Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 30, 2013

Don’t expect them to believe your $100M revenue projection, if you are still waiting for the first revenue dollar. Get a real customer and real revenue. Funding for pre-revenue startups used to be the domain of angel investors, but they have moved up-stage. milestones entrepreneur startup funding business'

Intellectual Property 281

Intellectual Property Entrepreneur Sweat Equity CTO Hire 281

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 1, 2009

Consumer spending is 70% of the economy and will continue to be stretched – We can look all we want at tech innovation, VC funding cycles and hot M&A deals, but ultimately growth and therefore investment must be underpinned by revenue. This has a tangible impact on the valuation of start-ups and the pace of investment.

Technical Review 269

Technical Review Stock Hawaii Early Stage 269

YoungUpstarts

JUNE 26, 2020

by Rizwan Virk, author of “ Startup Myths and Models: What You Won’t Learn in Business School “. If you are building a startup, you’ll find no shortage of people who are willing to give you advice, particularly when it comes to raising financing. Myth #3: Take the Highest Valuation You Can Get. Well not, wrong exactly.

Finance 205

Finance Silicon Valley Valuation Startup 205

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 5, 2021

In startup business plans, a bubble is too many entrepreneurs and too many investors chasing the latest “next big thing,” like Google search engine, Facebook social network, or Amazon e-commerce site. In startups, a great success like Google causes busts by stimulating more supply, without regard to demand. Cheap money.

Demand 362

Demand Government Venture Capital Valuation 362

VC Cafe

MAY 29, 2022

Building on my post on ‘ Advice for startups in a downturn (May 2022 edition) ‘, this week I continued to follow with interest the impact of the current correction on startups and venture capital, particularly in early stage. Which Startup Investors Pulled Back The Most So Far In 2022? The bull market is over.

Venture Capital 184

Venture Capital Early Stage Valuation Startup 184

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 1, 2017

Every business needs to develop a revenue model even before a product. The alternatives range from giving the product away for free (revenue from ads), to pricing based on costs, to charging what the market will bear (premium pricing). Revenue is a percentage of every transaction. Facebook spent $150 million getting started.

Revenue 166

Revenue Affiliate Advertising Retention 166

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 24, 2011

billion jump in funding over the same quarter of 2010 with a similar number of deals, so it clearly shows a trend to larger deal sizes for fewer startups. To me, this indicates that venture capitalists (VCs) are looking for business, but not from first-time startups. Overall, investors put $7.5 That represents a $1.5

Venture Capital 233

Venture Capital Revenue Elevator Pitch Silicon Valley 233

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 22, 2010

Don’t expect them to believe your $100M revenue projection, if you are still waiting for the first revenue dollar. Get a real customer and real revenue. Funding for pre-revenue startups used to be the domain of angel investors, but they have moved up-stage. Only real results count. Attract a well-rounded team.

Intellectual Property 222

Intellectual Property Sweat Equity CTO Hire Fractional CTO 222

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 29, 2010

We received so much positive feedback from our This Week in Venture Capital show walking through valuation calculations & term sheets that we decided to do a Q&A show this week to address topics that entrepreneurs want to learn about. The best thing to get is a “right sized&# valuation. A: It’s not best.

Venture Capital 282

Venture Capital Term Sheet Valuation Stock Options 282

Agile VC

MAY 26, 2011

AGILEVC My idle thoughts on tech startups. Salesforce.com is a startup with 76,000 subscribers (over 2.1M Facebook doesn’t exist, even as a walled-garden college social network (Mark Zuckerberg was part way through his freshman year at Harvard). How to Evaluate Firms for a Seed VC. How To Think About The Future.

Term Sheet 178

Term Sheet Silicon Valley Technical Review Social Network 178

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 4, 2011

Every new startup I know dreams of being funded by an angel investor. Over the past 10 years, I have had the opportunity to see how the process works, several times from the startup side, and more recently from the angel perspective (as a member of an angel group selection committee). Define some intellectual property.

Intellectual Property 249

Intellectual Property Angel Investor Technical Review Elevator Pitch 249

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 23, 2010

Every new startup I know dreams of being funded by an angel investor. Over the past 10 years, I have had the opportunity to see how the process works, several times from the startup side, and more recently from the angel perspective (as a member of an angel group selection committee). Define some intellectual property. Marty Zwilling.

