David Teten

AUGUST 15, 2013

Some corporations emulate this model by creating their own wholly-owned VC entities, typically with one LP: the corporate balance sheet. The most common tactic we’ve seen from large corporations is providing a package of benefits for startups in order to build relationships with early-stage companies. 3) Freebies.

Startup 114

Startup Technical Support Venture Capital Balance Sheet 114

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 2, 2010

VC’s raise this money from university endowments, public & private pension funds, insurance companies, banks who invest from their balance sheet or that of their wealthy clients, “family offices&# which means money from very wealthy people, etc. And funds also have investments from the partners of the firm.

Venture Capital 269

Venture Capital Balance Sheet Early Stage Software Review 269

David Teten

DECEMBER 16, 2015

For early stage companies, the metrics that matter might typically center around activation, engagement and retention. Paul took on this initiative after realizing how alarmingly little a P&L and Balance Sheet alone can tell you about what’s really happening at a startup. Gross Profit. Payroll Expenses.

Metrics 60

Metrics Analytics Balance Sheet .Net 60

Up and Running

FEBRUARY 10, 2021

Investors, particularly those investing in early-stage startups, want to understand your vision. You’ll need a sales forecast, expense budget , cash flow forecast , profit and loss, and balance sheet. As I mentioned, you’ll need to create a profit and loss, cash flow, and balance sheet forecast.

Business Plan 138

Business Plan Forecast Balance Sheet Exit Strategy 138

VC Adventure

NOVEMBER 14, 2012

I think this is driven both by entrepreneurs who want to take risk out of their business with more cash on the balance sheet, as well as by investors who, despite higher frothy valuations, are looking to hit certain ownership thresholds. This is an especially slippery slope when you have $ 7M or $ 10M on your balance sheet.

Balance Sheet 77

Balance Sheet Valuation Post-Money Valuation Early Stage 77

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 21, 2020

I spoke about that more in this deck that I wrote for the SaaStr conference in early March 2020. A strong balance sheet will matter in the years ahead. How Do I Advise People When Raising Money in a Hard Market? Raise when you can. Optimize for a 1 not a 0 more than exact valuations now.

Marketing 263

Marketing Valuation Churn Rate Balance Sheet 263

Steve Blank

JUNE 1, 2011

Traditional startup board meetings spend an insane amount of wasted time using Fortune 100 company metrics like income statements, cash flow, balance sheet, waterfall charts. The only numbers in those documents that are important in the first year of a startup’s life are burn rate and cash balance. The Wrong Metrics.

Silicon Valley 290

Silicon Valley Business Model Venture Capital Balance Sheet 290

Feld Thoughts

AUGUST 12, 2011

Tie the P&L forecast to the Balance Sheet and Cash Flow Statement and generate snapshots of what the Financial Statements will look like each year for the next 5 years. Feeling overwhelmed, Dick emailed his friend Josh, the CEO of an early-stage startup in Boulder, to see how they figured out all of this stuff.

Balance Sheet 136

Balance Sheet Forecast Cap Table Early Stage 136

YoungUpstarts

JANUARY 28, 2015

That’s what will get you through the difficult early stages. The bane of every entrepreneur’s life is the balance sheet. Particularly in the early days, money will be very tight and you’ll need a firm grasp on it. It’s a belief that your new idea could change the world or alter the way people think.

Balance Sheet 100

Balance Sheet Early Stage Naming Business Plan 100

Berkonomics

MARCH 21, 2019

And you should “know your numbers and be able to defend them” during early meetings with candidate investors. At the least, historical numbers must include the latest income statement and balance sheet, showing activity through the latest period. The more you ask for – the more equity you give up.

Hockey Stick 63

Hockey Stick Liquidity Event Valuation Balance Sheet 63

Steve Blank

JUNE 1, 2011

Traditional startup board meetings spend an insane amount of wasted time using Fortune 100 company metrics like income statements, cash flow, balance sheet, waterfall charts. The only numbers in those documents that are important in the first year of a startup’s life are burn rate and cash balance. The Wrong Metrics.

Silicon Valley 258

Silicon Valley Business Model Venture Capital Balance Sheet 258

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 14, 2012

Let me remind readers as I outlined in this post , there are VERY FEW M&A transactions for early-stage startup companies above $100 million. Just checked their balance sheet. They have $339 million in cash on their balance sheet. Many – MOST – are done in the $10-30 million range.

