Both Sides of the Table

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What Does the Post Crash VC Market Look Like?

Both Sides of the Table

We drew this conclusion after a meeting we had with Morgan Stanley where they showed us historical 15 & 20 year valuation trends and we all discussed what we thought this meant. But rest assured valuations get reset. When you look at how much median valuations were driven up in the past 5 years alone it’s bananas.

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What is the Right Burn Rate at a Startup Company?

Both Sides of the Table

So money spent should add equity value or create IP that eventually will. Valuation. I wanted to call out special attention to valuation in this debate. So a large part of your personal assessment on how much you can afford to burn also has to be your current valuation.

Burn Rate 383
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How to Make Sure Professional Services Don’t Take Over Your Software Company

Both Sides of the Table

Importantly, make sure that you retain IP rights to your custom work which needs to be part of the engagement contract. At a minimum co-ownership of the IP. If not specified in contract you might find yourself with future litigation over IP. Integrate PS Work Into Sales & Marketing Processes.

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Revisiting Paul Graham’s “High Resolution” Financing

Both Sides of the Table

Either would be fine with startups, so long as they can easily change their valuation. When I was raising money in late 1999 I had an investment team in Germany (I was in the UK) suggest that they should get a lower valuation than others because they were ex McKinsey guys and had better access to industry. I agree on all points.

Finance 286
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Bad Notes on Venture Capital

Both Sides of the Table

Me: There is no rational explanation for valuations of A round companies by ANY objective financial measure. If you’re wildly successful early on or if they help you achieve a great valuation they actually pay a significant price for their eventual stock even though they took much more risk than a future investor and backed you early.

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What is it Like to Negotiate a VC Round?

Both Sides of the Table

In the old days VCs funded off of a “pre-money” valuation. If you add the pre-money valuation (let’s say $8 million) to the amount of money you’re raising (let’s say $2 million) you get the post-money valuation. I can boil it down to how this tension plays out. Those are the big three.

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What Should You Do with Your Crappy Little Services Business?

Both Sides of the Table

You own the IP you create. If you build a true “technology services for services sake&# business at some point you’ll likely build technology products as part of your projects where you either own the IP or you own in jointly with your customer or business partner. In a down market IP can become a huge differentiator.