Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 3, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series of posts and I need to file this one under both Raising Venture Capital and Startup Advice. The last couple of years has also seen the huge initial success of Ycombinator, the Lean Startup and many other product driven approaches to going to market. Let’s take your revenue line.

Business Plan 334

Business Plan AJAX Venture Capital Technical Review 334

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 16, 2010

You would think that would be enough to get wrong, but entrepreneurs and investors compound this problem by assuming that all startups grow and scale by executing the Revenue Plan. All discussion focused on “missing the revenue plan.”. Revenue Plan Needs to Match Market Type. They don’t. What went wrong?

Revenue 230

Revenue Balance Sheet Hockey Stick Burn Rate 230

David Teten

NOVEMBER 26, 2019

However, in a startup the most common scenario is that projections get missed. Sean Colrock, Director of Client Partnerships at Wiss & Company , suggests at a minimum you track: cash on hand; fume date; and burn rate. This agile approach is not restricted to small startups. Template Startup Financial Model.

Agile 60

Agile Management Forecast Silicon Valley 60

The Next Web

MARCH 8, 2014

But at the end of the day, I’ve learned that being a partner at a successful early-stage VC firm is not quite as different from being a founder as you might think. Specifically, it feels eerily similar to how I felt when I was CEO at EchoSign when we were at about $4m in revenue. Until then, there are no profits to the VC partners.

Partner 138

Partner Burn Rate Early Stage IPO 138

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 17, 2017

There are certain topics that even some of the smartest people I talk with who aren’t startup oriented can’t fully grok. It’s common cocktail party chatter to hear people confidently pronounce that some well known startup is sure to blow up because, “How could they succeed when they’re not even profitable!”

Stock Options 227

Stock Options Startup Dilution Venture Capital 227

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 15, 2014

In my experience, that’s actually the worst way to start, for reasons I will outline here, and also the least common way, according to an authoritative survey of new startups. At least wait until later, when you ready to scale, and have some “leverage” based on a proven business model, some real customers, and real revenue.

Bootstrapping 276

Bootstrapping Entrepreneur Startup Burn Rate 276

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 28, 2013

In my experience, that’s actually the worst way to start, for reasons I will outline here, and also the least common way, according to a recent survey of new startups. Based on the latest Startup Environment Index from the Kauffman Foundation and LegalZoom, personal money, or bootstrapping, continued to be the primary startup funding in 2012.

Startup 264

Startup Burn Rate Bootstrapping Valuation 264

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 16, 2009

Well obviously that’s meaningless if your startup idea sucks. He was at a startup that was in a super hot sector. I just knew that our sales sucked wind and we were burning through tons of cash. I advocated LOUDLY at the board that we needed to cut our burn rate. Two quick stories from just yesterday.

Entrepreneur 306

Entrepreneur Burn Rate Cofounder Sales 306

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 22, 2010

Startups that are searching for a business model need to keep score differently than large companies that are executing a known business model. Yet most entrepreneurs and their VC’s make startups use financial models and spreadsheets that actually hinder their success. Who are our partners? Startup Metrics. Here’s why.

Balance Sheet 298

Balance Sheet Startup Burn Rate Metrics 298

The Equity Kicker

JANUARY 10, 2020

See below for a good description of what we like to see in deals at Forward Partners and what makes us different from other VCs. An interview with Nic Brisbourne, Forward Partners. They find a niche in the market where they can grow some revenues and then they raise some more money. And everyone’s lost a lot of money.

Partner 68

Partner Early Stage Portfolio Metrics 68

Gust

DECEMBER 7, 2014

In my experience, that’s actually the worst way to start, for reasons I will outline here, and also the least common way, according to an authoritative survey of new startups. At least wait until later, when you ready to scale, and have some “leverage” based on a proven business model, some real customers, and real revenue.

Bootstrapping 191

Bootstrapping Entrepreneur Startup Burn Rate 191

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 18, 2010

For decades startups were managed by pretending the company would follow a predictable path (revenue plan, scale, etc.) Luckily most startups now realize there is a better way. Startups Are Not Small Versions of Large Companies. The Revenue Plan – The Third Fatal Assumption. That’s the definition of insanity.

