valley San Francisco Cofounder 208

Agile VC

MAY 9, 2014

FWIW, the members of the Alibaba Partnership currently own about 14% of the total shares of the Alibaba Group prior to the IPO. Partners remain as long as they are still part of Alibaba’s management, maintain certain thresholds of their share ownership, or unless they are removed by a simple majority vote of other partners.

Government 153

Government Silicon Valley China Cofounder 153

Agile VC

JUNE 5, 2011

So Groupon obviously filed their S-1 the other day to formally being the IPO process. My partner @ LeeHower looks back: [link] 5 days ago Search. AGILEVC My idle thoughts on tech startups. Groupon’s S-1: From Zero to Like… Billions in 30 Months. June 5, 2011. Previous Entries. Avatars by Sterling Adventures.

North America 100

North America Chicago Boston Silicon Valley 100

Startup Lessons Learned

DECEMBER 7, 2008

It exists to serve the needs of customers, and it does this by offering its capabilities to other functions in the company, and partnering with them. In school I was being pounded day and night with anything that has to do with agile software development. I am basically a one-man shop. Expo SF (May.

Software Review 94

Software Review Technical Review Part-Time VPE San Francisco 94

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 2, 2010

Sure, when entrepreneurs create startups that grow up into mature companies, they become part of an established industry, with its own ecosystem, norms, partners and best practices. Re-reading it recently, I was struck by an idea that I dont think is too widespread yet: that entrepreneurship is an industry. Expo SF (May.

San Francisco 122

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 122

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 8, 2009

I got a powerful taste of datablindness recently, as I’ve started to work with various large companies as partners in setting up events, speeches, and other products to sell around the Lean Startup concept. There are lots of good reasons why I can’t have instantaneous access to this data, and each partner has their own.

San Francisco 84

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 84

David Teten

JANUARY 28, 2013

The good news for Techcrunch readers: Every major study conducted to date has placed angel investors’ IRR between 18 and 38 percent, as summarized by my Partner John Frankel and Professor Robert Wiltbank in prior Techcrunch articles. Small, agile funds are in an excellent position to take advantage of opportunities in the angel space.

IRR 114

IRR Angel Investor Angel Groups Cofounder 114

Agile VC

MAY 23, 2012

In the wake of the undue frenzy leading up to and now ex post recriminations about Facebook’s IPO, the mainstream media and normal folks keep wondering if the non-existent “bubble” for internet companies has now popped. My partner @ LeeHower looks back: [link] 5 days ago Search. May 23, 2012. Silly stuff like this.

Internet 182

Internet Silicon Valley IPO Seed Stage 182

Agile VC

DECEMBER 6, 2012

1) LP Bases Change Over Time – Most healthy VC firms tend to have stable relationships with the limited partners investing with them. There’s a couple reasons which basically all relate to potential conflicts of interest from misaligned incentives.

LP 178

LP Balance Sheet Differentiation Limited Partner 178

Startup Lessons Learned

DECEMBER 14, 2009

A great product enables customers, developers, partners, and even competitors to exchange their unique currencies in combinations that lead to financial success for the company that organizes them. Each of these four currencies represents a way for a customer to “pay&# for services from a company. And this is true outside of games.

Customer 156

Customer San Francisco Viral Lean 156

Agile VC

APRIL 13, 2012

And going even further back there have been a few random ones have been built before like Salesforce.com and e-tailer RedEnvelope (IPO’d in 2003 though now defunct as a company). If my memory serves me, <10% of our pre-IPO employees at PayPal lived in SF and literally 1 of the first 40-50 folks at LinkedIn were city-dwellers.

Silicon Valley 185

Silicon Valley San Francisco San Jose Startup 185

Agile VC

AUGUST 1, 2012

The best example of this was Facebook’s disclosure during their IPO process back in May that “mobile” usage was increasing significantly but FB’s monetization of mobile users lagged considerably. This question has lingered for Facebook and other consumer internet companies in recent months.

Mobile 160

Mobile Advertising Bandwidth Web 160

Agile VC

NOVEMBER 13, 2012

Some of the firm’s partners may move on to new jobs during this phase but at least some are usually still around. The lights are usually still on, both literally and metaphorically, and there are often follow-on investments in existing portfolio companies still being made. In the mid 2000′s VC’s were largely prospering.

LP 154

LP Portfolio Venture Capital IRR 154

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 7, 2010

What about companies, like Siebel, that started with partner distribution first? What about companies, like Siebel, that started with partner distribution first? It is highly context-dependent, which is why different startups take dramatically different paths to success. Should you charge from day one, testing the revenue model first?

San Francisco 154

San Francisco Lean Metrics Design 154

Steve Blank

JUNE 22, 2009

It was still a year away from its IPO. Hewlett’s partner Dave Packard wanted to get into the computer business.) The original Hewlett Packard which made test and measurement products was spun-out and renamed Agilent. Agilent is a $5.8 But first some background.) Its latest product was an oscilloscope, the HP 150a.

Silicon Valley 182

Silicon Valley RSS California Agile 182