Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 27, 2021

We’ve had two companies where we had to bridge finance them several times before they eventually IPO’d We had a portfolio company turn-down a $350 million acquisition because they wanted at least $400 million. the sale of the company for $1 billion. Another 3–5 could return in aggregate $300–500 million.

Bankruptcy 294

Bankruptcy Bridge Financing Portfolio Angel Investor 294

Feld Thoughts

SEPTEMBER 27, 2011

In this case, the convertible debt document doesn’t allow the debt to convert into anything, but at the same time mandates that upon a sale the debt must be paid off. So the lenders don’t see any of the upside on the acquisition. Our strong advice is to address how the debt will be handled in an acquisition in the documents.

Conversion 96

Conversion Sales Later Stage Preferred Stock 96

ConversionXL

JUNE 26, 2019

While this is true for all SaaS companies, it’s especially critical for those that use their product—not traditional marketing or sales—as their growth engine. In aggregate, even small wins can become big wins. Once there’s internal ownership, you can establish and iterate on a process to execute your product-led strategy. Conclusion.

Framework 121

Framework Churn Rate Metrics Revenue 121

crowdSPRING Blog

NOVEMBER 27, 2012

Let’s illustrate with an example – using a fictional new online marketplace for the purchase and sale of art. For example, approximately one-half of the art market worldwide is auction sales. The other half is commercial gallery sales. Commercial gallery sales? Online sales account for 10 percent.”

Small Business 110

Small Business Marketing Startup Silicon Valley 110

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 14, 2009

billion for a company with less than $50 million in sales. Tech acquisitions went crazy at the same time the IPO market did. The Rise of Mergers and Acquisitions -– March 2003 -2008 After the dot.com bubble collapsed, the IPO market (and most tech M&A deals) shutdown for technology companies. billion.) So what’s left?

Silicon Valley 235

Silicon Valley IPO Technical Review Venture Capital 235

Hunter Walker

AUGUST 8, 2023

” What are my major assumptions for why there’s more markdowns to come in the aggregate for the last decade of venture portfolios? Soft Acquisition Market. As The Information proclaims, “ Unicorn Fire Sales Ahead.” Valuations. And that’s what’s happening here.

Portfolio 97

Portfolio Cap Table LP Valuation 97

Agile VC

JUNE 5, 2011

3) Groupon’s Business is Like An ATM: Groupon is currently unprofitable on a GAAP basis thanks to acquisition related expenses in 2010 as well as ongoing marketing spend to acquire customers. If Groupon’s growth rate drops by 80% they’ll still be nearly tripling top line sales in 2012.

North America 100

North America Chicago Boston Silicon Valley 100

Occam's Razor

SEPTEMBER 24, 2012

Increased investment in Facebook as an engagement/acquisition channel has translated into requests from CEOs, CMOs and other CxOs about the return on that investment. I can see the correlation, but the conclusion implies a causality that may or may not be there ("the product sales exceeded all internal projections!").

Metrics 165

Metrics Advertising Marketing Social Media 165

Cracking the Code

MARCH 12, 2010

The SaaS growth recovery does not seem to take a "V" shape 2) Sales productivity is ramping up: bottom was hit in the first half of 2009 However, the sales and productivity of the group, measured by the median "Customer Acquisition Cost ratio" or "CAC ratio", seems to be recovering more steeply. sales and marketing. (10).

Software Review 63

Software Review Technical Review Cloud Forecast 63

ConversionXL

OCTOBER 13, 2015

So by segmenting your data, you can learn things you couldn’t from the aggregate data. How does retention differ among different acquisition channels? Acquisition Efficiency. Customers that converted in the last year that had a sales cycle of less than x weeks. How did that effect their average order value?

Conversion 48

Conversion Retention Acquisition Metrics 48

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 19, 2015

You have to have some of your own content formats and not just be an aggregator of talent. Best is if you have a combination of ad revenue, sponsorships and some forms of non ad revenue (subscriptions, merch, music sales, etc.). Summary : YouTube as a customer acquisition tool to building great online businesses is unrivaled today.

SEM 150

SEM Los Angeles Silicon Valley Acquisition 150

View from Seed

JUNE 13, 2019

Chewy sells tens of thousands of products from many 3rd party brands, as well as its own private label brands (though latter remains <10% of sales). I know some of the investors in Chewy prior to the PetSmart acquisition, but I am not a shareholder nor do I intend to purchase shares in the IPO. Annual Net Sales By Customer Cohort.

