Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 15, 2022

What You Can Learn From Public Markets It doesn’t really take a genius to realize that what happens in the public markets will filter back to the private markets because the ultimate exit of these companies is either an IPO or an acquisition (often by a public company whose valuation is fixed daily by the market).

Technical Review 416

Technical Review Pre-Money Valuation San Francisco Valuation 416

Austin Startup

NOVEMBER 29, 2017

It follows up on my posts discussing why early stage startups should — or should not — move to Silicon Valley. Should Early Stage Startups Move to Austin because of Customers? Early adopters, especially those who are willing to pay for novel services, are the lifeblood of lean startups.

Early Stage 54

Early Stage Austin Silicon Valley San Antonio 54

ReadWriteStart

MARCH 3, 2021

Still, you need to find some way to pull your company out of this early-stage quicksand. First, we need to address the core challenges of developing effective early-stage growth strategies for new businesses. Most of the strategies on this list prioritize customer acquisition, and rightly so.

Early Stage 125

Early Stage PPC Retention Churn Rate 125

YoungUpstarts

APRIL 1, 2014

For many start-up companies, the dream is to one day become the other half in a merger or acquisition with a larger, more developed organisation. If you want to turn your start-up into an attractive acquisition target, there are a few key tips that all small companies should remember: Fine Tune your Management.

Acquisition 174

Acquisition Merger Europe Technical Review 174

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 15, 2020

The key elements of leadership in a company, both individual and organizational, are less tangible, but very critical in setting a market value for investment, acquisition, or going public. In the investment community, these leadership elements are often called “goodwill.”

Valuation 311

Valuation Technical Review Due Diligence Leadership 311

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 23, 2023

Venture Capitalist : An early-stage VC requires some of the same skills as a Case Officer – spotting, assessing, developing, recruiting, and handling founders building a company amid an uncertain operating environment that will bring a heavy return on investment. Most startups fail, especially those in the early stages.

Government 212

Government Advisory Board Salary Early Stage 212

Hunter Walker

MAY 13, 2023

Especially in the early days of mobile/iOS engineering, if you hired strong technical talent into your early stage company, you basically created an acquisition outcome floor. Those who do, often believe they can hire from the open market without the hassle of an acquisition.

Early Stage 117

Early Stage Cap Table Acquisition Sales 117

SoCal CTO

MARCH 1, 2010

Startup Killer: the Cost of Customer Acquisition | For Entrepreneurs , February 2, 2010 Looks at the critical equation around customer acquisition cost vs. customer lifetime value similar to what I discussed in Startup Metrics but in more depth. Great stuff. They now have a cool new way to get intros to these angels: StartupList.

Acquisition 150

Acquisition Cofounder Technical Cofounder Cost 150

Cracking the Code

JUNE 5, 2019

At VivaTech this year, we were fortunate to be joined in conversation by former Cisco CEO and Executive Chairman John Chambers, who now invests in early-stage tech start-ups around the world. In this second extract from our roundtable, John and Joe share their playbooks for managing acquisitions as you scale and handling crises.

Acquisition 48

Acquisition Management Merger Social Media 48

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 1, 2012

This strategy is called “organic growth,” yet it alone may yield only a fraction of the potential you could achieve, unless you add the additional strategies of partnerships and M&A (mergers and acquisitions). Actively pursue mergers and acquisitions. Overreliance on acquisitions drains resources and de-motivates internal teams.

CTO Hire 229

CTO Hire Fractional CTO Merger Non-Compete 229

View from Seed

APRIL 2, 2024

Similarly, I’d argue that the early-stage venture “product” has elevated across the board. This happened both in term of large-scale mergers (Coors and Miller for example) as well as via acquisition of craft players (like Heinekin’s acquisition of Lagunitas).

Merger 343

Merger Non-Compete Early Stage Venture Capital 343

SoCal CTO

APRIL 2, 2012

Hiring seems to be the preferred use of seed funds (by investors and founders), whereas I'd prefer a focus on customer acquisition. These companies are very early-stage and definitely have not shown product/market fit. The problem is you don't yet have product/market fit, and until you do, you don't really know what to build.

CTO Hire 205

CTO Hire Technical Cofounder Fractional CTO Los Angeles 205

ReadWriteStart

MARCH 8, 2021

They want to snowball their customer acquisition, attracting thousands of new people to the brand, and reach diverse new audiences in new locations. Growth is all about customer acquisition – the process of attracting new people to the brand. . In the early stages of your business’s development, you’re going to notice dead weight.

