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SEPTEMBER 15, 2022

At our mid-year offsite our partnership at Upfront Ventures was discussing what the future of venture capital and the startup ecosystem looked like.

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Technical Review Pre-Money Valuation San Francisco Valuation 416

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JULY 23, 2014

There has been much discussion in the past few years of the changing structure of the venture capital industry. The rise of alternative sources of capital (crowd funding and the like). The overall trends in our industry have breathed a new life into the venture capital industry. The iPhone was released.

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Technical Review Venture Capital Valuation Pre-Money Valuation 398

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DECEMBER 11, 2022

Something happened in the past 7 years in the startup and venture capital world that I hadn’t experienced since the late 90’s — we all began praying to the God of Valuation. How might our next phase of the journey seem brighter, even with more uncertain days for startups and capital markets? What happened?

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Valuation San Francisco Ratchet Liquidation Preference 466

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SEPTEMBER 18, 2014

On the phone … Me: So, you raised venture capital? Maybe an IPO – who knows? How about you close your first capital (say $500,000) and put in the docs that you have up to [90] days to raise an additional $1 million at the same price at your discretion. We raised a seed round. About $1 million. Me: With a cap?

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Venture Capital Liquidation Preference Valuation Term Sheet 417

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FEBRUARY 6, 2017

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. 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 Baidu alone raised $3.2

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OCTOBER 21, 2009

On the third Wednesday of every month I co-chair a meeting called the SoCal VCA (venture capital alliance), which represents participants from all of the top venture capital firms in Southern California as well as prominent members of the Tech Coast Angels (TCA). What are your predictions for the road ahead.

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Technical Review IPO Southern California Venture Capital 241

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MAY 23, 2012

Many observers of the venture capital industry have questioned whether its best days are behind it. Looking ahead at the next decade I am excited by what I believe will be viewed as one of the best and most rational investment periods for venture capital due to seven discrete factors: 1. The Exit Problem. Morning in VC.

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Venture Capital Technical Review LP Mobile 347

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APRIL 8, 2010

I was on This Week in Venture Capital today with Jason Calacanis talking about the big VC deals at the moment and talking about the VC industry. IPO market is back. We discussed some of the recent IPOs. Talked about the roles of partners, venture partners, associates and principals in a VC. - and much more.

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Venture Capital IPO Valuation Deal Flow 232

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APRIL 13, 2011

Yeah, that was when I changed for me…” “…there was so much positive feedback on demystifying this one element of venture capital. Brad’s start in Venture Capital. Was about a billion dollars on the IPO” and “was one of the first web analytics companies. Venture Capital in Boulder and other smaller communities. “So

Technical Review 288

Technical Review Venture Capital Silicon Valley Software Review 288

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JUNE 22, 2011

And this is happening in mezzanine (pre-IPO) deals as well. And post IPO deals, although these tend to correct more quickly. If everybody is over-paying for early-to-mid stage deals you’d imagine that these all need to feed into a frenzied M&A and IPO market that will garner big returns for these risks investors are taking.

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Saudi Arabia Valuation IPO Technical Review 309

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SEPTEMBER 10, 2021

how on Earth could the venture capital market stand still? One of the most common questions I’m asked by people intrigued by but also scared by venture capital and technology markets is some variant of, “Aren’t technology markets way overvalued? What Does this Mean for a Venture Capital Firm?

Pre-Money Valuation 471

Pre-Money Valuation Valuation Venture Capital Early Stage 471

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SEPTEMBER 27, 2012

Recently I wrote a post arguing to make the definition of a Startup more inclusive than that to which Silicon Valley, fueled by Venture Capital return profiles, would sometimes like to attach to the word. It creates recycled capital + 2nd-time entrepreneurs … on steroids. That IPOs and then continues rising.

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Community San Diego Silicon Valley Los Angeles 378

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AUGUST 12, 2010

Retail investors were burned in IPOs in 2000, Consumers getting burned by services disappearing) Minutes 31-35. Tags: This Week in Venture Capital. Too many people have been burned in past and if angels get burned that will kill a lot of needed early investors. Angel investors need to be smart and not just follow-along. (ie.

