Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 13, 2014

It is rare to find somebody who matches exactly what I’m looking for in a partner so when you find it you act: Academic rigor (Princeton undergrad, Stanford MBA). Helped merge company with Seedling – on track to do $20 million combined revenue in 2015 – will now become Chairman). billion IPO), Envestnet (Chicago, $1.25

Partner 408

Partner Las Vegas Los Angeles Baltimore 408

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 17, 2014

Aggressive revenue projections and growth rate. Revenue in the fifth year should be at least $20 million, with a growth rate average of 100% per year. In other words, revenue projections are not the place to be too conservative or wildly optimistic. Show red ink to match your funding request.

Liquidity Event 249

Liquidity Event Equity Venture Capital Merger 249

Steve Blank

JULY 15, 2010

The collapse of the IPO market and dysfunctional math in the venture capital community has stacked the odds against you. Startup lifecycle in an IPO Market. Until 1995 startups going public typically had a track record of revenue and profits. Netscape’s 1995 IPO changed the rules. Here’s why. Free At Last.

Venture Capital 297

Venture Capital IPO Liquidity Event Entrepreneur 297

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 28, 2013

Aggressive revenue projections and growth rate. Revenue in the fifth year should be at least $20 million, with a growth rate average of 100% per year. In other words, revenue projections are not the place to be too conservative or wildly optimistic. Show red ink to match your funding request.

Liquidity Event 243

Liquidity Event Startup Equity Venture Capital 243

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 14, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Tuesday, April 14, 2009 Validated learning about customers Would you rather have $30,000 or $1 million in revenues for your startup? All things being equal, of course, you’d rather have more revenue rather than less. And yet revenue alone is not a sufficient goal. More on that in a moment.

Customer 167

Customer San Francisco Lean Hockey Stick 167

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 27, 2012

In this section, you need to be passionate about recurring revenue, profit margin, and volume growth. Make sure your marketing budget matches the scope of your plan. Project both revenues and expense totals for next five years, and past three years. You need data from industry experts like Forrester or Gartner for credibility.

Elevator Pitch 247

Elevator Pitch Exit Strategy Burn Rate Merger 247

Gust

AUGUST 10, 2014

Aggressive revenue projections and growth rate. Revenue in the fifth year should be at least $20 million, with a growth rate average of 100% per year. In other words, revenue projections are not the place to be too conservative or wildly optimistic. Show red ink to match your funding request.

Liquidity Event 176

Liquidity Event Equity Venture Capital Merger 176

Tim Keane

MARCH 9, 2011

If, on the other hand, there is some near term prospect of cash flow (say within six months or a year) but no ability to repay in the meantime, then the entrepreneur may try and find a way to finance his “pre-revenue period” using friends and family money that accepts a somewhat lower payment in recognition of a relationship beyond just investing.

Finance 83

Finance Bootstrapping Startup Equity 83

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 10, 2011

In this section, you need to be passionate about recurring revenue, profit margin, and volume growth. Make sure your marketing budget matches the scope of your plan. Project both revenues and expense totals for next five years, and past three years. You need data from industry experts like Forrester or Gartner for credibility.

Elevator Pitch 234

Elevator Pitch Exit Strategy Burn Rate Merger 234

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 19, 2010

In this section, you need to be passionate about recurring revenue, profit margin, and volume growth. Make sure your marketing budget matches the scope of your plan. Project both revenues and expense totals for next five years, and past three years. Use data from industry experts like Forrester or Gartner for credibility.

Elevator Pitch 235

Elevator Pitch Exit Strategy Burn Rate Merger 235

The Startup Magazine

OCTOBER 14, 2021

TSM: Describe Taxfyle’s product or service in 10 words or less: Richard: Taxfyle is a Service-with-a-Software company that matches taxpayers with licensed CPAs and Enrolled Agents. 5000 list , which lists private American companies based on three-year revenue growth between 2016 and 2019. Last year, Taxfyle ranked No. Magazine’ Inc.

CPA 137

CPA Founder Vertical Cofounder 137

The Startup Magazine

JULY 29, 2021

The Soundtrack platform enhances the in-store/restaurant experience by providing music that matches the brand, which encourages guests stay longer and spend more. Your A round is about securing a first team and product, proving that you can generate revenue. We have been working on bridging that gap.

Founder 156

Founder B2C B2B Audio 156

Gust

AUGUST 19, 2012

In this section, you need to be passionate about recurring revenue, profit margin, and volume growth. Make sure your marketing budget matches the scope of your plan. Project both revenues and expense totals for next five years, and past three years. You need data from industry experts like Forrester or Gartner for credibility.