Startup 127

Startup Retention Acquisition Agile 127

ReadWriteStart

JUNE 1, 2020

These usually play a role in the very early stage of your business, primarily pre-revenue. The seed stage is focused on building the core team, product optimization, exploring avenues for monetization. ? Early-stage. An early-stage investor usually looks at a return of 10 to 15 times.

Entrepreneur 150

Entrepreneur Startup Elevator Pitch Seed Stage 150

VC Cafe

MAY 17, 2023

billion acquisition by Google for Waze and $900M Moovit acquisition by Intel) Uri has also been involved in various startups, especially on the consumer front, as an angel investor. It is a valuable resource that can help you improve your chances of success, especially for first time founders in the early stages.

Founder 103

Founder Cofounder Technical Review Angel Investor 103

VC Cafe

JULY 21, 2022

billion is attributed to the pending Microsoft acquisition of Activision Blizzard Besides Activision Blizzard, the big deals included Take-Two’s purchase of Zynga, Sony’s acquisition of Bungie, and the ESL and FaceIt acquisition by Savvy Games Group Mobile was the most active segment with 47 deals. million UAWs in Q2.

Forecast 190

Forecast IP Mobile Acquisition 190

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 3, 2010

500k had come through the last acquisition. For some reason the industry of bankers who try to buy or sell businesses work in what is called the “M&A (mergers & acquisitions) Industry.&# I’ve never understood this. There’s really no such thing as a merger – only acquisitions. million uniques.

Merger 276

Merger Technical Review Early Stage Dilution 276

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 26, 2016

Perhaps the most misused terms I see these days from entrepreneurs involve CAC (customer acquisition costs) and LTV (life time value) and a lack of understanding these critical components is driving many companies to premature failure. CAC is often measured incorrectly and doesn’t often doesn’t capture the true costs of acquisition.

Metrics 150

Metrics Cost Acquisition Startup 150

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 16, 2023

None normally work for or provide funds for early-stage startups. Officially, the investment banks mission is to raise money for companies by issuing and selling securities in the capital markets, and providing advice on transactions such as mergers and acquisitions. Many investment banks even call themselves “boutiques.”

Early Stage 182

Early Stage Silicon Valley Private Equity Initial Public Offering 182

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 4, 2018

It occurred to me that although we mentioned our new thematic approach when we raised our last fund in 2017, we haven’t really shared a broader manifesto about how we are approaching the early stage market. It’s been an interesting several years in the early stage venture eco-system, and the sands have shifted considerably.

North America 120

North America Seed Stage Early Stage Lead Investor 120

NZ Entrepreneur

FEBRUARY 27, 2020

While capital to large tech companies is increasing, smaller rounds for early-stage companies is drying up. This decline has also become evident in startup accelerator programs shifting their focus on later-stage scale-ups that provide higher returns. Each stage of tech company growth has unique challenges.

Developer 68

Developer Early Stage Later Stage Acquisition 68

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 11, 2021

Photo by Vanna Phon on Unsplash Customer acquisition is the lifeblood of many startups from e-commerce to gaming to marketplace companies, among others. But if you ask anyone in the ecosystem of customer acquisition?—?founders, and you’ll hear the same thing: customer acquisition (CAC) is getting harder and more expensive.

Founder 424

Founder Product Cofounder Acquisition 424

YoungUpstarts

OCTOBER 25, 2018

Toronto’s Mark Attanasio has spent some 20 years advising businesses at various stages in their development on what it takes to position themselves for growth – whether it’s through traditional transactional activities like management buyouts and mergers and acquisitions or via a public listing on a Canadian stock exchange.

Partner 104

Partner Technical Review Management Due Diligence 104

www.forentrepreneurs.com

FEBRUARY 2, 2010

Blog About Log in Register Startup Killer: the Cost of Customer Acquisition In the many thousands of articles advising entrepreneurs on what they have to focus on to build successful startups, much has been written about three key factors: team, product and market, with particular focus on the importance of product/market fit.

Acquisition 103

Acquisition Cost Customer Entrepreneur 103

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 12, 2019

Urgency and risk-taking in a startup are integral parts of the culture, felt by 100 percent of early-stage employees. Existing contractors have learned how to master the arcane defense acquisition system and live with the slow decision-making and payment processes.

