Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 9, 2012

There simply aren’t a lot of exits above $100m or even IPOs. There is a mythology amongst some LPs (funds that invest in VCs) and some VCs that “entry price doesn’t matter – only investing in the absolute best entrepreneurs.” ” That’s b t. People justify winners after the fact.

Technology 323

Technology PR Startup IPO 323

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.&# And this is happening in mezzanine (pre-IPO) deals as well. And post IPO deals, although these tend to correct more quickly. But everything has intrinsic value. Why does all this matter?

Saudi Arabia 309

Saudi Arabia Valuation IPO Technical Review 309

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 5, 2011

Early-stage investors in technology startups are only looking for growth-oriented companies that can achieve an “exit&# someday – either via selling your company to a larger company or via an IPO. The obvious thing that investors think about is making a financial return on the investment they made in your company.

Pre-Money Valuation 336

Pre-Money Valuation Valuation Silicon Valley Stock 336

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 6, 2017

He was running to be the 42nd mayor of Los Angeles and he outlined his vision to “open up the city government to technology and innovation” if he were elected. He wanted to bring the same level of technology focus and energy that Mayor Bloomberg had brought to New York City. link] The Snap IPO Happened. What Next LA?

IPO 191

IPO Los Angeles South Korea Armenia 191

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. What Has Changed in Financing?

Pre-Money Valuation 471

Pre-Money Valuation Valuation Venture Capital Early Stage 471

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 17, 2010

And we’re left with a city with idyllic weather, major commerce, the media center of the world, and a great emerging technology scene. But we have a great city for building technology companies. You can find very talented technology executives. But we do have great technology developers. You don’t.

Silicon Valley 290

Silicon Valley Technology Los Angeles Southern California 290

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 1, 2009

Bad stock markets mean less IPO’s and lower prices for M&A. Tags: Pitching VCs Start-up Advice VC Industry startup technology vc venture capital. This has a tangible impact on the valuation of start-ups and the pace of investment. If the stock market holds then the pace of VC may hold steady.

Technical Review 269

Technical Review Stock Hawaii Early Stage 269

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 26, 2015

If you grew up inside of Facebook through its rise, its IPO and it becoming an 800-pound gorilla you will see the world through that lens precisely because you are so powerful that you’re used to getting your way because you’re, well, Facebook. Even big countries must be mindful of Hobbesian forces.

Oauth 150

Oauth Software Review Technical Review IPO 150

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 12, 2010

In the technology world there are a few websites that most startups track to keep up with the latest financings, acquisitions, product announcements and gossip: BusinessInsider, TechCrunch, Mashable, GigaOm, etc. Retail investors were burned in IPOs in 2000, Consumers getting burned by services disappearing) Minutes 31-35.

Seed Stage 232

Seed Stage Valuation Private Equity Venture Capital 232

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 15, 2010

In the former case many people scoffed at paying up for Google at IPO. Rumored: Digital Sky Technologies. money off the table) given the dearth of IPO’s and M&A over the past few years? - Many other people over paid for Chemdex, VerticalNet, Pets.com, etc. Time will tell. So far it seems the former.

Venture Capital 271

Venture Capital Affiliate Valuation San Francisco 271

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 1, 2016

We All Know That Dollars into Venture Have Gone Up … As a starting point, we know that the dollars into venture have steadily rebounded to pre great-recession levels, with just under $30 billion committed to US technology venture capital in 2015. …But LPs Have Been Putting Out More Money Than They Are Getting Back. .”

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital LP Silicon Valley Marketing 150

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 13, 2011

My initial desire to blog came from something that’s always been my approach to investing – I’m a nerd and I love to play with the technology and part of my approach has really been to understand things both at a user level and at a reasonably deep tentacle level. Brad on blogging. How did you start blogging? “My Human Computer Interaction.

Technical Review 288

Technical Review Venture Capital Silicon Valley Software Review 288

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 10, 2010

If you don’t know Montgomery & Co it is one of the premier technology & media focused investment banks in the country (and as Michael corrected me they also have a strong Healthcare / Med tech practice). What does the market look like for IPO’s and is this likely to improve? We discussed: 1. 1 party = low price.

IPO 242

IPO Venture Capital Private Placement Cofounder 242

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. It takes less to start a business these days – We all know that it takes less to start a technology company these days.

LP 311

LP Technical Review Early Stage Silicon Valley 311

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!” If you spent the 3 years perfecting some hugely differentiated technology IP that may also be different. One of them is profitability.

Startup 418

Startup Revenue Technical Review Flash 418

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

OCTOBER 12, 2014

Prorata rights are one of the most important rights of a private market technology investors and yet are seldom fully understood. They often create the biggest tensions between investors who are investing at different stages in the business. Why prorata rights are now sought out by LPs.

Technical Review 336

Technical Review Later Stage Early Stage LP 336

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 27, 2012

A local tech winner really creates a generational technology opportunity in the way nothing else can. That IPOs and then continues rising. Tent-pole Local Tech Companies – Seattle has them – Amazon & Microsoft. San Diego has Qualcomm. Austin has Dell. San Antonio has RackSpace. That has a B on the front. I can feel it.

Community 378

Community San Diego Silicon Valley Los Angeles 378

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 2, 2010

A 1997 vintage is likely to perform much better than a 2000 vintage because the former got to ride the dot com bonanza and likely saw some quick IPOs and crazy trade sales while the latter is more likely filled with many companies that never reached the promise land (or are still trying). Why does vintage matter to you?

Venture Capital 269

Venture Capital Balance Sheet Early Stage Software Review 269

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.

