David Teten

JANUARY 21, 2021

This essay is part of a series on alternative VC: I: Revenue-Based Investing: a new option for founders who care about control. II: Who are the major Revenue-Based Investing VCs? III: Why are Revenue-Based VCs investing in so many women and underrepresented founders? Revenue-Based Flexible VCs.

Equity 78

Equity Revenue Cofounder Colorado 78

The Startup Magazine

FEBRUARY 21, 2024

Arif Bhalwani is the co-founder and CEO of Third Eye Capital (TEC) in Toronto, Canada. TEC is one of Canada’s largest and most experienced private credit firms, specializing in providing asset-based capital solutions to companies that are underserved or overlooked by traditional sources of financing, primarily banks.

Technical Review 132

Technical Review Due Diligence Bankruptcy Intellectual Property 132

The Startup Magazine

NOVEMBER 22, 2022

Catherine Mandungu is the founder of Think RevOps , a company that began as the pandemic was brewing. She realised the revenue operations market was booming, especially within the tech industry, and therefore wanted to explore what is largely an untapped market within the UK and Europe. Reducing revenue leakage. These goals are.

Congo 133

Congo Technical Review Africa Netherlands 133

Steve Blank

APRIL 26, 2022

Except, that is, for the bottom feeders of the Venture Capital business – investors who “ cram down ” their companies. They offered desperate founders more cash but insisted on new terms, rewriting all the old stock agreements that previous investors and employees had. W hy would any founder agree to this? They’re Back.

Cram Down 404

Cram Down Founder Venture Capital Recapitalization 404

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 18, 2019

Depending on the composition of the founding team, you might or might not have near-term holes in certain functions at the exec level – e.g. you’ll most likely need to bring on a CTO/VP of Engineering shortly after the seed round if you don’t have a technical co-founder. The post Pitch Deck Month: The “Where Are You Going?

Part-Time VPE 195

Part-Time VPE Seed Stage CTO Hire Forecast 195

VC Cafe

NOVEMBER 2, 2019

Benchmarks are typically specific to stage/business model/geo. In Rob Go’s words: For seed and Series A deals, investors will also need to see a high-potential team with founder/market fit , a large and attractive market opportunity , and a business model with increasing returns to scale.

B2C 141

B2C Technical Review Startup Retention 141

Steve Blank

APRIL 23, 2018

A version of this article appeared in the Harvard Business Review. The entrepreneur who founded and grew the largest startup in the world to $10 billion in revenue and got fired is someone you have probably never heard of. Sloan kept the corporate staff small and focused on policymaking, corporate finance, and planning.

Michigan 268

Michigan Cofounder Stock Forecast 268

David Teten

JANUARY 19, 2021

More and more startups are pursuing Revenue-Based VCs , but “RBI” doesn’t fit everyone. From RBI, Flexible VCs borrow the ability to reap meaningful returns without demanding founders build for an exit. Flexible VC 101: Equity Meets Revenue Share. Where else can fast-growing companies get funding?

Cofounder 78

Cofounder Technical Review Equity Dividend 78

YoungUpstarts

AUGUST 10, 2017

by Mark Gilbert, founder and CEO of MBS Accounting Technology & Advisory. Roughly 27 percent of startups can’t get the funding they need to take their business to the next level, according to the National Association of Small Businesses. These software programs are more efficient for managing a company’s finances.

Software Review 124

Software Review Technical Review Due Diligence Startup 124

YoungUpstarts

JUNE 4, 2019

At Wildcat, we recommend benchmarking your startup against the four core architectural pillars of the Traction Gap Framework: product , revenue , team and systems. Revenue Architecture. A comprehensive revenue architecture should be designed to enable a startup to generate and monetize awareness, engagement and usage.

Framework 127

Framework Architecture Cleveland Early Stage 127

YoungUpstarts

OCTOBER 13, 2020

by Manni Sidhu, Co-founder and CEO of Coleegs , and William Gilchrist , Founder and CEO of Konsyg. A new challenge has bloomed for founders and managers in the Covid-19 era –how do they set key performance indicators (KPIs) for the years ahead? How much further will our revenues drop? Founders should focus on stability.

Management 194

Management Founder Asia Cofounder 194

YoungUpstarts

MAY 24, 2019

At Wildcat, we recommend benchmarking your startup against the four core architectural pillars of the Traction Gap Framework: product , revenue , team and systems. Revenue Architecture. A comprehensive revenue architecture should be designed to enable a startup to generate and monetize awareness, engagement and usage.

