Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 13, 2018

A reverse merger is the acquisition of an already public company (usually a dormant shell) to avoid the Initial Public Offering (IPO) process and cost, to quickly get your startup on a public exchange for fund raising through visibility and selling stock. It takes real money to get into the game.

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Merger OTC IPO Due Diligence 198

Agile VC

JUNE 5, 2011

They’ve grown from nothing to >$2B in revenue in 30 months time, making the company among the fastest growing businesses in the histroy of the world. How They Make Money: Groupon keeps a share of the coupon value (typically 40-50%) as its net revenue (1). Financial Snapshot: 2010 Revenue: $713M. to the merchant.

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North America Chicago Boston Silicon Valley 100

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 3, 2014

A reverse merger is the acquisition of an already public company (usually a dormant shell) to avoid the Initial Public Offering (IPO) process and cost, to quickly get your startup on a public exchange for fund raising through visibility and selling stock. It takes real money to get into the game.

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Merger OTC IPO Stock 246

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 19, 2018

A detailed financial model that shows your anticipated revenue, costs and profits (Income Statement) as well as your balance sheet and cashflow statements. For starters you have to realize that fund-raising is a sales process. A brochure is an easy out for you in the sales process without being rude. It felt like heresy.

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Cap Table Due Diligence Forecast Churn Rate 336

Berkonomics

APRIL 4, 2019

Others worry that we will latch onto individual line items within financial data and engage in inquisitions regarding telephone bills, marketing costs and other tactical line items in detailed financial statements. That is one of the many costs of becoming a public entity as many CEO’s have found and dealt with over the years.

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Stock Options Balance Sheet Stock Common Stock 48

Up and Running

JUNE 21, 2011

Key managers who are not the sole shareholders of the business can create a huge conflict of interest during a sale and hold shareholders hostage during sale negotiations. Make sure to put in place incentives (like a sale bonus or stock options program) today to avoid eleventh-hour power plays.

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Sales Investment Bankers CPA Stock Options 86

Hearpreneur

DECEMBER 31, 2017

Along with the capital costs of this investment, there was also a steep learning curve that resulted in rookie mistakes. In 2018 I fully expect to move past the initial cost and mistakes and reap from these investments. For example, this year we invested in some expensive software. Thanks to Andrei Vasilescu, DontPayFull ! #14-

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Entrepreneur Stock Options Programming Washington 65

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 15, 2015

A reverse merger is the acquisition of an already public company (usually a dormant shell) to avoid the Initial Public Offering (IPO) process and cost, to quickly get your startup on a public exchange for fund raising through visibility and selling stock. It takes real money to get into the game.

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Merger OTC IPO Due Diligence 120

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 16, 2011

He says that you should never consider a public offering unless you are confident that the company will deliver increasing profits and revenue after the offering, so that the public buyer can anticipate a gain. These can add millions to the cost of doing business. Draper III, in his new book titled “ The Startup Game.”

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Berkonomics

APRIL 14, 2012

Others worry that investors will latch onto individual line items within financial data and engage in inquisitions regarding telephone bills, marketing costs and other tactical line items in detailed financial statements. That is one of the many costs of becoming a public entity as many CEO’s have found and dealt with over the years.

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Stock Options Balance Sheet Stock Common Stock 81

infochachkie.com

SEPTEMBER 24, 2011

For instance, many a BDC CEO has initiated a consultant to study cost cutting issues before announcing a significant layoff. For instance, if a consultant proposes to help you with public relations, pay them a commission equivalent to the greater of a flat fee per story placed or a percentage of revenue generated from the PR coverage.

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Equity Silicon Valley Cofounder PR 40

Eric Friedman

JUNE 11, 2019

Whether a fundraising event, hiring, or sales/partnership opportunity- these can be especially useful to make all parties move faster. Having worked on many deals that seem to go dark with the other party (think endless sales calls or follow ups) getting back in front of someone in the right way is key. and they move at a glacial pace.

