VC Cafe

JANUARY 24, 2021

billion gamers worldwide will help the global games market generate revenues of $189.3 billion in revenue last year. Gamestop stock becomes more valuable than Google :-) Just kidding. First it was Fortnite and Epic, now it’s Facebook and soon other players will team up to reduce the revenue share with app stores.

Technical Review 207

Technical Review Audio Forecast Social Media 207

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 1, 2015

Today the rate of startups going public (IPO – Initial Public Offering) is up from the dead zone, but is still less than half the rate of 15 years ago. According to a recent Ernst & Young global report , 2014 was a strong year with IPOs actually outperforming other indices by 10 percent. Going public is an expensive process.

IPO 120

IPO SEC Prospectus Startup 120

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 14, 2022

A reverse merger is the acquisition of an already public company (usually a dormant shell) to avoid the Initial Public Offering (IPO) process and cost, to quickly get your startup on a public exchange for fund raising through visibility and selling stock. Being a public company isn’t cheap or easy. Yet reverse mergers are not all bad.

Merger 261

Merger OTC IPO Due Diligence 261

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 29, 2022

Today the rate of startups going public (IPO – Initial Public Offering) is finally up from the dead zone of the last two decades, and is now double the rate back in 1999. Thus, today around 90 percent of successful startups are still acquired by bigger companies versus an IPO, as the safer and preferred method of growth and funding.

IPO 245

IPO SEC Prospectus Startup 245

ReadWriteStart

OCTOBER 2, 2021

In addition, they can neither issue stocks nor bonds. And even though an LLC is legally required to report its revenues, profits, and losses, it does not have to pay corporate income taxes on profits. While LLCs cannot issue stocks, they can sell bonds to investors. For one, they have no liability protection.

Technical Review 78

Technical Review LLC IPO Stock 78

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. Your firm worked with an investment banking firm that underwrote and offered stock (typically on the NASDAQ exchange) to the public.

Silicon Valley 217

Silicon Valley IPO Technical Review Venture Capital 217

David Teten

JANUARY 19, 2021

More and more startups are pursuing Revenue-Based VCs , but “RBI” doesn’t fit everyone. Flexible VC 101: Equity Meets Revenue Share. By tying payments to actual revenues, founders and investors remain aligned around the company’s real-time performance, good or bad. Flexible VC: Revenue -based. Of the Inc.

Cofounder 78

Cofounder Technical Review Equity Dividend 78

Steve Blank

APRIL 10, 2019

For most startup employee’s startup stock options are now a bad deal. Why Startups Offer Stock Options. In tech startups stock options were here almost from the beginning, first offered to the founders in 1957 at Fairchild Semiconductor , the first chip startup in Silicon Valley. Not everyone got the same amount of stock.

Stock Options 333

Stock Options Stock Vesting Common Stock 333

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 5, 2011

On a public stock market that is the value that investors place on future free cash flows of the business discounted to today’s date to account for the time value of money. The price of public stocks change instantly in reaction to news that is perceived to affect the future value of that company. Here’s what I mean.

Pre-Money Valuation 336

Pre-Money Valuation Valuation Silicon Valley Stock 336

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!” They have have raised $2-3 million, built a product that has some amount of market traction and got to annualized revenues of around $1 million.

Startup 418

Startup Revenue Technical Review Flash 418

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 11, 2013

Today the rate of startups going public (IPO – Initial Public Offering) is at an all-time low, and most entrepreneurs avoid this option like the plague, knowing the process is painful, and public company executives are seen as greedy sharks. entrepreneur Mark Zuckerberg startup investor IPO exit' Going public is an expensive process.

IPO 242

IPO SEC Prospectus Startup 242

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 8, 2019

A reverse merger is the acquisition of an already public company (usually a dormant shell) to avoid the Initial Public Offering (IPO) process and cost, to quickly get your startup on a public exchange for fund raising through visibility and selling stock. Being a public company isn’t cheap or easy. Yet reverse mergers are not all bad.

Merger 303

Merger OTC IPO Due Diligence 303

Agile VC

NOVEMBER 6, 2013

Twitter’s IPO has garnered a ton of attention in the tech and popular press. So their revenue figures, pre IPO financing and ownership, and other info is all widely available. If this were a math class, I’d just say the proof is evident but if you want some data on Twitter’s 2013 YTD revenue here you go.

IPO 194

IPO Aggregator B2B Internet 194

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

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 16, 2011

It has been at least a decade since going public via an Initial Public Offering (IPO) has been considered a credible exit strategy for startups. Usually a small company can sell about 20 percent of its stock in an IPO. In 1999, there were 486 IPOs nationwide; just 10 years later, in 2009, there were only 63.

IPO 223

IPO Social Media Media Exit Strategy 223

Steve Blank

MARCH 16, 2016

Risk capital takes equity (stock ownership) in your company instead of debt (loans) in exchange for cash. A liquidity event means that the equity (the stock) you sold your investor can now be converted into cash.) This happens when you either sell your company ( M&A ) or go public (an IPO.) Know the End from the Beginning.

Liquidity Event 120

Liquidity Event Founder Liquidation Preference Venture Capital 120

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 1, 2009

Consumer spending is 70% of the economy and will continue to be stretched – We can look all we want at tech innovation, VC funding cycles and hot M&A deals, but ultimately growth and therefore investment must be underpinned by revenue. Unemployment coupled with a stock market drop will stop this spending cold IMHO.

Technical Review 269

Technical Review Stock Hawaii Early Stage 269

YoungUpstarts

JANUARY 10, 2018

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. This the first and foremost way to begin evaluating the sellability of your company. Profile Your Customer Base. billion within a week.