Burn Rate 247

Burn Rate Management Business Model Customer Development 247

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 27, 2012

As a member of the local Angel group selection committee, I’ve seen a lot of startup presentations to investors, and I’ve never seen one that was too short - maybe short on content, but not short on pages! Every startup needs both a business plan and an investor presentation, completed before you formally approach any investors.

Elevator Pitch 247

Elevator Pitch Exit Strategy Burn Rate Merger 247

VC Cafe

NOVEMBER 2, 2019

Top-line metrics are indicators of success, not the one bar to clear to raise funding for your startup. In SaaS the main benchmarks being measured are revenue growth, sales efficiency (unit economics), churn and burn rate. Example of Baremetrics revenue per user benchmarks. Benchmarks for deep tech startups.

B2C 141

B2C Technical Review Startup Retention 141

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 28, 2016

In addition, if you are already a CFO, this position is a great springboard to the chief operating officer (COO) or even the CEO position in the startup, based on recent reports. Every startup role requires managing to financial realities. In a corporate environment, you can leave financials to someone else, but not in a startup.

Entrepreneur 120

Entrepreneur Burn Rate Leadership Salary 120

ReadWriteStart

JANUARY 27, 2011

For a more elaborate explanation of the deal, please read my blog post 1M/1M: Alternative Financing For Startups Using A Sales Channel Partner. I have discussed at length why revenue sharing channel deals may serve as perfectly fine alternatives to raising equity (or even complements) because of their non-dilutive nature.

Dilution 114

Dilution Revenue Finance Entrepreneur 114

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 10, 2011

As a member of the local Angel group selection committee, I’ve seen a lot of startup presentations to investors, and I’ve never seen one that was too short - maybe short on content, but not short on pages! Every startup needs both a business plan and an investor presentation, completed before you formally approach any investors.

Elevator Pitch 234

Elevator Pitch Exit Strategy Burn Rate Merger 234

View from Seed

OCTOBER 15, 2014

Over the summer, based on feedback from our portfolio and the broader startup community, NextView created pre-formatted board deck templates for seed-stage startups — part of our Growth Guides series. A seed-stage mobile startup’s housekeeping section might look something like this: Section 3: Core Metrics.

Seed Stage 331

Seed Stage Cap Table Metrics Burn Rate 331

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 19, 2010

As a member of the local angel group Selection Committee, I’ve seen a lot of startup presentations to investors, and I’ve never seen one that was too short - maybe short on content, but not short on pages! Every startup needs both a business plan and an investor presentation, completed before you formally approach any investors.

Elevator Pitch 235

Elevator Pitch Exit Strategy Burn Rate Merger 235

Steve Blank

AUGUST 27, 2012

Knowing how to sort between vision and hallucination can avoid chaos inside your startup. Other weeks Yuri would be buffeted by the realities of his burn rate, declining bank account and depressing comments from customers. A founder’s skill is knowing how to recognize new patterns and to pivot on a dime.

Founder 316

Founder Cofounder Advisory Board Burn Rate 316

Gust

AUGUST 19, 2012

As a member of the local Angel group selection committee, I’ve seen a lot of startup presentations to investors, and I’ve never seen one that was too short – maybe short on content, but not short on pages! Every startup needs both a business plan and an investor presentation, completed before you formally approach any investors.

Elevator Pitch 146

Elevator Pitch Exit Strategy Burn Rate Merger 146

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 7, 2016

No consideration can be given to experience running a startup, breadth of skills, or even thinking like an entrepreneur. Partnering with outside entrepreneurial efforts is discouraged. Compensation and support carried the corporate burden rate. Key operational and pivot decisions require corporate approval.

Technical Review 214

Technical Review Entrepreneur Silicon Valley Burn Rate 214

Up and Running

AUGUST 21, 2014

One of the most important things a startup can do is make sure that they are keeping track of their data. In this webinar, we take time to discuss the different metrics that startups—and established businesses—should be tracking. Lifetime value is how long the average user will stick around and how much revenue will this bring in.

