Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 18, 2014

At an accelerator … Me: Raising convertible notes as a seed round is one of the biggest disservices our industry has done to entrepreneurs since 2001-2003 when there were “full ratchets” and “multiple liquidation preferences” – the most hostile terms anybody found in term sheets 10 years ago. And so forth.

Venture Capital 417

Venture Capital Liquidation Preference Valuation Term Sheet 417

The Equity Kicker

NOVEMBER 4, 2013

Aileen Lee of early stage fund Cowboy ventures wrote a post for Techcrunch yesterday looking at the characteristics of 39 startups founded since 2003 that are worth over $1bn. Fred’s Hackpad lists $1bn+ value companies founded after 2003 and founded before 2003.

Startup 113

Startup Europe Early Stage Venture Capital 113

YoungUpstarts

JANUARY 29, 2018

In 2003, four months out of college and still without a satisfactory job, Waseem Malleye took a step anyone who has ever been frustrated in attempts to get their career started can appreciate. For example, a financial model in private equity is quite different from commercial real estate, but understanding the basics should be the first step.

Management 124

Management Due Diligence Private Equity Forecast 124

Growthink Blog

OCTOBER 1, 2014

Last week , I wrote about the strong ambition across the globe to have a "Silicon Valley of One''s Own," and to replicate the otherworldly innovation of a region that has produced more than 75% of the World’s Unicorns - technology companies started since 2003 that now have valuations of more than $1 billion. trillion in cash held by big tech.

Silicon Valley 63

Silicon Valley Private Equity Venture Capital IPO 63

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 24, 2015

I’ve seen friends (and family members) lose much of their savings that way over the years because “Black Swans” happen and in 1987, 2001, 2003 & 2008 (just to name a few from my memory) huge market gyrations caused much financial distress to people seeking short-term gains.

Stock 150

Stock Finance Marketing Valuation 150

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 5, 2012

This time by the efforts of Adeo Ressi to introduce a new kind of structure called “ convertible equity.” My initial reaction to Adeo when we spoke was that while it may have solved some issues (debt versus equity) it didn’t solve the ones that I’ve been warning entrepreneurs about most loudly.

Ratchet 354

Ratchet Liquidation Preference Equity Stock 354

Agile VC

NOVEMBER 6, 2013

1) Skepticism of Startup IPOs is Behind Us – A few years ago there was exceptional dubiousness of new technology companies, which along with the tech crash of ’01-02 and recession of ’08-09 strongly contributed to the IPO drought from 2003-2010. A couple things factor into this.

IPO 194

IPO Aggregator B2B Internet 194

Gust

NOVEMBER 4, 2011

In brief, a cap acts to place a limit on the conversion price of a convertible note such that investors are guaranteed a minimum number of shares for their bridge loans if the startup does a priced equity round at a high pre-money valuation – “high” meaning above the cap, which is often a heavily negotiated term. (The

Valuation 98

Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Merger Vesting 98

Pascal's View

MAY 13, 2011

My full answer to this question follows: Public companies with equity market capitalizations of less than $1 billion have been negatively impacted by these market changes—and within this group, companies with capitalizations of $500 million or less have suffered the most. Median age of a venture backed company hits 8.7 cents or 6.25

Equity 31

Equity Securities and Exchange Commission IPO Marketing 31

The Equity Kicker

SEPTEMBER 8, 2014

Having analysed papers up until 2003, KnIT identified seven of the nine kinases discovered over the subsequent 10 years. Also known as “the guardian of the genome”, p53 suppresses tumours in humans. KnIT trawled the literature searching for links that imply undiscovered p53 kinases, which could provide routes to new cancer drugs.

San Jose 123

San Jose California Search Operations 123

crowdSPRING Blog

JULY 19, 2018

A brand personality is something to which the consumer can relate; an effective brand increases its brand equity by having a consistent set of traits that a specific consumer segment enjoys. In 2003 owner Paul Canella began selling biodegradable dog waste bags and he’s never looked back. Enter PoopBags.com… PoopBags.com.

Charlotte 61

Charlotte Design Ghana Web 61

Austin Startup

MARCH 7, 2021

When it comes to founders, Texas has jewelry mogul, Kendra Scott; Mavericks owner, Mark Cuban of Shark Tank; Whitney Wolfe Herd of Bumble; video game developer, John Carmack; Vista Equity Partners Founder, Robert Smith; Michael Dell of Dell Technologies; and now Elon Musk of SpaceX and Tesla! from growing startups to late-stage buyouts.

Texas 90

Texas San Antonio Houston Dallas 90

The Equity Kicker

APRIL 8, 2015

The fact that the trend has been going for some time – Google was founded in 1998 and Tesla and Facebook in 2003 and 2004 respectively – suggests that the bubble explanation can’t be the whole story. We are in a bubble – at least for late stage companies.

