Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 14, 2020

Getting investors to trust you with their money is always a challenge, and it’s even more difficult in the early stages, where you don’t have a significant revenue stream, a few customers, or maybe even a product yet. Non-credible funding request or unreasonable valuation. Future unproven projections don’t set today’s valuation.

Due Diligence 308

Due Diligence Intellectual Property Preferred Stock Seed Stage 308

Gust

DECEMBER 6, 2011

A medical device company, on the other hand, may need cash resources to pay for FDA testing, designing the prototype, manufacturing the product, establishing an inventory of the devices and establishing marketing and sales channels for the products. Most high-impact companies need substantial cash resources to sustain their rapid grow.

Angel Investor 179

Angel Investor Venture Capital Valuation Software Engineering 179

Steve Blank

MARCH 31, 2014

Today’s workforce has radically different expectations, brands are losing their power, physical channels are being destroyed by virtual ones, market share is less important than market creation, and software is eating world. Companies horde cash and squeeze the most revenue and margin from the money they use.

Private Equity 325

Private Equity Metrics China Intellectual Property 325

YoungUpstarts

OCTOBER 23, 2017

PC and mobile interfaces dynamically display portfolio valuations and exposures, along with system-generated investment recommendations tailored to a specific client’s financial goals and risk appetite. According to research from JP Morgan, revenues from investment banking peaked in 2009 at $207.7 Transaction Processing.

Technical Review 154

Technical Review Artificial Inteligence Software Review IPO 154

ConversionXL

MAY 1, 2017

One of the greatest threats to long-term success is when companies aren’t vigilant enough about responding to the changes in their market—whether it’s by failing to spot product or channel fatigue, acknowledge new competition, make needed updates to products or marketing adjustments in a timely fashion, or embrace new technology coming online.

Technical Review 127

Technical Review Algorithm Channel Analytics 127

Austin Startup

OCTOBER 15, 2017

What seems to be the best way to create customers and revenue may result in a business model that is out of vogue with the investment world and shortchanges you on enterprise valuation. A good example is the marketing technology sector. You don’t normally get to dictate the decision as to how your customers want to buy.

Technical Review 48

Technical Review Software Review Nevada Silicon Valley 48

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 19, 2010

Founded in November 2007 in New York City by Alexis Maybank and Kevin Ryan (co-founder of DoubleClick); CEO is Susan Lyne (ex-CEO Marta Stewart Living Omnimedia) Revenue estimates: $50mm in 2008; $170mm in 2009 (versus budget of $150mm); $450mm forecasted for 2010. Note that these are “gross” revenue numbers. OTHER DEALS: 1.

Partner 240

Partner New York City Cofounder Syndicate 240

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 27, 2018

Potential investors love to see gross margins in the fifty percent range or greater, with recurring revenue through subscriptions, follow-on sales, or services. Five-year financial projections of revenue and expenses. Of course, you wouldn’t include this data in your customer product pitch.

Product 145

Product Intellectual Property Liquidity Event Exit Strategy 145

ConversionXL

JULY 16, 2021

By collating key information in a framework, you’ll reduce internal feedback loops, improve collaboration, and empower consistency—which can increase revenue by 33%. . Make sure to update and re-distribute them as needed. The channel you told it on? Researching, planning, and deploying what makes you unique.

Audience 127

Audience Framework Differentiation Software Review 127

ReadWriteStart

DECEMBER 31, 2013

Snapchat may be a company with no revenue and an unrealistic valuation, but it is changing the way people think of messaging. IFTTT is built on channels—or different platforms and services that can send and receive triggers and actions—the if and then requests. IFTTT=If This Then That.

Startup 60

Startup Cofounder San Francisco Software Review 60

Gust

OCTOBER 20, 2011

In 2011, the valuation of pre-revenue, start-up companies is typically in the range of $1.5–$2.5 Scorecard Valuation Methodology. Such comparisons can only be made for companies at the same stage of development, in this case, for pre-revenue startup ventures. million, indicating a somewhat normal distribution.

Valuation 146

Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Intellectual Property Technical Review 146

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 1, 2016

Getting investors to trust you with their money is always a challenge, and it’s even more difficult in the early stages, where you don’t have a significant revenue stream, a few customers, or maybe even a product yet. Non-credible funding request or unreasonable valuation. Future unproven projections don’t set today’s valuation.

