Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 2, 2009

In times when venture capital is hard to get, investors extract high costs for failure (down-rounds, cram downs , new management teams, shut down the company.) Sales people cost money, and when they’re not bringing in revenue, their wandering in the woods is time consuming, cash-draining and demoralizing.

Lean 244

Lean Silicon Valley Startup RSS 244

ReadWriteStart

JUNE 1, 2020

It is going to cost a lot of money just to get the initial batch of products to test the market and would definitely require external funding. Instead of funding, you pay the investors a structured royalty, which is a portion of the sales. You might have seen that valuations of several unicorns were suddenly slashed down.

Startup 150

Startup Entrepreneur Elevator Pitch Seed Stage 150

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 22, 2011

I recently spoke at the Founder Showcase at the request of Adeo Ressi. I said that at the Founder Showcase, too. And for many of these they were (over) funded 7-10 years ago and don’t necessarily all represent great returns for investors or founders. New investors hate down rounds. That’s a fact.

Saudi Arabia 309

Saudi Arabia Valuation IPO Technical Review 309

Berkonomics

AUGUST 3, 2023

Some businesses require very little capital and the founder can self-finance the enterprise and retain 100% of its ownership and control from ignition through liquidity event (startup through sale). And even with the significant cost of credit card debt, many entrepreneurs aggressively use existing cards to finance a startup.

Private Equity 118

Private Equity Valuation Cap Table Accredited Investor 118

Lightspeed Venture Partners

OCTOBER 7, 2012

The founders were very sympathetic; a man, laid off from his job, and his very pregnant wife, who sold their house and investing $150k into the business and are working hard to make a go of it. He had been at it for 6 months and had no sales or distribution lined up yet. One of the founders asked for a minute to consider the deal.

Technical Review 110

Technical Review Technical Cofounder Valuation Pre-Money Valuation 110

NZ Entrepreneur

SEPTEMBER 16, 2020

The statistics show that even though most founders bet their time and resources that their startups will be the best in the world, 90% of those new startups won’t be in operation in 10-15 years. For example, “How will unit cost affect our capital requirements and how will product pricing affect revenue?” Timing of sales.

Startup 69

Startup Sales Cycle Down Round Revenue 69

Berkonomics

MARCH 30, 2010

Since this number is budgeted and pre-authorized, managers tend to focus upon other things such as sales, marketing and product development issues. There is an art to efficient management of a process, whether that is the process of bringing a product to market from R&D to production or developing a new product’s launch program.

Silicon Valley 85

Silicon Valley Burn Rate Angel Investor Down Round 85

abovethecrowd.com

APRIL 20, 2016

All Unicorn participants — founders, company employees, venture investors and their limited partners (LPs) — are seeing their fortunes put at risk from the very nature of the Unicorn phenomenon itself. Their own ego is also a factor – will a down round signal weakness? Anxiety slowly crept into everyone’s world.

IPO 40

IPO Term Sheet Silicon Valley Valuation 40

Berkonomics

JUNE 8, 2017

Some businesses require very little capital and the founder can self-finance the enterprise and retain 100% of its ownership and control from ignition through liquidity event (startup through sale). And even with the significant cost of credit card debt, many entrepreneurs aggressively use existing cards to finance a startup.

Private Equity 106

Private Equity Valuation Cap Table Accredited Investor 106

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 30, 2016

forward sales with some as high as 12x sales. Investors sat with the founder & CEO, Jason Spievak, and asked him what he wanted to do about the future. forward sales, we hinted at a range north of 5x but “we’d be flexible” and we meant it. Did he want to see if Invoca could be public some day?

Balance Sheet 150

Balance Sheet Burn Rate Valuation Forecast 150

Reid Hoffman

JUNE 8, 2021

While many travel industry leaders chose to “go dark,” as Airbnb CEO and co-founder Brian Chesky put it , while they decided how to navigate next steps, Chesky took a different approach: He got candid. Today, we are thrilled to have Airbnb CEO and co-founder Brian Chesky with us. Well, that same thing can be said for any product.

Silicon Valley 69

Silicon Valley Hosting Rhode Island Design 69

www.paulgraham.com

APRIL 28, 2010

A typical startup goes throughseveral rounds of funding, and at each round you want to take justenough money to reach the speed where you can shift into the nextgear. I think it would help founders to understand funding better—notjust the mechanics of it, but what investors are thinking. Few startups get it quite right.

Technical Review 76

Technical Review Startup Software Review Angel Investor 76

David Teten

AUGUST 7, 2019

Likely signs of a Value investment: the company has challenges in filling out the round; the investors have more negotiating leverage than the founders during the closing process; the company has significantly better metrics (e.g. The reverse also holds: a Value investment can become Momentum, and then follow with a down round.

Venture Capital 60

Venture Capital Valuation Stock NDA 60

Startup Company Lawyer

MARCH 14, 2010

Founders Institute Plain Preferred Term Sheet (by WSGR – disclaimer, I represent the Founders Institute and was involved in drafting this document). Co-sale rights. These rights are missing, which is probably okay since I have never heard of a co-sale right being used before. Comprehensive protective provisions.

Finance 70

Finance Software Review Term Sheet Liquidation Preference 70

Reid Hoffman

JUNE 8, 2021

While many travel industry leaders chose to “go dark,” as Airbnb CEO and co-founder Brian Chesky put it , while they decided how to navigate next steps, Chesky took a different approach: He got candid. Today, we are thrilled to have Airbnb CEO and co-founder Brian Chesky with us. Well, that same thing can be said for any product.

Silicon Valley 36

Silicon Valley Hosting Rhode Island Design 36

Growthink Blog

MAY 23, 2011

This venture capital financing - usually between $3 and $10 million - is the first of a number of rounds of outside investment over a period of three to five years. With this capital, the company propels itself to $50 million+ in revenues, and to either a sale to a strategic acquirer or to an initial public offering.

Angel Investor 112

Angel Investor Venture Capital Sweat Equity Cram Down 112

Berkonomics

JANUARY 20, 2010

Some businesses require very little capital and the founder is able to self-finance the enterprise and retain 100% of its ownership and control from ignition through liquidity event (startup through sale). And even with the significant cost of credit card debt, many entrepreneurs aggressively use existing cards to finance a startup.

Private Equity 69

Private Equity Valuation Cap Table Accredited Investor 69

Scalable Startup

FEBRUARY 1, 2013

So the best technology for inventory management and for financial planning and for sales-force management and for online marketing can now be used just as easily or more easily by a small business. And they don’t buy sales-force automation software, they rent on Salesforce.com. Marc Andreessen: No, we have not seen down rounds yet.

Software Review 22

Software Review Startup Venture Capital Stock 22

Scalable Startup

OCTOBER 26, 2011

The second round is often for some or all of the following – corporate growth, go to market, turn the prototype into a robust offering, marketing costs, or to hire a sales force. It’s no longer based on a hunch, unless the company is in trouble and needs money to finish what the first round started.

Mezzanine 22

Mezzanine Due Diligence IPO Angel Investor 22

Altgate

MARCH 8, 2009

Growth stage investors are usually the Series B or C investors who come in when the product is in the market but there is little or no revenue and the team is probably in the 20-something range with the goal to ramp it up to 40-50 employees with the new money, build out a sales team, etc. But some will be saved.

Later Stage 34

Later Stage Early Stage Venture Capital Portfolio 34