Steve Blank

MARCH 17, 2020

If you’re an early stage company, that number may be zero. What are the new financial metrics? If it’s just three-months, (looking more unlikely by the day) then an immediate freeze on variable spending (hires, marketing, travel, etc.) If you’re making more money than you’re spending, you have positive cash flow.

Burn Rate 436

Burn Rate Startup Valuation Sales Cycle 436

Feld Thoughts

NOVEMBER 18, 2013

Following is his advice to early stage entrepreneurs for creating structure in their company. One of the key benefits of doing this early on is that when it comes time to raise that next round, the people you’ll need the most help from are already involved and engaged. It’s too early for that s**t.

Burn Rate 152

Burn Rate Equity Software Review Early Stage 152

David Teten

SEPTEMBER 23, 2017

An investor had few hard metrics other than the actual financials, and little technology to make the process scaleable. Over the past few decades, better metrics became available, and investors could take a more analytical, data-driven approach. ” Historically, investing was a manual, artisan process.

Private Equity 60

Private Equity Venture Capital Equity Technical Review 60

Up and Running

JULY 14, 2015

An early stage startup will want to access funds to help further validate its business proposition. Any investor will put their valuation on your business based on a number of factors, including looking at important metrics for your business, patents, or assets. The urge to spend. Should you ever raise more than you need?

Technical Review 60

Technical Review Valuation Due Diligence Finder 60

K9 Ventures

JUNE 5, 2015

Low supply of companies with traction drove the valuations and deal sizes up. Seed stage was super tough. In addition, the competition for and the cost of hiring people, especially in the San Francisco Bay Area, has gone up dramatically. Valuations are rising to match. more traction means it takes longer. The Epilogue.

Seed Stage 48

Seed Stage Venture Capital Early Stage Valuation 48

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

DECEMBER 16, 2014

What does it actually mean that metric X is better than average and metric Y is below? “It’s not fair,” we all said to ourselves. That was before WhatsApp sold for 19 billion dollars, with 55 employees. Measuring yourself against the average or median isn’t much better.

Metrics 246

Metrics Early Stage Retention Revenue 246

A Crowded Space

SEPTEMBER 15, 2017

—— Apply here: [link] —— Jackson Square Ventures is a focused, early-stage VC firm in San Francisco. JSV is focused on leading deals in SaaS and marketplace companies in the 5-30M valuation range. We invest with very high conviction and take active roles with all of our portfolio companies.

Hiring 60

Hiring San Francisco Angel Investor Early Stage 60

500hats.com

AUGUST 2, 2012

However after Sequoia and Ron Conway announced their investment in YC in 2009 , and after YC alumni DropBox and AirBnb raised capital on billion-dollar valuations in 2010-11, the program quickly became the gold standard among early-stage startup incubators. and no, we didn’t. Isn’t this just a lack of focus?

Silicon Valley 74

Silicon Valley Early Stage Venture Capital Valuation 74

Reid Hoffman

MARCH 23, 2021

If they’re the kind of infinite learner who uses their past experiences to make their decision-making better, they have a huge advantage when it comes to everything from hiring to strategy to sales, making them an even better bet the second time around. The metrics from the dashboard are the key inputs for collective decisions.

Venture Capital 50

Venture Capital Metrics Investment Bankers Framework 50

Up and Running

JULY 22, 2019

A telling success factor for new businesses looking to make an impact in their industries is whether they can attract investment at an early stage of development. . More specifically, companies are able to see notable success when they allow investors to engage early on. Start early.

Canada 78

Canada Early Stage Valuation Finance 78

K9 Ventures

APRIL 9, 2014

Massive late stage rounds The late stage (Series B and Series C) investors are hunting for breakout companies that have serious traction. The low supply and high demand is driving up the valuations and deal sizes. 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

David Teten

DECEMBER 3, 2019

Data companies focused on early-stage startups include Aingel , fundsUP , Preseries , PredictLeads , and Sploda. Lean Case provides standard business models & metrics, so you can apply a standard approach to business planning, modeling, and profitability tracking. If you have one, please contact me. 7) Negotiate .

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Software Review Analytics Private Equity 78

This is going to be BIG.

MARCH 23, 2015

So whereas seed rounds five years ago may have been less than a million dollars on a pre-money valuation of three or four million, today''s seed is up and over a million and usually closer to two million, with post money valuations nearing $10 million. You''re ending up at a post-money valuation of $10mm versus $5mm.

Post-Money Valuation 60

Post-Money Valuation Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Seed Money 60

www.forentrepreneurs.com

FEBRUARY 2, 2010

Business model viability, in the majority of startups, will come down to balancing two variables: Cost to Acquire Customers (CAC) The ability to monetize those customers, or LTV (which stands for Lifetime Value of a Customer) Successful web businesses have long understood these metrics as they have such an easy way to measure them.

Acquisition 103

Acquisition Cost Customer Entrepreneur 103

Austin Startup

SEPTEMBER 19, 2017

A strong advisor can walk you in the door to the same number of companies as 2–3 new sales hires. The more disruptive an idea, the harder it is the evaluate at an early stage. You might consider starting with an offer to invest at a low valuation before discussing sweat equity. Never discount the power of a warm intro.

