Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 26, 2016

The key to being able to run a business that isn’t yet profitable (on operating margin) is availability of capital to finance losses and preferably at a cost that isn’t too punitive to the founders and employees. CAC is often measured incorrectly and doesn’t often doesn’t capture the true costs of acquisition.

Metrics 150

Metrics Cost Acquisition Startup 150

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 6, 2019

The problem is that professional investors (angels and venture capital) want a proven business model before they invest, ready to scale, rather than early projections and product development. That includes estimating the money required to get to the revenue stage, and saving money to cover costs before you jump off the cliff.

Finance 320

Finance Intellectual Property Technical Review Incubator 320

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 12, 2019

Over the past month a colleague ( Chang Xu ) and I sifted through data on the venture capital industry (as we do every year) and made a bunch of calls to VCs and LPs to confirm our hypotheses. As a result of the IPO window shifting we saw a massive inflow of public-market capital into the latest stages of venture.

Venture Capital 328

Venture Capital Technical Review Seed Stage IPO 328

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 28, 2010

Dave’s a great guy with a good sense of humor and a broad knowledge of the market, which is why I was excited that he could be on the show. Investors: August Capital (David Hornik) (lead) with existing investors Charles River Ventures. It is a platform to help brands building viral marketing campaigns.

Venture Capital 270

Venture Capital Cofounder Spain San Diego 270

David Teten

JANUARY 9, 2018

That said, we’re in an opaque industry compared with the public markets, and having the real scoop about what’s going on at a private company, and who are raising now, will be a meaningful edge for a long time. Similarly, firms like my alma mater ff Venture Capital and Andreessen Horowitz have executed this strategy in VC.

Venture Capital 60

Venture Capital Private Equity Silicon Valley Differentiation 60

David Teten

JANUARY 9, 2018

That said, we’re in an opaque industry compared with the public markets, and having the real scoop about what’s going on at a private company, and who are raising now, will be a meaningful edge for a long time. Similarly, firms like my alma mater ff Venture Capital and Andreessen Horowitz have executed this strategy in VC.

Venture Capital 60

Venture Capital Private Equity Silicon Valley Differentiation 60

SoCal CTO

MARCH 20, 2007

Technology Advisor Technology Roles in Startups Pricing Customer Acquisition Sunk Costs and More -. User Interface Beyond the Web Site ► November (7) Negative Customer Acquisition Costs - Creative Sta. Early Stage Marketing and Branding – Farida Fotouh. Marketing, Startups and Networking in Los Angeles.

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital Technical Cofounder Southern California Los Angeles 150

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 4, 2022

The problem is that professional investors (angels and venture capitalists) want a proven business model before they invest, ready to scale, rather than the more risky research and development efforts. That includes estimating the money required to get to the revenue stage, and saving money to cover costs before you jump off the cliff.

Intellectual Property 261

Intellectual Property Technical Review Incubator Bootstrapping 261

Up and Running

AUGUST 12, 2014

A few weeks ago I spoke with Boris Wertz, founder of JustBooks, COO of AbeBooks and founding-partner of Version One Ventures. In In as much as a scheduled interview with an angel investor can be, talking with Boris about what it takes to spark the interest of a venture capital firm was a coincidence.

Venture Capital 90

Venture Capital Founder Angel Investor Portfolio 90

David Teten

SEPTEMBER 6, 2015

She had so much insight to share that we broke the interview into two parts, 1) Corporate Venture Capital and more broadly, 2) How the Fortune 500 Can Buy, Invest and Partner with the Innovation Economy (coming soon). . I recently had a chance to interview Mari Joller , an expert on corporate innovation, on this topic.

Venture Capital 60

Venture Capital Balance Sheet Technical Review Portfolio 60

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 2, 2021

Manual tracking and occasional surveys won’t keep you competitive in today’s high volume and rapidly changing market. You need a platform that is comfortable with the global scope of today’s market, with it’s wide range of social and economic cultures, trends, and needs. These tolerate negative cash flows for growth.

Software Review 355

Software Review Algorithm Global IPO 355

David Teten

SEPTEMBER 23, 2017

Private equity and venture capital investors are copying our sisters in the hedge fund and mutual fund world: we’re trying to automate more of our job. The extreme example of this are algorithmic investors in the public markets, who design algorithms which trade on the designer’s behalf, as opposed to making trading decisions directly.