Due Diligence 120

Due Diligence Intellectual Property Preferred Stock Seed Stage 120

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 22, 2008

is an elegant way to model any service-oriented business: Acquisition Activation Retention Referral Revenue We used a very similar scheme at IMVU, although we werent lucky enough to have started with this framework, and so had to derive a lot of it ourselves via trial and error. The AARRR model (hence pirates, get it?)

San Francisco 167

San Francisco CPA SEM CTO Hire 167

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 12, 2010

That’s because a company’s value is a composite of all of the quantitative and qualitative factors that comprise a company: revenues, expenses, risks, growth prospects, quality of the management team, competitive advantages, strength of the intellectual property, and so forth. In business, one important measure is the value of the company.

Intellectual Property 223

Intellectual Property .Net Valuation Distribution 223

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 7, 2015

Every customer understands that your solution has to generate more revenue than cost, but you should not put that data in a customer pitch. Partnerships, distribution channels and pricing models should be included. “If Projected revenues and expenses over the strategic period.

Product 120

Product Intellectual Property Liquidity Event Burn Rate 120

ReadWriteStart

JANUARY 28, 2022

This article will assist you in gaining a fundamental understanding of equity valuation, kinds of equity, and other related topics. The market regards equity as an ownership “share” in a corporation’s income revenue stream. They need to ensure that the shares are distributed productively. Equity for Investors.

Valuation 108

Valuation Equity Warrant Common Stock 108

The Equity Kicker

MAY 14, 2012

There are certain types of events that investors look to as evidence that a company has overcome certain challenges and has therefore reduced risk in the business and become deserving of a higher valuation. achieving first revenues. breaking through revenue thresholds – e.g. run-rates of £1m, £5m, £20m and so on.

Finance 118

Finance Valuation Venture Capital Dilution 118

Up and Running

JULY 22, 2019

Be sure to demonstrate its potential by clearly documenting key performance indicators, highlighting key customers, and demonstrating realistic revenue projections. If you take less money at a lower valuation, you can then prove the execution of your business and raise additional rounds at sequentially higher valuations.

Canada 78

Canada Early Stage Valuation Finance 78

www.forentrepreneurs.com

FEBRUARY 2, 2010

Far more common is a need to acquire customers through a series of steps like SEO, SEM, PR, Social Marketing, direct sales, channel sales, etc. It appears that LTV should be about 3 x CAC for a viable SaaS or other form of recurring revenue model. For more on the topic of Viral Growth, refer to my blog post on that topic here.)

Acquisition 103

Acquisition Cost Customer Entrepreneur 103

ReadWriteStart

AUGUST 26, 2022

So first, we were much more sort of with a high growth rate, and we did not even care about how we got the revenue when we got it. And now we are much more careful about revenue quality revenues. So the quality of growth has implications on the revenue stream’s sustainability. Would you say that? . David Zhang.

Partner 132

Partner Cofounder Retention Acquisition 132

Austin Startup

SEPTEMBER 17, 2017

Further, you demonstrate on your spreadsheet that a venture return to early investors is plausible at a valuation that gives you enough equity to get the job done and to take care of you and your team at exit time. Maybe a desired distribution channel was more costly or less productive than expected.

Valuation 48

Valuation Forecast Seed Money Business Model 48

Up and Running

JANUARY 5, 2018

In grocery, which represents over half of Walmart’s revenues, it plans to add 1,000 online grocery order pickup locations in 2018 in stores around the US; in December 2017 it unveiled a meal kit option and a partnership with Buzzfeed that will integrate Buzzfeed recipes with Walmart groceries. . Madison Reed. Disclosed funding: $70M.

Acquisition 94

Acquisition Hawaii Partner Non-Compete 94

Business Plan Blog

OCTOBER 8, 2013

In order to launch a successful business and raise the capital needed to do so, a startup needs to consider several aspects of the business including the management team , the size of the opportunity, the product/service/technology, the market/sales/distribution channels, the competitive environment and several other factors.

Business Plan 67

Business Plan NDA Exit Strategy Valuation 67

David Teten

DECEMBER 3, 2019

A tool like Quuu identifies relevant, shareable content to keep your social media channels active. . 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.

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Software Review Analytics Private Equity 78

Rob Go

AUGUST 10, 2011

billion valuation. This valuation is for a company with 200 million registered users (although a much smaller # are active) and estimated revenues of around $200 million, equating to a steep multiple of 40 times sales for the microblogging service. To further explain this, Forrester has a great overview on the subject.

