Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 26, 2016

In SaaS (or any recurring revenue business) this is also a very difficult task. One big, beginners mistake people make in LTV is to measure revenue. If your economic case is built on increasing LTV over time or on retaining recurring revenue streams please remember to layer on “re-marketing or retention” costs into your equation.

Metrics 150

Metrics Cost Acquisition Startup 150

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 8, 2009

Your friends and advisers tell you that this means you need revenue because in this economy VC’s will only fund businesses with revenue. So if it’s not necessarily revenue that’s preventing an investment, then WTF is traction? They hire key staff. Unfortunately your advisers are wrong.

Technical Review 309

Technical Review Term Sheet Venture Capital Revenue 309

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 3, 2014

” So I did want any rational person who wants to improve does – I hired a coach. They are the lifeblood of many companies yet they are different than the traditional technology startup DNA so the ways that you hire, motivate, compensate and assess performance of these individuals will be different. The more, the better.

Sales 382

Sales Startup Technical Review Matching 382

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 14, 2010

You can often measure how many deals were achieved but there often doesn’t flow a steady stream of revenues / profits from these deals. When you hire people in functional roles they want to show that they’re achieving results and results are easiest to measure by tasks accomplished. Let me give you an example.

Development Team Review 323

Development Team Review SEM Channel Social Media 323

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. You can simply hire a COO to do these things while retaining the CEO title but focusing mostly on product. ” So true.

Technical Review 303

Technical Review Cofounder Analytics Founder 303

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 22, 2012

In revenue terms our first two years of sales were $2.1 We sold the company when we hit $36 million in bookings and $16 million in SaaS GAAP revenue. And it launched this author’s career and taught me everything I know about sales, marketing, hiring, firing, fund raising and so on. million and then $5.9 Not Google.

Silicon Valley 390

Silicon Valley Venture Capital Startup Technical Review 390

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 22, 2010

I never hire job hoppers. You have tough choices to make about whom you hire on your team. Your revenues are “just around the corner.&# Your angel investors are nervous because the VCs aren’t moving that fast to fund your next round. If you want to hire them as contractors fine. Everyone loves you.

Hiring 392

Hiring Employee Vesting Silicon Valley 392

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 6, 2016

You also ran the risk that if you hired employees quickly and then demand wasn’t as strong as expected it was incredibility hard to fire people. In France in some ways it was worse because if you failed as a startup founder you shouldered personal liabilities that don’t exist in the US under our bankruptcy laws.

South Korea 261

South Korea Silicon Valley Los Angeles Japan 261

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 4, 2011

Revenue Metrics. Revenue metrics are one of the first things I ask for from the startups in which I invest. I like to think of revenue drivers. And they are revenue drivers in that simplistically impressions x fill rate x eCPM equals revenue. 10% of our revenue is coming from direct sales of our banner inventory.

Metrics 346

Metrics Startup Acquisition SEM 346

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 7, 2013

Our industry just took one big step towards legitimacy with the hiring of renowned media exec Ynon Kreiz to run Maker Studios. My estimate is that the top 5 YouTube networks will do > $200 million net revenue in 2013 (after Google’s share). Another major hire was Ryan Lissack who joined as CTO.

Video 320

Video Los Angeles Technical Cofounder CTO Hire 320

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

OCTOBER 15, 2014

Much has been written about when it is time to hire a “professional CEO” to run a startup company and of course that has long been a norm in Silicon Valley when founders find that their inexperience may be a limiting factor in company growth ( know as the Peter Principle ).

Founder 309

Founder CTO Hire Silicon Valley Leadership 309

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

JANUARY 11, 2014

So rather than hiring a VP Marketing [to establish a strategic marketing plan, build and manage the marketing team, manage outside vendors, etc.] I recommend hiring or appointing a growth hacker.” If you can’t do this, nothing else really matters.

Technical Review 384

Technical Review Hockey Stick SEM Channel 384

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 20, 2010

You still have some leeway to hire above them if need be. My company never became Google but at $14 million in recurring revenue and $36 million in backlog revenue we certainly had enough big clients to necessitate a very solid program management function. The best CTO’s / Chief Architects are purists. In summary.

Fractional CTO 400

Fractional CTO CTO Hire Fractional VPE Part-Time VPE 400

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 17, 2017

If you hire 6 senior sales reps in January at $120,000 / year salary then you’ve taken on an extra $60,000 per month in costs yet these sales people might not close new business 6 months. If you don’t have a strong balance sheet and can’t hire more people that’s fine — but understand this may lead to slower growth.

Stock Options 227

Stock Options Startup Dilution Venture Capital 227

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 17, 2011

One great solution I see is to hire an outstanding CFO who runs both. I know it’s much sexier to race around talking about buying up companies than it is tweaking your business operations to accelerate revenue, reduce churn and grow faster. But they aren’t the COO. But it will not help your business grow faster.

Operations 292

Operations CTO Hire Startup Early Stage 292

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 10, 2011

Or maybe they need to hire somebody with more gravitas / experience. Each customer segment of your business needs to be analyzed to determine whether they are profitable enough given ongoing costs to serve them relative to the revenue you would receive and the retention money you’d have to money to keep them with your service.

Customer 287

Customer Technical Review Caching PR 287

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 5, 2011

So I did want any rational person who wants to improve does – I hired a coach. They are the lifeblood of many companies yet they are different than the traditional technology startup DNA so the ways that you hire, motivate, compensate and assess performance of these individuals will be different. Cash, cash, cash.

Sales 316

Sales Technical Review Matching Hiring 316

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 18, 2015

Hire fewer employees until you’re bursting at the seems with work for the ones you have. Success often comes from doing a few things extraordinarily well and noticeably better than the competition and is measured in customer feedback, product engagement, growth in usage and ultimately in revenue growth. You own how much?”

