Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 15, 2022

At our mid-year offsite our partnership at Upfront Ventures was discussing what the future of venture capital and the startup ecosystem looked like. Should SaaS companies trade at a 24x Enterprise Value (EV) to Next Twelve Month (NTM) Revenue multiple as they did in November 2021?

Technical Review 416

Technical Review Pre-Money Valuation San Francisco Valuation 416

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MAY 23, 2012

Many observers of the venture capital industry have questioned whether its best days are behind it. Looking ahead at the next decade I am excited by what I believe will be viewed as one of the best and most rational investment periods for venture capital due to seven discrete factors: 1. This never existed a decade ago.

Venture Capital 347

Venture Capital Technical Review LP Mobile 347

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 3, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series of posts and I need to file this one under both Raising Venture Capital and Startup Advice. I’m not even talking about your 12-page Powerpoint presentation that you need to raise venture capital or to talk with potential biz dev partners. Let’s take your revenue line.

Business Plan 334

Business Plan AJAX Venture Capital Technical Review 334

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DECEMBER 27, 2011

You have to understand whether they’re likely to yield revenue growth in the near term OR whether you have access to cheap enough capital to fund your losses until your investments pay off. million in revenue three years later is, “So effing what?” Simplifying: Revenue -. ” Harsh, but reality.

Startup 418

Startup Revenue Technical Review Flash 418

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JULY 23, 2014

There has been much discussion in the past few years of the changing structure of the venture capital industry. The rise of alternative sources of capital (crowd funding and the like). The overall trends in our industry have breathed a new life into the venture capital industry. The iPhone was released.

Technical Review 398

Technical Review Venture Capital Valuation Pre-Money Valuation 398

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MAY 28, 2018

There are many things a VC is looking for in reviewing your business plan but beyond things the like the quality of revenue, margins, OPEX and CAPEX there’s a really simple rule I call, “Cash In, Cash Out, Milestones Achieved.” This part of a series to help you raise venture capital ?—?the

Burn Rate 247

Burn Rate Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Dilution 247

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MARCH 21, 2013

I think it’s important for enterprise startups to layer in professional services into your revenue stream. deliver profitable revenue that while on gross margins of 50% vs. software at 85-95% it is still profits to help you cover fixed costs. Control Size of PS Revenue Relative to Software Business. rollout support.

Software Review 321

Software Review Software IP Technical Review 321

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SEPTEMBER 28, 2014

So if your costs are $500,000 per month and you have $350,000 per month in revenue then your net burn (500-350) is equal to $150,000. But those of us with longer memories remember that the revenue line can move south very quickly when the market overall turns south. Gross burn is the total amount of money you are spending per month.

Burn Rate 383

Burn Rate Balance Sheet .Net Valuation 383

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AUGUST 8, 2009

Your friends and advisers tell you that this means you need revenue because in this economy VC’s will only fund businesses with revenue. So if it’s not necessarily revenue that’s preventing an investment, then WTF is traction? Unfortunately your advisers are wrong. Update them on your fund raising progress.

Technical Review 309

Technical Review Term Sheet Revenue Venture Capital 309

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APRIL 14, 2010

If you want to raise venture capital more easily the advice could be quite practical and counter-intuitive. Many companies that are raising B or C venture capital rounds right now raised their initial money in 2005-2008. Tags: Entrepreneur Advice Raising Venture Capital Start-up Advice Startup Advice.

Venture Capital 289

Venture Capital Liquidation Preference Common Stock Pre-Money Valuation 289

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NOVEMBER 9, 2009

This is part of my series on Raising Venture Capital. Many businesses that pitch to me have White Elephant issues and I’d like to tell you how to deal with these when you’re raising venture capital. But they didn’t have any revenue or enough traction to show for it.

Venture Capital 264

Venture Capital Due Diligence Flash Strategic Investors 264

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FEBRUARY 16, 2017

And we feel great about the many companies in LA that have now reached serious revenue growth. We feel very proud about the success of Ring and our investment in Jamie Siminoff who is amongst the most talented tech leaders in LA or the country. None are Snapchat but many will return huge amounts of money and we’ll all be fine.

