Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 11, 2014

” Sean is somebody widely respected in Silicon Valley (although he now lives in SoCal) for having helped many early-stage companies go through major growth periods by quantitatively testing features with audiences to help diagnose what led to growth. If you can’t do this, nothing else really matters. Doesn’t.

Technical Review 384

Technical Review Hockey Stick SEM Channel 384

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 26, 2016

In product business it is often measured over multiple purchases and assumptions are made about the repeat rates and in the enterprise or services world LTV can be based on churn rates, which are notoriously hard to predict in an early-stage business. Poorly calculated LTVs can become BVs (bankruptcy values). The first input is CAC.

Metrics 150

Metrics Cost Acquisition Startup 150

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 23, 2014

15 years ago we were at the peak of Internet hype with the launch of many over-capitalized businesses with a market size & opportunity was limited. 50x more Internet users (2.4 We are in a bubble (with so many private $1bn+ valuations). Where are we today? Online connections that are 180x faster (10.5

Technical Review 398

Technical Review Venture Capital Valuation Pre-Money Valuation 398

SoCal CTO

NOVEMBER 11, 2009

She is a go to person for me when I have questions around technology or early stage marketing and branding. We do a lot of B2B and also have an "Early Stage Branding" practice for technology startups. The analogy of a lively dinner conversation to describe Visible Networking is perfect. Maybe ten years.

Early Stage 150

Early Stage Southern California Los Angeles Marketing 150

YoungUpstarts

JULY 31, 2019

Billions of dollars are being poured into companies that have yet to clear the value chasm, as entrepreneurs use early traction that isn’t necessarily financially-oriented, but shows a certain level of uptick or success, to raise capital and convince early stage investors that their horse is the one to bet on.

Cofounder 127

Cofounder Burn Rate Technical Cofounder Seed Capital 127

YoungUpstarts

MAY 11, 2016

New domain extensions enable you to promote your campaign with a playful domain name that illustrates your brand and creates better brand recall and a stronger call to action that should translate into an increased conversion or response rate. A company’s online presence is often spread across several different platforms.

SEM 100

SEM Los Angeles Software Review Naming 100

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2014

it is also the title of a fabulous book from Internet 1.0 Conversely if you’re burning $600,000 per month (yes, some companies do) then you only have 5 months of cash left. Plus, most early-stage M&A fails so this isn’t likely a good use of capital for a young company).

Burn Rate 383

Burn Rate Balance Sheet .Net Valuation 383

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 5, 2011

I have conversations with entrepreneurs and other VCs on a daily basis about fund raising, the prices of deals, how much companies should raise, etc. But to help with the explanation I’d like to put down some markers of typical Internet pre-money valuations done in major US markets (San Fran, NY, LA, etc.)

Pre-Money Valuation 336

Pre-Money Valuation Valuation Silicon Valley Stock 336

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 19, 2013

His vision for social analytics and tracking the conversion funnel was better than any I had heard at the time (or since). ” Somebody who had lived with the marketing consequences of trying to track online conversion from websites, google, mobile and social. We set out to find Jonathan’s “co-founder.”

Technical Review 303

Technical Review Cofounder Analytics Founder 303

SoCal CTO

MARCH 18, 2010

I really enjoy events where there are interesting people with interesting conversations to be had. I help internet companies make money. I’m sure it sparks interesting conversations. Tony: I personally am torn by choices around Networking Events in Los Angeles – you can go to something almost every night.

Los Angeles 225

Los Angeles Revenue Southern California Social Network 225

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

NOVEMBER 14, 2011

Those higher costs make learning to write ads, manage campaigns, A/B test, and design landing pages a very expensive activity for an early stage, bootstrapping startup. Additional interactions or elements on a landing page will often curb your conversion rate. On top of that, the cost has escalated tremendously over time.

Campaign 272

Campaign Software Review Brazil Conversion 272

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 6, 2019

That’s a reason why some are quick to portend “a new bubble” but this post sets out to show that would be a misunderstanding of the market and in fact by historic levels this may be amongst the best times to invest in seed and early-stage funds. There are significantly more Internet users and we’re no longer newbies b.

Venture Capital 292

Venture Capital IPO Mezzanine Early Stage 292

Hippoland

AUGUST 17, 2016

In reality, at such an early stage, it almost doesn’t make sense to do a priced round, because you don’t know what the fundraising landscape will be apriori. Downstream investors can potentially rewrite a lot of the conversion terms later, screwing over earlier investors. This should be basically free.

