David Teten

JANUARY 19, 2021

More and more startups are pursuing Revenue-Based VCs , but “RBI” doesn’t fit everyone. Flexible VC 101: Equity Meets Revenue Share. By tying payments to actual revenues, founders and investors remain aligned around the company’s real-time performance, good or bad. Of the Inc. 5000 companies, only 6.5% raised from angels.

Cofounder 78

Cofounder Technical Review Equity Dividend 78

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 21, 2013

I think it’s important for enterprise startups to layer in professional services into your revenue stream. deliver profitable revenue that while on gross margins of 50% vs. software at 85-95% it is still profits to help you cover fixed costs. Control Size of PS Revenue Relative to Software Business. rollout support.

Software Review 321

Software Review Software IP Technical Review 321

The Startup Magazine

JULY 1, 2022

The three main components of a company are production or service, marketing and sales, and finance. Production or service is the business’s core activity, which generates revenue. Finance is how you manage your finances, including budgeting, accounting, and bookkeeping. Financing Your Startup.

Technology 148

Technology Venture Capital Finance Startup 148

ReadWriteStart

JUNE 1, 2020

The primary source of your funds should be your paying customers, i.e., your business should generate enough revenues and profits to fund the growth and expansion. These usually play a role in the very early stage of your business, primarily pre-revenue. Capital is expensive. Government programs. Equity investors.

Startup 150

Startup Entrepreneur Elevator Pitch Seed Stage 150

ReadWriteStart

SEPTEMBER 10, 2010

They already have several customers including some telcos, and are at about $350,000 in revenues. Gio expects to get to about $500,000 by the end of this year and asked me for advice on venture funding. I call it drip-financing. In 1M/1M, our preferred financing strategy is customers. Kir Devries.

Cloud 115

Cloud Silicon Valley Incubator Finance 115

David Teten

AUGUST 21, 2019

Or should they look to one of the new wave of Revenue-Based Investors? Revenue-Based Investing (“RBI”) is a new form of VC financing, distinct from the preferred equity structure most VCs use. For more background, see Revenue-Based Investing: A New Option for Founders who Care About Control. Less or no dilution.

Revenue 60

Revenue Liquidation Preference Equity Cofounder 60

Up and Running

DECEMBER 9, 2014

Bates: Good morning and welcome to our CEO panel, “How to Fine-Tune Your Small Business Finances From Funding to Growth” which I think is the direction that we would all like to be going. I’m here with some really phenomenal CEOs who are going to talk to us today about small business finances from funding to growth.

Small Business 95

Small Business Finance Forecast Metrics 95

Business Plan Blog

OCTOBER 4, 2013

Aligning the Startup Team Strategy with the Capitalization Strategy. The single most important factor to raising capital for any tech startup is the management team. This is true for early stage funding as well as venture capital funding. Having too many co-founders will only lead to your eventual dilution.

Part-Time VPE 79

Part-Time VPE Fractional VPE Cofounder CTO Hire 79

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 14, 2010

If you want to raise venture capital more easily the advice could be quite practical and counter-intuitive. Many companies that are raising B or C venture capital rounds right now raised their initial money in 2005-2008. Tags: Entrepreneur Advice Raising Venture Capital Start-up Advice Startup Advice.

Venture Capital 289

Venture Capital Liquidation Preference Common Stock Pre-Money Valuation 289

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 11, 2011

I thing I’ve learned over the years is that technology purists hate advertising even when it is that revenue stream that truthfully drives much of our industry. Too many entrepreneurs focus on dilution. But over-optimizing for dilution is a bad attribute relative to focusing on creating a big & winning company.

Product 350

Product Tuvalu Dilution Incubator 350

Austin Startup

MARCH 26, 2019

These strategies can be useful in increasing initial conversions from your ads and website traffic, but offering large discounts too early in the life of the company will lower your gross margins and CAC, both of which will affect your unit economics and future financing conversations.

Technical Review 49

Technical Review Software Review China Acquisition 49

K9 Ventures

JUNE 12, 2012

While it it may not feel that way, the data suggest that there is indeed too much capital in the system — especially so at the seed stage, with more and more individuals and larger funds trying to invest in companies at this stage.). For most venture capital funds money is a commodity. It is a tool.

Venture Capital 117

Venture Capital Silicon Valley Founder Seed Stage 117

K9 Ventures

JUNE 12, 2012

While it it may not feel that way, the data suggest that there is indeed too much capital in the system — especially so at the seed stage, with more and more individuals and larger funds trying to invest in companies at this stage.). For most venture capital funds money is a commodity. It is a tool.

