Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 14, 2016

Deferred payments start with stretching the payables period but, more importantly, include giving employee equity in lieu of a higher salaries and negotiating vendor deferred payments out of future revenues. Match your office, facilities and computer equipment to the size of the staff you have today, and intend to have in the next six months.

Burn Rate 120

Burn Rate Hockey Stick Startup Salary 120

The Startup Magazine

AUGUST 29, 2019

The working capital loan is required to run a complete cycle of revenue-generating operations. However, funding involves the usual process of sharing the valuation details and business plan along with the project reports, which then determines the sanctioning of the loan.

Startup 97

Startup Government Valuation Technical Review 97

YoungUpstarts

SEPTEMBER 16, 2015

What’s critical for entrepreneurs to understand is that valuations for startups do not increase at a linear rate; they increase geometrically based on achieving the right milestones. The best entrepreneurs raise enough money to achieve a set of interim milestones and then raise capital again at a significantly increased valuation.

Valuation 100

Valuation Dilution Chicago Technical Review 100

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 5, 2023

The first step is to set your criteria, including a match for your sector type and stage, and then proactively seek out and contact the best candidates: Review profiles on professional social media sites. Friends and family are key at the idea and early development stages, when you have minimal business valuation.

Angel Investor 246

Angel Investor Stealth Bootstrapping Early Stage 246

Steve Blank

MARCH 17, 2020

Next, take a look at your actual revenue each month – not forecast, but real revenue coming in each month. Subtract your monthly gross burn rate from your monthly revenue to get your net burn rate. All your assumptions about customers, sales cycle and most importantly, revenue, burn rate and runway are no longer true.

Burn Rate 436

Burn Rate Startup Valuation Sales Cycle 436

Agile VC

APRIL 17, 2011

How They Make Money: Majority of Kayak’s revenue actually comes from advertising on their site (55%), not lead generation or referral fees to travel suppliers as you might think (more on this below). Financial Snapshot: 2010 Revenue: $170 million. Revenue growth: 51% YoY (2010), 1% YoY (2009), 131% YoY (2008).

Pre-Money Valuation 113

Pre-Money Valuation Liquidation Preference Dividend Common Stock 113

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 22, 2020

The first step is to set your criteria, including a match for your sector type and stage, and then proactively seek out and contact the best candidates: Review profiles on professional social media sites. Friends and family are key at the idea and early development stages, when you have minimal business valuation.

Stealth 434

Stealth Startup Angel Investor Bootstrapping 434

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 22, 2020

You need to know why and how they invest, and then focus on the ones who are the best match for your startup. Since they know that most startups fail, their target return is ten times investment, so be prepared to talk cost vs revenue and product life. Set a realistic valuation for your startup to attract angels.

Angel Investor 322

Angel Investor Valuation Syndicate Syndication 322

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 13, 2016

For example, if you have a proven product, real revenue, a big potential market, and are ready to scale up the business, every investor will be interested. On the other hand, if you are a new entrepreneur, still in the idea stage, professional investors will only tell you to come back later when you have traction (customers and revenue).

Matching 120

Matching Angel Investor Intellectual Property Investment Bankers 120

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 19, 2015

Thus it’s a waste of time for most entrepreneurs to be looking for investors until they have a product and some customer revenue. In today’s world of information overload, everyone relies on marketing and social media to find solutions to match their needs. Most founders bootstrap product development.

Technical Review 120

Technical Review Intellectual Property Cofounder Bootstrapping 120

ConversionXL

AUGUST 11, 2021

A sponsorship strategy should cover five areas: Assets Audience data Asset valuation Activations Market identification. This will help sponsors quickly identify if your audience matches their target market. However, matching demographics alone doesn’t guarantee ROI. Asset valuation. Start with demographic data.

Audience 139

Audience Social Media Email Ruby 139

Gust

JULY 23, 2014

So even if my own mother asked me to meet with you, and you were pitching me a biotech opportunity for a $10 million investment at a $90 million valuation, I might take the meeting, but it wouldn’t be particularly useful for either of us. Now comes the really tricky part: getting me to review all that stuff you just neatly uploaded.

