Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 28, 2020

Who would not want to join the unicorns (recent startups with a current valuation of over $1 billion)? Investors and partners now look only for a framework of your business essentials, within the context of your opportunity, solution, and financials. Building a minimum viable product, with customer validation.

Intellectual Property 404

Intellectual Property Startup Angel Groups Social Media 404

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 30, 2016

How much you raise determines valuation I know it sounds crazy but at the earliest stages of a company your valuation often is determined by how much money you raise. A $15–20 million valuation sounds better than an $8 million valuation, doesn’t it? But people never do. Justin is right. But it’s actually not that silly.

Pre-Money Valuation 292

Pre-Money Valuation Valuation Early Stage Startup 292

Lightspeed Venture Partners

OCTOBER 27, 2021

The post ClickUp Raises $400 Million At $4 Billion Valuation As Competition Heats Up In Productivity Software appeared first on Lightspeed Venture Partners.

Valuation 148

Valuation Software Product Partner 148

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 19, 2010

Our guest this week on #TWiVC was Dana Settle , partner at Greycroft Partners , a venture capital firm with offices in New York and Los Angeles. But truthfully both Dana and I are more aligned with the lean startup principles and believe you only go FAT when you’ve really proved out your product / market fit.

Partner 240

Partner New York City Cofounder Syndicate 240

View from Seed

OCTOBER 21, 2014

Using NextView as an example, since we both seek to lead the seed round and only lead during this round, I’ve seen this trend manifest in one of two ways: In a priced round, the entrepreneur will often share their valuation ask (or a stated floor) for the pre-money valuation of their company much sooner in the process.

Valuation 336

Valuation Founder Seed Stage Angel Investor 336

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 5, 2018

Reading the NY Times article “ Jeffrey Katzenberg Raises $1 Billion for Short-Form Video Venture, ” I realized it was time for a new startup heuristic: the amount of customer discovery and product-market fit you need to find is inversely proportional to the amount and availability of risk capital. ” Fire, Ready, Aim.

Lean 335

Lean Burn Rate Startup IPO 335

View from Seed

MARCH 24, 2021

At NextView Ventures we have written many pieces about venture capital — how to raise it, build your business, engage with investors, iterate your product, navigate expanding industries, etc. What Are Your Valuation Expectations? Rethinking the Standard Fundraising Deck “I’d make it crystal clear what your product actually does.

Seed Stage 177

Seed Stage Hiring IPO Analytics 177

The Startup Magazine

FEBRUARY 21, 2024

The most poignant of these challenges was the quest for capital partners, which was not just about securing capital but about finding collaborators who were willing to believe in the vision and commit to the long-term journey. These early trials by fire instilled in me a deep empathy for the entrepreneurial struggle. ARIF BHALWANI: Sure.

Technical Review 158

Technical Review Due Diligence Bankruptcy Intellectual Property 158

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 10, 2018

The next default of waiting until later is equally bad, since partners who bow out early will still expect an equal share of that first billion you make later. Value factors include your related product breadth and depth, relationships with thought leaders, key vendors, and large potential customers. Now comes the reality check.

Equity 238

Equity Cofounder Technical Cofounder Intellectual Property 238

The Startup Magazine

MARCH 14, 2022

A business plan is drawn up to attract investors and partners. Here, the company’s valuation benchmark is set, and funding is solicited accordingly. Organisations in our country now trust their employees with remote and hybrid work, improving their productivity and boosting morale. 2) Laying out the genesis of the company.

Technical Review 167

Technical Review Due Diligence India Startup 167

Steve Blank

APRIL 23, 2014

Most large companies manage three types of innovation: process innovation (making existing products incrementally better), continuous innovation (building on the strength of the company’s current business model but creating new elements) and disruptive innovation (creating products or services that did not exist before.).

Acquisition 333

Acquisition Intellectual Property Silicon Valley Startup 333

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 4, 2015

In a new book, “ The Leadership Capital Index ,” Dave Ulrich, a best-selling author, business consultant, and business school professor, provides some real insights and metrics on what makes up the elements of goodwill in the minds of top valuation experts. I have paraphrased his key points here as follows: Leader personal impact.

