Steve Blank

JANUARY 22, 2014

Dino Vendetti a VC at Bay Partners, moved up to Bend, Oregon on a mission to engineer Bend into a regional technology cluster. Regional Angel funds that pool investors capital and typically make a one time investment in a startup, sometimes at an early stage but often at a slightly later stage. The Bend Experience.

Early Stage 286

Early Stage Silicon Valley Oregon Technical Review 286

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 4, 2016

Investors and partners now look only for a framework of your business essentials, within the context of your opportunity, solution, and financials. Before you bring on partners, develop intellectual property, raise capital, or generate revenues, you need to establish an official business entity.

Intellectual Property 120

Intellectual Property Startup Angel Groups Social Media 120

The Equity Kicker

AUGUST 19, 2015

If you read this Techrunch post profiling 50 of the current YC companies you will notice that many of them are up and running with customers and revenues. In the words of an alum from the 2006 cohort: Companies are joining YC at a much later stage.

Later Stage 60

Later Stage Private Equity Venture Capital Valuation 60

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. We’ve also become very adept at partnering with seed funds.

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital LP Silicon Valley Marketing 150

This is going to be BIG.

MAY 5, 2023

I understand that now, being an investor in companies that have over 100 employees, closing in on $100mm run rates, where it’s been a long time since I was a Board Observer and most of their interaction is with the bigger, later stage investors that came after me.

Later Stage 218

Later Stage Venture Capital Term Sheet Limited Partner 218

David Teten

SEPTEMBER 23, 2017

PEVCTech is partnering with Blue Future Partners to run the first large-scale survey of VCs’ technology stack. Johann Kratzer of Blue Future Partners , a fund of funds, observed, “The majority of the hundreds of funds we’ve diligenced rely predominantly on their relationships to source deals. Greylock Partners.

Private Equity 60

Private Equity Venture Capital Equity Technical Review 60

The Next Web

SEPTEMBER 13, 2013

In India, the leading firms are slightly more concentrated with Sequoia India , Accel Partners , and Nexus Venture Partners being a cut above the rest. The rest of Asia is still developing with far more angel and early-stage investors than mid-to-later stage folks. Golden Gate Ventures , Jungle Ventures , etc.),

Asia 132

Asia Silicon Valley India Term Sheet 132

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 27, 2014

We both agree that the later-stage valuations are being driven up to a point that feels irrationally priced [he uses b-round SaaS valuations as an example and I am willing to be even more broad based]. Most of those industries are fee-based and are competing on revenue growth. I don’t totally agree with that view.

Valuation 309

Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Later Stage Non-Compete 309

David Teten

JANUARY 21, 2021

(co-written with Jamie Finney, Founding Partner at Greater Colorado Venture Fund. This essay is part of a series on alternative VC: I: Revenue-Based Investing: a new option for founders who care about control. II: Who are the major Revenue-Based Investing VCs? IV: Should your new VC fund use Revenue-Based Investing?

Equity 78

Equity Revenue Cofounder Colorado 78

View from Seed

APRIL 30, 2015

Use good judgment, talk to your co-founders/investors/lawyers, and partner with a bank that values transparency and relationships such as SVB.]. NVV: Let’s talk about the seed stage specifically. Traction and revenue? NVV: How does venture debt differ from other types of traditional loans? Business model?

Term Sheet 120

Term Sheet Equity Startup Seed Stage 120

David Teten

SEPTEMBER 5, 2014

I’ve written on the expert network industry a fair amount in the past: see How to Earn More Consulting Revenue from Expert Networks and How Executives Can Work with Private Equity and Venture Capital Portfolio Companies. We’re backed by Bessemer Venture Partners, Silver Lake Partners, and individual investors like Ron Conway, among others.

New York 114

New York Technical Review Networking Advisory Board 114

Berkonomics

AUGUST 3, 2023

It’s an option, even though an expensive one. “ Strategic partner” investors: If you can find a strategic partner willing to invest in your enterprise, consider it a blessing. It is most often a win-win for both you and the strategic partner. Professional angels: This is the arena where I work and play.

Private Equity 118

Private Equity Valuation Cap Table Accredited Investor 118

OnlyOnce

MARCH 14, 2011

We all knew if the feature or function that the client was asking for was within the realm of the possible. • We were very, very focused on creating customers and revenue —We were a startup. If we drove revenue above costs, we got to take home a salary. You’ll build custom code for certain clients.