Equity 48

Equity Convertible Security Silicon Valley Technical Review 48

Agile VC

MAY 26, 2011

I thought I’d revisit it and share the story… First, you have to rewind mentally to early 2003. is the leading consumer internet company with Terry Semel as CEO. Not long after the product launch we began the initial conversations with VCs for a Series A round. And a third firm “pressure tested” (i.e.

Term Sheet 178

Term Sheet Silicon Valley Technical Review Social Network 178

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 2, 2010

A fund size of $25 – $100 million in normally an “early stage&# fund that is likely to do seed investments and/or smaller A round investments. A fund size of $100 million – $200 million is likely to either be an A round investor or “stage agnostic&#.

Venture Capital 269

Venture Capital Balance Sheet Early Stage Software Review 269

VC Cafe

AUGUST 29, 2022

As an investor in early stage startups in gaming and metaverse/web3 at Remagine Ventures , I naturally consume a lot of content on this topic, and this post also helps me digest and separate signal from noise. Joe Rogan hosted Mark Zuckerberg on a 3-hour conversation on the metaverse and Facebook’s woes.

IP 187

IP Strategic Investors Vertical Early Stage 187

View from Seed

AUGUST 13, 2014

Investors in this category are usually operating executives who have spent their entire careers in a specific industry vertical, like internet travel, for example. Cons of an investment from a Super Angel include potential lack of “value-add” because his or her time is spread so thin amongst many portfolio companies. The Domain Angel.

Angel Investor 334

Angel Investor Syndicate Syndication Early Stage 334

Hippoland

AUGUST 21, 2016

I have this conversation all the time with portfolio companies. Often, it’s these no-name investors who jumpstarted the best deals in internet history. Just providing dollars at the early stages of a round is helpful to jumpstart fundraising traction. Who is he/she? Portfolio founder: That’s the problem.

Technical Review 48

Technical Review Due Diligence Silicon Valley Portfolio 48

Austin Startup

AUGUST 10, 2017

This means that private keys — the keys that literally control the money — never touch the Internet. Josh runs a series of Capital Factory-affiliated venture funds and is the most active early stage investor in Texas since 2013, according to Pitchbook. 3) Rebalancing — we rebalance portfolios monthly.

Technical Review 48

Technical Review Cofounder Technical Cofounder Austin 48

ConversionXL

SEPTEMBER 9, 2016

Plus, the Internet is full of “How We Increased Conversions by 1,000% with 1 Simple Change” style articles. Through qualitative and quantitative conversion research, you’ve found some issues with your site. UX research will help you better understand the causes of conversion issues and prioritize hypotheses.

Technical Review 48

Technical Review Architecture Conversion Software Review 48

SoCal CTO

FEBRUARY 17, 2007

What I really liked in my conversations with The Hive is that they are willing to work with and fund ventures that would never get VC dollars. Mobile Internet Apple Facebook ► 2009 (32) ► December (3) Startup Software Developers Startup Software Development – Do Your Homework Be.

Incubator 150

Incubator Technical Cofounder Southern California Los Angeles 150

Steve Blank

AUGUST 13, 2009

It took me 8 startups and 21 years to get it right, (and one can argue success was due to the Internet bubble rather then any brilliance.) No internet, no blogs, no books on startups, no entrepreneurship departments in universities, etc. It took lots of trial and error, learning by experience and resilience through multiple failures.

Silicon Valley 204

Silicon Valley RSS Technical Review Lean 204

View from Seed

DECEMBER 17, 2015

It’s amazing how often people don’t get to that in the conversation. Takeaway 3: Identify your team’s current learning style (especially among any existing tech talent or leaders, but also more generally across your early-stage team). How could they fit into your team? How do they view the world?

Technical Review 120

Technical Review Engineer Software Review Founder 120

Austin Startup

MARCH 1, 2018

framework for both presenting and analyzing early stage venture investment opportunities. Room 8ABC Register: SXSW badge required A Conversation with Ernest Cline Ernest Cline is an internationally best-selling novelist, screenwriter, father, and full-time geek. Are you being asked to invest in, or raise money for one?

Technical Review 89

Technical Review Austin Texas Cofounder 89

Genuine VC

FEBRUARY 12, 2012

Addressing both of those issues can stem from the motivations as to why someone would want to put their hard-earned cash into a risky early-stage startup in the first place. Investors in this category are usually operating executives who have spent their entire careers in a specific industry vertical, like internet travel, for example.