Angel Investor 224

Angel Investor Intellectual Property Technical Review Elevator Pitch 224

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. How can you measure it?

Venture Capital 130

Venture Capital Marketing Term Sheet Software Review 130

The Startup Magazine

MAY 7, 2024

Benefits of Free Crowdfunding Sites With the advent of online crowdfunding platforms, the world has seen a significant shift in how startups and nonprofits raise capital. These benefits highlight why these platforms are so appealing especially among startups and non-profit organizations.

Campaign 148

Campaign Seed Capital Social Network Global 148

The Startup Magazine

SEPTEMBER 23, 2021

As a testament to the growing power of “the creator economy,” visual content creation app development startup Lightricks has secured an impressive $130 million investment round, at a valuation of $1.8 The creator economy has changed the way we, as a society, experience social networks. Startup Journey.

Private Equity 167

Private Equity Developer Venture Capital Merger 167

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 5, 2010

I recently spoke at Caltech at the Caltech / MIT Enterprise Forum on “the future of social networking,&# the 30-minute video is here and the PowerPoint presentation is here on DocStoc ). What are the big trends that will drive the next phase of social networks? And so it goes with social networking.

Social Network 318

Social Network Networking Internet Technical Review 318

Steve Blank

JUNE 15, 2011

A tech bubble is the rapid inflation in the valuation of public and private technology companies that exceeds their fundamental value by a large margin. Today, the signs of the new bubble are the Linked-In initial public offering (IPO), Facebook’s stratospheric valuation and the rapid rise of early-stage startup valuation.

Silicon Valley 328

Silicon Valley Stealth Valuation Mississippi 328

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 14, 2012

…” I’ll write soon on my views of why I believe Instagram took off as a social network and what I think comes next. Instagram happens to be one of the few social networks I regularly use along with Twitter. Did raising money at a $500 million valuation help secure the $1 billion deal?

Valuation 316

Valuation Balance Sheet Dilution Term Sheet 316

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 28, 2013

In the market we’ve seen the massive uptick of SaaS valuations in the public markets and commensurate attention on private market fundings and valuations. Meanwhile while social networking was white hot 3 years ago it is now persona non grata unless your user numbers are insane. Startup Advice' Best, Mark.

Valuation 288

Valuation eCommerce Revenue Social Network 288

ReadWriteStart

MARCH 24, 2011

First up, Priyanshu Harshavat, from Evanston, Illinois, presented Socioclean , a service for cleaning up your reputation on social networks. Next Chris Ruder from Chicago, Illinois, pitched Spikeball , a new volleyball-esque game that is being played at camps and college campuses.

Illinois 114

Illinois Entrepreneur Silicon Valley Chicago 114

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 25, 2011

In startup business plans, a bubble is too many entrepreneurs and too many investors chasing the latest “next big thing,” like Google search engine, Facebook social network, or Amazon e-commerce site. In startups, a great success like Google causes busts by stimulating more supply, without regard to demand. Cheap money.

Startup 225

Startup Demand Green Government 225

Steve Blank

MARCH 18, 2011

The signals are loud and clear : seed and late stage valuations are getting frothy and wacky, and hiring talent in Silicon Valley is the toughest it has been since the dot.com bubble. What are they, how do they differ and what can startup do to take advantage of them? The world of building profitable startups ended in 1995.

Internet 334

Internet IPO Silicon Valley Agile 334

www.forentrepreneurs.com

FEBRUARY 2, 2010

Blog About Log in Register Startup Killer: the Cost of Customer Acquisition In the many thousands of articles advising entrepreneurs on what they have to focus on to build successful startups, much has been written about three key factors: team, product and market, with particular focus on the importance of product/market fit.

Acquisition 103

Acquisition Cost Customer Entrepreneur 103

VC Cafe

JULY 27, 2021

I believe we’re now at the tipping point for 3D content adoption and why it represents a huge opportunity for startups. Users are flocking to multiplayer 3D universes such as Fortnite and Roblox that allow people to interact with 3D content and use it to represent their identity – these are the new 3D social networks.

Cofounder 184

Cofounder Mobile Revenue Cloud 184

thebarefootvc

DECEMBER 16, 2011

Powered by cell phones and social networking platforms, we saw revolutions taking place, businesses being transformed and our daily lives made more convenient (if we could tear ourselves away from our Facebook and Twitter updates). As of year-end, Foursquare had over 15 million users, with an exponential growth rate globally.

