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Praying to the God of Valuation

Both Sides of the Table

Something happened in the past 7 years in the startup and venture capital world that I hadn’t experienced since the late 90’s — we all began praying to the God of Valuation. The browser and thus the WWW and the first Internet businesses were born circa 1994–95 and there was a golden period where anything seemed possible. What happened?

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What is the Right Burn Rate at a Startup Company?

Both Sides of the Table

it is also the title of a fabulous book from Internet 1.0 by Michael Woolf that is worth any startup founder reading to get a sense of perspective on the reality warp that is startup world during a frothy market such as 1997-1999, 2005-2007 or 2012-2014. Valuation.

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6 Mistakes Often Made By Entrepreneurs Due To Passion

Startup Professionals Musings

Just because you would have loved to have your groceries picked out and delivered, doesn’t mean the mainstream customer was ready for Webvan in 1999. Or ask PlanetRx, an online service for prescriptions, before the Internet was pervasive. Falling victim to a magical mania or bubble.

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A Deep Dive into What Has Really Changed in Venture Capital

Both Sides of the Table

Valuations are out of control” is the mantra of others. Yes, VC / Startup Funding is up Massively If you look at how much VC firms have raised from Limited Partners (LPs) over the past 2 decades you’ll see that we’ve returned to a level that we haven’t seen since 1999. We’re in a new tech bubble!” some have pronounced.

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6 Ways To Doom Your Startup Despite A Great Solution

Startup Professionals Musings

Just because you would have loved to have your groceries picked out and delivered, doesn’t mean the mainstream customer was ready for Webvan in 1999. Or ask PlanetRx, an online service for prescriptions, before the Internet was pervasive. Falling victim to a magical mania or bubble.

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The Decade in Tech

Start Up Blog

Why it mattered: An open and fair internet took a massive hit when Facebook bought Instagram. When blood diagnosis health startup Theranos was exposed as a scam – everyone started to understand that not all unicorns would live up to their hype, valuations or even their product promises. I liken it to the dot-com bubble of 1999.

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The Great Coding School Rollup of 2015

Feld Thoughts

When I saw the proposal, I immediately thought of the web consulting rollups of 1999. revenue were the correct valuations since these are generally 5% to 10% net income businesses that are 30% – 40% gross margin and heavily dependent on (a) transitory labor and (b) favorable supply/demand conditions. I’d argue the 0.5x