Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 5, 2014

Cashflow is a basic survival metric for every startup. This could equate to two technical founders (with a minimal salary), funding two developers for a year. That should equate to an adequate valuation for a $2 million follow-on Series-A round, without giving away all the equity.

Burn Rate 262

Burn Rate Hockey Stick Entrepreneur Salary 262

View from Seed

MARCH 24, 2021

” Below are our favorite pieces from the past few years, divided in to a few key categories: fundraising, company building, product development, industry trends, and the life of a VC. What Are Your Valuation Expectations? So, we decided to aggregate NextView’s “greatest hits.” ” (Rob Go).

Seed Stage 177

Seed Stage Hiring IPO Analytics 177

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 14, 2016

Cash flow is a basic survival metric for every startup. This could equate to two technical founders (with a minimal salary), funding two developers for a year. That should equate to an adequate valuation for a $2 million follow-on Series-A round, without giving away all the equity.

Burn Rate 120

Burn Rate Hockey Stick Startup Salary 120

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 21, 2021

When you see startups like SpaceX and Pinterest grow from a low valuation to a billion dollars in just a few years, it’s easy to assume that if you just keep doing what you are doing, you can get there as well. Switch your focus from product development to sales.

Merger 379

Merger Due Diligence SEC IPO 379

YoungUpstarts

NOVEMBER 20, 2019

On the other hand, if you arrive at a VC pitch without a comprehensive understanding of the industry you’re hoping to compete in, or without a clear path to profitability or a thoughtful product-development road map, you’ll likely leave empty-handed. Investors want to feel confident that they’ll see a return on their investment.

Technical Review 140

Technical Review Due Diligence Early Stage Differentiation 140

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 4, 2016

Who would not want to joint the unicorns (recent startups with a current valuation of over $1 billion)? Building your public image and presence should start even before product development, through your website, logo, and blogging. Establishing your brand with interactive social media. The cost of social media done well is low.

Intellectual Property 120

Intellectual Property Startup Angel Groups Social Media 120

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 22, 2008

Master of 500 Hats: Startup Metrics for Pirates (SeedCamp 2008, London) This presentation should be required reading for anyone creating a startup with an online service component. He also has a discussion of how your choice of business model determines which of these metric areas you want to focus on. Choose one.

San Francisco 167

San Francisco CPA SEM CTO Hire 167

VC Adventure

MARCH 17, 2022

Perhaps you raised at what historically have been very attractive valuations (we certainly have companies in our portfolio that have raised well, well above the historical averages). Your underlying business metrics should. Then, when you’re really ready to hit the gas, use the money that you’ve raised to do that.

Balance Sheet 121

Balance Sheet Burn Rate Valuation Metrics 121

View from Seed

OCTOBER 15, 2014

Examples of housekeeping include the following list, though not every item will appear every time: Finance: Cash out date, burn rate, 409A valuation, cap table, common/preferred stock dashboard. A seed-stage mobile startup’s housekeeping section might look something like this: Section 3: Core Metrics.

Seed Stage 331

Seed Stage Cap Table Metrics Burn Rate 331

Feld Thoughts

NOVEMBER 18, 2013

Convertible debt financings have become an increasingly attractive approach for seed rounds because it delays the valuation discussion, costs less from a legal standpoint, and is an easier financial instrument to “keep raising more small amounts of money” on. No updates, screen comps, or metrics have been publicly shared yet.

Burn Rate 152

Burn Rate Equity Software Review Early Stage 152

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 5, 2009

This post describes how companies using the Customer Development model can increase their credibility, valuation and probability of getting a first round of funding by presenting their results in a “Lesson Learned&# venture pitch. Is there a profitable business model? Can it scale?” Did the VC’s like your team ? Great post!

Customer Development 262

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 262

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 23, 2012

New product development process. Longer-term, enhanced product value begets superior company valuation through your organization’s intellectual property (IP) portfolio. Product life cycles keep getting shorter and shorter, which mandates accelerated innovation cycles. Without risk, there can be no innovation.

Intellectual Property 247

Intellectual Property IP Valuation .Net 247

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 12, 2010

It’s human nature to prioritize the metrics that get measured, so the simple act of keeping track is often enough to have a significant positive impact. Products: You obviously can’t create value without a viable product (or service) to sell. Tags: scorecard venture value Akira Hirai business valuation.

