Agile VC

JANUARY 18, 2012

2) The Pyramid Scheme of Startup Equity - Just like multi-level marketing schemes, in startups it pays to get in on the ground floor. But founding entrepreneurs typically own an order of magnitude more equity than early hires (who themselves will have disproportionate ownership relative to later hires).

Entrepreneur 100

Entrepreneur Cofounder Silicon Valley Seed Stage 100

Agile VC

MAY 9, 2014

Such an approach is common in Silicon Valley… Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, and others have dual-class equity structures which give the holders of one class of shares (typically founders) disproportionate voting rights relative to their fully-diluted ownership stake in the company.

Government 153

Government Silicon Valley China Cofounder 153

Agile VC

OCTOBER 1, 2013

The last two weren’t traditional VC backed startups, but rather growth equity and a corporate spin out, but nonetheless innovative tech companies are clearly being welcomed by the public markets again. And of course Twitter filed confidentially for their IPO in September.

IPO 147

IPO Cloud Valuation Mobile 147

Agile VC

FEBRUARY 2, 2012

I’ll focus for now on the business itself, there’s plenty of other info on the web if you care to understand the equity ownership or financing history of Facebook and frankly this has been fairly well known for awhile. ==. Here’s my first look at Facebook viewed through the lens of their IPO filing. Facebook, Inc.

IPO 100

IPO South Korea Venezuela Revenue 100

Agile VC

JULY 11, 2012

in equity & loans which was ultimately worth >170x ($355M) when DEC went public about a decade later. Should there be a notion of “founder equity” for those individuals who put in the hard work to start a firm and build the brand? Big success was Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), in which ARD invested about $2.1M

Silicon Valley 240

Silicon Valley Carried Interest Cofounder Boston 240

Agile VC

MAY 16, 2019

Public equity investors will measure it in the short term by the same metrics they judge other SaaS companies… multiples of revenue / EBITDA / bookings, growth rates, churn, sales efficiency, etc. So it’s reasonable to assume that were it a standalone company, “Microsoft Office Co.” might have a market cap of $150B+.

Lock-up Period 100

Lock-up Period Retention Azure .Net 100

Agile VC

MARCH 5, 2019

It appears they will beat Uber to IPO, so helpfully they can frame this new category of “transportation as a service” in the minds of public equity investors. How Lyft will be valued by public markets is a bit of a wild card. But they remain #2 to Uber in the US and with a much more limited global footprint to their rival.

Aggregator 100

Aggregator .Net Revenue IPO 100

Agile VC

SEPTEMBER 27, 2011

Providence Equity invested $100M at a $1B valuation not because of their technology or product, but because the network owners contributed a lot of valuable content… or at least access to it for 2years. Hulu’s genesis was all about content rights so it’s no surprise it’s exit is too.

Silicon Valley 100

Silicon Valley Seed Stage Syndicate Syndication 100

Agile VC

FEBRUARY 28, 2013

Hungary probably wouldn’t sell their sovereignty and entire economy for 1x sales, but Apple has no debt so they could probably lever the deal and borrow money on top of $137 billion in equity. For some reason the notion of Apple hiking the taxes of Hungary to fund a dividend recap just amuses me….

Hungary 168

Hungary Dividend Vertical Preferred Stock 168

Agile VC

JANUARY 27, 2012

It’s also worth noting that in the last 5-10 years breakout startups have remained private much longer than in decades past, so more of the equity appreciation has been captured by private investors than public market investors.

Hockey Stick 113

Hockey Stick Seed Stage Silicon Valley Syndicate 113

Agile VC

JULY 19, 2012

For example FRC launched a founders equity exchange fund and various programmatic forms of knowledge sharing like list serves, CEO summits, conferences, etc. The point isn’t that FRC was necessarily the first firm to do any one of these things, but rather they’ve had a willingness to experiment.

Cofounder 193

Cofounder Limited Partner Early Stage LP 193

Agile VC

AUGUST 1, 2012

About 6-12 months ago you could hardly throw a rock in the startup ecosystem without hitting a VC expressing their enthusiasm for “mobile” Now the frenzy about mobile has extended into the mass media and public equity markets, though with trepidation as often as excitement.

Mobile 160

Mobile Advertising Bandwidth Web 160

Agile VC

SEPTEMBER 19, 2011

A slow-growth, but cash rich business like this could be a better fit for a retailer, private equity fund, or other type of owner in the longer run. By rebranding, creating separate team/ops, and separate user experience for DVD-by-mail business, it’ll be vastly easier for Netflix to sell Qwikster at some point in the future.

Silicon Valley 100

Silicon Valley Private Equity Seed Stage Syndicate 100

Agile VC

FEBRUARY 28, 2012

If you and all the people around your startup (co-founders, advisors, existing investors) feel strongly that the company A) could benefit from additional equity capital at this time and B) you’ve accomplished value accretive milestones since your last round of funding, then it might make sense to talk with potential new investors.

Early Stage 100

Early Stage Syndicate Syndication Silicon Valley 100

Agile VC

MARCH 18, 2012

At its peak it became the most widely read magazine in the US and generated billions in annual revenue, before its circulation ultimately waned and the company went through reorganization by a private equity firm and ultimate bankruptcy. But it’s hard to dispute that Reader’s Digest was anything but a media company.

Media 113

Media Advertising Silicon Valley Revenue 113

Agile VC

NOVEMBER 7, 2019

Late stage rounds help keep companies private longer and eventually Facebook proves to be a blockbuster company… public equity investors hope to find the next Facebook pre-IPO. During these years you do see the rise of “cross-over” investment in private companies by large public market investors like Fidelity, T. Rowe Price, hedge funds, etc.

IPO 100

IPO Early Stage Cofounder B2C 100

Agile VC

OCTOBER 29, 2014

There’s a wide range of intermediaries for venture capital and private equity investment, each with its own structure and business model. What Are These Intermediaries? The main ones include: Fund of Funds (FoFs). What prompted me to think about this now? It was the confluence of three unconnected things.

Venture Capital 279

Venture Capital LP Private Equity Institutional Investors 279

Agile VC

JULY 24, 2013

Or to focus solely on getting the lowest valuation as an investor, which by definition will price you out of the most desirable companies which typically have substantial demand for their equity. Or to invest in mediocre startups at a low valuation but hope to “manage” this portfolio to better than expected outcomes.

Valuation 200

Valuation Early Stage Distribution LP 200

Agile VC

DECEMBER 6, 2012

Unlike a startup that might raise equity financing across several rounds all combined in a single balance sheet, VC’s do not simply commingle these funds into a single bucket to be allocated across all the companies in that firm’s portfolio.

LP 178

LP Balance Sheet Differentiation Limited Partner 178

Agile VC

NOVEMBER 13, 2012

3) Sometimes The Promise of Success Turns Into Actual Success – Setting aside very late-stage VC or growth equity type investors, successful VCs always raise new funds on the promise of success rather than actual (realized) returns of the most recent fund.

LP 154

LP Portfolio Venture Capital IRR 154

Agile VC

FEBRUARY 9, 2012

In the modern age public market investors, whether they be focused on equities (stocks), fixed income (bonds), currencies, commodities, or derivatives of these, all have access to essentially the same investment choices and the same body of information. How do you win?

Seed Stage 100

Seed Stage Framework Silicon Valley Early Stage 100