Version One Ventures

JULY 20, 2015

I often get asked about how to determine the valuation for a marketplace startup that is starting to scale. Our assumptions for this valuation: Scale: > $1b GMV. Etsy had a market cap of about $2.22B as of July 20, with a revenue multiple of 8.2 These are for marketplaces that are growing fast and are category leaders.

Valuation 60

Valuation Early Stage IPO eCommerce 60

Version One Ventures

OCTOBER 7, 2014

At first glance, Hubspot and Moz are very similar companies: both are popular marketing platforms, use web-based subscription models, and primarily target the SMB market (although larger brands use both). Likely, Hubspot’s founders and investors pushed for market growth and dominance regardless of cost.

Initial Public Offering 148

Initial Public Offering IPO SEC Valuation 148

Steve Blank

JUNE 15, 2011

A tech bubble is the rapid inflation in the valuation of public and private technology companies that exceeds their fundamental value by a large margin. Today, the signs of the new bubble are the Linked-In initial public offering (IPO), Facebook’s stratospheric valuation and the rapid rise of early-stage startup valuation.

Silicon Valley 330

Silicon Valley Stealth Valuation Mississippi 330

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 4, 2014

For example, if you have a proven product, real revenue, a big potential market, and are ready to scale up the business, every investor will be interested. Investors call this the seed stage , where money is required to build a market and a real product. The final product works great, and all the early users love it.”

Angel Investor 232

Angel Investor Intellectual Property Investment Bankers Private Equity 232

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 26, 2018

Despite the fact that the number of IPOs (Initial Public Offerings) for startups have continued to stay low, I still hear it touted often as the preferred exit strategy. The market for recent IPOs also remains extremely volatile, and as a result many of them are currently trading below their opening price.

Exit Strategy 128

Exit Strategy IPO Initial Public Offering SEC 128

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 3, 2015

The visibility of Google, Facebook and a few others continues to propagate the myth that the ultimate objective of every entrepreneur should be to take their startups public via an initial public offering at the earliest opportunity. Even perceived weaknesses can dramatically impact company valuations.

IPO 120

IPO Initial Public Offering Entrepreneur Private Equity 120

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 13, 2016

For example, if you have a proven product, real revenue, a big potential market, and are ready to scale up the business, every investor will be interested. Investors call this the seed stage , where money is required to build a market and a real product. The final product works great, and all the early users love it.”

Matching 120

Matching Angel Investor Intellectual Property Investment Bankers 120

Version One Ventures

OCTOBER 7, 2014

At first glance, Hubspot and Moz are very similar companies: both are popular marketing platforms, use web-based subscription models, and primarily target the SMB market (although larger brands use both). Likely, Hubspot’s founders and investors pushed for market growth and dominance regardless of cost.

Initial Public Offering 77

Initial Public Offering IPO SEC Valuation 77

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 20, 2019

There is additional encouraging news for aspiring entrepreneurs on many fronts, just in case you are thinking about joining the existing ranks: Valuations of successful startups have hit an all-time high. Initial Public Offerings (IPO) are back as an exit strategy. The median deal size is back over $100 million.

North America 320

North America Incubator Initial Public Offering Exit Strategy 320

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 7, 2016

Despite the fact that the number of IPOs (Initial Public Offerings) for startups have continued to decrease, I still hear it touted often as the preferred exit strategy. Concerns over valuations being reset to a new normal, and a soft exit market, are seen as key drivers. Analysts want escalating profits.

IPO 120

IPO Initial Public Offering SEC Stock Options 120

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 5, 2012

For instance, if your company is only a few weeks old and you have zero customers and your product offering is still in design, don’t expect someone to hand over $10 million to fund your efforts. Companies at this stage must have a large market, good traction, and be focused on scaling infrastructure and market adoption.

Investment Bankers 241

Investment Bankers Venture Capital Startup Initial Public Offering 241

Steve Blank

MARCH 18, 2011

The signals are loud and clear : seed and late stage valuations are getting frothy and wacky, and hiring talent in Silicon Valley is the toughest it has been since the dot.com bubble. They taught you about customers, markets and profits. The reward for doing so was a liquidity event via an Initial Public Offering.

Internet 334

Internet IPO Silicon Valley Agile 334

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 7, 2015

Entrepreneurs often ask me why investors expect financial projections for a new startup even before the product is built and while the market is still being defined. Five-year revenues, based on your volumes and prices, should penetrate at least 10 percent of the target market segment. You shouldn’t invest in an undefined business.

Liquidity Event 120

Liquidity Event Startup Initial Public Offering Equity 120

Version One Ventures

JUNE 29, 2017

What I missed in most of this commentary was the fact that Matt Salzberg and his team had created a company with over $800m in revenues and a $2b valuation in a short 5 (!) This is an incredible entrepreneurial achievement that very, very few founders ever get to.

IPO 141

IPO Stock Valuation Business Model 141

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 13, 2010

For instance, if your company is only a few weeks old and you have zero customers and your product offering is still in design, don’t expect someone to hand over $10 million to fund your efforts. Companies at this stage must have a large market, good traction, and be focused on scaling infrastructure and market adoption.

Investment Bankers 231

Investment Bankers Venture Capital Startup Initial Public Offering 231

Gust

NOVEMBER 22, 2011

For instance, if your company is only a few weeks old and you have zero customers and your product offering is still in design, don’t expect someone to hand over $10 million to fund your efforts. Companies at this stage must have a large market, good traction, and be focused on scaling infrastructure and market adoption.

