ReadWriteStart

JULY 18, 2011

Kedrosky: "In the 90's I was an analyst through all this [tech investment and IPO] madness. You want to build your own IPO and exit. Every company has a forecast for how it will get to an arbitrary $100 million in revenue and they all hit it on year five. That will come at the cost of another 20 to 25% of the company.

Investment Bankers 153

Investment Bankers Technical Review Cofounder Due Diligence 153

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

JULY 23, 2013

Marketo filed for IPO with impressive 80% year-over-year growth in 2012, with almost $60m in revenue. of revenue, force-feeding sales pipelines with an unprofitable product. I know the argument: The pay-back period on sales, marketing, and up-start costs is long, but there’s a profitable result at the end of the tunnel.

Business Model 335

Business Model .Net Revenue IPO 335

Agile VC

JUNE 5, 2011

So Groupon obviously filed their S-1 the other day to formally being the IPO process. They’ve grown from nothing to >$2B in revenue in 30 months time, making the company among the fastest growing businesses in the histroy of the world. Financial Snapshot: 2010 Revenue: $713M. in net revenue and passes $0.58

North America 100

North America Chicago Boston Silicon Valley 100

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 14, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Tuesday, April 14, 2009 Validated learning about customers Would you rather have $30,000 or $1 million in revenues for your startup? All things being equal, of course, you’d rather have more revenue rather than less. And yet revenue alone is not a sufficient goal. More on that in a moment.

Customer 167

Customer San Francisco Lean Hockey Stick 167

Ben's Blog

OCTOBER 29, 2020

Since then, the debate over IPOs has continued, with a particular focus on allegedly underpriced offerings that jump shortly after opening — the dreaded “pop.” ” As some criticism has it, this supposedly deprives companies of millions of dollars that should have been theirs if not for underpricing the IPO.

IPO 36

IPO Securities and Exchange Commission Demand SEC 36

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 15, 2008

My belief is that these lean startups will achieve dramatically lower development costs, faster time to market, and higher quality products in the years to come. Startup Visa update ► February (5) Kiwi lean startup + Australia next Why diversity matters (the meritocracy business) Beware of Vanity Metrics (for Harvard Business Rev.

Lean 168

Lean San Francisco Startup Continuous Deployment 168

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 13, 2012

In fact, a business plan is needed more by you than investors, as the blueprint for your company, team communication, and progress metrics. 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.

Business Plan 283

Business Plan Sweat Equity Exit Strategy Intellectual Property 283

ConversionXL

AUGUST 13, 2019

SaaS sales and marketing teams can get overwhelmed by metrics. But without any metrics, it’s impossible to track growth. If growth is the best way to get out alive, marketing metrics do little unless they correlate with sales. But only 400 software companies have made it to the $500M revenue mark.

Metrics 117

Metrics SQL Retention Churn Rate 117

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 13, 2011

In fact, a business plan is needed more by you than investors, as the blueprint for your company, team communication, and progress metrics. 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.

Business Plan 290

Business Plan Sweat Equity Exit Strategy Intellectual Property 290

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 18, 2014

There were no metrics. Him: On metrics. Revenue multiple? If we priced it based on any metrics your company would likely be worth less than 7 figures at your A round. There are a million ways to do quick, easy, low-cost rounds with prices. Maybe an IPO – who knows? So a convertible note was easier.

Venture Capital 417

Venture Capital Liquidation Preference Valuation Term Sheet 417

Cracking the Code

NOVEMBER 10, 2009

While poised with a limited number of transactions this year, the world of public Cloud Computing and SaaS companies has been marked by two events in the past few months: the acquisition of Omniture by Adobe and the high profile IPO of LogMeIn, a leading provider of PC remote access and support with a very interesting freemium model.

Software Review 48

Software Review Technical Review IPO Cloud 48

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

The Equity Kicker

OCTOBER 8, 2012

According to Paul most startups should look at revenue growth, but active users is a good proxy for companies that aren’t charging their customers (yet). Growth is the main driver of value in our companies and it is what makes them exciting to IPO investors and acquirers. I disagree that growth should be the sole focus though.