Technical Review 110

Technical Review India Mobile Hockey Stick 110

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 20, 2013

In startup business plans, a bubble is too many entrepreneurs and too many investors chasing the latest “next big thing,” like Google search engine, Facebook social network, or Amazon e-commerce site. In startups, a great success like Google causes busts by stimulating more supply, without regard to demand. Cheap money.

Demand 224

Demand Green Finance Government 224

David Teten

SEPTEMBER 23, 2017

The only problem that faces startup investors now is how to mine this new data layer efficiently to increase returns.”. Relationship Science makes it easier to understand and map social networks into potential limited partners. to motivate their angel community to support their startups. are using AngelMob.co

Private Equity 60

Private Equity Venture Capital Equity Technical Review 60

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 24, 2012

Every new startup I know dreams of being funded early by one of the 318,000 active Angel investors in the USA alone. Over the past 10 years, I have had the opportunity to see how the process works, several times from the startup side, and more recently from the Angel perspective (as a member of an Angel group screening committee).

Angel Investor 260

Angel Investor Intellectual Property Elevator Pitch Angel Groups 260

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 13, 2012

Clearly define the customer, channel, and revenue model associated with this solution. In this section, you need to be passionate about revenue, profit, and volume growth. Many people seem to use the social network advertising model for revenue, but forget it assumes at least 100M users and $50M investment.

Business Plan 283

Business Plan Sweat Equity Exit Strategy Intellectual Property 283

The Equity Kicker

APRIL 11, 2012

The question on everyone’s lips is, of course, ‘how come a two year old startup with no revenues is worth $1bn?’. I think that high priced acquisitions of startups are often valued with half an eye to the acquirers share price. I think the answer is pretty clear – it’s all about Facebook’s IPO price.

IPO 110

IPO Valuation Forecast Acquisition 110

The Equity Kicker

SEPTEMBER 4, 2012

Things have gone a little quiet on Pinterest, after all the hype at the beginning of year and their $1.5bn valuation in May, but they are the third most popular social network (according to Experian ) and according to AddThis Pinterest referral traffic across its network of 14m domains was 30% higher than Twitter for the month of May.

Analytics 91

Analytics Social Network Valuation Portfolio 91

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 13, 2011

Clearly define the customer, channel, and revenue model associated with this solution. In this section, you need to be passionate about revenue, profit, and volume growth. Many people seem to use the social network advertising model for revenue, but forget it assumes at least 100M users and $50M investment.

Business Plan 290

Business Plan Sweat Equity Exit Strategy Intellectual Property 290

Gust

NOVEMBER 28, 2011

Fortune 1000 CEOs usually don’t make good startup CEOs, and vice versa. You may have great credentials as a public servant in your home town, but that won’t get you money to build a social network on the Internet, or start a software company. The startup road is guaranteed to be long and hard.

Startup 147

Startup Bootstrapping Social Network Internet 147

Gust

DECEMBER 16, 2012

Every new startup I know dreams of being funded early by one of the 318,000 active Angel investors in the USA alone. Over the past 10 years, I have had the opportunity to see how the process works, several times from the startup side, and more recently from the Angel perspective (as a member of an Angel group screening committee).

Angel Investor 179

Angel Investor Intellectual Property Elevator Pitch Angel Groups 179

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 22, 2010

Clearly define the customer, channel, and revenue model associated with this solution. In this section, you need to be passionate about revenue, profit, and volume growth. Many people seem to use the social network advertising model for revenue, but forget it requires at least 100M users and $50M investment.

Business Plan 186

Business Plan Exit Strategy Sweat Equity Intellectual Property 186

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 23, 2012

I have been close to the tech & startup sectors for more than 20 years and I can’t think of a period in which I felt more optimistic about the innovation and value creation I see in front of us. The number of startups being created has increased by an order of magnitude. Thank you, Aaron Sorkin!

Venture Capital 347

Venture Capital Technical Review LP Mobile 347

Agile VC

FEBRUARY 2, 2012

AGILEVC My idle thoughts on tech startups. I recently wrote a post noting that while the growth cycle of startups has clearly accelerated in the last 5 years, the number of truly monster new businesses (a company ultimately worth $75-100B) remains about the same … it’s a once in a decade sort of thing. February 2, 2012.

IPO 100

IPO South Korea Venezuela Revenue 100