Software Review 67

Software Review Development Team Review Later Stage Technical Review 67

Reid Hoffman

MARCH 9, 2021

But I knew that there was a ton of work to be done to scale the business into multiple business lines, and that we would be better off with a CEO who was a grand master of organizational growth and had the product vision to serve as a later-stage co-founder. Sometimes, it’s not obvious.

Leadership 42

Leadership Technical Review Cofounder Later Stage 42

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 6, 2016

Most new teams are geographically dispersed these days anyway, so paying rent for an office should be differed to later stages when revenue is plentiful. Defer your desire for expensive perks and vacations until later when you have time for them. Favor profitability over revenue and user growth.

Bootstrapping 120

Bootstrapping Hockey Stick Sweat Equity Intellectual Property 120

View from Seed

FEBRUARY 27, 2019

Someone with strong analytical intuition can become a strategic thought partner with the leadership team and functional leaders. YoY, MoM growth rates, % revenue by customer segment) to concepts such as margin and working capital is tremendously useful when determining what operating metrics to focus on as a business.

Analytics 149

Analytics Hiring SQL Forecast 149

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 5, 2012

You also will find that the stage your startup is in dictates where you go to seek funding. Funding sources specialize in certain growth stages. Angel investors typically provide early-stage funding, while venture capital firms typically come in at later stages. Growth stage. Exit stage.

Investment Bankers 241

Investment Bankers Venture Capital Startup Initial Public Offering 241

K9 Ventures

JUNE 5, 2015

As the check size increases, investors tend to look for more traction, established revenue models, proven unit-economics, and other metrics that were previously associated with later stage companies. Moving up stream is a natural evolution of a venture fund, especially as you get more money and more partners.

Seed Stage 48

Seed Stage Venture Capital Early Stage Valuation 48

The Equity Kicker

NOVEMBER 28, 2016

Different investors place different weights on the three elements but as a rule earlier stage investors place more emphasis on the team and later stage investors place more emphasis on the market. Some very early stage investors go as far as to say that for them team is everything.

Seed Stage 60

Seed Stage Later Stage Early Stage Partner 60

Steve Blank

JUNE 15, 2010

Certain VC’s like the new class of Super-Angels and small VC funds specialize in the early stage of a startup where you are searching for a business model. And some larger funds that specialize in later stage deals may have a partner or two who likes to invest at this stage.

Founder 231

Founder Vesting Later Stage Early Stage 231

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 13, 2010

You also will find that the stage your startup is in dictates where you go to seek funding. Funding sources specialize in certain growth stages. Angel investors typically provide early-stage funding, while venture capital firms typically come in at later stages. Growth stage. Exit stage.

Investment Bankers 231

Investment Bankers Venture Capital Startup Initial Public Offering 231

View from Seed

JUNE 16, 2015

In my opinion, VCs shy away from directly answering the questions pertaining to “at what point a company is fundable” or give a generic answer regarding revenue. So, the bar will be different for each investor, and for very early stage fundraising, the goal is to find true believers more than convincing skeptics. (My

Boston 120

Boston Syndicate Syndication eCommerce 120

Gust

NOVEMBER 22, 2011

You also will find that the stage your startup is in dictates where you go to seek funding. Funding sources specialize in certain growth stages. Angel investors typically provide early-stage funding, while venture capital firms typically come in at later stages. Growth stage. Exit stage.

Venture Capital 171

Venture Capital Investment Bankers Angel Investor Initial Public Offering 171

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 17, 2018

A firm like ours has almost 100 different investments across all the various partners so we get to see some businesses very intimately. " Revenue doesn't pay your bills, GM does  —  @msuster 2/ Founders obsess with revenue as a vanity metric. Some even grow "bad" revenue just to show growth.

Founder 242

Founder Dilution Software Review Later Stage 242

The Startup Magazine

FEBRUARY 6, 2020

Second, the Board can usually avoid a public vote or referendum by leasing to a new partner, something politicians fear. Later stage Private Equity buyers rely more on existing hospital management and employees than in other industries. Capital Solutions.

Private Equity 129

Private Equity New York City Chicago Investment Bankers 129

This is going to be BIG.

FEBRUARY 21, 2021

It’s the “hook” that gets a team noticed in a partner meeting. Is it possible this gets to $100mm in annual revenue? I suspect there are a lot of later stage companies run by female founders not wanting to just keep raising round after round for as much money as possible. The answer is usually a very confident “Yes!”

