Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 29, 2018

Deferred payments start with stretching the payables period but, more importantly, include giving employee equity in lieu of a higher salaries and negotiating vendor deferred payments out of future revenues. This could equate to two technical founders (with a minimal salary), funding two developers for a year.

Burn Rate 223

Burn Rate Hockey Stick Startup Salary 223

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 14, 2017

As a startup in this phase you often raise capital, get press, hire staff and everything feels possible. As the idea went from innovating on software & systems to launching a company to rolling it out in the field brought on Rahul Gandhi as his co-founder to physically launch the company. As an early-stage VC I love this phase.

Operations 286

Operations New York City Technical Review Startup 286

VC Cafe

AUGUST 2, 2022

Tim Sweeney, the founder and CEO of Epic is a long term visionary of our online future and the Metaverse. billion revenue in 2021 for Epic Games and was played by 83.3 Tim Sweeney, Epic Games’ founder and CEO. It’s hard to think of a company better positioned than Epic Games to become a major player in the Metaverse.

IP 206

IP Cofounder Valuation Acquisition 206

Steve Blank

APRIL 23, 2014

buy out an entire company for its revenue and profits. 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. The founding team is testing for the right combination of product, market, revenue, costs, etc.

Acquisition 333

Acquisition Intellectual Property Silicon Valley Startup 333

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 5, 2014

Deferred payments start with stretching the payables period but, more importantly, include giving employee equity in lieu of a higher salaries and negotiating vendor deferred payments out of future revenues. This could equate to two technical founders (with a minimal salary), funding two developers for a year.

Burn Rate 262

Burn Rate Hockey Stick Entrepreneur Salary 262

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 22, 2012

“Why do founders want to take the VCs’ money? Founders will continue to take the “growth at all options” path that leads to privacy & trust creep at places like Quora. After all, growth equals high valuations and loads of venture capital! In revenue terms our first two years of sales were $2.1

Silicon Valley 390

Silicon Valley Venture Capital Startup Technical Review 390

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 21, 2012

Pay people with equity or future revenue. Another one to avoid cash burn for software development is a contract for percent of future revenue. For example, a web-based startup should be able to operate for a year if they raise $500,000 from the founders or angels. Great strategy. Do it yourself and barter for services.

Burn Rate 232

Burn Rate Startup Salary Equity 232

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 5, 2011

2: As expected at least one person accused me of writing this post because I want to see lower valuations. I’ve decided to take all of my private conversations and subjective points-of-view on the topic and make them public in a keynote speech at the Founder Showcase in San Francisco on June 15th. That’s stupid.

Pre-Money Valuation 336

Pre-Money Valuation Valuation Silicon Valley Stock 336

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 28, 2011

Pay people with equity or future revenue. Another one to avoid cash burn for software development is a contract for percent of future revenue. For example, a web-based startup should be able to operate for a year if they raise $500,000 from the founders or angels. Great strategy. Do it yourself and barter for services.

Burn Rate 231

Burn Rate Startup Salary Equity 231

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 6, 2016

When I hear the realism that comes from founders with setback it elicits an understanding of what it takes to be successful at a startup that frankly can’t exist unless you’ve walked in those shoes before. In London when founders failed they were ostracized in the press and culturally I believe it became harder to raise capital.

South Korea 261

South Korea Silicon Valley Los Angeles Japan 261

Hunter Walker

DECEMBER 13, 2020

If things are going great, you still may get a lower valuation or smaller round. A hire or two that you should have been able to close won’t join. It doesn’t matter what industry, what product, what revenue model, what stage of development. Are you a founder who trained themselves to become a better salesperson?

Technical Cofounder 144

Technical Cofounder Cofounder Startup Matching 144

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 22, 2011

I recently spoke at the Founder Showcase at the request of Adeo Ressi. I said that at the Founder Showcase, too. Ah, but today’s Internet companies have real revenue! million pre-money valuation is now raising $1 million at a $12 million valuation the next investor has nowhere to go but up (or sit out the investment).

Saudi Arabia 309

Saudi Arabia Valuation IPO Technical Review 309

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 14, 2016

Deferred payments start with stretching the payables period but, more importantly, include giving employee equity in lieu of a higher salaries and negotiating vendor deferred payments out of future revenues. This could equate to two technical founders (with a minimal salary), funding two developers for a year.

