Steve Blank

MARCH 17, 2020

Next, take a look at your actual revenue each month – not forecast, but real revenue coming in each month. If you’re an early stage company, that number may be zero. Subtract your monthly gross burn rate from your monthly revenue to get your net burn rate. This math works in a normal market…. The World Turned Upside Down.

Burn Rate 436

Burn Rate Startup Valuation Sales Cycle 436

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 1, 2016

LPs See The Over-Valuations and Don’t Like It. LPs have followed the recent press about the over-valuation and over-funding of the startup industry, and they experience these phenomena first hand. The Biggest Area of Concern is Late Stage Investments. All isn’t completely rosy in the LP views of the venture industry.

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital LP Silicon Valley Marketing 150

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 18, 2020

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.

Hockey Stick 423

Hockey Stick Bootstrapping Sweat Equity Intellectual Property 423

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 4, 2016

Who would not want to joint the unicorns (recent startups with a current valuation of over $1 billion)? Before you bring on partners, develop intellectual property, raise capital, or generate revenues, you need to establish an official business entity. Incorporating a business entity early through online services.

Intellectual Property 120

Intellectual Property Startup Angel Groups Social Media 120

thebarefootvc

JANUARY 27, 2014

Do I think we are in a valuation bubble? I think that later stage valuations are frothy (for reasons I explain below) while earlier stage valuations are starting to stabilize from previous highs (with the exception of the superstar serial entrepreneur) - turns out scaling in a sea of competition (both startup and entrenched) is not so easy.

Technical Review 63

Technical Review Valuation Venture Capital Investment Bankers 63

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 15, 2016

There is much talk these days that startup valuations have decreased and may continue to do so and that the amount of time it takes to fund raise may take longer. The earlier the round, the less capital you need and the more reasonable your valuation the less time that is needed generally to raise capital.

Burn Rate 150

Burn Rate Cap Table Valuation Software Review 150

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.

Valuation 309

Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Later Stage Non-Compete 309

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. Hence they back companies with more ambition.

Later Stage 60

Later Stage Private Equity Venture Capital Valuation 60

This is going to be BIG.

SEPTEMBER 30, 2012

How else can you explain this headline matching a story about a professional social network still trying to explore revenues raising $17mm on an $80mm valuation? venture capitalists are now asking tougher questions about start-ups' revenue and profits.". Perhaps I need to rethink that. But second, how do you back this up?

Venture Capital 114

Venture Capital Marketing Term Sheet Software Review 114

The Next Web

SEPTEMBER 13, 2013

Many Asian entrepreneurs tell me that they want to raise funds from Silicon Valley firms because they perceive the valuations to be higher. But the problem with this is that most VCs in the Valley, especially early stage ones, only like to invest in companies that are within driving distance from their offices.

Asia 132

Asia Silicon Valley India Term Sheet 132

Berkonomics

AUGUST 3, 2023

My experience with early valuations by founders for friends… I’ve arrived at a significant number of companies that were looking for additional growth capital after a “friends and family” round and had to “clean up” the cap table more than a few times over the years. Often private equity investors will want control of the business as well.

Private Equity 118

Private Equity Valuation Cap Table Accredited Investor 118

VC Adventure

MAY 5, 2022

BUT (and you knew there was a but here given the post title…) it’s a poor way to compare the relative performance of funds early, and even into the mid/later, stages of a fund’s life. Both were valued at greater than 50x revenue (one was, I think, 70x revenue). This is a mistake. Many will not. But not now.

IRR 116

IRR Metrics Valuation LP 116

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 18, 2016

As an entrepreneur looking for professional investors, one of the quickest ways to lose credibility and get rejected is to start with a ridiculously high pre-money valuation. Equally bad is professing no valuation estimate at all, asking investors to “make me an offer.” First priority is real revenue, customers and contracts.

Intellectual Property 120

Intellectual Property Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Startup 120

David Teten

SEPTEMBER 23, 2017

Even for later-stage companies with predictable financials, the lack of liquidity, audited financials, and standardized metrics creates real challenges to scaling quantitative investing. Later stage investors are using private company marketplace services focused on more established companies, listed below under “Exit Investments”.

Private Equity 60

Private Equity Venture Capital Equity Technical Review 60

Berkonomics

JUNE 16, 2022

We can invent lots of metrics to measure progress for a leader, including revenue, profit, employee satisfaction, cost containment, percentage of available market, and more. I prefer a financial goal, such as “achieve $20 million in revenue within five years.” Have you stated a goal for others to follow?

Later Stage 62

Later Stage Early Stage Valuation Acquisition 62

Steve Blank

JUNE 15, 2011

A tech bubble is the rapid inflation in the valuation of public and private technology companies that exceeds their fundamental value by a large margin. Today, the signs of the new bubble are the Linked-In initial public offering (IPO), Facebook’s stratospheric valuation and the rapid rise of early-stage startup valuation.

Silicon Valley 327

Silicon Valley Stealth Valuation Mississippi 327

View from Seed

APRIL 30, 2015

” Venture debt gives you those options, and particularly for companies that wind up doing well, then on your same cash-out date, you’d likely have achieved a better milestone thanks to fueling your spend, which would translate into a better valuation. NVV: Let’s talk about the seed stage specifically. Business model?

