Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 1, 2015

Today the rate of startups going public (IPO – Initial Public Offering) is up from the dead zone, but is still less than half the rate of 15 years ago. According to a recent Ernst & Young global report , 2014 was a strong year with IPOs actually outperforming other indices by 10 percent. Going public is an expensive process.

IPO 120

IPO SEC Prospectus Startup 120

David Teten

JANUARY 19, 2021

More and more startups are pursuing Revenue-Based VCs , but “RBI” doesn’t fit everyone. Flexible VC 101: Equity Meets Revenue Share. By tying payments to actual revenues, founders and investors remain aligned around the company’s real-time performance, good or bad. Flexible VC: Revenue -based. Of the Inc.

Cofounder 78

Cofounder Technical Review Equity Dividend 78

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 11, 2013

Today the rate of startups going public (IPO – Initial Public Offering) is at an all-time low, and most entrepreneurs avoid this option like the plague, knowing the process is painful, and public company executives are seen as greedy sharks. entrepreneur Mark Zuckerberg startup investor IPO exit' Going public is an expensive process.

IPO 242

IPO SEC Prospectus Startup 242

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 22, 2011

Ah, but today’s Internet companies have real revenue! And this is happening in mezzanine (pre-IPO) deals as well. And post IPO deals, although these tend to correct more quickly. And as you probably guessed the data aren’t any better on IPOs with less than 20 / year average for the past 10 years. and profits!

Saudi Arabia 309

Saudi Arabia Valuation IPO Technical Review 309

Version One Ventures

OCTOBER 7, 2014

Rick Perreault of my portfolio company Unbounce recently called my attention to an interesting comparison between two SaaS models: Hubspot & Moz – A Tale of Two (Very Different) SaaS Business Models. However, as Scott Krager points out in his post, the companies have vastly different approaches for generating revenue.

Initial Public Offering 148

Initial Public Offering IPO SEC Valuation 148

Steve Blank

MARCH 18, 2011

Dot.com Bubble ( 1995-2000): “ Anything goes” as public markets clamor for ideas, vague promises of future growth, and IPOs happen absent regard for history or profitability. VC’s worked with entrepreneurs to build profitable and scalable businesses, with increasing revenue and consistent profitability – quarter after quarter.

Internet 335

Internet IPO Silicon Valley Agile 335

Steve Blank

AUGUST 20, 2013

Business Model Issues. Cost pressures are unrelenting in every sector, with pressure on prices and margins continuing to increase. on medical device revenues, regardless of profitability delays or cash-flow breakeven. Because device IPOs are rare, and M&A is much tougher, liquidity for investors is hard to find.

Startup 300

Startup Venture Capital Lean IPO 300

Up and Running

JULY 10, 2019

Meanwhile, Soulcycle, the spinning obsession of every trendy New Yorker, filed for IPO in 2018 only to withdraw at the last minute. To give you a chance of staying somewhat afloat, start signing up members while you are setting up the business. This ensures you have some recurring revenue coming to cover overheads in the beginning.

Retention 70

Retention Social Media Software Review Acquisition 70

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

OCTOBER 23, 2012

.” Here’s the summary of his track record (excerpted from the Fast Company article): Forefront — IPO’ed in 1995 by CBT — CBT stock fell 85% in 1998 and prompted class-action lawsuits. invested, IPO’ed in 2000 for $32/share — stock price now $2. from an IPO under a year ago of $10.

IPO 240

IPO Flash Bootstrapping Private Equity 240

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 27, 2018

This implies high odds of a scalable business, simply needing an investment to lead to success. Business model showing costs, pricing, and margins. Potential investors love to see gross margins in the fifty percent range or greater, with recurring revenue through subscriptions, follow-on sales, or services.

Product 145

Product Intellectual Property Liquidity Event Exit Strategy 145

Steve Blank

JUNE 24, 2013

This got me thinking about the legal obstacles that face innovators with new business models. Rent seekers are individuals or organizations that have succeeded with existing business models and look to the government and regulators as their first line of defense against innovative competition. Rent Seekers.

North Carolina 335

North Carolina New Jersey New York Government 335

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 26, 2020

Thus I offer the following outline for how to organize and present your business plan, with specific examples: Start with outlining the customer problem, and your solution. For example, “We just patented a new battery technology that will cut your smartphone charge time and cost in half.” Use non-fuzzy terms to quantify customer value.

