View from Seed

MARCH 24, 2021

In this comprehensive template and guide we break down each of the nine core sections in the deck: intro , team , what do you do , is it working , why does it matter (market) , can you be the best in the world (product, growth, financial metrics) , where are you going , what do you want (the ask) , and appendix. ” (Lee Hower).

Seed Stage 177

Seed Stage Hiring IPO Analytics 177

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 21, 2021

Then there is the pressure to go public ( IPO ), and open your investment to thousands, maybe millions, of small investors. Switch your focus from product development to sales. Of course, customer relationships, and penetration into new market segments are also critical elements.

Merger 379

Merger Due Diligence SEC IPO 379

YoungUpstarts

JANUARY 10, 2018

by Ryan Gould, Vice President of Strategy and Marketing Services at Elevation Marketing. You’ll find exceptions to this rule, like Snapchat, which was operating at a loss at its IPO, when it experienced high initial trading prices due to its huge popularity and untapped monetization capabilities. Profile Your Customer Base.

Valuation 145

Valuation Technical Review Exit Strategy Metrics 145

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 27, 2011

I find it amusing when a journalist writes an article about a prominent startup (either privately held or preparing for an IPO) and decries that, “They’re not even profitable!” The most obvious way to explain this is with sales people. One of them is profitability. If you don’t, somebody else WILL!”

Startup 418

Startup Revenue Technical Review Flash 418

Cracking the Code

MARCH 10, 2008

Measuring sales and marketing effectiveness of SaaS companies. From our private investor experience, a breakeven in 1-2 year seems reasonable and if we look at Salesforce.com CAC ratio since its IPO, it is indeed within this 0.5-1 Labels: SaaS , sales and marketing , software. Monday, March 10, 2008. at 8:58 PM.

Sales 79

Sales Software Review Marketing Technical Review 79

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 5, 2011

2 preamble issues having read the comments on TC today: 1: I know that the prices of startup companies is much great in Silicon Valley than in smaller towns / less tech focused areas in the US and the US prices higher than many foreign markets. I can’t control the market. Private markets for stocks are the opposite.

Pre-Money Valuation 336

Pre-Money Valuation Valuation Silicon Valley Stock 336

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 23, 2012

There are obvious reasons the industry has had less-than-desirable returns, including: massive over-funding of the sector, huge increases in inexperienced venture capitalists that took a decade to peter out, and the massive correction in the value of the public stock markets that closed many exit opportunities for half a decade.

Venture Capital 347

Venture Capital Technical Review LP Mobile 347

Agile VC

NOVEMBER 9, 2015

Square filed its S-1 several weeks ago and is now in the middle of its IPO road show process. A bunch of articles came out saying that Square had “priced” their IPO below last round and this was something terrible ranging from the bursting of a tech bubble to the coming of the apocalypse.

IPO 165

IPO .Net Revenue Acquisition 165

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 3, 2021

To keep you on a positive track with potential investors, I recommend the following logic principles, to balance your passion in presenting your vision of a new business: Make sure your plan includes some business metrics. Competitors, like the market, never stand still as you disrupt their space.

Exit Strategy 406

Exit Strategy Merger Angel Investor IPO 406

NZ Entrepreneur

SEPTEMBER 29, 2021

With the pandemic, climate crisis, global economic shifts and rapidly changing consumer markets, it is clear that many businesses of today will no longer be relevant tomorrow. Addressing real world problems, they thrive in uncertainty, generating new jobs and new revenue streams in new markets. Our world is changing, and fast.

Technical Review 88

Technical Review Software Review New Zealand Due Diligence 88

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 14, 2009

To do this they have to accomplish five things; 1) get deal flow – via networking and legwork, they identify likely industries, companies and teams with the potential for rapid growth (less than 10 years), 2) evaluate those companies and teams on the basis of technology, market opportunity, and team.

Silicon Valley 217

Silicon Valley IPO Technical Review Venture Capital 217

Cracking the Code

JULY 6, 2007

SaaS business metrics: why are they different? I was surprised today when I went through the NetSuite IPO filling (S1) to see that it looked very much like any Enterprise software document - not a single mention of churn or % of recurring revenues. Different models require different performance metrics. Friday, July 06, 2007.

Software Review 66

Software Review Metrics Valuation Technical Review 66

Austin Startup

SEPTEMBER 29, 2018

I thought the total available market (TAM) was too small and the team wasn’t complete?—?I I usually don’t back a business unless there are founders that can build, sell, and service the new solution that is being brought to market. He also assisted greatly in sales. I initially played the role of CEO and VP of Sales.