Leadership 215

Leadership .Net Revenue Acquisition 215

crowdSPRING Blog

AUGUST 25, 2013

By using “data-fracking” to drill down into your existing customer base a business can learn more about customer behavior, generate added sales, save marketing dollars, and deliver meaningful value to valued customers. The first important data-set to extract is the acquisition cost.

Customer 95

Customer Aggregator CPA Lean 95

Scott Edward Walker

APRIL 16, 2014

From the seller’s perspective, the first step in connection with the sale of his company is the negotiation and execution of a confidentiality agreement (sometimes referred to as a “non-disclosure agreement” or an “NDA”) with the potential buyer. Mistake #2: Not Negotiating the Material Terms of the Sale in the Letter of Intent.

Non-disclosure Agreement 101

Non-disclosure Agreement Acquisition New York City Non-Compete 101

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 15, 2013

I agree with YouTube (that they provide more (hosting, ad sales, etc.) If you’re thinking about building an online video network today you need to think about: Producing your own content (not just aggregating). but not that this justifies take a 45% revenue share. But the best MCNs are so much more. Except for 2 things: 1.

Networking 366

Networking Media Distribution Video 366

Agile VC

JUNE 13, 2019

Chewy sells tens of thousands of products from many 3rd party brands, as well as its own private label brands (though latter remains <10% of sales). I know some of the investors in Chewy prior to the PetSmart acquisition, but I am not a shareholder nor do I intend to purchase shares in the IPO. Annual Net Sales By Customer Cohort.

Leadership 100

Leadership .Net Revenue Acquisition 100

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 14, 2009

For a startup, having great sales DNA is a wonderful asset. This is the magic of sales: by learning about each customer in-depth, they can convince each of them that this product would solve serious problems. But here’s where a truly great sales artist comes in. They are closing orders.

Customer 167

Customer San Francisco Lean Hockey Stick 167

Hippoland

MARCH 14, 2013

We had submitted our idea: “ ShinyOrb : Kayak for Weddings” I’d envisioned a one-stop site that aggregated bridesmaid dresses, wedding gowns, shoes, jewelry, invitations… . I explained that we made money per sale we provided retailers. . “How much is the average dress sale?” Maybe more.”

Product 81

Product Aggregator Metrics Cofounder 81

Occam's Razor

MAY 2, 2017

#tearsofpain One way of removing silos and focusing on the entire business is to leverage Acquisition, Behavior and Outcome metrics. A small change I’ll make in this post is that when I recommend the metrics, I’ll follow the Outcomes | Behavior | Acquisition structure throughout this post. Hence that’s the macro-outcome.

Metrics 141

Metrics Acquisition eCommerce Analytics 141

ConversionXL

JULY 21, 2022

The sales platform is intensely devoted to nurturing its monthly active users (MAU). When the sales and marketing teams are looking at the same metrics and trying to hit the same North Star, lots of other pieces of ABM [account based marketing] fall into place.” – Samantha Mayer , Sales Manager, SMB and Pardot Growth Marketing.

Metrics 120

Metrics Acquisition Revenue .Net 120

www.forentrepreneurs.com

FEBRUARY 2, 2010

So we know from this that the problem is not the quality of those sales people. They also know precisely how much additional traffic will need to be generated to reach the growth targets, and how many sales people are needed at a given productivity level, etc. SolidWorks 2: The best VAR management program in the world?

Metrics 55

Metrics Design Entrepreneur Startup 55

Growthink Blog

AUGUST 31, 2016

Here are four critical business domains - financing, sales, organization design and goal setting where the high-flyers get it right: Financing. Speed of product development, of brand-building, of customer acquisition, of team-building and talent aggregation. Financing, Sales, Organization Design, Planning. read more.

SCRUM 48

SCRUM Finance Aggregator Acquisition 48

Duct Tape Marketing

JUNE 30, 2017

Corporate success is often hampered by conflicting goals—marketing wants more leads while sales want better leads. Consider the following: 78% of organizations say data-driven marketing increases lead conversion and customer acquisition ( source ). Sound familiar? It’s an age-old battle many companies struggle to remedy.

Marketing 53

Marketing B2B Database Campaign 53

Up and Running

NOVEMBER 12, 2014

The SEC’s proposed rules (mandated by the JOBS Act of 2012) amend the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 to allow the offer and sale of securities through an internet crowdfunding campaign, similar in some respects to donation crowdfunding campaigns conducted on Kickstarter and Indiegogo. Set a Fundraising Goal.

Equity 125

Equity SEC Technical Review Security 125

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 21, 2010

further down the sales funnel from CPC advertising where you pay for a click but still need to convert on your own). Think of the Amazon affiliate program where you’re paid if you help Amazon sell books (I think on average Amazon pays about 7% of sales). But higher value product sales often require a phone call.