Elevator Pitch 146

Elevator Pitch Exit Strategy Burn Rate Merger 146

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 12, 2015

We’re at 70 people, and we’ll do $40 million in revenue this year and should get to cash flow breakeven this quarter. ” It typically takes multiple iterations and pivots to find product/market fit – the match between what you’re building and who will buy it. It sounded like he was living the dream.

Startup 120

Startup Lean Venture Capital Advisory Board 120

YoungUpstarts

JULY 29, 2013

But they’ll sit up and pay attention when you talk about the customers and revenues of the business. Hero mentors” have exited their businesses through a trade sale or IPO, sometimes multiple times; they offer inspiration to your team and coaching on strategy and tactics. Have we built a SOLUTION that matches that problem?

Asia 207

Asia Singapore Cofounder Incubator 207

Duct Tape Marketing

SEPTEMBER 29, 2022

Questions I ask Mike Evans: [1:46] Could you give us a high-level overview of the startup of Grubhub to IPO to what you’re doing now? 12:51] Right up to IPO at which point you quit, which I think some people would actually say, you made it now, why are you quitting? He lives in Chicago with his wife, daughter, dog, and bike.

Founder 82

Founder Chicago Kansas Startup 82

Reid Hoffman

MARCH 19, 2019

And from a financial perspective, any investor would be better off buying stock in Amazon than buying and share of a corner bookshop; if you invested $100 in Amazon’s 1997 initial public offering (IPO), those shares would have been worth about $120,000 in 2018. Blitzscaling is a strategic technique for moving faster, not a reckless gamble.

Cofounder 28

Cofounder Business Model IPO Non-Compete 28

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 17, 2022

Today’s world is full of metrics leading to business growth, including customer logins, revenue per customer, retention, and average solution price. Revenue and competitive position followed. On an ongoing basis, engagement requires a focus on motivation, match to strengths and interests, and active career planning.

Startup 361

Startup Social Media India Acquisition 361

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 2, 2013

Here are the top five, as outlined by Rice in his book, which match my own experience: Management team. This requires a visible focus on the company’s revenue model, the costs to get there, and cash on hand. That means merger and acquisition (M&A), not initial public offering (IPO). They bet on the jockey, not the horse.

Cram Down 269

Cram Down Angel Investor Intellectual Property Venture Capital 269

Transformify

MAY 28, 2018

Some recruitment software solutions rely on matching algorithms but are these matching algorithms and machine learning one and the same thing? Let’s start with the matching algorithms which are easier to understand. 14% have an IPO experience. 74% is a striking number. 55% have M&A experience.

Artificial Inteligence 40

Artificial Inteligence Algorithm Technical Review Salary 40

Spencer Fry

DECEMBER 7, 2011

One day you're on the top of the world — you've hired the person you dreamed about, you received your first term sheet, you pocketed your first revenue, etc. — You haven't made it until you've been acquired or IPO. Kudos to Dennis Crowley for accurately measuring success.). Use that hour to escape.

Cofounder 78

Cofounder Startup Term Sheet IPO 78

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 12, 2018

We would have gladly followed Jamie (and Josh Roth, the CTO who is phenomenal and we’ve also known for a decade) right through an IPO if we could have. Generic cam’s could never match the security use case as well as Ring could and when consumers went online or to a store to find our product the offering was very clear.

Security 247

Security Los Angeles Silicon Valley Video 247

Rob Go

MAY 2, 2013

Although other flashy e-commerce sites might have greater notoriety, none can come close to matching Wayfair for scale ($600M+ revenue), profitability (bootstrapped all the way until last year), and long-term potential (that’s my own commentary). Acme Packet won the award for exit of the year for its $2.1B acquisition by Oracle.

Boston 52

Boston Silicon Valley Acquisition Portfolio 52

reidhoffman.org

NOVEMBER 12, 2013

we had no revenue. As a result, we knew that our pitch would need to steer into investors’ biggest concern: the lack of revenue. Great businesses can be built off this network, starting with matching talent and opportunity. To show potential revenue streams, we listed three products: ads, listings, and subscriptions.

