ReadWriteStart

OCTOBER 7, 2010

Bottom line, early stage equity is very, very expensive. So at any point, if you are trying to raise money, and you are hearing from investors that you are too early and have too little validation, it may be a good thing. Then Liana Thompson pitched Trendy Loot , a very early stage deal site for low-end jewelry.

Valuation 119

Valuation Silicon Valley Pre-Money Valuation Bootstrapping 119

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 14, 2021

Q: What is going to happen to the cost of capital? Q: What is the opportunity cost of not being in tech? Both early- and late-stage startup valuations are currently elevated. For context, seed-stage pre-money valuations are up 24% from H1 2020 to H1 2021.

Valuation 295

Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Distribution Early Stage 295

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 6, 2010

How much is NewCo worth to investors at this point (pre-money valuation)? What percentage of NewCo does the investor own after the $1M infusion (post-money ownership percentage)? On the other hand, if the pre-money valuation is $4M, the founders ownership remains at a healthy 80% level.

Valuation 234

Valuation Pre-Money Valuation NPV Startup 234

Gust

NOVEMBER 18, 2012

How much is NewCo worth to investors at this point (pre-money valuation)? What percentage of NewCo does the investor own after the $1M infusion (post-money ownership percentage)? On the other hand, if the pre-money valuation is $4M, the founders ownership remains at a healthy 80% level.

Valuation 187

Valuation Pre-Money Valuation NPV Intellectual Property 187

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 30, 2011

How much is NewCo worth to investors at this point (pre-money valuation)? What percentage of NewCo does the investor own after the $1M infusion (post-money ownership percentage)? On the other hand, if the pre-money valuation is $4M, the founders ownership remains at a healthy 80% level.

Pre-Money Valuation 246

Pre-Money Valuation Valuation NPV Intellectual Property 246

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.” Team strength and experience is value.

Intellectual Property 120

Intellectual Property Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Startup 120

View from Seed

OCTOBER 21, 2014

As the seed-stage startup fundraise process has received more transparency in recent years, ranging from published advice on how to raise seed capital to increased availability through AngelList, Funders Club, and various accelerator programs, I’ve noticed another trend emerging. Lower-Than-Market Value.

Valuation 336

Valuation Founder Seed Stage Angel Investor 336

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 14, 2021

Q: What is going to happen to the cost of capital? Q: What is the opportunity cost of not being in tech? Both early- and late-stage startup valuations are currently elevated. For context, seed-stage pre-money valuations are up 24% from H1 2020 to H1 2021.

Valuation 156

Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Distribution Early Stage 156

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 5, 2015

Over the years I’ve written extensively about the downsides of convertible notes for startups such as here , here and here. In the old days VCs funded off of a “pre-money” valuation. Pre-money ($8m) + investment ($2m) = Post-money ($10m) and the investors now own 20% of your company $2m / $10m.

Pre-Money Valuation 150

Pre-Money Valuation Option Pool Post-Money Valuation Dilution 150

Tim Keane

JANUARY 12, 2010

Startups and angels: Along the way to success. Term-sheets and Valuations: Thinking about Negotiations. An average of these ranges results in a pre-money valuation of about $4MM.   If similarly situated companies are seeing $3.5MM pre-money valuations, this might become the target valuation.

Term Sheet 68

Term Sheet Valuation Dividend Liquidation Preference 68

The Startup Lawyer

FEBRUARY 4, 2011

Great news — your startup just got accepted to an incubator! But before your startup signs up and cashes that $[XX,000] check, your startup’s co-founders should sit down and evaluate the incubator’s offer. Pre-money valuations startups receive from incubators are typically low…really low.

Incubator 105

Incubator Pre-Money Valuation Option Pool Advisory Board 105

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 17, 2011

I’m a very big believer in the “Lean Startup&# principles as espoused by Steve Blank and Eric Ries. For many businesses you should keep your costs low & your capital raises low until you discover whether you are really on to a big idea where there is market demand. What might future markets hold in terms of valuations?