Intellectual Property 223

Intellectual Property .Net Valuation Distribution 223

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 9, 2011

New product development process. Longer-term, enhanced product value begets superior company valuation through your organization’s intellectual property (IP) portfolio. Product life cycles keep getting shorter and shorter, which mandates accelerated innovation cycles. Without risk, there can be no innovation.

Intellectual Property 234

Intellectual Property IP Valuation .Net 234

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 9, 2016

Most begin by doing the product development, marketing and sales alone, but struggle making the transition to hiring and coaching others, defining repeatable processes and focusing on future strategy. You need to nurture non-organic growth partnerships and acquisitions to maximize your valuation.

Social Network 120

Social Network Demand Valuation Acquisition 120

betashop.com

OCTOBER 8, 2012

I firmly believe that in this age where the product development life-cycle is so short and user feedback comes so quickly, you will know within a year whether you are focusing on a worthwhile one thing. Never, ever, choose your investors based on valuation. 10M post-money valuation = $100M target. Jason is a product guy.

Technical Review 108

Technical Review Technology Software Review Valuation 108

The Equity Kicker

JANUARY 10, 2020

Maybe they’ll pivot to something great eventually, but in the interim period, the valuation goes sideways – and that’s not a good place for a VC to be. And what are the metrics for customer love? We have been crucial in getting the product to market. Plus, that’s not even the worst outcome. What are your benchmarks?

Partner 68

Partner Early Stage Portfolio Metrics 68

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 28, 2008

Most important slide: valuation Promising results Key questions: can you monetize that traffic? (or Startup Visa update ► February (5) Kiwi lean startup + Australia next Why diversity matters (the meritocracy business) Beware of Vanity Metrics (for Harvard Business Rev. how big is the market?

San Francisco 128

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 128

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 15, 2010

New product development process. Longer-term, enhanced product value begets superior company valuation through your organization’s intellectual property (IP) portfolio. Product life cycles keep getting shorter and shorter, which mandates accelerated innovation cycles. Without risk, there can be no innovation.

Intellectual Property 122

Intellectual Property IP Valuation .Net 122

steveblank.com

JULY 8, 2011

AgileZen – project management visually see and interact with your work Kanbanery – Simple online team or personal kanban board LeanKit Kanban – Great for visualizing work of product development Kanban Pad – “Nice and lean” and free online Kanban tool Banana Scrum – A tool simple as Scrum itself.

Software Review 110

Software Review Startup Silicon Valley Analytics 110

K9 Ventures

OCTOBER 10, 2017

If the Micro-VCs are looking for Series A-like metrics, what does a company do when it’s just getting started? If it doesn’t have the product fully baked yet? And people are expensive (especially in the Bay Area), so some Pre-Seed financing goes towards recruiting the right minimal set of people who can help to build the product.

Seed Stage 82

Seed Stage Finance Later Stage Equity 82

Software By Rob

APRIL 2, 2014

This is a common issue and the best mitigation strategy is to source an affordable, reliable, independent third party to work on the product for 3-6 months before the sale. This will assure the new owner that product developments can be carried out without the seller’s technical knowledge.

Affiliate 67

Affiliate Valuation Reputation Sales 67

Software By Rob

APRIL 2, 2014

This is a common issue and the best mitigation strategy is to source an affordable, reliable, independent third party to work on the product for 3-6 months before the sale. This will assure the new owner that product developments can be carried out without the seller’s technical knowledge.

Affiliate 27

Affiliate Valuation Reputation Sales 27

www.vccafe.com

MARCH 11, 2013

Startup Metrics for Pirates â?? SaaS Metrics Tutorial â?? Great for visualizing work of product development. Seed Stage Valuation Guide. valuations. Startup Foundry tools list. Small Business tools list. Lean Startup Circle â?? Google Group for startup advice. SEO and Analytics Tutorials. Analytics blog â??

Software Review 53

Software Review Technical Review Startup 53

Seeing Both Sides

JANUARY 13, 2015

People: founder-run and trying to recruit amazing technical talent (the product development team is a huge priority at this stage) and integrate a few senior managers to help prepare the company for scale - which leads to cultural clashes and communication challenges. Financing: holy crap - we are running out of money in 6 months!

Mezzanine 20

Mezzanine IPO Finance Business Model 20

Occam's Razor

APRIL 23, 2012

While there is a great deal of appreciation for the power of metrics/data, I've come to realize that Sr. Leaders don't quite appreciate the deep, and often corrosive, consequences of choosing metric x over metric y as a key performance indicator (KPI). It is a standard metric. Don't believe me?

Metrics 152

Metrics Analytics Search Channel 152