Advisory Board 48

Advisory Board Sweat Equity Marketing Vertical 48

VC Cafe

JANUARY 14, 2022

I commented on this to Israel21c in the early days of the tre nd. Many of the companies that went public via SPACs saw their valuations dramatically reduce in the months that followed post IPO. Plenty of fresh powder in the market across stages. Several other hires are underway for the local office.

Technical Review 158

Technical Review Lock-up Period South Korea 158

trada.com

APRIL 7, 2010

He noted that Chris Dixon ( @cdixon ) of Hunch tweeted, “New early-stage start up trend: get big quietly, so you don’t tip off potential competitors.&# Once you’re doing this you’re not optimizing your own strategy anymore, you’re optimizing against the market’s current valuation of the strategies it sees.

Stealth 40

Stealth PPC Advertising Conversion 40

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 26, 2020

What most founders don’t realize is: Every stage of a startup requires a different set of metrics and milestones and founder skills. For startups the early stage funding landscape looks like this: Step 1: The Pre-seed round – you raise $100-$750K. What is some of the critical metrics that matter? 2M in 18 months.

Cofounder 431

Cofounder Seed Stage Valuation Metrics 431

Austin Startup

MAY 19, 2018

 —  @birsic So without further ado, here are my thoughts on some dos and don’ts for early stage investors. Disclose intentions early It’s not a big deal if you’re doing diligence on a competitor. The bottom line is that being a seed stage founder is mostly a very thankless job. Wonder why that is ??

Founder 75

Founder Early Stage Software Review Deal Flow 75

reidhoffman.org

NOVEMBER 12, 2013

Friendster’s valuation set the tone for the entire social networking space. For early stage companies, it’s important to show that you’re on path, that you have prospects, and that you can get to your vision. And show that you’re focused on the metrics that matter: revenue numbers, engagement traction, etc.

Entrepreneur 111

Entrepreneur Revenue Viral Networking 111

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 9, 2013

If you’re a venture-backed tech company or even an early-stage business fueled by angel or seed money I assume you have a good group of board members or advisors who will give you time to be helpful and they want to be helpful. Deal with company admin: 409a valuations, approve stock options, vote on key measures (15%).

Advisory Board 337

Advisory Board Valuation Stock Options Seed Money 337

Reid Hoffman

JANUARY 19, 2021

With his usual awesome first principles focus, my friend Reed Hastings has articulated that the fundamental responsibility of the board is to hire, fire, and compensate the CEO. For example, I frequently tell people that hiring a CEO is an activity that usually has–at best–a.500 You rarely can find that quality in a hired gun.

Startup 36

Startup Cofounder Advertising Hiring 36

abovethecrowd.com

APRIL 20, 2016

One key to this population growth has been the remarkable ease of the Unicorn fundraising process: Pick a new valuation well above your last one, put together a presentation deck, solicit offers, and watch the hundreds of million of dollars flow into your bank account. By January of 2016, that number had ballooned to 229.

IPO 40

IPO Term Sheet Silicon Valley Valuation 40

This is going to be BIG.

SEPTEMBER 7, 2012

There are a lot of people that artificially group together performance metrics for venture, and try to extrapolate successful stratagies from it. In the late 90's, it wasn't surprising that companies with no revenue that were funded at 100 million dollar valuations didn't survive. You can forget everything you've read everywhere else.

Later Stage 99

Later Stage Down Round Pre-Money Valuation Early Stage 99

Cracking the Code

OCTOBER 10, 2008

Only after reaching $1M in CMRR should you consider hiring European sales and services execs behind customer demand. Effectively measuring and understanding your CAC and CLTV metrics are key to future success. The traditional metric of Bookings would value Customer A at $120,000 and suggest Customer B is more valuable at $180,000.

Software Review 48

Software Review North America Europe Metrics 48

Up and Running

DECEMBER 9, 2014

Maybe you are wondering which metrics to track, or whether or not you should take out a loan for your business. Which metrics do you most rely on to understand your business itself. The question is what metrics do you most rely on to understand your business’s health? I can hire a development team. What do you do?

Small Business 95

Small Business Finance Forecast Metrics 95

Seeing Both Sides

JANUARY 13, 2015

Some VCs prefer investing at the earliest stages and then cycle off the board of directors. Others prefer to come in at the later stages, post product-market fit, and not have to deal with the risk and roller coaster of the early stages. The first version of the go to market team is hired (i.e., 10-50 million.

Mezzanine 20

Mezzanine IPO Finance Business Model 20

www.vccafe.com

MARCH 11, 2013

VC Cafe covers early stage Israeli and European tech & mobile startups. Startup Metrics for Pirates â?? SaaS Metrics Tutorial â?? find/hire freelancers. hire low-cost international engineering talent. VWorker -Â find/hire freelancers. Seed Stage Valuation Guide. valuations.

Software Review 53

Software Review Technical Review Startup 53