Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 26, 2020

For startups the early stage funding landscape looks like this: Step 1: The Pre-seed round – you raise $100-$750K. Btw, the definition of each startup financing stage has changed in the last decade. Series B is about proving your net revenue model (can you be profitable?). Business Model.

Cofounder 429

Cofounder Seed Stage Valuation Metrics 429

Tim Keane

JANUARY 12, 2010

Term-sheets and Valuations: Thinking about Negotiations.   I’ve sat down with entrepreneurs and a copy of a term sheet guide I like [ “Term Sheets & Valuations - A Line by Line Look at the Intricacies of Venture Capital Term Sheets & Valuations ” by Alex Wilmerding, Aspatore Press.] The Valuation Question.

Term Sheet 68

Term Sheet Valuation Dividend Liquidation Preference 68

David Teten

MARCH 18, 2021

A typical VC thesis: “we invest in tech startups in Europe at an early stage” However, our experience shows that in many cases: . Thirty-four VC firms in OpenVC call themselves “early-stage” Yet, 30% of those don’t actually invest in pre-revenue startups. Valuation: $1M – $3M.

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Cofounder Venture Capital Deal Flow 78

David Teten

DECEMBER 3, 2019

Data companies focused on early-stage startups include Aingel , fundsUP , Preseries , PredictLeads , and Sploda. Lean Case provides standard business models & metrics, so you can apply a standard approach to business planning, modeling, and profitability tracking. If you have one, please contact me.

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Software Review Analytics Private Equity 78

Austin Startup

FEBRUARY 13, 2019

Consider convertible debt Before diving into a seed round, you may want to consider convertible debt over equity financing. Some came from angel investors, but we also sought out industry experts to be early contributors in this stage, which leads me to tip number three.

Strategic Investors 49

Strategic Investors Austin Angel Investor Bootstrapping 49

abovethecrowd.com

FEBRUARY 24, 2015

Historically, different financial institutions specialized in different stages, because the assessment of risk and opportunity was considered unique at each stage — for example, a seed investor was unlikely to do late-stage financing, and vice versa. Consider the case of Fab.com.

IPO 40

IPO Liquidation Preference Valuation Technical Review 40

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 5, 2009

Unfortunately in early stage startups the drive for financing hijacks the corporate DNA and becomes the raison d’etre of the company. Chasing funding versus chasing customers and a repeatable and scalable business model, is one reason startups fail. What are Early Stage VC’s Really Asking?

Customer Development 262

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 262

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 23, 2012

Yes, it’s true that FOMO (fear of missing out) is driving some irrational behavior and valuations amongst uber competitive deals and well-financed VCs. Try charging customers for your product when you have 12 competitors giving the product away free finances by $20 million of VC. The Exit Problem. Bottom of the sales funnel.

Venture Capital 347

Venture Capital Technical Review LP Mobile 347

View from Seed

JANUARY 11, 2023

Think intimate practice pitch sessions featuring real-time feedback from the NextView team and the broader early-stage investment community. Think partners coming together to tap their own networks for your follow-on rounds of financing. The Clarity of the Terms : how will your company be financed? Who We Are.

Programming 156

Programming Sacramento San Francisco Founder 156

Women Entrepreneurs Can

NOVEMBER 19, 2022

A Venture Capital Firm is a firm that invests in startups and early-stage companies. Early-Stage Investments vs. Mid-Stage Investments. Investing in a startup company carries a high degree of risk, particularly at the early stage. This allows you to skip the complicated valuation calculations.

Venture Capital 52

Venture Capital Early Stage Liquidity Event SEC 52

Up and Running

DECEMBER 9, 2014

Bates: Good morning and welcome to our CEO panel, “How to Fine-Tune Your Small Business Finances From Funding to Growth” which I think is the direction that we would all like to be going. I’m here with some really phenomenal CEOs who are going to talk to us today about small business finances from funding to growth.

Small Business 95

Small Business Finance Forecast Metrics 95

ReadWriteStart

SEPTEMBER 10, 2010

And EVEN if you ARE an experienced entrepreneur, all but just a few VCs still want to see customer validation, business model validation and traction, before they will invest. I call it drip-financing. In 1M/1M, our preferred financing strategy is customers. Because customer financing equals revenue, not equity.

Cloud 115

Cloud Silicon Valley Incubator Finance 115

Professor VC

SEPTEMBER 26, 2011

How would Billy Beane have done as an early stage investor? RCSMs premise is that they can reach an investment decision (and valuation) based on an application completed by the founders and take gut feel out of the decision process. They have launched a valuation tool that is free to try out. ProfessorVC. Steve Bennet.

