Hunter Walker

SEPTEMBER 15, 2023

So when I tell you what I’m seeing in venture financing these days if you disagree with me, it might just be that we’re touching different parts of the elephant. Semil asserts, Seed-stage valuations have generally been left-unchanged, and I could argue even they’ve gone up since the beginning of 2022.

Cap Table 93

Cap Table Valuation Salary Seed Stage 93

This is going to be BIG.

SEPTEMBER 30, 2012

How else can you explain this headline matching a story about a professional social network still trying to explore revenues raising $17mm on an $80mm valuation? David's firm most recently participated in the $77 million second round financing of SoFi, a one year old startup focusing on student loans.

Venture Capital 114

Venture Capital Marketing Term Sheet Software Review 114

OnlyOnce

OCTOBER 31, 2013

One of the strongest points of value that venture investors bring to the table is pattern matching, and you can maximize that by making sure the investor you end up with has seen a multitude of companies like yours. Similarly, I’d always sacrifice valuation for a clean security. Check references carefully.

Valuation 133

Valuation Term Sheet B2C Security 133

Mucker Lab

MAY 28, 2020

These lost startups land higher valuations, have larger teams, outsource more product development and spend more money on customer acquisition than their peers. When Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather squared off on May 2, Pacquiao clung to the same strategy the entire match and lost as a result. It’s an art.

Startup 78

Startup Cofounder Burn Rate Technical Review 78

Steve Blank

MARCH 31, 2014

Cheered on by finance professors, Wall Street analysts, investors and hedge funds, companies have learned how to make metrics like Internal Rate of Return look great by one; outsourcing everything, two, getting assets off their balance sheet, and three only investing in things that pay off fast.

Private Equity 326

Private Equity Metrics China Intellectual Property 326

Hunter Walker

AUGUST 8, 2023

At the time, this is last quarter and the stock market has trended upwards nicely since then (a potential leading indicator of private tech valuations), we all agreed venture portfolios were probably still 25-40% overvalued. Valuations. Whatever gets reported is just the tip of the iceberg. More Than Average (ALLEGED) Fraud.

Portfolio 99

Portfolio Cap Table LP Valuation 99

Version One Ventures

OCTOBER 15, 2020

But the Lightning Network offers two entirely different value props that no other blockchain or smart contracts platform can match: Instant settlement in bitcoin with nearly 0 fees (Ethereum fees spiking to >$10 /transaction during the DeFi craze of sumer 2020 was a good reminder of its own scalability limitations). Conclusion: .

Networking 168

Networking Global OTC Security 168

Up and Running

AUGUST 29, 2014

Many people who want to start a business believe they will be able to get grants or loans to help them finance the venture. A Certified Public Accountant (CPA) is a state licensed professional who offers various accounting, auditing, tax, financial analysis, business valuation and consulting services. Often this is not true.

Small Business 87

Small Business CPA Government North America 87

Gust

SEPTEMBER 27, 2014

To begin with, it is important to understand some basic facts about the world of entrepreneurial finance: There are many more entrepreneurs than there are investors, with the result that only one company out of every 400 that seeks venture funding actually receives it. One of the primary ones is the referral source.

Angel Groups 159

Angel Groups Elevator Pitch Software Review Deal Flow 159

David Cohen

AUGUST 1, 2018

We’re living at a time when valuations are very high, as Fred Wilson and Ari Newman have both recently pointed out. When valuations rise, so do the caps on notes, which are upper limits on valuation at conversion. For example, a company may be raising $1M in notes at $15M pre-money valuation cap with a 20% discount.

Pre-Money Valuation 83

Pre-Money Valuation Valuation Equity Finance 83

Up and Running

JUNE 14, 2017

For instance, to simulate an Uber-like experience, you could create a Facebook ride sharing page that matches riders with drivers on demand, by simply asking members to post their ride requests, then privately chatting with drivers. They matched buyers with these businesses manually on-demand.

Technical Review 96

Technical Review Distribution Redemption Demand 96

Austin Startup

AUGUST 20, 2017

You can conduct group interviews, get your candidate “liquored up” (not a recommendation), and even have a trial period on the job to see if there’s a good match. Keep the valuations consistent with company progress. Messy cap tables can come back to haunt you when you do a financing or sell the company.

