Steve Blank

APRIL 23, 2014

Most large companies manage three types of innovation: process innovation (making existing products incrementally better), continuous innovation (building on the strength of the company’s current business model but creating new elements) and disruptive innovation (creating products or services that did not exist before.).

Acquisition 332

Acquisition Intellectual Property Silicon Valley Startup 332

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 2, 2013

Since Angel investors put money into 60 times as many companies as venture capital funds, according to Wikipedia, early-stage startups need to focus first on the key thresholds that drive these investment decisions. The same hold true for venture capital investors. They bet on the jockey, not the horse. Funding risk.

Cram Down 269

Cram Down Angel Investor Intellectual Property Venture Capital 269

David Teten

JANUARY 19, 2021

More and more startups are pursuing Revenue-Based VCs , but “RBI” doesn’t fit everyone. Flexible VC 101: Equity Meets Revenue Share. By tying payments to actual revenues, founders and investors remain aligned around the company’s real-time performance, good or bad. Of the Inc. 5000 companies, only 6.5% raised from angels.

Cofounder 78

Cofounder Technical Review Equity Dividend 78

Steve Blank

MAY 9, 2017

the wave of semiconductor startups in the 1960’s/70’s, the emergence of Venture Capital as a professional industry, the personal computer revolution in 1980’s, the rise of the Internet in the 1990’s and finally. Venture Capital used to be a tight club clustered around formal firms located in Silicon Valley, Boston, and New York.

Restful 222

Restful Silicon Valley Puerto Rico San Jose 222

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 17, 2023

For example, if you have a proven product, real revenue, a big potential market, and are ready to scale up the business, every investor will be interested. Different types of investors tend to specialize in capitalizing on businesses at different stages. It’s time to scale up and I need money to keep up with demand.”

Angel Investor 313

Angel Investor Intellectual Property Investment Bankers Private Equity 313

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 14, 2009

Over the same 30 years, Venture Capital firms have honed their skills and strategies to match Wall Streets needs to achieve liquidity for their portfolio companies. One of the biggest mistakes entrepreneurs make is misunderstanding the role of venture capital investors. What Do VC’s Do?

Silicon Valley 217

Silicon Valley IPO Technical Review Venture Capital 217

online.wsj.com

SEPTEMBER 23, 2012

SIGNIFICANCE PROMINENT. --> The Venture Capital Secret: 3 Out of 4 Start-Ups Fail. more in Small Business. An entrepreneur with a hot technology and venture-capital funding becomes a billionaire in his 20s. The National Venture Capital Association estimates that 25% to 30% of venture-backed businesses fail.

Venture Capital 107

Venture Capital Software Review Rhode Island North Dakota 107

Steve Blank

MARCH 16, 2016

Founders can now access the largest pool of risk capital that ever existed –in the form of Private Equity (Angel Investors, family offices , Venture Capitalists (VC’s) and Hedge Funds.). At its core Venture Capital is nothing more than a small portion of the Private Equity financial asset class. FDA approvals?

Liquidity Event 120

Liquidity Event Founder Liquidation Preference Venture Capital 120

abovethecrowd.com

FEBRUARY 24, 2015

Every successful technology company raises money throughout its lifecycle, perhaps starting with a seed investment and progressing through Series A, B, C, late-stage investments, and, for the most successful companies, an IPO. Lost in this conversation are the dramatic differences between a high priced private round and an IPO.

IPO 40

IPO Liquidation Preference Valuation Technical Review 40

The Startup Magazine

AUGUST 3, 2021

Lazarus has developed a reputation in the Melbourne and Sydney business communities as a consultant who is brutally honest yet caring and highly effective at the same time. He places a strong emphasis on branding and how it positions his clients to start earning revenue shortly after opening their business.

United States 167

United States Entrepreneur Angel Investor Social Media 167

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 22, 2020

For example, if you have a proven product, real revenue, a big potential market, and are ready to scale up the business, every investor will be interested. Different types of investors tend to specialize in capitalizing on businesses at different stages. It’s time to scale up and I need money to keep up with demand.”

Angel Investor 370

Angel Investor Intellectual Property Investment Bankers Private Equity 370

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 22, 2011

Ah, but today’s Internet companies have real revenue! And this is happening in mezzanine (pre-IPO) deals as well. And post IPO deals, although these tend to correct more quickly. And as you probably guessed the data aren’t any better on IPOs with less than 20 / year average for the past 10 years. and profits!

