ReadWriteStart

AUGUST 26, 2022

How to Scale Unicorns With Partner David Zhang, TVC. Joining us for this episode is our partner David Zhang, Partner at TCV (( Technology Crossover Ventures ). I’m a partner at TCV, which we founded in 1996. So, think of the typical two founders with a pitch book in a garage. Jonathan Siddharth . David Zhang.

Partner 132

Partner Cofounder Retention Acquisition 132

Steve Blank

JANUARY 22, 2014

Dino Vendetti a VC at Bay Partners, moved up to Bend, Oregon on a mission to engineer Bend into a regional technology cluster. Regional Angel funds that pool investors capital and typically make a one time investment in a startup, sometimes at an early stage but often at a slightly later stage. The Bend Experience.

Early Stage 287

Early Stage Silicon Valley Oregon Technical Review 287

David Teten

DECEMBER 3, 2019

But in business, you want a lot of partners. In the private equity universe, most Partners have primary training as deal-makers, not as managers. See Bessemer Venture Partners’ A comprehensive guide to security for startups. Cobalt for General Partners helps GPs to optimize their fundraising strategy. 1) Manage the firm

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Software Review Analytics Private Equity 78

This is going to be BIG.

MAY 5, 2023

For me, I have at least two years of active board and observer commitments to roll off of and far more time before all the founders I’ve backed hit (or miss, I suppose) their ultimate goal of returning lots of money to their investors. It has been a career that fits my personality well.

Later Stage 218

Later Stage Venture Capital Term Sheet Limited Partner 218

David Teten

SEPTEMBER 23, 2017

PEVCTech is partnering with Blue Future Partners to run the first large-scale survey of VCs’ technology stack. Johann Kratzer of Blue Future Partners , a fund of funds, observed, “The majority of the hundreds of funds we’ve diligenced rely predominantly on their relationships to source deals. Greylock Partners.

Private Equity 60

Private Equity Venture Capital Equity Technical Review 60

VC Cafe

JANUARY 2, 2023

As Vintage Venture Partners put it in a recent presentation shared in Tel Aviv , 2022 started off well but fell of a cliff in the second half (the slides were shared on Twitter by Amitai Ziv from Tech 12 ). A report by Greenfield Partners puts the total fundraising of Israeli startups at $15.16 2022 in Israeli tech and venture.

Valuation 158

Valuation Down Round Venture Capital 158

Steve Blank

JUNE 15, 2010

So if you’re the founder of a startup, you may want to consider who you take money from. Is Your VC Founder Friendly? What startup stage do they typically invest in? How many of their founders are still with their company? Will they tailor your vesting to your contribution as a founder? Is it for your technology?

Founder 231

Founder Vesting Later Stage Early Stage 231

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

Austin Startup

JUNE 26, 2019

Many people have reached out sharing knowing and kind words about our journey and choice to wind down our venture, as well as their appreciation for my choice to pull back the curtain on what is statistically a common road for many founders. It details a landscape founders like me are excited to sink their teeth into? Of course not!

Silicon Valley 54

Silicon Valley Startup B2C Sweat Equity 54

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 27, 2014

We both agree that the later-stage valuations are being driven up to a point that feels irrationally priced [he uses b-round SaaS valuations as an example and I am willing to be even more broad based]. Most of those industries are fee-based and are competing on revenue growth. I don’t totally agree with that view.

Valuation 309

Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Later Stage Non-Compete 309

Reid Hoffman

JUNE 11, 2020

I met Jeff through one of my other partners at Greylock , James Slavet , who had worked for him at Yahoo. Why do you call Jeff a co-founder of LinkedIn, even though he joined when the company was already five years old? When I invest in founders, I’m investing without knowing what the exact return on capital will be.

Cofounder 36

Cofounder Leadership Metrics Later Stage 36

David Teten

SEPTEMBER 5, 2014

I’ve written on the expert network industry a fair amount in the past: see How to Earn More Consulting Revenue from Expert Networks and How Executives Can Work with Private Equity and Venture Capital Portfolio Companies. We’re backed by Bessemer Venture Partners, Silver Lake Partners, and individual investors like Ron Conway, among others.