Advertising 62

Advertising Valuation Channel Distribution 62

ConversionXL

OCTOBER 22, 2018

To get marketing a seat at the table and prove that it can drive revenue and pipeline, we’ve become borderline obsessed with numbers. To reframe marketing as an investment rather than a cost center, we must connect all the dots to revenue—but it’s hard to do without the right tools and models to get started. form fills).

B2B 131

B2B Marketing Analytics Campaign 131

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. Revenue per customer? Revenue, Gross Margin?

Cofounder 429

Cofounder Seed Stage Valuation Metrics 429

Entrepreneurs-Journey.com by Yaro Starak

FEBRUARY 14, 2010

One of the very smart things I’ve noticed Armada is doing is making heavy use of YouTube as a marketing channel. Nothing really good surfaced until iTunes came along, which has gained some traction as a viable and legal method to distribute music with profit, thanks in no small part to the incredible adoption rate of the iPod.

Media 89

Media Marketing Distribution Internet 89

VC Cafe

JANUARY 2, 2023

There are 85 Israeli unicorns, but only about 50% them justify a billion Dollar valuation, according to Viola’s report. As growth investments (and valuations) go down, unicorns might struggle to survive, according to Globes. Sector funding distribution according to Greenfield Partners. ” Fred Wilson.

Valuation 158

Valuation Down Round Venture Capital 158

www.readwriteweb.com

OCTOBER 18, 2010

These are areas that may be gaps in the portfolio of large companies, and are perfect for M&A deals in three to five years after building enough validation and $10-$20 million in revenue. Raymond has built a nice business through efficient distribution deals and will do about $250,000 in revenue this year.

Marketing 52

Marketing Bootstrapping Incubator Angel Investor 52

www.readwriteweb.com

OCTOBER 18, 2010

These are areas that may be gaps in the portfolio of large companies, and are perfect for M&A deals in three to five years after building enough validation and $10-$20 million in revenue. Raymond has built a nice business through efficient distribution deals and will do about $250,000 in revenue this year.

Marketing 52

Marketing Bootstrapping Incubator Angel Investor 52

Tim Keane

APRIL 24, 2006

However, the distribution channel we had planned to use lacked the sophistication ultimately required by the product design, and the manufacturers adoption cycle was insufficient. The period of flat revenues in between has killed many companies waiting for the early adopters to begin buying. If it does not work, get out.

Wisconsin 60

Wisconsin Angel Investor Bootstrapping Venture Capital 60

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 5, 2010

AOL was controlled by one company and the Internet was distributed. billion in annual subscription revenues not including advertising or eCommerce). They controlled distribution to the masses. MySpace would liked to have owned YouTube but didn’t have the public stock valuation to purchase them at the price that Google did.

Social Network 318

Social Network Networking Internet Technical Review 318

Occam's Razor

APRIL 23, 2012

Choose the right metric and they'll create the most glorious digital experience in the universe, the perfect acquisition campaign, the most amazing customer service channel. Revenue vs. Economic Value. That is a reflection of a deep obsession on Revenue. It delivers higher macro-conversions (revenue!)

Metrics 152

Metrics Analytics Search Channel 152

The Next Web

AUGUST 14, 2013

When we went out to raise money, we raised with only a couple thousand dollars in monthly recurring revenue. But we had a solid product, strong weekly revenue growth (10% week over week), and two distribution/marketing channels that were already paying dividends. Traction is different for every product.

Founder 142

Founder Incubator Cofounder Accredited Investor 142

www.quora.com

JANUARY 16, 2011

You can argue that the DNA created by Microsoft's over emphasis on distribution (Steve) and development (Bill), has ultimately cost it $50bn or more in lost revenue, market share and market capitalization. Perhaps the nomenclature is off, but a distributor suggests that there is something to distribute.

Technical Review 51

Technical Review Startup CTO Hire Cofounder 51

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 12, 2017

(there’s a great story from Jonah in the video but you have to watch to hear it :)) But it’s undeniable that it has become a digital media powerhouse having raised around $500 million in capital with a valuation reported at $1.7 billion and revenues likely exceeding $250 million (Wikipedia lists 2015 revenue at $167 million).

Media 210

Media Los Angeles Russia Viral 210