Bootstrapping 52

Bootstrapping IPO Business Model Software Review 52

Up and Running

MAY 1, 2014

What are you actually selling and how are you solving a problem (or “need”) for your market? Target Market. If there are multiple market segments for your business, this is where you flesh out the details. Marketing and Sales Plan. How are you going to reach your target market? Milestones and Metrics.

Business Plan 163

Business Plan Forecast Balance Sheet Distribution 163

ReadWriteStart

JULY 18, 2011

Kedrosky: "In the 90's I was an analyst through all this [tech investment and IPO] madness. You want to build your own IPO and exit. The market just isn't that efficient to truly determine the best. "I I look for a smart ass team, building a kick ass product, in a big ass market," he said.

Investment Bankers 153

Investment Bankers Technical Review Cofounder Due Diligence 153

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 10, 2021

With the enormous changes to our economies and financial markets?—?how how on Earth could the venture capital market stand still? One of the most common questions I’m asked by people intrigued by but also scared by venture capital and technology markets is some variant of, “Aren’t technology markets way overvalued?

Pre-Money Valuation 471

Pre-Money Valuation Valuation Venture Capital Early Stage 471

David Teten

JANUARY 19, 2021

This structure allows for alignment on the front end, and real-time flexibility for performance metrics,” says Samira Salman , a family office investor and advisor. . Flexible VCs have created structures based on other company performance metrics than revenues, such as profits or founder salaries. Flexible VC 102: Variations.

Cofounder 78

Cofounder Technical Review Equity Dividend 78

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

JULY 23, 2013

Marketo filed for IPO with impressive 80% year-over-year growth in 2012, with almost $60m in revenue. of revenue, force-feeding sales pipelines with an unprofitable product. I know the argument: The pay-back period on sales, marketing, and up-start costs is long, but there’s a profitable result at the end of the tunnel.

Business Model 335

Business Model .Net Revenue IPO 335

Austin Startup

MAY 29, 2019

I use the word natural deliberately because it is far easier to build solutions that will offer network effects if your market is actually wired that way. In Bazaarvoice’s case, the market was, fortunately, wired for brands and retailers to collaborate in a kind of grand bargain. and therefore the sales?—?that

Networking 48

Networking Fractional CTO CTO Hire B2C 48

Cracking the Code

MAY 25, 2010

One of his secret: "Incentivize your marketing team on sales not leads" Jeff Jordan, CEO of OpenTable speaking about his IPO process: " Build relationships with key public investors 2-3 years before going public (Morgan Stanley, Fidelity and T. Labels: design , internet , sales and marketing. ipo process.

Software Review 74

Software Review Cloud IPO Jordan 74

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

JULY 29, 2014

As he sat with singer/writer Martin Gore in the empty stadium before tickets went on sale, Martin “confided in me that he was nervous and hoped they could at least sell out the floor seats — just 10,000 tickets.” And honoring metrics is part of building a high performing team and building a huge, sustainable enterprise.

Startup 299

Startup Metrics IPO America 299

Cracking the Code

NOVEMBER 10, 2009

While poised with a limited number of transactions this year, the world of public Cloud Computing and SaaS companies has been marked by two events in the past few months: the acquisition of Omniture by Adobe and the high profile IPO of LogMeIn, a leading provider of PC remote access and support with a very interesting freemium model.

Software Review 48

Software Review Technical Review IPO Cloud 48

Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 28, 2009

I used to think that investments in metrics were a form of waste. Customers dont care if you have good metrics, only if you have a good product. The only reason we learned the art of metrics-based decision making at IMVU was out of necessity. We set sales targets from day one, $300 the first month.

San Francisco 98

San Francisco Continuous Deployment Lean DC 98

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 13, 2012

In fact, a business plan is needed more by you than investors, as the blueprint for your company, team communication, and progress metrics. Industry & market sizing. Start with the evolution of the overall industry, market segmentation, market dynamics, and customer landscape. Marketing, sales, and partners.

Business Plan 283

Business Plan Sweat Equity Exit Strategy Intellectual Property 283

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 14, 2009

Every board meeting, the metrics of success change. For a startup, having great sales DNA is a wonderful asset. This is the magic of sales: by learning about each customer in-depth, they can convince each of them that this product would solve serious problems. But here’s where a truly great sales artist comes in.