New York 114

New York Technical Review Networking Advisory Board 114

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. A firm like ours has almost 100 different investments across all the various partners so we get to see some businesses very intimately. Some even grow "bad" revenue just to show growth.

Founder 242

Founder Dilution Software Review Later Stage 242

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). It is most often a win-win for both you and the strategic partner. For those of you who fit that description, nice work.

Private Equity 118

Private Equity Valuation Cap Table Accredited Investor 118

Reid Hoffman

MARCH 9, 2021

Looking back, I believe that Jeff is one of most iconic, successful founders and CEOs of all time. Jeff is also one of the few founders I know of who sets OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) for his board members. Many default to sales (because that’s what drives revenue) or product (because that’s what customers buy).

Leadership 42

Leadership Technical Review Cofounder Later Stage 42

Steve Blank

JUNE 11, 2013

The test is: If you add one more sales person or spend more marketing dollars, does your sales revenue go up by more than your expenses? What are revenue strategy and pricing tactics? What are revenue strategy and pricing tactics? Who are the partners? How do the fund and the partners make money? What is an IRR?

Venture Capital 334

Venture Capital IRR Liquidity Event Business Model 334

K9 Ventures

JUNE 5, 2015

So in this post, I present the epilogue to The New Venture Landscape that highlights my take on what I think the venture landscape looks like today and what the implications are for founders, for GPs and for LPs. Implications for Founders. Too many founders still think that. The Epilogue. Seed is the New A. Well, yes they do.

Seed Stage 48

Seed Stage Venture Capital Early Stage Valuation 48

View from Seed

FEBRUARY 27, 2019

Given the common challenges encountered by founders as they navigate through this hiring decision, I thought I’d outline some of my thoughts below that can hopefully serve as a simple framework when it comes to making the first Analytics hire at your startup. Many founders confuse the two as they both involve lots of numbers.

Analytics 149

Analytics Hiring SQL Forecast 149

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 12, 2012

These people are highly focused on investment areas they know, which have a large opportunity for growth, revenue projection of $20M or more in five years, and a high return that can be realized via an exit within five years. First-time founders will find that most angels turn into mirages.

Angel Groups 237

Angel Groups Angel Investor Early Stage Startup 237

Steve Blank

JUNE 11, 2013

The test is: If you add one more sales person or spend more marketing dollars, does your sales revenue go up by more than your expenses? What are revenue strategy and pricing tactics? What are revenue strategy and pricing tactics? Who are the partners? How do the fund and the partners make money? What is an IRR?

Venture Capital 226

Venture Capital IRR Liquidity Event Business Model 226

VC Cafe

JULY 5, 2010

To learn more, VC Cafe interviewed Brian Rosenzweig, one of the managing partners in the new fund and the former marketing director at 21Ventures. Only $24M of that went to seed stage companies in Israel despite the disproportionately large number of early stage start-ups as compared to start-ups in initial revenue or growth stages.

Technical Review 106

Technical Review Software Review Seed Stage 106

This is going to be BIG.

FEBRUARY 21, 2021

I’m a female founder. I don’t have a technical co-founder. These are all of the things I heard from a founder that I recently backed. So what about all of the above statements—things that founders widely hold to be true barriers to fundraising? It’s the “hook” that gets a team noticed in a partner meeting.

Venture Capital 162

Venture Capital Cofounder Deal Flow Later Stage 162

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 14, 2011

These people are highly focused on investment areas they know, which have a large opportunity for growth, revenue projection of $20M or more in five years, and a high return that can be realized via an exit within five years. First-time founders will find that most angels turn into mirages.

Angel Investor 217

Angel Investor Angel Groups Early Stage Startup 217

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 13, 2018

This is part of a series of advice for founders who need to raise money from venture capitalists. Somehow many first-time founders equate “sales” with something that is beneath them. I always tell founders … “An investors job is to deploy capital and make a return. This is where most founders err.

Term Sheet 332

Term Sheet Due Diligence Campaign Sales 332

The Equity Kicker

NOVEMBER 28, 2016

Different investors place different weights on the three elements but as a rule earlier stage investors place more emphasis on the team and later stage investors place more emphasis on the market. Some very early stage investors go as far as to say that for them team is everything.