Venture Capital 171

Venture Capital Investment Bankers Angel Investor Initial Public Offering 171

YoungUpstarts

MARCH 14, 2012

The more market-savvy professionals already know some of these standard shortened phrases, and business glossaries abound. But if the initial jargon has got you down, just KISS (keep it simple, stupid), and check out these nine business acronyms that you need to know. And the language of business can be hard to understand.

Non-disclosure Agreement 202

Non-disclosure Agreement NDA IPO Covenant 202

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 21, 2018

There is additional encouraging news for aspiring entrepreneurs on many fronts, just in case you are thinking about joining the existing ranks: Valuations of successful startups have hit an all-time high. Initial Public Offerings (IPO) are back as an exit strategy. The average amount raised also increased to $175 million.

Entrepreneur 166

Entrepreneur Valuation Incubator Initial Public Offering 166

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 24, 2017

Uber , Zenefits , Tanium , Lending Club CEOs of companies with billion dollar market caps have been in the news – and not in a good way. 20th Century Tech Liquidity = Initial Public Offering. In the 20th century tech companies and their investors made money through an Initial Public Offering (IPO).

Founder 263

Founder Technical Review CTO Hire IPO 263

Growthink Blog

APRIL 2, 2014

Don’t you just love these booming markets? Well, if you don’t, try on these IPO, M&A, and financing stats from 1st Quarter 2014: Initial Public Offerings: 72 companies went public in the U.S. in the 1st quarter - the largest number of new issuers since 2000 -raising a total of 11.1

Private Equity 69

Private Equity Merger IPO Initial Public Offering 69

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 2, 2018

Tiny markets may excite your passion but won’t sustain a business or leave you with a long-term positive legacy. Investors look for a team with business, financial, marketing, and operational skills, as well as a social passion. Includes balanced and hard-hitting marketing and sales.

Intellectual Property 48

Intellectual Property Initial Public Offering Merger Acquisition 48

YoungUpstarts

NOVEMBER 13, 2012

by Christopher Wallace, Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Amsterdam Printing. For years, the most desirable exit strategy for startup companies was to go public through an initial public offering. A volatile stock market and economic recession have since changed much of this thinking. Unprofitable.

IPO 162

IPO Exit Strategy San Francisco Startup 162

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 26, 2013

There is additional encouraging news for aspiring entrepreneurs on many fronts, just in case you are thinking about joining the existing ranks: Valuations of successful startups have hit an all-time high. Initial Public Offerings (IPO) are back as an exit strategy. A year from now that’s projected to go as high as 100.

IPO 273

IPO Entrepreneur Social Media Startup 273

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 19, 2015

There is additional encouraging news for aspiring entrepreneurs on many fronts, just in case you are thinking about joining the existing ranks: Valuations of successful startups have hit an all-time high. Initial Public Offerings (IPO) are back as an exit strategy. Social media is a boon for entrepreneurs and startups.

IPO 120

IPO Angel Investor Startup Incubator 120

VC Cafe

JANUARY 15, 2024

A billion dollar valuation, the Unicorn status was once the holy grail for many VCs and founders. At zero interest rates with a seemingly never ending flow of capital to fuel growth, Unicorn creation rate hit a peak in 2021, but fast forward 3 years and justifying a billion dollar valuation seems more like a liability.

IPO 88

IPO Valuation Private Equity 88

Pascal's View

AUGUST 22, 2009

On Monday, August 10, Barron’s ran a story “Does the IPO Market Shun Smaller Companies?”, The collateral effect of this market reality is that the vast majority of emerging VC-backed companies are effectively barred from going public. jobs today. Mergers trigger job losses; IPO’s create jobs.

IPO 40

IPO Merger Institutional Investors Venture Capital 40

Austin Startup

FEBRUARY 12, 2019

Just this week, entrepreneur and investor Tim O’Reilly wrote a powerful piece in which he challenged Hoffman’s blitzscaling strategy, which often encourages companies to grow as fast as possible by raising venture capital to dominate new markets, a strategy leveraged by Uber among other unicorns (i.e. Certainly.

Silicon Valley 48

Silicon Valley Technical Review Venture Capital San Francisco 48

This is going to be BIG.

NOVEMBER 19, 2015

"Square, the payment technology company founded and led by Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, this evening raised $243 million by pricing its initial public offering at $9 per share, which would imply an market value of around $2.9 What's worse is that this end of the market is even affecting early stage VC mindset.

San Francisco 60

San Francisco Initial Public Offering Valuation IPO 60

VC Cafe

JANUARY 20, 2014

New data from research firm Pitchbook makes it official: valuations are at an all-time high. The bull market will celebrate its 5 th anniversary in March (NASDAQ grew 38.3% last year, more than any other major index), and the IPO market is booming. The bull market will celebrate its 5 th anniversary in March (NASDAQ grew 38.3%

Venture Capital 155

Venture Capital Pre-Money Valuation IPO 155

Pascal's View

MARCH 9, 2010

Putting that point aside, for a moment, what is absent is a quoted liquid market in their equity and debt securities, which means that the determination of the book value of those private companies is necessarily subjective.

Government 31

Government Private Equity Institutional Investors Venture Capital 31

ReadWriteStart

FEBRUARY 13, 2020

For most startups, it’s no secret that a significant part of their long-term plans is to go public and become the next market darling for investors. You also have to discount the performance of companies like Facebook and Google, who were performance outliers even at the time they made their market debuts.

IPO 147

IPO Startup Stock Initial Public Offering 147