Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 26, 2016

There has been a lot of public debate over the past several weeks about whether it’s a good thing to be “gross margin positive” or not and commentary always reminds me that some people at startups don’t quite understand financial metrics or even how to think about which ones are healthy. I’m guessing much of this was 101 to many readers.

Metrics 150

Metrics Cost Acquisition Startup 150

SoCal CTO

SEPTEMBER 27, 2011

I was asked by a reader how much equity he should give out to early employees and to service providers in a very early stage startup. Founders vs. Early Employees To help with this discussion, let me start with a definition of "early employee." the better the startup will be. Risk Premium on Equity Compensation?

Early Stage 391

Early Stage Equity CTO Hire Sweat Equity 391

VC Cafe

JUNE 6, 2024

The first time I wrote about startup benchmarks was in 2019 and it became one of the most popular posts on VC Cafe. First some important definitions If you’re a SaaS practitioner, feel free to skip this to get to the meat and potatoes.

B2B 78

B2B Burn Rate Generative AI Retention 78

ReadWriteStart

OCTOBER 2, 2021

If you’re thinking about starting a tech startup you already know — there are a lot of things to consider. But what if a tech startup uses the LLC structure? And even though an LLC is legally required to report its revenues, profits, and losses, it does not have to pay corporate income taxes on profits. Definitely not.

Technical Review 158

Technical Review LLC IPO Stock 158

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 30, 2020

Some argue the only way to start is to drop everything and jump in with both feet, while others recommend an overlapped approach to the lifestyle, including not quitting your day job until you have revenue and a proven business model. I’m definitely a proponent of this latter approach. Odds are you are going to fail before you succeed.

Entrepreneur 321

Entrepreneur Private Equity Startup Salary 321

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 18, 2023

Some argue the only way to start is to drop everything and jump in with both feet, while others recommend an overlapped approach to the lifestyle, including not quitting your day job until you have revenue and a proven business model. I’m definitely a proponent of this latter approach. Odds are you are going to fail before you succeed.

Private Equity 255

Private Equity Salary Cofounder Equity 255

Hearpreneur

JANUARY 12, 2022

Because of COVID-19 and the chaos, it has wreaked on brick-and-mortar businesses like mine, I've decided with my partners that we need to take a different approach within our company to generate more revenue. We are FriendTales, a mental health startup that is focusing on the pre-teen audience before they develop a mental illness.

Entrepreneur 130

Entrepreneur Web Development Affiliate Hosting 130

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 11, 2022

The canvas is a visual chart with elements describing your value proposition, structure, finances, and customers, to help companies identify and align business activities. Every business needs revenue to provide investor returns and offset costs. Free” is not an attractive revenue model to investors. Customer relationships.

Business Model 334

Business Model Intellectual Property Angel Investor Channel 334

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

AUGUST 9, 2010

This is Part 3 of the series: 5 lessons from 150 startup pitches.? Of hundreds of startup pitches at Capital Factory , almost none had unearthed 10 people willing to say, "If you build this product, I'll give you $X.". Aren't you sick of every startup blogger on Earth badgering you about this? Short-sighted, no?

Software Review 312

Software Review Part-Time VPE Houston Cofounder 312

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 5, 2011

2 preamble issues having read the comments on TC today: 1: I know that the prices of startup companies is much great in Silicon Valley than in smaller towns / less tech focused areas in the US and the US prices higher than many foreign markets. Prices have definitely gone up in 2011 as depicted in the anecdotal chart below.

Pre-Money Valuation 336

Pre-Money Valuation Valuation Silicon Valley Stock 336

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 13, 2013

One of my favorite events last year was attending Startup Grind where I got to interview Clayton Christensen, author of The Innovator’s Dilemma. And of course we talked about many of my views of building startups. I got a job at a bank, and I worked in their corporate finance group. You didn’t join startups then.

Cofounder 337

Cofounder Technical Cofounder Startup San Diego 337

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 30, 2022

By definition, second-stage ventures generally have 10 to 99 employees and/or $750,000 to $50 million in revenue, and see that as just the beginning. Very few startups are cash-rich enough to self-finance aggressive second-stage growth. Of course, not every entrepreneur wants to tackle this challenge.

