The Next Web

OCTOBER 7, 2013

That’s what a couple of my friends – engineers at Google and Bloomberg who have been following the rise of startup culture with intrigue – told me recently. Often difficult to get, the first engineer sets the tone for the rest of the development team. Startup employees are granted common shares out of something called an option pool.

Engineer 129

Engineer Dilution Option Pool Vesting 129

Hearpreneur

JANUARY 22, 2023

For example, a startup SaaS company can use a specialized app to create a good product management process and keep track of the project's progress. Positive experiences create emotional value, which keeps customers coming back and makes small businesses stand out from the rest. Thanks to Sean Stevens, Immerse Education ! #5-

Artificial Inteligence 122

Artificial Inteligence Technical Review Entrepreneur Social Media 122

VC Adventure

AUGUST 15, 2018

However the board could determine what that fair market value was and, generally speaking, there wasn’t a practical way that these valuations could be challenged. It was and is imprecise science but – at least in the case of venture backed startups – there wasn’t much harm in an option being priced low.

Valuation 48

Valuation Common Stock Cap Table Software Review 48

Steve Blank

APRIL 1, 2020

So here’s a five-day playbook to help CEOs of cash-flow negative startups, or ones about to go negative, assess the new normal and respond with speed and urgency. For companies burning cash, such as startups, how much cash do you have? For startups: source of VC money? Others are cutting their valuations.

South Korea 333

South Korea Salary Business Model China 333

Berkonomics

AUGUST 3, 2023

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 118

Private Equity Valuation Cap Table Accredited Investor 118

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

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 26, 2020

Not all startups need outside investment to grow. What most founders don’t realize is: Every stage of a startup requires a different set of metrics and milestones and founder skills. Here’s the first 2½ years of a startup journey. The Startup Investment Landscape. Still, there are some benchmarks to keep in mind.

Cofounder 429

Cofounder Seed Stage Valuation Metrics 429

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 23, 2012

I have been close to the tech & startup sectors for more than 20 years and I can’t think of a period in which I felt more optimistic about the innovation and value creation I see in front of us. The number of startups being created has increased by an order of magnitude. Thank you, Aaron Sorkin!

Venture Capital 347

Venture Capital Technical Review LP Mobile 347

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 8, 2012

I recently wrote about my views that startups rounds should be priced. But Paul Graham really did have a point in his “ high resolution fundraising ” post – that there is a problem – particularly in angel financing – with herding cats. We plan to raise at a $5 million pre-money valuation.

Pre-Money Valuation 294

Pre-Money Valuation Finance Liquidation Preference Warrant 294

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 29, 2018

Yet crowdfunding is no panacea for hungry entrepreneurs and startups. According to Yahoo Finance , less than a third of crowdfunding campaigns currently reach their goals, and the rest have to return anything they do collect. It is this growth that concerns many investors: Startup valuations can’t be negotiated via crowdfunding.

Equity 180

Equity Due Diligence Angel Groups Liquidity Event 180

Lightspeed Venture Partners

OCTOBER 7, 2012

That’s why most entrepreneurs do not make a specific ask on valuation, but wait to hear offers from investors. As Cuban pointed out, this is a “down round” Zomm is seeking $2M for 10% of the company, implying an $18M pre money valuation today. The last company was a bit of a puzzler.

Technical Review 110

Technical Review Technical Cofounder Valuation Pre-Money Valuation 110

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 25, 2011

In finance, a bubble is too much money chasing assets, greater asset production and a herd mentality. In startup business plans, a bubble is too many entrepreneurs and too many investors chasing the latest “next big thing,” like Google search engine, Facebook social network, or Amazon e-commerce site. High valuation, low profit.

Startup 225

Startup Demand Green Government 225

Austin Startup

AUGUST 20, 2017

August 20, 2017: This is another in my series of posts all leading up to a book on Startup Decision Making. One of the most common mistakes I see in startups is making decisions that lose sight of the context , including the past, present, and future. Sooner or later everybody in a startup knows what everyone else is getting paid.