Leadership 120

Leadership Technical Review Due Diligence Valuation 120

ReadWriteStart

JULY 2, 2022

To be successful, you need to deal with products in strong demand. Unlike a regular online store, you don’t need products to run an e-commerce site specializing in dropshipping. Conforming with Torchbankz, the dropshipping industry is expected to reach a market valuation of $557.9 Promotes products and finds a client.

Cost 140

Cost Software Review Technical Review Cloud 140

View from Seed

OCTOBER 31, 2018

The main value propositions are: user experience and value – home sellers can manage the entirety of their selling activities through its app and cloud-based platform, from valuation to showing scheduling to negotiation and closing, while paying a $5,000 flat fee vs. the industry tradition of 3% commission.

Atlanta 159

Atlanta Cofounder Software Review Technical Review 159

The Startup Magazine

NOVEMBER 1, 2021

Regardless of what products or services you offer, if your desire is to influence a consumers’ buying decisions, it’s time to begin working with individuals who have an engaged audience that trusts them. This is because consumers tend to search for them when shopping for a product. Optimise Product Pages for Conversions.

Affiliate 197

Affiliate Marketing Technical Review Software Review 197

View from Seed

AUGUST 17, 2021

It’s by far the longest time I’ve spent working on any one thing, and I feel very blessed to have been able to work with my partners, colleagues, founders, and collaborators. My partners will tell you that I am an incredibly impatient person. Effective post money is the effective valuation of an investor’s dollars at any one time.

IRR 205

IRR Dilution Founder Portfolio 205

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 17, 2022

They have too many highly paid partners, fat fees, an aging corporate infrastructure and difficulty raising money from institutions. As lifecycle investment partners, they have become weighted down with portfolios still recovering from the economic downturn. Super angels sometimes drive up valuations.

Angel Investor 342

Angel Investor Venture Capital Silicon Valley Portfolio 342

VC Cafe

AUGUST 2, 2022

billion valuation) to invest in the Metaverse and build the future of digital entertainment Epic owns Fortnite, one of the most popular multiplayer games, enabling users to interact with each other online in an immersive way to play, socialise, attend to virtual concerts. For that, Yuga labs partnered with London based Improbable.

IP 206

IP Cofounder Valuation Acquisition 206

VC Cafe

FEBRUARY 27, 2023

By contrast, they backed 620 funds in the last three months of 2021 First time fund managers hit hard: In 2022, limited partners backed 141 funds run by first-time managers, a 59% decline from the prior year and the lowest number since 2013 How does the constrained LP environment manifest for funds and startups?

Venture Capital 215

Venture Capital Technical Review LP Institutional Investors 215

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 17, 2023

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. For investors, this is the idea stage , where you may have a great idea, but no plan, product, or customers, and probably no success record in this business domain. Congratulations!

Angel Investor 313

Angel Investor Intellectual Property Investment Bankers Private Equity 313

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 25, 2018

Those that do it right also have the unprecedented opportunity to join the elite ranks of 250 unicorns (relatively new companies with a current valuation of over $1 billion). These days you can create a C-corp or LLC online quickly at a low cost, to serve you well in signing partners, intellectual property, investors, and revenue.

Technical Cofounder 184

Technical Cofounder Intellectual Property Silicon Valley LLC 184

YoungUpstarts

SEPTEMBER 16, 2015

by John Vrionis, partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners. 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. It’s part art, part science.

Valuation 100

Valuation Dilution Chicago Technical Review 100

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 4, 2014

The next default of waiting until later is equally bad, since partners who bow out early will still expect an equal share of that first billion you make later. Value factors include your related product breadth and depth, relationships with thought leaders, key vendors and large potential customers. Now comes the reality check.

Cofounder 261

Cofounder Stock Founder Technical Cofounder 261

View from Seed

AUGUST 17, 2021

It’s by far the longest time I’ve spent working on any one thing, and I feel very blessed to have been able to work with my partners, colleagues, founders, and collaborators. My partners will tell you that I am an incredibly impatient person. Effective post money is the effective valuation of an investor’s dollars at any one time.

IRR 156

IRR Dilution Founder Portfolio 156

Hunter Walker

DECEMBER 13, 2020

If things are going great, you still may get a lower valuation or smaller round. It doesn’t matter what industry, what product, what revenue model, what stage of development. Of course you’ll have lots of functional partners who basically sell as a job responsibility. How does this harm occur? Yes and No.