Technical Review 48

Technical Review Software Review Cap Table Securities and Exchange Commission 48

K9 Ventures

JUNE 5, 2015

Low supply of companies with traction drove the valuations and deal sizes up. In that presentation, I said that Seed is not the first round of financing any more and that K9’s investments were mostly “pre-seed”. Valuations are rising to match. The risk here is what I refer to as the curse of over-capitalization.

Seed Stage 48

Seed Stage Venture Capital Early Stage Valuation 48

The Startup Magazine

APRIL 19, 2024

Opting for fuel-efficient and cost-effective vehicles that match business requirements and budgets is crucial. Vehicle Acquisition and Disposal Strategically managing the acquisition and disposal of fleet vehicles can have a major impact on controlling expenses.

Cost 150

Cost Management Massachusetts Acquisition 150

Women Entrepreneurs Can

NOVEMBER 19, 2022

These firms can provide various services, including financing and business advice. This allows you to skip the complicated valuation calculations. Typically, venture capital firms will invest in companies that match their business profile and have the potential to generate profits. They may also provide a mentorship network.

Venture Capital 52

Venture Capital Early Stage Liquidity Event SEC 52

Berkonomics

JUNE 8, 2017

Some businesses require very little capital and the founder can self-finance the enterprise and retain 100% of its ownership and control from ignition through liquidity event (startup through sale). And even with the significant cost of credit card debt, many entrepreneurs aggressively use existing cards to finance a startup.

Private Equity 106

Private Equity Valuation Cap Table Accredited Investor 106

Cracking the Code

NOVEMBER 10, 2009

Get instrument rated, and trust the 6Cs of Cloud Finance (more.) Cloud accounting is all about matching revenue and costs to consumption…well, except for professional services! In regards to calculatimg the "Magic Number" - should the amount included as sales and marketing costs match the length of the sales cycle?

Software Review 48

Software Review Cloud Technical Review Sales Cycle 48

Hunter Walker

MAY 4, 2014

Not every company is raising money at the valuation you modeled. ” Now some folks might roll their eyes and say, “sure, they’ll trust you until you f**k up and then it’s all ‘why did you do this or that’” but we were very focused in our fundraising to find LPs that matched our longterm goals.

Software Review 100

Software Review Vertical Seed Stage Portfolio 100

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 21, 2009

Their business had just crossed cash flow breakeven, had grown past 50 employees, just raised a substantive follow-on round of financing and had recently hired a Chief Financial Officer. The military has recognized this for thousands of years as they built command and control hierarchies that matched these numbers. Wake Up Call.

Engineer 335

Engineer Valuation Hiring Stock 335

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. The valuations for acquisitions were nothing like the Internet bubble, but there was a path to liquidity, difficult as it was. billion.) Warning sign? At best. ~

Silicon Valley 223

Silicon Valley IPO Technical Review Venture Capital 223

Steve Blank

JULY 15, 2010

startups require significantly less capital to start, 2) exits for venture firms are predominately acquisitions, and 3) a venture firm with a smaller fund <$150M matches these exits. They’ve created virtual IPO’s for founders and employees via late-stage private financing. are example of this class of firm. Yet while the U.S.

Venture Capital 299

Venture Capital IPO Liquidity Event Entrepreneur 299

Hunter Walker

APRIL 27, 2014

We founded Homebrew to be the type of fund we would have wanted to raise money from – early stage partner of conviction, leading financing rounds with great co-investors, leaning in to actually help when you need it. Our average check was larger than we expected as a result of increasing valuations and round sizes.

LP 97

LP Cofounder Term Sheet Valuation 97

This is going to be BIG.

APRIL 19, 2011

I’ve never heard of an entrepreneur who had a successful exit who laments the price that they raised their first round valuation at. You can shoot yourself in the face in all sorts of ways by not matching your cash needs and milestones to how much money you raise—way more than using the “wrong” security.

Paraguay 110

Paraguay Dilution Valuation Seed Stage 110

ReadWriteStart

SEPTEMBER 8, 2010

As one would expect, many voices in the industry have made themselves heard in the form of VC blog posts and passionate, profanity-laced shouting matches. The simple point here is that the financing sources that are appropriate if you need a total of $1 million are different than if you need $10 million or $100 million.".

Startup 118

Startup Early Stage Venture Capital Valuation 118

The Equity Kicker

FEBRUARY 9, 2016

There’s been a lot of talk recently about what will happen to startup financing in 2016, including here on this blog. implying that an awful lot of non-VC money flowed into the ecosystem (the column headings in the charts are a little ambiguous, but the explanation I’ve given matches what Mark wrote here ).