Entrepreneur 111

Entrepreneur Revenue Viral Networking 111

VC Cafe

APRIL 29, 2020

“ UK – Future Fund, a £500 million match funding for high-growth companies. Startups are able to secure the matched funding up to 3 months from submitting the request. Source: NVCA , “Startup Ecosystem Faces Capital Crunch over Coming Months” USA – SBA Loans and PPP. The UK chancellor announced a £1.25

SBA 124

SBA Technical Review Startup 124

Seeing Both Sides

APRIL 1, 2013

If you are a risk-taker and enjoy the challenges and roller-coaster ride, then the jungle phase is for you and you should bias towards seed funded or recently Series A funded companies that are pre-revenue. Pick a Winner. Ask a handful of insiders. Compile this list, pressure test it, and see what patterns you find.

Boston 52

Boston B2C Salary Cofounder 52

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 15, 2019

Today’s world is full of metrics leading to business growth, including customer logins, revenue per customer, retention, and average solution price. Revenue and competitive position followed. On an ongoing basis, engagement requires a focus on motivation, match to strengths and interests, and active career planning.

Social Media 218

Social Media India Acquisition China 218

Ben's Blog

MARCH 24, 2011

Since so many distinguished people report a broad variety of qualitative bubble signs, let’s attempt to pattern match the quantitative data. Let’s look at public market comparables and venture capital flows to see if we can find a match. What about companies with reportedly very little revenue and very high valuations such as Twitter?

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Venture Capital Valuation Database 78

Scalable Startup

SEPTEMBER 11, 2013

How can other regions will ever match the MACHINE: Stanford, Andreesen, Draper, Valentine, Doerr, Facebook/Apple/Google Millionaires, 4 Generation VC firms, Hardware/Software partnerships, over 100 Billon $ market cap cos. San Francisco, over 50 universities and trillions of dollars in revenue. It has spread way beyond to the east bay.

Silicon Valley 22

Silicon Valley San Francisco Angel Investor Hawaii 22

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 27, 2009

These are companies that generate revenue by offering a free product with an upsell or premium version. However, its not very useful to mix and match features from different models. Their economics blends elements of the free, advertising-supported, "eyeballs" business with more traditional e-commerce and subscription businesses.

San Francisco 148

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 148

VC Cafe

AUGUST 3, 2023

Whether it’s gaming, commerce/ DTC or creator economy, there are many Israeli startups selling at over $10M and even $100M in annual revenue. Many exited or IPO’d (and subsequently lost much of their value in the recent downturn), but new success stories have also emerged. Surpassed the $100M revenue mark in 2022.

B2C 148

B2C Generative AI Artificial Inteligence 148

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 14, 2017

Today’s world is full of metrics leading to business growth, including customer logins, revenue per customer, retention, and average solution price. Revenue and competitive position followed. On an ongoing basis, engagement requires a focus on motivation, match to strengths and interests, and active career planning.

Social Media 163

Social Media India Acquisition China 163

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 9, 2009

We were focused on revenue, but we didnt understand that revenue is not important for its own sake in an early stage company. Almost all of them got scooped up by pre-IPO Google this time. That year, right before the IPO, those months mattered a great deal in terms of financial outcomes.

San Francisco 94

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 94

YoungUpstarts

MAY 5, 2017

The company’s ascension, chronicled in “ Becoming Facebook “ , is a business adventure of unprecedented growth, game-changing acquisitions, recovery from a chaotic IPO and a continuing defense against foes large and small. What’s the fastest way to transform your team to one that focuses on matching skills to challenges?

Silicon Valley 150

Silicon Valley IPO Metrics Global 150

VC Cafe

NOVEMBER 30, 2022

It matched the rate of unicorn creation in Q1 and Q2, before dipping in Q3, which only saw 4 new unicorns created. As mentioned in the Battery Ventures “State of the Opencloud report” 2022 , the bar is high for these private unicorns to transition into successful IPOs. Pace of unicorn creation (source: Founder Factories).

Europe 97

Europe Balance Sheet Valuation 97

Reid Hoffman

JANUARY 20, 2013

My partners at Greylock and I have invested in a number of young founding CEOs who match this pattern and are doing a fantastic job leading their companies through hypergrowth, such as Brian Chesky of AirBnB and Drew Houston of Dropbox. Think of Jeff Bezos, Larry Ellison, or the late Steve Jobs. The question is, why has this shift occurred?

Founder 78

Founder Hiring Cofounder Hawaii 78

Up and Running

MAY 1, 2014

Your prices need to match up with consumer demand and expectations. Does your packaging match your positioning strategy? A typical P&L will be a spreadsheet that includes the following: Sales (or Income or Revenue). This number will come from your sales forecast worksheet and includes all revenue generated by the business.

Business Plan 163

Business Plan Forecast Balance Sheet Distribution 163