Feld Thoughts

JULY 29, 2011

Finance Friday’s gets off the ground with today’s post by introducing you to an imaginary startup, the entrepreneurs that we’ll being following throughout the series, and their first challenges: splitting up the founders’ equity and addressing the case where one of the founders provides the initial seed capital for the business.

Equity 137

Equity Finance Pre-Money Valuation Denver 137

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 22, 2011

But this mania to not miss out on the next big thing is driving some investors to pay growth-equity prices for traditional market risk (as in, they’re paying up before it is clear there is product / market fit). And well they should be. And so on down then line. If a company that would traditionally raise $500k at a $3.5

Saudi Arabia 309

Saudi Arabia Valuation IPO Technical Review 309

David Cohen

AUGUST 1, 2018

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. If they accept convertible notes now at a low cap, how could they possibly justify a higher equity price in a few short months when this larger financing is bound to happen? What a deal!

Pre-Money Valuation 87

Pre-Money Valuation Valuation Equity Finance 87

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 29, 2009

This came in part due to the huge influx of money into VC but also because hedge funds and private equity shops with no VC experience wanted part of the action. While the company continues to perform well it has come at a cost. The company was therefore priced at $15 million post-money and the VC (s) own 1/3 rd.

Burn Rate 263

Burn Rate Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Private Equity 263

Lightspeed Venture Partners

NOVEMBER 19, 2012

They believed that they could get customer acquisition costs to the $10-12 range, but as Cuban points out, that was just hope, they had no evidence to back this up. All e-commerce businesses should be examined through the lens of customer acquisition cost and lifetime value. The cost of shipping and handling is at least 4 x $2= $8/mth.

Pre-Money Valuation 166

Pre-Money Valuation Alabama Valuation Churn Rate 166

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 14, 2021

Q: What is going to happen to the cost of capital? Q: What is the opportunity cost of not being in tech? Both early- and late-stage startup valuations are currently elevated. For context, seed-stage pre-money valuations are up 24% from H1 2020 to H1 2021. Are low interest rates structural, or temporal? .

Valuation 156

Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Distribution Early Stage 156

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 5, 2015

” Today I want to talk about how a VC thinks about equity pricing on your round and particularly if you’re coming off of a convertible note. In the old days VCs funded off of a “pre-money” valuation. It’s worth reading his post to understand the problem.

Pre-Money Valuation 150

Pre-Money Valuation Option Pool Post-Money Valuation Dilution 150

The Startup Lawyer

FEBRUARY 4, 2011

The following are some issues to consider and actions to take before accepting an incubator’s offer: (1) Calculate Valuation and Determine Value. Pre-money valuations startups receive from incubators are typically low…really low. 2) Scrutinize the Investment Structure.

Incubator 105

Incubator Pre-Money Valuation Option Pool Advisory Board 105

Lightspeed Venture Partners

OCTOBER 22, 2012

The founders have more demand than they know what to do with, and want to raise $55k for 5% equity in the company to buy a second truck. This implies a pre money valuation of $1.045M. See my breakdown of week 2 for more on how to calculate pre money valuation.). and costs $1.10

Pre-Money Valuation 101

Pre-Money Valuation Valuation Dilution Differentiation 101

Lightspeed Venture Partners

OCTOBER 1, 2012

pre money valuation). Cuban has interest in a gluten free diet, and claimed that he liked the company, but his only concern was valuation. The company came back and offered him 20% of the company for the $200k (an $800k pre money valuation). They were seeking $200k for 10% of the company (a $1.8M

Pre-Money Valuation 158

Pre-Money Valuation Valuation Participating Preferred Preferred Stock 158

K9 Ventures

MARCH 23, 2011

I may be well be in the minority in the Valley to think this way — especially so as a seed stage investor — but I have a strong preference for doing priced equity rounds for funding companies at any stage. Since the financing would likely happen in short order, there was no need to have a valuation cap in the note.

Pre-Money Valuation 132

Pre-Money Valuation Valuation Equity Liquidation Preference 132

This is going to be BIG.

JULY 30, 2015

If you could return investors nearly triple their money and mid 20's returns consistently, compared to the 8% long term return in the public equities market, they'd more than accept that. Comparatively, if you look at long term private equity results, I think most investors are winding up with high teens returns. So here goes.

