Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 13, 2014

After years of trying to persuade Kara Nortman to become a partner at Upfront Ventures I can officially announce now that she’s joined us effective immediately. 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).

Partner 408

Partner Las Vegas Los Angeles Baltimore 408

Steve Blank

JANUARY 22, 2014

Dino Vendetti a VC at Bay Partners, moved up to Bend, Oregon on a mission to engineer Bend into a regional technology cluster. They failed due to: the dearth of deals in the region that have IPO potential and. This is true whether the company is concept stage or ramping revenue. The Bend Experience.

Early Stage 286

Early Stage Silicon Valley Oregon Technical Review 286

Steve Blank

APRIL 23, 2014

Companies manage these three types of innovation with an innovation portfolio – they build innovation internally, they buy it or they partner with resources outside their company. buy out an entire company for its revenue and profits. buy out an entire company for its revenue and profits. Five Types of Innovation to Buy.

Acquisition 332

Acquisition Intellectual Property Silicon Valley Startup 332

David Teten

JANUARY 19, 2021

(co-written with Jamie Finney, Founding Partner at Greater Colorado Venture Fund. More and more startups are pursuing Revenue-Based VCs , but “RBI” doesn’t fit everyone. Flexible VC 101: Equity Meets Revenue Share. His work on VC and small communities can be found at greatercolorado.vc/blog. Of the Inc. 5000 companies, only 6.5%

Cofounder 78

Cofounder Technical Review Dividend Equity 78

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 17, 2023

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. On the other hand, if you are a new entrepreneur, still in the idea stage, professional investors will only tell you to come back later when you have traction (customers and revenue).

Angel Investor 313

Angel Investor Intellectual Property Investment Bankers Private Equity 313

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 14, 2009

Each VC firm/partner has a different spin on what to weigh more.) Five Quarters of Profitability During the 1980’s and through the mid 1990’s startups going public had to do something that most companies today never heard of – they had to show a track record of increasing revenue and consistent profitability.

Silicon Valley 217

Silicon Valley Technical Review IPO Venture Capital 217

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 23, 2014

Limited Partners or LPs (the people who invest into VC funds) have taken notice as 2014 is by all accounts the busiest year for LPs since the Great Recession began. Unprecedented revenue growth + companies staying private longer =. It doesn’t take a huge leap to see how well the VC industry is positioned for the immediate future.

Technical Review 398

Technical Review Venture Capital Valuation Pre-Money Valuation 398

VC Cafe

AUGUST 2, 2022

billion revenue in 2021 for Epic Games and was played by 83.3 For that, Yuga labs partnered with London based Improbable. billion revenue in 2021, a 107% increase year-on-year. billion as of August 1st 2022, a drop from it’s IPO at approximately $38 billion but relatively steady since Dec. Fortnite generated $5.8

IP 206

IP Cofounder Valuation Acquisition 206

Agile VC

APRIL 17, 2011

GameFly filed in 2010 and remains in registration, though 2011 has seen a positive start for VC-backed IPOs with 14 in Q1 2011. Now that Google’s acquisition of ITA is closed, following lenghty FTC review, it would appear Kayak is poised to proceed with their IPO in the coming months. =. Quinstreet priced at $15.00/sh

Pre-Money Valuation 113

Pre-Money Valuation Liquidation Preference Dividend Common Stock 113

Steve Blank

MARCH 16, 2016

VC’s raise money from their investors (limited partners like pension funds) and then spread their risk by investing in a number of startups (called a portfolio). BTW, Angel investors do not have limited partners, and often invest for reasons other than just for financial gain (e.g., If so, how is the revenue measured?

Liquidity Event 120

Liquidity Event Founder Liquidation Preference Private Equity 120

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 22, 2020

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. On the other hand, if you are a new entrepreneur, still in the idea stage, professional investors will only tell you to come back later when you have traction (customers and revenue).

Angel Investor 370

Angel Investor Intellectual Property Investment Bankers Private Equity 370

BeyondVC

MARCH 21, 2017

As we move to a cloud-only world with instant-on capabilities and low friction in onboarding customers, why does professional services revenue keep increasing year over year for these enterprise cloud businesses. Professional services drives subscription revenue. Same goes for why on-prem. in banking, insurance, and health care.