Technical Review 48

Technical Review Software Review Cap Table Securities and Exchange Commission 48

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. Typical value creation milestones for technology startups include: launching a product. November – retail partner decision to roll-out product to rest of stores.

Finance 118

Finance Valuation Venture Capital Dilution 118

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.

Angel Groups 159

Angel Groups Elevator Pitch Software Review Deal Flow 159

Gust

OCTOBER 3, 2011

For a first time entrepreneur trying to figure out the arcane world of startup financing, it can be very confusing to understand the roles that different types of investors play in funding promising companies, as well as the point in a company’s life at which they enter the stage. From +/- $1.5m

Finance 70

Finance Venture Capital Intellectual Property Early Stage 70

Hearpreneur

AUGUST 5, 2020

Another pointer is to how much the industry is ready for disruption is the trend of recent HR and Recruitment startups such as Zenefits which reached up to a valuation of a billion dollars after a few years. Even talent management software has a 17% annual compound growth rate and still growing! Thanks to John Linden, MirrorCoop ! #19-

Technical Review 156

Technical Review Software Review Entrepreneur China 156

www.paulgraham.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

Want to start a startup? Its equivalent toasking how to make a startup succeed—if you avoid every cause offailure, you succeed—and thats too big a question to answer onthe fly. 1 ] In a sense theres just one mistake that kills startups: not makingsomething users want. Get funded by Y Combinator.

Startup 108

Startup Software Review Hiring Detroit 108

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 20, 2013

In finance, a bubble is too much money chasing assets, greater asset production and a herd mentality. In startup business plans, a bubble is too many entrepreneurs and too many investors chasing the latest “next big thing,” like Google search engine, Facebook social network, or Amazon e-commerce site. High valuation, low profit.

Demand 224

Demand Green Finance Government 224

VC Cafe

SEPTEMBER 21, 2020

In fact, 90% of the top grossing apps are subscription based across all categories: education, fitness, dating, music, wellness, personal finance, etc. Many startups are hoping to be the next name on that list. The landscape of consumer subscription startups is growing: Consumer SaaS landscape (Source: GP Bullhound ).

B2C 187

B2C Cloud Valuation Acquisition 187

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 25, 2019

You can read the rest of the posts in the series by clicking here *. A few potential slides which can be included in the Appendix: Exit Analysis: Not always as important during the early startup stage since an exit event is presumably in the distance away. Other Questions: Every startup is different.

Seed Stage 166

Seed Stage Retention Restful Valuation 166

Gust

NOVEMBER 4, 2011

Entrepreneurs and investors who have spent any time dealing with convertible debt seed financing transactions are likely to have encountered the subject of valuation caps. Valuation caps can come into play in settings other than seed-stage convertible note financing rounds. Read on for a fuller explanation.

Valuation 98

Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Merger Vesting 98

Reid Hoffman

JANUARY 19, 2021

True, many boards are dysfunctional, but when you build a great startup board, it will be a powerful tool that can help the CEO make the company successful. This essay, which is based on Part 1 of a two-part episode of the Greymatter Podcast, will cover the fundamentals of building great startup boards.

Startup 36

Startup Cofounder Advertising Hiring 36

Up and Running

JUNE 14, 2017

In both scenarios, it seems that startup venture initiation and idea validation are strictly dependent on the app. To determine the viability of an app or startup idea without building out the full solution, entrepreneurs should: Test potential buyers’ real buying intentions by monitoring their willingness to pay for a beta version.

Technical Review 96

Technical Review Distribution Redemption Demand 96

Up and Running

SEPTEMBER 5, 2017

Her background includes senior roles in both the banking and tech sectors, and she has launched four data businesses—including her current firm, New Frontier Data , which boasts a $20 million valuation and has received $5 million in funding. A study via Dow Jones entitled “ Women at the Wheel: Do Female Executives Drive Startup Success?

