Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 14, 2017

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. An example of the systems companies build are pricing & revenue management tools to best help to optimize yield.

Operations 286

Operations New York City Technical Review Startup 286

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 27, 2013

In his tenure as CEO of DataSift we have never missed a monthly revenue figure. He has grown our US operations from 1 employee (him) to a global organization of 75 employees that will finish the year with 8-digit revenues (90+% recurring) and more than 350% year-over-year growth. Wallflower – yours truly.

Advisory Board 365

Advisory Board CTO Hire Fractional CTO Los Angeles 365

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 28, 2018

My friend Michael Broukhim, founder & co-CEO of FabFitFun and I recently had a catch-up meeting for 3-miles on the Santa Monica “Bird Trail” No company has ever elicited so many questions by friends, colleagues, entrepreneurs, fellow VCs and journalists as has Bird, the company that pioneered the electronic scooter as a service market.

San Francisco 256

San Francisco Valuation Technical Review Los Angeles 256

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 28, 2018

There’s a quick litmus-test conversation any early-stage VC will have with the founder and it’s one that you should be as prepared for as your elevator pitch. Founder: “$8–10 million” VC: “What’s your current burn rate?” Founder: “$250k / month.” Founder: “Um. Why are you raising so much?” Let me check my plan.”

Burn Rate 247

Burn Rate Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Dilution 247

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2014

by Michael Woolf that is worth any startup founder reading to get a sense of perspective on the reality warp that is startup world during a frothy market such as 1997-1999, 2005-2007 or 2012-2014. So if your costs are $500,000 per month and you have $350,000 per month in revenue then your net burn (500-350) is equal to $150,000.

Burn Rate 383

Burn Rate Balance Sheet .Net Valuation 383

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 16, 2014

But if you level up , raise capital and grow customers, revenue and staff – life changes. I often worry about founders who have a deep-seated need to be loved because it can lead to bad decisions. In the early days the CEO is the jack-of-all-trades, doer-of-all, famously the “chief janitor” or coffee maker.

CTO Hire 385

CTO Hire Entrepreneur Technical Review Leadership 385

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 27, 2011

You have to understand whether they’re likely to yield revenue growth in the near term OR whether you have access to cheap enough capital to fund your losses until your investments pay off. They have have raised $2-3 million, built a product that has some amount of market traction and got to annualized revenues of around $1 million.

Startup 418

Startup Revenue Technical Review Flash 418

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 12, 2018

Founder, Founder, Founder At Upfront we talk regularly about how 70% of our investment decision in Seed and A rounds is the quality of the entrepreneur and 30% is the quality of the idea. Having recurring revenue allows you to keep the original purchase price down, which in turn increases sales. Here are my views … 1.

Security 247

Security Los Angeles Silicon Valley Video 247

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 19, 2013

My internal compass has always steered me strongly toward the belief that founders who can scale with their startup companies are better to back that founders who eventually need to hire a CEO. Very few founder CEOs go into the job ever expecting to give up their seat. We set out to find Jonathan’s “co-founder.”

Technical Review 303

Technical Review Cofounder Analytics Founder 303

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 7, 2013

My estimate is that the top 5 YouTube networks will do > $200 million net revenue in 2013 (after Google’s share). The founders had been responsible for gaining staggering scale in the past 3 years, having been trail-blazers in building a network of talent and an unrivaled understanding of the YouTube ecosystem.

Video 320

Video Los Angeles Technical Cofounder CTO Hire 320

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. In revenue terms our first two years of sales were $2.1 Growth, again. It’s not merely that you need a scalable idea to grow.

Silicon Valley 390

Silicon Valley Venture Capital Startup Technical Review 390

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 4, 2013

He published another MUST READ post about being careful not to confuse early revenue traction with product / market fit. One of the things I have observed over the years is that a hard charging sales oriented founder/CEO can often hide the defects in a product. The money quote.

