Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 8, 2009

Your friends and advisers tell you that this means you need revenue because in this economy VC’s will only fund businesses with revenue. So if it’s not necessarily revenue that’s preventing an investment, then WTF is traction? Unfortunately your advisers are wrong. Update them on your fund raising progress.

Technical Review 309

Technical Review Term Sheet Venture Capital Revenue 309

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 19, 2011

The reason that incumbents can’t react is that their revenue and defensibility are continued by serving the high-end of the market for which it would take too much time & money for any competitors to effectively challenge. new arrivals plus library versus just library) or even create channels (i.e. No time soon.

Los Angeles 329

Los Angeles Revenue Retention Acquisition 329

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 6, 2014

In the first two years we were really focused on getting our product adopted through major channel partners like Commission Junction, LinkShare, Google, eBay, ShareASale and others. how much energy to put into channel partners vs. direct sales. So our board meetings consisted of discussion about. how to market our products and company.

Technical Review 325

Technical Review Early Stage Software Review Los Angeles 325

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 10, 2011

Each customer segment of your business needs to be analyzed to determine whether they are profitable enough given ongoing costs to serve them relative to the revenue you would receive and the retention money you’d have to money to keep them with your service. Each mag has a different mix. Not possible.

Customer 287

Customer Technical Review Caching PR 287

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 7, 2013

My estimate is that the top 5 YouTube networks will do > $200 million net revenue in 2013 (after Google’s share). The media world now has its own leader running the largest YouTube multi-channel network startup. Distribution costs have, too. This is classic “Innovator’s Dilemma” market conditions.

Video 320

Video Los Angeles Technical Cofounder CTO Hire 320

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 12, 2016

The people who spend the most money on reaching consumers: consumer products, car companies, food & beverage, entertainment – need to reach mass audiences and smaller channels aren’t as effective for them relative to the time to produce creative and learn how to perform in a channel. All of this is smart.

Advertising 150

Advertising Iowa Campaign Media 150

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 17, 2011

This will be the team who hires the most talented people, channels them in the most productive configuration and gets the most output from their unique capabilities. I might be grooming them for when I have more money or more revenue. Don’t promise revenue or growth faster than you know you can achieve. Only hire A players.

Hiring 399

Hiring Startup Global Revenue 399

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 19, 2010

Founded in November 2007 in New York City by Alexis Maybank and Kevin Ryan (co-founder of DoubleClick); CEO is Susan Lyne (ex-CEO Marta Stewart Living Omnimedia) Revenue estimates: $50mm in 2008; $170mm in 2009 (versus budget of $150mm); $450mm forecasted for 2010. Note that these are “gross” revenue numbers.

Partner 240

Partner New York City Cofounder Syndicate 240

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 7, 2010

But I pointed out that he would be up against competitors that had spend years building relationships with the big financial services companies (as well as channel partners) and he was going to have to start from scratch. He wanted to launch his next venture in financial services because it was a bigger industry.

San Diego 267

San Diego Entrepreneur Philadelphia Cloud 267

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 29, 2009

Many people have speculated a variety of revenue sources such as charging 3rd parties for their data, charging power users for their accounts, charging “verified users&# for their certified accounts, etc. And it is the most notable media darling not making any money so everyone is asking the question – how will they make money?

Technical Review 286

Technical Review Advertising Early Stage Internet 286

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 15, 2013

For much of 2013 I watched the press write articles about how the YouTube “MCNs” (multi-channel networks) were doomed and tried to square that with the data I was watching at the one I invested in, Maker Studios, who has had one hell of a year. but not that this justifies take a 45% revenue share.

Networking 366

Networking Media Distribution Video 366

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 26, 2010

You can always tell during this discussion whether the entrepreneur has logged into their products, talked to their customers, read all the news stories and gotten all of the back channel info on the competition. You can tell if they have a deep-seated competitive spirit. Can’t go a mile deep on competition?

