Steve Blank

APRIL 26, 2022

For the common shareholders (employees, advisors, and previous investors), a cram down is a big middle finger, as it comes with reverse split – meaning your common shares are now worth 1/10th, 1/100th or even 1/1000th of their previous value. (A A cram down is different than a down round. Why do VCs Do This?

Cram Down 404

Cram Down Founder Venture Capital Recapitalization 404

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 5, 2011

2 preamble issues having read the comments on TC today: 1: I know that the prices of startup companies is much great in Silicon Valley than in smaller towns / less tech focused areas in the US and the US prices higher than many foreign markets. I can’t control the market. Private markets for stocks are the opposite.

Pre-Money Valuation 336

Pre-Money Valuation Valuation Silicon Valley Stock 336

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2014

by Michael Woolf that is worth any startup founder reading to get a sense of perspective on the reality warp that is startup world during a frothy market such as 1997-1999, 2005-2007 or 2012-2014. We’re going to start aggressively spend money on marketing our product. (it is also the title of a fabulous book from Internet 1.0

Burn Rate 383

Burn Rate Balance Sheet .Net Valuation 383

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 29, 2010

The A round was done in February 2000 (end of the bull market) and my B round was done in April 2001 (bear market). As a result I had to do a down round. Down rounds are psychologically really difficult on companies and can make it harder to do later rounds.

Venture Capital 282

Venture Capital Term Sheet Valuation Stock Options 282

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 6, 2023

Unreasonably high early valuations hurt the entrepreneurs, as well as professional investors, later when a second round becomes a down round or can’t be negotiated. Your options for funding just increased, or at least you have a new way to get some real market feedback on the demand for your solution.

Angel Groups 201

Angel Groups Accredited Investor Due Diligence Equity 201

Berkonomics

AUGUST 10, 2017

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 97

Silicon Valley Burn Rate Angel Investor Down Round 97

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 25, 2020

Unreasonably high early valuations hurt the entrepreneurs, as well as professional investors, later when a second round becomes a down round or can’t be negotiated. Your options for funding just increased, or at least you have a new way to get some real market feedback on the demand for your solution.

Equity 411

Equity Angel Groups Accredited Investor Due Diligence 411

ReadWriteStart

JUNE 1, 2020

The next reason is to establish a competitive advantage over your competition and quickly acquire a substantial market share. Let’s take an example – In the case of an internet or app business, the user traction and market penetration is a must. Establish a competitive advantage. Both of which are expensive and time-consuming.

Startup 150

Startup Entrepreneur Elevator Pitch Seed Stage 150

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 22, 2011

They have seen one side of a market where many of us have seen the ebb and flow multiple times. Still, market amnesia by ordinarily rational actors always surprises me. I believe a bubble occurs when a market is willing to pay greater than intrinsic value for an asset class. I spoke about a lot of things during the keynote.

Saudi Arabia 309

Saudi Arabia Valuation IPO Technical Review 309

Feld Thoughts

APRIL 21, 2016

Bill Gurley wrote an incredible post yesterday titled On the Road to Recap: Why the unicorn financing market just became dangerous … for all involved. Also, they have a strong belief that any sign of weakness (such as a down round) will have a catastrophic impact on their culture, hiring process, and ability to retain employees.

Marketing 70

Marketing Down Round Startup IRR 70

Ben's Blog

JULY 16, 2013

What about the efficient market hypothesis? Aren’t markets rational? If markets behave rationally, one might expect the ratio of price to earnings to be reasonably stable over the period (click here for complete data set). Because markets are not logical; markets are emotional. Yes, we did a down round.

Down Round 78

Down Round Marketing Preferred Stock Post-Money Valuation 78

VC Cafe

MAY 29, 2022

According to the State of Private Markets report by Carta it’s clear to see that the biggest impact of the current downturn is on the growth stages (post series A) and that seed remains stable (for now). Carta’s State of Private Markets Q1 2022. The bull market is over. . ‘doom and gloom’ headlines.

