Feld Thoughts

AUGUST 25, 2015

Take a look at the founding syndicates of each: Masstor Sytems (5/1979). Quantum Corporation (6/1980). What is striking about these syndicates is that nobody had any meaningful capital, which forced syndication and cooperation. Some were Silicon Valley early stage companies, such as Apple, Quantum, and Masstor Systems.

Venture Capital 70

Venture Capital SBIC Technical Review Silicon Valley 70

Gust

OCTOBER 12, 2011

During the summer of 2010, I developed a workshop, A New ACEF Valuation Workshop for Angels and Entrepreneurs. To provide some reference points, I surveyed thirteen angels groups in North American to determine their recent experience in negotiating the pre-money valuation of pre-revenue companies. Current Average. up slightly.

Angel Groups 125

Angel Groups Valuation Pre-Money Valuation St. Louis 125

Pascal's View

JULY 9, 2017

This is a fundamental issue that does, indeed, boil down to understanding the post-money valuation of a company. At its core, this issue points to the lack of understanding about the importance of post-money valuation by both entrepreneurs and investors. But it is also a topic that many find esoteric and difficult to grasp.

Post-Money Valuation 49

Post-Money Valuation Valuation Cap Table Covenant 49

Genuine VC

MAY 29, 2014

Yet even today, whether or not to take a (relatively) small check in a seed round syndicate from a multi-hundred million or even billion dollar fund is still a decision which takes quite a bit of consideration and sometimes consternation. So there is an element of (positive) selection bias in the larger VC syndicate cohort companies.

Syndicate 166

Syndicate Syndication Seed Stage Valuation 166

Agile VC

MAY 26, 2011

LinkedIn’s product had only been live for a couple months, we only had tens of thousands of registered users, and wouldn’t start generating revenue for more than a year after this point. round which closed in November 2003, and the pre-money valuation between $10 million and $15 million. It was a $4.7M link] leehower.

Term Sheet 178

Term Sheet Silicon Valley Technical Review Social Network 178

Gust

OCTOBER 20, 2011

In 2011, the valuation of pre-revenue, start-up companies is typically in the range of $1.5–$2.5 Scorecard Valuation Methodology. Such comparisons can only be made for companies at the same stage of development, in this case, for pre-revenue startup ventures. The range of the data is from a low pre-money valuation of $0.8

Valuation 146

Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Intellectual Property Technical Review 146

View from Seed

APRIL 30, 2015

” Venture debt gives you those options, and particularly for companies that wind up doing well, then on your same cash-out date, you’d likely have achieved a better milestone thanks to fueling your spend, which would translate into a better valuation. Traction and revenue? Business model? Previous capital raised?

Term Sheet 120

Term Sheet Equity Startup Seed Stage 120

David Teten

JULY 23, 2019

See How VCs structure a syndicate and recruit coinvestors for more on this. – Ideally revenues and other financial metrics if we can include that. – Fundraising history summary, including notable current investors and last round valuation. . – 1 sentence with most exciting metric from their growth.

Portfolio 60

Portfolio Elevator Pitch Syndicate Syndication 60

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 167

Pre-Money Valuation Valuation Dilution Distribution 167

This is going to be BIG.

MARCH 3, 2014

At what valuation? Are they making real revenue? Would the entrepreneur enthusiastically include them in the syndicate of their next venture? Would the entrepreneur enthusiastically include them in the syndicate of their next venture? How long ago? Are the exit prospects for the company any good? Did they lead it?

Syndicate 124

Syndicate Syndication Venture Capital Valuation 124

David Teten

SEPTEMBER 23, 2017

Close to 80% responded that manual processes, such as tracking down support, preparing reports and pulling data from different sources, are the biggest pain points they face in the valuation process. Kushim , Totem , and VisibleVC focus on serving this need among VCs. 9) Time, market, and exit investment.

Private Equity 60

Private Equity Venture Capital Equity Technical Review 60

View from Seed

JUNE 30, 2015

Over a third of our investments happen pre-product (so by definition, before PMF), and two-thirds are pre-revenue. For a marketplace or ecommerce business, you need to be doing well north of $5M in annual revenue or GMV to get an A round done. FWIW, at NextView, we invest from inception to strong PMF.

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage Syndicate Syndication Dilution 120

View from Seed

JANUARY 26, 2016

This means that it has rewarded Series A and B investors for chasing momentum and made it less important for these investors to focus on valuation or sound, early unit economics. Also, the stage of the company tends to be very early. But this is why stage alone does not define a pre-seed.

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage Early Stage Cofounder Finance 120

Rob Go

AUGUST 26, 2013

Post-product, early customer data, somtimes real revenue. What I am finding interesting is watching the way valuations and difficulty of raising has changed for these different flavors of seed rounds. This led to a period of seed stage exuberance, and that led to higher valuations, larger rounds, etc. or even more.

Valuation 68

Valuation Seed Stage Syndicate Syndication 68

Agile VC

JANUARY 27, 2012

Revenue ramp of Groupon and Zynga –> Kleiner famously said Zynga was the fastest growing company they’d ever invested in , no mean feat for the original backers of Google, Amazon, Netscape, etc, and Groupon might be the fastest ever startup to reach $1B in revenue. What’s Your Favorite Future?

