View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 14, 2021

Warning – this assumes some basic knowledge of VC performance metrics. That’s a bit of a cautionary tale to VC investors today who might think it’s inevitable that the private value they are enjoying in their portfolios will certainly translate to distributions in the near future. Ok, let’s jump in. Source: Cambridge Associates.

Valuation 295

Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Distribution Early Stage 295

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 14, 2017

We realized that operating a business in distributed markets presented multi-city coordination efforts that we weren’t prepared for. were more distributed. The flawed assumptions are now kind of obvious but when you’re running at a thousand miles an hour it’s easy to miss some signs.

Operations 286

Operations New York City Technical Review Startup 286

Tim Keane

JANUARY 12, 2010

Term-sheets and Valuations: Thinking about Negotiations.   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.] The Valuation Question.

Term Sheet 68

Term Sheet Valuation Dividend Liquidation Preference 68

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 14, 2021

Warning – this assumes some basic knowledge of VC performance metrics. That’s a bit of a cautionary tale to VC investors today who might think it’s inevitable that the private value they are enjoying in their portfolios will certainly translate to distributions in the near future. Ok, let’s jump in. Source: Cambridge Associates.

Valuation 156

Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Distribution Early Stage 156

YoungUpstarts

NOVEMBER 20, 2019

The market for our product was global, and we had unique advantages in terms of our product and how we distributed it to customers. You’ll certainly want to be clear about your unique differentiators, but VCs also want to see numbers and metrics, along with well-thought-out plans for how you’ll meet those metrics.

Technical Review 106

Technical Review Due Diligence Early Stage Differentiation 106

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

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

Genuine VC

JULY 19, 2010

But leveraged distribution via platforms (organic/paid search, social networks, mobile devices) and self-service monetization (ad networks, app stores, payments) is what has truly empowered startups to become real scalable businesses on very small amounts of initial capital.

Seed Stage 175

Seed Stage Technical Review Dilution Offshore 175

crowdSPRING Blog

FEBRUARY 7, 2013

Valuations in the Series A and Series B Market are Booming – [link]. An Ode to Distributed Teams | iDoneThis blog – [link]. All marketing metrics are relative | Christopher S. Why Content Marketing is Not Branding | Copyblogger – [link]. Evolution of a Founder: Lessons I have learned | Om Malik – [link].

Social Media 106

Social Media Small Business Technical Review Design 106

VC Cafe

SEPTEMBER 21, 2020

The recent legal battles between Epic Games and Apple on this practice, highlights the tension between the Consumer Subscription apps and the platforms they rely on for distribution. Churn in Consumer SaaS is expected to be higher than traditional Enterprise SaaS models and LTV vs. CAC is a metric to watch. Subscription fatigue?

B2C 187

B2C Cloud Valuation Acquisition 187

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 12, 2010

It’s human nature to prioritize the metrics that get measured, so the simple act of keeping track is often enough to have a significant positive impact. I suggest you try to figure out the 3-5 key metrics that are used to judge the health of companies in your industry, and keep track of these somewhere in your scorecard.

Intellectual Property 223

Intellectual Property .Net Valuation Distribution 223

View from Seed

DECEMBER 11, 2019

Yes, there are intermittent points of feedback along the way, like valuation marks from subsequent rounds of financing. Venture is a field with a power-law distribution of outcomes. Calibrated against the firm’s overall velocity (which can vary), this metric is a tell-tale about a Partner’s standing with their peers.

Venture Capital 204

Venture Capital Cap Table Partner LP 204

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 7, 2015

Of course, these should never be in a customer pitch, but investors expect an overall strategy with specific budgets, milestones and metrics. Partnerships, distribution channels and pricing models should be included. “If This allows them to calculate burn rates, break-even points and forecast the company valuation over time.

Product 120

Product Intellectual Property Liquidity Event Burn Rate 120

www.forentrepreneurs.com

FEBRUARY 2, 2010

Business model viability, in the majority of startups, will come down to balancing two variables: Cost to Acquire Customers (CAC) The ability to monetize those customers, or LTV (which stands for Lifetime Value of a Customer) Successful web businesses have long understood these metrics as they have such an easy way to measure them.

