Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 11, 2019

I've been in venture now twice. The first time was just for a couple years, from 2001-2003, before I went to grad school. I was in Boston, working for the first time in venture capital as an analyst for this guy who was incredible and an amazing mentor. How do you develop power within a venture capital firm?

Founder 68

Founder Lean Venture Capital Cofounder 68

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 5, 2011

2007, 2011) and for the hottest of companies and in bad markets for fund raising (2003, 2008) prices test the bottom end of the range. million post-money valuation with no revenue. We had companies pitching us that had almost no revenue at all and they were raising $10-15 million in capital at a $40-50 million pre-money valuation.

Pre-Money Valuation 336

Pre-Money Valuation Valuation Silicon Valley Stock 336

reidhoffman.org

NOVEMBER 12, 2013

Friendster was at its height, strongly battling MySpace after raising its premium round from Benchmark and Kleiner in the fall of 2003. Neither is a particularly good backdrop for trying to raise capital, because. we had no revenue. Friendster raised a big round in 2003; MySpace started gaining traction.

Entrepreneur 111

Entrepreneur Revenue Viral Networking 111

abovethecrowd.com

FEBRUARY 27, 2019

Four years later, in May of 2003, they launched Taobao Marketplace, Alibaba’s answer to eBay. In November of this year, the company announced that it had achieved “substantially” more than $1B in revenue in the third quarter. billion of GSV (gross services revenue) across 2.0

Internet 88

Internet Matching Vertical Hosting 88

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 1, 2011

Around 2003, Quigo was doing tens of millions of dollars in revenue with two main products: a ready-to-use, search engine marketing solution for advertisers called FeedPoint and a contextual advertising platform for publishers called AdSonar. Quigo Lands Overture as Client, Rejects Their Acquisition Offer.

Semantic 302

Semantic Acquisition Valuation Angel Investor 302

YoungUpstarts

JUNE 28, 2012

chief, came to the rescue in 2003 and helped turn the company around for the better. Their patience paid off months later when big name venture capital firms Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Sequoia Capital invested $25 million in Google. It wasn’t until Millard Drexler, former Gap Inc. million in 2005.

Bankruptcy 195

Bankruptcy Texas Naming Venture Capital 195

www.readwriteweb.com

MARCH 7, 2011

Since most companies have little to no revenue, who else has already invested in the deal is heavily weighted to prove value. Every week StartupDigest publishes weekly newsletters about the best events, jobs, and what to read for your industry. Follow McCann on Twitter @Mccannatron. Roberts also takes issue with the emphasis on ?social

Technical Review 50

Technical Review Due Diligence Startup Angel Investor 50

VC Cafe

JULY 27, 2017

According to the Interactive Advertising Bureau, podcast industry ad revenue will reach $220 million in 2017, up 85 percent from 2016’s $119 million ( source ). The show starts with the history of Podcasts and ends with where they may be headed. Interestingly, Podcasts are starting to become a big business too.

Audio 109

Audio Silicon Valley Curation Cofounder 109

Growthink Blog

APRIL 12, 2017

Earlier this week Tesla became America's most valuable car maker, with a market capitalization at Monday’s close of $50.9 Last year, Tesla sold 72,285 cars, with revenues totaling $7 billion, and in so doing accrued $674 million in losses. And yes Tesla is young (founded 2003) and General Motors is old (founded 1908).

America 48

America Revenue Technology Cost 48

Bryce Dot VC

SEPTEMBER 28, 2015

These notions of an independent ethos don’t map that well to what we know about venture capital, which is a very staged and formulaic way of building a company. As a venture funded startup, you’re supposed to operate a certain way. Because venture does provide a lot of good things to a bunch of really great companies.

Venture Capital 40

Venture Capital Valuation Los Angeles Chicago 40

SoCal CTO

NOVEMBER 5, 2009

I grew up in Los Angeles and went to undergrad at UC Santa Barbara, graduating in 2003 with Honors in Economics. A few years ago “venture capital” was a revenue model. Today, there is still seed capital to be found, but you have to show the investors (especially very early stage investors) that you have a viable business.

Los Angeles 150

Los Angeles Southern California Startup SEO 150

Andrew Payne

APRIL 28, 2010

Interesting bits: He started in 2003 to provide a better on-line ordering experience for certain parts (moral: good UI + UX can win). They had 65 employees and did $10m in 2009, will be close to doubling revenues this year. He was smart, funny and engaging, and it was very inspiring.

