Steve Blank

MARCH 16, 2016

Founders can now access the largest pool of risk capital that ever existed –in the form of Private Equity (Angel Investors, family offices , Venture Capitalists (VC’s) and Hedge Funds.). At its core Venture Capital is nothing more than a small portion of the Private Equity financial asset class.

Liquidity Event 120

Liquidity Event Founder Liquidation Preference Venture Capital 120

Steve Blank

JANUARY 22, 2014

This means that those winning deals have to make a ~30x return to provide the venture capital fund that 20% compound return (the 6x). The reality is that the super vast majority of liquidity events are M&A and the majority of those are in the under $100M range. A good return to your investors is 20% per year.

Early Stage 286

Early Stage Silicon Valley Oregon Technical Review 286

Steve Blank

JULY 15, 2010

If you take funding from a venture capital firm or angel investor and want to build a large, enduring company (rather than sell it to the highest bidder), this isn’t the decade to do it. The collapse of the IPO market and dysfunctional math in the venture capital community has stacked the odds against you. Here’s why.

Venture Capital 297

Venture Capital IPO Liquidity Event Entrepreneur 297

Steve Blank

APRIL 10, 2019

As Venture Capital emerged as an industry in the mid 1970’s, investors in venture-funded startups began to give stock options to all their employees. And Mark Suster of Upfront Capital has a great post that summarizes these changes. It’s called Growth capital. On its surface this was a pretty radical idea.

Stock Options 333

Stock Options Stock Vesting Common Stock 333

Steve Blank

JULY 19, 2010

Where’s My Liquidity Event. Some VC’s feel that if a startup has grown past the founder’s ability to manage and scale (and hasn’t had a liquidity event,) they should be able to remove the founding CEO and (at best) walk them out the door with only the stock they vested to that day. Filed under: Venture Capital.

Vesting 251

Vesting Liquidity Event Venture Capital Founder Vesting 251

Steve Blank

JUNE 23, 2016

But starting in the last quarter of that century and accelerating in this one, a new form of financing – risk capital (angel and venture capital) — emerged. Risk capital has provided financing for new ideas in the form of startups.

Architecture 227

Architecture IRR Balance Sheet Liquidity Event 227

Steve Blank

MARCH 18, 2011

The reward for doing so was a liquidity event via an Initial Public Offering. Filed under: Technology , Venture Capital. VC’s worked with entrepreneurs to build profitable and scalable businesses, with increasing revenue and consistent profitability – quarter after quarter. You have to deliver.

Internet 334

Internet IPO Silicon Valley Agile 334