Technical Cofounder 144

Technical Cofounder Cofounder Startup Matching 144

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 29, 2009

They should heed the age old advice that raising slightly more money while you can is always better than trying to optimize future valuations. Should VC’s really be impacted by public market valuations when the money that they’re investing today should be for returns in 7-10 years? Short answer – yes. The deal was done in late 2007.

Burn Rate 263

Burn Rate Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Private Equity 263

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 10, 2021

I’m over-paying for every check I write into the VC ecosystem and valuations are being pushed up to absurd levels and many of these valuations and companies won’t hold in the long term. On the one hand, you’re over paying for every investment and valuations aren’t rational. That used to be called A-round investing.

Pre-Money Valuation 471

Pre-Money Valuation Valuation Venture Capital Early Stage 471

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 30, 2013

If you have a product description, that’s necessary, but not sufficient. Make sure your plan answers every relevant question that you could possibly imagine from your business partners, spouse, and potential investors. Ship a minimum product now. For a true scientist, the product is never good enough, so it’s never done.

Intellectual Property 281

Intellectual Property Entrepreneur Sweat Equity CTO Hire 281

ReadWriteStart

AUGUST 26, 2022

How to Scale Unicorns With Partner David Zhang, TVC. Joining us for this episode is our partner David Zhang, Partner at TCV (( Technology Crossover Ventures ). I’m a partner at TCV, which we founded in 1996. We come in after a product has landed and found product market fit and has some escape velocity.

Partner 132

Partner Cofounder Retention Acquisition 132

View from Seed

AUGUST 17, 2021

It’s by far the longest time I’ve spent working on any one thing, and I feel very blessed to have been able to work with my partners, colleagues, founders, and collaborators. My partners will tell you that I am an incredibly impatient person. Effective post money is the effective valuation of an investor’s dollars at any one time.

IRR 136

IRR Dilution Founder Portfolio 136

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 25, 2017

In today’s fast moving market, the basic product development cost and time are critical to survival. They come at the early stage while a startup has no revenue or valuation, so professional investors are hard to find. With the new rapid prototyping tools, products can be physically built for analysis, rather than just conceptualized.

Technical Cofounder 153

Technical Cofounder Intellectual Property Wiki Cofounder 153

Hearpreneur

JANUARY 22, 2023

Consumers are becoming increasingly health-conscious and seeking to understand their options for treatments and healthcare products. For example, a startup SaaS company can use a specialized app to create a good product management process and keep track of the project's progress. Thanks to Sean Stevens, Immerse Education ! #5-

Artificial Inteligence 125

Artificial Inteligence Technical Review Entrepreneur Social Media 125

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 26, 2013

It’s higher risk, but higher return, to pick the big winners early, before Angels have set unreasonable valuations and restrictive terms. Being “lifecycle investment partners” has a downside. VCs are finding that they don’t need the “large” funds of $100M to $500M to support a portfolio, if they focus on early-stage startups.

Angel Investor 231

Angel Investor Entrepreneur Early Stage Silicon Valley 231

YoungUpstarts

NOVEMBER 20, 2019

by Lu Zhang, founder and managing partner of Fusion Fund. If you can check these boxes and convince venture capitalists that you’ve achieved product fit in a market with plenty of room for growth, you have a real shot at securing funding. Do you lack the skills needed to develop a viable product? Prepare to prove your worth.

Technical Review 140

Technical Review Due Diligence Early Stage Differentiation 140

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 15, 2023

Look for a part-time job in a local or family business to provide access to things you will need only occasionally, such as a high-speed printer, video equipment or product assembly tools and storage. Use your equity for key executives and business partners. Learn to be a generalist rather than a specialist.

Equity 349

Equity Hockey Stick Bootstrapping Sweat Equity 349

VC Cafe

JANUARY 27, 2021

Their examples include Designers giving feedback and comment on digital assets or product specialists demoing products and creating audio or text highlights. So much so, there’s a “remote work tools” category at this year’s Golden Kitty Awards , annually celebrating ProductHunt’s products, makers, and community members.

Vertical 148

Vertical Video Technical Review Europe 148

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 20, 2021

Thus entrepreneurs were able to build prototypes and design new products without the traditional huge prototyping cost. The movement has long since spread across the country and across the globe, spawning innovative products such as the MakerBot Digitizer and all the things you can access from Thingiverse.com. Diversity breeds success.

Startup 397

Startup Cofounder Incubator Early Stage 397