article thumbnail

It’s Morning in Venture Capital

Both Sides of the Table

Yes, it’s true that FOMO (fear of missing out) is driving some irrational behavior and valuations amongst uber competitive deals and well-financed VCs. Try charging customers for your product when you have 12 competitors giving the product away free finances by $20 million of VC. The Exit Problem. There are 20x more consumers online.

article thumbnail

The pioneers of Silicon Valley’s fast culture on how to grow quickly, not recklessly

Reid Hoffman

And from a financial perspective, any investor would be better off buying stock in Amazon than buying and share of a corner bookshop; if you invested $100 in Amazon’s 1997 initial public offering (IPO), those shares would have been worth about $120,000 in 2018. Publishers and authors (like O’Reilly and us) also benefit from Amazon’s success.

Insiders

Sign Up for our Newsletter

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

article thumbnail

Building a Great Startup Board: Pt 1

Reid Hoffman

I’ve encountered many of the different ways boards can interact under different circumstances, whether it’s problem executives, problem investors, CEO misbehavior, financing issues, business crises and more. WHY IS A STARTUP BOARD SO IMPORTANT? Unfortunately, I experienced this dysfunction personally at my very first startup, SocialNet.

Startup 36
article thumbnail

Customers Love Free Stuff … But That’s Not Your Problem

abovethecrowd.com

Warren Buffet, 1997. Paypal famously offered customers $5 to invite a friend, who would then also get $5 as part of a highly successful viral marketing campaign (they actually started at $20, and then reduced it to $10 and then ended at $5). Marketing 101: Customers love free stuff. You guessed it — straight up free money.

IPO 82