Technical Review 401

Technical Review Startup Business Model Non-Compete 401

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

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 19, 2014

I first met Andrew Stalbow , the founder & CEO of Seriously in August of 2013. and Petri was co-founder and head of creative at Remedy Entertainment that launched the hit PC games Max Payne and Alan Wake. Again, I think the company would slug me if released revenue data, but … wow. Domain Knowledge.

Technical Review 373

Technical Review North America Los Angeles Cofounder 373

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 11, 2016

We then help surround founders with other talent who want to join important causes but don’t have the startup idea themselves. It has grown recurring revenue by more than 500% and deal-size by 276%. It’s the founders who are willing to let you join their boards. It’s the people who want to work with you.

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital Fractional CTO Cofounder Early Stage 150

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

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 17, 2011

. “We’re all equal co-founders and we don’t care about titles.&# I usually encourage people to think about titles like, “Founder & CTO&# or “Founder & VP Marketing.&#. I usually encourage people to think about titles like, “Founder & CTO&# or “Founder & VP Marketing.&#.

Operations 292

Operations CTO Hire Startup Early Stage 292

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 19, 2010

Founded in November 2007 in New York City by Alexis Maybank and Kevin Ryan (co-founder of DoubleClick); CEO is Susan Lyne (ex-CEO Marta Stewart Living Omnimedia) Revenue estimates: $50mm in 2008; $170mm in 2009 (versus budget of $150mm); $450mm forecasted for 2010. Note that these are “gross” revenue numbers. Employees: 20.

Partner 240

Partner New York City Cofounder Syndicate 240

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 20, 2010

This post is designed mostly for non-technical founders. But for non-technical founders let me offer you a definition that you can use when you build a team. Still, I believe I’m offering an accurate representation of the ideal configuration of the main technology leaders. In summary.

Fractional CTO 400

Fractional CTO CTO Hire Fractional VPE Part-Time VPE 400

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 6, 2014

When you first start your company and raise initial venture capital your board probably consists of 1-3 founders and 1-2 VCs. Most experienced VCs won’t push you to give up founder control at this stage of the business nor should they. Founder’s perspective. You’ll get empathy. Experience. Relationships.

Technical Review 325

Technical Review Early Stage Software Review Los Angeles 325

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 13, 2011

You have two founders and it was agreed that one would get the CEO role so the other needs to call themselves president or COO. You can always spot these types because they can’t tell you what their revenue number for last month was or what their sales target is for next month. But ask yourself, what does a COO actually do?

Technical Review 325

Technical Review Startup Cofounder Due Diligence 325

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 7, 2011

Blogs weren’t popularized yet so it was an oddity for me to read the founder of a software company spewing out advice. Joel met his co-founder for Fog Creek software and learned a valuable management lesson. He is responsible for bringing in revenue from advertising and their careers offering. What did you learn at Juno?

Software Review 285

Software Review Software St. Louis API 285

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 17, 2011

We know that if you start with ho-hum founders you’re less likely to assemble a world-class team. Importantly, you also find people who are too quick to undermine the authority of the founders. I might be grooming them for when I have more money or more revenue. Is this a universal truism? Of course not. Don’t sacrifice.

Hiring 399

Hiring Startup Global Revenue 399

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 19, 2011

The reason that incumbents can’t react is that their revenue and defensibility are continued by serving the high-end of the market for which it would take too much time & money for any competitors to effectively challenge. It’s the most profound book I’ve read on thinking about how the Internet is changing business.

Los Angeles 329

Los Angeles Revenue Retention Acquisition 329

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 24, 2021

The culture is driven by the 20-something irreverent founder with huge technical chops who in a “David vs. Goliath” mythology take on the titans of industry and wins. But markets have changed and I think investors, founders and experienced executives who want to join later-stage startups can all benefit from playing the long game.

