Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 2, 2017

Also, investors from the super-hubs (Silicon Valley, New York, or Boston), won’t assume anyone outside their domain has the savvy and resources to make it happen. Wessel measures a 39% acquisition advantage to being in-state. That extra two months spent traveling to fundraise is two months falling behind.

Silicon Valley 149

Silicon Valley Las Vegas Arizona Montana 149

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 7, 2013

Also, investors from the super-hubs (Silicon Valley, New York, or Boston), won’t assume anyone outside their domain has the savvy and resources to make it happen. Wessel measures a 39% acquisition advantage to being in-state. That extra two months spent traveling to fundraise is two months falling behind.

Silicon Valley 256

Silicon Valley Las Vegas Phoenix Montana 256

Software By Rob

MAY 3, 2010

A Developer’s Guide to Launching a Startup&# → Catch Me at the 2010 Business of Software Conference in Boston Micropreneurship , Startups If youre trying grow your startup youve come to the right place. I will be speaking at the 2010 Business of Software Conference in Boston this October.

Boston 34

Boston Software Review Software RSS 34

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 4, 2018

This is why we actually have one of the lowest # of investments/partner among all institutional seed funds, and have invested in developing a platform of resources to support founders around team building, product, customers acquisition, and capital planning.

North America 120

North America Seed Stage Early Stage Lead Investor 120

Haystack

JUNE 29, 2018

Whether it’s angling for multi-billion dollar franchises in faraway places like India, or competing for a small startup in Boston — the gloves are off and founders in the right position stand to benefit. By now, one wonders what tech news will be tucked into the public record the days before a major holiday travel week approaches.

Acquisition 65

Acquisition Cofounder Balance Sheet Boston 65

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. The folks at Yipit did a detailed analyis of the Boston data and concluded Groupon’s model is deteriorating there.

North America 100

North America Chicago Boston Silicon Valley 100

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 16, 2015

Also, investors from the super-hubs (Silicon Valley, New York, or Boston), won’t assume anyone outside their domain has the savvy and resources to make it happen. Wessel measures a 39% acquisition advantage to being in-state. That extra two months spent traveling to fundraise is two months falling behind.

Las Vegas 120

Las Vegas Silicon Valley Phoenix Montana 120

Agile VC

APRIL 17, 2011

Kayak was started here in my backyard of Boston… co-founder & CTO Paul English and the product/engineering team is based here in Concord MA. Now that Google’s acquisition of ITA is closed, following lenghty FTC review, it would appear Kayak is poised to proceed with their IPO in the coming months. =. Author howerl.

Pre-Money Valuation 113

Pre-Money Valuation Liquidation Preference Dividend Common Stock 113

View from Seed

MAY 14, 2015

(A quick aside on working with brokers based on what we see at NextView: Most of our startups wind up working with the large, popular firms in town, though many start by trying to find space that’s being vacated by another startup, either due to their acquisition, closing up shop, or a move of their own.

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage Startup Cofounder Technical Review 120

Rob Go

MAY 2, 2013

It was a wonderful showcase of all the great companies, people, and investors that have helped the Boston technology market come roaring back in recent months and years. I was reminded last night why I moved to Boston from Silicon Valley many years ago and why I think the ecosystem is so great. Boston founders want to finish.

Boston 52

Boston Silicon Valley Acquisition Portfolio 52

Agile VC

OCTOBER 27, 2011

There’s a couple different forces I see at work: 1) Selling & Customer Acquisition - In the last 5 years, the biggest force in business software was the impact of the cloud as an infrastructure layer and product/service delivery mechanism. companies on user acquisition are increasingly being applied to SaaS companies.

Software 100

Software B2B Silicon Valley Acquisition 100

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 8, 2014

This method was perfected by Gil Elbaz and his team at Applied Semantics in LA and in what some have called “ the most important acquisition ever made by Google ” they acquired the company for $102 million before Google had even IPO’d. To some extent – of course they are. It is different. More substantive.

Los Angeles 376

Los Angeles Silicon Valley Entrepreneur Seattle 376

YoungUpstarts

JULY 4, 2019

In 2017, four years after the tragic Boston marathon bombing, Adidas sent an email campaign with the subject line, “well done for surviving the Boston marathon.” Those that do this well will soon reap the rewards, in terms of exposure, customer acquisition, loyalty, trust and ultimately sales.

