View from Seed

JUNE 17, 2015

But the first real time we had a big celebration and folks felt like we’d “made it” was the party we held in the parking lot on February 14, 2002 when PayPal went public. We were a profitable company at that point with nearly $200M annualized revenue, one of the first tech companies to IPO after the dot-com bubble.

Startup 120

Startup Cofounder Seed Stage IPO 120

View from Seed

JANUARY 26, 2016

There are a number of factors that have contributed to the rise of pre-seed rounds, but the strongest have been the frothy late-stage financing market, coupled with both the scaling-up of some of the early winners in the institutional seed ecosystem and the scaling-down of some larger funds that retrenched after the financial crisis.

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage Early Stage Cofounder Finance 120

YoungUpstarts

MARCH 25, 2015

With over thirty years of experience, Rothman cemented his Gutsball ethos in the 2002 HP/Compaq merger, a deal that married Compaq’s global reach with HP’s technological prowess and resulted in a state-of-the-art finance and leasing company now producing over $3.5 billion in annual revenue.

Merger 100

Merger Leadership Employee Matching 100

Agile VC

JUNE 17, 2015

But the first real time we had a big celebration and folks felt like we’d “made it” was the party we held in the parking lot on February 14, 2002 when PayPal went public. We were a profitable company at that point with nearly $200M annualized revenue, one of the first tech companies to IPO after the dot-com bubble.

Startup 100

Startup Cofounder Seed Stage IPO 100

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 10, 2010

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. Venture Financing. Founded in 2002 and expanded after founders graduated from CMU in 2006. Revenue of ~$160mm in 2008. Want to know our opinion on the deals?

IPO 242

IPO Venture Capital Private Placement Cofounder 242

Austin Startup

AUGUST 20, 2017

Messy cap tables can come back to haunt you when you do a financing or sell the company. I am very surprised when that cool thing actually meets a customer need or drives revenue. Many of us suffered in the 2000–2002 dotcom crash and/or the 2007–2009 Great Recession; others hardly noticed a blip.

Technical Review 48

Technical Review Software Review Cap Table Securities and Exchange Commission 48

Ben's Blog

JULY 16, 2013

Perhaps you are caught in the “Series A crunch” or perhaps you are a consumer company and expected that you would be valued on users rather than revenue like the last time. 3/29/2002: 82.5. Financing capital market down round fundraising outkast' But they most certainly are not. How could this be? Aren’t markets rational?

Down Round 78

Down Round Marketing Preferred Stock Post-Money Valuation 78

Campus Entrepreneurship

DECEMBER 23, 2010

When I attended between 1998-2001, there were a few course on entrepreneurship (entrepreneurial finance, entrepreneurial strategy, etc.), Lefkofsky launched InnerWorkings, a business-to-business online printing firm, in 2002 and took it public in 2006; it’s now run by CEO Eric Belcher, ’95.

Cofounder 61

Cofounder Chicago Founder IPO 61

Cracking the Code

DECEMBER 11, 2015

When Elon Musk received $200 million from the proceeds of the PayPal acquisition in 2002, he re-invested everything to build the next big thing: $100 million in SpaceX and $100 million in Tesla. . #6 Passion While everyone wants to make money, good VCs look for more in an entrepreneur than the desire to cash out.

San Francisco 48

San Francisco Churn Rate Silicon Valley Engineer 48

ReadWriteStart

NOVEMBER 16, 2010

Being enterprise scale means that your representatives have regular dialogue at CXO or at least VP level with Global 2000 accounts are they are bringing in millions of revenue from those accounts every year. You have to do this; addressing real customer needs releases revenue dollars that you need to survive.

Software 127

Software Startup Architecture Bootstrapping 127

Hearpreneur

AUGUST 5, 2020

The SARS outbreak in 2002 leads to the tremendous growth of online marketplace platforms in China. It helped them to engage already existing customers with the brand and kept the revenues steady. Also, it is important to note business leaders believe that 4IR tech will safeguard them against an economic downturn in the future.

Technical Review 155

Technical Review Software Review Entrepreneur China 155

Ben's Blog

JULY 16, 2013

Perhaps you are caught in the “Series A crunch” or perhaps you are a consumer company and expected that you would be valued on users rather than revenue like the last time. 3/29/2002: 82.5 But they most certainly are not. Or maybe you are a lucky enterprise company and are pleasantly surprised—this time. How could this be?

Marketing 46

Marketing Preferred Stock Post-Money Valuation Down Round 46

Duct Tape Marketing

SEPTEMBER 29, 2022

But when I switched from that to online ordering the revenue and the business tripled with the same customer base and, and I realized just how much friction there was in the ordering process. And so when that revenue tripled and suddenly I was like, Oh, I can hire people to help me, like this thing is gonna work.

Founder 82

Founder Chicago Kansas Startup 82

Cracking the Code

SEPTEMBER 2, 2008

The Deutsche Bank report has a very interesting chart on the topic presenting the Free Cash Flow margins vs. the revenue growth four years post IPO for select software leaders: As you can see, with 20% Free Cash Flow margin and a 50% growth rate, Salesforce is well positioned in the pack! 2002, the stock price went from $17.5

Software Review 48

Software Review Software Technical Review Cloud 48

Agile VC

NOVEMBER 9, 2015

There’s been ample coverage in the popular press of course highlighting everything from the company’s revenue growth, lack of profitability, and the well-publicized fact that founder/CEO Jack Dorsey is also CEO of Twitter so would theoretically be running two public companies simultaneously. Revenue Composition. Starbucks Deal.

IPO 165

IPO .Net Revenue Acquisition 165