Venture Capital 363

Venture Capital LP Valuation Later Stage 363

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 7, 2016

The founders and team develop a huge confidence level that appropriately increases risk-taking, output, expansion, deals, revenue, press and everything that is a consequence of initial successes. Or some teams who start driving revenue paper over the fact that they aren’t acquiring customers profitably.

Churn Rate 150

Churn Rate Vesting Dilution Europe 150

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 18, 2015

The other day I was with the founders of Vidme – Warren Shaeffer and Alex Benzer – who are two of my most favorite founders to work with almost precisely because their behavior is antithetical to the frenzied market behavior. They’re doing how much in SaaS revenue? You own how much?”

Software Review 150

Software Review Turkey Portfolio Syndicate 150

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 25, 2016

It turns out that to build a successful company you ultimately need this strange thing called “revenue” that people don’t just hand you: You need to earn it. And there’s this other thing called “gross margin,” which shows the quality of your revenue. How much ad revenue does TripAdvisor make?

Startup 150

Startup Seed Money DC Software Review 150

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 3, 2014

Specifically what is often not in the DNA of founders are sales skills. Founders think in options. That’s the most important thing in your business to get revenues up. Most technology startups seem to be funded by product people or business people. Nor do they exist in the investors of early-stage companies. Here are mine.

Sales 382

Sales Startup Technical Review Matching 382

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 5, 2011

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. million post-money valuation with no revenue. I thought I’d post on one of the topics before hand. I raised my A round at a $31.5

Pre-Money Valuation 336

Pre-Money Valuation Valuation Silicon Valley Stock 336

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 6, 2020

The US government believes that keeping more workers employed, even if they’re not immediately productive due to WFH (work from home) or loss of revenue is better than all of these employees being laid off, where they will likely seek relief via unemployment insurance claims. The goal of the program is in the name?—?payroll

Programming 279

Programming Affiliate SBA Government 279

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 13, 2011

Revolution is a “stage agnostic&# fund (means they invest early or late) funded entirely by Steve Case , the founder of AOL and co-founded by two other individuals, Tige Savage (yes, pronounced like the golfer, minus the “r&# ) and Donn Davis. So it was wonderful to hear from a leading venture capital firm based in Washington DC.

Cofounder 277

Cofounder Merger Founder Venture Capital 277

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 17, 2019

It proved to be fortuitous because it allowed me the time & space I needed to get to know tons of founders and VCs and to hone my craft. I mentioned that we sold our position in Kyriba for > $1 billion but when we invested it had virtually no revenue. Over the past 2.5

IP 223

IP Intellectual Property IRR Cofounder 223

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 26, 2010

I wrote a blog post about being hands on where I argued that startup founders need to be hands-on or in my words, “you can’t run a burger chain if you’ve never flipped burgers.&#. It’s different when you’re co-founders and one person gets the title COO. But even then I think it’s funny.

Entrepreneur 286

Entrepreneur CTO Hire Cofounder Early Stage 286

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 5, 2011

I gave him the same advice I give nearly all over-worked, control-freak, do-everything-yourself startup founders: “Your number one priority isn’t any of these things. There’s you and your killer CTO co-founder. It’s a very cool vibe at Founder’s Coop. Passionate Entrepreneurs & Ambassadors.

Seattle 317

Seattle Silicon Valley Technical Review Los Angeles 317

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 8, 2016

If you raised money in the past 2 years and have grown it is possible that your next round valuation might be flat (or lower) even though you have a higher revenue because investors may value your multiple differently. Founders hate them because they’re dilutive. So here’s my take away.

Burn Rate 150

Burn Rate Cap Table Balance Sheet Dilution 150

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 22, 2011

It’s also true that I’m mostly founder driven, where the founding team & my personal relationship with them leads to a strong mutual working relationship. Craigslist is kind of an anomaly in that it’s founder seems to run it in a non-traditional style and with some objectives other than the pure profit motive.

Non-Compete 386

Non-Compete Startup Internet Cost 386