IPO 214

IPO Los Angeles Technical Review Silicon Valley 214

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JUNE 28, 2018

While this reaction to such a valuation is understandable, to anybody who has seen the meteoric rise in consumer demand and actual revenue the valuation is much less surprising and may turn out to be quite conservative. I think it’s quite possible that Bird could be the fastest growing company to reach a billion dollars in run rate revenue.

San Francisco 256

San Francisco Valuation Technical Review Los Angeles 256

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APRIL 26, 2016

In SaaS (or any recurring revenue business) this is also a very difficult task. One big, beginners mistake people make in LTV is to measure revenue. If your economic case is built on increasing LTV over time or on retaining recurring revenue streams please remember to layer on “re-marketing or retention” costs into your equation.

Metrics 150

Metrics Cost Acquisition Startup 150

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MAY 24, 2021

It has historically been the case that VCs would rather fund the promise of 100x in a company with almost no revenue than the reality of a company growing at 50% but doing $20+ million in sales. The Valley has obsessed with a quick up-and-to-right momentum story because we were thought to live in “winner take most” markets.

Venture Capital 363

Venture Capital LP Valuation Later Stage 363

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JUNE 17, 2017

70–80% of the costs of most startups are employee costs so what you’re really talking about when a company is unprofitable is that they are growing their staff ahead of their revenue. Revenue When I look at an income statement I start by focusing on the revenue line. You need to understand the “quality” of the revenue.

Stock Options 227

Stock Options Startup Dilution Venture Capital 227

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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. Tags: Pitching VCs Start-up Advice VC Industry startup technology vc venture capital.

Technical Review 269

Technical Review Stock Hawaii Early Stage 269

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NOVEMBER 9, 2014

Generally speaking in venture capital financings the legal documents will specify that only “major investors” (a threshold set in the agreement – which can be $500,000 investor or more). They have listed forward revenue figures that are highly questionable and bring the issue of SEC oversight to my mind.

SEC 352

SEC Venture Capital Early Stage Cofounder 352

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MARCH 25, 2016

It turns out that to build a successful company you ultimately need this strange thing called “revenue” that people don’t just hand you: You need to earn it. And there’s this other thing called “gross margin,” which shows the quality of your revenue. How much ad revenue does TripAdvisor make?

Startup 150

Startup Seed Money DC Software Review 150

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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. Note that these are “gross” revenue numbers. When the show has been processed it will be available here (estimated 8pm PDT). CEO hinted to WSJ that it may go public in early 2011.

Partner 240

Partner New York City Cofounder Syndicate 240

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JUNE 19, 2017

Gross burn is your cost base and net burn is the difference between your revenue and costs. If your revenue grows you can afford to increase your cost base. Sometimes it means spending less on marketing or not adding new bodies so that revenue can catch up with expenses and thus reduce burn through revenue growth.

Burn Rate 212

Burn Rate Startup .Net Venture Capital 212

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OCTOBER 15, 2014

Under Rob’s tenure DataSift grew to 10’s of millions in recurring revenue, signed up more than 1,000 enterprise customers, raised > $60 million in venture capital, hired more than 100 employees and has become one of the fastest growing SaaS companies in the industry.

Founder 309

Founder CTO Hire Silicon Valley Leadership 309

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JULY 16, 2010

One is the “denominator problem&# which says that if an LP invests X% (the denominator) into “alternative investments&# such as venture capital and if their total amount available to invest (the numerator) goes down by 30% then the amount they allocate to VC will by definition need to go down by 30% to stay the same percentage.

Technical Review 311

Technical Review LP Early Stage Silicon Valley 311

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JANUARY 6, 2014

When you first start your company and raise initial venture capital your board probably consists of 1-3 founders and 1-2 VCs. I admit that I haven’t yet read it but I’ve had numerous discussions with Brad over the years about board structure & conduct and consider him a mentor on the topic. In the Early Days.

Technical Review 325

Technical Review Early Stage Software Review Los Angeles 325

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JUNE 22, 2011

Ah, but today’s Internet companies have real revenue! It’s what I love about entrepreneurship and about venture capital. I said that at the Founder Showcase, too. The fact that today’s Internet bubble does not represent all companies does not disprove its existence. and profits! Why I will still be investing.