Venture Capital 105

Venture Capital Silicon Valley Founder Seed Stage 105

The Equity Kicker

MAY 14, 2012

Twice in the last week I found myself coaching founders on how to build a financing plan around value creation milestones so I thought I would share what I said here. achieving first revenues. breaking through revenue thresholds – e.g. run-rates of £1m, £5m, £20m and so on. achieving first revenues.

Finance 118

Finance Valuation Venture Capital Dilution 118

ReadWriteStart

APRIL 4, 2023

Bridget Reed, Co-founder and VP of Content, The Word Counter Yes, but Look for Restrictions Crowdfunding is an efficient and cost-effective way to raise money to finance the development of a startup. Many startup ideas can be unnecessarily set back in the eyes of other investors if the crowdfunding attempt goes sideways.

Startup 141

Startup Campaign Cofounder Venture Capital 141

Growthink Blog

DECEMBER 9, 2011

If you feel the need to make the same point several times you end up diluting the power of the message. After hearing a pitch where the daring hero outperforms Groupon and Apple in their second year with trillions of revenue and six billion customers, I'm ready for a shower instead of a closing dinner. Avoid superlatives (e.g.,

Venture Capital 102

Venture Capital Detroit Dilution Partner 102

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 5, 2011

But the reality is that you’re faced with two problems: 1) the earlier the stage the riskier and thus more write-offs so you need to have enough ownership percentage in your winners to make up for the losers and 2) the earlier stage your check the more likely the company will need many more funding rounds behind you and thus you face dilution.

Pre-Money Valuation 336

Pre-Money Valuation Valuation Silicon Valley Stock 336

The Next Web

FEBRUARY 27, 2014

This is typically in conjunction with an upcoming financing or pending takeover offer. A competitive commodity business, or a “me too” story , will be less demanded, and hence, will require a lower valuation to close your financing. Freshman are a piece of paper to beta site (bootstrap financed—raise $50K to $500K).

Valuation 167

Valuation Forecast Seed Stage .Net 167

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 5, 2016

The reality is that over 80 percent of new businesses will never attract venture capital or Angel funding, according to experts , and there are many good reasons for skipping that painful and distracting process. Don’t quit your day job until the revenue is flowing. Keep later critical financing needs viable.

Bootstrapping 120

Bootstrapping Entrepreneur Startup Exit Strategy 120

abovethecrowd.com

APRIL 20, 2016

Why the Unicorn Financing Market Just Became Dangerous…For All Involved. In February of last year, Fortune magazine writers Erin Griffith and Dan Primack declared 2015 “ The Age of the Unicorns ” noting — “Fortune counts more than 80 startups that have been valued at $1 billion or more by venture capitalists.”

IPO 40

IPO Term Sheet Silicon Valley Valuation 40

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 25, 2011

This thinking is largely driven by the venture capital industry (and subsequently Wall Street) who are in search of high margin, highly scalable businesses. It’s nearly impossible to get a services company financed by VCs. You’re a small fish. This team is talented. They wanted advice. And probably some money.

Silicon Valley 332

Silicon Valley IP Dividend Finance 332

This is going to be BIG.

MARCH 16, 2020

They decided to raise venture capital money in order to build a factory, open new stores, and take advantage of their newfound fame to go into wholesale. Some key existings who didn’t want to see their prior money get lost wouldn’t budge on a dilutive financing, despite the fact that they knew where we were headed.

Bankruptcy 95

Bankruptcy Private Equity Seed Stage Dilution 95

Tim Keane

JANUARY 12, 2010

  I’ve sat down with entrepreneurs and a copy of a term sheet guide I like [ “Term Sheets & Valuations - A Line by Line Look at the Intricacies of Venture Capital Term Sheets & Valuations ” by Alex Wilmerding, Aspatore Press.] and walked through each proposed term and why it is or isn’t important.

Term Sheet 68

Term Sheet Valuation Dividend Liquidation Preference 68

Austin Startup

FEBRUARY 13, 2019

Either way, if you know you’re going to fail, it’s much better to do so with your own money on the line than money that also costs you in dilution, perpetuity or more. Consider convertible debt Before diving into a seed round, you may want to consider convertible debt over equity financing. I speak from experience.

Strategic Investors 49

Strategic Investors Austin Angel Investor Bootstrapping 49

David Teten

NOVEMBER 17, 2011

I’ve often found it helpful to have on hand a simple model showing the impact of each financing stages on all team members, suitable for sharing with everyone in the company. In particular, this model is designed to help all team members understand the impact of dilution on their options.

