Both Sides of the Table

JULY 23, 2014

We are in a bubble (with so many private $1bn+ valuations). 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. From a technology perspective our journey is nowhere near over. Where are we today?

Technical Review 398

Technical Review Venture Capital Valuation Pre-Money Valuation 398

VC Cafe

AUGUST 2, 2022

Is there an early mover advantage for being early on a technology trend? In the first five months of 2022, more than $120 billion have been invested in building out metaverse technology and infrastructure, according to McKinsey. Tim Sweeney, the founder and CEO of Epic is a long term visionary of our online future and the Metaverse.

IP 206

IP Cofounder Valuation Acquisition 206

VC Cafe

JANUARY 24, 2021

The move to remote work forced quick adoption of cloud technology and tools that were once having difficulties selling to large corporates, saw explosive growth – from Zoom to Hopin, new unicorns were born in record time. I also believe that there was a fundamental change in consumer behaviour.

Technical Review 207

Technical Review Audio Forecast Social Media 207

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. Corporate business development and strategic partner executives are flocking to Silicon Valley to find these five types of innovation.

Acquisition 332

Acquisition Intellectual Property Silicon Valley Startup 332

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 22, 2011

Responses ranged from, “hey, they’re in a HUGE market&# to “it is an amazing company and their technology rocks.&# In addition to FOMO it is partly driven by massive increase in valuations for earlier-stage companies who raised money at bit seed prices but who still have product risk. Why does all this matter?

Saudi Arabia 309

Saudi Arabia Valuation IPO Technical Review 309

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 10, 2021

The world around us is being disrupted by the acceleration of technology into more industries and more consumer applications. Technology solutions are now used by authoritarians to monitor and control populations, to stymie an individual company’s economic prospects or to foment chaos through demagoguery. Are we in a bubble?”

Pre-Money Valuation 471

Pre-Money Valuation Valuation Venture Capital Early Stage 471

Haystack

DECEMBER 29, 2018

Technology is, like water, flowing and seeping into nearly every sector and eventually into most of the global economy. And as more economies worldwide seek to shift their investment strategies offshore and seek out technology, hubs like Silicon Valley and Shanghai, among others, have reaped the benefits. 3/ Crypto Hibernation.

Technical Review 165

Technical Review Venture Capital Russia China 165

ReadWriteStart

JULY 15, 2020

New talk of capital efficiency is gratifying, but there was another lesson from pre-COVID-19 valuation struggles. Venture capitalists and early-stage investors have told all of us, founders are critical to a startup’s valuation. WeWork’s founder was been accused of self-dealing, which in turn has thrown the company’s IPO into question.

Valuation 91

Valuation South Carolina San Jose Balance Sheet 91

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 14, 2009

Posted on September 14, 2009 by steveblank Over the last 30 years Wall Street’s appetite for technology stocks have changed radically – swinging between unbridled enthusiasm to believing they’re all toxic. Each VC firm/partner has a different spin on what to weigh more.) Tech acquisitions went crazy at the same time the IPO market did.

Silicon Valley 223

Silicon Valley IPO Technical Review Venture Capital 223

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. LPs See The Over-Valuations and Don’t Like It. …But LPs Have Been Putting Out More Money Than They Are Getting Back.

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital LP Silicon Valley Marketing 150

Growthink Blog

MARCH 13, 2014

I then offered to share some of our research findings as to the selection strategies that early-stage technology investors like Sequoia now utilize to identify companies with this kind of return potential. And how Sequoia’s return on that $60 million was close to $3 billion, or more than 50 times its original investment. Investing Jay Turo'

Technical Review 91

Technical Review IPO Early Stage Valuation 91

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 29, 2009

They should heed the age old advice that raising slightly more money while you can is always better than trying to optimize future valuations. Should VC’s really be impacted by public market valuations when the money that they’re investing today should be for returns in 7-10 years? Short answer – yes.

Burn Rate 263

Burn Rate Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Private Equity 263

David Teten

JANUARY 19, 2021

(co-written with Jamie Finney, Founding Partner at Greater Colorado Venture Fund. Similar to the explosion of seed funds in the past decade, we (and some limited partners too ) believe these Flexible VCs are on the forefront of what will become a major segment of the venture ecosystem. Yes, via conversion rights at a valuation cap.

