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What is the Right Burn Rate at a Startup Company?

Both Sides of the Table

I was reading Danielle Morrill’s blog post today on whether one’s “ Startup Burn Rate is Normal. Danielle goes through some commentary from Bill Gurley, Fred Wilson and Marc Andreessen about burn rate and then goes on to discuss her own burn rate and others publicly weigh in.

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Is the Lean Startup Dead?

Steve Blank

When Netscape went public, it unleashed a frenzy from the public markets for anything related to the internet and signaled to venture investors that there were massive returns to be made investing in anything internet related. Startups with huge burn rates – building leases, staff, PR and advertising – ran out of money.

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What is the Right Burn Rate for your Startup?

Both Sides of the Table

One of the hardest decisions entrepreneurs make when they start a company and raise outside capital is figuring out what an acceptable “burn rate” is. The main reason to know your burn is to arrive at a quick calculation of how many months cash you have before you run out of cash.

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How Much Should You Raise in Your VC Round? And What is a VC Looking at in Your Model?

Both Sides of the Table

Founder: “$8–10 million” VC: “What’s your current burn rate?” VC: “So at a constant rate of burn rate you’d be raising enough for 2.5–3 I built a “plan b,” which in this case just holds burn rate constant at $350k and has you out of cash in month 19, which gives you more runway. Founder: “Um.

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Why Was Winter in Venture Capital Funding so Short?

Both Sides of the Table

It was only a year ago that many in the Venture Capital industry were predicting that “winter was coming” and to be fair the author of this post was chief amongst them. This past year was also the year that startup boards also got more disciplined about containing burn rates and pushing for companies to be run more pragmatically.

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It Must Be A Marketing Problem

Steve Blank

Six is a Proxy for Burn Rate. Later I realized six salespeople without revenue to match was a proxy for an out of control burn rate that now had the boards serious attention. Filed under: Customer Development , Venture Capital. Tags: Customer Development Venture Capital.

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Cram Down – A Test of Character for VCs and Founders

Steve Blank

At the turn of the century after the dotcom crash, startup valuations plummeted, burn rates were unsustainable, and startups were quickly running out of cash. Except, that is, for the bottom feeders of the Venture Capital business – investors who “ cram down ” their companies. ” On one hand they’re right.

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