Both Sides of the Table

JULY 23, 2014

It’s hard to work out the cap table with your peers when one of them has no real intent in fixing the problem. Unprecedented revenue growth + companies staying private longer =. We saw this movie already after the dot-com collapse and the sequel will be no different. Lots of new entrants moving to capture this value =.

Technical Review 398

Technical Review Venture Capital Valuation Pre-Money Valuation 398

Hunter Walker

FEBRUARY 20, 2024

Here the focus is on Pink Stuff, a British cleaning paste, which was #CleanTok mainstreamed to a quadrupling of revenue ($125m annually) and distribution to 55 countries. Many times we’ll never know, but the random products that end up popping because of a TikTok trend are always pretty fascinating anthropological stories.

Founder Vesting 59

Founder Vesting Vesting Cap Table Founder 59

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 16, 2010

As I’ve highlighted I believe we’re in a unique period similar to 2005-08 where the biggest tech firms of Silicon Valley (and some media companies) are scooping up small software companies as “talent acquisitions&# versus accretive revenue / profit generators. But it is. So know that going in.

Cap Table 283

Cap Table Angel Investor Liquidation Preference Deal Flow 283

David Teten

AUGUST 21, 2019

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. For more background, see Revenue-Based Investing: A New Option for Founders who Care About Control. But should they? Aligned incentives.

Revenue 60

Revenue Liquidation Preference Equity Cofounder 60

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 23, 2019

Previous venture firms’ specific involvement on the cap table should be noted here, though. develop and launch X product, reach Y number of users, generate $Z amount revenue). For example, stating “angels” is fine, and even highlighting notable names can be useful, but it’s unnecessary to share an exhaustive list.

Cap Table 211

Cap Table Seed Stage Valuation Dilution 211

View from Seed

OCTOBER 11, 2022

Simply put, we can flex our check size from $400K to $4M to invest anywhere along the pre-traction to post-revenue spectrum — an abnormality and an advantage in today’s market. In addition, I’m beyond excited to have the flexibility to support promising founders early with the right-sized checks for the stage of their companies.

North America 156

North America San Francisco Cap Table Cofounder 156

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 19, 2018

A detailed financial model that shows your anticipated revenue, costs and profits (Income Statement) as well as your balance sheet and cashflow statements. Can you please send us your certificate of incorporation, your Cap Table, your 3-year P&L and last year’s historical trading information? Entrepreneur : “Sure.

Cap Table 336

Cap Table Due Diligence Forecast Churn Rate 336

Up and Running

SEPTEMBER 20, 2021

This is all incorporated into a document called a Cap Table. . A cap table will help you in the strategic management of business decisions. Wondering what a cap table is, its importance, and how you can maintain it to expand your business? What is a cap table? Let’s dive in.

Cap Table 112

Cap Table Pre-Money Valuation Stock Options Option Pool 112

Hunter Walker

FEBRUARY 15, 2023

Claire got to experience, and played a large part in, Stripe’s proverbial rocketship, blossoming into thousands of employees, generating billions of dollars in revenue and valuation. While at the company — and especially once she departed — Claire became one of the people I always hoped to add to a cap table or startup board.

Cap Table 74

Cap Table Hiring Viral Valuation 74

Pascal's View

JULY 9, 2017

The most serious unintended consequence occurs from “note waterfalls”— converting multiple notes that have multiple valuation caps. Many entrepreneurs lose track of what they have been cooking up in the cap table. They do not recognize that they may have already contractually sold a meaningful portion of equity in their company.

Post-Money Valuation 49

Post-Money Valuation Valuation Cap Table Covenant 49

David Teten

NOVEMBER 14, 2019

I wrote recently about Should you raise venture capital from a traditional equity VC or a Revenue-Based Investing VC? Since then, I’ve talked with a number of other firms, and greatly expanded my database: Who are the major Revenue-Based (RBI) Investing VCs? Revenue-based investing VC. Venture debt.

SBIC 60

SBIC SBA Cap Table Database 60

Austin Startup

AUGUST 20, 2017

Your Cap Table is something that deserves constant care and attention. Messy cap tables can come back to haunt you when you do a financing or sell the company. I am very surprised when that cool thing actually meets a customer need or drives revenue. Keep the valuations consistent with company progress.

Technical Review 48

Technical Review Software Review Cap Table Securities and Exchange Commission 48

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 12, 2013

But as sweet as that success has been (we invested pre-revenue in a small team) today my even more important news was the further expansion of our partner ranks. He had made some structural mistakes in NextMedium that meant the Cap Table and leadership team was a bit wacky. I’ve known Hamet for 5 years. Relationships.