Acquisition 103

Acquisition Cost Customer Entrepreneur 103

Up and Running

JULY 22, 2019

To help investors get an insider view on company growth, it’s important to share meaningful metrics consistently. If you take less money at a lower valuation, you can then prove the execution of your business and raise additional rounds at sequentially higher valuations. People love to “average up” by doubling down on winners.

Canada 78

Canada Early Stage Valuation Finance 78

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 14, 2009

Underwriters realized that as long as the public was happy snapping up shares, they could make huge profits on the inflated valuations (regardless of whether or not the company should have ever been public.) The valuations for acquisitions were nothing like the Internet bubble, but there was a path to liquidity, difficult as it was.

Silicon Valley 223

Silicon Valley IPO Technical Review Venture Capital 223

500hats.com

AUGUST 2, 2012

However after Sequoia and Ron Conway announced their investment in YC in 2009 , and after YC alumni DropBox and AirBnb raised capital on billion-dollar valuations in 2010-11, the program quickly became the gold standard among early-stage startup incubators. And of course then there is our own fund, 500 Startups.

Silicon Valley 74

Silicon Valley Early Stage Venture Capital Valuation 74

Haystack

DECEMBER 26, 2018

” “Multiples and valuations are out of control!” With high levels of public market volatility — the first we’ve seen in the age of social media and true real-time information — it feels like everyone and their grandmom is expecting a downturn. I am expecting a downturn at some point.

IPO 76

IPO Private Equity Valuation Acquisition 76

ReadWriteStart

AUGUST 26, 2022

Do you have other efficiency metrics that you look at when you evaluate businesses to check the quality of growth and the quality of the revenues? . You can break that down to revenue retention because different types of models, whether subscription, usage-based, or transactional, will have different retention metrics. . Yeah, yeah.

Partner 132

Partner Cofounder Retention Acquisition 132

David Teten

DECEMBER 3, 2019

Lean Case provides standard business models & metrics, so you can apply a standard approach to business planning, modeling, and profitability tracking. The simplest way to track a company’s performance: have them give you access to their internal metrics dashboard. If you have one, please contact me. 7) Negotiate .

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Software Review Analytics Private Equity 78

View from Seed

JUNE 30, 2015

For all of these, the metrics and growth need to be the result of legitimate PMF and execution, not tricks. (If Or maybe you are just a bit off on your product, or else you needed more experimentation to get to the right strategy for distribution. Or maybe your market hasn’t quite developed as quickly as you’d hoped.

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage Syndicate Syndication Dilution 120

Feld Thoughts

APRIL 21, 2016

Anything that hints of a down round brings questions about the success metrics that have already been “booked.” If you don’t know DPI, it’s “distributed to paid in capital and answers the question “If I gave you a dollar, how much money did you actually give me back?”

Marketing 70

Marketing Down Round Startup IRR 70

Austin Startup

SEPTEMBER 17, 2017

Further, you demonstrate on your spreadsheet that a venture return to early investors is plausible at a valuation that gives you enough equity to get the job done and to take care of you and your team at exit time. Maybe a desired distribution channel was more costly or less productive than expected.

Valuation 48

Valuation Forecast Seed Money Business Model 48

K9 Ventures

APRIL 9, 2014

The low supply and high demand is driving up the valuations and deal sizes. Top engineering talent today has a bimodal distribution. They’re starting to use similar metrics and structures as what the old Series A folks used to. The companies that get to traction have a lot of capital chasing them.

Mezzanine 134

Mezzanine Seed Stage Early Stage IPO 134

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 26, 2020

What most founders don’t realize is: Every stage of a startup requires a different set of metrics and milestones and founder skills. What is some of the critical metrics that matter? Note that each market – web/SAAS/physical products – and channel – online/direct sales – has different metrics and a different funnel steps.)For

Cofounder 429

Cofounder Seed Stage Valuation Metrics 429

Austin Startup

DECEMBER 20, 2010

“I have been very surprised at Austin’s strength in “IT consumerization&# – ideas that combine business software value with consumer internet distribution ideas,&# he said. The source, size and valuation when funding determines how big of a company you’re claiming to build.