Technical Review 38

Technical Review Early Stage San Jose Angel Investor 38

Austin Startup

AUGUST 20, 2017

Early stage startups have to survive one day at a time and are often presented with limited choices of the moment that enable them to continue. At early stages you probably don’t have an assembly line and can’t clearly define any particular job. Keep the valuations consistent with company progress.

Technical Review 48

Technical Review Software Review Cap Table Securities and Exchange Commission 48

Up and Running

JULY 22, 2019

A telling success factor for new businesses looking to make an impact in their industries is whether they can attract investment at an early stage of development. . Attracting investors in the early stages helps bring in new partners that are committed to your business. Start early. Do not be greedy.

Canada 78

Canada Early Stage Valuation Finance 78

reidhoffman.org

NOVEMBER 12, 2013

Friendster’s valuation set the tone for the entire social networking space. Press and analysts characterized LinkedIn in one of two ways: “LinkedIn is an interesting niche that might be worth paying attention to” or “LinkedIn is the Friendster for business”. Second, understand the broader financing climate.

Entrepreneur 111

Entrepreneur Revenue Viral Networking 111

www.inc.com

SEPTEMBER 24, 2011

Small Business Success | Mondays and Thursdays. The Goods: Your Business Toolbox | Thursdays. Finance | Tuesdays. Todays Small Business News | Daily. Financing a Small Business. Buying a Small Business. RUNNING A BUSINESS. Financing A Small Business. Business Taxes.

Arizona 40

Arizona Equity Iowa Venture Capital 40

cdixon.org

AUGUST 3, 2012

Some observations: - Thousands of early-stage consumer web/mobile companies were started and funded in last 24 months. A few breakout early-stage consumer hits (Instagram, Pinterest) have reached tens of millions of users in record time. Hence, many early-stage consumer startups are switching to transactional models. -

Bridge Financing 86

Bridge Financing Early Stage Valuation Later Stage 86

Professor VC

APRIL 1, 2010

It had a good mix of viewpoints with east ( James Geshwiler, Common Angels ) and west coast (yours truly) angels, early stage venture capitalist ( Jason Mendelson, Foundry Group ), and a couple of attorneys ( Dan Hansen and Mario Rosati ). Labels: Angel Investors , fundraising , term sheets , venture capital , venture financing.

Term Sheet 32

Term Sheet Angel Investor San Jose Venture Capital 32

Professor VC

APRIL 7, 2011

This will also serve as a good pointer for all the entrepreneurs who ask why I am not interested in their company led convertible note financing round. In a convertible note structure, Im penalized for increasing your valuation. This can make it much more difficult to get any bank financing, new investment, and trade credit.

San Jose 36

San Jose Technical Review Angel Investor Valuation 36

YoungUpstarts

OCTOBER 18, 2016

Make no mistake, starting your own business is indeed gratifying that way, but not all startups are an escape from a regular job. The business model and investors play a critical role in shaping the independence and work-style of an entrepreneur. What Investors Mean For A Startup. Of course, all investors are not the same.

Startup 100

Startup Equity Bootstrapping Early Stage 100

Reid Hoffman

JANUARY 19, 2021

Signing an office lease might not seem like a board-level decision, but with early-stage startups, that lease might very well be a financial liability that significantly exceeds the company’s total cash in the bank. We should focus on this as an advertising business.” WHY IS A STARTUP BOARD SO IMPORTANT?

Startup 36

Startup Cofounder Advertising Hiring 36

Transformify

JULY 23, 2018

Business valuation or investor background is among the expert evaluator’s selection criteria. The good news is that startups from all sectors of the economy can apply and leverage on novel combinations of existing business models and technologies. What is your current stage of development?

Intellectual Property 66

Intellectual Property Angel Investor Dilution Startup 66

genylabs.typepad.com

SEPTEMBER 24, 2011

Before you agree to take equity in lieu of cash, you need to understand that any individual early stage start-up company equity is most likely going to be worthless. While Ive made at least my share of mistakes taking equity in lieu of pay, I continue to see this as a key part of my business model. Business Models.

Equity 40

Equity Technical Review San Jose Stock 40

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 14, 2010

billion to work across 731 financing deals with US startups, a 50% increase over Q1 2009. But disappointingly, dollars invested in early-stage deals fell nearly 21%. To me, this indicates that venture capitalists (VCs) are looking for business, but they are clearly moving away from early-stage (pre-revenue) deals.