Venture Capital 60

Venture Capital Pre-Money Valuation IRR Valuation 60

Tim Keane

JANUARY 12, 2010

The investors and the entrepreneurs are – or should be – aware that the price of the company’s equity is set by the market – in simplest terms, what an informed buyer is willing to pay.   You can vary both valuation and term-sheet assumptions (in the gray boxes) to assess the impact on the values of the business.

Term Sheet 68

Term Sheet Valuation Dividend Liquidation Preference 68

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 5, 2012

This time by the efforts of Adeo Ressi to introduce a new kind of structure called “ convertible equity.” My initial reaction to Adeo when we spoke was that while it may have solved some issues (debt versus equity) it didn’t solve the ones that I’ve been warning entrepreneurs about most loudly.

Ratchet 354

Ratchet Liquidation Preference Equity Stock 354

VC Cafe

SEPTEMBER 26, 2022

The press took notice, especially since just a few months later startups were laying off employees en-masse to cut costs. Sustainable growth: Prioritise sales efficiency over growth at all costs. ValuatIon should be a function of value, not ego. In times of uncertainty, be like Scrooge McDuck! Our goals, their goals.

Founder 187

Founder Startup Valuation Pre-Money Valuation 187

Scott Edward Walker

APRIL 9, 2012

Part 3 will cover certain special issues, such as (i) what happens if the startup is acquired prior to the note’s conversion to equity? (ii) ii) what happens if the maturity date is reached prior to the note’s conversion to equity? A convertible note is short-term debt that converts into equity. Speed, simplicity and cost.

Preferred Stock 87

Preferred Stock Finance Common Stock Liquidation Preference 87

venturehacks.com

OCTOBER 21, 2010

If you don’t keep your eyes on the option pool while you’re negotiating valuation, your investors will have you playing (and losing) a game that we like to call: Option Pool Shuffle You have successfully negotiated a $2M investment on a $8M pre-money valuation by pitting the famous Blue Shirt Capital against Herd Mentality Management.

Option Pool 68

Option Pool Pre-Money Valuation Dilution Warrant 68

David Teten

NOVEMBER 15, 2013

Each new investor tends to raise valuations and lower returns for all the other competitive investors. It is mathematically impossible for the median investor to beat a low-cost index, after expenses. (Of The average equity fund investor earned a market return of only 4.25%.

Management 114

Management Pre-Money Valuation Venture Capital New Hampshire 114

Hippoland

AUGUST 31, 2018

Another consideration here is that in the minds of pre-seed investors (who are very often small funds and will be allocating most of their capital in the first round or two), valuation matters a lot more to them than a larger fund who might invest in you at this stage as an option for later.

Pre-Money Valuation 90

Pre-Money Valuation Valuation Silicon Valley Early Stage 90

www.paulgraham.com

APRIL 28, 2010

It costs you a little more equity, but being able to play the two firms off each other (as well as ask one if the other is being out of line) is invaluable. Their main expenses are setting up thecompany, which costs a couple thousand dollars in legal work andregistration fees, and the living expenses of the founders.

Technical Review 76

Technical Review Startup Software Review Angel Investor 76

Hippoland

AUGUST 31, 2018

Another consideration here is that in the minds of pre-seed investors (who are very often small funds and will be allocating most of their capital in the first round or two), valuation matters a lot more to them than a larger fund who might invest in you at this stage as an option for later.

Pre-Money Valuation 48

Pre-Money Valuation Valuation Silicon Valley Early Stage 48

www.currentlyobsessed.com

MAY 28, 2010

Instead of “We are worth about $5m because we have done XYZ and we need to raise $1m, so let’s sell 20%&# it’s better to think about valuation as an output variable, like “Let’s raise $2mm and sell 33%, our (pre-money) valuation is therefore $4mm.&# Future value is key.

Valuation 42

Valuation Channel Pre-Money Valuation Term Sheet 42

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 19, 2019

So the venture process was all about trying to figure out whether or not people could deliver what they said they could, and you typically invested as early as possible at a $5 million pre-money valuation, hoping the company would be worth $500 million, in which case you'd make 20 to 30 times your money.

Silicon Valley 159

Silicon Valley Lean Venture Capital Pre-Money Valuation 159