Customer 167

Customer San Francisco Lean Hockey Stick 167

View from Seed

MAY 16, 2019

I have friends who are execs or shareholders of the company, but I have no stake in Slack nor intent to invest in the IPO. A somewhat unique thing about the Slack IPO is that they’re pursuing a direct listing on the NYSE. Market Cap. might have a market cap of $150B+. Revenue growth rate of 82% year over year. ARPUs/year.

Lock-up Period 168

Lock-up Period Retention Azure .Net 168

Agile VC

JUNE 5, 2011

So Groupon obviously filed their S-1 the other day to formally being the IPO process. Groupon’s become a juggernaut in the immense local marketing space. 4) Unique Reporting of Accounting: Much has been made in the press that Groupon has chosen to report alternative non-GAAP metrics in addition to GAAP accounting.

North America 100

North America Chicago Boston Silicon Valley 100

abovethecrowd.com

APRIL 20, 2016

Why the Unicorn Financing Market Just Became Dangerous…For All Involved. The pressures of lofty paper valuations, massive burn rates (and the subsequent need for more cash), and unprecedented low levels of IPOs and M&A, have created a complex and unique circumstance which many Unicorn CEOs and investors are ill-prepared to navigate.

IPO 40

IPO Term Sheet Silicon Valley Valuation 40

YoungUpstarts

MARCH 14, 2012

The more market-savvy professionals already know some of these standard shortened phrases, and business glossaries abound. IPO stands for Initial Public Offering, and is the first sale of a private stock to the public. Most recently, the mass media has been concerned with the Facebook IPO.

Non-disclosure Agreement 202

Non-disclosure Agreement NDA IPO Covenant 202

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 13, 2011

In fact, a business plan is needed more by you than investors, as the blueprint for your company, team communication, and progress metrics. Industry & market sizing. Start with the evolution of the overall industry, market segmentation, market dynamics, and customer landscape. Marketing, sales, and partners.

Business Plan 290

Business Plan Sweat Equity Exit Strategy Intellectual Property 290

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 8, 2009

That’s because many of our reports feed us vanity metrics: numbers that make us look good but don’t really help make decisions. Yet even among those who have access to good actionable metrics, I’ve noticed a phenomenon that prevents taking maximum advantage of data. Too much of this data is non- actionable.

San Francisco 84

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 84

Cracking the Code

OCTOBER 10, 2008

Only after reaching $1M in CMRR should you consider hiring European sales and services execs behind customer demand. Save Asia for post-IPO Single instance, multi-tenant, single datacenter - Have only one version of the code in production. . Labels: SaaS , sales and marketing , software. Posted by Philippe Botteri.

Software Review 48

Software Review North America Europe Metrics 48

Cracking the Code

FEBRUARY 4, 2008

2007 was a turning point for the SaaS industry with the successful IPOs of NetSuite, SuccessFactors, DemandTec, Salary.com, Aprimo and Constant Contact. The full agenda is available by clicking here but the day was a great opportunity to dive into the key questions that SaaS execs are wrestling with: How to design a sales comp plan?

Software Review 48

Software Review South Korea IPO Portfolio 48

Austin Startup

MAY 19, 2018

Don’t boomerang founders If you have specific metrics you look for in early stage companies. When I was fundraising if I heard “I’d like to invest when you get to $X in revenue” and their metrics weren’t disclosed up front, I often thought of the investors as chickens and I always heard it as a “no”. 90% of what we sell is a vision.

Founder 75

Founder Early Stage Software Review Deal Flow 75

Duct Tape Marketing

SEPTEMBER 10, 2019

Transcript of Advice for Entrepreneurs Who Want to Sell Their Companies written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing. John Jantsch: Hello and welcome to another episode of the Duct Tape Marketing podcast. You see every day these IPOs coming out of companies that we work, for example. Back to Podcast. Transcript.

Entrepreneur 49

Entrepreneur Switzerland Revenue Differentiation 49

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 15, 2008

Focus on the output metrics of that part of the product, and you make the problem a lot more clear. To promote this metrics discipline, we would present the full funnel to our board (and advisers) at the end of every development cycle. Max Levchin of Slide and Paypal has noted that 10% of Slides headcount is devoted to metrics only.

San Francisco 166

San Francisco Lean Technical Review Continuous Deployment 166

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 9, 2009

blader : @ericries my #1 takeaway from #leanstartup : "No marketing team. So instead of having sales, marketing, and business development, we have a problem team implementing customer development. dalelarson : "Metrics are people, too." Metrics are a key questions startups face. No engineering team.

San Francisco 132

San Francisco Continuous Deployment Lean Agile 132