Valuation 145

Valuation Technical Review Exit Strategy Metrics 145

Agile VC

AUGUST 9, 2012

The company’s lost nearly 80% of its value from the peak earlier this year, in the run up to Facebook’s IPO, and currently trades below $3/share… a fraction of it’s IPO price of $10. So I can appreciate why public stock investors would be leery of Zynga and why the stock price has been punished recently.

Stock 160

Stock LBO .Net Valuation 160

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 13, 2018

A reverse merger is the acquisition of an already public company (usually a dormant shell) to avoid the Initial Public Offering (IPO) process and cost, to quickly get your startup on a public exchange for fund raising through visibility and selling stock. Being a public company isn’t cheap or easy. Yet reverse mergers are not all bad.

Merger 198

Merger OTC IPO Due Diligence 198

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 3, 2014

A reverse merger is the acquisition of an already public company (usually a dormant shell) to avoid the Initial Public Offering (IPO) process and cost, to quickly get your startup on a public exchange for fund raising through visibility and selling stock. entrepreneur funding IPO reverse merger Stock Exchange'

Merger 246

Merger OTC IPO Stock 246

Gust

JANUARY 31, 2013

Modern theories of economics and finance teach us that in a world of perfect information, the market will decide what a fair price is for any company’s stock at any point in time based on its current financial condition, results of past operations, analysts’ forecasts of future performance, industry conditions and so on.

SEC 158

SEC Prospectus United States Technical Review 158

The Equity Kicker

SEPTEMBER 27, 2013

Whilst that’s not an outrageous increase from $10.5bn from what we know of Twitter’s finances it seems pretty spicy from a multiples perspective – just north of key comps Facebook, LinkedIn and Yelp on a revenue basis at 15x the 2014 estimate of $1bn, and 65x estimated 2014 EBITDA (Facebook 36x, LinkedIn 159x).

IPO 98

IPO Valuation Stock Advertising 98

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

Start Up Blog

FEBRUARY 20, 2012

The upcoming Facebook IPO is a very interesting scenario. There are a lot of facts and figures being thrown around, but from my point of view I’m interested in just a few of them and what they mean for tech entreprepreneurs: 100 Billion Valuation: If the IPO is successful the expected valuation is 33 times their current revenue.

IPO 76

IPO Valuation Acquisition Stock 76

YoungUpstarts

MAY 6, 2019

How much revenue are you generating on an annual basis? These partnerships need to bring in more revenue. Your stock can be a success and double within a day, or it can be a failure and take ages to grow. There is a complete process to go for an IPO. What type of funding do you require and how you require it? Acquisition.

Startup 113

Startup Technical Cofounder Merger Early Stage 113

BeyondVC

APRIL 4, 2018

Look at the Dropbox IPO which priced above its initial value and came out white hot at the end of one of the worst weeks in stock market performance. Couple that with Mulesoft being bought for 21x TTM revenue ( see Tomasz Tunguz analysis ) at $6.5 Their growth to over $509mm of revenue from $281mm 2 years ago is a case in point.

Cloud 60

Cloud Agile Architecture Azure 60

Agile VC

FEBRUARY 2, 2012

Facebook S-1: The Most Anticipated IPO in a Decade. Here’s my first look at Facebook viewed through the lens of their IPO filing. How They Make Money : Facebook’s primary revenue stream is of course selling advertising on Facebook.com, which in total accounts for 85% of revenue. 2011 YoY Revenue Growth: 88%.

IPO 100

IPO South Korea Venezuela Revenue 100

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

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 16, 2010

But VC is an “illiquid asset&# so funds didn’t disappear quickly - In 2000/01 the stock market quickly adjusted punishing investors in the NASDAQ and in individual public technology stocks. What accelerated this was the collapse of the public stock markets. But in bad economies many angels get burned.

LP 311

LP Technical Review Early Stage Silicon Valley 311

Scalable Startup

OCTOBER 26, 2014

Imagine if you’re in Silicon Valley right now with no equity in a tech startup, but associated with several people getting six figure “bonuses” because they somehow wound up with some stock in one. If the startup actually makes it to an IPO, there is actually something you can do. The rewards are pretty amazing.

Silicon Valley 25

Silicon Valley Hawaii Angel Investor IPO 25

ReadWriteStart

JULY 18, 2011

Kedrosky: "In the 90's I was an analyst through all this [tech investment and IPO] madness. These people are like shopkeepers trying to stock their shelves with goods they can sell to other people. They want to stock their shelves and they have nothing. You want to build your own IPO and exit.

Investment Bankers 153

Investment Bankers Technical Review Cofounder Due Diligence 153

Version One Ventures

JUNE 29, 2017

As one can imagine, the media commentary was not pretty, calling the IPO a disappointment , the stock stale out of the box , and lamenting that the stock forgot to pop. This is an incredible entrepreneurial achievement that very, very few founders ever get to.

IPO 143

IPO Stock Valuation Business Model 143

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.

Valuation 309

Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Later Stage Non-Compete 309

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 17, 2017

It was a stock option incentive related “expense” but I bet you didn’t know that because in an era where we only read the headlines — they must be a train wreck losing billions. Revenue When I look at an income statement I start by focusing on the revenue line. You need to understand the “quality” of the revenue.

Stock Options 227

Stock Options Startup Dilution Venture Capital 227

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

North America 100

North America Chicago Boston Silicon Valley 100

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 25, 2023

Equity is stock, but private company stock has no market value until the company goes public or is sold or merged with another company. IPO – public company initial public stock offering. Here are three important reasons for the question: Good investment paybacks normally require an exit event.

Exit Strategy 264

Exit Strategy Private Equity Equity Technical Review 264