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. That is what finances rapid growth.

Metrics 150

Metrics Cost Acquisition Startup 150

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 28, 2020

Who would not want to join the unicorns (recent startups with a current valuation of over $1 billion)? Before you bring on partners, develop intellectual property, raise capital, or generate revenues, you need to establish an official business entity. Incorporating a business entity early through online services.

Intellectual Property 404

Intellectual Property Startup Angel Groups Social Media 404

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 19, 2020

Cash flow is a basic survival metric for every startup. For example, a software development startup raising $250,000 from angel investors better be able to operate on $25,000 per month. This could equate to two technical founders (with a minimal salary), funding two developers for a year.

Burn Rate 310

Burn Rate Hockey Stick Salary Angel Investor 310

YoungUpstarts

NOVEMBER 19, 2020

Most business owners don’t understand the importance of developing an exit strategy from day one. EBITDA is the most important profitability metric to consider as many valuations are based on a multiple of this metric. That being said, it makes sense that when business is booming, your valuation will be higher.

Exit Strategy 246

Exit Strategy Intellectual Property Valuation Metrics 246

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 5, 2018

Tech IPO prices exploded and subsequent trading prices rose to dizzying heights as the stock prices became disconnected from the traditional metrics of revenue and profits. Almost overnight the floodgates opened, and risk capital was available at scale from venture capital investors who rushed their startups toward public offerings.

Lean 335

Lean Burn Rate Startup IPO 335

Austin Startup

APRIL 25, 2017

In order to achieve 20x growth, Snap needs grow both of those metrics 4–5x. In summary: Snap’s current business doesn’t justify a $20B valuation. How can one justify a $20B valuation for Snap? This means that our products take a lot of time and money to develop, and might have slow adoption rates. Back to Snap.

Valuation 48

Valuation Technical Review Forecast Social Network 48

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 29, 2018

Cash flow is a basic survival metric for every startup. For example, a software development startup raising $250,000 from angel investors better be able to operate on $25,000 per month. This could equate to two technical founders (with a minimal salary), funding two developers for a year.

Burn Rate 223

Burn Rate Hockey Stick Startup Salary 223

The Startup Magazine

JANUARY 14, 2020

Higher asset valuation – growing awareness about the environment; the social impact of buildings and the need to meet sustainability credentials is increasingly making real estate investors and occupiers turn to green buildings. The cumulative cost impact often adds to lower building operation and corresponding maintenance cost.

Green 138

Green California Government Valuation 138

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 4, 2015

In a new book, “ The Leadership Capital Index ,” Dave Ulrich, a best-selling author, business consultant, and business school professor, provides some real insights and metrics on what makes up the elements of goodwill in the minds of top valuation experts. Leadership brand development. Focus on talent and people growth.

Leadership 120

Leadership Technical Review Due Diligence Valuation 120

YoungUpstarts

JANUARY 10, 2018

How do you find the balance between not too small to prove itself but not too big to have an off-putting valuation? Minimizing losses in the year before you begin shopping around for buyers will increase profit and help you get that higher valuation. Another important metric is churn. This plan will help you with that.

Valuation 145

Valuation Technical Review Exit Strategy Metrics 145

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 5, 2014

Cashflow is a basic survival metric for every startup. For example, a software development startup raising $250,000 from angel investors better be able to operate on $25,000 per month. This could equate to two technical founders (with a minimal salary), funding two developers for a year.

Burn Rate 262

Burn Rate Hockey Stick Entrepreneur Salary 262

Steve Blank

MARCH 31, 2014

Fifty years later another Harvard professor, Clayton Christensen, developed his theory of disruptive innovation, which actually described how creative destruction worked. Metrics like Return on Net Assets, Return on Capital and Internal Rate of Return are the guiding stars of the board and CEO.

Private Equity 325

Private Equity Metrics China Intellectual Property 325

View from Seed

MARCH 24, 2021

” Below are our favorite pieces from the past few years, divided in to a few key categories: fundraising, company building, product development, industry trends, and the life of a VC. What Are Your Valuation Expectations? Developing Your Product. So, we decided to aggregate NextView’s “greatest hits.”

Seed Stage 177

Seed Stage Hiring IPO Analytics 177

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 10, 2021

I’m over-paying for every check I write into the VC ecosystem and valuations are being pushed up to absurd levels and many of these valuations and companies won’t hold in the long term. On the one hand, you’re over paying for every investment and valuations aren’t rational. Secrets of Sand Hill Road.