Angel Investor 153

Angel Investor Elevator Pitch Pre-Money Valuation Technical Review 153

YoungUpstarts

JUNE 26, 2020

To do that you have to show how your market is big enough (a multi-billion dollar market) to support that kind of valuation. A few years ago, an entrepreneur was building an automated job matching site in Latin America. Myth #3: Take the Highest Valuation You Can Get. Valuation is a touchy subject for most entrepreneurs.

Finance 205

Finance Silicon Valley Valuation Startup 205

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

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.

Private Equity 118

Private Equity Valuation Cap Table Accredited Investor 118

This is going to be BIG.

OCTOBER 12, 2020

That leaves me out raising with two funds under my belt and no big exit and no unicorn valuations. One just got a seed term sheet for twice the valuation I put in at in the pre-seed and the other is doing $200k/month in revenue. There are others, but they’re still pretty young. Honestly, I hate fundraising.

LP 136

LP Technical Review Software Review Valuation 136

Steve Blank

MARCH 31, 2014

Companies horde cash and squeeze the most revenue and margin from the money they use. Look at the valuations of companies like Tesla, Illumina, and Twitter. The companies that can show “startup-like” growth rates of 50% plus per year will get stratospheric market valuations.

Private Equity 325

Private Equity Metrics China Intellectual Property 325

ReadWriteStart

SEPTEMBER 17, 2021

Generating solid revenue streams early on will make many of the fundraising problems much easier to handle later on. 4 Reasons to Focus on Revenue Before Fundraising. Along those same lines, revenue also makes investor negotiations much easier to navigate. More Independence. More Leverage. More Choice.

Startup 130

Startup Revenue Cofounder Angel Investor 130

Up and Running

AUGUST 29, 2014

A Certified Public Accountant (CPA) is a state licensed professional who offers various accounting, auditing, tax, financial analysis, business valuation and consulting services. CPA’s also can represent clients in case of an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) audit.

Small Business 87

Small Business CPA Government North America 87

Version One Ventures

OCTOBER 15, 2020

But the Lightning Network offers two entirely different value props that no other blockchain or smart contracts platform can match: Instant settlement in bitcoin with nearly 0 fees (Ethereum fees spiking to >$10 /transaction during the DeFi craze of sumer 2020 was a good reminder of its own scalability limitations).

Networking 168

Networking Global OTC Security 168

K9 Ventures

JUNE 5, 2015

Low supply of companies with traction drove the valuations and deal sizes up. Valuations are rising to match. A typical seed round valuation may be $6M pre, raising $2M for an $8M post, or even as high as an $8M pre, raising $2M for a $10M post. 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

Seeing Both Sides

JULY 21, 2014

As a result, the full revenue for each deal was recognized in that quarter as soon as the software was shipped. This allowed our revenue to skyrocket from $1.8 But the downside to our business model was that we did not have hardly any recurring revenue. . I later came to realize that r ecurring revenue is magic.

Revenue 54

Revenue Valuation Churn Rate Portfolio 54

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 14, 2009

Over the same 30 years, Venture Capital firms have honed their skills and strategies to match Wall Streets needs to achieve liquidity for their portfolio companies. While there was an occasional bad apple, the public markets rewarded companies with revenue growth and sustainable profits.

Silicon Valley 217

Silicon Valley IPO Technical Review Venture Capital 217

ConversionXL

JULY 16, 2021

Even then, treat your marketing messaging as a living document to match your ever-evolving audience. By collating key information in a framework, you’ll reduce internal feedback loops, improve collaboration, and empower consistency—which can increase revenue by 33%. . How to win the marketing game with strategic messaging.

Audience 127

Audience Framework Differentiation Software Review 127

ReadWriteStart

SEPTEMBER 17, 2021

Generating solid revenue streams early on will make many of the fundraising problems much easier to handle later on. 4 Reasons to Focus on Revenue Before Fundraising. Along those same lines, revenue also makes investor negotiations much easier to navigate. More Independence. More Leverage. More Choice.

Startup 78

Startup Revenue Cofounder Angel Investor 78

Up and Running

JUNE 14, 2017

For instance, to simulate an Uber-like experience, you could create a Facebook ride sharing page that matches riders with drivers on demand, by simply asking members to post their ride requests, then privately chatting with drivers. They matched buyers with these businesses manually on-demand.