Silicon Valley 149

Silicon Valley IPO eCommerce Valuation 149

Gust

AUGUST 5, 2012

In fact, a business plan is needed more by you than investors, as the blueprint for your company, team communication, and progress metrics. 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.

Business Plan 182

Business Plan Sweat Equity Exit Strategy Intellectual Property 182

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 24, 2017

— Unremarked and unheralded, the balance of power between startup CEOs and their investors has radically changed: IPOs/M&A without a profit (or at times revenue) have become the norm. In the 20th century tech companies and their investors made money through an Initial Public Offering (IPO).

Founder 274

Founder Technical Review CTO Hire IPO 274

K9 Ventures

APRIL 9, 2014

Threshold for an IPO is higher Ten years ago, if you had $20M in revenue you were ready to go public. If you have <$100M in revenue, you’re probably going to stay private. Hiring costs are up dramatically The cost of hiring top quality talent in the bay area has gone up dramatically.

Mezzanine 134

Mezzanine Seed Stage Early Stage IPO 134

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 22, 2010

In fact, a business plan is needed more by you than investors, as the blueprint for your company, team communication, and progress metrics. 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.

Business Plan 186

Business Plan Exit Strategy Sweat Equity Intellectual Property 186

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 24, 2009

As the costs of production fall, it’s getting easier and easier to send in a proposal or even a complete work. Despite all the energy invested in talking to authors about the size of their platform, very few gatekeepers have a rigorous set of metrics for measuring it. What is the right revenue model? Is that a lot?

San Francisco 113

San Francisco Lean Technical Review Distribution 113

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. While the Salary.com numbers are strong ( read the S-1 here), they are not close to those metrics. million, $0.9 million and $1.8

IPO 60

IPO Investment Bankers Demand Revenue 60

Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 20, 2009

If you can start getting ROI on a feature in month one of a twelve month project versus waiting until the end, youve comparatively reduced the cost of development by the revenue generated by that feature over 11 months. Small batches also help deliver value earlier in the project. February 25, 2009 8:12 PM Anonymoussaid.

San Francisco 161

San Francisco Software Review Continuous Deployment Development Team Review 161

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 15, 2009

Who will ultimately bear the cost of their mistakes? There are a whole range of valid reasons why non-developers would want to dictate the production release schedule (Seasonal/timing issues, marketing, fulfillment concerns, documentation/training, revenue controls, legal/regulatory. How severely is failure punished?

Continuous Deployment 167

Continuous Deployment Software Review San Francisco Lean 167

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. So, after having built a working business model with a bottom up projection, let’s assume the five year number in this example is $91MM in revenue. times the investment.).

Term Sheet 68

Term Sheet Valuation Dividend Liquidation Preference 68

K9 Ventures

OCTOBER 10, 2017

If the Micro-VCs are looking for Series A-like metrics, what does a company do when it’s just getting started? Yes, the infrastructure is cheap (to start), but the human costs have gone up dramatically. Seed is the new Series A. (~$2M used get for building product, establishing product-market fit and early revenue).

Seed Stage 82

Seed Stage Finance Later Stage Equity 82

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 23, 2012

Cloud computing and the open source movements have brought down the costs of starting a company by more than 90%. They need a combination of capital and experience to separate from the rest of the pack – the low cost of starting a business means it is even more vital to become the market leader more quickly. The Exit Problem.

Venture Capital 347

Venture Capital Technical Review LP Mobile 347

Gust

SEPTEMBER 17, 2014

There were no metrics. Him: On metrics. Revenue multiple? If we priced it based on any metrics your company would likely be worth less than 7 figures at your A round. There are a million ways to do quick, easy, low-cost rounds with prices. Maybe an IPO – who knows? So a convertible note was easier.

Liquidation Preference 153

Liquidation Preference Valuation Term Sheet Stock 153

Startup Lessons Learned

NOVEMBER 8, 2008

There are three fundamental situations that change what your company needs to do: creating a new market (the original Palm), bringing a new product to an existing market (Handspring), and resegmenting an existing market (niche, like In-n-Out Burger; or low-cost, like Southwest Airlines). Startup Lessons Learned - the Conference (April 23.