Cofounder 78

Cofounder Technical Review Equity Dividend 78

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 15, 2010

In fact, their affiliate partners dissuaded them from doing so. billion valuation. They only recently raised $30 million at around a $300 million valuation and THAT raised eyebrows. In the former case many people scoffed at paying up for Google at IPO. Rumored: Digital Sky Technologies. Time will tell.

Venture Capital 271

Venture Capital Affiliate Valuation San Francisco 271

Cracking the Code

FEBRUARY 27, 2009

Bessemer Venture Partners Expands BVP VII Fund. 26 Bessemer Venture Partners (BVP), the oldest venture capital practice in the United States, today announced the closing of a $350 million supplement to its current fund family, BVP VII, which closed in June 2007. 2009 Bessemer Venture Partners. Friday, February 27, 2009.

Software Review 48

Software Review Partner United States Venture Capital 48

Version One Ventures

DECEMBER 14, 2016

In other words, any correction in public valuations happened quickly and has now stabilized. From Series A and onwards, fundraising takes longer and valuations are typically below the expectations and benchmarks of 2015. Of course, upcoming IPOs like Snapchat will bring some added excitement to the industry.

Technical Review 60

Technical Review Early Stage Portfolio Valuation 60

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 12, 2014

Prorata rights are one of the most important rights of a private market technology investors and yet are seldom fully understood. People all across the value chain have taken notice including Limited Partners who are the people who invest in VC funds in the first place. Why prorata rights are now sought out by LPs.

Technical Review 336

Technical Review Later Stage Early Stage LP 336

www.entrepreneur.com

SEPTEMBER 22, 2011

Money Money Home Financing Taxes Accounting Basics Personal Finance Money Management Payments & Collections IPOs and DPOs Will Crazy Market Moves Kill IPOs and Slash VC Investment? Technology Technology Home Online Business Tools Security Phones & Mobile Gadgets Tech Tips Technology The Future of Facebook -- Streaming Live Now.

Sweat Equity 55

Sweat Equity Equity Fractional CTO CTO 55

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 6, 2010

If I’m interested I get to spend more time with them, if I’m not I don’t have to – A few companies per month come in that have fascinating business ideas that warrant my spending more time trying to understand their people, company, technology and market. I work hard, don’t get me wrong. We travel together.

Technical Review 312

Technical Review Due Diligence Spain Warrant 312

Austin Startup

MAY 10, 2021

but then going public and rising 23% on day one to… drumroll please… a $36B valuation ?—?a 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. a full 60x trailing twelve month revenues.

Silicon Valley 113

Silicon Valley IPO Venture Capital Valuation 113

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 299

Venture Capital IPO Liquidity Event Entrepreneur 299

Version One Ventures

FEBRUARY 6, 2019

To make investments attractive, biotech founders also sell that the time to exit might be faster than in IT (it is true that successful therapeutics companies IPO or are acquired before launch) and that now, they can accelerate drug discovery with AI/machine learning (meaning, less time and thereby less capital is required).

Dilution 132

Dilution Artificial Inteligence IPO Valuation 132

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

Austin Startup

JUNE 27, 2017

Collectively they have $850M in capital in their most recent funds: [link] Both Silverton Partners and LiveOak Venture Partners have filed regulatory documents associated with new fundraising efforts in 2017 so we should all look forward to announcements from them on successfully raising new funds.

Venture Capital 54

Venture Capital Austin Texas Private Equity 54

500hats.com

AUGUST 2, 2012

Mega VC has focused on the challenges of the post-SarbOx IPO market in the US, and has discovered opportunity in offering larger amounts of growth capital ($10-100M+) to private companies with reduced access to public markets. These two divergent groups have optimized for very different market conditions and behaviors.

Silicon Valley 74

Silicon Valley Early Stage Venture Capital Valuation 74

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 27, 2012

Solution product & technology. Describe your technology patents and “secret sauce”. Marketing, sales, and partners. What is the current valuation of the company? What is the planned exit strategy (IPO, merger, sale, including likely candidates)? Opportunity sizing. Financial projections. Exit strategy.