Saudi Arabia 309

Saudi Arabia Valuation IPO Technical Review 309

VC Cafe

JANUARY 15, 2024

At zero interest rates with a seemingly never ending flow of capital to fuel growth, Unicorn creation rate hit a peak in 2021, but fast forward 3 years and justifying a billion dollar valuation seems more like a liability. They need to either raise, become profitable (default alive) or exit (M&A or IPO).

IPO 88

IPO Valuation Private Equity 88

thebarefootvc

JANUARY 27, 2014

Last week, a chart in the Wall Street Journal listed private companies globally that have raised capital at $1 billion-plus valuations from venture capital firms. Further, while the public markets are opening up to IPOs once again, companies take much longer to IPO than in previous cycles. Or so it seems.

Technical Review 63

Technical Review Valuation Venture Capital Investment Bankers 63

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 7, 2011

Juno IPO’d while Joel was there, and it was the first “broken&# IPO of the dot-com era. As an example, Joel says that there is a chief revenue officer who is solely responsible for bringing in revenue to StackExchange. He is responsible for bringing in revenue from advertising and their careers offering.

Software Review 285

Software Review Software St. Louis API 285

abovethecrowd.com

APRIL 17, 2013

With each hand, a small percentage of the pot is scraped off by the dealer, which in essence becomes the “revenue” for the casino. While casinos use the term “rake,” a plethora of interesting word choices exist which all describe the same thing – keeping a little bit of the revenue for the company that is running the service.

Europe 101

Europe Social Network Technical Review IPO 101

Steve Blank

JULY 15, 2010

If you take funding from a venture capital firm or angel investor and want to build a large, enduring company (rather than sell it to the highest bidder), this isn’t the decade to do it. The collapse of the IPO market and dysfunctional math in the venture capital community has stacked the odds against you.

Venture Capital 297

Venture Capital IPO Liquidity Event Entrepreneur 297

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 19, 2018

For example, if you have a proven product, real revenue, a big potential market, and are ready to scale up the business, every investor will be interested. Different types of investors tend to specialize in capitalizing on businesses at different stages. It’s time to scale up and I need money to keep up with demand.”

Angel Investor 184

Angel Investor Intellectual Property Investment Bankers Private Equity 184

Steve Blank

MARCH 18, 2011

Dot.com Bubble ( 1995-2000): “ Anything goes” as public markets clamor for ideas, vague promises of future growth, and IPOs happen absent regard for history or profitability. VC’s worked with entrepreneurs to build profitable and scalable businesses, with increasing revenue and consistent profitability – quarter after quarter.

Internet 334

Internet IPO Silicon Valley Agile 334

Steve Blank

AUGUST 20, 2013

Business Model Issues. on medical device revenues, regardless of profitability delays or cash-flow breakeven. Venture Capital Issues. Early stage Venture Capital for medical device startups has dried up. The amount of capital being invested in new device companies is at an 11 year low.

Startup 294

Startup Venture Capital Lean IPO 294

Steve Blank

AUGUST 5, 2010

Consumer Internet investing seems to have split off from traditional Venture Capital, and is creating a new category of VC’s: Lean VC’s. Electron-based Venture Capital. When I first came to Silicon Valley the world of Venture Capital looked pretty simple. Their capital needs are low at the front end.

Lean 258

Lean Internet Silicon Valley Venture Capital 258

Austin Startup

MAY 29, 2019

Yesterday I was having a discussion with one of our executives on the strength of network effects inherent in the data.world business model. This led to a far ranging strategic discussion that got us both really excited about the huge potential of our business.

Networking 48

Networking Fractional CTO CTO Hire B2C 48

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 4, 2014

For example, if you have a proven product, real revenue, a big potential market, and are ready to scale up the business, every investor will be interested. Different types of investors tend to specialize in capitalizing on businesses at different stages. It’s time to scale up and I need money to keep up with demand.”

Angel Investor 232

Angel Investor Intellectual Property Investment Bankers Private Equity 232

Scalable Startup

AUGUST 26, 2014

the original products can’t generate revenue, so when these OS projects occassionally blow up into phenomenons like Drupal and WordPress have over the past few years, it’s gratifying but also quite frustrating to watch others derive so much value from your baby while you toil away to lead its growth with no financial return.