IPO 88

IPO Cloud Azure Revenue 88

David Teten

MARCH 14, 2018

My Partners at HOF Capital are younger than I am, which means that we have a half-century horizon for the franchise we are building. – Build out low-cost force multipliers such as scouts , Advisors, Entrepreneurs in Residence, Venture Partners, and so on. So we think about scaling a lot.

Private Equity 60

Private Equity Venture Capital Equity Cofounder 60

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 22, 2011

Ah, but today’s Internet companies have real revenue! And this is happening in mezzanine (pre-IPO) deals as well. And post IPO deals, although these tend to correct more quickly. And as you probably guessed the data aren’t any better on IPOs with less than 20 / year average for the past 10 years. and profits!

Saudi Arabia 309

Saudi Arabia Valuation IPO Technical Review 309

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 18, 2015

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. They’re doing how much in SaaS revenue? I offer the same advice for many of my friends who are newer VCs.

Software Review 150

Software Review Turkey Portfolio Syndicate 150

Agile VC

MARCH 8, 2012

Tech IPOs Are Back – So Now What? Three of the five “blockbuster” tech IPOs I predicted have happened (LinkedIn, Groupon, Zynga) and the biggest of all (Facebook) has filed and will likely go public within the next 90 days. I see several dynamics at work in today’s IPO markets. March 8, 2012.

IPO 100

IPO Silicon Valley Revenue Seed Stage 100

Growthink Blog

DECEMBER 27, 2017

how it will work, the financial terms, the types of customer leads expected from each partner, etc.). Detail all revenue streams. Be sure to include all revenue streams. The most common exits are IPOs or acquisitions. Be sure to document the specifics of the partnerships (e.g. Concept vs. reality.

Venture Capital 129

Venture Capital Business Plan Technical Review Private Placement 129

View from Seed

OCTOBER 11, 2022

And I’ve been fortunate enough to witness their startups scale from ideas to $1B+ businesses (and even an IPO in the case of Poshmark). I became certified as a professional coach through the Hudson Institute of Coaching to be a more mindful and effective partner on a founder’s journey.

North America 156

North America San Francisco Cap Table Cofounder 156

Agile VC

FEBRUARY 2, 2012

Facebook S-1: The Most Anticipated IPO in a Decade. My partner Rob also wondered if Facebook is the next Yahoo! , Here’s my first look at Facebook viewed through the lens of their IPO filing. Financial Snapshot : 2011 Revenue: $3.71 2011 YoY Revenue Growth: 88%. Financial Snapshot : 2011 Revenue: $3.71

IPO 100

IPO South Korea Venezuela Revenue 100

The Next Web

MARCH 8, 2014

But at the end of the day, I’ve learned that being a partner at a successful early-stage VC firm is not quite as different from being a founder as you might think. Specifically, it feels eerily similar to how I felt when I was CEO at EchoSign when we were at about $4m in revenue. Until then, there are no profits to the VC partners.

Partner 138

Partner Burn Rate Early Stage IPO 138

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 16, 2010

The VC industry grew dramatically as a result of the Internet bubble - Before the Internet bubble the people who invested in VC funds (called LPs or Limited Partners) put about $50 billion into the industry and by 2001 this had grown precipitously to around $250 billion. Partners leave the industry. Here’s my take: 1.

Technical Review 311

Technical Review LP Early Stage Silicon Valley 311

BeyondVC

MARCH 25, 2004

So while I was at PC Forum, my partner, Ned Carlson, sent me an email on the recent IPO filing of Seven Networks. Having talked to a number of bankers, we always thought that one needed $6-8mm of quarterly revenue, profitability for at least 1-2 quarters, and good visibility for the rest of the year in order to go public.

IPO 60

IPO United States .Net Software Review 60

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 29, 2009

Three reasons: There is a relative valuation between the price a VC pays and their expectations of what it will exit for in an IPO or trade sale. Huge downturns have a real impact on the revenue line of start-ups and therefore the pressure on valuations. I argued for literally a year to slash burn.

Burn Rate 263

Burn Rate Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Private Equity 263

Duct Tape Marketing

JANUARY 25, 2023

Growing Your Audience (And Your Revenue) With A Book written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing Marketing Podcast with Matt Briel In this episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast , I interview Matt Briel. Questions I ask Matt Briel: [1:29] Could you tell us about the origin story of Lulu and how did it come to be? [2:25]

Audience 88

Audience Revenue Distribution Differentiation 88

Rob Go

DECEMBER 28, 2011

IPO’s/Exits. Kayak: Registered for an IPO but on hold. 61M in Q3 revenue, up 28% YoY. Raised $174M in its IPO in April, current market cap ~$550M. in its IPO, current market cap of $282M. The company is expected to do around $500M in revenue in 2011 and has seen 50%+ growth YoY the past two years.

