Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 19, 2020

Now the model is to seed many good teams with a smaller amount, and find out which ones can execute. Super angels have greater scope to match talent with a startup. Super angels sometimes drive up valuations. It’s the right way to get money without giving up too much equity or control of your business. Marty Zwilling.

Angel Investor 314

Angel Investor Venture Capital Silicon Valley Startup 314

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 19, 2015

Outside investors are most interested in scaling a proven business model, not research and development. Business people know how to downplay the technology and market the value of the solution. In today’s world of information overload, everyone relies on marketing and social media to find solutions to match their needs.

Technical Review 120

Technical Review Intellectual Property Cofounder Bootstrapping 120

Steve Blank

APRIL 5, 2017

I reminded her that all the Lean tools she learned in class–Customer Discovery, business model and value proposition canvases– contained her answer. Smart CEOs treat communications as a force multiplier for sales, a tool to dramatically increase valuation and the vehicle to get acquirers lined up at the door.

Marketing 312

Marketing Audience Technical Review PR 312

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 13, 2016

At this point, most Angel investors and a few early-stage VCs will be happy to talk, assuming you have the business model validated, and a large opportunity. Prior to the growth stage, your company valuation is limited to goodwill based on intellectual property and team experience, since you have no revenue. Congratulations!

Matching 120

Matching Angel Investor Intellectual Property Investment Bankers 120

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 27, 2014

Individual angel investors have been filling the gap, and now match VCs in total amount invested. Now the model is to seed many good teams with a smaller amount, and find out which ones can execute. Super Angels have greater scope to match talent with a startup. Super Angels sometimes drive up valuations.

Angel Investor 260

Angel Investor Silicon Valley Startup Portfolio 260

Austin Startup

AUGUST 20, 2017

You can conduct group interviews, get your candidate “liquored up” (not a recommendation), and even have a trial period on the job to see if there’s a good match. Keep the valuations consistent with company progress. Your business works as intended if you can attract customers that fit into the context of your operation.

Technical Review 48

Technical Review Software Review Cap Table Securities and Exchange Commission 48

Women Entrepreneurs Can

NOVEMBER 19, 2022

This allows you to skip the complicated valuation calculations. They also look for a robust business model and product/market fit. To secure funding, a startup must have a viable business plan and a functioning business model. A standard financial tool used in early-stage startups is a convertible loan note.

Venture Capital 52

Venture Capital Early Stage Liquidity Event SEC 52

Version One Ventures

OCTOBER 15, 2020

But the Lightning Network offers two entirely different value props that no other blockchain or smart contracts platform can match: Instant settlement in bitcoin with nearly 0 fees (Ethereum fees spiking to >$10 /transaction during the DeFi craze of sumer 2020 was a good reminder of its own scalability limitations).

Networking 168

Networking Global OTC Security 168

Start Up Blog

NOVEMBER 18, 2020

Here are some of their key numbers below: Filed to float with a valuation of around $13b USD. The problem is that it has a technology company valuation. Valuation around $30b. It is purely connection via software, and hence deserves a technology company style valuation. DOOR DASH – IPO. Lost $450m USD last year.

IPO 62

IPO Valuation Software Venture Capital 62

crowdSPRING Blog

NOVEMBER 1, 2013

Small Business and Startups: The Trends for 2014 (Pt II) - crowdspring.co/1atXci8. Amazon and the “profitless business model” fallacy – crowdspring.co/1aQZQ04. Entrepreneur PSA – Advertising Businesses are Hard | Seth’s Blog - crowdspring.co/1aHHgHS. But a nearly $4 billion valuation?

Social Media 94

Social Media Small Business Design Media 94

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 5, 2009

Chasing funding versus chasing customers and a repeatable and scalable business model, is one reason startups fail. Is there a profitable business model? The Traditional VC Pitch Entrepreneurs who pursue the traditional product development model don’t have customer data to answer these questions. Can it scale?”

Customer Development 264

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 264

betashop.com

OCTOBER 8, 2012

But, you can iterate and iterate on features, but you cannot iterate your way to a business model. I’ve seen too many businesses get stuck or fail because of their endless pursuit for the magic new feature that is going to help them gain traction. Never, ever, choose your investors based on valuation.