Seed Stage 60

Seed Stage Later Stage Early Stage Partner 60

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 13, 2010

You also will find that the stage your startup is in dictates where you go to seek funding. Funding sources specialize in certain growth stages. Angel investors typically provide early-stage funding, while venture capital firms typically come in at later stages. Growth stage. Exit stage.

Investment Bankers 231

Investment Bankers Venture Capital Startup Initial Public Offering 231

View from Seed

JUNE 16, 2015

I’d also question a founder who asks his or her investors to comment falsely on something — that puts the investor in an awkward spot. Luckily, our founders are all incredibly high integrity people, and we wouldn’t have it any other way. For ecommerce: >$500K revenue/month. For SaaS: At least $100K in MRR.

Boston 120

Boston Syndicate Syndication eCommerce 120

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). Strategic partner” investors: If you can find a strategic partner willing to invest in your enterprise, consider it a blessing.

Private Equity 106

Private Equity Valuation Cap Table Accredited Investor 106

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 3, 2010

These people are highly focused on investment areas they know, which have a large opportunity for growth, revenue projection of $20M or more in five years, and a high return that can be realized via an exit within seven years. First-time founders will find that most angels turn into mirages.

Angel Groups 121

Angel Groups Angel Investor Early Stage Later Stage 121

VC Cafe

JANUARY 10, 2011

Zend was originally set up by founders Andi Gutmans and Zeev Suraski who were key contributors to PHP and the creators of the core PHP scripting engine, the Zend Engine. As a result of this round, Harel Beit-On, Founder and General Partner at Viola Private Equity will be joining Zend’s board of directors.

Private Equity 87

Private Equity Equity PHP 87

Ben's Blog

AUGUST 17, 2020

OH in South Park, San Francisco (or on Zoom from Big Sky, Montana): “OMG, crazy – that firm just paid 100x revenue to invest in [insert hot startup here] – what could they be thinking?” How valuation multiples work Why did multiples become a shortcut-heuristic for estimating valuations in the first place?

Valuation 36

Valuation Balance Sheet Cofounder Forecast 36

Reid Hoffman

OCTOBER 17, 2018

In fact, to achieve your aggressive growth goals in the face of uncertainty and change, you need to follow a new set of rules that fly in the face of what is taught in business schools and are completely counterintuitive to accepted “best practices” of either early stage startups or classic corporate management. Revenue guidance.

Finder 28

Finder Rhode Island Cofounder Engineer 28

pandodaily.com

NOVEMBER 29, 2012

But at a macro level, widespread failure this early is far less painful than if it came at later stages. “Founders don’t think their problems are due to trends. And in fact, overall trends are a second-order effect for founders.” Sarah Lacy is the founder and editor-in-chief of PandoDaily.

Technical Review 93

Technical Review Silicon Valley Incubator Syria 93

techcrunch.com

FEBRUARY 19, 2010

Respondents deemed between 12%-16% of companies generating revenues to be essentially “worthless” and deemed 20%-26% of their pre-revenue investments to be “worthless.” Been there Done that This is very depressing for all future founders, or even currently early stage founders. Add to this that 72.7% Translation?

Venture Capital 62

Venture Capital Technical Review Sweat Equity Valuation 62

www.paulgraham.com

APRIL 28, 2010

I think it would help founders to understand funding better—notjust the mechanics of it, but what investors are thinking. And if trouble withinvestors is one of the biggest threats to a startup, managing themis one of the most important skills founders need to learn. There never has to be atime when you have no revenues.

Technical Review 76

Technical Review Startup Software Review Angel Investor 76

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 2, 2015

Richard Witten , special advisor on entrepreneurship to the President of Columbia University ; and Kathryn Minshew , co-founder of the popular online career platform TheMuse.com both joined me in Sirius’ New York studio and shared their version of being knocked down and coming back stronger. If you can’t hear the clip, click here.

Entrepreneur 120

Entrepreneur New York Cofounder Equity 120

Hippoland

NOVEMBER 13, 2016

But as we’ve seen, these valuations can be hocus-pocus — even at later stage rounds, we’ve seen lots of companies of late fall from grace and become massively devalued overnight when they cannot raise their next round at a higher valuation. But what if a company is growing revenues but hasn’t raised a round in a while?

IRR 48

IRR Valuation Portfolio Due Diligence 48