Burn Rate 120

Burn Rate Hockey Stick Startup Salary 120

Up and Running

SEPTEMBER 19, 2017

They allow you to hire more people, purchase new technology, and establish new business connections, among many other benefits. That’s because obtaining a pre-money valuation for a concept level technology company in excess of $1 million is difficult, particularly for a startup founder without a proven track record.

Private Equity 94

Private Equity Pre-Money Valuation Equity Startup 94

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 26, 2016

The key to being able to run a business that isn’t yet profitable (on operating margin) is availability of capital to finance losses and preferably at a cost that isn’t too punitive to the founders and employees. In SaaS (or any recurring revenue business) this is also a very difficult task.

Metrics 150

Metrics Cost Acquisition Startup 150

Steve Blank

MARCH 17, 2020

Next, take a look at your actual revenue each month – not forecast, but real revenue coming in each month. Subtract your monthly gross burn rate from your monthly revenue to get your net burn rate. All your assumptions about customers, sales cycle and most importantly, revenue, burn rate and runway are no longer true.

Burn Rate 436

Burn Rate Startup Valuation Sales Cycle 436

Steve Blank

MAY 19, 2015

I had lunch last week with Tom, the CEO of a startup that was quickly becoming a large company – last year’s revenue was $40M, this year likely to be $80M maybe even $100 million in ad revenue. to drive traffic to their site, which they then turned into ad revenue.

Technical Review 120

Technical Review Salary Early Stage Software Review 120

Transformify

MARCH 4, 2020

The consideration Wirecard has agreed to pay is almost ten times the price an investment fund called EMIF 1A had paid to the founders of Hermes iTickets. On its turn, Orbit Corporate & Leisure Travels purchased services from Hermes iTickets which had already been part of Wirecard, thus contributing to group’s revenue and profit.

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Valuation Stock Acquisition 78

VC Cafe

MAY 29, 2022

Sequoia’s “Adapting to Endure” Sequoia presented this deck to a group of portfolio founders and it quickly spread online to founders worldwide. Layoffs and hiring freezes have started. Big tech (Google, Meta, Microsoft, Amazon, Apple) have implemented a temporary hiring freeze.

Venture Capital 183

Venture Capital Early Stage Valuation Startup 183

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 5, 2010

Pay people with equity or future revenue. Another one to avoid cash burn for software development is a contract for percent of future revenue. For example, a web-based startup should be able to operate for a year if they raise $500,000 from the founders or angels. Great strategy. Do it yourself and barter for services.

Burn Rate 120

Burn Rate Startup Salary Equity 120

The Startup Magazine

JUNE 1, 2023

By Daniel Sokolovksy, Co-Founder and CEO, WARP and Troy Lester, Co-Founder and CRO, WARP The dissolution of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) was more than just a bank collapse, it was a reality check for both startups and the VCs that fund them. We’re hitting record revenue months, weeks, and margins. That includes us.

Early Stage 115

Early Stage Los Angeles Silicon Valley Cofounder 115

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 24, 2017

Why do these founders get to stay around? Because the balance of power has dramatically shifted from investors to founders. — Unremarked and unheralded, the balance of power between startup CEOs and their investors has radically changed: IPOs/M&A without a profit (or at times revenue) have become the norm.

Founder 274

Founder Technical Review CTO Hire IPO 274

Steve Blank

MARCH 31, 2014

Companies horde cash and squeeze the most revenue and margin from the money they use. Look at the valuations of companies like Tesla, Illumina, and Twitter. The companies that can show “startup-like” growth rates of 50% plus per year will get stratospheric market valuations. This never ends well.

Private Equity 329

Private Equity Metrics China Intellectual Property 329

Duct Tape Marketing

FEBRUARY 3, 2022

Amanda is the Co-founder at Barney an M&A firm that specializes in the digital marketing space. 16:06] Does hiring an advisor also come with a team of legal and financial advisors? 17:49] Have you ever experienced a transaction where a Founder sold the company to their existing team? [18:35] Do you have a leadership team?

Entrepreneur 76

Entrepreneur Technical Review Cofounder Valuation 76

Hunter Walker

FEBRUARY 15, 2023

Claire got to experience, and played a large part in, Stripe’s proverbial rocketship, blossoming into thousands of employees, generating billions of dollars in revenue and valuation. For example: On her viral ‘ Working With Claire ’ guide I think that founders should write a guide to working with them.

