Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 1, 2009

Consumer spending is 70% of the economy and will continue to be stretched – We can look all we want at tech innovation, VC funding cycles and hot M&A deals, but ultimately growth and therefore investment must be underpinned by revenue. Bad stock markets mean less IPO’s and lower prices for M&A.

Technical Review 269

Technical Review Stock Hawaii Early Stage 269

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 28, 2009

Goldman Sachs (an investor in our company) told us we’d IPO within 18 months for $1 billion so not to take any offers. Reporters were no longer interested in talking about B2B eCommerce. I know that we haven’t brought in revenue as quickly as we had hoped. They haven’t hit their revenue targets.

PR 331

PR Software Review Ireland Germany 331

View from Seed

OCTOBER 11, 2022

I’ve spent over a decade investing in consumer and B2B companies that do things like expand access to reproductive care and childcare , support the circular economy , enable more seamless payments for small businesses and individuals, rethink mindfulness for the modern world , and champion learners from the classroom to the metaverse.

North America 156

North America San Francisco Cap Table Cofounder 156

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

JULY 23, 2013

Marketo filed for IPO with impressive 80% year-over-year growth in 2012, with almost $60m in revenue. of revenue, force-feeding sales pipelines with an unprofitable product. SaaS companies earn their revenue over time. time to earn back the revenue to cover all your customer acquisition expenses) 75% annual retention.

Business Model 335

Business Model .Net Revenue IPO 335

Agile VC

MAY 22, 2014

Unfortunately Alibaba doesn’t actually break out revenue by marketplace or business unit. In fact JD.com, which priced it’s IPO yesterday, is a direct seller (e.g. The makeup of the revenue is different too (see #4 below). And most importantly how attractive is the whole based on the sum of the underlying parts?

China 159

China Revenue Flash Affiliate 159

Mucker Lab

APRIL 6, 2023

If you work in B2C or e-commerce, you optimize that Add to Cart flow like crazy because that is your revenue. You still have a revenue goal to hit this quarter, something like that. Hila Qu: I love when people think about the user journey because sometimes it's not thought about enough in B2B because it’s complicated.

Product 78

Product CTO Hire Startup Fractional CTO 78

cdixon.org

AUGUST 3, 2012

Facebook’s market cap is about half of what most tech investors expected before the IPO. - For consumer startups with transactional models, e.g. e-commerce, the number of users required is often far lower because revenue is the more important metric. VCs are increasingly focusing on B2B for early-stage investments.

Bridge Financing 86

Bridge Financing Early Stage Valuation Later Stage 86

YoungUpstarts

JULY 29, 2013

But they’ll sit up and pay attention when you talk about the customers and revenues of the business. Hero mentors” have exited their businesses through a trade sale or IPO, sometimes multiple times; they offer inspiration to your team and coaching on strategy and tactics. ii.actual REVENUE? Listen to what it tells you.

Asia 184

Asia Singapore Cofounder Incubator 184

Hearpreneur

JUNE 18, 2016

What’s left, however, is a thriving ecosystem of B2B resources, professional discussions, and community noticeboards, and information and interaction that’s best accessed through Twitter chats, lists and hashtags. Do they have some issues to work out in terms of how to grow their revenue base? 15 – It’s Aging.

Entrepreneur 48

Entrepreneur Social Network Channel Social Media 48

Ben's Blog

AUGUST 17, 2020

OH in South Park, San Francisco (or on Zoom from Big Sky, Montana): “OMG, crazy – that firm just paid 100x revenue to invest in [insert hot startup here] – what could they be thinking?” Multiples are not only used to value companies today but also to value companies several years down the line.

Valuation 36

Valuation Balance Sheet Cofounder Forecast 36

Startup Lessons Learned

DECEMBER 28, 2009

Or, phrased more hopefully, "I see how you can use continuous deployment to run an online consumer service, but how can it be used for B2B software?" No automated test is going to catch that, but it still will drive revenue to zero. No automated test is going to catch that, but it still will drive revenue to zero.

Continuous Deployment 122

Continuous Deployment San Francisco Lean Metrics 122

View from Seed

NOVEMBER 7, 2019

Companies are retrenching, VC firms are going through their own upheavals, and IPOs are non-existent. Year over year revenue growth rates are measured in multiples not percentages. But overall this is a period where the IPO market remains largely closed to VC-backed startups. Survival is the order of the day.

IPO 202

IPO Early Stage Cofounder B2C 202

ConversionXL

NOVEMBER 29, 2018

Freemium and free-trial signups have one thing in common: Neither generates revenue. Lincoln Murphy cites a 3% conversion rate for SaaS and B2B web apps; a 2012 article on several leading platforms suggested a range between 1 and 10%. Still, which product-led strategy—on average—converts better: freemium or free trial? Free trial.