Valuation 60

Valuation Finance Developer Startup 60

Gust

SEPTEMBER 17, 2014

Me: Raising convertible notes as a seed round is one of the biggest disservices our industry has done to entrepreneurs since 2001-2003 when there were “full ratchets” and “multiple liquidation preferences” – the most hostile terms anybody found in term sheets 10 years ago. But lawyers will charge much more for equity.” And so forth.

Liquidation Preference 153

Liquidation Preference Valuation Term Sheet Stock 153

crowdSPRING Blog

JULY 19, 2018

A brand personality is something to which the consumer can relate; an effective brand increases its brand equity by having a consistent set of traits that a specific consumer segment enjoys. In 2003 owner Paul Canella began selling biodegradable dog waste bags and he’s never looked back. Enter PoopBags.com… PoopBags.com.

Charlotte 48

Charlotte Design Ghana Web 48

www.readwriteweb.com

APRIL 23, 2012

But you can still reel in good people - if youre generous with your equity. Offer them a big chunk of equity, or theyll go to a company thats actually selling its products - and where half of 1% is more likely to one day be worth some real money. Close the equity gap, and hiring will get a lot easier," Ravikant suggests.

Hiring 49

Hiring Startup Semantic Equity 49

The Equity Kicker

MAY 10, 2016

Then, in 2003 Lou Gerstner, former CEO of the famously hierarchical IBM, published Who says elephant’s can’t dance? , the story of how he revitalised the company by delegating power to employees, and we all knew the revolution was complete.

Employee 60

Employee Networking Management Design 60

ConversionXL

JULY 29, 2015

even selfish humans are more likely to act fairly when in public.” ( Burnham, 2003 , pp. Equity-based – Equity returns (e.g., How can you apply this tactic? Perhaps the best application of this current technique lies with crowdfunding developers. Crowdfunding platforms vary by their rewards system: Donation-based – No rewards.

Campaign 48

Campaign Reputation Metrics Naming 48

ReadWriteStart

JUNE 18, 2014

Michael Baum : You remember what happened in 2003 in Silicon Valley, right? Nobody wanted equity in startup. Were you insane? We all had gum on our face. The bubble had burst. It was absolutely the worst time in the world to start a company. Nobody wanted to work in a start up. Nobody wanted to invest in a startup.

Founder 60

Founder Entrepreneur North America Startup 60

David Teten

AUGUST 7, 2019

In 2000, LPs invested $104b into 638 funds, but by 2003, LPs’ commitment rate had dropped to just $11b into 161 funds. Haghani observed, “Since investors in private companies inherently lack liquidity, the Value model makes far more sense to me in venture capital and private equity.”. But VC is historically and consistently cyclical.

Venture Capital 60

Venture Capital Valuation Stock NDA 60

The Equity Kicker

AUGUST 19, 2016

When I was at Reuters Venture Capital, for example, we worked like crazy to raise our second fund in the tech nuclear winter of 2001-2003 and kept believing, but there came a point when we flipped the switch and gave up. However, we need the switch when that irrational optimism stops serving us well.

Venture Capital 60

Venture Capital Metrics Sales Startup 60

David Teten

JANUARY 10, 2012

Mr. Parekh started his career at Goldman Sachs, developing the firm’s equities business in the Middle East, with high net worth family offices and sovereign wealth funds. Panel 2 – How Social Investing is Disrupting Investments in Hedge Funds, Private Equity Funds, and Other Alternatives.

Technical Review 128

Technical Review Technology North Carolina Switzerland 128

www.readwriteweb.com

OCTOBER 7, 2007

But when done well it can really help get a company going fast, professionally and without the founders having to give up much (if any) equity - or bankrupting themselves. The founders may believe they are onto such a good idea that they don’t want to give up any equity. To keep the equity we out-sourced.

Bootstrapping 41

Bootstrapping Offshore Startup EC2 41

Gust

NOVEMBER 23, 2011

Facebook, which did not exist in 2003, is now valued at nearly $100 billion. Google, which incorporated in 1998, has a market cap of $200 billion and employs more than 30,000 people. SOPA would disproportionately alter the risk profile for new startups, which are thinly capitalized compared to the giants like Google and Facebook.

IPO 110

IPO Prospectus SEC Intellectual Property 110

www.readwriteweb.com

OCTOBER 18, 2010

He is willing to give up 33% of equity for this $1 million investment. I feel that it is not at all necessary to give this much equity up at this stage of the game. Today, he sees the opportunity to do a cloud capacity planning company. He thinks, that with $1 million in investment, he can make this business successful.