Reputation 168

Reputation Management Australia Boston 168

Feld Thoughts

SEPTEMBER 26, 2014

I still remember the first time I met Len, sitting in a restaurant in downtown Boston, wondering to myself “who is this guy and what does he want?” In addition to having my company acquired, I worked with them on the diligence team for a number of other acquisitions.

Technical Review 150

Technical Review Boston Internet Venture Capital 150

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 22, 2008

is an elegant way to model any service-oriented business: Acquisition Activation Retention Referral Revenue We used a very similar scheme at IMVU, although we werent lucky enough to have started with this framework, and so had to derive a lot of it ourselves via trial and error. The AARRR model (hence pirates, get it?) Amazon PostRank

San Francisco 167

San Francisco CPA SEM CTO Hire 167

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 11, 2014

Last week displayed the best of LA last week for a gala event of all of Upfront’s portfolio companies + the CEOs of many of LA’s top technology companies + 75 VC firms from LA, SF, NY & Boston + 25 LP Funds + the Chairman of Yahoo! Maynard Webb) and the Mayor of Los Angeles, Eric Garcetti.

Los Angeles 318

Los Angeles Silicon Valley LP Warrant 318

View from Seed

DECEMBER 6, 2018

To analyze what’s become of the OG Unicorns, it’s first worth noting that at the time of the 2013 post about 2/3rds of the 39 on the list had already been realized via IPO or $1B+ acquisitions. Most startups that hit this level did so via IPO or acquisition value. To be clear that 2013 list was explicitly US-based companies.

IPO 120

IPO Valuation San Francisco Silicon Valley 120

Software By Rob

JUNE 29, 2010

The early bird registration discount for this year’s Business of Software in Boston expires on Friday. I hope to see you in Boston in October. Join nearly 6,000 startup entrepreneurs by subscribing to my RSS feed. If you are planning to go, sign up now to save $400 off the full price. Check out my book Like this post?

Software Review 34

Software Review Software Boston RSS 34

Rob Go

SEPTEMBER 4, 2018

This is why we actually have one of the lowest # of investments/partner among all institutional seed funds, and have invested in developing a platform of resources to support founders around team building, product, customers acquisition, and capital planning.

North America 36

North America Seed Stage Early Stage Lead Investor 36

Version One Ventures

OCTOBER 1, 2022

The new equity round will fuel additional growth and provide capital for further acquisitions. Boston, and Philly. As Brennan and Aaron wrote in the announcement …“T his new round of funding brings us one step closer to our goal of radically scaling unified climate action across the global economy.”.

Portfolio 60

Portfolio Phoenix Portland Europe 60

Feld Thoughts

JANUARY 11, 2021

After Jim’s company was acquired, Len asked him who else he should talk to in the Boston area. Jim introduced us, and that led to lunch near our office in downtown Boston. He told me that Cable & Wireless wasn’t moving forward with the acquisition of Interliant – the deal was all but done.

SEC 164

SEC Cofounder Boston New York 164

Steve Blank

JANUARY 21, 2016

It ultimately failed because she was focused on engineering the product, but didn’t validate the rest of her business model (product/market fit, distribution channel, customer acquisition, etc.). Instead, I went the Software as a Service route and tried to charge for what was a commodity product.

Detroit 120

Detroit Baltimore Entrepreneur Cofounder 120

Agile VC

MAY 21, 2012

On the consumer facing side, the number of companies doing multiple acquisitions of $100M+ was extremely short… Google, eBay/PayPal, Amazon, and Microsoft are at the top of the list. <$100M) acquisitions for several years now, but they’ve mainly been acquihires. IAC and Yahoo! Author howerl. Filed under Uncategorized.

Acquisition 162

Acquisition Silicon Valley B2B Seed Stage 162

Agile VC

MAY 26, 2011

Online social networking is a concept still being evangelized even in Silicon Valley… Friendster is in private beta (wasn’t until Oct 2003 they received Google acquisition offer which they turned down for Kleiner/Benchmark round). I co-founded NextView Ventures , a seed-stage VC firm based in Boston, in 2010. Read More ».

Term Sheet 178

Term Sheet Silicon Valley Technical Review Social Network 178

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 2, 2008

Its the same with acquisitions. Expo New York New York, NY Nov 19 The Lean Startup at MIT Boston, MA Nov 20 Lunch workshop at Dogpatch Labs Boston, MA Dec 17 Lean Startup Cohort program begins San Francisco, CA KISSmetrics KISSmetrics is loading. The key to closing deals is never to stop pursuing alternatives. Amazon PostRank

San Francisco 125

San Francisco Software Review Technical Review Continuous Deployment 125

View from Seed

JANUARY 10, 2022

Jambb: Boston, Massachusetts . Our structured sessions will focus on fundraising, product, customer acquisition, as well as other important pre-seed topics. . This model has produced a wide array of geographic diversity at a national scale, which we are aiming to replicate in the upcoming cohort. Allay Health: Seattle, Washington.