Technical Review 96

Technical Review Distribution Redemption Demand 96

Tim Keane

MARCH 9, 2011

If, on the other hand, there is some near term prospect of cash flow (say within six months or a year) but no ability to repay in the meantime, then the entrepreneur may try and find a way to finance his “pre-revenue period” using friends and family money that accepts a somewhat lower payment in recognition of a relationship beyond just investing.

Finance 83

Finance Bootstrapping Startup Equity 83

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 10, 2016

Your product and company vision needs to match your appetite for funding. He stressed that your product and company vision needs to match your appetite for funding: One thing that we learned very early on was, have a plan for fund-raising. … And know that just because a venture failed doesn’t mean that you’re a failure.

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley Ohio Columbus Entrepreneur 120

Austin Startup

AUGUST 20, 2017

You can conduct group interviews, get your candidate “liquored up” (not a recommendation), and even have a trial period on the job to see if there’s a good match. Keep the valuations consistent with company progress. Do they perceive enough value to pay prices that create for you a profit margin that matches your business model?

Technical Review 48

Technical Review Software Review Cap Table Securities and Exchange Commission 48

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 27, 2012

In this section, you need to be passionate about recurring revenue, profit margin, and volume growth. Make sure your marketing budget matches the scope of your plan. Project both revenues and expense totals for next five years, and past three years. What is the current valuation of the company? Business model.

Elevator Pitch 247

Elevator Pitch Exit Strategy Burn Rate Merger 247

crowdSPRING Blog

NOVEMBER 1, 2013

The Pricing Model That Increased Our Free Trial Signups by 358% (and Revenue by 25%) – crowdspring.co/1alarDV. But a nearly $4 billion valuation? Proof That Typography And Posters Are A Perfect Match - crowdspring.co/1auMwjx. Don’t pay lip service to customer service | USA Today - crowdspring.co/1ioAoDm.

Social Media 94

Social Media Small Business Design Media 94

Berkonomics

NOVEMBER 27, 2019

The massive shift in revenue models in recent years. Sometimes, products are designed to make all their profit upon the recurring revenues from supplies or support. Usually that amount exceeds 50% of total revenues and is often much more. Call it “predictable revenue”. Call it the Netflix effect.

Revenue 62

Revenue Software Review Application Development Valuation 62

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 10, 2011

In this section, you need to be passionate about recurring revenue, profit margin, and volume growth. Make sure your marketing budget matches the scope of your plan. Project both revenues and expense totals for next five years, and past three years. What is the current valuation of the company? Business model.

Elevator Pitch 234

Elevator Pitch Exit Strategy Burn Rate Merger 234

Lightspeed Venture Partners

SEPTEMBER 21, 2013

to fund the company at a $6M post money valuation from a number of investors including Selena Gomez. Despite having over 500k downloads and making $450k in revenue over the last 21 months, he had only $185k left in the bank, which meant that he would be out of business in 90 days if he didn’t raise more money. and cost $0.86

Pre-Money Valuation 162

Pre-Money Valuation Valuation Dilution Distribution 162

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 13, 2016

The first step is to set your criteria, including a match for your sector type and stage, and then proactively seek out and contact the best candidates: Review profiles on professional social media sites. Friends and family are key at the idea and early development stages, when you have minimal business valuation.

Stealth 120

Stealth Startup Angel Investor Bootstrapping 120

Cracking the Code

NOVEMBER 10, 2009

Cloud accounting is all about matching revenue and costs to consumption…well, except for professional services! In regards to calculatimg the "Magic Number" - should the amount included as sales and marketing costs match the length of the sales cycle? Detailed SaaS Spreadsheet (Valuation and CAC benchmark).

Software Review 48

Software Review Cloud Technical Review Sales Cycle 48

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 19, 2010

In this section, you need to be passionate about recurring revenue, profit margin, and volume growth. Make sure your marketing budget matches the scope of your plan. Project both revenues and expense totals for next five years, and past three years. What is the current valuation of the company? Business model.

Elevator Pitch 235

Elevator Pitch Exit Strategy Burn Rate Merger 235