Curation 118

Curation Austin Cofounder Ruby 118

Up and Running

FEBRUARY 17, 2016

Where in your area will you find land or a building with the right zoning, size, facilities, and access for bringing in raw materials, attracting customers, and/or shipping out finished beer for distribution? How wide do you want to grow production and distribution, or do you want to focus on selling over your own bar?

Oregon 60

Oregon Jordan SBA Cofounder 60

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 9, 2013

Deal with company admin: 409a valuations, approve stock options, vote on key measures (15%). In my nearly 15 years of attending board meetings I can tell you that the distribution of time actually spent on these activities while you’re in person is more like: 1. Ineffecient Board Meeting. do we have the right product strategy?

Advisory Board 337

Advisory Board Valuation Stock Options Seed Money 337

Up and Running

MAY 15, 2019

These products will be distributed to remote yet extremely viable areas, where the market is appreciative of readily-available, good-quality brew. With this money, they plan to expand its distribution to selected metro areas within the state of Oregon. Managing your own distribution is ideal. Martin Cove Brewing Company.

Oregon 24

Oregon Jordan Software Review Distribution 24

Startup Company Lawyer

FEBRUARY 21, 2010

This was particularly common from 2001 to 2003, after the dot-com crash when companies had raised a large amount of venture financing at high valuations. Alternatives include position, time of service, current equity holdings or other metrics as determined by the company’s board of directors.

Retention 31

Retention Liquidation Preference Employee Common Stock 31

abovethecrowd.com

APRIL 20, 2016

One key to this population growth has been the remarkable ease of the Unicorn fundraising process: Pick a new valuation well above your last one, put together a presentation deck, solicit offers, and watch the hundreds of million of dollars flow into your bank account. By January of 2016, that number had ballooned to 229.

IPO 40

IPO Term Sheet Valuation Silicon Valley 40

Ben's Blog

APRIL 28, 2010

Looking across these nearly 50 companies, the study finds that founding CEOs consistently beat the professional CEOs on a broad range of metrics ranging from capital efficiency (amount of funding raised), time to exit, exit valuations, and return on investment. Total commitment to the long term. The company is their life’s work.

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Cofounder Technical Cofounder Software Review 78

ConversionXL

OCTOBER 22, 2018

As a group, we’ve gotten a firmer grasp on top-of-the-funnel metrics. Attribution took a top-of-funnel metric (net new prospects) and dove deeper to determine how much revenue we actually drove, which proved to be less than the investment. Some might stare blankly and ask what you mean. Time Decay. Position Based.

B2B 131

B2B Marketing Analytics Campaign 131

NZ Entrepreneur

JULY 8, 2019

I waited for the ‘casino-like’ world of startup investing until I was 28 years old, putting $10,000 into a friend’s software distribution company – a tidy sum for me at that age. Valuations. A simple metric – when I registered my first company in 2004, the naming space was wide open.

New Zealand 42

New Zealand Entrepreneur Valuation Dilution 42

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 6, 2011

Starting with exclusive rights to sell celebrity chef, Tyler Florence’s, line of baby food online, SproutBaby began seeing initial traction from customer interest as physical distribution spread. EcoMom’s metrics improved throughout this process and that’s when I decided to invest. This is also a cause for increased valuations.

Deal Flow 292

Deal Flow Valuation Lead Investor Cofounder 292

Occam's Razor

APRIL 23, 2012

While there is a great deal of appreciation for the power of metrics/data, I've come to realize that Sr. Leaders don't quite appreciate the deep, and often corrosive, consequences of choosing metric x over metric y as a key performance indicator (KPI). It is a standard metric. Don't believe me?

Metrics 152

Metrics Analytics Search Channel 152

Up and Running

DECEMBER 9, 2014

Maybe you are wondering which metrics to track, or whether or not you should take out a loan for your business. Which metrics do you most rely on to understand your business itself. The question is what metrics do you most rely on to understand your business’s health? What specific metrics should they be monitoring?

Small Business 95

Small Business Finance Forecast Metrics 95