Venture Capital 123

Venture Capital Elevator Pitch Silicon Valley Massachusetts 123

David Teten

FEBRUARY 9, 2015

I’ve listed below the points I recommend you cover when pitching your business to early-stage investors, including but definitely not limited to ff Venture Capital. If you are testing the market to see what terms you can get, just say, “We are targeting to raise $X at pre-money valuation of $Y.”

Venture Capital 60

Venture Capital Pre-Money Valuation Prospectus Early Stage 60

techcrunch.com

FEBRUARY 19, 2010

Tweet View Comments Sarah Lacy Feb 19, 2010 Pepperdine has a new study out that attempts to shed some light on the clubby, shadowy world of private finance. Researchers polled experts in lending, mezzanine capital, private equity, venture capital and private businesses themselves. Think Again. A lot of the stats weren’t surprising.

Venture Capital 62

Venture Capital Technical Review Sweat Equity Valuation 62

The Equity Kicker

JULY 8, 2019

This is what brings us to the second big difference: the cost of Applied Venture is too large to finance from a standard VC management fee. . Different funds finance the cost of these teams with a differing weighting of asking portfolio companies to pay for services, larger than normal management fees, and reduced compensation for partners.

Portfolio 84

Portfolio LP Venture Capital Partner 84

Berkonomics

AUGUST 27, 2015

They financed their companies, to the extent possible, in a manner minimizing the cost of capital, planning for organic growth in the number of customers served and in associated revenues. Flippers financed by venture capitalists are more likely to hire executives having high level profiles and previous exit experience.

Intellectual Property 48

Intellectual Property Balance Sheet Stock Options Valuation 48

Up and Running

OCTOBER 24, 2016

The cheerleading tech press and massive valuation rounds have built a mystique around startup culture. The goal for a lifestyle business is to build sustainable revenue streams that are set up to operate on their own. This means giving up much of the freedom that is the goal of lifestyle businesses. A clear end goal.

Startup 60

Startup Venture Capital Salary Equity 60

www.vccafe.com

MARCH 11, 2013

VC Cafe covers early stage Israeli and European tech & mobile startups. Updated Business tools for Startups. easy business finance software. YCombinator Series AA Equity Financing Documents. model legal documents. Seed Stage Valuation Guide. VC & Startup Resources. Seed Startups.

Software Review 53

Software Review Technical Review Startup 53

Professor VC

JANUARY 17, 2008

While currently free to angel groups, their business model revolves around aggregating the angel investment data. Another comment which probably deserves more discussion is around valuation. He also said they typically only invest at a $1 million pre-money valuation or less.

Pre-Money Valuation 28

Pre-Money Valuation Angel Investor Angel Groups Valuation 28

This is going to be BIG.

DECEMBER 26, 2011

Wesabe taught us that social doesn't necessarily make managing finances online more appealing--and given Facebook's propensity to change privacy settings, I'm not sure a lot of people are going to want to manage their money on Facebook. What's the business model? What will Facebook do to things?

Technology 116

Technology Valuation Community Restful 116

www.quora.com

JANUARY 16, 2011

are just emerging for business people (customer development, business model generation,). The more structured the effort of the 'distribution' people will be, the clearer the communication with design and technical people and the higher mutual respect/valuation. Or maybe we can tempt you to a Seedcamp next year?

Technical Review 51

Technical Review Startup CTO Hire Cofounder 51

Professor VC

DECEMBER 8, 2015

one company running out of cash and another with cash but searching for a business model). I think we will see more of these in 2016 and beyond as IPOs are still far and few between and unicorns struggle to justify their stratospheric valuations. Like CPF, Kilowatt also provides solar financing services to consumers.

Merger 28

Merger LP IPO Redemption 28

Rob Go

FEBRUARY 5, 2012

Usually financial metrics are pretty sparse at early stages and investors have a hard time giving companies “credit” for steady, linear progress. The reason is that the next MAJOR and OBVIOUS value-inflection point is evidence of a repeatable and scaleable business model. Or, just go for exceptional growth.

Business Model 65

Business Model Seed Stage Valuation Vertical 65

Reid Hoffman

JANUARY 26, 2021

One common mistake is for entrepreneurs to simply select whichever venture capital firm is offering the highest valuation. One of the things a financing round brings is an opportunity to strengthen the startup’s overall network. This is why advertising is a really good business model.

Startup 36

Startup Equity Early Stage Green 36