Mezzanine 368

Mezzanine Private Equity Bandwidth Metrics 368

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 19, 2014

So this was definitely an introduction I was going to take. By September 26th we had submitted a term sheet which was signed on October 4th and financing was closed in less than 30 days. Again, I think the company would slug me if released revenue data, but … wow. Domain Knowledge. Clear path to execution.

Technical Review 373

Technical Review North America Los Angeles Cofounder 373

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 23, 2014

When you think about the trends of faster-growing startups due to social networking, credit card enable and mobile first consumers – the reality is that many startups are becoming very large financially before needing to go public. The “big boom” in startup financing started around March 2009?—?more

Technical Review 398

Technical Review Venture Capital Valuation Pre-Money Valuation 398

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 16, 2010

One is the “denominator problem&# which says that if an LP invests X% (the denominator) into “alternative investments&# such as venture capital and if their total amount available to invest (the numerator) goes down by 30% then the amount they allocate to VC will by definition need to go down by 30% to stay the same percentage.

LP 311

LP Technical Review Early Stage Silicon Valley 311

ReadWriteStart

OCTOBER 2, 2021

If you’re thinking about starting a tech startup you already know — there are a lot of things to consider. But what if a tech startup uses the LLC structure? And even though an LLC is legally required to report its revenues, profits, and losses, it does not have to pay corporate income taxes on profits. Definitely not.

Technical Review 78

Technical Review LLC IPO Stock 78

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 1, 2019

By definition, second-stage ventures generally have 10 to 99 employees and/or $750,000 to $50 million in revenue, and see that as just the beginning. Very few startups are cash-rich enough to self-finance aggressive second-stage growth. Of course, not every entrepreneur wants to tackle this challenge.

Mezzanine 244

Mezzanine Private Equity Startup Bandwidth 244

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

OCTOBER 13, 2015

This is the perennial question for startups who have started to taste success, and are ready to invest in themselves in the form of new helping hands. Then ask whether the addition of that person would solve your #1 problem, or address your #1 risk, or 10x your revenue quickly, or whatever your current primary goal is.

Part-Time VPE 120

Part-Time VPE Hiring Retention Revenue 120

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 5, 2015

I challenge any entrepreneur, for example, to define the difference between "seed-stage" and "early-stage" financing. Asking for early-stage money before you have customers and revenue will likely kill your credibility with real investors. Startup incubator seed funding. Corporate seed funds for startups.

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage Finance Early Stage Startup 120

Austin Startup

AUGUST 3, 2017

Is it an Texas-based tech startup company or is it doing something in the email space? For me, that’s any tech startup company in Texas or any email related company in the world. If your answers starts with, “We have multiple revenue streams…” that’s a bad thing. Is this a big enough market to support a venture funded business?

Technical Review 69

Technical Review Startup Texas Email 69

OnlyOnce

OCTOBER 6, 2022

(This is the second post in the series…… the first one on When to Hire your First Chief Revenue Officer is here. ). While you might not find all these characteristics and attributes in one person, you should definitely look for them! The post What Does Great Look Like in a Chief Revenue Officer?

Revenue 62

Revenue Sales Hiring Framework 62

ReadWriteStart

JULY 20, 2023

The tech industry is witnessing a monumental shift in the dynamics of startup success. While venture-backed startups struggle to find relief amidst a backlog of richly priced ventures, some tech companies are defying expectations and going public with resounding triumphs. Startup success is not a one-size-fits-all equation.

IPO 107

IPO Startup Initial Public Offering eCommerce 107

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 19, 2013

My internal compass has always steered me strongly toward the belief that founders who can scale with their startup companies are better to back that founders who eventually need to hire a CEO. Jonathan Strauss took this issue head on in a blog post that I believe every startup founder should read on “ Replacing Oneself as CEO.”

Technical Review 303

Technical Review Cofounder Analytics Founder 303

The Next Web

AUGUST 12, 2013

It’s unrelated to the startup world, but I can highly recommend to watch “ Being Liverpool ”. Starting a global tech business with international, well-educated and highly-skilled people, generating millions of revenue per month, is incredibly hard. But that’s the case for only tiny amount of startups. Startups fail.

Cofounder 119

Cofounder CTO Hire Startup Europe 119

VC Cafe

SEPTEMBER 16, 2021

Let’s start with a short definition: [the creator economy] is defined as the class of businesses built by over 50 million independent content creators, curators, and community builders including social media influencers, bloggers, and videographers, plus the software and finance tools designed to help them with growth and monetization.