Entrepreneur 286

Entrepreneur CTO Hire Cofounder Early Stage 286

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 28, 2018

If the retailer can get the product “exclusively” (even for just a time window) then it hopes to get more customers shopping at its store or watching its video channel vs. its competitors. if you don’t know how to supply and service the large channels where consumers want to purchase products.

Curation 296

Curation Los Angeles Differentiation Channel 296

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 3, 2010

How much dilution should I take for it?&# My friend’s company was pre-revenue. We said it was like two people who couldn’t swim across the English Channel (21 miles) putting their arms around each other and trying to swim across together. It has awesome features that my main competitor doesn’t have.

Merger 276

Merger Technical Review Early Stage Dilution 276

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 19, 2015

YouTube takes too high of a revenue split (45% vs. 30% that Apple and many other distribution companies take – FWIW, YouTube argues this is because their costs are much higher since they host and stream the video). YouTube is a distribution and marketing channel like any other. For me this was a simple market analysis.

SEM 150

SEM Los Angeles Silicon Valley Acquisition 150

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 20, 2014

By the time I funded them they were doing 400 million video views a month, had 40 million subscribers and had already become a powerhouse in ad sales / revenue working with marquee advertisers including: P&G, Budweiser, Nestle, Ford, Frito Lay and Honda. Why Double Down on YouTube.

South America 291

South America Colombia Mexico Vertical 291

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 21, 2010

Plus, we’re all allured by the false sense that our contract with BigCo is going to “make us&# because once they start using us it will spread like wildfire and the revenue will flow in. They negotiate a “master agreement&# to work with your company with some maybe minimum guarantees in terms of revenue.

Warrant 298

Warrant Dilution Startup Stock Options 298

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 4, 2010

The incumbents have expensive product features to maintain and often expensive sales channels. You can’t take a $5 billion revenue stream and say “Fuck it. You can’t take a $5 billion revenue stream and say “Fuck it. What future have telcos for call-based revenue in the era of Skype?

Vesting 376

Vesting Framework Revenue Technology 376

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 25, 2015

We grew 100% in SaaS revenue year-over-year and 650% over the past three years. We now have 150 people across three offices, tens of millions in recurring revenue, inbound demand from investors, opportunities to acquire related startups and demands on Jason’s time to speak at conference, do press interviews and so on and so on.

Silicon Valley 150

Silicon Valley IPO Demand Revenue 150

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 20, 2017

They are tasked with “getting deals done” so they race around talking to tons of potential partners inking anything from channel sale deals , product integration, international distribution agreements, co-marketing arrangements, M&A discussions, etc.

Cofounder 164

Cofounder Retention PR SEO 164

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 23, 2010

Let me start by saying that most channel relationships don’t work. I’ve seen way too many startups spend all their energy getting channel deals done only to find out that they don’t produce ANY revenue. This post is dedicated to explaining why channel relationships suffer and how you can improve them.

Channel 293

Channel Startup Sales Partner 293

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 16, 2009

Make sure you know what the size of customer you want to serve is, what the people in a company of that size do, the problems they have, the features that will resonate and the channels you’ll need to sell into and service that customer. The needs are too different as are the sales channels and marketing messages. Who else?).

Startup 389

Startup Early Stage Demand Channel 389

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 4, 2010

We discussed whether investing in the second largest player in a category makes sense given that Groupon is 10x the revenue, 3.5x But LivingSocial is reportedly doing around $180,000 per day in gross revenue. If this figure is accurate – it’s certainly a very large business even when you look at net revenues.

IPO 236

IPO .Net Venture Capital Strategic Investors 236

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 14, 2014

But my specific point is that while everybody is busy telling you that “kids don’t use email” or “email is dead” I have actual data from portfolio company CEO’s showing the efficacy of email as a communication and marketing channel. The key is understanding the nuance. I’ll wait.

