Steve Blank

JANUARY 22, 2014

as a distribution channel have vastly reduced the amount of capital a startup needs at the early stage when the risk is greatest. Startups still need capital to scale once they find good product-market fit and a repeatable-scalable business model.). The cloud , open-source development tools and web 2.0

Early Stage 286

Early Stage Silicon Valley Oregon Technical Review 286

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 6, 2017

It was only a year ago that many in the Venture Capital industry were predicting that “winter was coming” and to be fair the author of this post was chief amongst them. Yet as we enter February 2017 the VC funding markets are booming, Snap, Inc has filed for its IPO, AppDynamics was just purchased for $3.7 Baidu alone raised $3.2

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital Saudi Arabia Kuwait Burn Rate 150

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 14, 2009

Over the same 30 years, Venture Capital firms have honed their skills and strategies to match Wall Streets needs to achieve liquidity for their portfolio companies. One of the biggest mistakes entrepreneurs make is misunderstanding the role of venture capital investors. What Do VC’s Do?

Silicon Valley 217

Silicon Valley IPO Technical Review Venture Capital 217

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 13, 2011

Yeah, that was when I changed for me…” “…there was so much positive feedback on demystifying this one element of venture capital. So we have five themes – Digital Life and Distribution are the other two.”. Distribution. Brad’s start in Venture Capital. This time frame – 2005/2006 – web 2.0

Technical Review 288

Technical Review Venture Capital Silicon Valley Software Review 288

www.geekwire.com

JULY 10, 2012

VENTURE CAPITAL. You are here: Home / Startups / Bad returns be damned: Venture capital fundraising jumps 31 percent in U.S. Bad returns be damned: Venture capital fundraising jumps 31 percent in U.S. Filed Under: Startups , Tech Tagged With: Madrona , Startups , Tech , Venture capital.

Venture Capital 42

Venture Capital Seattle Cofounder Software Engineering 42

David Teten

JANUARY 19, 2021

Similar to the explosion of seed funds in the past decade, we (and some limited partners too ) believe these Flexible VCs are on the forefront of what will become a major segment of the venture ecosystem. We detail below the major categories of VC: VENTURE CAPITAL TYPOLOGY. FLEXIBLE VC VS. OTHER VENTURE CAPITAL MODELS.

Cofounder 78

Cofounder Technical Review Equity Dividend 78

Feld Thoughts

JULY 28, 2014

The SBIC was instrumental in the creation of the venture capital business. If you want to see a fun quote on it, read A History of Silicon Valley which quotes: “ …many venture capital pioneers think the SBIC program did little to advance the art and practice of venture investing.

SBIC 142

SBIC Venture Capital Colorado SBA 142

Steve Blank

APRIL 23, 2014

In response, venture capital firms like Sequoia and Andreessen/Horowitz are hiring new partners just to work with their portfolio companies and match them to corporations. VCs like acquisitions as much as IPOs because the acquiring companies often can rationalize paying large multiples over the current valuation of the startup.

Acquisition 332

Acquisition Intellectual Property Silicon Valley Startup 332

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 16, 2011

It has been at least a decade since going public via an Initial Public Offering (IPO) has been considered a credible exit strategy for startups. But before you jump on the bandwagon, you should consider the advice I saw recently from the maven of venture capital, William H. Do you need the IPO for your acquisitions strategy?

IPO 223

IPO Social Media Media Exit Strategy 223

Steve Blank

AUGUST 5, 2010

Consumer Internet investing seems to have split off from traditional Venture Capital, and is creating a new category of VC’s: Lean VC’s. Electron-based Venture Capital. When I first came to Silicon Valley the world of Venture Capital looked pretty simple. Here’s why.

Lean 258

Lean Internet Silicon Valley Venture Capital 258

Austin Startup

NOVEMBER 6, 2017

The main drivers, from our viewpoint, are: Many tech entrepreneurs no longer view venture capital as an inevitability in their growth path, and have grown skeptical of the traditional “growth at all costs” mindset found in many startup circles; and An increasing number of VCs are growing comfortable with LLCs.

Delaware 48

Delaware LLC Startup Silicon Valley 48

Steve Blank

MARCH 18, 2011

Dot.com Bubble ( 1995-2000): “ Anything goes” as public markets clamor for ideas, vague promises of future growth, and IPOs happen absent regard for history or profitability. With Netscape’s IPO , there was suddenly a public market for companies with limited revenue and no profit. The New Bubble : (2011 – 2014): Here we go again…. (If

Internet 334

Internet IPO Silicon Valley Agile 334

Scott Edward Walker

JULY 7, 2011

Introduction This post originally appeared in the “ Ask the Attorney ” column I am writing for VentureBeat ; it is part of my ongoing series regarding venture capital term sheets. The problem, of course, is that a so-called “walking dead” company rarely has the cash to buy-back the investors’ shares.