Pre-Money Valuation 303

Pre-Money Valuation Dilution Valuation PR 303

VC Cafe

SEPTEMBER 26, 2022

The past year was a wild ride for startups and founders, giving a whole new meaning to the ”rollercoaster” aspect of being an entrepreneur. A combination of competition for top talent and an effort to bring employees back to the office drove startups in Israel to throw extravagant parties and all-inclusive retreats abroad.

Founder 187

Founder Startup Valuation Pre-Money Valuation 187

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 5, 2012

When convertible debt first started being introduced as a “faster, cheaper way to get startups funded” they didn’t have pricing built into them. In fact, most early investor work hard to help their startups get to the next level so it makes no sense for the angel investor and founders to be at odds.

Ratchet 354

Ratchet Liquidation Preference Equity Stock 354

This is going to be BIG.

JULY 30, 2015

You don't want the "average" fund, because average funds don't do well--just like you don't want to model the average startup, because you might as well draw a big flaming hole in the ground. Second, their dollars dollar cost average at cheaper entry prices. Here's another way to look at it--the cost of capital argument.

Venture Capital 60

Venture Capital Pre-Money Valuation IRR Valuation 60

K9 Ventures

MARCH 23, 2011

If they don’t learn to do this, then when they raise money from institutional investors and have a formal Board of Directors put in place, they are ill-equipped to know what it means to have a board meeting, to prepare a board information packet, and most of all to manage the board (and yes, every board needs to be managed).

Pre-Money Valuation 132

Pre-Money Valuation Valuation Equity Liquidation Preference 132

Feld Thoughts

JULY 29, 2011

Finance Friday’s gets off the ground with today’s post by introducing you to an imaginary startup, the entrepreneurs that we’ll being following throughout the series, and their first challenges: splitting up the founders’ equity and addressing the case where one of the founders provides the initial seed capital for the business.

Equity 137

Equity Finance Pre-Money Valuation Denver 137

www.paulgraham.com

APRIL 28, 2010

Want to start a startup? A typical startup goes throughseveral rounds of funding, and at each round you want to take justenough money to reach the speed where you can shift into the nextgear. Few startups get it quite right. Once you take money from the generalpublic youre more restricted in what you can do. [

Technical Review 76

Technical Review Startup Software Review Angel Investor 76

Hippoland

AUGUST 31, 2018

He has done incredibly well financially on his past two startups, and he’s now building his 3rd company. So, I thought it might make sense to take a step back and talk about all the stages of early stage fundraising here in the Silicon Valley. This was surprising to me. This is typically a $6-10m round.

Pre-Money Valuation 90

Pre-Money Valuation Valuation Silicon Valley Early Stage 90

David Teten

NOVEMBER 15, 2013

Each new investor tends to raise valuations and lower returns for all the other competitive investors. It is mathematically impossible for the median investor to beat a low-cost index, after expenses. (Of I have frequently heard the expression from other investors, “We can put a lot of money to work here.”

Management 114

Management Pre-Money Valuation Venture Capital New Hampshire 114

Hippoland

AUGUST 31, 2018

He has done incredibly well financially on his past two startups, and he’s now building his 3rd company. So, I thought it might make sense to take a step back and talk about all the stages of early stage fundraising here in the Silicon Valley. This was surprising to me. This is typically a $6-10m round.

Pre-Money Valuation 48

Pre-Money Valuation Valuation Silicon Valley Early Stage 48

www.currentlyobsessed.com

MAY 28, 2010

I unexpectedly found that it was more helpful to think about the company valuation as an output variable in the fund-raising equation. It hardly deserves any attention at all in the early stages. For some closing thoughts, I’ll just add that: Valuation tends to be too much of a focus for most early stage companies.

Valuation 42

Valuation Channel Pre-Money Valuation Term Sheet 42