Angel Investor 257

Angel Investor Syndicate Syndication Early Stage 257

SoCal CTO

MARCH 22, 2007

Im constantly frustrated by conversations that take place in discussion groups that cant cross the border into the blog world. Mobile Internet Apple Facebook ► 2009 (32) ► December (3) Startup Software Developers Startup Software Development – Do Your Homework Be. Otherwise, Ive not seen much. *

Technical Cofounder 150

Technical Cofounder Southern California Los Angeles CTO Hire 150

Duct Tape Marketing

NOVEMBER 2, 2023

02:06] Can you share your experience starting with an early-stage company (Hubspot) that eventually went public? [07:11] You were an early HubSpot person. But when you get somebody in a sales conversation, they will usually like, oh yeah, I've been following you guys for this and listen to your podcast. Why am I asking?

Metrics 73

Metrics Analytics Forecast Software Review 73

Version One Ventures

OCTOBER 29, 2013

A recent interview with Union Square Ventures ’ Albert Wenger reminded me how much things have changed in the past years: I’m less interested in the regional differences than I am in the fact that it’s now possible to build very large, global businesses from anywhere in the world…The Internet is global. Related articles.

Silicon Valley 161

Silicon Valley Global Finance New York City 161

The Equity Kicker

JUNE 26, 2014

We are a bit like an accelerator programme, a bit like an incubator and a bit like a straight early stage fund, yet we are also different to all of these things in crucial ways. Finally, we are different to early stage funds (and many of them are great early stage funds) because we spend much more money supporting our portfolio.

eCommerce 98

eCommerce Partner Incubator Early Stage 98

Women Entrepreneurs Can

JANUARY 4, 2022

Whether your business is as big as Amazon or still in its early stage, you need to spread the word about what you do, and that translates to advertising. Join the Conversation. Rummage the internet for mature forums and talks related to your business or industry. Instead, why don’t you consider free advertising?

Advertising 52

Advertising Small Business Campaign Early Stage 52

abovethecrowd.com

OCTOBER 1, 2013

Over 13 years ago, in March of 2000, I wrote a blog post titled “ The Most Powerful Internet Metric of All. ” The key thesis was this: if an Internet company could obsess about only one metric, it should be conversion. As such, it is time to pound the table again – conversion is by far the most powerful Internet metric of all.

Metrics 93

Metrics Conversion Internet Acquisition 93

crowdSPRING Blog

MAY 9, 2018

Thank god for the internet, because twenty years ago, I could not have started this business! All the research is out there – there are a lot of smart people on the internet sharing information for free. Amalie Beauty is now an in-demand, six-figure beauty business. Know what matters. Be natural and sustainable.

Marketing 90

Marketing Social Media Cofounder Design 90

Up and Running

MAY 3, 2012

And besides, obtaining early-stage investment is no guarantee of success, either. The signs to me are all too obvious from our conversations. Some entrepreneurs ask me whether we have a business plan for an “internet business”, as if there’s a secret recipe they could use. Surely we can do better?

Entrepreneur 82

Entrepreneur Technical Review Silicon Valley Lean 82

Eric Friedman

JULY 1, 2013

I have been slow to write my thoughts here, but after some recent conversations I thought I would pick things back up again. Since the early days of the Internet, charging a monthly subscription fee to users is a way to ensure revenue for a product or offering from the start. I have had SaaS on my mind for quite awhile.

Early Stage 92

Early Stage Business Model Web Software 92

Ben's Blog

MAY 15, 2020

Finally, we’ll zoom out and assess the big picture: how various categories of company may be impacted long-term, how this crisis compares to 2008 (and what that means for early-stage founders), and the industries and business models that are now prime for growth. Transcript: Hi, and welcome to the a16z podcast.

Founder 36

Founder Conversion Technical Review Cash Position 36

Duct Tape Marketing

SEPTEMBER 27, 2018

Because of the internet, the way people buy today is largely out of your hands. At these early stages, they know they have a problem, but they haven’t yet concluded how they’re going to solve it. The internet is where people go to have an experience with marketing, to understand a company, and to do research.

Marketing 64

Marketing Social Media Conversion Early Stage 64

Up and Running

JULY 26, 2016

Selling a product is a tough process, full of “no’s,” whether they come on the phone with a prospect or as a low conversion rate on your landing page. Most campaigns can be optimized to increase conversion rates and lower costs. ” tweet we got a great response rate and moved our conversation to email. The outcome of this?

Revenue 60

Revenue Acquisition Channel Campaign 60