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Term Sheet Stock Options Early Stage Agile 68

Gust

DECEMBER 8, 2011

For those of us who do it every day or every week, there is also a “ well-worn path ” involving reams of very familiar-looking documents that will take relatively little time (and therefore cost relatively little in legal fees) to prepare for a new startup. Sales contracts accounting for significant revenue.

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Intellectual Property Non-disclosure Agreement Delaware Stock 139

YoungUpstarts

MAY 7, 2015

For example, in most third-party sales with a business broker or investment banking firm, a commission or “success fee” will be charged as a percentage of the sales price. Many ESOPs are as small as 12-15 employees with less than $1 MM in annual revenue. Myth: An ESOP transaction requires that a majority of stock be transferred.

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Tim Keane

JANUARY 12, 2010

It also assumes the entire value of the investment is captured for investors at a sale of the company in the time specified in the term-sheet. 3]   However, if they are built bottom up, they demonstrate and make explicit a range of business model assumptions the entrepreneur is using to think about his business and its revenue model.

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Term Sheet Valuation Dividend Liquidation Preference 68

Berkonomics

AUGUST 27, 2015

They financed their companies, to the extent possible, in a manner minimizing the cost of capital, planning for organic growth in the number of customers served and in associated revenues. The Flipper’s executives usually have significant equity holdings, either actually owned or reflected in stock options.

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Intellectual Property Balance Sheet Stock Options Valuation 48

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 27, 2010

I learned how to retain employees when stock options were no longer a real currency. I learned how to get press coverage when we were no longer “hot.&# I learned how to manage costs effectively. But in our first year of sales (and those were really shitty years to be selling software) we sold $2.1

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Venture Capital Hiring Software Review Stock Options 285

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

MARCH 11, 2014

And I really believe I can do, on the sales part, so much more if I have additional people. Jason: That’s true in engineering; it’s true in sales; it’s true in marketing. How do you split revenue? Is it more the marketing/sales side? And then the final thing is just getting the revenue up.

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Technical Cofounder Cofounder Software Review Management 220

Ben's Blog

APRIL 28, 2010

In the 80s, the invention of the CD completely revitalized the industry and led to (literally) record-breaking sales. The new, professional CEOs were unwilling to let go of the most basic assumptions driving the cost structure of their businesses. How was that possible? Investments in innovation do not pay out in the current quarter.

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Technical Review Cofounder Technical Cofounder Software Review 78

www.paulgraham.com

APRIL 28, 2010

There never has to be atime when you have no revenues. Ifyour competitors offer employees stock options that might make themrich, while you make it clear you plan to stay private, yourcompetitors will get the best people. For example, VCs generally write it into the deal thatin any sale, they get their investment back first.

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Technical Review Startup Software Review Angel Investor 76

techcrunch.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

The project was so low cost they did not even want to bother with it. Also if one has a portal that is massive in ideas such as Yahoo, Facebook, Google, Twitter, and YouTube combined like my own without third party back ends it cost a pretty penny to build a custom one if one did not know about clones etc. All what you said is so true.

Technical Review 84

Technical Review Cofounder Technical Cofounder Software Review 84

Ben's Blog

MARCH 17, 2011

When your head of sales interviews for her next job, she won’t want to say that despite the fact that she ran a global sales force with hundreds of employees, her title was “Dude.”. Andreessen argues that people ask for many things from a company: salary, bonus, stock options, span of control, and titles.

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Employee Stock Options Engineer Management 78

Startup Company Lawyer

MAY 1, 2009

Data is analyzed by: founder/non-founder status, company revenue and headcount, geography, business segment, and number of financing rounds raised. Participants who complete the survey will receive the full results at no cost. . Head of Sales 1.20%. Tags: Stock options. President/COO 2.58%. Head of Marketing 0.91%.

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Stock Options CTO Hire Equity 31

Seeing Both Sides

JANUARY 13, 2015

My boss and mentor from Open Market, Gary Eichhorn , made the entire management team read it in the 1990s to hammer home its important lessons as we stumbled through the chasm on our way to scaling from zero to nearly $100 million in revenue in a few years. first sales person, first marketing professional). 1-10 million.

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Mezzanine IPO Finance Business Model 20