Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 17, 2009

Ability to Pivot – I don’t like to invest in people that I’ve never met before who come through my office wanting to have a term sheet within 30 days. Yes, there is the mythical company you all heard about that walked into Sequoia and had a term sheet 24 hours later. I’m sure that happens.

Entrepreneur 291

Entrepreneur Term Sheet Early Stage Affiliate 291

ReadWriteStart

JUNE 1, 2020

Funding might be a need in some cases — but it’s not an absolute necessity. ? The business should be self-sustainable. The primary source of your funds should be your paying customers, i.e., your business should generate enough revenues and profits to fund the growth and expansion. Incubators and Accelerators.

Startup 150

Startup Entrepreneur Elevator Pitch Seed Stage 150

View from Seed

APRIL 30, 2015

We also spell out the interest-only period, the amortization period, the warrants, the interest rate, and then some high level legal terms we would include in the documents and highlight in the term sheet — similar to a VC term sheet. In terms of negotiation, there are always hot buttons.

Term Sheet 120

Term Sheet Equity Startup Seed Stage 120

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 5, 2020

Bill was relentless in his focus on getting the software PC DOS project delivered, while continually challenging us with new business models. Tailor investor proposals and term-sheets. They watch for formal follow-up to questions, demonstration of real product, and revenue results.

Entrepreneur 307

Entrepreneur Cofounder Term Sheet Acquisition 307

Austin Startup

NOVEMBER 12, 2017

Let’s talk first about an angel round to individual investors, all of whom may be duly accredited but many of whom may have no background that enables them to understand fully your idea and your business model. Is third-year revenue of $10M good or bad? A price of $2 per share means nothing in itself.

Term Sheet 48

Term Sheet Technical Review Due Diligence Merger 48

reidhoffman.org

NOVEMBER 12, 2013

we had no revenue. But with so many investors still licking their wounds from the dot-com bust, many focused on proven business models, such as advertising or e-commerce. As a result, we knew that our pitch would need to steer into investors’ biggest concern: the lack of revenue. Investors see a lot of pitches.

Entrepreneur 111

Entrepreneur Revenue Viral Networking 111

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

Sophia Perl of Wisdom

NOVEMBER 9, 2010

Some of the finalists were generating revenues already and/or have very promising strategic partnerships lined up. Use the 10-5-3-1 formula for raising money: Have 10 great meetings with investors, 5 of those do detailed due diligience on your company, get 3 term sheets, and 1 transfer into your bank account!

CTO Hire 49

CTO Hire Cofounder Fractional CTO San Francisco 49

K9 Ventures

APRIL 27, 2011

Their business model was to provide retailers with a new interface for shopping for soft goods — something that hasn’t changed a whole lot since Web 1.0. The day before we were supposed to sign the term sheet for the investment, Like.com sued Ugmode (the parent company of Modista.com) for patent infringement.

Software Review 134

Software Review Technical Review IP Finance 134

Steve Blank

JANUARY 4, 2010

Now with customers and early revenue, it was out raising its first round of venture money. Staring at us in the board meeting were three term-sheets from brand name VC’s and an unexpected buy-out offer from Google. They grow their business via profits or traditional bank financing. Take No Prisoners. The Web and Startups.

Hockey Stick 284

Hockey Stick Venture Capital Startup Cofounder 284

Sophia Perl of Wisdom

NOVEMBER 9, 2010

Some of the finalists were generating revenues already and/or have very promising strategic partnerships lined up. Use the 10-5-3-1 formula for raising money: Have 10 great meetings with investors, 5 of those do detailed due diligience on your company, get 3 term sheets, and 1 transfer into your bank account!

CTO Hire 40

CTO Hire Cofounder Fractional CTO San Francisco 40

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 15, 2016

Bill was relentless in his focus on getting the software PC DOS project delivered, while continually challenging us with new business models. Tailor investor proposals and term-sheets. They watch for formal follow-up to questions, demonstration of real product, and revenue results.

Cofounder 120

Cofounder Term Sheet Acquisition Metrics 120

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 9, 2015

Bill was relentless in his focus on getting the software PC DOS project delivered, while continually challenging us with new business models. Tailor investor proposals and term-sheets. They watch for formal follow-up to questions, demonstration of real product, and revenue results.

Cofounder 120

Cofounder Startup Term Sheet Acquisition 120

David Teten

DECEMBER 3, 2019

Technographics vendors such as Builtwith , Datanyze , HG Data , Stackshare, and Stacklist help CEOs identify the right tech platform on which to build their business; they’re also helpful for investors to due diligence a company’s tech stack choices. Lighter Capital, a Revenue Based Investing VC, offers a Cost of Capital Calculator.

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Software Review Analytics Private Equity 78

Up and Running

JULY 26, 2013

A: Just focus on the market need, your business model, your team, what you’ve accomplished to date that is relevant to the investment, and your funding needs. A: The best moment for a Pitch is anytime you have someone that wants to know more about your business. Here is a Quoro discussion on this topic: [link].

Elevator Pitch 79

Elevator Pitch Angel Investor Term Sheet Business Model 79

Up and Running

JANUARY 7, 2020

We ended up receiving a $5m term sheet from investors, dozens of government customers from all across the western United States, and several offers to acquire us for 10x the initial investment. Just imagine what we assumed our first year’s revenue would be. Getting there was a struggle. percent a year. Learning Lesson.

Product 82

Product Marketing Silicon Valley Term Sheet 82

Pascal's View

NOVEMBER 15, 2011

Dan Primack posted an article in Term Sheet last week titled Yelp This: IPO Market Is Killing It. Clovis Oncology is set to price a $160 million offering, despite having a whopping $0 in revenue. Also on the docket is Lashou Group, which only reports $16 million in revenue for the first nine months of 2011.

IPO 31

IPO Term Sheet Marketing United States 31

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 14, 2016

When I was an entrepreneur there was no public information about how term sheets worked or how investors thought. forward revenue for SaaS businesses when in the years before it had been less than 5x. Just as with the late 90s there is no new “business model” that defies the laws of gravity.

Valuation 150

Valuation Down Round Startup Later Stage 150

This is going to be BIG.

JANUARY 22, 2018

Just because you have revenues and someone else doesn't doesn't mean We could have a whole conversation as to why certain groups are pitching or why they or not, and ways to increase the attempts to get funding--but I think what gets lost too often is the fact that getting funding is really difficult for everyone.

Founder 100

Founder Conversion Naming Term Sheet 100

Professor VC

JUNE 20, 2011

I took a look back at our original financial model we presented to VCs in 2004. The business model (OEM through broadband and home security companies for mass distribution) if not specific product functionality has remained largely the same. offering to invest $75K if we could find another $250K by September 30, 2005.

San Jose 28

San Jose Angel Investor Term Sheet Venture Capital 28

grasshopperherder.com

SEPTEMBER 24, 2011

As such, you should make sure to think of the proposals as an investor and get a reasonable term sheet. I think it’s difficult, if not impossible, to value a pre-revenue company with any reasonable accuracy. If I can copy your business by just looking around, then your company isn’t going anywhere anyway.

Sweat Equity 41

Sweat Equity Equity Cofounder Non-Compete 41

Life Beyond Code

SEPTEMBER 27, 2011

One Million by One Million is a global initiative that aims to nurture a million entrepreneurs reach a million dollars each in annual revenue and beyond by 2020, thereby creating a trillion dollars in global GDP and ten million jobs. 1M/1M Program has a bold mission. This is where numerous ventures fail.

Programming 116

Programming Silicon Valley Bootstrapping Technical Review 116