Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 13, 2011

Explain in terms your mother could understand, and quantify the “cost-of-pain” in dollars or time. Clearly define the customer, channel, and revenue model associated with this solution. In this section, you need to be passionate about revenue, profit, and volume growth. Financial forecast and metrics. Exit strategy.

Business Plan 290

Business Plan Sweat Equity Exit Strategy Intellectual Property 290

Gust

AUGUST 5, 2012

Explain in terms your mother could understand, and quantify the “cost-of-pain” in dollars or time. Clearly define the customer, channel, and revenue model associated with this solution. In this section, you need to be passionate about revenue, profit, and volume growth. Financial forecast and metrics. Exit strategy.

Business Plan 182

Business Plan Sweat Equity Exit Strategy Intellectual Property 182

abovethecrowd.com

JULY 10, 2014

Consider the following example from 34 years ago that included the exact same type of prediction error: “In 1980, McKinsey & Company was commissioned by AT&T (whose Bell Labs had invented cellular telephony) to forecast cell phone penetration in the U.S. AAA estimates that the average annual cost of owning a car is $9,000.

San Francisco 111

San Francisco San Jose Marketing Technical Review 111

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 22, 2010

Explain in terms your mother could understand, and quantify the “cost-of-pain” in dollars or time. Clearly define the customer, channel, and revenue model associated with this solution. In this section, you need to be passionate about revenue, profit, and volume growth. Financial forecast and metrics. Exit strategy.

Business Plan 186

Business Plan Exit Strategy Sweat Equity Intellectual Property 186

BeyondVC

NOVEMBER 17, 2006

I am not sure if you saw the news , but Salary.com recently filed for an IPO to raise up to $50 million. From April 2001 through June 30, 2006, we achieved 21 consecutive quarters of revenue growth. In fact, during the last 3 fiscal years for the company, it did $6.4mm, $10mm, and then $15mm in revenue. million, $0.9

IPO 60

IPO Investment Bankers Demand Revenue 60

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 5, 2009

And so the spreadsheet is built with conservative assumptions, including a final revenue target. No matter how low we make the revenue projections for this new product, it’s extremely unlikely that they are achievable. In a startup context, numbers like gross revenue are actually vanity metrics, not actionable metrics.

San Francisco 102

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment Startup 102

Tim Keane

JANUARY 12, 2010

Next, they carefully consider the range of multiples being used today to value companies being acquired or doing IPOs in the market that the business is in.   In a bottom up approach, the forecast is built from actual user projections. times the investment.).   As an example, I have used an EBIT multiple [1].

Term Sheet 68

Term Sheet Valuation Dividend Liquidation Preference 68

Up and Running

MAY 1, 2014

Your business plan isn’t complete without a financial forecast. Deciding on your price can feel more like an art than a science, but there are some basic rules that you should follow: Your pricing should cover your costs. You can look at your costs and then mark up your offering from there. Sales Forecast. Read more ».

Business Plan 163

Business Plan Forecast Balance Sheet Distribution 163

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 2, 2018

As an investor myself, I look for a balanced story focused on the major elements that drive profitability, including the following: A 5-year financial forecast achieving a positive cash flow early. They are looking for solutions that will reduce their costs by 20%, or double productivity, or cut traffic accidents by a third.

Intellectual Property 48

Intellectual Property Initial Public Offering Merger Acquisition 48

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 13, 2020

In that context, I offer the following financial projection strategies, from my own experience: Forecast a business that has plenty of room to grow quickly. Find some credible opportunity statistics that can support your own revenue expectations of between $20 million and $100 million in the fifth year.

Liquidity Event 308

Liquidity Event Forecast Exit Strategy Bootstrapping 308

Up and Running

APRIL 28, 2015

Slide 5: Revenue model. Investors will expect to see your sales forecast, profit and loss statement, and cash flow forecast for at least three years. Having an IPO and going public is a viable option for some high-growth startups, while other businesses are more likely to be bought by larger players in your market.

Forecast 60

Forecast Hockey Stick Exit Strategy Intellectual Property 60

Steve Blank

AUGUST 27, 2009

Yet we used the product development model not only to manage product development, but as a road map for finding customers and to time our marketing launch and sales revenue plan. If it’s a new division inside a larger company, forecasts talk about return on investment. We had no clue what our market was when we first started.

Silicon Valley 269

Silicon Valley Product Startup Product Development 269

Seeing Both Sides

AUGUST 3, 2012

With over $1 billion in revenue, 2000 employees and a market capitalization of over $6 billion, Akamai has become a role model for scalable start-ups. In 2012, analysts forecast the company will achieve nearly $1.5 billion in revenue, over $1 billion in gross profit and $500 million in EBITDA. Gross Profit. $(60). Market Cap.

Distribution 49

Distribution Lean Massachusetts Cofounder 49

crowdSPRING Blog

MARCH 28, 2013

Lessons Learned from Bill Gross’ 35 IPOs/Exits and 40 Failures – [link]. Revenue Traction Doesn’t Mean Product Market Fit – [link]. Forecasting Fox | NYTimes – [link]. Interesting look at the benefits & costs of delayed marriage in U.S. Penney | The New Yorker – [link].

Social Media 107

Social Media Small Business Design Media 107

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 30, 2016

Many had started IPO’ing and we started to think about our future. If you want to see what was on my mind – I started foreshadowing change publicly in October 2015 with a forecast of what I expected in 2016 VC funding markets at a presentation I gave at the annual Cendana VC/LP conference hosted by Michael Kim.

Balance Sheet 150

Balance Sheet Burn Rate Valuation Forecast 150

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 23, 2010

I’ve seen way too many startups spend all their energy getting channel deals done only to find out that they don’t produce ANY revenue. Sort of amortizing the costs of their sales reps over more products. The price points are not as high as your beautiful Excel spreadsheet had forecasted when you raised your seed capital.

Channel 293

Channel Startup Sales Partner 293

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 9, 2020

This was supposed to be Airbnb's biggest year by many measures, including its IPO, which was one of the most anticipated since the 2008 financial crisis. A complete collapse of revenue that simultaneously affects your employees and your customers, your partners, your investors, everyone all at once and all the news is bad.

Silicon Valley 60

Silicon Valley Hosting Cofounder Employee 60

Cracking the Code

SEPTEMBER 2, 2008

The Deutsche Bank report has a very interesting chart on the topic presenting the Free Cash Flow margins vs. the revenue growth four years post IPO for select software leaders: As you can see, with 20% Free Cash Flow margin and a 50% growth rate, Salesforce is well positioned in the pack! Tuesday, September 02, 2008. for Lawson?

Software Review 48

Software Review Software Technical Review Cloud 48

Ben's Blog

MAY 24, 2021

IPO market. There are a number of trends concerning IPOs and capital formation to note: First, the raw number of IPOs has declined significantly: From 1980-2000, the US averaged roughly 300 IPOs per year; from 2001-2016, the average fell to 108 per year. In the first quarter of 2021 alone, SPACs raised $87.9

SEC 36

SEC Accredited Investor IPO Technical Review 36