Valuation 316

Valuation Balance Sheet Dilution Term Sheet 316

David Teten

JULY 10, 2017

Many large corporations face three seemingly disconnected challenges; they want: – Better returns on their balance sheet and underfunded pensions; – Access to the innovation economy to stay on top of the early-stage companies attacking their business; and.

Employee 60

Employee Balance Sheet Syndicate Syndication 60

VC Adventure

NOVEMBER 14, 2012

I think this is driven both by entrepreneurs who want to take risk out of their business with more cash on the balance sheet, as well as by investors who, despite higher frothy valuations, are looking to hit certain ownership thresholds. This is an especially slippery slope when you have $7M or $10M on your balance sheet.

Balance Sheet 48

Balance Sheet Valuation Post-Money Valuation Early Stage 48

Up and Running

FEBRUARY 8, 2016

While there are dozens of lessons I could take away from these entrepreneurs’ experiences, I want to highlight three common mistakes founders make in the early stages of a startup. For example, have them explain the principles of the balance sheet or the difference and usefulness between accrual basis and cash basis accounting.

Entrepreneur 60

Entrepreneur Software Review Balance Sheet Partner 60

David Teten

NOVEMBER 10, 2011

This is designed to be a simple end-to-end financial model for an early-stage startup. The Balance Sheet takes a snapshot of your company at an instant in time; the assets on hand when it is produced do not necessarily correlate to dates before or after. Download the template financial model in Excel here.

Balance Sheet 154

Balance Sheet Startup Equity Valuation 154

ReadWriteStart

JULY 15, 2020

Venture capitalists and early-stage investors have told all of us, founders are critical to a startup’s valuation. As a unicorn approaches an exit, the balance sheet needs to make sense. New talk of capital efficiency is gratifying, but there was another lesson from pre-COVID-19 valuation struggles. Morality matters.

Valuation 91

Valuation South Carolina San Jose Balance Sheet 91

Feld Thoughts

MAY 18, 2012

All fit in the context of continuous communications as I believe three things about early stage companies and their boards. Send out monthly financials (Income Statement, Balance Sheet, Cash Flow) with a written analysis of them. Board members should be actively engaged with the company on a continuous / real time basis.

Balance Sheet 139

Balance Sheet Early Stage Email Management 139

Austin Startup

DECEMBER 7, 2017

There are two problems with early stage investing: telling how much a company is worth when truthfully, it is still worthless; and helping early-stage companies protect themselves from over dilution when they are, effectively, worthless. It sits on your balance sheet as a form of equity.

Covenant 48

Covenant Cap Table Early Stage SBA 48

VC Adventure

MARCH 19, 2020

Drawing down your debt (as many people have already pointed out) is probably a good idea now as well – you want that cash on your balance sheet (there are some cases where this won’t make sense, which is why I’m avoiding a blanket “you must do this” statement around debt. Stress test your operating plan.

Balance Sheet 69

Balance Sheet Portfolio Stock Early Stage 69

Up and Running

MAY 9, 2016

There may be times, in the early stages of your business, where that’s what you have to do to pay the bills. Projected Balance Sheet showing three years of assets, liabilities, and capital, to indicate projected net worth. Different companies can make each strategy work.

SBA 60

SBA Demand Forecast Balance Sheet 60

David Teten

NOVEMBER 17, 2011

We had a simple balance sheet by financing round model in our earlier master template financial model , but this model is more suitable for use in employment negotiations. Enter Raul: This capital table startup options valuation model was created with the purpose of valuing options for an illiquid, early-stage start-up.

Employee 155

Employee IRR Startup Mexico 155

VC Cafe

JULY 21, 2020

GV (formerly Google Ventures) – Started in 2009, GV is Alphabet’s venture capital fund, focused primarily on early stage in diverse fields: from life sciences and healthcare to robotics and entereprise tech. Gradient Ventures – an early stage fund backed by Alphabet, investing exclusively in AI first companies.

Technical Review 131

Technical Review Startup Early Stage Cloud 131

ithacaVC

JULY 15, 2015

One of the key pieces of information is a projection model that shows a projected income statement and cash flow statement for the given year (the balance sheet for an early stage startup is less important, but also nice to have). It is kind of like cookies and the Cookie Monster. It is kind of like a flight plan.

