Feld Thoughts

JULY 19, 2018

It has happened only one other time in my investing career – in 1999. I remember when, in a period of about six months, the ceiling on seed financings vanished. In some cases, these rounds were with experienced founders who had previously had a success and could dictate terms.

Early Stage 105

Early Stage Seed Stage Valuation Finance 105

Feld Thoughts

FEBRUARY 9, 2016

I started investing in 1994 and while there was some bumpiness in 1997 and again in 1999, the real pain happened between 2000 and 2005. I watched, participated, and suffered through every type of creative financing as companies were struggling to raise capital in this time frame. I learned this lesson 127 times between 2000 and 2005.

Cap Table 70

Cap Table Down Round Liquidation Preference Founder 70

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 13, 2011

There was a lot of consumer internet activity again…resurgence of things, but it was still mysterious, venture capital was still kind of closed, 1st time entrepreneurs had a lot of questions that were unanswered, and there was still some sort of hand waiving around all the financing stuff and so we took it on….”.

Technical Review 288

Technical Review Venture Capital Silicon Valley Software Review 288

YoungUpstarts

MAY 20, 2018

by David Johnson, founder and CEO of TempCFO. And of the total amount of failed startups, a majority reported finances as the major culprit of their collapse. It can be stressful and unproductive to worry about your personal finances while running a startup. Fortunately, your brainchild won’t need to suffer the same fate.

Startup 118

Startup Salary CPA Small Business Administration 118

Feld Thoughts

MARCH 12, 2014

Today, Rover announced that Menlo Ventures has led a new $12m round of financing. We invested in the company in 1999 during the ascension of the Internet bubble. We loved the two founders, Michael Beaudoin and Rodney Rice, but knew very little about marketplace businesses or the home improvement category.

Seattle 149

Seattle Metrics Cofounder Finance 149

YoungUpstarts

JANUARY 3, 2012

In 2006, Muhammad Yunus, the bank’s founder and “the father of microfinance,” won the Nobel Peace Prize. SHARE Micro Finance Limited, India. Since its organization in 1999, SHARE has become the biggest microfinance institution in India, and its success has prompted other banks to begin their own microfinance programs.

Colombia 256

Colombia Kenya San Diego Ethiopia 256

www.inc.com

SEPTEMBER 24, 2011

Finance | Tuesdays. Financing a Small Business. Financing A Small Business. Personal Finance. Before Roving Software could receive its first round of financing from professional investors, in early 1999, he had to put all the stock arrangements in writing. Start-up | Mondays. Technology | Thursdays.

Fractional CTO 40

Fractional CTO Equity Iowa Technical Cofounder 40

ithacaVC

SEPTEMBER 4, 2011

Here is the latest edition of Finance Fridays from Brad Feld called “Introducing the Cap Table and CTO” Every startup needs someone to be in charge of the Cap Table. That person is typically the inside finance person, but it does not really matter who so long is it is always current.

Cap Table 49

Cap Table Finance Option Pool Warrant 49

abovethecrowd.com

OCTOBER 17, 2013

The company, which the founder cleverly named “Stitch Fix,” had a remarkably unique offering compared to other women’s fashion experiences. I immediately reached out to the founder and CEO, Katrina Lake , who had previously worked for another Benchmark portfolio company in the fashion space, Polyvore.

eCommerce 62

eCommerce Technical Review North America San Francisco 62

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 1, 2011

If you take a snapshot during an extraordinary surge in valuations, M&A activity, IPOs and thus wealth creation you’d echo John Doerr’s famous quote from 1999 that, “The Internet is the greatest legal creation of wealth in history.&# I still have to get sales, operations, finance, HR & corp dev right to win.

IPO 391

IPO Finance Valuation Naming 391

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 19, 2009

I had previously raised VC in 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2005. Another called Parker Harris, the co-founder and CTO. We will hopefully close on a $2-3 million financing round at some point in January and I can get back to the full time work of running my business. I look forward to the next phase of our business.

Venture Capital 274

Venture Capital Term Sheet San Diego Viral 274

Feld Thoughts

FEBRUARY 4, 2013

We led a $7m financing in the leader in digital dog boarding that connects dog owners with approved, reviewed, and insured sitters. Seth and I worked together on ServiceMagic in the 1999 – 2004 time frame (IAC acquired it in 2004 for $180m) so we had a deep understanding of how a heavily metric-based buy/sell marketplace worked.

Seattle 136

Seattle New York Metrics Demand 136

YoungUpstarts

JUNE 28, 2012

Google is one of the largest companies in the world and its founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, are some of the richest entrepreneurs to date. But before Google became the giant corporation that it is today, it was almost sold for a shy $1 million to Excite CEO George Bell in 1999.