Venture Capital 40

Venture Capital Revenue Employee Developer 40

Gust

SEPTEMBER 17, 2014

Me: So, you raised venture capital? 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. Revenue multiple?

Liquidation Preference 153

Liquidation Preference Valuation Term Sheet Stock 153

VC Cafe

JULY 27, 2017

According to the Interactive Advertising Bureau, podcast industry ad revenue will reach $220 million in 2017, up 85 percent from 2016’s $119 million ( source ). The show starts with the history of Podcasts and ends with where they may be headed. Interestingly, Podcasts are starting to become a big business too.

Audio 60

Audio Curation Silicon Valley Media 60

Gust

NOVEMBER 4, 2011

MySpace was incubated by a small team of employees within Intermix in 2003 (Chris DeWolfe, Tom Anderson and four others). VantagePoint Venture Partners came to the rescue in late 2003 with an infusion of $15 million in capital, adding Andrew Sheehan (now at Sutter Hill Ventures ) and David Carlick (now at Rho Ventures ) to the Board.

Valuation 98

Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Merger Vesting 98

Steve Blank

JUNE 22, 2009

We Changed Our Mind In 1966, 10 years after Hewlett’s memo, Hewlett Packard’s revenue and headcount had grown ten fold; $200 million and 11,000 employees – all from test and measurement equipment. And venture capital and entrepreneurship has made life even tougher for the modern corporation.

Silicon Valley 164

Silicon Valley RSS California Agile 164

VC Cafe

FEBRUARY 1, 2011

Israel’s Koor Industries, an investment company with holdings in Israeli telecom, defense electronics, agro-chemicals and venture capital markets, will retain 40% of the maker of fungicides, pesticides and herbicides. Intel Corporation (Nasdaq: INTC) had revenue of $43.6 in Haifa in 1974. Intel Israel exported $2.7

Architecture 92

Architecture Dividend Minneapolis 92

Software By Rob

SEPTEMBER 1, 2011

By generating a steady revenue from consulting projects and sales, the founders were able to spend time growing their business slowly. Today, Litmus has had over 30,000 customers, 1 million+ in revenue, and is growing by around 10% a month. Today, SparkFun has a wide following and boasts over $10 million in revenue.

Bootstrapping 78

Bootstrapping Startup Cofounder Salary 78

www.readwriteweb.com

OCTOBER 18, 2010

These are areas that may be gaps in the portfolio of large companies, and are perfect for M&A deals in three to five years after building enough validation and $10-$20 million in revenue. By definition, the capital investment needs to be relatively low such that the investors and the entrepreneurs all make a healthy return on investment.

Marketing 52

Marketing Bootstrapping Incubator Angel Investor 52

www.readwriteweb.com

OCTOBER 18, 2010

These are areas that may be gaps in the portfolio of large companies, and are perfect for M&A deals in three to five years after building enough validation and $10-$20 million in revenue. By definition, the capital investment needs to be relatively low such that the investors and the entrepreneurs all make a healthy return on investment.

Marketing 52

Marketing Bootstrapping Incubator Angel Investor 52

Scalable Startup

JULY 19, 2011

In 2003 Electronic Arts actually moved their headquarters from Silicon Valley to Playa Vista, an crazy move at the time, and accelerated their growth as a result. Venture Capital from Northern and Southern Cal is flowing into the L.A.

California 20

California Southern California San Francisco Silicon Valley 20

Altgate

DECEMBER 11, 2008

@altgate Startups, Venture Capital & Everything In Between Skip to content Home Furqan Nazeeri (fn@altgate.com) ← Great Startup Event In Boston A Squeeze On Boston Venture Valuations → White Collar Crime Spree Posted on December 11, 2008 by fnazeeri What is going on with the rash of “white collar&# crime?

SEC 28

SEC Boston Nashville Illinois 28

techcrunch.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

The timing is perfect, there is more than a little overlap with Vivek Wadhwa’s guest post on venture capital earlier today. also, just to clarify, the first idea we worked on that we called “meebo&# back in 2003 was my idea. Hopefully your idea of business model isn’t “ad revenue based”. Johnny Good post.

Technical Review 84

Technical Review Cofounder Technical Cofounder Software Review 84

ConversionXL

NOVEMBER 29, 2012

136 CMOs were recently asked “What do you see as your biggest opportunity for revenue generation in early 2013?” Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game is a book by Michael Lewis, published in 2003. ” 46% of them said “improving conversions” Excellent. Good design is problem solving.”. –

Design 100

Design Analytics Software Review Conversion 100