Marketing 60

Marketing Institutional Investors Venture Capital Later Stage 60

The Equity Kicker

JULY 8, 2019

This is what brings us to the second big difference: the cost of Applied Venture is too large to finance from a standard VC management fee. . Different funds finance the cost of these teams with a differing weighting of asking portfolio companies to pay for services, larger than normal management fees, and reduced compensation for partners.

Portfolio 84

Portfolio LP Venture Capital Partner 84

genylabs.typepad.com

SEPTEMBER 24, 2011

I wont bother going into details on start-up financing terms ( see this post for an overview of typical VC terms) except to say if you dont know and understand: the firms cap table and valuation. The letters and numbers you entered did not match the image. Not all start-up stock is created equally. what your rights are.

Equity 40

Equity Technical Review San Jose Stock 40

Transformify

JULY 23, 2018

Powerful matching algorithms are used to allocate the projects and ensure a stringent and high-quality evaluation process. Business valuation or investor background is among the expert evaluator’s selection criteria. Prior to 2018, the final selection of innovative startups was relying on a remote evaluation process only.

Intellectual Property 66

Intellectual Property Angel Investor Dilution Startup 66

Hunter Walker

JUNE 7, 2016

Chaia was the result of our matched style toward food and our wish to bring seasonal, vegetable cuisine to DC. HW: How have you financed your business to date? We had an initial valuation made on our existing farmers market business and we secured a small business loan from a local bank to help finance much of our build-out costs.

Caching 70

Caching DC Social Media Finance 70

Up and Running

APRIL 11, 2016

When asked how he figured out who his target market was, he responded, “I looked at the volume of sales in my city, from the property valuation administrator, and then looked for the ‘sweet spot.’ Step 5: Getting financed. Real estate agent Jamal Asskoumi, took the finances for his business from personal savings. “If

Reputation 60

Reputation Cofounder Naming Business Plan 60

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

FEBRUARY 21, 2011

Of course the numbers don’t match because, again, I pulled those potential valuations out of nowhere. In the case of WPEngine, I’ve been saying $5m in three years or $25m in five years. To make $250,000 out of $5m the investor would need 5%; to make $840,000 from $25m the investor needs 3%.

Equity 276

Equity Salary Hiring Institutional Investors 276

Hunter Walker

JUNE 7, 2016

Chaia was the result of our matched style toward food and our wish to bring seasonal, vegetable cuisine to DC. HW: How have you financed your business to date? We had an initial valuation made on our existing farmers market business and we secured a small business loan from a local bank to help finance much of our build-out costs.

Caching 48

Caching DC Social Media Finance 48

ithacaVC

APRIL 5, 2011

Additionally, at the seed stage, investors and the company might want to issue the investors convertible debt to avoid the question of valuation. The company is at the pre-seed stage, and the outside investment would qualify the company for an additional grant from a government source (matching funds). Seems like a win-win.

Common Stock 45

Common Stock Stock Cap Table Preferred Stock 45

Steve Blank

APRIL 1, 2020

Others are cutting their valuations. As part of these operating changes, make sure your heads of HR and finance recognize that they have entirely new jobs. Then walk them through why the changes you’re suggesting match that plan. If you were expecting angel or venture funding get on the phone to your investor(s).

South Korea 333

South Korea Salary Business Model China 333

crowdSPRING Blog

APRIL 15, 2012

While much of the literature on succession planning tends to be about long-term legal planning as well as the importance of valuation, buy/sell agreements, and tax and estate planning, my advice is that you first focus on what will happen tomorrow if you don’t have any plan already in place. ” Throne, you say?

Startup 94

Startup Valuation Small Business Database 94

Berkonomics

JANUARY 20, 2010

Some businesses require very little capital and the founder is able to self-finance the enterprise and retain 100% of its ownership and control from ignition through liquidity event (startup through sale). And even with the significant cost of credit card debt, many entrepreneurs aggressively use existing cards to finance a startup.

Private Equity 69

Private Equity Valuation Cap Table Accredited Investor 69

Cracking the Code

DECEMBER 2, 2006

The time they spend with customers is usually limited to transactional core products sales, generating lower margins – The resource allocation is not always matching the opportunity (geography, customer segment, vertical.) – The rules of engagement for technical resources (solution or product specialists) are not clear.

Software Review 48

Software Review Technical Review Europe Software 48