Private Equity 60

Private Equity Venture Capital Equity Technical Review 60

The Startup Magazine

OCTOBER 30, 2022

A good grammar checker can easily replace several proofreaders and editors and save you hundreds of dollars or euros when you are developing your website texts or your first marketing campaigns. However, this may create a major barrier to growth in the future if you apply excessive cost-cutting to the software dimension of your business.

Technical Review 157

Technical Review Technology Software Review Startup 157

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 15, 2022

Finally I realized that venture capital and angel investors are actually humans, despite some views to the contrary. Being the first mover or lowest cost is not a good long-term strategy. A strategy of learning and willingness to pivot, based on market feedback, is a great survival skill and attitude, cherished by investors.

Intellectual Property 278

Intellectual Property Angel Investor Early Stage Venture Capital 278

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 29, 2014

It’s not hard to find people willing to write the narrative that “venture capital is not an asset class” or “venture capital has performed terribly.” Having worked through the data with Glenn I am even more optimistic about venture capital than I was even a year ago.

Venture Capital 362

Venture Capital IPO LP Jordan 362

David Teten

APRIL 6, 2015

An Nguyen and I just completed an analysis of VC and research funding compared with the cost to society of different diseases, and the results show wildly disproportionate funding for certain diseases relative to their impact in society. It also shows market white space for the smart entrepreneur. The data is painful. a decade prior.

Venture Capital 60

Venture Capital Technical Review Non-Compete Philadelphia 60

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 1, 2022

Build positive psychological capital to sustain your business. In any business, you need hope, confidence, resilience, and optimism to weather the daily challenges of customers, market changes, and competitors. Without a store of this psychological capital, your performance and leadership will wane, and your satisfaction will dwindle.

Leadership 285

Leadership Reputation Venture Capital Global 285

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 29, 2020

Maintaining your team’s passion and freedom to focus first on innovating for customers are only a couple of the reasons for thinking hard before you seek money from crowdfunding, angel investors, venture capital organizations, or attempt to qualify for a public stock offering. Explaining actions to investors takes time you don’t have.

Bootstrapping 310

Bootstrapping Advisory Board Venture Capital Startup 310

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 5, 2018

Reading the NY Times article “ Jeffrey Katzenberg Raises $1 Billion for Short-Form Video Venture, ” I realized it was time for a new startup heuristic: the amount of customer discovery and product-market fit you need to find is inversely proportional to the amount and availability of risk capital. ” Fire, Ready, Aim.

Lean 335

Lean Burn Rate Startup IPO 335

VC Cafe

FEBRUARY 21, 2023

It’s not just the competition against the incumbents and the large tech platforms that founders has to worry about, but most importantly is the company’s performance and product market fit. The benchmarks are based on the US market. Hope you find this helpful.

Retention 109

Retention Conversion Churn Rate B2C 109

YoungUpstarts

MARCH 4, 2020

They aren’t operating on big bankrolls of venture capital (at least initially), and they don’t have trust funds to fall back on if the business fails. To fulfill these promises, you have to have the idea, build the product, and take it to market. If they don’t come through, who will? The software exists, and you add users.

Entrepreneur 205

Entrepreneur Venture Capital Silicon Valley Bandwidth 205

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 18, 2014

On the phone … Me: So, you raised venture capital? It’s simply what a market is willing to pay based on a future belief that your company will grow and non-linear rates and be worth much more in the future. There are a million ways to do quick, easy, low-cost rounds with prices. We raised a seed round.

Venture Capital 417

Venture Capital Liquidation Preference Valuation Term Sheet 417

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 19, 2013

The problem is that professional investors (Angels and Venture Capital) want a proven business model before they invest, ready to scale, rather than the more risky research and development efforts. That includes estimating the money required to get to the revenue stage, and saving money to cover costs before you jump off the cliff.

Intellectual Property 309

Intellectual Property Technical Review Venture Capital Startup 309

YoungUpstarts

AUGUST 25, 2017

Venture Capitalism is changing. Due to lowering capital costs, global competition that spans industries and continents, quicker market validations, and facilitated iteration, the nature of the investment game has changed. Cheaper capital costs. Extinct by example?

Venture Capital 193

Venture Capital Technical Review Kenya Startup 193

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 13, 2020

Finally I realized that venture capital and angel investors are actually humans, despite some views to the contrary. Being the first mover or lowest cost is not a good long-term strategy. A strategy of learning and willingness to pivot, based on market feedback, is a great survival skill and attitude, cherished by investors.

