View from Seed

JULY 15, 2020

Companies that are largely in R&D phase can operate business as usual, assuming there is capital to fund the company for 18-24 more months. Mid-stage portfolios can be more acutely impacted if many companies have fat cost structures and were investing heavily in growth that is not materializing.

Portfolio 215

Portfolio IRR Dilution Distribution 215

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APRIL 27, 2022

Homebuyers and homeowners alike want ways to maximize their purchase power and increase their financial flexibility, while investors look for equity-based exposure into residential real estate without prohibitive acquisition and carrying costs. .

Equity 156

Equity Cofounder Acquisition Restful 156

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NOVEMBER 18, 2020

Airbnb convinced travelers to part with 100% of their booking cost up front and then they pay out the required amount to hosts when the stay actually occurs. The straight cost of revenue line is only ~25% of revenue implying a 75% gross margin, assuming you were looking at this in a simplistic revenue / COGS / gross profit manner.

North America 401

North America IPO Prospectus Europe 401

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JUNE 13, 2019

First, on an operating cashflow basis Chewy has been CF positive in some of the recent years. In 2016 they generated an operating cash profit of $7M, in a year where the company was still spending significantly on growth and grew revenue >100% YoY. non-variable) costs associated with fulfillment. in 2016, to 17.5%

Leadership 214

Leadership .Net Revenue Acquisition 214

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MARCH 1, 2016

As an adult, I know the world operates on story first and logic second. Tiny Speck decided to sunset Glitch and began winding down its operations. Are you able to achieve pricing 10 times better than incumbents due to unfair cost advantages? As a child, I believed logical arguments were enough to convince anyone of anything.

Founder 120

Founder Technical Review Cofounder Non-Compete 120

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APRIL 21, 2015

As an engineer at Boeing, I had no idea how the company I worked for really operated. Do you find yourself hiring operators or PMs with that background? Poort (Rescale): Most important to my personal development, HBS was extremely helpful in building confidence in myself.

Founder 120

Founder Las Vegas Entrepreneur Cofounder 120

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JANUARY 5, 2021

I’ve had the privilege to work with many great entrepreneurs, both in my operating days at the start of my career and over the last decade plus on the VC investing side. In my experience founders usually fall into one of three types: mercenaries, missionaries, and crusaders.

Detroit 367

Detroit SEC Founder Affiliate 367

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MARCH 5, 2019

Lyft’s Biggest Cost “Driver” Isn’t the Driver. But given they’re essentially recognizing “net revenue”, Lyft’s cost of goods (COGS, aka cost of revenue in S-1) is composed primarily of insurance, credit card processing fees, and software/tech hosting costs. Insurance is far and away the largest cost driver.

Aggregator 120

Aggregator IPO .Net Revenue 120

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JANUARY 21, 2022

The sequence of operation to improve efficiency. Replacing humans with machines to lower costs. Quality control. Reducing the risk of fraud and default. How to minimize friction and drop off of customers. How to constrain a the factory. Volume, CAC, ROI. Optimizations to be had at different stages of assembly. Further Reading.

B2B 120

B2B Germany Stock Engineer 120

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FEBRUARY 18, 2016

This is going to be painful for those companies forced to operate businesses with cash balances like 2010 and cost structures like 2016. These two costs suck up a lot of the money in an early stage company. It’s people and place primarily for the the first year or two and these costs are not going anywhere for awhile.

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage San Francisco Startup Valuation 120

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JANUARY 23, 2020

Prior to this, design was not a consideration of auto manufacturers, cost and technical engineering were the primary influences. But his start goes much further back than that. In 1927 General Motors created the “Art and Color Section” and made Earl its first director. .

Design 177

Design Engineer America Mobile 177

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APRIL 24, 2019

Along those lines, there was a set of personal concierge models which launched a few years back like Magic , Operator , and 26 other alternatives (including my own personal favorite Delegate , as I’m a happy customer).

SMS 207

SMS San Francisco Channel Dilution 207

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SEPTEMBER 9, 2014

For most of my career, I’ve served startups and early-stage companies as an operating executive or advisor. Have you established a set of operating principles by which every individual will conduct themselves and interact with others, despite differing perspectives? In other words, to operate a startup is to wade through uncertainty.

Hiring 336

Hiring Cofounder Startup Technical Cofounder 336

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MARCH 3, 2015

Webinars have a whole other cost in terms of time, effort, headaches, etc. When do you start to double-down or evolve the playbook into a way of operating? So we started doing both webinars and ebooks, then ultimately did more ebooks than webinars because they performed better. Should you do that at all?

Marketing 120

Marketing Sales Cycle Startup CTO Hire 120

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AUGUST 5, 2014

Our operations manager Rob notes that he wouldn’t have been able to get a pup without this flexibility. But when being direct ran the risk of ruffling feathers, Derek would avoid the rough conversations and maintain decorous relationships at all costs. Generally, folks head into the office 3-4 days per week as a result.

Cofounder 307

Cofounder Startup SCRUM Seed Stage 307

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MARCH 8, 2016

And in that case, there’s a low barrier to entry from a cost perspective and an experience perspective. Can you still operate in some kind of lean or scrappy way and launch a brand that resonates with the market? If the product is good, people will find it. It’s easy for people to download and open something if its free and easy.

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage Conversion Startup PR 120

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AUGUST 10, 2017

Not only do we see that that technology can provide leverage in scaling a business model, but that it can also help empower entrepreneurs to create companies without significant startup costs. This situation leads to both meaningful food waste in addition to increased costs for all parties (and ultimately the consumer).

Technical Review 120

Technical Review Software Review Internet Business Model 120

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NOVEMBER 7, 2019

If you understand the premise of blitzscaling, it’s not truly growth at any and all cost… it’s a strategic mindset for building a company from scratch at previously unheard pace specifically where digital innovation enables capturing a large addressable market.

IPO 202

IPO Early Stage Cofounder B2C 202

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JUNE 22, 2016

I think where we are looking as a firm is more in a technology-enabled marketplace like that or a company that builds a product, rather than one that primarily operates with a services model. One of the big use cases is that they allow you to access places remotely that would be challenging otherwise — and on a low-cost basis.

Technical Review 159

Technical Review Startup Software Review B2B 159

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MARCH 20, 2020

This has the potential to dramatically reduce cost and increase access to higher education. While online education brings considerable positives in the form of increased access and reduced costs, there are several downsides to consider. Healthcare costs more in the United States than in any other nation in the developed world.

New York City 374

New York City Demand Technical Review Non-Compete 374

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OCTOBER 29, 2014

The income these investments generate then help fund the operations of those organizations or capital investment (e.g. Endowments are the funds established by universities, hospitals, museums, and other non-profits to invest for the long term. new buildings, etc).

LP 335

LP Private Equity Institutional Investors Venture Capital 335