Partner 340

Partner Los Angeles South Africa Cap Table 340

Berkonomics

AUGUST 3, 2023

My experience with early valuations by founders for friends… I’ve arrived at a significant number of companies that were looking for additional growth capital after a “friends and family” round and had to “clean up” the cap table more than a few times over the years.

Private Equity 118

Private Equity Valuation Cap Table Accredited Investor 118

Gust

NOVEMBER 15, 2012

But by far the biggest issue is that the very essence of public markets (and what makes them “public”) is that the SEC mandates an enormous amount of transparency, including complete quarterly financial statements, complete publication of the company’s cap table including all significant shareholders, and so forth.

Seed Stage 131

Seed Stage Hockey Stick Cap Table Liquidation Preference 131

OnlyOnce

MAY 26, 2022

Do you spend a lot of your time dealing with finance-related issues like fundraising, debt, investors, or cap table questions? Even without a ton of revenue visibility on forward looking sales, good CFOs should have enough of a grip on expenses, cash flow, and order-to-cash dynamics to produce good, rolling 12-month cash forecasts.

Cap Table 62

Cap Table Forecast Finance Metrics 62

View from Seed

OCTOBER 15, 2014

Examples of housekeeping include the following list, though not every item will appear every time: Finance: Cash out date, burn rate, 409A valuation, cap table, common/preferred stock dashboard. However, these are important updates for your board to know. The seed stage is all about traction.

Seed Stage 331

Seed Stage Cap Table Metrics Burn Rate 331

Steve Blank

APRIL 8, 2010

They collected information that justified their assumptions about the problem, opportunity, market size, their solution and competitors and the their team, They rolled up a 5-year sales forecast with assumptions about their revenue model, pricing, sales, marketing, customer acquisition cost, etc. It was an exquisitely crafted plan.

Business Model 328

Business Model Business Plan Customer Cap Table 328

Hippoland

OCTOBER 18, 2018

It’s just really hard to keep growing 30% MoM with large revenue numbers. And on the revenue side, you get your money upfront when people buy tickets or sponsors send you money ahead of the event. With the right conditions, bootstrapped companies can be super high growth, high revenue companies. But, I think that’s false.

Bootstrapping 90

Bootstrapping Cap Table Salary .Net 90

This is going to be BIG.

JULY 2, 2015

Yet, as cash friendly as Slack could be--where it could easily have Kickstarter or Craigslist-like cashflow to cap table like ratios, it is still raising hundreds of millions of dollars. What Canary spends to build a product they make back in a clear path to revenue that Pinterest may or may not ever see.

Cap Table 60

Cap Table Viral .Net Acquisition 60

Bryce Dot VC

FEBRUARY 6, 2017

And not just a token “ramen” level of profitability: The startup is profitable, with January revenue of 10x its burn rate and sales expected to be in the millions for the quarter. Founders can trade the fundraising treadmill for the freedom, control and ownership that comes with managing your cap table closely.

Cap Table 40

Cap Table Burn Rate Dilution Bootstrapping 40

David Teten

SEPTEMBER 23, 2017

EShares is an increasingly popular tool in our portfolio for tracking private company cap tables. Satisfying LP demands and streamlining the valuation process are primary drivers in those clients’ adoption of Ipreo’s portfolio monitoring and valuation solutions, iLEVEL, iVAL, and Qval. .

Private Equity 60

Private Equity Venture Capital Equity Technical Review 60

Hippoland

OCTOBER 18, 2018

It’s just really hard to keep growing 30% MoM with large revenue numbers. And on the revenue side, you get your money upfront when people buy tickets or sponsors send you money ahead of the event. With the right conditions, bootstrapped companies can be super high growth, high revenue companies. But, I think that’s false.

Bootstrapping 48

Bootstrapping Cap Table Salary .Net 48

This is going to be BIG.

DECEMBER 21, 2017

Nothing seems to apply--you're not a tech company, you bootstrapped your way to millions in revenues before taking on capital, and you sell mostly through brick and mortar. Technically, that's what we called it, but it didn't seem entirely appropriate given that it had already been up and running for years and had millions in revenue.

Cap Table 90

Cap Table Cofounder Valuation .Net 90

Ben's Blog

APRIL 1, 2011

I remember when I first became CEO, an investor asked me to send him the “cap table.” Revenue at Ning is soaring and team morale is high. This means that you will face a broad set of things that you don’t know how to do that require skills that you don’t have. Whenever I see Jason, I like to say: “welcome to the show.”.

