Up and Running
SEPTEMBER 19, 2017
When you accept outside money, particularly a private equity (PE) investment, however, that changes. In this article, I’ll provide some personal stories of how investors have navigated the balance between raising private equity capital and not losing control of their startup. Rule 1: Bootstrap until you have a viable product.
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.”
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Both Sides of the Table
SEPTEMBER 10, 2021
A-Rounds used to be $3–7 million with the best companies able to skip this smaller amount and raise $10 million on a $40 million pre-money valuation (20% dilution). These days $10 million is quaint for the best A-Rounds and many are raising $20 million at $60–80 million pre-money valuations (or greater).
Agile VC
APRIL 17, 2011
At the end of the day Kayak’s playing a key role in the online travel process, but it appears more of the revenue comes from filling top of the conversion funnel rather than the middle or bottom of it. Pre-IPO Funding History: Kayak has raised approximately $235M in VC funding to date. Pre-money valuation was approx.
Hunter Walker
AUGUST 7, 2017
While you should expect these sorts of hires to take below market cash comp versus what Google is paying them, this tradeoff needs to be replaced with equity upside. No one wants to run out of equity pool midway between financings (and larger seed rounds these days usually means more hiring pre-A)!
ReadWriteStart
OCTOBER 7, 2010
Bottom line, early stage equity is very, very expensive. So at any point, if you are trying to raise money, and you are hearing from investors that you are too early and have too little validation, it may be a good thing. Sub-$2 million pre-money, it is better to bootstrap.
David Cohen
AUGUST 1, 2018
When valuations rise, so do the caps on notes, which are upper limits on valuation at conversion. The reason the entrepreneur want a high cap is to signal a high price for the next equity financing of a larger amount of money. What a deal! So maybe the investors will consider investing anyway. But it’s not.
Expert insights. Personalized for you.
94 
Let's personalize your content