Sales 40

Sales Balance Sheet Revenue Early Stage 40

ReadWriteStart

JUNE 13, 2011

The Wrong Metrics : Traditional startup board meetings spend an insane amount of wasted time using Fortune 100 company metrics like income statements, cash flow, balance sheet, waterfall charts. The only numbers in those documents that are important in the first year of a startup's life are burn rate and cash balance.

Silicon Valley 117

Silicon Valley Balance Sheet Metrics Early Stage 117

Feld Thoughts

JULY 29, 2011

We felt like we needed to put some groundwork in place using a case-study like approach, rather than just jumping into looking at balance sheets, income statements, and cash flow statements. However, there is a lot to be said for keeping things simple during the early stage of a startup. Let’s get started.

Equity 137

Equity Finance Pre-Money Valuation Denver 137

Berkonomics

AUGUST 27, 2015

Betting on the traditional public stock market speculator’s “greater fool theory” has been just plain wonderful for the owners of the Flippers, as aggressive acquirer’s value determinations are based on future events, rather than achieved profitability and present balance sheet values.

Intellectual Property 48

Intellectual Property Balance Sheet Stock Options Valuation 48

Gust

SEPTEMBER 5, 2012

Structuring this kind of seed investment as a loan only makes sense because, as it turns out, a convertible note is a convenient “hack” to make it quicker, easier and cheaper to inject seed capital into an early stage startup while giving investors some protection (debt is ahead of equity in line in the event the company is liquidated).

Finance 134

Finance Convertible Security Equity Seed Stage 134

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 12, 2010

You’ll obviously have some data in a spreadsheet format (copied into PowerPoint) for things like your Income Statement, Balance Sheet and Cashflow Statements. Most people in really early stage companies send out board packs the day before the meeting or if you’re luck 2 days before.

Startup 331

Startup Balance Sheet Forecast Early Stage 331

BeyondVC

SEPTEMBER 14, 2004

Timing: For an early stage company, I typically like to meet in person every 4-6 weeks. Finance: -Plan vs. budget – income statement, balance sheet, cash flow statement. Lately I have been skewing to more of a 6 week time horizon.

Balance Sheet 99

Balance Sheet Technical Review Framework Stock Options 99

Professor VC

APRIL 11, 2008

In fact, for a good laugh, I just went back and checked our accounting system, and at the end of one quarter in 2005, we were down to $143 cash on the balance sheet. I take CFO roles in early stage companies and participate on the management team during the early financings and business model development phases.

San Jose 28

San Jose Angel Investor Venture Capital Balance Sheet 28

VC Cafe

JANUARY 22, 2021

The company also occasionally invests in startups out of the balance sheet (i.e. AWS Builder Space (Israel) – A non-equity program for early stage startups who are looking to accelerate their speed to market.

Technical Review 174

Technical Review Startup Venture Capital Incubator 174

Small Business Force

FEBRUARY 21, 2014

In early stage companies (and even some later stage or mature ones), there is no one area where most entrepreneurs and small business owners are lacking in just basic fundamentals, than in dealing with their company's finances and financial management. Learn to understand basic accounting and formalize sooner rather than later.

Finance 37

Finance Management Forecast Entrepreneur 37

Small Business Force

NOVEMBER 9, 2011

The challenges of the early stage will seem like "child's play" compared to the growth stage. The price encompasses growth of a different nature � personal and professional, stretching and challenging the entrepreneur to new heights, bringing satisfaction and value way beyond just the balance sheet! His job it is.

Balance Sheet 30

Balance Sheet Early Stage Salary Small Business 30

Altgate

MARCH 8, 2009

There are three types of venture investing (early stage, “growth&# stage and later stage. Early stage means the first real investors in a startup when the team could be as small as 5-10 people. Early stage investing is complicated, hard work. But some will be saved. So what to do?

Later Stage 34

Later Stage Early Stage Venture Capital Portfolio 34

Professor VC

AUGUST 26, 2011

How much needs to be shown in the form of a cashflow statement, and balance sheet? I take CFO roles in early stage companies and participate on the management team during the early financings and business model development phases. The importance is what is behind the numbers. How do you think?

Silicon Valley 35

Silicon Valley San Jose Hockey Stick Venture Capital 35

Up and Running

JUNE 25, 2014

There’s limited financial information, a lot of times it’s very limited, there’s limited audit balance sheets, income statements and a lot of times the small business financial statements don’t really reflect how the business is performing. The other thing is that small businesses are much more difficult to underwrite than consumers.

Small Business 89

Small Business SBA Finance Bankruptcy 89