Venture Capital 162

Venture Capital Cofounder Deal Flow Later Stage 162

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 13, 2018

You might start with a partner in the meeting or it might be a principal or associate. Sometimes engagement at the later stages seems to go dry. Sometimes I encourage teams to create new analysis on cohorts, future revenue projections, competitor reviews, pricing studies, etc. It doesn’t have to be a partner?—?every

Term Sheet 332

Term Sheet Due Diligence Campaign Sales 332

David Teten

DECEMBER 3, 2019

But in business, you want a lot of partners. In the private equity universe, most Partners have primary training as deal-makers, not as managers. See Bessemer Venture Partners’ A comprehensive guide to security for startups. Cobalt for General Partners helps GPs to optimize their fundraising strategy. 1) Manage the firm

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Software Review Analytics Private Equity 78

Berkonomics

JUNE 8, 2017

Strategic partner” investors: If you can find a strategic partner willing to invest in your enterprise, consider it a blessing. It is most often a win-win for both you and the strategic partner. And even with the significant cost of credit card debt, many entrepreneurs aggressively use existing cards to finance a startup.

Private Equity 106

Private Equity Valuation Cap Table Accredited Investor 106

VC Cafe

SEPTEMBER 22, 2022

“The Centaur is a business that reaches $100 million of annual recurring revenue (ARR)—a rare breed of cloud business, part of an elite subset of the growing unicorn herd.” The term ‘Centaur’, coined by venture capital firm Bessemer, indicates companies that achieved $100M in annual recurring revenue (ARR).

Software Review 109

Software Review B2C Open Source 109

Ben's Blog

AUGUST 17, 2020

OH in South Park, San Francisco (or on Zoom from Big Sky, Montana): “OMG, crazy – that firm just paid 100x revenue to invest in [insert hot startup here] – what could they be thinking?” Multiples are not only used to value companies today but also to value companies several years down the line.

Valuation 36

Valuation Balance Sheet Cofounder Forecast 36

Rob Go

NOVEMBER 30, 2015

In October, we held our annual Limited Partners meeting at NextView. It’s a lot of work to invest in early stage companies, and it’s easier to try to chase anything with traction and pay up for those opportunities. But, looking further downstream, the later stage funding landscape has been incredibly robust.

Later Stage 28

Later Stage Marketing Early Stage Ratchet 28

Hippoland

NOVEMBER 13, 2016

But as we’ve seen, these valuations can be hocus-pocus — even at later stage rounds, we’ve seen lots of companies of late fall from grace and become massively devalued overnight when they cannot raise their next round at a higher valuation. But what if a company is growing revenues but hasn’t raised a round in a while?

IRR 48

IRR Valuation Portfolio Due Diligence 48

Feld Thoughts

NOVEMBER 2, 2016

So – for early stage companies (Pre-Seed, Seed, Series A), the terms tend to be clean and simple, and valuation is in a modest range that probably has a median around $5m. For growth companies (usually Series D or later), there are pretty clear market comparables based on growth rate, revenue, gross margin %, and type of company.

Venture Capital 70

Venture Capital Private Equity Early Stage Valuation 70

ConversionXL

JUNE 2, 2022

In this article, you’ll learn how to define your ABM strategy so you can target the right accounts and increase your revenue. Think of it as a filter that helps you find the highest chance of return on investment, revenue potential, and profitability. Cloud-based data warehouse Snowflake had an ambitious goal to triple its revenue.

Customer 98

Customer Marketing Channel Acquisition 98

Gust

SEPTEMBER 5, 2012

” Yet in my little corner of Wonksville, Founder Institute CEO Adeo Ressi and Yoichiro “Yokum” Taku , a partner at my “alma mater” law firm Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati , created quite a stir this past week by announcing a new set of template deal documents dubbed “ Convertible Equity.”

Finance 134

Finance Convertible Security Equity Seed Stage 134

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 2, 2015

Richard Witten , is a former General Partner at Goldman Sachs with with 35+ years of experience in the global capital marketplace. Of the cohort that just graduated I think eight are completely self-sufficient and actually revenue positive and another 10 are in Series A round financing. . Kathryn : We definitely knew better.

Entrepreneur 120

Entrepreneur New York Cofounder Equity 120