Technical Review 108

Technical Review Technology Software Review Valuation 108

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. The valuations for acquisitions were nothing like the Internet bubble, but there was a path to liquidity, difficult as it was.

Silicon Valley 223

Silicon Valley IPO Technical Review Venture Capital 223

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 27, 2012

Business model. Make sure your marketing budget matches the scope of your plan. What is the current valuation of the company? Define the characteristics of the overall industry, market forces, market dynamics, and customer landscape. Investors like $1B markets with double-digit growth rates. Executive team.

Elevator Pitch 247

Elevator Pitch Exit Strategy Burn Rate Merger 247

Hunter Walker

MAY 4, 2014

Not every company is raising money at the valuation you modeled. ” Now some folks might roll their eyes and say, “sure, they’ll trust you until you f**k up and then it’s all ‘why did you do this or that’” but we were very focused in our fundraising to find LPs that matched our longterm goals.

Software Review 100

Software Review Vertical Seed Stage Portfolio 100

YoungUpstarts

JULY 18, 2012

This online service matches up people looking to rent out their space as a vacation rental. This startup pulled in $250 million at its $4 billion valuation and recently hit 50 million customers. Even with oil prices dropping, Sapphire’s business model has a bright outlook. AirBnB (Launched 2008).

Startup 182

Startup Angel Investor Green Valuation 182

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 10, 2011

Business model. Make sure your marketing budget matches the scope of your plan. What is the current valuation of the company? Define the characteristics of the overall industry, market forces, market dynamics, and customer landscape. Investors like $1B markets with double-digit growth rates. Executive team.

Elevator Pitch 234

Elevator Pitch Exit Strategy Burn Rate Merger 234

Transformify

JULY 23, 2018

Powerful matching algorithms are used to allocate the projects and ensure a stringent and high-quality evaluation process. Business valuation or investor background is among the expert evaluator’s selection criteria. Does your idea and business model have the potential to scale internationally?

Intellectual Property 66

Intellectual Property Angel Investor Dilution Startup 66

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 19, 2010

Business model. Make sure your marketing budget matches the scope of your plan. What is the current valuation of the company? Define the characteristics of the overall industry, market forces, market dynamics, and customer landscape. Investors like $1B markets with double-digit growth rates. Executive team.

Elevator Pitch 235

Elevator Pitch Exit Strategy Burn Rate Merger 235

Up and Running

OCTOBER 3, 2018

Financial Summary: Explain your business model, startup costs, revenues, and liabilities to the company. Use this model to help: “For [target market description] who [target market need], [how our business offering meets the need]. Pricing : Design your pricing so that will cover your costs and match the market rate.

El Paso 61

El Paso Business Plan Technical Review Forecast 61

Lightspeed Venture Partners

SEPTEMBER 23, 2012

post money valuation. Mark Cuban offered $300k for 33% of the company, implying a $900k post money valuation. implying a $600k post money valuation. The company ended up negotiating with Cuban and settled on $300k for 30% of the company, or a $1M post money valuation. post money valuation and a $1.35M pre money valuation.

Pre-Money Valuation 155

Pre-Money Valuation Post-Money Valuation Valuation Dilution 155

Tim Keane

MARCH 9, 2011

She does this by reducing perceived risk for each stage of investment and finding investors at each stage with appropriately matched appetites. 2] One of the huge mistakes entrepreneurs make at this stage is accepting friends and family money and assigning huge valuations to the company to reduce the size of future payments required. 

Finance 83

Finance Bootstrapping Startup Equity 83

Steve Blank

JULY 15, 2010

Most of the startups they invested in either died by running out of money before they found a scalable business model or ended up in the “land of the living dead” by never growing (failing to Pivot.). New, agile and adroit venture firms with new business models have emerged to deal with the reality that 1) web 2.0

Venture Capital 299

Venture Capital IPO Liquidity Event Entrepreneur 299

Gust

AUGUST 19, 2012

Business model. Make sure your marketing budget matches the scope of your plan. What is the current valuation of the company? Define the characteristics of the overall industry, market forces, market dynamics, and customer landscape. Investors like $1B markets with double-digit growth rates. Executive team.