Founder 42

Founder Los Angeles PHP Open Source 42

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 5, 2015

Asking for early-stage money before you have customers and revenue will likely kill your credibility with real investors. Seed-stage, meanwhil e, is technically that critical period when you need funding to do solution- and business-model development, to prove that your new product or service works, before you try to sell it to customers.

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage Finance Early Stage Startup 120

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 13, 2016

For example, if you have a proven product, real revenue, a big potential market, and are ready to scale up the business, every investor will be interested. Different types of investors tend to specialize in capitalizing on businesses at different stages. It’s time to scale up and I need money to keep up with demand.”

Matching 120

Matching Angel Investor Intellectual Property Investment Bankers 120

reidhoffman.org

NOVEMBER 12, 2013

Neither is a particularly good backdrop for trying to raise capital, because. we had no revenue. In a single year, the classic general partner in a venture firm is exposed to around 5,000 pitches; decides to look more closely at 600 to 800 of them; and ends up doing between 0 and 2 deals. Investors see a lot of pitches.

Entrepreneur 111

Entrepreneur Revenue Viral Networking 111

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 12, 2015

We’re at 70 people, and we’ll do $40 million in revenue this year and should get to cash flow breakeven this quarter. ” In this first step, the goal of a startup is to search for a repeatable and scalable business model. Venture-backed startups will often have a Series C or D or later rounds during this phase.

Startup 120

Startup Lean Venture Capital Advisory Board 120

Reid Hoffman

MARCH 19, 2019

And from a financial perspective, any investor would be better off buying stock in Amazon than buying and share of a corner bookshop; if you invested $100 in Amazon’s 1997 initial public offering (IPO), those shares would have been worth about $120,000 in 2018. Blitzscaling is a strategic technique for moving faster, not a reckless gamble.

Cofounder 28

Cofounder Business Model IPO Non-Compete 28

The Equity Kicker

NOVEMBER 9, 2012

Revenues for the July-September quarter were $569m, up 32% on the year ago and losses narrowed considerably to $3m for the quarter. If I’m right and investors had known that at the time of the IPO, or even when they were asked to make investments at the venture capital stage, then they wouldn’t have invested.

IPO 104

IPO Marketing Venture Capital eCommerce 104

Tim Keane

JANUARY 12, 2010

  I’ve sat down with entrepreneurs and a copy of a term sheet guide I like [ “Term Sheets & Valuations - A Line by Line Look at the Intricacies of Venture Capital Term Sheets & Valuations ” by Alex Wilmerding, Aspatore Press.] and walked through each proposed term and why it is or isn’t important. times the investment.).

Term Sheet 68

Term Sheet Valuation Dividend Liquidation Preference 68

Pascal's View

NOVEMBER 15, 2011

Dan Primack posted an article in Term Sheet last week titled Yelp This: IPO Market Is Killing It. equity capital markets for emerging growth companies with market capitalizations below $500 million are structurally broken and systemically dysfunctional. .” Between 1991 and 200 80% of IPO’s raised $50mm or less.

IPO 31

IPO Term Sheet Marketing United States 31

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

Growthink Blog

MAY 23, 2011

With this seed capital – more often than not totaling between $100,000 and $1,000,000 - the company accomplishes a number of key technical milestones, gets a beta customer or two, and then goes on a "road show" to venture capitalists around the country for capital to “scale” the business.

Angel Investor 112

Angel Investor Venture Capital Sweat Equity Cram Down 112

Cracking the Code

SEPTEMBER 2, 2008

The Deutsche Bank report has a very interesting chart on the topic presenting the Free Cash Flow margins vs. the revenue growth four years post IPO for select software leaders: As you can see, with 20% Free Cash Flow margin and a 50% growth rate, Salesforce is well positioned in the pack! Small and medium businesses. (2).

Software Review 48

Software Review Software Technical Review Cloud 48

infochachkie.com

SEPTEMBER 24, 2011

There is an inherent conflict in a consultant’s business model and the needs of a startup. For instance, if a consultant proposes to help you with public relations, pay them a commission equivalent to the greater of a flat fee per story placed or a percentage of revenue generated from the PR coverage.

Equity 40

Equity Silicon Valley Cofounder Technical Review 40

infochachkie.com

DECEMBER 5, 2011

Our name was so disconnected from our business model that we were in the midst of a protracted and expensive name change initiative (along with a small army of consultants), at the time we sold Expertcity to Citrix. If we had named the product BuddyHelp, we probably would have generated a comparable amount of revenue.

Naming 40

Naming Technical Review Product Product Name 40