Employee 155

Employee IRR Startup Mexico 155

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 14, 2012

What I want to talk about today is one of the insider baseball discussions of our industry this past week: The odd fact of the $500 million financing round completed just before the company sold for a B. You just said, “nobody would take 1-2% dilution.” I will weigh in with some thoughts soon. Was this a good thing?

Valuation 316

Valuation Balance Sheet Dilution Term Sheet 316

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 11, 2010

This is part of my ongoing series on Raising Venture Capital. Recently I’ve been debating with a number of young startup companies that are raising money in the next few months, “what is the right about of capital to raise at a startup?&#. Your revenue will take longer to ramp then you think. add a buffer.

Venture Capital 319

Venture Capital Startup Silicon Valley Warrant 319

Gust

OCTOBER 12, 2011

Last week , we took the plunge and began dissecting an example term sheet for a convertible debt financing round piece by piece. In Part II, we looked at the mandatory conversion language that is at the heart of any convertible debt financing. Same, except at the option of the noteholders (per the term sheet example above).

Finance 107

Finance Term Sheet Pre-Money Valuation Early Stage 107

K9 Ventures

OCTOBER 10, 2017

You see, Dan knows more about venture than most people; and if Dan isn’t aware that “pre-seed is a thing,” then I haven’t done a good enough job of explaining to the world what I and K9 do! Q: What amount of financing is considered Pre-Seed? Typically, Pre-Seed rounds are less than $1M in aggregate capital raised.

Seed Stage 82

Seed Stage Finance Later Stage Equity 82

Ben's Blog

MAY 24, 2021

billion multi-stage venture capital firm focused on IT-related investments… I also serve on various investment committees, including for the St. Jude Children’s Cancer Hospital and the Stanford Medical Center, and teach entrepreneurship and venture capital at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

SEC 36

SEC Accredited Investor IPO Technical Review 36

Austin Startup

MARCH 23, 2017

Digital ink has been spilled across the interwebs these past two weeks on the issues with different types of venture financings. 3/20 : Fred Wilson again (impressive turnaround time) further elaborated on Dan’s post with the example of Foursquare’s successful usage of debt, while still warning on its use as growth capital.

Dilution 54

Dilution Equity Warrant Distribution 54

Gust

SEPTEMBER 17, 2014

Me: So, you raised venture capital? It’s like we need a finance 101 course for entrepreneurs. Revenue multiple? In finance they call it “terminal value” but the truth is the price is as arbitrary at your A round as it is at your seed round. Me: More dilution? On the phone …. We raised a seed round.

Liquidation Preference 153

Liquidation Preference Valuation Term Sheet Stock 153

Up and Running

APRIL 24, 2018

Because of complex government regulations and a lengthy incubation period, funding a healthcare startup is more difficult compared to financing a tech startup. That’s why having a revenue-minded focus from the early stages helps to secure funding.

SBIR 73

SBIR Startup Artificial Inteligence Intellectual Property 73

This is going to be BIG.

JUNE 2, 2010

Historically, that was one where the business was clear and there was some initial revenue, even if slight. On top of that, when you set out to raise a certain size round, and the round grows on you, you usually wind up taking a lot more dilution than you intended. Tags: Venture Capital & Technology. Drive one key metric.

Cap Table 106

Cap Table Seed Stage .Net Venture Capital 106

dondodge.typepad.com

JANUARY 15, 2011

It isnt always possible to have a competitive bidding situation at each financing round so here are some guidelines for funding sources and percentages. Friends & Family can usually raise between $30K and $300K and usually take an interest bearing note that is convertible into stock at the next financing. 5% Managers -.25%

Equity 40

Equity Employee Dilution Valuation 40

Professor VC

JUNE 20, 2011

Financing, that is.I One truth of start-up financing is that it generally takes twice as long and twice as much money to accomplish your milestones. But of course, the model had us requiring only $10M equity to breakeven and to achieve $185M in revenues in 2008 (the magic Year 5 in all business plans). ProfessorVC.

San Jose 28

San Jose Angel Investor Term Sheet Venture Capital 28

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 14, 2016

Put simply, it’s really hard to build a strong company when all of your competitors are giving away free s**t fueled by venture capital chasing winner-take-all returns. forward revenue for SaaS businesses when in the years before it had been less than 5x. Why Financing in Falling Markets is So Damn Difficult.

Valuation 150

Valuation Down Round Startup Later Stage 150