Term Sheet 49

Term Sheet Redemption Venture Capital Preferred Stock 49

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 10, 2010

This episode of This Week in Venture Capital featured Michael Montgomery, president of Montgomery & Co. For entrepreneurs who want to learn about how to work with investment banks, how to position yourself to be acquired and what the IPO markets look like this is the episode to watch. TechCrunch. GroupSpaces.

IPO 242

IPO Venture Capital Private Placement Cofounder 242

VC Adventure

SEPTEMBER 10, 2010

Why get into the venture capital side of the business? I first got into venture capital about 10 years ago and I love my job. Unlike many venture capital firms that invest in certain geographic regions or specific technologies and sectors, Foundry Group’s investing activity is largely driven by a thematic approach.

Technical Review 60

Technical Review Due Diligence Venture Capital IPO 60

Gust

OCTOBER 17, 2012

In addition, angels were up against a selection problem: All the best entrepreneurs and opportunities would naturally gravitate to the best venture capital funds, leaving only the “scraps” for angel investors. This is absolutely competitive with venture capital returns. The distribution of returns from the different U.S.

Angel Investor 152

Angel Investor Venture Capital Seed Stage Silicon Valley 152

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 17, 2017

Venture capital isn’t right for many business but if you do want to raise from a VC at some point you need to understand that often investors care more about growth than profits. Is the revenue dependent on a concentrated set of distribution partners or platforms that put future revenue at risk? What did they actually do?

Stock Options 227

Stock Options Startup Dilution Venture Capital 227

This is going to be BIG.

FEBRUARY 21, 2021

Or that venture capital is a meritocracy? This doesn’t take into consideration, however, that venture capital is a financial product—a product that works for some people and doesn’t work for others. We know what the racial and gender wealth disparity looks like: This is a lesson taught to be by Jewel from Collab Capital.

Venture Capital 162

Venture Capital Cofounder Deal Flow Later Stage 162

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 4, 2010

They’ve had a total of 12 deals that have IPO’d. Venture Partners, Grotech Ventures, Revolution LLC (Steve Case). We also discussed the fact that an IPO often doesn’t mean the founders or investors can take too much money off the table. Raising $75mm in IPO, values company at $515mm.

IPO 236

IPO .Net Venture Capital Strategic Investors 236

Genuine VC

FEBRUARY 29, 2012

From an investment perspective, we’re believers in the theme of an increasingly “distributed workforce” in which organizations are more frequently utilizing talent where talent is. Perhaps it can work even in larger organizations in which the nature of the work is inherently distributed by nature. Where is its center of gravity?

Estonia 130

Estonia Startup Distribution Chicago 130

Mucker Lab

JANUARY 1, 2014

VC’s start investing in technology-enabled “offline” businesses (distribution, services etc) – most of whom would never have gotten venture money 3 years ago. Google finally fixes the problem with mobile (discovery, search, distribution, tracking, monetization, a/b testing) and races ahead while Apple waxes nostalgically for 2010.

Seed Stage 84

Seed Stage Early Stage Distribution Bootstrapping 84

500hats.com

AUGUST 2, 2012

TL:DR : This post aims to recap significant changes in the venture capital industry over the past ten years, and then make some [biased] predictions as to major forces at play in the next five years. However, all three shifts are related and can be summed up simply as: Geeks are Taking Over Venture Capital.

Silicon Valley 74

Silicon Valley Early Stage Venture Capital Valuation 74

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 23, 2011

In the late 90’s he saw the internet boom and helped start IronPlanet.com, a construction equipment marketplace that is nearing an IPO. Yes an online video startup in ‘99 that helped large media companies encode and distribute their videos through portals. He was introduced through mutual friends to Highland Capital.

Vertical 265

Vertical Curation Boston Burn Rate 265

techcrunch.com

OCTOBER 13, 2012

In addition, angels were up against a selection problem: All the best entrepreneurs and opportunities would naturally gravitate to the best venture capital funds, leaving only the “scraps” for angel investors. This is absolutely competitive with venture capital returns. The distribution of returns from the different U.S.