Customer 119

Customer Conversion Acquisition B2B 119

Seeing Both Sides

APRIL 1, 2013

Are you more of a B2C type or a B2B type? If you are a risk-taker and enjoy the challenges and roller-coaster ride, then the jungle phase is for you and you should bias towards seed funded or recently Series A funded companies that are pre-revenue. In order to narrow things down, I recommend following a simple, four-step heuristic.

Boston 52

Boston B2C Salary Cofounder 52

Agile VC

NOVEMBER 7, 2019

Companies are retrenching, VC firms are going through their own upheavals, and IPOs are non-existent. Year over year revenue growth rates are measured in multiples not percentages. But overall this is a period where the IPO market remains largely closed to VC-backed startups. Survival is the order of the day.

IPO 100

IPO Early Stage Cofounder B2C 100

ConversionXL

JUNE 2, 2022

If leads-based B2B marketing is fishing with a net, ABM is using a harpoon. How do you sustain growth that precedes the highest IPO in history for a software company? Results from Snowflake’s ABM efforts post-IPO. How uniting reporting increased revenue from target accounts by 21% for Schneider Electric.

Marketing 105

Marketing Campaign Artificial Inteligence Sales Cycle 105

VC Cafe

OCTOBER 24, 2022

It remains to be seen what the outcomes will be in 2022 as the exit markets are less active and the IPO window is closed, but assuming the merger gets approved, we’ve already seen Activision’s $70 billion acquisition by Microsoft and Twitter’s potential $40 billion takeover by Elon Musk.

B2C 103

B2C IPO B2B 103

VC Cafe

AUGUST 3, 2023

While Israeli startups successes are well known in the B2B space (cybersecurity, enterprise tech, devops…), B2C startups are unsung heroes… The landscape of B2C tech in Israel is blossoming, despite several challenges. Crossed the $200M in revenue and reached over 400 million unique users. Much has changed since then.

B2C 148

B2C Generative AI Artificial Inteligence 148

Cracking the Code

OCTOBER 10, 2008

Save Asia for post-IPO Single instance, multi-tenant, single datacenter - Have only one version of the code in production. Be prepared to cross the desert - SaaS requires R&D and sales expense up front for a multi-year stream of revenue, so it demands enough investment capital to fund 4+ years of runway. Great list!

Software Review 48

Software Review North America Europe Metrics 48

online.wsj.com

SEPTEMBER 23, 2012

If failure is defined as failing to see the projected return on investment—say, a specific revenue growth rate or date to break even on cash flow—then more than 95% of start-ups fail, based on Mr. Ghoshs research. Less than 1% are currently in IPO registration. Business Services (B2B). start-ups fail, he says.

Venture Capital 107

Venture Capital Software Review Rhode Island North Dakota 107

Agile VC

MAY 7, 2014

I believe this may be the most anticipated tech IPO of all time… some may argue Facebook was a bigger deal, but Alibaba’s offering has been “in process” for a long time and may very well be the largest IPO ever both in terms of size of offering and initial market cap of the company. USD in revenue for 2013.

China 187

China B2B Flash IPO 187

Cracking the Code

SEPTEMBER 20, 2016

Global SaaS revenues are expected to grow by $19 billion in 2016, an increase of 22% from 2015, while traditional software revenues are shrinking by $10B. Two dollars in SaaS revenues are created for every $1 of software revenues eaten – an impressive stat, but where does Europe stand on the global SaaS map?

Europe 48

Europe Artificial Inteligence Vertical 48

abovethecrowd.com

JUNE 2, 2021

On March 26, SoFi announced that “it will be offering its members (at least those with $3K in their account) the ability to invest in IPOs for companies going public, an investment opportunity that has traditionally been reserved for large institutional investors or ultra-high-net-worth individuals.”

IPO 82

IPO Customer Matching Silicon Valley 82

ConversionXL

APRIL 20, 2016

When writing copy for a landing page, especially for a B2B site, do you write in plain language that everyone can understand or do you use technical jargon? Revenue-focused marketing automation & sales effectiveness solutions unleash collaboration throughout the revenue cycle”. What does it mean? Not really, right?

B2B 48

B2B Audience North America Boston 48

Austin Startup

MAY 29, 2019

Brands would get higher margins but lower revenues while retailers would get lower margins but higher revenues (generally speaking, with Apple being a notable exception owning both sides of that for much of their sales). I think any SaaS startup would be wise to identify if their B2B market has a natural network effect to tap into.

Networking 48

Networking Fractional CTO CTO Hire B2C 48