Bankruptcy 180

Bankruptcy Texas Naming Venture Capital 180

View from Seed

JUNE 17, 2015

My first startup job was as an early employee at PayPal, where I took a job at the end of ‘1999 and started a few months later in 2000. Additionally, a lot of people today work in startups or want to work in startups or want to be founders, which overall is a great thing.

Startup 120

Startup Cofounder Seed Stage IPO 120

David Teten

JANUARY 10, 2012

Dave Tisch, Founder & Managing Director, TechStars NYC. Fralic was also one of the early employees and VP of Business Development at Half.com starting in 1999, and after the eBay acquisition, spent six years with eBay in a variety of entertainment, business development, and media roles. Mike Yavonditte, CEO, Hashable.

Portfolio 122

Portfolio New York Social Bookmarking Philadelphia 122

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 6, 2010

I freely admit this (along with nearly everything between 1999-2000) was a mistake. That said, don’t complicate the topic – If you’re the founder of a company you likely know a lot about things like Liquidation Preferences and how they affect value allocations when the company is sold. And that would be nice.

Stock Options 294

Stock Options Stock Valuation Liquidation Preference 294

Up and Running

MAY 11, 2011

That’s what we teach in business schools and classic entrepreneurship: you develop a business plan, you get financed, and then you start. And my own company, Palo Alto Software, might not have survived the dot-com crash in 2001 if we’d had more money to spend in 1999. One thing they buy with their money is their voice.

Oregon 121

Oregon Angel Groups Cofounder Business Plan 121

ReadWriteStart

AUGUST 20, 2012

According to Dow Jones VentureSource Senior Manager of Corporate Communications Kim Gagliardi, 3,404 venture financing rounds were completed in 2011, down 47% from the 6,361 closed in 2000. Levy should know, in 1999 he founded eHatchery, an Atlanta-based precursor to today’s accelerators. Accelerators are also booming.

Venture Capital 127

Venture Capital San Francisco Deal Flow Atlanta 127

Ben's Blog

OCTOBER 8, 2013

I was a founder/CEO during the period when cash seemed more like a serf than a king in 1999 and 2000. Still, when Marc Andreessen, my co-founder and chairman of the board, said we should start generating cash, something told me that he was right. Financing cash flow investors Kanye West Marc Andreessen'

Cofounder 78

Cofounder Finance Internet Founder 78

Lightspeed Venture Partners

MAY 5, 2016

It allows our founders to have a direct line to us, and lets us respond with urgency and engage with founders when, where and how we can be most impactful. Over the years we’ve had the privilege of working with amazing founders and helping them grow from infancy to IPO or acquisition in many cases. And it works.

Silicon Valley 60

Silicon Valley Advisory Board Flash Pennsylvania 60

online.wsj.com

JULY 11, 2012

Loading… Personal Finance. Personal Finance. Andreessen Horowitz is telling entrepreneurs it prefers situations where the founders have controlling stakes, reckoning that theyll be better able to resist outside distraction and focus on making great products. » More. Loading… Markets. » More.

Silicon Valley 42

Silicon Valley Founder Software Review Technical Review 42

Hearpreneur

JANUARY 7, 2017

I am the founder/coach of Never Settle Coaching, LLC a coaching business. For nearly 15 years I had analytical, numbers-driven jobs in finance and banking, working for some of the world’s largest banks. When I met my co-founder and partner, we inspired each other to take a chance and start our own business.

Entrepreneur 91

Entrepreneur LLC Cofounder Green 91

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 23, 2009

Extra credit if you know the back-story of slide 1 and why it’s appropriate for founders and their team. Our startup was venture funded in 1999 and we didn’t pay enough attention to this advice! For example, our company finances renewable energy installations (solar, fuel cell, etc.) Sometimes that can be hard.

Customer Development 212

Customer Development Developer Silicon Valley Customer 212

Ben's Blog

OCTOBER 8, 2013

I was a founder/CEO during the period when cash seemed more like a serf than a king in 1999 and 2000. Still, when Marc Andreessen, my co-founder and chairman of the board, said we should start generating cash, something told me that he was right. It was the era of “go big or go home.” I grew my company and I grew it fast.

Cofounder 78

Cofounder Internet Finance Founder 78

Ben's Blog

JULY 16, 2013

3/31/1999: 49.7. Down rounds are bad and hit founders disproportionately hard, but they are not as bad as bankruptcy. Smart investors will want the founders and employees to be properly motivated post-financing, so there may be a way to a reasonable outcome for both you and your people. 3/29/1996: 22.3. 3/31/1997: 23.3.