Elevator Pitch 146

Elevator Pitch Exit Strategy Burn Rate Merger 146

This is going to be BIG.

NOVEMBER 7, 2011

Valuations. There are a ton of companies being funded at $500+ million valuations--seriously limiting exit opportunities. Many of the private companies like AirBnb, Dropbox, and Square and that have been rumored to have big valuations are real, growing businesses. Are their valuations justified? A bubble burst?

Angel Investor 104

Angel Investor Valuation Startup Revenue 104

genylabs.typepad.com

SEPTEMBER 24, 2011

I wont bother going into details on start-up financing terms ( see this post for an overview of typical VC terms) except to say if you dont know and understand: the firms cap table and valuation. While Ive made at least my share of mistakes taking equity in lieu of pay, I continue to see this as a key part of my business model.

Equity 40

Equity Technical Review San Jose Stock 40

Seeing Both Sides

JULY 21, 2014

But many years later, I began to appreciate that one of our core flaws was our business model. million in one year, the year we went public at a billion dollar valuation (ok, it was 1996; everyone went public in 1996 with a billion dollar valuation), and then $61 million the following year. million to $22.5

Revenue 54

Revenue Valuation Churn Rate Portfolio 54

Ben's Blog

APRIL 28, 2010

Looking across these nearly 50 companies, the study finds that founding CEOs consistently beat the professional CEOs on a broad range of metrics ranging from capital efficiency (amount of funding raised), time to exit, exit valuations, and return on investment. The underlying reasons. And why do professional CEOs sometimes succeed?

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Cofounder Technical Cofounder Software Review 78

Cracking the Code

DECEMBER 2, 2006

The time they spend with customers is usually limited to transactional core products sales, generating lower margins – The resource allocation is not always matching the opportunity (geography, customer segment, vertical.) – The rules of engagement for technical resources (solution or product specialists) are not clear.

Software Review 48

Software Review Technical Review Europe Software 48

Diego Basch

AUGUST 18, 2012

Facebook and Twitter, after years of searching for the I-wanna-be-like-Google business model, have settled on ads. The oldest business model on the web, and perhaps the default. There is one pesky problem though: online ads are about matching intent: Alice sells Veeblefetzers. Now come follow me on Twitter.

Houston 64

Houston Business Model Mobile Valuation 64

The Equity Kicker

JULY 8, 2019

That can only mean that VCs will continue to find ways to add more value to their capital and that more and more fund managers will adopt the Applied Venture model. Business model. Our companies are 4x more likely to reach Series A, with a 55% higher valuation, 26% faster and with founder equity 2.3x

Portfolio 84

Portfolio LP Venture Capital Partner 84

Up and Running

APRIL 11, 2016

While traditional business models provide a more regular income, in the real estate world, it might be three months before you get paid—and it could even be longer. Each home comes with a nutrition label, is quality verified by an independent third party, and is guaranteed to have a design that matches actual performance.”.

Reputation 60

Reputation Cofounder Naming Business Plan 60

reidhoffman.org

NOVEMBER 12, 2013

Friendster’s valuation set the tone for the entire social networking space. Press and analysts characterized LinkedIn in one of two ways: “LinkedIn is an interesting niche that might be worth paying attention to” or “LinkedIn is the Friendster for business”. The general rule is one business model drives the business.

Entrepreneur 111

Entrepreneur Revenue Viral Networking 111

www.paulgraham.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

They all use the same simple-minded model.They seem to have approached the problem by thinking about how todo database matches instead of how dating works in the real world.An If you give an investor new shares equal to 5% ofthose already outstanding in return for $100,000, then youve donethe deal at a pre-money valuation of $2 million.

Startup 105

Startup Cofounder Software Stock 105

Babbling VC

APRIL 3, 2011

I know it goes against your business model :-) but it must tickle you that to some, the sign of success is funding and not a successful business. The later you raise money, the better your chances of having a higher valuation, giving up less of the company and keeping the most control. This is a good one.

Venture Capital 81

Venture Capital Bootstrapping Global Valuation 81