Venture Capital 183

Venture Capital Early Stage Valuation Startup 183

VC Cafe

OCTOBER 31, 2022

This is largely due to several major stock market crashes and global economic uncertainties. Many companies are now having to resort to tough measures in order to stay afloat, including layoffs, down rounds and tough terms from current investors. It’s an investors market. Funding crunch intensified in Q3 2022.

Founder 173

Founder Technical Review Down Round Liquidation Preference 173

Hunter Walker

AUGUST 8, 2023

At the time, this is last quarter and the stock market has trended upwards nicely since then (a potential leading indicator of private tech valuations), we all agreed venture portfolios were probably still 25-40% overvalued. Restructures, Down Rounds, and Pay to Plays. Soft Acquisition Market.

Portfolio 98

Portfolio Cap Table LP Valuation 98

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 30, 2018

VC firms see thousands of deals and have a refined sense of how the market is valuing deals because they get price signals across all of these deals. VCs hate “down rounds” and many don’t even like “flat rounds.” If a VC prices a flat or down round it means that management teams are often taking too much dilution.

Valuation 324

Valuation Post-Money Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Cofounder 324

thebarefootvc

AUGUST 26, 2015

After a tumultuous week in global markets, today the US stock market ended higher on the session. As a former investment banker who followed the markets closely once upon a time (especially when I was in the midst of public market M&A transactions), I now have the luxury of watching from an arm’s length.

Marketing 40

Marketing Investment Bankers Valuation China 40

thebarefootvc

AUGUST 26, 2015

After a tumultuous week in global markets, today the US stock market ended higher on the session. As a former investment banker who followed the markets closely once upon a time (especially when I was in the midst of public market M&A transactions), I now have the luxury of watching from an arm’s length.

Marketing 40

Marketing Investment Bankers Valuation China 40

thebarefootvc

JULY 26, 2015

After a tumultuous week in global markets, today the US stock market ended higher on the session. As a former investment banker who followed the markets closely once upon a time (especially when I was in the midst of public market M&A transactions), I now have the luxury of watching from an arm’s length.

Marketing 40

Marketing Investment Bankers Valuation China 40

YoungUpstarts

JUNE 26, 2020

To do that you have to show how your market is big enough (a multi-billion dollar market) to support that kind of valuation. Like Mark Zuckerberg, who built a site only for college students, we are looking for a small, protected market that you as an entrepreneur, can dominate. Why does it need to be a small market?

Finance 205

Finance Silicon Valley Valuation Startup 205

Ben's Blog

JULY 16, 2013

What about the efficient market hypothesis? Aren’t markets rational? If markets behave rationally, one might expect the ratio of price to earnings to be reasonably stable over the period (click here for complete data set). Because markets are not logical; markets are emotional. Yes, we did a down round.

Marketing 46

Marketing Preferred Stock Post-Money Valuation Down Round 46

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

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 18, 2014

Me: There is no rational explanation for valuations of A round companies by ANY objective financial measure. It’s simply what a market is willing to pay based on a future belief that your company will grow and non-linear rates and be worth much more in the future. A down round? Cashflow projections?

Venture Capital 417

Venture Capital Liquidation Preference Valuation Term Sheet 417

Lightspeed Venture Partners

OCTOBER 7, 2012

This isn’t a company yet, it’s an idea, and the founder could do a lot more on his own to validate product-market fit before raising capital. As Cuban pointed out, this is a “down round” Zomm is seeking $2M for 10% of the company, implying an $18M pre money valuation today. They were right to do so.

Technical Review 110

Technical Review Technical Cofounder Valuation Pre-Money Valuation 110

VC Cafe

JUNE 10, 2022

The market correction has come for series A and seed startups. For the past few week I’ve been sharing here the impact of the current downturn that started in the public markets on startups and venture capital. The market correction has come for Series A and seed startups (Source: Pitchbook ). How important are margins?

Valuation 151

Valuation Marketing Venture Capital 151

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 4, 2016

” There are a lot of data points that one can observer to get a sense of the venture capital markets – both LP fundings into venture and VC financings of startups. But these data points are often lagging indicators and perhaps a better barometer of the future would be to gather data on VC perceptions in the market right now.