Saudi Arabia 309

Saudi Arabia Valuation IPO Technical Review 309

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OCTOBER 17, 2019

Just as I was getting the swing of things the world shifted beneath my feet and the stock market went into a free fall and venture capital all but shut down for nearly a year. I mentioned that we sold our position in Kyriba for > $1 billion but when we invested it had virtually no revenue. Over the past 2.5

IP 223

IP Intellectual Property IRR Cofounder 223

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JULY 1, 2015

. “the ecommerce company gained fauxmentum by raising artificially high amounts of venture capital and spent lavishly on customer acquisition despite long payback periods and questionable LTV” __. I see another breed of startups who are dependent on startups for the majority of their revenue.

eCommerce 150

eCommerce Balance Sheet Venture Capital Acquisition 150

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JULY 10, 2010

This episode of This Week in Venture Capital featured Michael Montgomery, president of Montgomery & Co. You have to be selected to present and it is typically reserved for companies that have already raised early-stage capital and are well into revenue growth. Should you use investment banks to raise venture capital?

IPO 242

IPO Venture Capital Private Placement Cofounder 242

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SEPTEMBER 1, 2016

If a company has significant revenue you might value it based on some industry multiples but WhatsApp had very limited revenue. But I do know that nobody I know in the industry (Ok, maybe 1 or 2 people) doubts that A16Z is building a great venture capital firm that will have enviable returns. We’ll see you in 5–10 years.

LP 264

LP Jordan Cofounder Limited Partner 264

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NOVEMBER 13, 2014

Helped merge company with Seedling – on track to do $20 million combined revenue in 2015 – will now become Chairman). As I like to say (and as Kara humbly hates when I do so in front of others) … she has a much better resume to a venture capital partner than I do. She is a coach and mentor to team members.

Partner 408

Partner Las Vegas Los Angeles Baltimore 408

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 13, 2013

So then when I wanted to go into venture capital, they said, “You can’t do that, you need to be in EIR.” So when I got into venture capital, I thought, “Well, what can I do that’s different?” ” “Okay, well you can be an operating partner or a venture partner.”

Cofounder 337

Cofounder Technical Cofounder Startup San Diego 337

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 18, 2010

What a pleasure that I got to spend an hour talking with both Om Malik (whom I’ve always respected his views) and Paul Jozefak , a venture capital partner at Neuhaus Partners in Germany (and formerly the head of Europe for SAP Ventures). Tags: This Week in Venture Capital.

Venture Capital 225

Venture Capital Non-Compete Vertical Europe 225

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MAY 4, 2010

We discussed whether investing in the second largest player in a category makes sense given that Groupon is 10x the revenue, 3.5x But LivingSocial is reportedly doing around $180,000 per day in gross revenue. If this figure is accurate – it’s certainly a very large business even when you look at net revenues.

IPO 236

IPO .Net Venture Capital Strategic Investors 236

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 11, 2010

This is part of my ongoing series on Raising Venture Capital. Recently I’ve been debating with a number of young startup companies that are raising money in the next few months, “what is the right about of capital to raise at a startup?&#. Your revenue will take longer to ramp then you think. add a buffer.

Venture Capital 319

Venture Capital Startup Silicon Valley Warrant 319

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DECEMBER 14, 2010

I often tell people that raising venture capital is more difficult than getting married. Not so in venture capital. This experience made me want to dig into my archives, re-write & publish this piece. In marriage if you’re unhappy you can at least get divorced (in most countries). When the world was ending?

Term Sheet 298

Term Sheet Venture Capital Stealth Cofounder 298

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JUNE 5, 2011

million post-money valuation with no revenue. We had companies pitching us that had almost no revenue at all and they were raising $10-15 million in capital at a $40-50 million pre-money valuation. I’ve been preaching the “don’t get ahead of your inherent valuation&# message for nearly 10 years.

Pre-Money Valuation 336

Pre-Money Valuation Valuation Silicon Valley Stock 336

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NOVEMBER 4, 2010

The framework of his book has profoundly altered how I think about the technology market and affects how I thought about building my businesses and how I think about investing in venture capital. You can’t take a $5 billion revenue stream and say “Fuck it. There you have the innovator’s dilemma. Maybe I should.

Vesting 376

Vesting Framework Revenue Technology 376