Technical Review 312

Technical Review Due Diligence Spain Warrant 312

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 4, 2010

They’ve had a total of 12 deals that have IPO’d. Investors: Allen Morgan of Mayfield Fund, ff Asset Management, Bobby Yazdani, Nova Spivack of Lucid Ventures, Zelkova Ventures, Paige Craig, Tom McInerney, Michael Yavonditte of Quigo Technologies, Ofer Ronan. Raising $75mm in IPO, values company at $515mm.

IPO 236

IPO .Net Venture Capital Strategic Investors 236

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. High burn-rates fueled by over investment – One of the most damning things that happened to the start-up markets in 97-00 and 05-08 was the overfunding of technology companies.

Burn Rate 263

Burn Rate Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Private Equity 263

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 23, 2015

He or she has worked at some very successful big technology or media companies and went to a great school. It will likely IPO in the coming years. The narrative of this discussion is something like this: I meet a 35-40-year-old founder with two kids and mortgage. million property buys you what you imagined $250,000 would have.

Technical Review 150

Technical Review Liquidation Preference Silicon Valley IP 150

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 25, 2015

I asked Jason one important question before he made up his mind: Do you really want to IPO this company? Over the next year we will expand internationally, we will double our staff members, will we open multiple technology pods and we will invest in further building out our sales, professional services and customer support.

Silicon Valley 150

Silicon Valley IPO Demand Revenue 150

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 21, 2010

When to get a lawyer - If you plan to be a venture or angel backed technology company (what I mostly write about) the best time to start meeting and getting to know lawyers is long before you ever start your company. When we want to sell or IPO companies they’re there again. Many people start companies arse backwards.

Southern California 318

Southern California Silicon Valley IP Stock Options 318

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2013

A cautious person wouldn’t try to pry people out of Twitter right before their IPO to” join my cause!!” Have the breakthrough technology. You simply can’t afford to be overly cautious or you’ll never achieve anything. Are tacking. A $1 trillion global market. It’s inefficient. To change things.

Startup 417

Startup Dilution San Diego Stock Options 417

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 1, 2011

If you take a snapshot during an extraordinary surge in valuations, M&A activity, IPOs and thus wealth creation you’d echo John Doerr’s famous quote from 1999 that, “The Internet is the greatest legal creation of wealth in history.&# That’s how it felt then and a bit how it feels in May 2011.

IPO 391

IPO Finance Valuation Naming 391

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 It was only a year ago that many in the Venture Capital industry were predicting that “winter was coming” and to be fair the author of this post was chief amongst them. Ok, Suster.

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital Saudi Arabia Kuwait Burn Rate 150

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 13, 2009

We had scrambled to get a product to market, built our first website, rapidly hired a technology team, raised our seed round of capital ($1.5 There was talk of an IPO in 12 months. Tags: Start-up Advice startup technology. My Story: The public coming out for my first company, BuildOnline, was in early 2000. We were hot.

South Africa 310

South Africa Europe Disintermediation Poland 310

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SEPTEMBER 18, 2014

The frantic pace of technology cycles, the amount of tech news, the blogs, the conferences, the demo days, the announcements, the fundings, the IPOs. It could be virtual reality, online video, bitcoin, payments systems, mobile gaming, mobile security, agriculture technologies, drones, MOOCs, whatever. It’s exhausting.

Technical Review 317

Technical Review Incubator IPO Email 317

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 21, 2011

So my strategy was to focus on technology heavy companies who could bring measurability and performance to inefficient parts of the digital media landscape. Every generation of new technology and new media starts out by emulating those that came before them without realizing that things are fundamentally different when you change media types.

Mobile 329

Mobile Advertising Affiliate Internet 329

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 19, 2010

But let me put it this way – investors who have buyers’ ears are less likely to have zeros (they can bury good technology and still try to recover their investments) and are far more likely to architect winning M&A deals. In a world with less IPOs this skill matters greatly.

Silicon Valley 280

Silicon Valley Early Stage Portfolio Chad 280

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 23, 2011

In the late 90’s he saw the internet boom and helped start IronPlanet.com, a construction equipment marketplace that is nearing an IPO. They had a great team and interesting technologies. He then worked in consulting which gave him a broad base of business experience working with the newspaper, cable, and advertising industries.

Vertical 265

Vertical Curation Boston Burn Rate 265

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 15, 2010

But knowing the right people and knowing a market only works well for angel investors in bullish tech markets in which IPO’s happen quickly (97-99) or where larger companies are actively scooping up little tiny companies at sub $50 million valuations to drive innovation (05-08, 10-?). Obviously I agree.

Angel Investor 284

Angel Investor Early Stage Cap Table Deal Flow 284

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JULY 1, 2010

Scott left the company, which eventually IPO’d and became Internet Brands. Danish VOIP technology company founded in 2006 by entrepreneur Tanveer Sharif. They realized through the process that regulations would make this a very costly business and one that they couldn’t build as he had envisioned. Total raised: $10.5mm.

San Francisco 248

San Francisco Venture Capital Analytics Government 248

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 23, 2012

IPO markets had burned an entire cycle of retail stock investors and many institutional investors to boot. This world of local meets retail meets digital advertising portends to technology disruption and with it VC opportunities. I believe it’s truly morning in the technology sector. The Exit Problem.

Venture Capital 347

Venture Capital Technical Review LP Mobile 347

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 11, 2011

I thing I’ve learned over the years is that technology purists hate advertising even when it is that revenue stream that truthfully drives much of our industry. In 1995 Netscape IPO’d and browsers started to become more prevalent. He invented the category of sponsored search. That gave Google a huge cost advantage.

Product 350

Product Tuvalu Dilution Incubator 350