Software Review 150

Software Review Turkey Portfolio Syndicate 150

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 16, 2009

They had wasted a lot of money because they had raised a lot of money and therefore hired a large staff. I walked through my logic, “well, if a customer installs your tool on his website he’s going to have to hire an entire staff to manage the project. A new and experiened CEO was brought in and cleared house.

Entrepreneur 306

Entrepreneur Burn Rate Cofounder Sales 306

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 27, 2013

When you have millions or billions of dollars of revenue you can suffer a few bad performers or bad apples. I’ve spoken about this before and my mantra, “ Hire Fast, Fire Fast.” Most (whether they hire quickly or slowly) are very slow to deal with problems once they have them. We called it “PURE.”

Hiring 338

Hiring Employee Leadership Revenue 338

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 22, 2011

Ah, but today’s Internet companies have real revenue! Huge structural under-employment in much of the country and full employment in some niche tech markets where it’s impossible to hire developers, designers or sales professionals. I said that at the Founder Showcase, too. and profits! You feel it, too. It’s surreal.

Saudi Arabia 309

Saudi Arabia Valuation IPO Technical Review 309

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 9, 2009

I hired an executive recruiter and had 7 finalist candidates that I interviewed. And in the end I hired him. But they didn’t have any revenue or enough traction to show for it. It was 2003 and I was training for a marathon so I was in great shape (yes, I know this was YEARS ago but I did complete it in 3:57).

Venture Capital 264

Venture Capital Due Diligence Flash Strategic Investors 264

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 19, 2009

But “he didn’t have the budget to hire a developer until he had raised money!&#. The company had less than $5 million in revenue yet we had a multi-tab spreadsheet doing activity-based costing on our customer service staff, operations and technology. He looked stunned. He still had no website and no prototypes.

Entrepreneur 414

Entrepreneur Fractional CTO Technical Review CTO Hire 414

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 5, 2011

million post-money valuation with no revenue. We had companies pitching us that had almost no revenue at all and they were raising $10-15 million in capital at a $40-50 million pre-money valuation. And the CEO they would hire to come in and run the business when you go would always be a mercenary. 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

SEPTEMBER 1, 2016

to “Jeez — they sure are hiring a ton of staff. to “How can we hire more staff to keep up with the services they offer?” If a company has significant revenue you might value it based on some industry multiples but WhatsApp had very limited revenue. to “holy f**k, they paid WHAT for that deal I tried to get into?”

LP 264

LP Jordan Cofounder Limited Partner 264

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 25, 2010

Winning the contract meant that we would hit our quarterly revenue figure and be in good position for our annual sales target. They hired a consultant to help them with the review. It just so happened that the consultant they hired to chose a software vendor worked for a company that had owned one of our competitors.

China 333

China Silicon Valley Software Review Technical Review 333

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 26, 2010

Hmmm, “so who runs the company on a daily basis?&# “Oh,&# he responded, “we have a COO.&# The company had sub $1 million in revenue and was burning $850k / month. When the CEO of an early-stage startup tells me that they plan to hire a COO I’m usually not interested in the next meeting.

Entrepreneur 286

Entrepreneur CTO Hire Cofounder Early Stage 286

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 25, 2010

Winning the contract meant that we would hit our quarterly revenue figure and be in good position for our annual sales target. They hired a consultant to help them with the review. It just so happened that the consultant they hired to chose a software vendor worked for a company that had owned one of our competitors.

China 328

China Silicon Valley Software Review Technical Review 328

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 13, 2013

You have been at five startups, you had an exit at your last company where you were the Chief Revenue Officer. Because I’m going to say no to you, and the guys you want to hire from Facebook are going to say no to you. Should I hire or not hire this person? We’re not hiring now.

Cofounder 337

Cofounder Technical Cofounder San Diego Startup 337

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 16, 2010

You don’t have to hire as many sales people because much can be sold online. Revenue must come from a primary source (as opposed to advertising or other third party sources). But those of you who do get funded will build stronger businesses, make better returns, hire better & more committed employees.

LP 311

LP Technical Review Early Stage Silicon Valley 311

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 10, 2014

It’s why I wrote this post that the controversial first hire after an A round out to be an office manager / assistant / HR person who handles everything from stocking supplies to booking travel to scheduling group meetings. What they do with the money is add more engineers and maybe hiring a marketing person.

Startup 381

Startup PR Finance Hiring 381

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 13, 2014

Helped merge company with Seedling – on track to do $20 million combined revenue in 2015 – will now become Chairman). People often ask me what VCs look for when we hire partners and many have asked how to become VCs themselves one day. They like to say it was an 8-year interview process). So there you have it.

Partner 408

Partner Las Vegas Los Angeles Baltimore 408

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 8, 2016

They told me that if you look at modern studios they have many diverse revenue streams: movies, TV, online media, toys, licensing, video games and so forth. They are doing tens of millions in revenue and the first product hasn’t even been live for 2 years. They hire world-class animators and sweat every detail of the drawings.

IP 150

IP Revenue Campaign Video 150

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 3, 2010

How much dilution should I take for it?&# My friend’s company was pre-revenue. But to be clear the overwhelming majority of deals involve one company driving the cultural integration, establishment of uniform processes, hiring / firing decisions, etc. It has awesome features that my main competitor doesn’t have.

Merger 276

Merger Technical Review Early Stage Dilution 276

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 9, 2012

The main points I’m going to cover today are to demystify a lot of misperceptions people have about startup exists, notably: Acqui-hires are not that frequent, are hard to come by and people make much less money than you think (investors & founders). Often they are “soft landings” for PR purposes. So, too, does PR.

Technology 323

Technology PR Startup IPO 323