Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 30, 2022

By definition, second-stage ventures generally have 10 to 99 employees and/or $750,000 to $50 million in revenue, and see that as just the beginning. According to one study a decade ago, only 45% of founders plan to exit after stage one, and my guess is that less than half the remainder survive the next stage in their own company.

Mezzanine 368

Mezzanine Private Equity Bandwidth Metrics 368

David Teten

DECEMBER 3, 2019

Private equity and venture capital investors are copying our sisters in the hedge fund world: we’re trying to automate more of our job. . In the private equity universe, most Partners have primary training as deal-makers, not as managers. (To see the video above, please click the image, and then click on the Play button.).

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Software Review Analytics Private Equity 78

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 13, 2012

People ask me if they really need ANY business plan, unless they are looking for an outside investor. In fact, a business plan is needed more by you than investors, as the blueprint for your company, team communication, and progress metrics. Explain the business model. Financial forecast and metrics.

Business Plan 283

Business Plan Sweat Equity Exit Strategy Intellectual Property 283

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 13, 2011

People ask me if they really need ANY business plan, unless they are looking for an outside investor. In fact, a business plan is needed more by you than investors, as the blueprint for your company, team communication, and progress metrics. Explain the business model. Financial forecast and metrics.

Business Plan 290

Business Plan Sweat Equity Exit Strategy Intellectual Property 290

Gust

AUGUST 5, 2012

People ask me if they really need ANY business plan, unless they are looking for an outside investor. In fact, a business plan is needed more by you than investors, as the blueprint for your company, team communication, and progress metrics. Explain the business model. Financial forecast and metrics.

Business Plan 182

Business Plan Sweat Equity Exit Strategy Intellectual Property 182

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 22, 2010

People ask me if they really need ANY business plan, unless they are looking for an outside investor. In fact, a business plan is needed more by you than investors, as the blueprint for your company, team communication, and progress metrics. Explain the business model. Financial forecast and metrics.

Business Plan 186

Business Plan Exit Strategy Sweat Equity Intellectual Property 186

Steve Blank

MARCH 4, 2014

But now, as the business model is repeatable and scalable, most employees take the business model as a given, and instead focus on the execution of the model – what is it they are supposed to do every day when they come to work. They measure their success on metrics that reflect success in execution, and they reward execution.

IRR 335

IRR Startup Business Model Agile 335

YoungUpstarts

SEPTEMBER 10, 2018

Acceleration and incubation programs are on the rise and have helped start and scale many successful businesses over the past 10 years. There are many different kinds of accelerators – private and public based accelerators, accelerators that take equity, as well as equity free accelerators. Congratulations, you made it!

Programming 124

Programming Chile B2B B2C 124

Up and Running

MAY 23, 2016

In fact, SaaS industry revenue is projected to grow from $49 billion in 2015 to $67 billion in 2018, a compound annual growth rate of approximately eight percent. Step 1: Start with a lean plan. Instead of sitting down to write a 40-page business plan, start with a one-page pitch. How to Write a Traditional Business Plan.

Software Review 74

Software Review Software Delaware Forecast 74

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 1, 2019

By definition, second-stage ventures generally have 10 to 99 employees and/or $750,000 to $50 million in revenue, and see that as just the beginning. According to one study a while back, only 45% of founders plan to exit after stage one, and my guess is that less than half the remainder survive the next stage in their own company.

Mezzanine 244

Mezzanine Private Equity Startup Bandwidth 244

Up and Running

MARCH 9, 2022

Use the OLE ratio to measure how your income increases or drops depending on the changes in sales volume to show how much revenue is available to cover non-operating costs. Let’s say that your organization earned $1 million in revenue last year, and it cost you about $300,000 to operate your business. Debt-to-equity ratio.

Equity 136

Equity .Net Balance Sheet Operations 136

Gust

AUGUST 7, 2012

I really like Martin Zwilling’s post here yesterday, 10 things that make a business plan fundable. That made me think about this list, the opposite, things that make a plan not fundable. These are my 10 things that make business plans not fundable, in my assumed order of importance. Empty broad claims.

Business Plan 172

Business Plan Sweat Equity Salary Founder 172

OnlyOnce

JULY 9, 2013

The book is part of the Startup Revolution series that Brad has been working on for a couple years now, including Do More (Even) Faster , Venture Deals , Startup Communities , and Startup Life (with two more to come, Startup Boards and Startup Metrics). Chapter 3: Telling the Story to Your Investors…The Business Plan is Dead.

Startup 95

Startup Advisory Board Elevator Pitch Forecast 95

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 13, 2017

By definition, second-stage ventures generally have 10 to 99 employees and/or $750,000 to $50 million in revenue, and see that as just the beginning. According to one study a while back, only 45% of founders plan to exit after stage one, and my guess is that less than half the remainder survive the next stage in their own company.

