The Startup Magazine

JULY 21, 2021

Kevin Wu, co-founder and CEO of job search optimization program Pathrise , says “Digital marketer roles are some of the most in-demand positions in the tech industry.” Not only do SEO and CMS skills stand out on a resume, but they can also be demonstrated in a portfolio to further impress recruiters. And he’s right.

Technical Review 147

Technical Review PPC SEM Marketing 147

YoungUpstarts

NOVEMBER 20, 2019

by Lu Zhang, founder and managing partner of Fusion Fund. Competition from other startups and established incumbents, constraints on time and capital, and limited access to talent and technology resources are just a few of the hurdles nearly every first-time founder faces while trying to build a business.

Technical Review 140

Technical Review Due Diligence Early Stage Differentiation 140

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 5, 2018

Jeff Katzenberg has a great track record – head of the studio at Paramount, chairman of Disney Studios, co-founder of DreamWorks and now chairman of NewTV. Tech IPO prices exploded and subsequent trading prices rose to dizzying heights as the stock prices became disconnected from the traditional metrics of revenue and profits.

Lean 335

Lean Burn Rate Startup IPO 335

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 15, 2020

The only way we’re really going to change is by trying to create more and more pockets in the defense portfolio and programs that are open to real competition. We need pockets of marketplace-type behavior where actual systems are competed out based on outcome-oriented metrics. And we buy new things more regularly.

Technical Review 361

Technical Review Artificial Inteligence Technology United States 361

Steve Blank

MARCH 31, 2014

Metrics like Return on Net Assets, Return on Capital and Internal Rate of Return are the guiding stars of the board and CEO. As Harvard professor Clayton Christensen noted, these efficiency metrics provided wise guidance for times when capital was scarce and raising money was hard. This never ends well.

Private Equity 325

Private Equity Metrics China Intellectual Property 325

David Teten

MAY 20, 2016

As one of the lead engineers at ff Venture Capital , I spend most of my day building custom software solutions that enhance our firm’s process–tools that range from portfolio investment management to co-investor and cap table tracking and more. We posted on our site a more in-depth overview of ff’s Tech Platform.

Private Equity 113

Private Equity Equity Cap Table Venture Capital 113

The Startup Magazine

JULY 21, 2021

Kevin Wu, co-founder and CEO of job search optimization program Pathrise , says “Digital marketer roles are some of the most in-demand positions in the tech industry.” Not only do SEO and CMS skills stand out on a resume, but they can also be demonstrated in a portfolio to further impress recruiters. And he’s right.

Technical Review 78

Technical Review PPC SEM Marketing 78

David Teten

JANUARY 19, 2021

From RBI, Flexible VCs borrow the ability to reap meaningful returns without demanding founders build for an exit. Every Flexible VC structure allows founders to access immediate risk capital while preserving exit, growth trajectory, and ownership optionality. . Flexible VC 102: Variations.

Cofounder 78

Cofounder Technical Review Equity Dividend 78

YoungUpstarts

SEPTEMBER 10, 2018

by Marc Pitart, founder and CEO of onlineresume.us. However, it is important to check the portfolio of the program and see how many companies from your industry have participated. On the other hand, if the program’s portfolio demonstrates that they worked with quite a few companies in your field, you are good to go.

Programming 124

Programming Chile B2B B2C 124

Hunter Walker

JANUARY 17, 2019

That said, there are two portfolio modeling/management tips that I do think are valuable exercises for every Fund I. If Your Portfolio Model Assumes Outperformance Across Multiple Metrics, I Don’t Believe It: Every VC fundraise has an Excel sheet that forecasts the performance of the fund.

Portfolio 104

Portfolio Forecast Dilution LP 104

crowdSPRING Blog

OCTOBER 4, 2013

Great post on the most important internet metric of them all – CONVERSION – crowdspring.co/18u6N8Y. Why Founders Can’t Afford to Have Any Weak Links | by Mark Suster – crowdspring.co/18L78oE. Why Founders Can’t Afford to Have Any Weak Links | by Mark Suster – crowdspring.co/18L78oE. 18G9BRl.

Social Media 100

Social Media Small Business Design Media 100

SoCal CTO

JUNE 9, 2010

But founders need to know how to ask for their advice and when to ignore it. Startup Insights From Paul English, Co-Founder of Kayak - OnStartups , May 10, 2010 I’m just wrapping up several weeks of attending conferences across both coasts. Why Entrepreneurs Hate Lawyers. was having coffee with a friend who teaches at the U.C.