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Seed Stage Valuation Private Equity Venture Capital 232

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OCTOBER 1, 2009

Bad stock markets mean less IPO’s and lower prices for M&A. It’s my job to invest wisely in entrepreneurs who are capital efficient, who innovate in ways that pay off economically in good markets or bad and who plan for worst-case scenarios. If the stock market holds then the pace of VC may hold steady.

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Technical Review Stock Hawaii Early Stage 269

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APRIL 2, 2010

This is part of my series on Understanding Venture Capital. Tags: Pitching VCs Raising Venture Capital VC Industry. I’m writing this series because if you better understand how VC firms work you can better target which firms make sense for you to speak with. Why does vintage matter to you?

Venture Capital 269

Venture Capital Balance Sheet Early Stage Software Review 269

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MAY 24, 2021

The Abundance of Late-Stage Capital Benefits All A lot has been said about the negatives of the late-stage capital that has entered the VC world but the reality is that it also is incredibly important at funding “the long game” and letting many of these companies remain independent and ultimately IPO.

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Venture Capital LP Valuation Later Stage 363

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MARCH 6, 2017

It’s hard to remember that in 2012 it was still hard for LA VCs to persuade investors into funds that LA was a viable market for great venture capital funds or convince many VCs that LA was a market worth investing dollars into startups. link] The Snap IPO Happened. He truly is a gifted thinker, orator and more importantly doer.

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IPO Los Angeles South Korea Armenia 191

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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 raised $5 million in venture capital to fund growth. One of them is profitability. What did they actually do?

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Startup Revenue Technical Review Flash 418

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OCTOBER 8, 2014

Given how efficient markets are when a large market like LA starts to blossom it attracts capital pretty quickly. billion in venture capital to LA’s technology startups and 2014 will shatter that figure. In the last full year where we have data LA attracted $1.5

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Los Angeles Silicon Valley Entrepreneur Seattle 376

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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 former is much more likely than the latter. The risk wouldn’t be appropriate.

Pre-Money Valuation 336

Pre-Money Valuation Valuation Silicon Valley Stock 336

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JULY 16, 2010

One is the “denominator problem&# which says that if an LP invests X% (the denominator) into “alternative investments&# such as venture capital and if their total amount available to invest (the numerator) goes down by 30% then the amount they allocate to VC will by definition need to go down by 30% to stay the same percentage.

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LP Technical Review Early Stage Silicon Valley 311

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NOVEMBER 13, 2014

billion IPO), Envestnet (Chicago, $1.25 billion IPO), HealthDataInsights (Las Vegas, $400 million) as well as LA (Maker Studios $1 billion, TrueCar $1.3 As I like to say (and as Kara humbly hates when I do so in front of others) … she has a much better resume to a venture capital partner than I do.

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Partner Las Vegas Los Angeles Baltimore 408

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JULY 10, 2010

This episode of This Week in Venture Capital featured Michael Montgomery, president of Montgomery & Co. For entrepreneurs who want to learn about how to work with investment banks, how to position yourself to be acquired and what the IPO markets look like this is the episode to watch. TechCrunch.

IPO 242

IPO Venture Capital Private Placement Cofounder 242

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OCTOBER 12, 2014

And because they are so much larger by the time they go public (think: Facebook $104 billion, Twitter $18 billion, Alibaba > $200 billion) the private value of the most successful companies pre-IPO is more more valuable than it ever was. Why prorata rights are now sought out by LPs.

Technical Review 336

Technical Review Later Stage Early Stage LP 336

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OCTOBER 1, 2009

So what is driving the new energy in the remaining venture capital firms when we kept hearing how much the whole industry was “against the ropes?&# … 1. IPOs and M&A have returned – and with them the investment bankers have staged a rebound. – IPO-able in any normal market.