Business Plan 423

Business Plan Product Intellectual Property Elevator Pitch 423

Version One Ventures

OCTOBER 7, 2014

Rick Perreault of my portfolio company Unbounce recently called my attention to an interesting comparison between two SaaS models: Hubspot & Moz – A Tale of Two (Very Different) SaaS Business Models. However, as Scott Krager points out in his post, the companies have vastly different approaches for generating revenue.

Initial Public Offering 77

Initial Public Offering IPO SEC Valuation 77

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 27, 2012

The approach I recommend is to build the investor presentation first, by iterating on the bullets with your team, and then fleshing out the points into a full-blown text-based business plan document. Explain in analogies your mother could understand, and quantify the “cost-of-pain” in dollars or time. Business model.

Elevator Pitch 247

Elevator Pitch Exit Strategy Burn Rate Merger 247

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 13, 2012

Explain in terms your mother could understand, and quantify the “cost-of-pain” in dollars or time. Clearly define the customer, channel, and revenue model associated with this solution. Explain the business model. In this section, you need to be passionate about revenue, profit, and volume growth.

Business Plan 283

Business Plan Sweat Equity Exit Strategy Intellectual Property 283

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 24, 2017

— Unremarked and unheralded, the balance of power between startup CEOs and their investors has radically changed: IPOs/M&A without a profit (or at times revenue) have become the norm. In the 20th century tech companies and their investors made money through an Initial Public Offering (IPO). Board Control.

Founder 274

Founder Technical Review CTO Hire IPO 274

Tim Keane

MARCH 9, 2011

The overarching idea, of course, is to reduce the cost of capital while maintaining appropriate flexibility for the venture.  Business success is the ultimate goal. 2]   Aligning interests in structure: cost and risk.   About the same cost as #2 but more flexible if repayment terms slip a bit.

Finance 83

Finance Bootstrapping Startup Equity 83

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 15, 2008

My belief is that these lean startups will achieve dramatically lower development costs, faster time to market, and higher quality products in the years to come. Paring down products, target customers, business models etc takes courage, but it must be done to have any chance of success.

Lean 168

Lean San Francisco Startup Continuous Deployment 168

Reid Hoffman

MARCH 19, 2019

And from a financial perspective, any investor would be better off buying stock in Amazon than buying and share of a corner bookshop; if you invested $100 in Amazon’s 1997 initial public offering (IPO), those shares would have been worth about $120,000 in 2018. And, as the industrial revolution showed us, there are some real costs to scale.

Cofounder 28

Cofounder Business Model IPO Non-Compete 28

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 13, 2011

Explain in terms your mother could understand, and quantify the “cost-of-pain” in dollars or time. Clearly define the customer, channel, and revenue model associated with this solution. Explain the business model. In this section, you need to be passionate about revenue, profit, and volume growth.

Business Plan 290

Business Plan Sweat Equity Exit Strategy Intellectual Property 290

Steve Blank

JUNE 24, 2013

This got me thinking about the legal obstacles that face innovators with new business models. Rent seekers are individuals or organizations that have succeeded with existing business models and look to the government and regulators as their first line of defense against innovative competition. Rent Seekers.

North Carolina 227

North Carolina New Jersey New York Government 227

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 14, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Tuesday, April 14, 2009 Validated learning about customers Would you rather have $30,000 or $1 million in revenues for your startup? All things being equal, of course, you’d rather have more revenue rather than less. And yet revenue alone is not a sufficient goal. More on that in a moment.

Customer 167

Customer San Francisco Lean Hockey Stick 167

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 10, 2011

The approach I recommend is to build the investor presentation first, by iterating on the bullets with your team, and then fleshing out the points into a full-blown text-based business plan document. Explain in analogies your mother could understand, and quantify the “cost-of-pain” in dollars or time. Business model.

Elevator Pitch 234

Elevator Pitch Exit Strategy Burn Rate Merger 234

Steve Blank

AUGUST 5, 2010

Fairchild Semiconductor became the progenitor of a flood of Silicon Valley chip companies and at the same time the adoption of the limited partnership as the model for Venture Firms gave VC’s their own profitable business model. In 1980 Genentech became the first IPO of a venture funded biotech company.

Lean 263

Lean Internet Silicon Valley Venture Capital 263

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 13, 2016

How does your business model make money? Good causes such as feeding the world’s hungry may help your marketing but may not sustain a business. The business model has to clearly define who is your customer, market penetration expected, how much customers pay versus total costs and the investment required to sustain cash flow.

