Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 14, 2017

Raise too soon and likely take on more dilution, wait and get valuation up (as our metrics continue to rise) but then run to a point where you have a lower cash balance and place more risks on the business. These are the hard problems we’ll have to address in the year ahead along with the perennial, “ When should we raise more money?

Operations 286

Operations New York City Technical Review Startup 286

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 16, 2014

He called me 15 months later excited to show me his metrics and wanted to talk about his A round. He opted for two big VC funds up North who split $1.5 They have some of the best names in the Valley. Fair enough. Can’t win every deal. The signal was way too loud. I’m no fool. My response?

Silicon Valley 333

Silicon Valley Early Stage Later Stage Technical Review 333

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 21, 2014

Create company measures for success that go beyond financial metrics. You manage what you measure so be careful about having too narrowly defined of performance metrics. Perhaps having renewal rates with a good bonus spiff, have a component of MBO tied to usage performance metrics or spiff certain milestones like business plans.

Marketing 354

Marketing Incubator Turkey Metrics 354

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 20, 2019

If your metric move immediate up-and-to-the-right? Is it possible that you still retain board control after raising a C-round of venture capital? If you’re a super experienced Silicon Valley CEO with a billion-dollar exit?—?probably. But it’s quite rare.

Venture Capital 236

Venture Capital Startup Angel Investor Silicon Valley 236

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 10, 2012

I’ve been spending time looking at marketing conversion metrics at portfolio companies lately. Do vanity metrics matter? I recently spoke at the Blue Glass conference on the topic of marketing. I’ll write up some thoughts in a blog post format soon. How do brand pages convert relative to the Timeline. crazy well.).

Marketing 297

Marketing Metrics Campaign Portfolio 297

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 27, 2013

By being so metrics driven we can have a lot more quantifiable and objective discussions at board meetings and at mid-point reviews. . He sets goals for MRR (monthly recurring revenue) to differentiate from one-time revenue, license revenue, services revenue and other. Further Reading. I cranked this out pretty quickly.

Advisory Board 365

Advisory Board CTO Hire Fractional CTO Los Angeles 365

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 18, 2014

There were no metrics. Him: On metrics. If we priced it based on any metrics your company would likely be worth less than 7 figures at your A round. It’s like we need a finance 101 course for entrepreneurs. Him: But when I raised my first round we didn’t know how to price the company. Your A round? What proof points?

Venture Capital 417

Venture Capital Liquidation Preference Valuation Term Sheet 417

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 27, 2019

Often board members themselves don’t do the work to say “what metrics would we like to see.” Any great board member should tell you, “please don’t create any performance metrics or materials that analyze the business that you’re not already creating for your own management’s use.” Sometimes they don’t even know.

Stock Options 226

Stock Options Metrics Stock Valuation 226

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 25, 2009

They’re easily impressed when you’re selected for TechCrunch50 but not easily engaged in a detailed discussion about your conversion metrics. They encourage you to hire senior people on your team who have gold-plated resumes. You know in your gut who they are. If you haven’t read Blink by Malcolm Gladwell then read it.

Pakistan 297

Pakistan India Technical Review Software Review 297

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 27, 2011

So while the simplest way that people often evaluate stocks is by P/E ratios (price-to-earnings), one also needs to look at other metrics such as the PEG (price-to-earnings-growth). [of And assuming they both had the same net profit margins (profit / revenue) then the former company would be much better off at the end of the year.

Startup 418

Startup Revenue Technical Review Flash 418

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 10, 2021

The timing horizon is much shorter, the prices one pays are much higher so you can’t just be right about the company but you must be right about the valuation and the exit price.

Pre-Money Valuation 471

Pre-Money Valuation Valuation Venture Capital Early Stage 471

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 5, 2011

Another firm we saw tried to raise $15 million at a $60 million pre-money with similar metrics. But he sold within 3 years for not a huge price after having raised more than $20 million. They did an inside round, spent a bunch of money and then went through a fire sale of the business less than 2 years later. Here’s the problem.