Down Round 78

Down Round Marketing Preferred Stock Post-Money Valuation 78

Ben's Blog

JULY 24, 2011

They were joined by a third co-founder, Nathan Blecharczyk, who brought programming expertise. I joined eBay in 1999, early in its life, and had the privilege of witnessing and contributing to the development of one of the most iconic e-commerce businesses. The name was shortened to “Airbnb” and they launched their website in 2009.

Rhode Island 78

Rhode Island Portfolio Liechtenstein San Francisco 78

Mike Michalowicz

FEBRUARY 14, 2019

Next, we have Honor Lydon, co-founder and Executive Editor of BostonChefs.com. My lifelong goal as a child was to open my own restaurant one day and, with the help of 2 partners, I did just that in 1999 with the opening of my first restaurant, Bomboa, located in between the Back Bay and South End of Boston. link] [link].

Boston 120

Boston New York Hosting Cost 120

Hearpreneur

OCTOBER 30, 2015

In January of 1999, I co-founded a marketing agency with a former boss. Working directly with other CEOs and founders, I receive immediate feedback and appreciation for my expertise. Thanks to Stacey Price, Healthy Business Finances. #27 Thanks to Mike Samson, crowdSPRING. #3 3 – I was Fired Twice.

Entrepreneur 48

Entrepreneur Australia Software Review LLC 48

Ben's Blog

JULY 16, 2013

3/31/1999: 49.7 Down rounds are bad and hit founders disproportionately hard, but they are not as bad as bankruptcy. Smart investors will want the founders and employees to be properly motivated post-financing, so there may be a way to a reasonable outcome for both you and your people. One would be wrong: 3/31/1995: 21.0

Marketing 46

Marketing Preferred Stock Post-Money Valuation Down Round 46

abovethecrowd.com

APRIL 20, 2016

Why the Unicorn Financing Market Just Became Dangerous…For All Involved. All Unicorn participants — founders, company employees, venture investors and their limited partners (LPs) — are seeing their fortunes put at risk from the very nature of the Unicorn phenomenon itself. By January of 2016, that number had ballooned to 229.

IPO 40

IPO Term Sheet Silicon Valley Valuation 40

SVPG

SEPTEMBER 30, 2016

But back in 1999, a then very young Netflix based in Los Gatos with less than 20 employees, was on the edge of going bust. They had a couple experienced co-founders, including the now legendary Reed Hastings, but the problem was that they were stuck at about 300,000 customers. The title is not important; the work they do is.

Product 60

Product Technical Review Software Review Engineer 60

Hearpreneur

OCTOBER 6, 2019

My number one goal in 1999 when my wife (fiancé at the time) Abby and I started our firm was to create a business that allowed us to raise and support our family on our own terms—just like my parents’ business allowed them to do for more than 30 years. My parents were also small business owners.

Entrepreneur 61

Entrepreneur Ireland LLC Kansas 61

Hearpreneur

SEPTEMBER 15, 2017

The original company name was Scene on TV (going back to 1999), and I expanded into movies, and the name was also confusing to people (Scene instead of Seen). While many people want to learn about finance and investing, current forms of financial education (especially for young people) can be hard to digest. 27- Unusual way.

Naming 95

Naming Entrepreneur Green LLC 95

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 16, 2012

I raised money as an entrepreneur, like you, in 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003 and 2005 for two different companies. You need to build genuine relationships with these portfolio startup founders as well as trust with them and the rest will follow. It’s just a part of your ongoing activities as a founder. Always be fund raising.

Developer 366

Developer Silicon Valley PR Las Vegas 366

Reid Hoffman

OCTOBER 10, 2017

Piracy became so associated with startups that when, in 1999, the cable network TNT released a movie about the heated rivalry between Steve Jobs and Apple, and Bill Gates and Microsoft, it was titled, “Pirates of Silicon Valley.” But failing to make the transition from pirate to navy can lead to disaster.

Silicon Valley 36

Silicon Valley Early Stage Software Review Employee 36

abovethecrowd.com

FEBRUARY 27, 2019

In 1999, Jack Ma created Alibaba , a Chinese-based B2B marketplace for connecting small and medium enterprise with potential export opportunities. They have helped 2,000 substitute teachers get in the classroom in 2018, including 400 educators who earned permits, which Swing willingly financed.

Internet 88

Internet Matching Vertical Hosting 88

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 22, 2011

You may feel as I did in 1999 that the more smart people around the table the more intros you’ll have, the more sage advice you’ll receive and the more impressive you’ll seem to outsiders. .&# The most tempting thing to do in a financing is to find two investors to split a deal. The Perils of Many.

Dilution 314

Dilution Cap Table Due Diligence Option Pool 314