Pre-Money Valuation 471

Pre-Money Valuation Valuation Venture Capital Early Stage 471

YoungUpstarts

JUNE 16, 2020

Business valuation is defined as a way to determine the overall economic value of a company , and is a necessary component of a sound business plan and strategy. Any of these situations will demand a valuation to determine current and future projected value. . Three Methods of Valuation. Life happens to all of us.

Valuation 162

Valuation CPA Software Review Revenue 162

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 14, 2016

Cash flow is a basic survival metric for every startup. For example, a software development startup raising $250,000 from angel investors better be able to operate on $25,000 per month. This could equate to two technical founders (with a minimal salary), funding two developers for a year.

Burn Rate 120

Burn Rate Hockey Stick Startup Salary 120

YoungUpstarts

NOVEMBER 20, 2019

On the other hand, if you arrive at a VC pitch without a comprehensive understanding of the industry you’re hoping to compete in, or without a clear path to profitability or a thoughtful product-development road map, you’ll likely leave empty-handed. Do you lack the skills needed to develop a viable product? Be ready when it counts.

Technical Review 140

Technical Review Due Diligence Early Stage Differentiation 140

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 22, 2021

Develop a personal story as a visionary and learner. They need to believe your valuation, based on current revenue and intellectual property, and feel the equity offered gives them a real return for the risk. He didn’t have any big technical shoe innovations. Offer an attractive and viable investment equation.

Intellectual Property 352

Intellectual Property Equity Bootstrapping Valuation 352

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 21, 2021

When you see startups like SpaceX and Pinterest grow from a low valuation to a billion dollars in just a few years, it’s easy to assume that if you just keep doing what you are doing, you can get there as well. Switch your focus from product development to sales. Utilize mergers and acquisitions to accelerate growth.

Merger 379

Merger Due Diligence SEC IPO 379

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 4, 2016

Who would not want to joint the unicorns (recent startups with a current valuation of over $1 billion)? Before you bring on partners, develop intellectual property, raise capital, or generate revenues, you need to establish an official business entity. Incorporating a business entity early through online services.

Intellectual Property 120

Intellectual Property Startup Angel Groups Social Media 120

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 22, 2008

Master of 500 Hats: Startup Metrics for Pirates (SeedCamp 2008, London) This presentation should be required reading for anyone creating a startup with an online service component. He also has a discussion of how your choice of business model determines which of these metric areas you want to focus on. Choose one.

San Francisco 167

San Francisco CPA SEM CTO Hire 167

Steve Blank

MAY 29, 2011

Founders that learn are more successful : Startups that have helpful mentors, track metrics effectively, and learn from startup thought leaders raise 7x more money and have 3.5x However, this does not mean that investors don’t have a significant effect on valuations and M&A). Startup Genome Report. Some of their key findings : 1.

Technical Cofounder 333

Technical Cofounder Early Stage Startup Silicon Valley 333

SoCal CTO

JUNE 9, 2010

Guide to Evaluating Startup Ideas - Tony Wright dot com , May 27, 2010 A great developer I once worked with was kvetching at lunch one day. They’re deep into Customer Development ,” he said. it’s about measuring online influence and I’m big on metrics as a key element of business planning; 2.) Innovative. Disruptive. We get it!

Fractional CTO 248

Fractional CTO Startup Venture Capital Cofounder 248

David Teten

JANUARY 19, 2021

This structure allows for alignment on the front end, and real-time flexibility for performance metrics,” says Samira Salman , a family office investor and advisor. . Flexible VCs have created structures based on other company performance metrics than revenues, such as profits or founder salaries. Flexible VC 102: Variations.

Cofounder 78

Cofounder Technical Review Equity Dividend 78

The Startup Magazine

APRIL 24, 2020

Whether you’re interested in selling a website you built from scratch, or want to sell your Amazon-based B2C brand, there are many different baseline factors that go into determining an appropriate website valuation number. While it’s true that valuations can get quite technical, the basics are relatively easy to understand.

eCommerce 91

eCommerce Valuation B2C Revenue 91

VC Adventure

MARCH 17, 2022

Perhaps you raised at what historically have been very attractive valuations (we certainly have companies in our portfolio that have raised well, well above the historical averages). Your underlying business metrics should. Then, when you’re really ready to hit the gas, use the money that you’ve raised to do that.

