Agile VC

FEBRUARY 5, 2014

The early goal isn’t to maximize near term revenue… it’ll take time to fully understand your market and establish P-M fit, let alone optimizing the sales & marketing engine. You will be benchmarked on revenue and paying customers when you seek Series A funding… conceivably even at seed stage.

Revenue 234

Revenue Product B2B Marketing 234

Agile VC

MAY 7, 2014

Juhuasuan – this is a group buying or flash sale marketplace. People compare it to Groupon frequently which helped pioneer “flash sales” in the US, though Groupon historically has sold a lot of service based offers (restaurants, spas, etc) whereas Juhuasuan is primarily products like a Zulily, Gilt, etc.

China 187

China B2B Flash IPO 187

Agile VC

FEBRUARY 12, 2014

A marketplace’s true revenue potential is the % of the total GMS (gross merchandise sales) they can charge (typically 5-10%), not the total GMS. Understanding and pitching the market size which is truly addressable for your startup is critical, and VCs only love markets that are large in “truly” addressable size.

B2B 246

B2B .Net Revenue Global 246

Agile VC

NOVEMBER 9, 2015

The other tiny portion (1%) comes from sales of hardware, like the tablet stands and POS like cash drawers that some businesses use to process Square payments. Nearly 1/2 of Square’s sellers (Square’s best estimate) find them organically or through word of mouth, rather than paid sales & marketing.

IPO 165

IPO .Net Revenue Acquisition 165

Agile VC

JANUARY 21, 2015

Don’t shrug off poor sales or user growth, a dysfunctional team, a wave of bad PR, or other challenges confronting the business. Since this hyperbolic culture can and does prevent founders from seeking help — despite all founders needing it at some point or another — these questions are actually worth answering today.

Cofounder 188

Cofounder Seed Stage Employee PR 188

Agile VC

JUNE 5, 2011

If Groupon’s growth rate drops by 80% they’ll still be nearly tripling top line sales in 2012. Forget doubling, forget tripling… despite a decelerating growth rate in Q1 2011 Groupon still posted 13X year over year growth. Keep in mind Groupon’s net revenue is a percent of a percent.

North America 100

North America Chicago Boston Silicon Valley 100

Agile VC

OCTOBER 5, 2012

But you may be able to gain either industry expertise that’s relevant to being a founder and/or functional expertise in marketing, sales, operations, etc. Working at P&G or Ford isn’t going to feel like a startup and isn’t likely to help you build an entrepreneurially-minded network.

Founder 217

Founder Cofounder Later Stage Operations 217

Agile VC

DECEMBER 5, 2011

Part lives in the cloud and part is embedded in point of sale (POS) software systems. Objective Logistics has created a game layer on top of very sophisticated scheduling algorithms which increase revenue, save time, and improve customer and staff satisfaction.

Silicon Valley 100

Silicon Valley Seed Stage Syndicate Syndication 100

Agile VC

MAY 16, 2019

Public equity investors will measure it in the short term by the same metrics they judge other SaaS companies… multiples of revenue / EBITDA / bookings, growth rates, churn, sales efficiency, etc.

Lock-up Period 100

Lock-up Period Retention Azure .Net 100

Agile VC

OCTOBER 17, 2011

Even companies that primarily sold server side products (Oracle, EMC) were able to do so because there was a desktop computer in every corporate cubicle, manufacturing station, and retail point of sale. Even in the consumer space, desktop computers were typically a “home computer” shared by all occupants until very recently.

Silicon Valley 133

Silicon Valley Seed Stage Syndicate Syndication 133

Agile VC

JANUARY 21, 2015

Don’t shrug off poor sales or user growth, a dysfunctional team, a wave of bad PR, or other challenges confronting the business. Since this hyperbolic culture can and does prevent founders from seeking help — despite all founders needing it at some point or another — these questions are actually worth answering today.

Cofounder 100

Cofounder Seed Stage Employee PR 100

Agile VC

FEBRUARY 28, 2013

Hungary probably wouldn’t sell their sovereignty and entire economy for 1x sales, but Apple has no debt so they could probably lever the deal and borrow money on top of $137 billion in equity. increasing dividends or issuing preferred stock).

Hungary 168

Hungary Dividend Vertical Preferred Stock 168

Agile VC

SEPTEMBER 19, 2011

And a large cash infusion from a sale may be more valuable to Netflix than simply owning a cash-generating unit, as Netflix looks to acquire more digital rights or produce more of it’s own content.

Silicon Valley 100

Silicon Valley Private Equity Seed Stage Syndicate 100

Agile VC

AUGUST 9, 2012

Facebook, LinkedIn, Yelp, etc) Zynga has to spend substantially on sales & marketing to acquire players. That’s their revenue minus cost of goods, and keep in mind Zynga’s top line already excludes the 30% take from Facebook (which still accounts for >90% of revenues).

Stock 160

Stock LBO .Net Valuation 160

Agile VC

MARCH 8, 2012

Investment banks of varying size and prestige might say slightly different things, but typically it means over $50M in trailing sales and a run rate near or above $100M. Would be issuers may have to be patient, but hopefully only for months and not years.

IPO 100

IPO Silicon Valley Revenue Seed Stage 100

Agile VC

JUNE 12, 2012

The rason d’etre for LevelUp (like most other firms) is to tap into the retailer’s marketing budget (10-20% of sales potentially) rather than reduce interchange. But at least the loyalty programs it offers are really cool and easy to implement for the merchants.

Mobile 250

Mobile Disintermediation SMS Government 250