Mobile 339

Mobile Email Social Media Global 339

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 17, 2010

It is a channel disguised in business clothing. Apple wants to take a major share of the revenue. Apple is a channel, not a business model – I see too many companies that are building iPhone App companies. It’s a channel. And single channel businesses are vulnerable to the vagrancies of the market place.

Flash 326

Flash Mobile Application Development Cloud 326

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 18, 2013

Sure, the revenue & margin will be significantly lower than traditional TV. It was loaded on the channel of Hi I’m Rawn , a long-time YouTuber. I have started thinking about what the future might look like and I’ve started imagining what I call, “MMOV” or massive multiplayer online video.

Video 380

Video Audience Global Distribution 380

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 6, 2012

And you would promote your music through expensive and limited media channels (radio, who had a strangle hold on market) and retail shops (who could control placement and promotion). With what is rumored to be around 2 million consumers paying $8 / month that is now a $200 million per year not including their ad revenue business.

Media 302

Media South Korea Distribution Technical Review 302

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 6, 2010

Everyone has their own definition of momentum (user numbers, revenue, channel partners, biz dev deals, whatever). But if you identify investors with whom you’d like to work here’s my advice: 1. Momentum - The number one thing that investors get their checkbooks out is for momentum.

Early Stage 360

Early Stage Startup Venture Capital Seed Stage 360

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 11, 2011

I thing I’ve learned over the years is that technology purists hate advertising even when it is that revenue stream that truthfully drives much of our industry. The Wedding Channel. He presented the idea at the TED conference in the mid 90′s and was literally boo’d while he was on stage. Shopping.com. Insider Pages.

Product 350

Product Tuvalu Dilution Incubator 350

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 5, 2016

Multi-Channel-Network. The reason is that most people equate MCN with “YouTube aggregators” meaning people who sign up video creators, roll them up into a single content management system and then collect advertising revenue from YouTube. And Amazon’s short-form channels. What does that even mean? And Vidme.

Aggregator 150

Aggregator Silicon Valley Distribution Video 150

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 3, 2011

. <Small plug> – I invested in an awesome company called … awe.sm … that is a performance tracking tool that let’s you measure efficacy of channels like this (email, facebook, twitter, linkedin, etc.) What is the mix of revenue between ads, subscriptions, digital downloads & ecommerce.

Viral 303

Viral Investment Bankers Video Business Model 303

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 30, 2016

Mark dutifully went to partner meetings, back-channel references began, firms started calling existing VCs to “test prices” and we started debating whom our best partner would be. Invoca was raising at the tail end of this market phenomenon at this time doing tens of millions in SaaS recurring revenue and growing at a nice clip.

Balance Sheet 150

Balance Sheet Burn Rate Valuation Forecast 150

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 5, 2010

billion in annual subscription revenues not including advertising or eCommerce). I’ve written extensively on the topic , but in a nutshell it is: an RSS reader, a chat room, instant messaging, a marketing channel, a customer service department and increasingly a data mine. Twitter is much more.

Social Network 318

Social Network Networking Internet Technical Review 318

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 18, 2015

“Trade in an asset at a price that strongly deviates from an asset’s intrinsic value” The arguments against that, “This time the startups have real revenues!” ” or “Only private markets have increasing value so it can’t be a bubble!” ” ring hollow.

IPO 150

IPO Venture Capital LP SEC 150

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 13, 2016

It turns out that once you attract an audience to your channel and your brand becomes known for producing a genre of content you have an unfair advantage in acquiring customers for other shows who naturally migrate from one show to the next. And you can now negotiate for fees for cable and satellite operators to carry your channels.

Vertical 150

Vertical Video South America Los Angeles 150

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 12, 2017

billion and revenues likely exceeding $250 million (Wikipedia lists 2015 revenue at $167 million). Jonah said that 50% of BuzzFeed’s revenue now comes from video and the pace of this change really surprised him. I asked Jonah about his started position in photos, lists, GIFs and text and where he thought video fit in.

Media 210

Media Los Angeles Russia Viral 210