Marketing 52

Marketing Bootstrapping Incubator Angel Investor 52

www.readwriteweb.com

OCTOBER 18, 2010

He is willing to give up 33% of equity for this $1 million investment. I feel that it is not at all necessary to give this much equity up at this stage of the game. Today, he sees the opportunity to do a cloud capacity planning company. He thinks, that with $1 million in investment, he can make this business successful.

Marketing 52

Marketing Bootstrapping Incubator Angel Investor 52

Hunter Walker

JANUARY 24, 2021

You see, it was for work I’d performed from 2001–2003 at a startup called Linden Lab, the company behind virtual world Second Life. A career in technology is a very good path to financial stability and stock equity has been a meaningful contributor to that for me and many others. Don’t overthink it.

Silicon Valley 83

Silicon Valley Equity Vesting Cofounder 83

Hearpreneur

JANUARY 7, 2017

Eitan Lev, was born in 2003 with a rare and serious heart defect known as TAPVR. The stress of always being one month away from failure and constantly having to beg for money from investors while giving away equity made me chronically sick. A few years later, a close friend of mine, Isaac Wernick, just had a son.

Entrepreneur 91

Entrepreneur LLC Cofounder Green 91

View from Seed

NOVEMBER 7, 2019

Aggregate VC investment in 2009 hits a low of roughly $20B, a figure last seen in 2003 in the wake of the bursting of the dotcom and telecom bubble and 2001 recession. Late stage rounds help keep companies private longer and eventually Facebook proves to be a blockbuster company… public equity investors hope to find the next Facebook pre-IPO.

IPO 202

IPO Early Stage Cofounder B2C 202

Altgate

DECEMBER 11, 2008

He is apparently the sole equity owner of this 250 attorney firm and reportedly spent $40 million on artwork hanging on the law office walls. Founder of New York law firm Dreier LLC bilked hedge fund investors out of nearly $400 million by selling bogus securities while impersonating other people. Come again? Rod Blagojevich. Paul Johnston.

SEC 28

SEC Boston Nashville Illinois 28

Reid Hoffman

JANUARY 20, 2013

I co-founded LinkedIn in 2003, and by 2005, after asking myself the key questions about my passion, focus, and commitment, I knew I wanted to bring in a CEO. I’d rather be solving intellectual challenges and figuring out key strategies, not debating which employees should get a promotion, or configuring project timelines.

Founder 78

Founder Hiring Cofounder Hawaii 78

Startup Company Lawyer

FEBRUARY 21, 2010

This was particularly common from 2001 to 2003, after the dot-com crash when companies had raised a large amount of venture financing at high valuations. Alternatives include position, time of service, current equity holdings or other metrics as determined by the company’s board of directors. Vesting.

Retention 31

Retention Liquidation Preference Employee Common Stock 31

The Next Web

MARCH 2, 2014

This was reported as being untrue by British Private Equity & Venture Capital Association (BVCA) about a year ago. This is a representation of 2003 – 2013. The average startup fails at 20 months with $1.3million in funding according to CB Insights , who surveyed a group of failed/acquired startups. It scares them to try.

Europe 163

Europe South Korea San Francisco Portugal 163

Bryce Dot VC

SEPTEMBER 28, 2015

So last year Eileen Lee, did this amazing study where she dug into data going back to 2003. For $100,000 we actually don’t take any equity in your company unless you raise more venture capital, at which point we’ll convert into that round of funding or if you sell the company, we’ll have a small piece of that acquisition.

Venture Capital 40

Venture Capital Valuation Los Angeles Chicago 40

crowdSPRING Blog

DECEMBER 13, 2018

As we wrote in Brand Health, 6 Important Questions You Should Ask About Your Small Business Brand , Brand health can be measured in numerous ways, including brand reputation, brand awareness, brand equity, brand positioning, and brand delivery. Consistent, strategic branding allows your business to grow strong brand equity.

Marketing 162

Marketing Charlotte Naming Design 162

Agile VC

NOVEMBER 7, 2019

Aggregate VC investment in 2009 hits a low of roughly $20B, a figure last seen in 2003 in the wake of the bursting of the dotcom and telecom bubble and 2001 recession. Late stage rounds help keep companies private longer and eventually Facebook proves to be a blockbuster company… public equity investors hope to find the next Facebook pre-IPO.

IPO 100

IPO Early Stage Cofounder B2C 100

Agile VC

NOVEMBER 13, 2012

There was a healthy amount of capital ($20-30B annually) invested in VC funds during the 2003-2008 timeframe. Yes, it was less than the $100B+ that came in ’99-00 but that was bubble driven aberration no matter how you look at it. In the mid 2000′s VC’s were largely prospering.

LP 154

LP Portfolio Venture Capital IRR 154