Mezzanine 141

Mezzanine Private Equity Startup Bandwidth 141

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 3, 2013

By definition, second-stage ventures generally have 10 to 99 employees and/or $750,000 to $50 million in revenue, and see that as just the beginning. According to one study , only 45% of Founders plan to exit after stage one, and my guess is that less than half the remainder survive the next stage in their own company.

Mezzanine 240

Mezzanine Private Equity Bandwidth Metrics 240

YoungUpstarts

MARCH 31, 2016

Here are tips to recognize and short-circuit seven behaviors that are sure to jeopardize your equity funding later on. Investors consider business plans that show the potential to solve big problems for big markets. Most VCs don’t invest pre-revenue. Set out goals and metrics for your business.

United Kingdom 100

United Kingdom Entrepreneur Oklahoma Ohio 100

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 4, 2015

By definition, second-stage ventures generally have 10 to 99 employees and/or $750,000 to $50 million in revenue, and see that as just the beginning. According to one study a while back, only 45% of founders plan to exit after stage one, and my guess is that less than half the remainder survive the next stage in their own company.

Mezzanine 120

Mezzanine Private Equity Startup Bandwidth 120

maplebutter.com

JANUARY 8, 2013

Written By Dan Martell on February 2nd, 2012 | Category: Hiring LeanStartup Marketing Metrics Startup Life | 6 Comments. Building Metrics / Usage Reports / KPI 3. Product/Metrics (70%/30% time) * Get your product activation (sign-up + meaningful action) to 60% * then, Get your product retention to 20% weekly. Why do I do it?

Technical Review 44

Technical Review Startup Cofounder Software Review 44

Cracking the Code

JANUARY 22, 2009

For SaaS companies, we found that MRR is the best metric on which to base sales commissions. While it may make sense to offer very slight adjustments for favorable payment terms and one time revenue, net additions to MRR should dominate the sales rep’s thoughts. How do you clawback revenue from the sales guy? Cindy said.

Software Review 91

Software Review Clawback Sales Salary 91

Steve Blank

JULY 19, 2010

I’ll offer that both entrepreneurs and VC’s have the wrong model for founding CEO equity compensation. Investors are praying they’ve backed a founder who can think creatively and independently, because more often than not, conditions on the ground change so rapidly that the original well-thought-out business plan becomes irrelevant.

Vesting 262

Vesting Liquidity Event Venture Capital Founder Vesting 262

The Next Web

SEPTEMBER 29, 2013

The Founder’s gut wrongly tells them their business plan has been validated because they received an investment. You’re learning what the metrics that matter are, what your funnel looks like, and what actions you want your prospects to take. You have to execute the business plan without executing yourself.

Metrics 136

Metrics Cofounder Cram Down Liquidity Event 136

Mike Michalowicz

DECEMBER 20, 2013

They don’t want to run a business; they want to invest in a business. And no, they do not have an army of can-do people just waiting to download your business plan so they can launch a copy of your business before you can so much as scratch your head. Investors don’t steal ideas.

Business Plan 68

Business Plan Equity Revenue Partner 68

Feld Thoughts

AUGUST 12, 2011

When we were last with Dick and Jane on Finance Fridays, our fearless entrepreneurs were figuring out how to split up their founders equity and account for an investment from Jane. Revenues and costs should both be based off of a robust set of assumptions. as a C-Corp in Delaware. Build a financial model that forecasts the P&L.

Balance Sheet 136

Balance Sheet Forecast Cap Table Early Stage 136

Women Entrepreneurs Can

MAY 9, 2019

During the early days, these are your key contributors and they must be willing to put as much sweat equity into the organization as you are. It’s crucial to have the trust in your team- no matter how small- and that you know they’re committed to your business concept. You Trust Your Team. Solid Organizational Processes.

Programming 40

Programming Sweat Equity Startup Private Equity 40

The Equity Kicker

FEBRUARY 23, 2012

We get a lot of emails from companies who send us business plans or executive summaries which don’t include any financial information. If we can see that the basic financial shape of the business is consistent with our usual investment profile we feel more confident that a deal is possible and are more likely to take a meeting.

Venture Capital 123

Venture Capital Revenue Metrics Security 123

Tim Keane

JANUARY 12, 2010

The investors and the entrepreneurs are – or should be – aware that the price of the company’s equity is set by the market – in simplest terms, what an informed buyer is willing to pay.   As a starting point, these become market comparable discussions based on other similar transactions within a recent timeframe and similar business.

Term Sheet 68

Term Sheet Valuation Dividend Liquidation Preference 68

Seeing Both Sides

OCTOBER 24, 2015

Many blogs suggest you simply divide 1 by your monthly churn rate to get to a number of months of duration that you can expect to collect revenues from your customer. Thus, if your average monthly churn rate is "c", the number of months of revenue you will receive over the lifetime of a customer is 1/c. A monthly churn rate of 1%?

Churn Rate 20

Churn Rate Early Stage Revenue Metrics 20