Venture Capital 82

Venture Capital Lean Cofounder Technical Review 82

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 14, 2009

Five Quarters of Profitability During the 1980’s and through the mid 1990’s startups going public had to do something that most companies today never heard of – they had to show a track record of increasing revenue and consistent profitability. The world of building profitable startups as the primary goal of Venture Capital would end in 1995.

Silicon Valley 217

Silicon Valley IPO Technical Review Venture Capital 217

Transformify

JULY 23, 2018

When speaking of startups’ funding, most founders first consider VC or Angel Investor funding. Somehow, it is perceived in the startup world that this is the way to go. EUR 3 billion are available to fund a maximum of 7,500 startups by 2020! The startups are not selling equity or issuing new shares. Definitely.

Intellectual Property 66

Intellectual Property Angel Investor Dilution Startup 66

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 18, 2015

“Trade in an asset at a price that strongly deviates from an asset’s intrinsic value” The arguments against that, “This time the startups have real revenues!” My presentation from the Summit can be downloaded here and the embed is below but the summary message is the rest of this blog post. billion.

IPO 150

IPO Venture Capital LP SEC 150

Cracking the Code

SEPTEMBER 12, 2021

As the company announces its $530 million Series F at a valuation of $8.5 The rest is history. They were both about to found a different startup, so I didn’t need to convince them to found a company – I just needed to convince them to join mine! The more I talked about this one, the more convinced I was that it was necessary.

Community 62

Community Cofounder Security Open Source 62

Altgate

JUNE 25, 2012

Choe’s equity is a headline-grabbing example of “dead equity”: equity owned by people who are no longer actively working for the startup. Every share of dead equity could have been redeployed as incentive for a current or future contributor to grow the value of the startup. Dead equity has always been a significant issue for startups.

Equity 44

Equity Vesting Cap Table Technical Review 44

Hunter Walker

SEPTEMBER 29, 2022

As more growth and crossover investors came into the startup ecosystem they were often eager to put capital to work and happy to consolidate their positions with common or preferred shares from early employees, founders and previous investors. We’re aligned with the founders and the rest of the cap table until we aren’t.

Venture Capital 122

Venture Capital Cap Table LP Equity 122

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

reidhoffman.org

NOVEMBER 12, 2013

It has many stylistic errors — and a few substantive ones, too — that I would now change having learned more, but I realized that it still provides useful insights for entrepreneurs and startup participants outside of the Greylock network, particularly across three areas of interest: how entrepreneurs should approach the pitch process.

Entrepreneur 111

Entrepreneur Revenue Viral Networking 111

Feld Thoughts

APRIL 29, 2015

Now that everyone is overly focused on unicorns, the headline number on the valuation (e.g. Company X raised Y at a valuation of Z from A, B, and C) has crept into the story on big rounds. No understanding of the human dynamics behind the financing. No underlying metrics that drive the financing. financing of Mattermark.

Atlanta 70

Atlanta Valuation Term Sheet Finance 70

View from Seed

JANUARY 26, 2016

To ensure you receive the rest, subscribe here. It’s become increasingly common for startups to raise several seed rounds, and this has led to a bifurcation in the seed stage between what are known as “pre-seed” (or “genesis”) and institutional seed rounds. Tweet this.). technical co-founder).

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage Early Stage Cofounder Finance 120

The Next Web

DECEMBER 3, 2013

Accelerators are often exciting, collaborative and deeply rewarding incubators that help you to grow your startup, develop a product or idea, and find follow-on investors. If you’ve never part of a startup before, sometimes taking the first steps are the hardest of all. I highly recommend that startups do one of those,” Jenner says.

Startup 153

Startup Cofounder Valuation Dilution 153

Feld Thoughts

APRIL 21, 2016

Bill Gurley wrote an incredible post yesterday titled On the Road to Recap: Why the unicorn financing market just became dangerous … for all involved. If you are a founder, an employee in a startup, or an investor in a startup, you have to be playing a long term game. It’s long but worth reading every word slowly.

Marketing 70

Marketing Down Round Startup IRR 70