Elevator Pitch 247

Elevator Pitch Exit Strategy Burn Rate Merger 247

Rob Go

APRIL 13, 2015

Here’s what Kayak looked like when it went public: Kayak: IPO Market Cap: $1B, Revenue: $225M (2011), Employees: 185 (July 2012), Rev / Employee: $1.2M (Paul has quoted $1.5M, which makes sense given growth of the business in 2012). Lending Club: IPO Market Cap: $8.4B, Revenue: $98M (2013), Employees: 628 (2014), Rev / Employee: $156K.

Technology 28

Technology IPO Boston Cofounder 28

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 1, 2009

There’s no doubt (at least anecdotally) that the pace of VC investments in early-stage technology companies has picked up in the past few months. IPOs and M&A have returned – and with them the investment bankers have staged a rebound. – IPO-able in any normal market. but I’ll save that for post 3/3).

IPO 255

IPO Investment Bankers Venture Capital Marketing 255

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 6, 2017

Yet as we enter February 2017 the VC funding markets are booming, Snap, Inc has filed for its IPO, AppDynamics was just purchased for $3.7 So if funding from VCs slowed, valuations dropped and burn rates were slashed, WTF happened to winter again? Ok, Suster. or Walmart buying Jet for $3 billion.

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital Saudi Arabia Kuwait Burn Rate 150

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 10, 2011

Solution product & technology. Describe your technology patents and “secret sauce”. Marketing, sales, and partners. What is the current valuation of the company? What is the planned exit strategy (IPO, merger, sale, including likely candidates)? Opportunity sizing. Financial projections. Exit strategy.

Elevator Pitch 234

Elevator Pitch Exit Strategy Burn Rate Merger 234

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 28, 2008

We pitch to potential partners, vendors, publishers, conferences, employees, and even lawyers. Now there was nothing wrong with their analysis: anyone who invents a technology as sophisticated as The Transformers is definitely going to make a lot of money. can we make a product out of this technology? how big is the market?

San Francisco 128

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 128

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 13, 2012

Many entrepreneurs scare away potential investors by claiming that their technology represents “truly disruptive technology.” Marketing, sales, and partners. Convince investors that you have lined up sales channels, strategic partners, and a viable marketing strategy. Include a current valuation estimate.

Business Plan 283

Business Plan Sweat Equity Exit Strategy Intellectual Property 283

abovethecrowd.com

JULY 10, 2014

Financial models, especially valuation models, are interesting in that they can be particularly precise. While it may seem like a tough question to answer, I would argue that most practitioners of valuation analysis would state “not very high.” It is not my aim to specifically convince anyone that Uber is worth any specific valuation.

San Francisco 111

San Francisco San Jose Marketing Technical Review 111

Steve Blank

MARCH 22, 2022

Tens of billions of public and private capital are being invested in Quantum technologies. Countries across the world have realized that quantum technologies can be a major disruptor of existing businesses and change the balance of military power. Currently this is a nascent commercial technology in search of a future viable market.

Technology 436

Technology Algorithm Stealth Distribution 436

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 19, 2010

Solution product & technology. Describe your technology patents and “secret sauce”. Marketing, sales, and partners. What is the current valuation of the company? What is the planned exit strategy (IPO, merger, sale, including likely candidates)? Opportunity sizing. Financial projections. Exit strategy.

Elevator Pitch 235

Elevator Pitch Exit Strategy Burn Rate Merger 235

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 13, 2016

Just because your technology is exciting and potentially disruptive doesn’t mean you are ready to build a business. You need to identify pricing details, sales channels, strategic partners and a customized marketing plan consistent with your industry and target segment. What is the business problem you are solving?

Sweat Equity 120

Sweat Equity Advisory Board Liquidity Event Startup 120

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 13, 2011

Many entrepreneurs scare away potential investors by claiming that their technology represents “truly disruptive technology.” Marketing, sales, and partners. Convince investors that you have lined up sales channels, strategic partners, and a viable marketing strategy. Include a current valuation estimate.

Business Plan 290

Business Plan Sweat Equity Exit Strategy Intellectual Property 290