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IPO Investment Bankers Venture Capital Marketing 255

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AUGUST 25, 2015

Last night I wrote a post about how the fall in the stock market over a 3-day period may affect the venture capital markets. Let me give you the quick summary of what I said yesterday: Public markets affect venture funding. public stocks go up and privates can grow into IPOs; or. So now what?

Balance Sheet 150

Balance Sheet Valuation Burn Rate Stock 150

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JUNE 17, 2017

Venture capital isn’t right for many business but if you do want to raise from a VC at some point you need to understand that often investors care more about growth than profits. They raised $5 million in venture capital to fund growth. Are you looking to potentially sell the company in the next year or two?

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Stock Options Startup Dilution Venture Capital 227

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MAY 4, 2010

They’ve had a total of 12 deals that have IPO’d. ReachLocal – we discussed this deal at length including what amount of revenue does it take to get to an IPO (Jim’s view, sub $100 million in fine as long as you have good margins and a strong growth rate). Raising $75mm in IPO, values company at $515mm.

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IPO .Net Venture Capital Strategic Investors 236

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AUGUST 14, 2009

They have an expectation that the IPO will be in 3 years and they were in at the ground floor. Most Venture Capital “A&# rounds (as of 2009) seem to start around $3 million pre-money and may go as high as $5-6 million pre-money if you’ve made a lot more progress or for some other reason the deal is “hot&#.

Silicon Valley 291

Silicon Valley Ireland Technical Review Valuation 291

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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. He was introduced through mutual friends to Highland Capital. At the time consumer internet venture capital was still suffering from the collapse of the Tech Bubble. 5:00 – 5:55).

Vertical 265

Vertical Curation Boston Burn Rate 265

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JULY 1, 2010

Scott left the company, which eventually IPO’d and became Internet Brands. Tags: This Week in Venture Capital. 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. Current round: $11mm Series-B led by Accel. See: paidContent.

San Francisco 248

San Francisco Venture Capital Analytics Government 248

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NOVEMBER 18, 2012

Think about it – most entrepreneurs who manage to raise seed money or venture capital usually raise enough money for 12-18 months maximum. Tamp down the enthusiasm your naive family has about your “impending IPO” (honey, when can we buy shares? Many times it’s less. And yet you have to.

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Monaco Cofounder Chicago Mexico 420

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SEPTEMBER 13, 2009

I’m not going to cover in this post the obvious post-show marketing tasks such as following up on all those business cards you grabbed, communicating with all those people who registered at your site and leveraging your new found fame to score venture capital. There was talk of an IPO in 12 months. Don’t drink it.

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South Africa Europe Disintermediation Poland 310

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MARCH 17, 2010

Funding is different – In Silicon Valley you have mega venture capital funds and many of them. TechCoast Angels backed GreenDot should be a major IPO this year. But we have a great city for building technology companies. If you decide to build a company in LA, here’s what you need to know: 1.

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Silicon Valley Technology Los Angeles Southern California 290

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MARCH 3, 2010

I couldn’t see how it was relevant to a room full of people, most of whom would never IPO. Tags: Entrepreneur Advice Raising Venture Capital Sales & Marketing Advice Start-up Advice Startup Advice. It went on for ages and was now 25 minutes into the session. The VCs were silent most of this time.

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Audience Venture Capital Restful Warrant 284

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SEPTEMBER 2, 2009

At some point, this breaks if their isn’t an exit or IPO. Tags: Pitching VCs Start-up Advice VC Industry startup technology vc venture capital. The VCs basically have liquidity in management fees along the way, in the sense they get paid decently along the way. I think it breaks for most people after 3-4 years.

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Founder Liquidation Preference Term Sheet Participating Preferred 329

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MARCH 11, 2011

In 1995 Netscape IPO’d and browsers started to become more prevalent. IdeaLab has created 75 companies, leading to 8 IPOs, 35 or so acquisitions and more than 5 companies worth in excess of $1 billion. That gave Google a huge cost advantage.

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Product Tuvalu Dilution Incubator 350