San Diego 156

San Diego San Francisco Alabama Valuation 156

Seeing Both Sides

NOVEMBER 1, 2011

Scott Kirsner of The Boston Globe called them the startup equivalent of the Justice League of America. Ironically, the panel was conducted a day before an interview with Mark Zuckerberg, where he indicated that if he were starting Facebook now, he would have stayed in Boston. Scott Griffith, CEO ZipCar (2010 IPO).

Technical Cofounder 45

Technical Cofounder Cofounder IPO Boston 45

Software By Rob

OCTOBER 12, 2010

The Business of Software 2010 was last week in Boston. Join nearly 6,000 startup entrepreneurs by subscribing to my RSS feed. This is without a doubt my favorite conference every year.

Software Review 43

Software Review Software RSS Audio 43

View from Seed

MARCH 3, 2015

Ellie Mirman was the first marketer hired by the CMO of HubSpot, the Boston-based marketing software startup that IPOed in 2014. It may turn out that Facebook is the most expensive user acquisition channel for you, but you won’t know that until you test other things.

Marketing 120

Marketing Sales Cycle Startup CTO Hire 120

SiliconHills

OCTOBER 19, 2015

Unbound Commerce, based in Boston, announced its acquisition Monday of Austin-based Apptive. Apptive has created a software platform that allows online merchants to create and manage native mobile apps easily. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Boston 48

Boston Acquisition Austin Mobile 48

Feld Thoughts

JUNE 10, 2013

“In 2011, Apple and Google spent more money on patent litigation and defensive patent acquisitions than on research and development. I read John Sununu’s (former New Hampshire Senator) Boston Globe OpEd Who is a patent troll? That’s not a good sign for the U.S.

New Hampshire 140

New Hampshire Intellectual Property United States Boston 140

Feld Thoughts

JUNE 14, 2014

We were living in Boston at the time. By the end of 1994 I had a staff job, reporting to the co-chairmen of AmeriData where I travelled all over the US helping with acquisitions and generally causing trouble. At some point Amy and I realized we could live anywhere and we knew that Boston wasn’t home.

Alaska 110

Alaska Colorado Boston Cofounder 110

K9 Ventures

SEPTEMBER 8, 2015

After the acquisition of SneakerLabs, he served as the Vice-President of Interactive Technologies for E.piphany. That company merged with another company in Boston and grew to about 80 people and was acquired in 2005. Manu Kumar is Founder and Chief Firestarter at K9 Ventures.

San Francisco 48

San Francisco Early Stage Portfolio Software Engineering 48

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 2, 2008

In a subscription business, maybe your attrition starts matching your acquisition, balancing like magic. Or your cost of customer acquisition just magically floats up to match your customer lifetime value. Nothing seems to matter. In an eyeballs business, you just cant seem to acquire or activate that next step-up of customers.

San Francisco 60

San Francisco Continuous Deployment Lean DC 60

Agile VC

MARCH 13, 2012

Patents and the threat of patent infringement lawsuits provide maximum leverage against a competitor when they’re in the middle of a strategic inflection point… a major financing, acquisition, or large product launch. I co-founded NextView Ventures , a seed-stage VC firm based in Boston, in 2010. Read More ».

IP 100

IP IPO Social Network Silicon Valley 100

Genuine VC

MAY 5, 2015

Today, I’m thrilled to publicly announce NextView’s Talent Exchange, a program helping both top talent and NextView-backed startups connect with each other more easily, beginning with Boston companies (which make up just over half our portfolio). Below, I’ll quickly explain the genesis of this initiative and share a few more key details.

Portfolio 100

Portfolio Startup Boston Seed Stage 100

Pascal's View

AUGUST 12, 2009

In Silicon Valley, Boston, Austin, and other innovation centers across the country, entrepreneurs and their backers (who are not limited to venture capitalists) are all keenly aware that Washington’s addiction to enacting hasty, one-size-fits–all financial regulation will continue to have far-reaching unintended negative consequences for the U.S.

IPO 28

IPO Silicon Valley Merger Sweat Equity 28