Metrics 84

Metrics Startup Churn Rate Forecast 84

BeyondVC

OCTOBER 22, 2008

Despite these tough times, there are still some bullheaded companies who think they can grow their way out of this mess or find the right M&A partner to bail them out.    So if these bigger private companies are hawking themselves looking for a deal, where does that leave a small startup? . 

Burn Rate 60

Burn Rate Merger Portfolio Partner 60

Hearpreneur

JULY 7, 2019

Distribution is easier, the cost of computing is cheaper, and the startup costs are, in reality, are just the cost of a couch and wifi. Over the next 10 years, entrepreneurship will reach a peak of new startups, increasing the burn rate of founders and the failure rate for new ecosystems.

Entrepreneur 93

Entrepreneur Distribution Employee Arizona 93

www.paulgraham.com

APRIL 28, 2010

Want to start a startup? A typical startup goes throughseveral rounds of funding, and at each round you want to take justenough money to reach the speed where you can shift into the nextgear. Few startups get it quite right. 1 ] A startups life will be more complicated, legally, if any of theinvestors arent accredited.

Technical Review 76

Technical Review Startup Software Review Angel Investor 76

www.chubbybrain.com

SEPTEMBER 28, 2011

25 Best Startup Failure Post-Mortems of All Time. Update – As a followup, we analyzed all of these startup failure post-mortems to identify the top 20 reasons for startup failure. Also worth a read after you review these startup failure post-mortems. Post-Mortem Title : How My Startup Failed.

Software Review 79

Software Review Startup Technical Review Vesting 79

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 14, 2016

” “Mark has a vested interest in talking down valuations of startups.” Most prefer not to say this publicly for two reasons: 1) they have an entire portfolio of startups, many of whom are raising capital and 2) they prefer not to be attacked publicly or seem “anti entrepreneur.” goes into a startup.

Valuation 150

Valuation Down Round Startup Later Stage 150

BeyondVC

JUNE 11, 2007

Trust me, a number of companies got burned with this during the Internet boom when their businesses were based on wildly inflated revenue projections and unilimited capital resources. Just when you needed another month or two to sign that strategic deal, the venture debt guys would come in and pull the rug from under you.

Intellectual Property 60

Intellectual Property Covenant Warrant Equity 60

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 30, 2016

Mark dutifully went to partner meetings, back-channel references began, firms started calling existing VCs to “test prices” and we started debating whom our best partner would be. Here are some stats to give you a sense: • Year over year revenue grew 51% in 2015 and we’re forecasting the same again for 2016.

Balance Sheet 150

Balance Sheet Burn Rate Valuation Forecast 150

abovethecrowd.com

APRIL 20, 2016

In February of last year, Fortune magazine writers Erin Griffith and Dan Primack declared 2015 “ The Age of the Unicorns ” noting — “Fortune counts more than 80 startups that have been valued at $1 billion or more by venture capitalists.” Next came Rolfe Winkler’s deep dive “ Highly Valued Startup Zenefits Runs Into Turbulence. ”

IPO 40

IPO Term Sheet Silicon Valley Valuation 40

abovethecrowd.com

FEBRUARY 24, 2015

As a result, a “late-stage” financing is no longer reserved for high-revenue, pre-profitability companies getting ready for an IPO; it is simply any large round of financing done at a high price. You must subtract it from your top-line revenue. You should not pay a net revenue multiple for a gross revenue disclosure.

IPO 40

IPO Liquidation Preference Valuation Technical Review 40

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 9, 2011

Venture Capitalists typically have partners’ meetings on Mondays. So the industry formed around a day of the week when all partners could avoid having company board meetings or traveling. Companies with less than $2 million in revenue were asking for $50-60 million valuations and getting them. Why is that? tl;dr summary.

Stock 305

Stock Technical Review Marketing Greece 305

VC Cafe

JULY 6, 2010

That is where Libox , a new Tel Aviv-based startup offering a free service to share and store photos, videos and music, wants to disrupt the industry. How are you planning ramp up the revenue? Also, the nice thing about these revenue streams is that they actually help the Libox user. We want to change that.

Media 84

Media Management API HTML 84