Customer Development 168

Customer Development Developer San Francisco Customer 168

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 2, 2018

They are looking for solutions that will reduce their costs by 20%, or double productivity, or cut traffic accidents by a third. You need some innovative new approaches, including digital marketing, as well as metrics to measure effectiveness. Shows positive value for both the customer and the business.

Intellectual Property 48

Intellectual Property Initial Public Offering Merger Acquisition 48

Growthink Blog

MAY 23, 2011

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. Technical progress and market traction are much slower and cost a lot more than anticipated. It is driven by the following: • The Best Metric for the Health of a Company is Cash Flow.

Angel Investor 112

Angel Investor Venture Capital Sweat Equity Cram Down 112

Up and Running

MAY 1, 2014

Milestones and Metrics. 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. Milestones and Metrics. Read more ». Marketing and Sales Plan.

Business Plan 163

Business Plan Forecast Balance Sheet Distribution 163

reidhoffman.org

NOVEMBER 12, 2013

we had no revenue. As a result, we knew that our pitch would need to steer into investors’ biggest concern: the lack of revenue. Instead, our strategy was to steer immediately into the revenue question because that was the top concern of investors in 2004. We made the mistake of listing three different revenue streams.

Entrepreneur 111

Entrepreneur Revenue Viral Networking 111

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 27, 2009

These are companies that generate revenue by offering a free product with an upsell or premium version. Here the key is for your free customers to get value from the site that is greater than the costs they perceive by the fact that youre selling access to them. Is it that they act as free advertising for our premium product?

San Francisco 148

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 148

Ben's Blog

MARCH 24, 2011

To find out whether or not today’s public technology companies have hit bubble valuations, let’s compare some companies that survived the great bubble with their bubble era valuations: The Enterprise Value-to-Revenue multiple (EV/Rev) and Price-to-Earnings multiple (PE) are commonly used metrics to tell the valuation:value story.

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Venture Capital Valuation Database 78

abovethecrowd.com

APRIL 20, 2016

The pressures of lofty paper valuations, massive burn rates (and the subsequent need for more cash), and unprecedented low levels of IPOs and M&A, have created a complex and unique circumstance which many Unicorn CEOs and investors are ill-prepared to navigate. In Q1 of 2016 there were zero VC-backed technology IPOs.

IPO 40

IPO Term Sheet Silicon Valley Valuation 40

Cracking the Code

MAY 25, 2010

A few highlights from the different keynotes and speakers On top of Jason, we also had the chance of having many great speakers at the event and here are a few quotes and notes that I have taken during the different keynotes and panels: Joe Payne, CEO of Eloqua moderated the panel on Revenue Performance Management. ipo process.

Software Review 74

Software Review Cloud IPO Jordan 74

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 27, 2009

While some cost-cutting measures reduce that number, others increase it. In lean times, it’s most important to focus on cutting costs in ways that speed you up, not slow you down. Otherwise, cutting costs just leads to going out of business a little slower. No departments The Five Whys for Startups (for Harvard Business R.

San Francisco 117

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 117

Duct Tape Marketing

SEPTEMBER 10, 2019

And I’m guessing one of them certainly is a lot of, “What’s the revenue? So what’s your top-line revenue? The more revenue you have, the more valuable your company is going to be, generally. The more revenue you have, the more valuable your company is going to be, generally. Here’s why.

Entrepreneur 48

Entrepreneur Switzerland Revenue Differentiation 48

ConversionXL

JUNE 2, 2022

How do you sustain growth that precedes the highest IPO in history for a software company? Results from Snowflake’s ABM efforts post-IPO. Granular tracking of the right metrics helped sales reps prioritize prospects soon after receiving their watch. Keep doing what works. For cloud-based data warehouse Snowflake , that was ABM.

Marketing 105

Marketing Campaign Artificial Inteligence Sales Cycle 105