Startup 207

Startup Social Media Venture Capital Audio 207

Hearpreneur

JANUARY 20, 2021

4-Rise of individuals deciding to launch startups. The trend I see in our industry is a continued rise of individuals deciding to launch startups and embrace entrepreneurship. Marketing and public relations trends will most definitely move towards diversifying the image and representation of brands and businesses.

Entrepreneur 147

Entrepreneur United States Software Review Technical Review 147

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 22, 2011

I’m no great scholar on bubbles – I have more interesting things to spend my time worrying about than the exact definition , but having been around a few I have at least given them intellectual consideration. Ah, but today’s Internet companies have real revenue! Or worse yet they may never get financed.

Saudi Arabia 309

Saudi Arabia Valuation IPO Technical Review 309

ReadWriteStart

JUNE 16, 2011

During today's roundtable, we had four Microsoft BizSpark Startup India Challenge grant finalists present. Zendesk is heavily financed by Benchmark and Charles River and has 10,000 customers. 10Screens is currently also a finalist in the Microsoft BizSpark India Startup Challenge.

India 123

India Bootstrapping Non-Compete Entrepreneur 123

View from Seed

NOVEMBER 18, 2014

Once a startup has raised seed capital, plenty of theories and advice exist on how to successfully raise a Series A. Recently, we looked at our own portfolio at NextView Ventures to dig a little deeper on how startups actually raise that next round of financing. More on these below.). There was no meaningful difference.

Syndicate 333

Syndicate Syndication Seed Stage Startup 333

Up and Running

NOVEMBER 5, 2018

This article is part of our Business Startup Guide —a curated list of our articles that will get you up and running in no time! Startup expenses are those expenses incurred before the business is running. Many people underestimate startup costs and start their business in a haphazard, unplanned way. What are startup costs?

Cost 150

Cost Balance Sheet Startup Intellectual Property 150

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 13, 2019

The canvas is a visual chart with elements describing your value proposition, structure, finances, and customers, to help companies identify and align business activities. Every business needs revenue to provide investor returns and offset costs. Free” is not an attractive revenue model to investors. Customer relationships.

Intellectual Property 250

Intellectual Property Business Model Angel Investor Channel 250

The Startup Magazine

OCTOBER 2, 2019

Nevertheless, gambling has become larger than ever in terms of revenue, making it a not so crazy idea to become invested in that world. Gambling studies are offered and taught from an academic standpoint in several UK universities as a second subject in course combined with Business, Economics, or Finance.

Nevada 76

Nevada Technical Review Reputation Salary 76

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 22, 2020

As a long-time advisor to entrepreneurs, and a former angel myself, I still find startups confused about the definition of an angel investor, and how and when to attract one. You need to know why and how they invest, and then focus on the ones who are the best match for your startup. Thus they don’t live or fly above the clouds.

Angel Investor 322

Angel Investor Valuation Syndicate Syndication 322

This is going to be BIG.

SEPTEMBER 30, 2012

How else can you explain this headline matching a story about a professional social network still trying to explore revenues raising $17mm on an $80mm valuation? venture capitalists are now asking tougher questions about start-ups' revenue and profits.". International and non-Valley startup communities are developing at a rapid pace.

Venture Capital 130

Venture Capital Marketing Term Sheet Software Review 130

K9 Ventures

MAY 28, 2015

At K9 we invest in companies which have a clear/direct revenue model and typically don’t invest in companies that follow the Ubiquity first Revenue Later (URL) revenue model made famous by Eric Schmidt in 2007. When a startup is just getting started it first needs to build its product/service. >$0/month.

Revenue 48

Revenue Startup Burn Rate Cofounder 48

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 9, 2017

The canvas is a visual chart with elements describing your value proposition, structure, finances, and customers, to help companies identify and align business activities. Every business needs revenue to provide investor returns and offset costs. Free” is not an attractive revenue model to investors. Customer relationships.

Business Model 143

Business Model Intellectual Property Startup Angel Investor 143

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 10, 2014

I’d say 20% of startups I see level-up early after their A round. Another obvious hire is thus a financial controller or finance director – preferably somebody with business planning experiences and not just an accountant. The best ones by now have an amazing finance leader who often doubles as head of internal operations.

Startup 381

Startup PR Finance Hiring 381