Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2013

For starters let me use “CEO” as a proxy to include her “inner circle” which might mean co-founders or might just mean senior execs of the business. The Mind of the Founder. We funded one in 2005 and lost a lot of money. The mind of a founder is wired differently than most people. Sorry, brah.”

Startup 417

Startup Dilution San Diego Stock Options 417

Agile VC

MAY 26, 2011

Many assume it was a cakewalk, based on the success LinkedIn has enjoyed over time and the current stature of our founder/CEO Reid Hoffman (now Chairman). Yes… he was a very successful PayPal exec and previously co-founder & VP Product of SocialNet. But keep in mind at this point Reid’s a first-time CEO. Congrats! .

Term Sheet 178

Term Sheet Silicon Valley Technical Review Social Network 178

ConversionXL

JUNE 5, 2014

It’s too bad, because a report by local & small business locator, Manta.com found that 61% of the small businesses surveyed indicated more than half of their revenue comes from repeat customers. As a founder, one of the most painful things in the world to hear is criticism of your baby. Do you think they even notice when you leave?

Retention 115

Retention Customer Developer Programming 115

ConversionXL

JUNE 5, 2014

It’s too bad, because a report by local & small business locator, Manta.com found that 61% of the small businesses surveyed indicated more than half of their revenue comes from repeat customers. As a founder, one of the most painful things in the world to hear is criticism of your baby. Do you think they even notice when you leave?

Retention 112

Retention Developer Customer Programming 112

ConversionXL

JUNE 5, 2014

It’s too bad, because a report by local & small business locator, Manta.com found that 61% of the small businesses surveyed indicated more than half of their revenue comes from repeat customers. As a founder, one of the most painful things in the world to hear is criticism of your baby. Do you think they even notice when you leave?

Retention 105

Retention Customer Developer Programming 105

Seeing Both Sides

NOVEMBER 1, 2011

The CEOs on the panel were (from left to right): Michael Simon, CEO/founder of LogMeIn (2009 IPO) . Niraj Shah, CEO/cofounder of Wayfair ($500m revenue). Colin Angle, CEO/cofounder of iRobot (2005 IPO). Paul English, CTO/cofounder of Kayak ($200m revenue, S-1 filed). Scott Griffith, CEO ZipCar (2010 IPO).

Technical Cofounder 45

Technical Cofounder Cofounder IPO Boston 45

ConversionXL

JUNE 5, 2014

It’s too bad, because a report by local & small business locator, Manta.com found that 61% of the small businesses surveyed indicated more than half of their revenue comes from repeat customers. As a founder, one of the most painful things in the world to hear is criticism of your baby. Do you think they even notice when you leave?

Retention 98

Retention Customer Developer Programming 98

Gust

NOVEMBER 4, 2011

Never missing an opportunity for a good war story, I’d like to revisit one high-profile transaction, the $650 million acquisition of MySpace by Fox Interactive Media in 2005, on which I spent many sleepless nights along with the rest of the deal team. The spin-out took a few months to negotiate and didn’t actually close until February 2005.

Valuation 98

Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Merger Vesting 98

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 14, 2010

Many companies that are raising B or C venture capital rounds right now raised their initial money in 2005-2008. Liquidation preference is the amount of money that an investor gets paid before the common stock (e.g. management, founders, angel investors) get any money. It is 2010. But pass they will. Time suck.

Venture Capital 289

Venture Capital Liquidation Preference Common Stock Pre-Money Valuation 289

YoungUpstarts

MAY 21, 2012

Simply put, smart businesses tend to follow the money, and sometimes that means growing into a business the founders hadn’t ever imagined. Multinational conglomerate holding company Berkshire Hathaway is best known for its control investor, Warren Buffett, who has grown the company by investing not just in stocks, but in entire companies.

Mississippi 209

Mississippi San Francisco Minnesota Bankruptcy 209

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. 3/31/2005: 22.8. They might have said something ridiculous like: “Based on the current price of the preferred stock, your offer is already worth $5M.”

Down Round 73

Down Round Marketing Preferred Stock Post-Money Valuation 73

om.co

FEBRUARY 5, 2013

Om Malik is the founder of GigaOM. He is the founder of Desiparty.com. Evolution of a Founder: Lessons I have learned. Being a startup founder is hard, tough, frustrating and rewarding – possibly all within the space of a nanosecond. Are You Winning As a Founder? He is a venture partner at True Ventures.