Term Sheet 120

Term Sheet Equity Startup Seed Stage 120

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 19, 2017

Gross burn is your cost base and net burn is the difference between your revenue and costs. In general you should allow yourself 4–6 months of time to fund raise (longer if you’re later stage and require a much bigger round) so calculating anticipated burn rate is pretty easy. You start from the basics, which is if you raise $2.5

Burn Rate 212

Burn Rate Startup .Net Venture Capital 212

K9 Ventures

JUNE 5, 2015

There were massive late stage rounds because all the big funds wanted companies which already had traction. Low supply of companies with traction drove the valuations and deal sizes up. Seed stage was super tough. Valuations are rising to match. In the 80s and 90s a company would go public when it hit $20M in revenue.

Seed Stage 48

Seed Stage Venture Capital Early Stage Valuation 48

This is going to be BIG.

MAY 9, 2022

5) Is the post-money on your last round north of $30mm and you’ve yet to show meaningful and repeatable revenue traction that comes with positive contribution margins? So, yeah, that’s going to come down—especially because they likely got over their skis on valuation. 3) Do you need to raise a large amount of growth capital in 2022?

Stock 97

Stock Marketing Valuation Later Stage 97

Berkonomics

MARCH 21, 2019

If you are a going business with a track record of revenues, then the importance of accurate current financial statements cannot be overstated. If there is no record of revenues, see the “The Berkus Method” available with any search query for valuing the business before revenues. Let’s start with the basics.

Hockey Stick 63

Hockey Stick Liquidity Event Valuation Balance Sheet 63

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

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 5, 2012

It wouldn’t work anyway, since your valuation at that stage would be less than the funding, meaning you would have to give away all ownership for the money. 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. Growth stage.

Investment Bankers 241

Investment Bankers Venture Capital Startup Initial Public Offering 241

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?” How valuation multiples work Why did multiples become a shortcut-heuristic for estimating valuations in the first place?

Valuation 36

Valuation Balance Sheet Cofounder Forecast 36

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 13, 2010

It wouldn’t work anyway, since your valuation at that stage would be less than the funding, meaning you would have to give away all ownership for the money. 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. Growth stage.

Investment Bankers 231

Investment Bankers Venture Capital Startup Initial Public Offering 231

Gust

NOVEMBER 22, 2011

It wouldn’t work anyway, since your valuation at that stage would be less than the funding, meaning you would have to give away all ownership for the money. 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. Growth stage.

Venture Capital 171

Venture Capital Investment Bankers Angel Investor Initial Public Offering 171

ithacaVC

MARCH 11, 2016

Here is the post, which focused mostly on how 409A valuations are used for stock option purposes. And I think that early stage companies should take the risk and not use 409A valuations. As companies move to later stages and have meaningful revenues and profits then 409A valuations begin to make more sense.

Pre-Money Valuation 40

Pre-Money Valuation Stock Options Valuation Later Stage 40

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

Berkonomics

JUNE 8, 2017

It is most common to greatly overprice such a round of financing, valuing the enterprise well above what it may be worth at the moment for friends or related investors who do not have the sophistication or willingness to challenge the valuation. Do not expect grand valuations of your enterprise from these professional angels.

Private Equity 106

Private Equity Valuation Cap Table Accredited Investor 106

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 17, 2018

" 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. But if you want to add some in the comments section on Medium and I’ll make sure to read them.

Founder 242

Founder Dilution Software Review Later Stage 242

This is going to be BIG.

MARCH 30, 2015

I have a feeling that a lot of these "on demand" companies aren''t going to be as gamechanging as we think--and will come back down to earth with valuations that look more like temp agencies than the next big thing. But at what valuation? And, they aren''t necessarily revenues from other dot coms. So where does that leave us?

Hockey Stick 60

Hockey Stick Valuation Startup Maryland 60

ReadWriteStart

AUGUST 26, 2022

So first, we were much more sort of with a high growth rate, and we did not even care about how we got the revenue when we got it. And now we are much more careful about revenue quality revenues. So the quality of growth has implications on the revenue stream’s sustainability. Would you say that? . David Zhang.

Partner 132

Partner Cofounder Retention Acquisition 132

K9 Ventures

OCTOBER 10, 2017

Seed is the new Series A. (~$2M used get for building product, establishing product-market fit and early revenue). 6M-$15M used to scale customer acquisition and revenue). That post was written with later stage companies in mind, but I’m now starting to see the same issues crop up in companies at earlier stages as well.

Seed Stage 82

Seed Stage Finance Later Stage Equity 82

Feld Thoughts

NOVEMBER 2, 2016

The existential freakout that occurred in January and February seemed like the distant past with the lingering hangover being a clearer focus on valuation and overall funding needs from new investors. This is mostly impacting the later stages. As far as deal terms, is the pendulum favoring companies or investors?

Venture Capital 70

Venture Capital Private Equity Early Stage Valuation 70

cdixon.org

AUGUST 3, 2012

For consumer startups with transactional models, e.g. e-commerce, the number of users required is often far lower because revenue is the more important metric. Hence, many early-stage consumer startups are switching to transactional models. - VCs are increasingly focusing on B2B for early-stage investments.

Bridge Financing 86

Bridge Financing Early Stage Valuation Later Stage 86

Berkonomics

MARCH 31, 2016

We can invent lots of metrics to measure progress for a leader, including revenue, profit, employee satisfaction, cost containment, percentage of available market, and more. Email readers, continue here…] I prefer a financial goal, such as “achieve $20 million in revenue within five years.”

Later Stage 48

Later Stage Early Stage Valuation Acquisition 48

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 24, 2021

It has historically been the case that VCs would rather fund the promise of 100x in a company with almost no revenue than the reality of a company growing at 50% but doing $20+ million in sales. Case in point, Procore just went public and is trading at an $11 billion valuation. It literally drove FOMO. Maker Studios?—?sold

Venture Capital 363

Venture Capital LP Valuation Later Stage 363