Framework 113

Framework Architecture Cleveland Early Stage 113

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 26, 2020

There are two reasons to raise money: You have a killer idea that is only partially validated, that you think can get to $50M+ of revenue in 5 years with 80%+ gross margins (if margins are lower, you need a lot more revenue)and you need money to get to product-market fit, or. Not all startups need outside investment to grow.

Cofounder 429

Cofounder Seed Stage Valuation Metrics 429

Steve Blank

MAY 9, 2017

The founders were simply wrong about their assumptions about customer needs. It turns out the term “visionary founder” was usually a synonym for someone who was hallucinating. Founders Need to Run the Company Longer. So, almost like clockwork 20 th century startups fired the innovators/founders when they scaled.

Restful 222

Restful Silicon Valley Puerto Rico San Jose 222

David Teten

MARCH 18, 2021

(co-written with Stephane Nasser , co-founder of OpenVC , an open-source initiative to collect and analyze all VC theses.). OpenVC is a new, open-source initiative to collect and analyze all publicly available VC theses, to help founders more efficiently find the right investors, and vice-versa. Technical founders .

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Cofounder Venture Capital Deal Flow 78

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 18, 2023

Some argue the only way to start is to drop everything and jump in with both feet, while others recommend an overlapped approach to the lifestyle, including not quitting your day job until you have revenue and a proven business model. Startups cost money but don’t pay a salary before revenue.

Private Equity 255

Private Equity Salary Cofounder Equity 255

The Startup Magazine

JULY 1, 2020

Here’s another from The Startup Magazine Founder Series. I could not see a way for a doubling or tripling my revenue unless I changed my business model. Additionally, I created one stop shop of products for energy efficient programs and brought in experienced leaders to streamline overall operations and finance.

Green 178

Green Founder Distribution Business Model 178

The Startup Magazine

JULY 7, 2022

As the business scales up, it will be more difficult and time-consuming to track past spending accurately. Starting the expense management process early will give the founders more time to focus on other pressing issues. There should also be clear policies or guidelines regarding business expenses.

Management 153

Management Startup Finance Business Model 153

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

David Teten

NOVEMBER 23, 2020

. – Indiegogo.com is a crowd-funding platform allowing contributors to empower hundreds of thousands of inventors, musicians, do-gooders, filmmakers – and many more – to bring their dreams to life. – Clarity.com proactively advises you on managing your personal finances efficiently. Goldman Sachs bought Clarity for ~$100m. .

Venture Capital 60

Venture Capital Partner Technical Review Cofounder 60

ReadWriteStart

JUNE 1, 2020

Funding might be a need in some cases — but it’s not an absolute necessity. ? The business should be self-sustainable. The primary source of your funds should be your paying customers, i.e., your business should generate enough revenues and profits to fund the growth and expansion. Incubators and Accelerators.

Startup 150

Startup Entrepreneur Elevator Pitch Seed Stage 150

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 11, 2019

She’s also a founding member of All Raise, a non-profit committed to improving diversity in both funders and founders. What I was interested in seeing was that a lot of these founders believe that they’re not just creating technology, they're creating change and culture. We didn't have signage on the door front.

Founder 68

Founder Lean Venture Capital Cofounder 68

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 19, 2015

Most technologists have little interest in the mechanics of starting and building a business. That’s why I recommend that they find a co-founder who loves business challenges, including marketing and finance. Outside investors are most interested in scaling a proven business model, not research and development.

Technical Review 120

Technical Review Intellectual Property Cofounder Bootstrapping 120

The Startup Magazine

JULY 29, 2021

As part of our Founder Interview series, The Startup Magazine caught up with entrepreneur Ola Sars, Founder and CEO of music-tech leader, Soundtrack Your Brand. Ola Sars, Founder and CEO of Soundtrack Your Brand. Your A round is about securing a first team and product, proving that you can generate revenue.

Founder 155

Founder B2C B2B Audio 155

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 30, 2020

Some argue the only way to start is to drop everything and jump in with both feet, while others recommend an overlapped approach to the lifestyle, including not quitting your day job until you have revenue and a proven business model. Startups cost money but don’t pay a salary before revenue.