Sweat Equity 120

Sweat Equity Advisory Board Liquidity Event Startup 120

Scalable Startup

DECEMBER 15, 2011

Here are the justifications and logic process for so many claiming they have a startup before they really do, and in many cases actually getting some funding: people feel like they might as well start their own business since nobody is hiring. the barriers are now very low for actually forming a business, as is the cost.

Angel Investor 24

Angel Investor Startup IPO Software Developers 24

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 19, 2010

An alternative approach, which I prefer, is to build the investor presentation first, by iterating on the bullets with your team, and then fleshing out the points into a full-blown text-based business plan document. Explain in analogies your mother could understand, and quantify the “cost-of-pain” in dollars or time. Business model.

Elevator Pitch 235

Elevator Pitch Exit Strategy Burn Rate Merger 235

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 5, 2009

And so the spreadsheet is built with conservative assumptions, including a final revenue target. No matter how low we make the revenue projections for this new product, it’s extremely unlikely that they are achievable. That’s because the model is based on assumptions about customers that are totally unproven.

San Francisco 102

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment Startup 102

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 12, 2015

We’re at 70 people, and we’ll do $40 million in revenue this year and should get to cash flow breakeven this quarter. ” In this first step, the goal of a startup is to search for a repeatable and scalable business model. It sounded like he was living the dream. I was trying to figure out why we were meeting.

Startup 120

Startup Lean Venture Capital Advisory Board 120

Gust

AUGUST 5, 2012

Explain in terms your mother could understand, and quantify the “cost-of-pain” in dollars or time. Clearly define the customer, channel, and revenue model associated with this solution. Explain the business model. In this section, you need to be passionate about revenue, profit, and volume growth.

Business Plan 182

Business Plan Sweat Equity Exit Strategy Intellectual Property 182

The Equity Kicker

OCTOBER 8, 2012

According to Paul most startups should look at revenue growth, but active users is a good proxy for companies that aren’t charging their customers (yet). I share the view that growth is critical, and that without very high growth rates early on a business will never grow big. I disagree that growth should be the sole focus though.

Silicon Valley 149

Silicon Valley IPO eCommerce Valuation 149

Gust

AUGUST 19, 2012

The approach I recommend is to build the investor presentation first, by iterating on the bullets with your team, and then fleshing out the points into a full-blown text-based business plan document. Explain in analogies your mother could understand, and quantify the “cost-of-pain” in dollars or time. Business model.

Elevator Pitch 146

Elevator Pitch Exit Strategy Burn Rate Merger 146

The Equity Kicker

FEBRUARY 25, 2015

His overarching point is that the rounds are dangerous for investors who don’t understand the companies as well as IPO investors coming in at similar valuations and for companies who lose the discipline of profitability. If you want to know if the business model truly works, you must pay careful attention.

IPO 60

IPO Valuation .Net Business Model 60

ReadWriteStart

MAY 30, 2011

As an entrepreneur it can be dizzying to watch Groupon and Living Social grow so quickly, raising huge venture rounds at massive valuations while contemplating multiple billion dollar acquisitions and IPOs. eBay certainly has enabled purchases and built a very large business doing this. The Last Shift: License Revenue to Advertising.

Advertising 116

Advertising Business Model Revenue Mobile 116

www.tangosource.com

MARCH 8, 2012

s a huge opportunity cost. s a required sunk cost that could be years of work before the magic happens. re providing business skills for the startup, back it up with action. Take steps towards product market fit, such as getting signed Letters of Intent (LOIs) which show that your product will have revenue on day 1.

Cofounder 48

Cofounder Founder SEO LLC 48

Tim Keane

JANUARY 12, 2010

Next, they carefully consider the range of multiples being used today to value companies being acquired or doing IPOs in the market that the business is in. So, after having built a working business model with a bottom up projection, let’s assume the five year number in this example is $91MM in revenue.

Term Sheet 68

Term Sheet Valuation Dividend Liquidation Preference 68

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 22, 2010

Explain in terms your mother could understand, and quantify the “cost-of-pain” in dollars or time. Clearly define the customer, channel, and revenue model associated with this solution. Explain the business model. In this section, you need to be passionate about revenue, profit, and volume growth.

Business Plan 186

Business Plan Exit Strategy Sweat Equity Intellectual Property 186