Management 78

Management Cap Table Balance Sheet Bankruptcy 78

Feld Thoughts

AUGUST 12, 2011

Revenues and costs should both be based off of a robust set of assumptions. Anytime the financial model indicates that SayAhh will run out of cash, determine how you will raise capital to ensure liquidity and be sure to properly account for the debt or equity transaction on the balance sheet and Cap Table. historical data).

Balance Sheet 136

Balance Sheet Forecast Cap Table Early Stage 136

Berkonomics

JUNE 8, 2017

I’ve arrived at a significant number of companies that were looking for additional growth capital after a “friends and family” round, and had to “clean up” the cap table more than a few times over the years. Taking this kind of money has a number of pitfalls you should be aware of.

Private Equity 106

Private Equity Valuation Cap Table Accredited Investor 106

David Teten

DECEMBER 3, 2019

Some notable metrics are revenue growth rates, free cashflow, leverage ratios, historical financing amounts, returns on marketing spend, customer acquisition costs, lifetime value of customers, customer churn rates, and team social scores. 645 Ventures released a cap table simulator to help level the playing field.

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Software Review Analytics Private Equity 78

Spencer Fry

APRIL 17, 2017

If this is the case, you may find yourself starting all over with little revenue (if any), a 1-2 person team that might be consulting on the side to pay bills, and no marketing spend. As a bootstrapper, you have nobody above you on the cap table (note: investors sit above you in their liquidation preference), so it’s your way or the highway.

Bootstrapping 63

Bootstrapping Cap Table Liquidation Preference Cofounder 63

adamac.blogspot.com

MARCH 9, 2010

Maybe the CEO got his cousin from Omaha to be their lawyer or theres been some serious messing around with the cap table. You start hiring a lot of people in sales and marketing to drive revenue, and while you may still be hiring people to do real work, the weight from the top starts to push down on everything else.

Technical Review 41

Technical Review CTO Hire Fractional CTO Startup 41

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 8, 2016

If you raised money in the past 2 years and have grown it is possible that your next round valuation might be flat (or lower) even though you have a higher revenue because investors may value your multiple differently. If you need to clean up your own cap table first – while very hard to do – it will make outside funding easier.

Burn Rate 150

Burn Rate Cap Table Balance Sheet Dilution 150

Bryce Dot VC

JANUARY 5, 2015

My partner Tim bootstrapped his business to 9 figures in revenue without taking any outside investment. Is it possible to maintain and independent attitude and ethos with an outside investor on your cap table? And revenue better still. . Those are fine expectations and outcomes, but not the only ones.

San Francisco 40

San Francisco Cap Table Non-Compete Distribution 40

Hippoland

MAY 16, 2018

Just in general, given how cheap it is to start a company and how few pre-seed investors there are, I think it makes sense to bootstrap to some level of revenue traction before fundraising. So while we are open to paying up a bit, we won’t pay up as much as other investors.

Seed Stage 48

Seed Stage Valuation Convertible Security Equity 48

Hippoland

MAY 16, 2018

Just in general, given how cheap it is to start a company and how few pre-seed investors there are, I think it makes sense to bootstrap to some level of revenue traction before fundraising. So while we are open to paying up a bit, we won’t pay up as much as other investors.

Seed Stage 48

Seed Stage Valuation Convertible Security Equity 48

This is going to be BIG.

JUNE 2, 2010

Historically, that was one where the business was clear and there was some initial revenue, even if slight. When you go straight to a Series A round, you forget that your next round needs to be a Series B round.

Cap Table 106

Cap Table Seed Stage .Net Venture Capital 106

Hunter Walker

JULY 18, 2022

Your runway is impacted by the absence of projected revenue. A $10b+ outcome feeds *everyone* on the cap table and the collective belief that an extraordinary number of startups could reach and eclipse this milestone drove a lot of the momentum investing of 2019–2021. Similarly, for a variety of reasons, the music stopped.

Valuation 116

Valuation Cap Table Startup Later Stage 116

Berkonomics

JANUARY 20, 2010

I’ve arrived at a significant number of companies that were looking for additional growth capital after a “friends and family” round, and had to “clean up” the cap table more than a few times over the years. Taking this kind of money has a number of pitfalls you should be aware of.

Private Equity 69

Private Equity Valuation Cap Table Accredited Investor 69