Angel Investor 103

Angel Investor Venture Capital Seed Stage Silicon Valley 103

Reid Hoffman

MARCH 19, 2019

And from a financial perspective, any investor would be better off buying stock in Amazon than buying and share of a corner bookshop; if you invested $100 in Amazon’s 1997 initial public offering (IPO), those shares would have been worth about $120,000 in 2018. Blitzscaling is a strategic technique for moving faster, not a reckless gamble.

Cofounder 28

Cofounder Business Model IPO Non-Compete 28

Genuine VC

FEBRUARY 29, 2012

From an investment perspective, we’re believers in the theme of an increasingly “distributed workforce” in which organizations are more frequently utilizing talent where talent is. Perhaps it can work even in larger organizations in which the nature of the work is inherently distributed by nature. Where is its center of gravity?

Estonia 100

Estonia Startup Distribution Chicago 100

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 24, 2009

One is explaining the world as it used to work: the importance of gatekeepers, the scarcity implied by limited distribution, and the resulting quality bar that the industry is so proud of. Mostly it is the time and expense required to create the means of distribution for that industry. It’s just taking some longer than others.

San Francisco 113

San Francisco Lean Technical Review Distribution 113

Mucker Lab

JANUARY 1, 2014

VC’s accelerate investments in “internet of things” except sometime in Q4, wake up and realize it’s no different than “consumer electronics” – and that we still need to innovate around the manufacturing infrastructure, distribution economics, and consumer liability of the consumer goods business to really make this a venture fundable category.

Seed Stage 60

Seed Stage Early Stage Distribution Bootstrapping 60

VC Cafe

NOVEMBER 25, 2019

The large investment flows into entertainment fuel advanced in technology to produce, to distribute and monetise content that educates us, relax us, entertains us, and so on. Each category represents a large vertical on its own, which together comprise of Entertainment Tech across content creation, consumption, distribution and monetisation.

Vertical 113

Vertical Artificial Inteligence Distribution IPO 113

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 31, 2019

He’ll be speaking at this year’s Lean Startup Conference , and also has a new book (for which I very happily wrote a short foreword) coming out next month: Secrets of Sand Hill Road: Venture Capital and How to Get It. What is venture capital, really? And what does a venture capital firm do?

Lean 108

Lean Venture Capital Conversion IPO 108

Growthink Blog

MAY 23, 2011

With this seed capital – more often than not totaling between $100,000 and $1,000,000 - the company accomplishes a number of key technical milestones, gets a beta customer or two, and then goes on a "road show" to venture capitalists around the country for capital to “scale” the business. There are a lot of dark, hard days.

Angel Investor 112

Angel Investor Venture Capital Sweat Equity Cram Down 112

abovethecrowd.com

JULY 10, 2014

Because of the magical ordering system and the ability to efficiently organize a distributed set of drivers, Uber can operate effectively in markets where it simply didn’t make sense to have a dense supply of taxis. You would end up with dramatically more rides – and that is exactly what is happening. New Use Cases. Use in less urban areas.

San Francisco 111

San Francisco San Jose Marketing Technical Review 111

abovethecrowd.com

AUGUST 23, 2020

But in light of where we are in 2020, especially with regard to the degrading efficiency and sky-rocketing cost of capital through the structurally broken IPO process, SPACs may emerge as a legitimate third option for helping Silicon Valley companies efficiently and cost-effectively transition into the public markets.

IPO 118

IPO Silicon Valley Warrant Matching 118

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. times the investment.).

Term Sheet 68

Term Sheet Valuation Dividend Liquidation Preference 68

Austin Startup

MARCH 7, 2021

San Antonio has Geekdom with USAA and Port San Antonio with the Air Force Cyber Command; Houston has The Ion with Rice University, Microsoft and NASA and The Cannon distributed across the city; Dallas has Pegasus Park with UT Southwestern and Lyda Hill Philanthropies; and Austin has Capital Factory with the Army Futures Command.

Texas 90

Texas San Antonio Houston Dallas 90

K9 Ventures

APRIL 9, 2014

But scaling is hard, and these companies can suffer from The Curse of Over Capitalization. Threshold for an IPO is higher Ten years ago, if you had $20M in revenue you were ready to go public. Top engineering talent today has a bimodal distribution. K9 Ventures is also on Facebook and Google+.

Mezzanine 134

Mezzanine Seed Stage Early Stage IPO 134

ReadWriteStart

APRIL 26, 2012

In an interview with ReadWriteWeb, Davidson explains how the latest industry to receive the disruption treatment has been the venture capital business itself, with the epicenter of the quake right around San Francisco. There used to be the Four Horsemen of the IPO world, back in the '80s and '90s. Number of U.S.

IPO 115

IPO Stock San Francisco Lean 115