Hockey Stick 113

Hockey Stick Seed Stage Silicon Valley Syndicate 113

Agile VC

FEBRUARY 2, 2012

How They Make Money : Facebook’s primary revenue stream is of course selling advertising on Facebook.com, which in total accounts for 85% of revenue. The next chunk comes from Facebook’s platform, in essence “taxing” the revenues of app developers like Zynga, which represents 15% of revenue.

IPO 100

IPO South Korea Venezuela Revenue 100

David Teten

DECEMBER 3, 2019

Some notable metrics are revenue growth rates, free cashflow, leverage ratios, historical financing amounts, returns on marketing spend, customer acquisition costs, lifetime value of customers, customer churn rates, and team social scores. Lighter Capital, a Revenue Based Investing VC, offers a Cost of Capital Calculator.

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Software Review Analytics Private Equity 78

Berkonomics

DECEMBER 17, 2020

Some can supply more when syndicating with other such groups. And even though angel groups syndicate their best deals within their respective associated networks, it is always best to apply to the angel groups nearest your physical location. Angel groups invest from $250,000 to $1,000,000 or more in qualified investments.

Equity 62

Equity Finance Liquidity Event Angel Groups 62

www.gabrielweinberg.com

AUGUST 28, 2012

I syndicated (helped them put together the round) in five: Notehall, MyZamana, Locately, Zippykid, and Instinct. Get an edge (lower valuations, better deal flow, etc.) See a straightforward path to victory for $10-20M exit and get valuations that makes those economics work. by leading rounds and being willing to jump first.

Valuation 54

Valuation Syndicate Syndication Angel Investor 54

Rob Go

JANUARY 7, 2013

Actually, growth equity firms I find are best at this, because they have very specific financial criteria that they look for, such as ranges for revenue, ebitda, growth, etc. Live Product, Pre Revenue: 6 1/2. Post Revenue: 6 1/2 (the 1/2 is for a company that had revenue, but did a major product pivot as part of the financing).

Portfolio 49

Portfolio Seed Stage Cofounder B2B 49

Austin Startup

DECEMBER 20, 2010

The source, size and valuation when funding determines how big of a company you’re claiming to build. revenue) and innovation that large entertainment, media and retail clients will buy. The future is in finding relevance, curating for context, and syndicating this to the right audience at the right place.

Curation 118

Curation Austin Cofounder Ruby 118

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 25, 2010

We were trying to optimize around a few criteria: price, size of round, number of syndicate partners and, of course, terms. million at a $15 million pre-money valuation. Morgan Stanley had proposed a higher valuation to let them in. million at a $15 million pre-money valuation. We ended up agreeing a term sheet for $16.5

Technical Review 301

Technical Review Term Sheet Due Diligence Venture Capital 301

www.paulgraham.com

APRIL 28, 2010

There never has to be atime when you have no revenues. Another concept we need to introduce now is valuation. I say "in theory" because in early stageinvesting, valuations are voodoo. As a company gets more established,its valuation gets closer to an actual market value. Startups valuations aresupposed to rise over time.

Technical Review 76

Technical Review Startup Software Review Angel Investor 76

Professor VC

JUNE 20, 2011

But of course, the model had us requiring only $10M equity to breakeven and to achieve $185M in revenues in 2008 (the magic Year 5 in all business plans). At this time, we had secured a term sheet from a co-investor from one of my other angel investments (Thanks, Graeme!)

San Jose 28

San Jose Angel Investor Term Sheet Venture Capital 28

Duct Tape Marketing

DECEMBER 14, 2017

Basically started as somebody of how do we take photos of cars and the pricing and descriptions of the cars, and put it all in one place, but then syndicate it. In 2011, before we sold the business, we had a business that was making $30 million a year in revenue, but we’ve never raised any capital. Fast forward a couple years.

Kansas City 40

Kansas City CTO Hire Las Vegas Software Developers 40

Berkonomics

APRIL 3, 2014

And even though angel groups syndicate their best deals within their respective associated networks, it is always best to apply to the angel groups nearest your physical location. They look for businesses that are in large markets, that can grow fast, and that can achieve revenues in excess of $40 million within five years of founding.

Equity 92

Equity Finance Liquidity Event Angel Groups 92

Hunter Walker

DECEMBER 21, 2014

This would make room for a meaningful number of other investors in the syndicate but also the concentration we needed. I know some which skip these types of rounds out of fundamental concerns for valuations but Satya and I felt that wasn’t playing to our strengths. No more, no less.

Cofounder 102

Cofounder Seed Stage Syndicate Syndication 102

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 18, 2015

“Trade in an asset at a price that strongly deviates from an asset’s intrinsic value” The arguments against that, “This time the startups have real revenues!” Either we’ve discovered magical beans and elixir or perhaps we’ve gotten ahead of ourselves on valuation. ” ring hollow.

IPO 150

IPO Venture Capital LP SEC 150