Agile VC

JUNE 5, 2011

When you’re company is growing >10x year over year, I suppose if management didn’t invest a lot in continued growth their board directors would line them up against the wall. and again only a portion of these subscribers will ultimately buy a Groupon, so the cost to acquire a true customer is higher than that.

North America 100

North America Chicago Boston Silicon Valley 100

Agile VC

SEPTEMBER 30, 2014

Recently prominent activist shareholders have also been “encouraging” eBay management to spin off PayPal as a way to maximize shareholder value. This is a move that’s been contemplated by folks both inside the company and outside for many years.

Mobile 157

Mobile Acquisition Revenue Management 157

Agile VC

AUGUST 9, 2012

Management Shake-ups – most notably the sudden departure of COO John Schappert and shuffling of Marc Pincus’s direct reports. That’s their revenue minus cost of goods, and keep in mind Zynga’s top line already excludes the 30% take from Facebook (which still accounts for >90% of revenues).

Stock 160

Stock LBO .Net Valuation 160

Agile VC

MARCH 8, 2012

Groupon didn’t manage to get out until November and Zynga in December. And finally margins matter… a $50-100M software company can go public given it’s 80-90% gross margins, an e-commerce company with 20-30% gross margins and high customer acquisition costs needs to be much bigger (probably 5-10x at least).

IPO 100

IPO Silicon Valley Revenue Seed Stage 100

Agile VC

JUNE 12, 2012

At first glance, mobile payments seem like a no brainer… consumers [seemingly] want the convenience of paying with a phone rather than cash or credit card, merchants dislike the cost associated with accepting credit cards, and mobile ecosystem players (e.g. I’ve been an interested observer of electronic payments for 12+ years.

Mobile 250

Mobile Disintermediation SMS Government 250

Agile VC

OCTOBER 29, 2014

Some institutional investors simply aren’t big enough to have in-house employees to vet and manage a portfolio of VC funds. The definition of “big enough” varies widely but, generally speaking, entities that manage less than $1 billion in assets will often go the indirect route. The first is a staff constraint.

Venture Capital 279

Venture Capital LP Private Equity Institutional Investors 279

Agile VC

DECEMBER 6, 2012

A little more inside baseball from the VC biz… why VC’s rarely make “crossover” investments, with capital from multiple funds the VC firm manages invested in a single startup (see note 1). I was talking with an entrepreneur recently about this phenomenon.

LP 178

LP Balance Sheet Differentiation Limited Partner 178