SoCal CTO

MAY 19, 2010

More likely, you'll be back for more money in less than 2 years, saying what everyone says: "it's taking longer than we thought" Investors won't believe your numbers anyway, so your over-sized hockey stick betrays your naiveté. I guess I’m wondering why early stage investment isn’t aiming at these kinds of investments?

Hockey Stick 205

Hockey Stick NPV IRR Valuation 205

Berkonomics

MARCH 21, 2019

Careful about “hockey stick” forecasts. It is also a factor that early stage investors don’t want a controlling interest in your company. Given your strong desire to keep controlling interest in the early stages of growth, the amount that can be raised must be lower than $2,000,000 in order to accomplish this goal.

Hockey Stick 63

Hockey Stick Liquidity Event Valuation Balance Sheet 63

Gust

NOVEMBER 29, 2011

Here’s what he says: It is well understood by entrepreneurs and VCs alike that the specific numbers an entrepreneur pitches when describing her early stage business are completely made up. Hockey stick sales forecasts are cool when they’re based on some justifiable logic. Well said. Otherwise, they just hurt credibility.

Hockey Stick 70

Hockey Stick Forecast Early Stage Finance 70

Rob Go

AUGUST 12, 2013

Call me old school, but I think the impact of quantitative approaches on early-stage investing is pretty over-rated and misunderstood. Data is important and helpful (more on that later) but will not be core to what makes VCs successful, especially when it comes to identifying and sourcing the best early stage investment opportunities.

Hockey Stick 69

Hockey Stick Early Stage Later Stage Portfolio 69

K9 Ventures

MAY 31, 2012

At the concept/seed stage, there isn’t a lot of concrete “stuff” (where stuff is a highly technical term) that early stage investors can look at to evaluate a company. At this stage the numbers are not compelling, but they’re starting to emerge and are trending in the right direction.

Hockey Stick 112

Hockey Stick Seed Stage Framework Early Stage 112

K9 Ventures

MAY 31, 2012

At the concept/seed stage, there isn’t a lot of concrete “stuff” (where stuff is a highly technical term) that early stage investors can look at to evaluate a company. At this stage the numbers are not compelling, but they’re starting to emerge and are trending in the right direction.

Hockey Stick 101

Hockey Stick Seed Stage Framework Early Stage 101

K9 Ventures

MARCH 2, 2017

Most VCs love that stuff they want to see that hockey-stick growth (For the record, I do not. The ability to think out of the box, be creative, to not take no for an answer, to bend the rules — all of that is necessary in the early stages of the company. Without it you wouldn’t get this far.

Hockey Stick 48

Hockey Stick Cofounder Founder Early Stage 48

Small Business Force

JUNE 29, 2013

Whether it's in the early stages of your business' life, or in order to grow your business beyond simply what you can generate from cash flow, at some point, you'll probably need to raise capital to better fund your business. However, there are more mistakes made in the funding process than almost any other aspect of a small business.

Hockey Stick 37

Hockey Stick Due Diligence Finder SEC 37

Professor VC

AUGUST 26, 2011

The objections range from "its hard", "nobody believes them" to "all hockey sticks look alike". I take CFO roles in early stage companies and participate on the management team during the early financings and business model development phases. The importance is what is behind the numbers. How do you think?

Silicon Valley 35

Silicon Valley San Jose Hockey Stick Venture Capital 35