Balance Sheet 121

Balance Sheet Burn Rate Valuation Metrics 121

YoungUpstarts

APRIL 5, 2019

Are you fresh out of Y Combinator with $1 million in funding at a $10 million valuation? But flattering media attention too easily shifts focus away from the metrics that matter. Call me old school, but I believe in metrics like growth, revenue, and profit. All other metrics are irrelevant. You must be the man (or woman)!

Valuation 162

Valuation Cofounder Metrics SEC 162

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 14, 2017

Raise too soon and likely take on more dilution, wait and get valuation up (as our metrics continue to rise) but then run to a point where you have a lower cash balance and place more risks on the business. Startups are messy and development is seldom linear and up-and-to-the right. They are filled with optimism and exhaustion.

Operations 286

Operations New York City Technical Review Startup 286

The Next Web

SEPTEMBER 13, 2013

Many Asian entrepreneurs tell me that they want to raise funds from Silicon Valley firms because they perceive the valuations to be higher. The rest of Asia is still developing with far more angel and early-stage investors than mid-to-later stage folks. Valuations are based more on typical later-stage type of metrics.

Asia 132

Asia Silicon Valley India Term Sheet 132

Up and Running

JULY 14, 2015

Any investor will put their valuation on your business based on a number of factors, including looking at important metrics for your business, patents, or assets. But raising too much money will cause the valuation to increase. Let’s say the valuation an investor puts on your business is $2 million.

Technical Review 60

Technical Review Valuation Due Diligence Finder 60

Berkonomics

NOVEMBER 4, 2016

Originally created in the mid 1990’s to help with the imprecise problem of how to value early stage companies, especially those in technology, I developed what soon became known as “The Berkus Method” when published in the popular book, “Winning Angels” by Harvard’s Amis and Stevenson with my permission in 2001. Well, it had to happen.

Valuation 48

Valuation North Carolina Oklahoma City Silicon Valley 48

Agile VC

MAY 26, 2011

I certainly bear no ill will to the various firms that ultimately passed on our fundraise… as a seed stage VC myself now I can appreciate how hard it is evaluating companies at the earliest stages of development. round which closed in November 2003, and the pre-money valuation between $10 million and $15 million. It was a $4.7M

Term Sheet 178

Term Sheet Silicon Valley Technical Review Social Network 178

Genuine VC

JULY 19, 2010

The difference now is that given the structural changes in the market, seed-stage investors are more likely to be rewarded in valuation given the value which is created during this segment of the company’s life cycle. During an initial seed round, companies are able to test and validate live product/market theses.

Seed Stage 175

Seed Stage Technical Review Dilution Offshore 175

crowdSPRING Blog

FEBRUARY 7, 2013

Focus On Developers, Data And Big Problems | TechCrunch – [link]. Valuations in the Series A and Series B Market are Booming – [link]. All marketing metrics are relative | Christopher S. Legal Contracts for Software Developers Who Hate Contracts (w/free contract template to use today) – [link].

Social Media 106

Social Media Small Business Technical Review Design 106

Feld Thoughts

NOVEMBER 18, 2013

Convertible debt financings have become an increasingly attractive approach for seed rounds because it delays the valuation discussion, costs less from a legal standpoint, and is an easier financial instrument to “keep raising more small amounts of money” on. One of them used to be a lead developer at [insert hot consumer tech company here].

Burn Rate 152

Burn Rate Equity Software Review Early Stage 152

crowdSPRING Blog

NOVEMBER 1, 2013

Good whitepaper on advertising measurement metrics | by Ben Kunz – crowdspring.co/HsVIMR. Good whitepaper on advertising measurement metrics | by Ben Kunz – crowdspring.co/HsVIMR. But a nearly $4 billion valuation? Good whitepaper on advertising measurement metrics – crowdspring.co/HsVIMR.

Social Media 94

Social Media Small Business Design Media 94

David Teten

SEPTEMBER 23, 2017

An investor had few hard metrics other than the actual financials, and little technology to make the process scaleable. Over the past few decades, better metrics became available, and investors could take a more analytical, data-driven approach. ” Historically, investing was a manual, artisan process. VC Firm. $ 17% (13 / 80).

Private Equity 60

Private Equity Venture Capital Equity Technical Review 60