Fractional CTO 248

Fractional CTO Startup Venture Capital Cofounder 248

A Crowded Space

SEPTEMBER 18, 2015

Don’t get me wrong – we love it when a company in our portfolio does exceptionally well and receives a lot of attention. Notice the distinct absence of little things like revenue, customers, engagement metrics, or gross margin. Good founders are really good at building buzz and hype.

San Diego 60

San Diego Software Review San Francisco Silicon Valley 60

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 27, 2013

But the thing I am most proud of about Rob is that he has taken a company with a uniquely talented founder & CTO – Nick Halstead – and managed to build a very tight working relationship with Nick where we drive world-class product development without having the usual founder / CEO conflicts. Further Reading.

Advisory Board 365

Advisory Board CTO Hire Fractional CTO Los Angeles 365

View from Seed

NOVEMBER 18, 2014

Recently, we looked at our own portfolio at NextView Ventures to dig a little deeper on how startups actually raise that next round of financing. Of the NextView-backed founders have have tried to raise this round, over 70% have done so (compared to a mean success rate in the industry of around 27%, according to some sources ).

Syndicate 333

Syndicate Syndication Seed Stage Startup 333

David Teten

JANUARY 9, 2018

Some VCs have identified a number of new advantages that distinguish them in the marketplace: – Portfolio acceleration. I saw “ portfolio operations ,” i.e., levers to enhance the operations efficacy of portfolio companies, become a standard part of the private equity toolkit. – Portfolio company diversity.

Venture Capital 60

Venture Capital Private Equity Silicon Valley Differentiation 60

David Teten

JANUARY 9, 2018

Some VCs have identified a number of new advantages that distinguish them in the marketplace: – Portfolio acceleration. I saw “ portfolio operations ,” i.e., levers to enhance the operations efficacy of portfolio companies, become a standard part of the private equity toolkit. – Portfolio company diversity.

Venture Capital 60

Venture Capital Private Equity Silicon Valley Differentiation 60

www.forentrepreneurs.com

FEBRUARY 2, 2010

Blog About Log in Register Designing startup metrics to drive successful behavior Great companies are almost always run by great management teams. Good metrics should also be actionable, and drive successful behavior. In a follow up post, I will use this technique to walk through the design of a set of metrics for a SaaS company.

Metrics 55

Metrics Design Entrepreneur Startup 55

David Teten

SEPTEMBER 23, 2017

An investor had few hard metrics other than the actual financials, and little technology to make the process scaleable. Over the past few decades, better metrics became available, and investors could take a more analytical, data-driven approach. ” Historically, investing was a manual, artisan process. 9% (1 / 12). Pitchbot.vc

Private Equity 60

Private Equity Venture Capital Equity Technical Review 60

Version One Ventures

SEPTEMBER 20, 2018

One of the most important decisions for a founder of an early stage company is deciding who should be on the cap table. Lately, we have seen more founders grappling with the question of whether to include a Series A investor in their seed round.

Cap Table 351

Cap Table Due Diligence Early Stage Portfolio 351

Steve Blank

JANUARY 22, 2014

With a portfolio of at least 20 investments, or you are at risk of the adverse selection problem.) This learning and the measurements and metrics that surround it is what evidence based entrepreneurship is all about and what makes it a powerful tool for entrepreneurs, investors and accelerators. Lessons Learned. Build $10-30M funds.

Early Stage 286

Early Stage Silicon Valley Oregon Technical Review 286

ReadWriteStart

JULY 18, 2011

Years later Clavier's name now comes up all the time when one of his portfolio companies finds success; his exits include Mint, Tapulous, and UserPlane, other investments include Mashery (a ReadWriteWeb sponsor), Rapleaf, Fitbit, bitly, GroupOn, Twitter and many more. Are all co-founders equal, Clavier asked?

Investment Bankers 153

Investment Bankers Technical Review Cofounder Due Diligence 153

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 16, 2009

What metrics do we use to see if we learned enough in Customer Discovery ? I gave my boilerplate answer, “I’m a product guy and I tend to invest and look at deals that have measurable revenue metrics. Dave McClure has some great metrics…” It was an honest but vaguely unsatisfying answer. It’s an impressive portfolio.

Customer Development 219

Customer Development Web Developer Customer 219

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 28, 2010

kaChing launched a virtual portfolio management game on Facebook in January 2008 and a similar version shortly thereafter on kaChing.com. Because kaChing prefers its portfolio managers to have a long track record, the marketplace launch (i.e., A portfolio manager’s entire track record & holdings had to be disclosed.