Cap Table 74

Cap Table Hiring Viral Valuation 74

K9 Ventures

JUNE 5, 2015

Low supply of companies with traction drove the valuations and deal sizes up. In addition, the competition for and the cost of hiring people, especially in the San Francisco Bay Area, has gone up dramatically. Valuations are rising to match. Implications for Founders. Too many founders still think that.

Seed Stage 48

Seed Stage Venture Capital Early Stage Valuation 48

Steve Blank

MAY 13, 2010

But startups can shoot themselves in the foot when founders use consultants at the wrong time or in the wrong way. After a bit more discussion, I discovered the “problem in getting traction” meant revenue was zero. Customer Development is designed so that you the founder(s) gather first hand experience about customer and market needs.

Founder 226

Founder Cofounder Business Model Customer Development 226

Austin Startup

AUGUST 20, 2017

Hiring is a chapter unto itself, but it deserves to lead off any discussion of context. Compensation decisions obviously affect hiring and retention. You can’t be too careful in determining comp packages for your new hires. Keep the valuations consistent with company progress. Let’s look at some specifics: 1.

Technical Review 48

Technical Review Software Review Cap Table Securities and Exchange Commission 48

View from Seed

APRIL 30, 2015

What is it, and how should founders think about it? note: We’d like to be extra clear that founders should not take on venture debt if they don’t have 100% visibility into repaying the loan, as banks that need to recoup their loan my force the company or you as the guarantor into liquidation or bankruptcy. Business model?

Term Sheet 120

Term Sheet Equity Startup Seed Stage 120

VC Cafe

SEPTEMBER 26, 2022

The past year was a wild ride for startups and founders, giving a whole new meaning to the ”rollercoaster” aspect of being an entrepreneur. So in terms of hiring, get people that can help you build the product faster… anything that minimizes the time between observing a need or a problem, and the execution or the fix for it.”

Founder 187

Founder Startup Valuation Pre-Money Valuation 187

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 17, 2018

You get to have interesting conversations with founders and review business plans and then see how these businesses evolve over the years. 1/ From vantage point of being able to see hundreds of companies, good & bad I have some advice for founders - Get to know and love "gross margin."

Founder 242

Founder Dilution Software Review Later Stage 242

View from Seed

FEBRUARY 19, 2015

This is a guest post from Rob May , a co-founder and CEO of Backupify , which raised $19.5M I called the recruiter running the search and told him I was going to step down and hire a CEO. Rob,” he said, “no offense, but you aren’t going to get a world class, been-there-done-that CEO into a company with less than $1 million in revenue.

Founder 120

Founder Startup Cofounder Business Model 120

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 10, 2016

Funding challenges and other issues founders face in the early days of starting up were the focus of interviews with the latest guests on Entrepreneurs are Everywhere , my radio show on SiriusXM Channel 111 (airing weekly Thursdays at 1 pm Pacific, 4 pm Eastern). Will Zell , co-founder and CEO of Nikola Labs wireless power company.

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley Ohio Columbus Entrepreneur 120

Version One Ventures

FEBRUARY 7, 2023

Over the last few years, the start-up market has focused almost exclusively on hyper-growth, quick valuation increases, raising large amounts of capital, and trying to take companies public in a premature way (SPACs). in revenue in 2022 for Jobber’s customers. These jobs resulted in over $13 billion USD (!!!)

Cofounder 94

Cofounder Portfolio Valuation Revenue 94

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

DECEMBER 16, 2014

Was there any startup founder who didn’t feel depressed when that happened? Still… Now Slack has been valued at over a billion dollars, less than a year after launch, every month adding more than a million dollars of annual recurring revenue. Instagram had 13 employees when they sold for a billion dollars. Yes, depressed.

Metrics 246

Metrics Early Stage Retention Revenue 246

Austin Startup

FEBRUARY 13, 2019

The first one relates to the most important investor…you, the founder(s)! Convertible debt is best when you don’t yet have revenue or a good sense for your valuation, because it allows you to raise money on the basis that the valuation will be set one to three years in the future, based on execution of the early business model.

Strategic Investors 49

Strategic Investors Austin Angel Investor Bootstrapping 49

www.avc.com

SEPTEMBER 22, 2011

The most common comment in this long and complicated MBA Mondays series on Employee Equity is the question of how much equity should you grant when you make a hire. For your first key hires, three, five, maybe as much as ten, you will probably not be able to use any kind of formula. First, a caveat.

Equity 64

Equity Employee CTO Hire Fractional CTO 64