Founder 80

Founder Conversion Distribution Silicon Valley 80

Up and Running

APRIL 1, 2015

David Daneshgar, Gregg Weisstein, and Farbod Shoraka, the founders of BloomNation.com. But, of course, they need funding—and wouldn’t you know it, one of the founders is a world class poker player. So, from the consumer end, the founders believed they could do better. Creating a better experience for both florists and consumers.

Venture Capital 60

Venture Capital Startup Cofounder Chicago 60

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. 3/31/2005: 22.8 They might have said something ridiculous like: “Based on the current price of the preferred stock, your offer is already worth $5M.”

Marketing 36

Marketing Preferred Stock Post-Money Valuation Down Round 36

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 26, 2020

There are two reasons to raise money: You have a killer idea that is only partially validated, that you think can get to $50M+ of revenue in 5 years with 80%+ gross margins (if margins are lower, you need a lot more revenue)and you need money to get to product-market fit, or. Not all startups need outside investment to grow.

Cofounder 431

Cofounder Seed Stage Valuation Metrics 431

www.paulgraham.com

APRIL 28, 2010

November 2005 Venture funding works like gears. I think it would help founders to understand funding better—notjust the mechanics of it, but what investors are thinking. And if trouble withinvestors is one of the biggest threats to a startup, managing themis one of the most important skills founders need to learn.

Technical Review 76

Technical Review Startup Software Review Angel Investor 76

www.paulgraham.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

March 2005 (This essay is derived from a talk at the Harvard ComputerSociety.) And since a startup thatsucceeds ordinarily makes its founders rich, that implies gettingrich is doable too. Ideally you want between two and four founders. But you dont want so many founders that the company starts to looklike a group photo.

Startup 105

Startup Cofounder Software Stock 105

abovethecrowd.com

FEBRUARY 27, 2019

In his 2005 book, The World Is Flat , Thomas Friedman recognizes that the Internet has the ability to create a “level playing field” for all participants, and one where geographic distances become less relevant. Launched in 2005, Etsy is a leading marketplaces for the exchange of vintage and handmade items. annual GMV.

Internet 88

Internet Matching Vertical Hosting 88

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 25, 2020

And this rapid prototyping thing when your back's against the wall and your revenue model's gone from 100% to 10%, if you're a small business, restaurant owner or you're running a small curbside, even a consignment store, I'm trying to help a leader understand how he can serve. So, how are you investing in being even better?

Technical Review 148

Technical Review Balance Sheet Texas Austin 148

www.singlefounder.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

Company founders don’t have the luxury of ‘diversifying their portfolio,’ so to speak. They work at their company until funding is pulled, it goes bust, it’s sold, etc… It’s hard to be the founder at multiple companies at the same time. Myth #5: I need to have an office to be taken seriously.

Software Review 40

Software Review Software Startup Massachusetts 40

thenextweb.com

AUGUST 6, 2012

Seven long years ago, in 2005, Paul Graham had dinner with a bunch of college kids. After giving the applicants just 10 days to submit, Graham received an amazing 227 applications, which just goes to show the unbelievable drive that the young would-be founders had. Eight little seeds. It all depends on how you define that word.

Cofounder 70

Cofounder San Francisco Programming Founder 70

techcrunch.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

One of the things I do as a founder of a later stage startup is to meet with early stage entrepreneurs to help them get their companies going. In later posts I’m going to get into more detail on specific topics like hiring, raising money, what types of ideas have the potential to get big, finding your founders, and the like.

Technical Review 84

Technical Review Cofounder Technical Cofounder Software Review 84

www.currentlyobsessed.com

MAY 28, 2010

Deals come in all shapes and sizes, and seed stage funds like First Round Capital and programs like TechStars provide flexibility Explosive growth companies and multi-time successful founders get atypical deals The other terms (besides valuation) matter too! i never thought about it like investing in stocks before.

Valuation 42

Valuation Channel Pre-Money Valuation Term Sheet 42

mashable.com

JULY 18, 2012

And maybe you heard of a tiny Linux-based mobile software designer Google bought in 2005, called Android Inc.? After negotiations between the two companies, Google acquired video compression company On2 in February 2010 for $133 million in Google stock. For many startups, the transition isn’t a hard sell. On2 Technologies.

San Francisco 104

San Francisco Acquisition Social Media Mobile 104

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 9, 2010

When I started my second company in 2005 we decided to do everything differently. Public stock market trades by senior executives of corporations. Factual was created in 2007 by Gil Elbaz, the founder of Applied Semantics. By then the open-source movement had really developed. Same with university data. Healthcare data.

Cloud 343

Cloud Technical Review Database Semantic 343