Government 308

Government Artificial Inteligence Silicon Valley North Korea 308

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 17, 2023

You are now entering the rollout stage , with money required for marketing, hiring a full-time team, and a production process. At this point, most Angel investors and a few early-stage VCs will be happy to talk, assuming you have the business model validated, and a large opportunity. Congratulations!

Angel Investor 313

Angel Investor Intellectual Property Investment Bankers Private Equity 313

YoungUpstarts

MAY 6, 2019

In this article, we will discuss why it is important to understand the whole startup stages concept before you start a business to get the most benefit. Early Stage. This startup stage starts from the day you decide to work on a startup idea. Here is the complete list of points available in early stage startup.

Startup 104

Startup Technical Cofounder Merger Early Stage 104

ConversionXL

FEBRUARY 3, 2022

Acquisitions can quickly increase your market share and bring in new customers. Acquisitions. Think about the touchpoints at each stage of the AARRR framework. Some of those channels might include: Acquisition. Customer experience improvements. Acquiring a competitor. Market development. Partnerships. Image source.

Marketing 115

Marketing Framework Metrics Channel 115

Steve Blank

MAY 29, 2011

Max and his partners interviewed and analyzed over 650 early-stage Internet startups. Today they released the first Startup Genome Report — a 67 page in-depth analysis on what makes early-stage Internet startups successful. They went to work gathering deep knowledege of what makes successful Internet startups.

Technical Cofounder 333

Technical Cofounder Early Stage Startup Silicon Valley 333

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 28, 2018

There’s a quick litmus-test conversation any early-stage VC will have with the founder and it’s one that you should be as prepared for as your elevator pitch. It’s true that some later-stage private equity firms like to fund “roll ups” (a company that acquires many related companies in it sector), but this is seldom the domain of VCs.

Burn Rate 247

Burn Rate Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Dilution 247

YoungUpstarts

NOVEMBER 6, 2017

A lot of startups fail within the first few months due to some commonly acknowledged culprits – picking a bad time to scale, running out of operating capital, lack of a steady customer base, high customer acquisition cost, and low to nonexistent repeat business. Refine Your Sales Process. Hone Your Communication Skills.

Sales 148

Sales Widget Sales Cycle Software Review 148

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 4, 2011

Because it can be hard to define or agree company objectives at an early stage I believe most people avoid them. Customer Acquisition. Those two things together would lower your acquisition costs nearly in half to $6.11. Ironically, there are times where it may actually pay to INCREASE your customer acquisition costs.

Metrics 346

Metrics Startup Acquisition SEM 346

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 26, 2020

None normally work for or provide funds for early-stage startups. Officially, the investment banks mission is to raise money for companies by issuing and selling securities in the capital markets, and providing advice on transactions such as mergers and acquisitions. Many investment banks even call themselves “boutiques.”

Silicon Valley 362

Silicon Valley Private Equity Initial Public Offering Term Sheet 362

YoungUpstarts

JULY 31, 2019

Billions of dollars are being poured into companies that have yet to clear the value chasm, as entrepreneurs use early traction that isn’t necessarily financially-oriented, but shows a certain level of uptick or success, to raise capital and convince early stage investors that their horse is the one to bet on.

Cofounder 118

Cofounder Burn Rate Technical Cofounder Seed Capital 118

VC Cafe

AUGUST 2, 2022

As an early stage investor in the world of gaming and metaverse technology at Remagine Ventures, I find these companies have the potential to set the agenda, become the potential platforms for developers building in this space and future acquirers/consolidators of startups building the next generation of the Internet. Also, their $1.6

IP 206

IP Cofounder Valuation Acquisition 206

This is going to be BIG.

JANUARY 18, 2024

Governance Moreso than a lot of actual VCs, a lot of high-net-worth folks tend to ask for board representation—even in the super early stages of a company where boards tend to be a little less formal. It will save everyone a lot of cost and time. On one hand, I get this.

.Net 88

.Net Cap Table Startup Technical Review 88

YoungUpstarts

MARCH 4, 2020

Yet, especially in the early stages of your business, you will have to drive the whole of that process. His healthcare venture, benefitsCONNECT, innovated healthcare benefits administration and resulted in a highly successful acquisition. The challenges hidden within these steps can be numerous and require a broad set of skills.

Entrepreneur 180

Entrepreneur Venture Capital Silicon Valley Bandwidth 180