San Francisco 158

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment SEC 158

Version One Ventures

JULY 23, 2013

There’s no shortage of advice out there for startup founders. But since entrepreneurs are usually the best qualified to give fellow entrepreneurs advice on how to deal with the challenges of the job, I’ve asked several portfolio founders to share the invaluable lessons learned from their own journeys. On metrics. “I

Founder 126

Founder Metrics Hiring Early Stage 126

View from Seed

JUNE 5, 2018

Last week, we hosted our very first portfolio-only Hiring Bootcamp in NYC, led by NextView’s talent advisor Kristen Caldwell. Intense discussion on what are the right metrics to track around recruiting. Metrics, metrics, and metrics! Without metrics you cannot manage (and improve).

Hiring 120

Hiring Portfolio Metrics B2C 120

View from Seed

MAY 31, 2019

Our investment team here frequently actively discusses what qualities make a founder a top.01% Another positive attribute of some founders which we’ve been discussing more recently is one’s ability to “defy gravity.” Gravity is a just given fact of our reality.

Valuation 149

Valuation Portfolio Metrics Founder 149

This is going to be BIG.

JULY 25, 2022

First off, many founders don't really feel the need to have external accountability. Not only that, founders get a lot of warnings from other founders about “losing control” and to be careful about ceding too much power to investors. Metrics around these efforts. How many is too many, for example?

Equity 118

Equity Metrics Widget Bandwidth 118

Cracking the Code

MARCH 24, 2015

We were fortunate to host very talented speakers from our portfolio (Ilya Sukhar from FB/Parse, Steve Marx from Dropbox, Bill Ready from Braintree, Ali Rayl from Slack, Eric Wittman from Atlassian, Sam Mac Donnell from HotelTonight.)

API 48

API Fractional CTO CTO Hire San Francisco 48

View from Seed

FEBRUARY 27, 2019

Recently, I’ve been working with a few of our portfolio companies to help them think about how to recruit and interview their first analytics hire. Many founders confuse the two as they both involve lots of numbers. Finance is about reporting on historical performance and future planning through the lens of financial metrics.

Analytics 149

Analytics Hiring SQL Forecast 149

Haystack

JULY 4, 2019

Would I hope all founders updated their investors, even if briefly? If a founder I’ve backed simply sends 5-7 bullet points per month with some key stats, metrics, and requests for specific connections and help, then over time I follow their “story” and it becomes a part of my daily vocabulary. Yes, of course.

Early Stage 167

Early Stage Deal Flow Finance Metrics 167

Mucker Lab

OCTOBER 12, 2016

Following the inevitable ups and downs of the VC investment cycle, and what founders can do when it all turns cold. As a result, any public market downturn will immediately impact unrealized returns of the fund they are managing due to the late and growth stage companies in their portfolio.

Harvest 60

Harvest Vertical IPO Early Stage 60

View from Seed

OCTOBER 28, 2019

But this financing contour description is just a proxy for underlying business metrics. So even if the earliest of concept stage investment is a rarity addition to its portfolio, venture firms cite a lone example as illustrative of their broad openness to companies and founders of all types. A Symptom, Not A Cause.

Seed Stage 247

Seed Stage Finance Dilution Early Stage 247

Steve Blank

JUNE 26, 2015

To help Horizon 2 and 3 organizations navigate all the processes, procedures and metrics the company has built to support Horizon 1 activities, individuals from support organizations (legal, finance, procurement, etc.) Get to Yes. Horizon 2 and 3 activities are not entirely separated from the corporate structure. Do it Again!?

Lean 120

Lean Management Business Model Incubator 120

Austin Startup

FEBRUARY 1, 2018

Creating and showing constant momentum through personal portfolio projects and volunteering is a powerful means of landing a new job as a product manager, especially if one has never officially held the professional title “Product Manager.” Creativity is also a must for product managers. from administration to politik?

Management 85

Management Product Technical Review Software Review 85

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 11, 2019

One of our portfolio investments, a B2B SaaS company, was a pre-product startup at the time of the seed round. Fast forward to today and this is now an 8-figure ARR company, and the founder was successful with his seed round pitches in part by showing a product prototype and early progress on the customer development front.

Seed Stage 149

Seed Stage B2B Seed Capital Revenue 149

crowdSPRING Blog

NOVEMBER 1, 2013

Good whitepaper on advertising measurement metrics | by Ben Kunz – crowdspring.co/HsVIMR. Good whitepaper on advertising measurement metrics | by Ben Kunz – crowdspring.co/HsVIMR. The Unexpected Compensation Trends of Post-Series A Startup Founder/CEOs – crowdspring.co/1iu3ukT. Ever – crowdspring.co/1bjsecN.

Social Media 94

Social Media Small Business Design Media 94