Advertising 284

Advertising Las Vegas Affiliate RSS 284

Venture Chronicles

APRIL 20, 2014

When you combine inbound marketing with account-based scoring, you get a very potent combination of predictable opportunity funnel that also benefits from lower customer acquisition costs. We know from this data that there are tipping points that occur in the opportunity (account) scoring that should and do cause additional sales activity.

B2B 45

B2B Marketing SEM Bandwidth 45

View from Seed

JANUARY 8, 2015

If you’re very young as a company and simply need to acquire 10 alpha customers or 100 free users, then paid acquisition via search, display, and social are better bets, as well as any scrappy, non-scalable means of acquisition you can execute. Similarly, the value of a blog is how much work each post does for you in aggregate.

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage Startup Audience Leadership 120

Hippoland

MARCH 14, 2013

We had submitted our idea: “ ShinyOrb : Kayak for Weddings” I’d envisioned a one-stop site that aggregated bridesmaid dresses, wedding gowns, shoes, jewelry, invitations… . I explained that we made money per sale we provided retailers. . How much is the average dress sale?" he asked casually. .

Product 48

Product Aggregator Metrics Cofounder 48

www.kalzumeus.com

AUGUST 13, 2012

The Thirty Second Sales Pitch. Statistically speaking, you’re probably reading it either through a feedreader or on an aggregator like Hacker News. A few percent survive all those hurdles and result in thousands of dollars of sales at the margin. Consider this blog post (we’ll walk it back to email in a second).

Email 54

Email Software Review Software Campaign 54

Software By Rob

JANUARY 12, 2010

But the number of conversions stayed about the same as it had been the week before, meaning the conversion rate (the number of sales per visitor) plummeted. From the results fo the aggregate behaviours, real time videos and heatmaps you can mend any deficiencies and make it easier for visitors to your site to become buyers. #4

Software Review 55

Software Review Marketing Startup PPC 55

Hearpreneur

AUGUST 2, 2016

Even when a company like CrowdFunnel is willing to provide a fully-surveyed investor lead and eliminating a third of the traditional sales funnel, many platforms don’t have someone dedicated to follow-up with individual investors. And for issuers, many have even less resources to dedicate to marketing and investor acquisition.

Accredited Investor 48

Accredited Investor Non-Compete Vertical Acquisition 48

Hunter Walker

JUNE 5, 2014

How has technology played a role in customer acquisition? What I need most is a product that aggregates all my contacts, emails, and sales pipelines that’s also super simple and elegantly designed. The business case for active design is very compelling because it doesn’t have to cost a lot. Giving RelateIQ a shot.

Mobile 92

Mobile San Francisco Social Media Aggregator 92

ConversionXL

AUGUST 19, 2020

We catalog those roles—along with stakeholder info—in a couple of places: The team for each account team is in the description field of each client’s Basecamp project: PPC analyst(s), SEO analyst(s), manager with oversight/relationship responsibility, and the original sales team member who brought the client on board.

PPC 69

PPC SEO Channel Analytics 69

Startup Company Lawyer

MAY 26, 2012

On April 23, 2012, the SEC published guidance reminding issuers that “any offers or sale of securities purporting to rely on the crowdfunding exemption would be unlawful under federal securities laws” until the SEC adopts new rules. Most importantly, the crowdfunding provisions of the JOBS Act are not yet effective.

SEC 58

SEC Securities and Exchange Commission Accredited Investor Private Placement 58

Agile VC

MARCH 8, 2012

Investment banks of varying size and prestige might say slightly different things, but typically it means over $50M in trailing sales and a run rate near or above $100M. Would be issuers may have to be patient, but hopefully only for months and not years. Author howerl. Filed under Uncategorized.

IPO 100

IPO Silicon Valley Revenue Seed Stage 100

BeyondVC

FEBRUARY 8, 2007

However what is interesting is that Nokia is offering this service through an acquisition they recently made. I wonder where this ends up in the long run but what is clear is that smart handset manufacturers understand that there may be potentially more revenue in the monthly subscription fee than one-time sale of hardware.

South Africa 60

South Africa Taiwan New Zealand Africa 60

Duct Tape Marketing

SEPTEMBER 25, 2015

The most important customer acquisition channel for a new business is referrals. Think videos, guest blog posts , demand generation content, public relations stories, sales enablement content, and the best of all, organic, unsolicited endorsements. And keep in the back of your mind, that each one could become a customer.

Customer 28

Customer San Francisco Early Stage Aggregator 28