LP 150

LP Valuation Burn Rate Pre-Money Valuation 150

Berkonomics

MARCH 5, 2020

One way to mitigate this is by using early money to create a prototype, to perform market research, to complete the first generation of the product, or to deliver the service to a satisfied customer. Second: Market risk. . Are you ahead or behind the market with your product or service? compete in the marketplace?

Valuation 62

Valuation Down Round Early Stage Demand 62

ithacaVC

FEBRUARY 23, 2012

Most of my stomach turning results from the fact that this exercise is purely about unrealized return values of purely non-liquid assets (unless of course there is an active secondary market for the stock – this applies to a few handfuls of VC backed companies). It is easy to tell your LPs that the valuations are conservative…

Valuation 49

Valuation Institutional Investors Marketing Down Round 49

VC Cafe

FEBRUARY 27, 2024

Seed is about showing initial product market fit. Below are just a few contributors to the rise of pre-seed in the current market: Explosion of Micro funds – In recent years, there’s been a steep increase in the number of micro funds, which are generally below $100M in size. who’s talking to customers?)

Valuation 186

Valuation Software Review Generative AI Technical Review 186

NZ Entrepreneur

SEPTEMBER 16, 2020

This means that even though founders invest many years of their life studying markets and building their companies, and even though experienced investors pour billions of dollars into startups every year, 90% of the bets are wrong. Other variables include major expenses of startups such as salaries, sales & marketing , etc.

Startup 69

Startup Sales Cycle Down Round Revenue 69

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 20, 2016

Unreasonably high early valuations hurt the entrepreneurs, as well as professional investors, later when a second round becomes a down round or can’t be negotiated. Your options for funding just increased, or at least you have a new way to get some real market feedback on the demand for your solution.

Angel Groups 136

Angel Groups Accredited Investor Equity Due Diligence 136

The Equity Kicker

JANUARY 22, 2014

You rush a few key hires, overbuild the team, ramp marketing spend. A few quarters in, you realize that product/market fit is not quite there, or you’re not as far up the sales learning curve as you thought, or your LTV/CAC is suddenly in the toilet. To meet growth and revenue targets, you hire and spend like never before.

Venture Capital 102

Venture Capital Down Round Valuation Lean 102

ithacaVC

FEBRUARY 1, 2018

Or the economy tanks or stock market tanks moving valuations down at inopportune times for the startup. So, the best thing for FFAs is to continue to invest, particularly in down rounds (where the price per share is lower than previous round). Startups often get stuck, restart, pivot/change/move, etc.,

Preemptive Right 45

Preemptive Right Cap Table Valuation Dilution 45

Berkonomics

MARCH 14, 2019

One way to mitigate this is by using early money to create a prototype, to perform market research, to complete the first generation of the product, or to deliver the service to a satisfied customer. Second: Market risk. . Email readers, continue here…] Are you ahead or behind the market with your product or service?

Valuation 48

Valuation Down Round Early Stage Demand 48

ithacaVC

NOVEMBER 14, 2014

A founder is about to raise their first round and asking me how to value their company. [1]. You evaluate the team, product, market and other variables – then, make a general guess. Market size. A big market determines the upside potential. Don’t risk a down round. Accelerator.

Valuation 69

Valuation Startup Down Round Early Stage 69

The Equity Kicker

NOVEMBER 20, 2015

A lot depends on what happens next in the public markets, particularly with the Fed preparing to raise interest rates, but I think there’s grounds for hoping that investors in late stage private companies will have a reaction, but won’t hit the panic button.

IPO 60

IPO Matching Ratchet Valuation 60

This is going to be BIG.

JANUARY 17, 2016

The public markets have been stumbling around lately, trying to figure out what China and oil prices mean for the rest of the world economy. Fear, not surprisingly, weighs markets down. They might have to get another round in, and that round will most certainly be a down round.

Dilution 60

Dilution Portfolio China Down Round 60

The Equity Kicker

JANUARY 25, 2016

On Friday it seemed like everyone in the venture capital industry was again reading about market turmoil, this time the news is that angel investors are pulling back and valuations taking a hit. In the ecommerce and marketplace markets Forward Partners operates in growth is limited because business has to scale country by country.

Venture Capital 60

Venture Capital Angel Investor Startup Participating Preferred 60