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Why Companies are Not Startups

Steve Blank

The Enterprise: Business Model Execution We know that a startup is a temporary organization designed to search for a repeatable and scalable business model. Somewhere in the dim past of the company, it too was a startup searching for a business model. The question is – why? What Does this Mean?

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What Did I Learn From the First VC Check I Ever Wrote?

Both Sides of the Table

Invoca is now doing 10s of millions in recurring revenue and is growing > 75% year-over-year but it took the first 3 years to really build out the technology and acquire our initial enterprise clients. I mentioned that we sold our position in Kyriba for > $1 billion but when we invested it had virtually no revenue.

IP 223
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ESADE Business School Commencement Speech

Steve Blank

Companies horde cash and squeeze the most revenue and margin from the money they use. Unfortunately as we’ve learned from recent experience, using Return on Net Assets and IRR as proxies for efficiency and execution won’t save a company when their industry encounters creative disruption. Act Like a Startup.

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Intel Disrupted: Why large companies find it difficult to innovate, and what they can do about it

Steve Blank

As a consequence, corporations used metrics like return on net assets (RONA), return on capital deployed, and internal rate of return (IRR) to measure efficiency. Intel under their last two CEOs delivered more revenue and profit than any ever before. They knew how to execute the current business model. Lessons Learned.

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Term-sheets and Valuations: Thinking about Negotiations - Startups.

Tim Keane

If you look at the spreadsheet, you will see that the “Required Rate of Return” is expressed as an IRR.   Internal Rates of Return naturally compound, so a 50% IRR is 7.59   (If you plug in an IRR of 58.5%   Internal Rates of Return naturally compound, so a 50% IRR is 7.59 times at 5 years and 11.39

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High Returns On A Small Fund Challenge Low Returns On A Big Fund

David Teten

Moreover, VC funds on average earn approximately 2/3 of their revenue from fixed fees. Now, it is true, if you search you’ll find another Kaplan study that shows increasing fund size among sequential funds by the same manager has a negative correlation with return.”.

LP 114
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Fund Raising is a Means Not an End

Steve Blank

Sigh… What I should have been hearing is the search for the business model, specifically the progress on product/market fit, but I hear the fund raising story first at least 90% of the time. Just as a reminder, a startup is a temporary organization designed to search for a repeatable and scalable business model. What’s a Startup?