Technical Review 54

Technical Review Boston Software Review IPO 54

Austin Startup

MAY 10, 2021

a full 60x trailing twelve month revenues. Companies have increasingly digitized operations, but in silos, said lead director Rich Wong, a partner at Silicon Valley venture-capital firm Accel, an early investor in UiPath. For context, UiPath’s revenue last year was reported at $607 million and grew 81% over the prior year?—?so

Silicon Valley 113

Silicon Valley IPO Venture Capital Valuation 113

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 1, 2016

At the Upfront Summit in early February, we had a chance to have many off-the-record conversations with Limited Partners (LPs) who fund Venture Capital (VC) funds about their views of the market. We’ve also become very adept at partnering with seed funds.

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital LP Silicon Valley Marketing 150

Agile VC

MAY 26, 2011

Google is still a private company (their IPO was Aug 2004). LinkedIn’s product had only been live for a couple months, we only had tens of thousands of registered users, and wouldn’t start generating revenue for more than a year after this point. We three partners are working hard. Ps check mypicasso.com.

Term Sheet 178

Term Sheet Silicon Valley Technical Review Social Network 178

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 19, 2018

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. On the other hand, if you are a new entrepreneur, still in the idea stage, professional investors will only tell you to come back later when you have traction (customers and revenue).

Angel Investor 184

Angel Investor Intellectual Property Investment Bankers Private Equity 184

Agile VC

JUNE 5, 2011

So Groupon obviously filed their S-1 the other day to formally being the IPO process. They’ve grown from nothing to >$2B in revenue in 30 months time, making the company among the fastest growing businesses in the histroy of the world. Financial Snapshot: 2010 Revenue: $713M. in net revenue and passes $0.58

Chicago 100

Chicago North America Boston Silicon Valley 100

Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 1, 2012

in revenue, and their growth rates, too. By focusing on our mission and building great services, we believe we will create the most value for our shareholders and partners over the long term — and this in turn will enable us to keep attracting the best people and building more great services. This is how we think about our IPO as well.

IPO 168

IPO Framework Engineer Equity 168

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. VC’s invested their limited partners’ “risk capital” in a portfolio of startups in exchange for illiquid stock. Startup lifecycle in an IPO Market. Netscape’s 1995 IPO changed the rules.

Venture Capital 297

Venture Capital IPO Liquidity Event Entrepreneur 297

View from Seed

OCTOBER 10, 2017

We are very excited today to announce that Melody Koh is joining NextView as a Venture Partner based in our New York office. She joined the company when it was about 20 people at their NY headquarters, helped the company scale revenue 25X in 3.5 years, and lead them towards their recent IPO.

New York 120

New York Cofounder IPO Early Stage 120

YoungUpstarts

DECEMBER 29, 2014

Here at WePay, 2014 was a big year for us as well — we pivoted fully into our API business, introduced the industry’s first risk API, launched the first white label payments product with complete protection from fraud, and more than doubled our revenue. The IPO market for financial technology companies will start to heat up.

IPO 218

IPO API Silicon Valley Mobile 218

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 27, 2014

Most of those industries are fee-based and are competing on revenue growth. Scott pointed to B-round SaaS valuations in excess of $100 million in $15m+ financing rounds with companies with very limited proof of customer traction or revenue. I don’t totally agree with that view. Either way it turned into a heated debate.

Valuation 309

Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Non-Compete Later Stage 309

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 9, 2012

There simply aren’t a lot of exits above $100m or even IPOs. You need to understand motives of buyer (talent, product, revenue, strategic purchase) and where you fit in. If you want to know more about Rincon Ventures you can see my two separate interviews with their main partners: Jim Andelman & John Greathouse.

Technology 323

Technology PR Startup IPO 323

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 4, 2010

Had a great chat with Jim Armstrong who is a General Partner at Clearstone Venture Partners today on TWiVC. They’ve had a total of 12 deals that have IPO’d. We also talked about Elevation Partners who invested in Palm and how this deal really salvaged their investment, which was a VERY big bet on Palm.

IPO 236

IPO .Net Venture Capital Strategic Investors 236