Intellectual Property 316

Intellectual Property Angel Investor Early Stage Venture Capital 316

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 30, 2019

The problem is that professional investors (angels and venture capitalists) want a proven business model before they invest, ready to scale, rather than the more risky research and development efforts. That includes estimating the money required to get to the revenue stage, and saving money to cover costs before you jump off the cliff.

Intellectual Property 219

Intellectual Property Technical Review Startup Incubator 219

View from Seed

MARCH 4, 2020

2009 was the nadir of the global economic crisis, followed up an unprecedented bull market. One of the weaknesses of the Midas list methodology (so I’ve heard) is that it under-emphasizes the impact of one’s cost basis and ownership relative to fund size. First, let’s set the stage for this time period. Looking Forward.

Venture Capital 313

Venture Capital China Technical Review Africa 313

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 14, 2014

The problem is that professional investors (Angels and Venture Capital) want a proven business model before they invest, ready to scale, rather than the more risky research and development efforts. That includes estimating the money required to get to the revenue stage, and saving money to cover costs before you jump off the cliff.

Entrepreneur 283

Entrepreneur Intellectual Property Technical Review Incubator 283

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 23, 2014

There has been much discussion in the past few years of the changing structure of the venture capital industry. The rise of alternative sources of capital (crowd funding and the like). The VC market has right-sized (returned back to mid 90′s levels & less competition). On the surface the narratives have been.

Technical Review 398

Technical Review Venture Capital Valuation Pre-Money Valuation 398

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 14, 2020

Many entrepreneurs are so enamored with their product vision that they believe their own hype, and are convinced that the market for their solution is so huge that no one will ask them for independent market research data. Conduct your own customized market research. Modern libraries are still worth a visit.

Business Plan 393

Business Plan Marketing SBA Venture Capital 393

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 6, 2017

It was only a year ago that many in the Venture Capital industry were predicting that “winter was coming” and to be fair the author of this post was chief amongst them. Yet as we enter February 2017 the VC funding markets are booming, Snap, Inc has filed for its IPO, AppDynamics was just purchased for $3.7 Baidu alone raised $3.2

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital Saudi Arabia Kuwait Burn Rate 150

David Teten

JANUARY 19, 2021

Similar to the explosion of seed funds in the past decade, we (and some limited partners too ) believe these Flexible VCs are on the forefront of what will become a major segment of the venture ecosystem. We detail below the major categories of VC: VENTURE CAPITAL TYPOLOGY. FLEXIBLE VC VS. OTHER VENTURE CAPITAL MODELS.

Cofounder 78

Cofounder Technical Review Equity Dividend 78

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 23, 2012

Many observers of the venture capital industry have questioned whether its best days are behind it. Looking ahead at the next decade I am excited by what I believe will be viewed as one of the best and most rational investment periods for venture capital due to seven discrete factors: 1.

Venture Capital 347

Venture Capital Technical Review LP Mobile 347

Up and Running

NOVEMBER 26, 2018

Startups have to deal with starting costs and ongoing businesses have to finance growth and working capital. Its age, position, performance, market opportunities , team, and so forth are very important. Myth #1: Venture capital is a growing opportunity for funding businesses. Venture capital.

SBA 161

SBA Venture Capital Angel Investor Technical Review 161

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 12, 2018

The problem is that professional investors (angels and venture capital) want a proven business model before they invest, ready to scale, rather than early projections and product development. That includes estimating the money required to get to the revenue stage, and saving money to cover costs before you jump off the cliff.

Intellectual Property 134

Intellectual Property Technical Review Startup Incubator 134

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 28, 2011

In this three-part series I will explore the ways that the Venture Capital industry has changed over the past 5 years that I would argue are a direct result of changes in the software industry, not the other way around. When I built my first company starting in 1999 it cost $2.5 Open source became a movement – a mentality.

Venture Capital 334

Venture Capital Software PHP Open Source 334

Version One Ventures

DECEMBER 20, 2021

And if you haven’t seen it already, you can read our Year in Review post, where we reflect on the incredible pace of the start-up market in 2021. . Everyone (investors and founders alike) has underestimated the size of the addressable market for tech over the past decade. And more climate posts: Zero Marginal Cost Energy.

Venture Capital 60

Venture Capital Technical Review Software Review IPO 60