Pre-Money Valuation 336

Pre-Money Valuation Valuation Silicon Valley Stock 336

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 10, 2011

But creating better visibility for investors of the profitability of each unit and accountability for bosses of each to perform well according to differnet metrics is a good & important idea. No, probably not. Perhaps they should have just created business units called: Netflix DVD & Netflix Streaming. ”).

Customer 287

Customer Technical Review PR Caching 287

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 27, 2016

I think I’m better at the product stage of a business and helping with strategy, marketing, pricing, feature sets and so forth than I am at evaluating later-stage businesses based on financial results and business metrics and priced accordingly. I know investors who are great at this (including several of my partners) — but that’s not me.

Early Stage 254

Early Stage Non-Compete LP Later Stage 254

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 14, 2018

Team Problem you’re solving ( Pain ) Your unique approach ( USP ) Why it’s extremely valuable to your customers ( ROI ) Basic technology explanations / differentiated IP Market Size ( TAM ) Competition Unit Economics Financial Projections , preferably 18 months income statement by month and a 3–5 year projection by quarter (showing the “out years” (..)

IP 239

IP Differentiation Salary Sales 239

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 9, 2014

In a funding round with 1 or 2 VCs and 15-20 angels or 4-6 seed funds if you gave every investor you financial information and performance metrics your proprietary information would increase in its probability of leaking out. There is a reason for this.

SEC 352

SEC Venture Capital Early Stage Cofounder 352

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 20, 2017

Vanity metrics will make you feel good about site traffic of SEO over conversion rate or purchases of your product will get more attention than retention. You get a lot of traffic — not always results. If you aren’t careful every PR team will measure inches over impact. Efficiency can be an addictive drug.

Cofounder 164

Cofounder Retention PR SEO 164

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 15, 2016

When you raise larger rounds there is more “due diligence,” which includes: calling customers, looking at financial metrics, doing cohort analysis (looking for trends like changes in churn rates), evaluating competitor positioning and understanding more of the competency of your executive team.

Burn Rate 150

Burn Rate Cap Table Valuation Software Review 150

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 25, 2016

The metrics were good but we wondered how much better they would be when we expanded our product. After a year in the market, MakeSpace was growing rapidly and our biggest issue was CAC (customer acquisition costs) relative to payback period (when we get our marketing investment back) and relative to LTV (lifetime value).

Startup 150

Startup Seed Money DC Software Review 150

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2013

Good press and industry mojo wasn’t enough to overcome the financial metrics of the business and the offers came in at more like $10 million. I believe in company metrics that are publicized and can be used as company motivation and creating a unified sense of purpose. It was not. I wasn’t surprised. We decided not to sell.

Startup 417

Startup Dilution San Diego Stock Options 417

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 25, 2015

private companies grow so quickly that their metrics catch up with their valuations. And it doesn’t change the fact that our late-stage venture markets are over-valued relative to public markets, so either. public stocks go up and privates can grow into IPOs; or. I’m betting on the middle option but time will tell.

Balance Sheet 150

Balance Sheet Valuation Burn Rate Stock 150

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 24, 2016

What you Before Sets the Course for How Well the Day Goes Make sure you send your financial and operating metrics no less than 72 hours before the board meeting — even better if it can be a week in advance. If you have board members you respect you owe it to yourself to run more productive sessions where board members contribute.

Metrics 196

Metrics Strategic Investors Later Stage Management 196

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 10, 2021

The metrics are you scoreboard and your self-talk and your coping strategies (gum not ice cream, pickles not potato chips, 6pm dinner not 8:30pm dinner) are your mental toughness, accountability and hacks for improving performance. And as you know, many people literally eat mindlessly without paying attention at all. I did this for years.

Venture Capital 538

Venture Capital America Portfolio Metrics 538

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 2, 2010

As a company you need to invest in ROI calculators (spreadsheets) that are easy for sales reps to plug in basic customer metrics and pop out with an expected benefit. And the only way to do that is to help them calculate the ROI (return on investment) of using your product.