Entrepreneur 321

Entrepreneur Private Equity Startup Salary 321

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 5, 2015

I challenge any entrepreneur, for example, to define the difference between "seed-stage" and "early-stage" financing. Asking for early-stage money before you have customers and revenue will likely kill your credibility with real investors. Yet, knowing this distinction is important. A micro venture capital firm.

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage Finance Early Stage Startup 120

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 24, 2011

billion to work across 738 financing deals with U.S. Your friends and family are really the only answer until you have a significant revenue stream. Here are some key action items that will give you some priority: Create an investment-grade business plan. Overall, investors put $7.5 That represents a $1.5 Line up a winning team.

Venture Capital 233

Venture Capital Revenue Elevator Pitch Silicon Valley 233

Steve Blank

MARCH 31, 2014

Companies horde cash and squeeze the most revenue and margin from the money they use. The first will be commodity businesses that are valued for their ability to execute their current business model. The second class will be firms with a demonstrated ability to continually innovate and reinvent their business models.

Private Equity 325

Private Equity Metrics China Intellectual Property 325

David Teten

AUGUST 21, 2019

Most founders who are raising capital look first to traditional equity VCs. Or should they look to one of the new wave of Revenue-Based Investors? Revenue-Based Investing (“RBI”) is a new form of VC financing, distinct from the preferred equity structure most VCs use. Who are the major Revenue-Based Investing VCs?

Revenue 60

Revenue Liquidation Preference Equity Cofounder 60

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 22, 2011

I recently spoke at the Founder Showcase at the request of Adeo Ressi. I said that at the Founder Showcase, too. Ah, but today’s Internet companies have real revenue! And for many of these they were (over) funded 7-10 years ago and don’t necessarily all represent great returns for investors or founders.

Saudi Arabia 309

Saudi Arabia Valuation IPO Technical Review 309

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 9, 2012

From Lean Startup Machine , Lean LA and San Diego Tech Founders , to countless speeches and workshops, I have seen the impact that their leadership has had first hand. Market segments drive your business model. The market segment you pursue is inextricably linked to the other aspects of your business model.

Entrepreneur 167

Entrepreneur Lean Southern California San Diego 167

Steve Blank

JUNE 15, 2010

The role of a founding CEO in a startup searching for a business model is radically different than a CEO building and growing a company. So if you’re the founder of a startup, you may want to consider who you take money from. Is Your VC Founder Friendly? How many of their founders are still with their company?

Founder 231

Founder Vesting Later Stage Early Stage 231

Steve Blank

AUGUST 15, 2016

But to do it, you need to actually have a sustainable business model. Starting a business is too risky. The show follows the journeys of founders who share what it takes to build a startup – from restaurants to rocket scientists, to online gifts to online groceries and more. Wanting to create impact is great.

Cofounder 142

Cofounder Entrepreneur Africa Sales Cycle 142

Up and Running

SEPTEMBER 19, 2017

That’s because obtaining a pre-money valuation for a concept level technology company in excess of $1 million is difficult, particularly for a startup founder without a proven track record. By contrast, obtaining a pre-money valuation of $5 million for a business with a new viable product and even very minimal sales is somewhat reasonable.

Private Equity 94

Private Equity Pre-Money Valuation Equity Startup 94

ReadWriteStart

SEPTEMBER 16, 2011

Siddhesh has already validated his business and is catering to home buyers, sellers, and brokers, generating revenues from advertising and sponsorships as well as brokerage revenue sharing. As I keep reiterating, 99% of the businesses that go out for financing get rejected. He wants to penetrate the Indian market.

Brazil 115

Brazil India Entrepreneur 115

YoungUpstarts

SEPTEMBER 7, 2020

Just because they are representing both parties does not mean they will try to get you to settle for less than what you feel your business is worth. What it means for a seller is a quick and easy sale because those buyers are already qualified with financing in the works. Business Exits. Synergy Business Brokers.

United States 189

United States Revenue Sales Global 189

Feld Thoughts

OCTOBER 7, 2011

The co-founders decided to divide-and-conquer, with Dick tackling expense projections and Jane tackling revenue projections. Jane asked Josh, who provided SayAhh with solid advice on setting up their accounting systems , for help in creating the revenue side of their financial forecast. What other problems do you see?

Revenue 130

Revenue Forecast Cofounder Business Model 130