Both Sides of the Table

MAY 4, 2013

Of course I went through normal other channels of deal flow. When you are raising a large, later-stage round given by this time you’ve likely got a fairly large business to run. I have always advised startup companies against letting valuations get massively ahead of market norms. I spent time on college campuses.

Deal Flow 347

Deal Flow Early Stage Investment Bankers Technical Review 347

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 4, 2013

Of course I went through normal other channels of deal flow. When you are raising a large, later-stage round given by this time you’ve likely got a fairly large business to run. I spent time on college campuses. I tapped my friends at big tech companies (Salesforce, Google, Oracle). International money.

Early Stage 361

Early Stage Deal Flow Investment Bankers Technical Review 361

Steve Blank

MAY 9, 2017

When the product and channel are bits, adoption by 10’s and 100’s of millions and even billions of users can happen in years versus decades. Continuous innovation requires the imagination and courage to challenge the initial hypotheses of your current business model (channel, cost, customers, products, supply chain, etc.) The founders.

Restful 222

Restful Silicon Valley Puerto Rico San Jose 222

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 18, 2016

As an entrepreneur looking for professional investors, one of the quickest ways to lose credibility and get rejected is to start with a ridiculously high pre-money valuation. Equally bad is professing no valuation estimate at all, asking investors to “make me an offer.” First priority is real revenue, customers and contracts.

Intellectual Property 120

Intellectual Property Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Startup 120

This is going to be BIG.

MAY 9, 2022

For these companies, the next round might not be at the valuation they wanted, but it’s still going to be there—because despite what you hear about pullbacks, there is still far more money chasing far rarer good ideas. So, yeah, that’s going to come down—especially because they likely got over their skis on valuation.

Stock 97

Stock Marketing Valuation Later Stage 97

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 6, 2016

Most new teams are geographically dispersed these days anyway, so paying rent for an office should be differed to later stages when revenue is plentiful. Use multiple social-media channels, blogging, email and voicemail to build the same image and responsiveness as larger competitors. Operate small, but show a big-company image.

Bootstrapping 120

Bootstrapping Hockey Stick Sweat Equity Intellectual Property 120

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 28, 2011

I will argue that when the dust settles, although we will have fewer firms, each type well end up more focused on traditional stage segments that cater to the core competencies of that firm. That makes both of these amazing companies great channels for startups. Facebook is a “platform cloud&# provider, too.

Venture Capital 334

Venture Capital Software PHP Open Source 334

This is going to be BIG.

DECEMBER 26, 2011

Time is money and there are too many people wanting me to spend a lot of money on better ways for me to spend my time for their not to be better channels for this, because I still can't figure out what to do with myself this weekend.

Technology 116

Technology Valuation Community Restful 116

ReadWriteStart

AUGUST 26, 2022

Later stage, public companies are right-sizing their teams, so there are many opportunities out there. So just keep an eye out; depending on your growth stage, it could be reasonably attractive. That’s a valuation number and pricing number. So narrow the focus to ensure we know what we’re trying to play for.

Partner 132

Partner Cofounder Retention Acquisition 132

Reid Hoffman

JANUARY 19, 2021

On many boards, both the CEO and CFO have direct channels with the board so that they can provide the yin and yang (in a well-coordinated way). As we discussed earlier, CEO changes rarely make sense in the early stages of a startup. As the company matures, it may even involve having a hard conversation about the need for a CEO change.

Startup 36

Startup Cofounder Advertising Hiring 36

Seeing Both Sides

JANUARY 13, 2015

We pride ourselves on being lifecycle investors, which means we invest very early on (typically at the seed or Series A stage) and then stick with a company through exit. Some VCs prefer investing at the earliest stages and then cycle off the board of directors. Anyone up for a rewrite? 10-50 million.

Mezzanine 20

Mezzanine IPO Finance Business Model 20