Sales 289

Sales API Distribution Metrics 289

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 15, 2011

Most web publishers measure where their traffic is coming from using an analytics package such as Google Analytics, Omniture or Core Metrics. This article originally appeared on TechCrunch (this version is slightly different). These were good packages in the pre social media world at helping figure out who was driving your traffic.

Analytics 292

Analytics Social Media Campaign Viral 292

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 16, 2013

The minute you try to monetize now they have metrics with which to beat you up and say you’re business has limitations.” It goes like this, “If your next round investor can see how fast you’re scaling then you can raise money based on your user traction and your valuation can hit the sky.

Burn Rate 412

Burn Rate Dilution Revenue Valuation 412

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 11, 2015

He had always read all of the materials, gone through the metrics, done pre-calls with the CEO and was always respectful in how he walked through the challenges of the company and our remedies. He’s one of the truly nice guys in venture: buttoned-up and prepared.

Silicon Valley 150

Silicon Valley Los Angeles San Francisco Architecture 150

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 6, 2015

Having a great early investor provides downstream capital with a “signal” that you are a company worthy of being paid attention to even if you haven’t scaled your metrics. And people like Jeff (and his peers) smooth the introduction to and transition process to A-round investors.

Seed Stage 150

Seed Stage Silicon Valley Syndicate Syndication 150

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 19, 2018

Kai taught me that the key metric to whether a sales process is going well is “engagement.” He said, “If they are not willing to meet then you’re already dead so you’re better off to spend your time with another lead. Any truly interested buyer would give you some time to help you and improve your offer and probably to get to know you better.”

Cap Table 336

Cap Table Due Diligence Forecast Churn Rate 336

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 21, 2010

Subjective warrants – I also see warrants given out without hard metrics. I believe that PBW’s should have hard metrics. Just don’t give them free. Things like introducing us to clients, they help us close partnership deals where there is not revenue attached, etc.

Warrant 298

Warrant Dilution Startup Stock Options 298

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 8, 2011

But the most important metric has been the deep and lasting relationships that have been built with startups and also between senior executives. 23 companies have gone through Launchpad LA. Of these 19 have received funding (10 have received significant amounts of VC funding) and 5 have been acquired (2 for more than $30 million).

Los Angeles 287

Los Angeles Silicon Valley Incubator Startup 287

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 19, 2015

Every $10 million financing only puts more pressure on the founders to figure out how to hit the metrics to get to the next milestone and every company that raises $25 million puts a ton of pressure on their 10 competitors who haven’t. The road is littered with startups that shined bright before burning out. Every founder knows this.

Houston 150

Houston Vesting Founder Capital Call 150

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. But if you want to add some in the comments section on Medium and I’ll make sure to read them. Some even grow "bad" revenue just to show growth.

Founder 242

Founder Dilution Software Review Later Stage 242

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 1, 2010

And finally, Scott demonstrated his internal management tool for managing the metrics of his business. We talked about the need to know “investor speak,&# to target investors likely to be interested in your company type and the importance of going direct (versus using an agency to help you raise money). It’s awesome.

San Francisco 248

San Francisco Venture Capital Analytics Government 248

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 6, 2010

That might work for $50-100k but less likely for $3m unless you’re a seasoned entrepreneur, known to the VC, have some metrics that work in your favor or have built something the VC believes to be truly unique. And make sure you have some metrics or some way of demonstrating why you believe this is going to be a really big market.

Early Stage 360

Early Stage Startup Venture Capital Seed Stage 360

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 20, 2015

” Companies that are raising greatly in excess of their economic worth in today’s financial metrics had better absolutely grow into their valuations over time or hope they’re acquired before the music stops and the band goes home.

Churn Rate 150

Churn Rate Silicon Valley Brazil Valuation 150

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 16, 2013

It is what is commonly referred to as “vanity metrics” as in, “Look at how many more followers I got us! Clicks are also a simple measure that you can get from basic link tracking packages. End of story. That’s all “top of funnel” analysis that leaves you flying blind as a marketer. Or Likes – LIKES!

Technical Review 307

Technical Review Marketing SEM Campaign 307