Conversion Demand Entrepreneur Pre-Money Valuation 
Both Sides of the Table
MAY 28, 2018
There’s a quick litmus-test conversation any early-stage VC will have with the founder and it’s one that you should be as prepared for as your elevator pitch. It goes something like this … VC: “How much money are you raising?” One entrepreneur refrain I sometimes hear is “We want to raise some extra money for M&A activities.”
Both Sides of the Table
JUNE 5, 2011
I wrote this because over the last decade I’ve seen a destructive cycle where otherwise interesting companies have been screwed by raising too much money at too high of prices and gotten caught in a trap when the markets correct and they got ahead of themselves. Again, prices are expressed as pre-money valuations.
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View from Seed
OCTOBER 21, 2014
In short, more and more entrepreneurs are signaling their price expectations earlier in their seed fundraise process. Or, in the case of a convertible note, they’ll explicitly state a valuation cap. In theory, there are three levels of pricing for an entrepreneur to potentially signal to a prospective investor: 1.
Both Sides of the Table
FEBRUARY 17, 2011
This conversation seems to come up very frequently these days both with portfolio companies and with entrepreneurs just looking for mentorship. For many businesses you should keep your costs low & your capital raises low until you discover whether you are really on to a big idea where there is market demand.
Both Sides of the Table
MAY 30, 2018
One of the hardest things about the fund-raising process for entrepreneurs is that you’re trying to raise money from people who have “asymmetric information.” As an entrepreneur it can feel as intimidating as going to buy a car where the dealer knows the price of every make & model of a car and you’re guessing at how much to pay.
Tim Keane
JANUARY 12, 2010
Term-sheets and Valuations: Thinking about Negotiations. Please see later version of this post on May 16, 2010 Entrepreneurs are often not experts in the area of term-sheet negotiations and all of the surrounding issues. Investors sometimes “present” the terms they’d like and expect the entrepreneurs to react.
Genuine VC
JULY 30, 2012
Like any economic transaction, the pricing of a startup’s seed round ultimately depends on the equation of perceived supply (the quality of the team, product, & market) and demand (how many competitive alternatives there are to any one given funder, including non-consumption). Above market.
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