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.

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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.

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IPO Securities and Exchange Commission Demand SEC 36

Agile VC

MAY 16, 2019

I have friends who are execs or shareholders of the company, but I have no stake in Slack nor intent to invest in the IPO. A somewhat unique thing about the Slack IPO is that they’re pursuing a direct listing on the NYSE. But it does mean that traditional 180 day lock-up periods won’t generally apply to existing Slack shareholders.

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Lock-up Period Retention Azure .Net 100

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.

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Metrics SQL Retention Churn Rate 117

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2013

A cautious person wouldn’t try to pry people out of Twitter right before their IPO to” join my cause!!” Good press and industry mojo wasn’t enough to overcome the financial metrics of the business and the offers came in at more like $10 million. It was not. I wasn’t surprised. We decided not to sell.

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Startup Dilution San Diego Stock Options 417

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).

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Founder Technical Review CTO Hire IPO 269

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. Less than you’ll probably grant your most junior employees in stock options? Maybe an IPO – who knows? Your A round? Objectively.

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Venture Capital Liquidation Preference Valuation Term Sheet 417

Rob Go

APRIL 13, 2015

When Kayak went public, the company had one of the highest revenue/employee ratios of any business. Lending Club: IPO Market Cap: $8.4B, Revenue: $98M (2013), Employees: 628 (2014), Rev / Employee: $156K. Zulily: IPO Market Cap: $2.6B, Revenue: $331M (2012), Employees: 886 (2013), Rev / Employee: $374K.

Technology 28

Technology IPO Boston Cofounder 28

Startup Lessons Learned

NOVEMBER 8, 2008

I bought a bunch of copies, gave them out to my co-founders and early employees, and then expected the whole companys behavior would radically change the next day. I bought a bunch of copies, gave them out to my co-founders and early employees, and then expected the whole companys behavior would radically change the next day."

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Customer Development Developer San Francisco Customer 168

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.).

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Term Sheet Valuation Dividend Liquidation Preference 68

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 17, 2022

Pick a single metric that is the focus for all growth. Today’s world is full of metrics leading to business growth, including customer logins, revenue per customer, retention, and average solution price. Revenue and competitive position followed. Maximize employee engagement by fitting roles to strengths.

Startup 361

Startup Social Media India Acquisition 361

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. Less than you’ll probably grant your most junior employees in stock options? Maybe an IPO – who knows? So a convertible note was easier.

Liquidation Preference 153

Liquidation Preference Valuation Term Sheet Stock 153

Mucker Lab

APRIL 6, 2023

If you work in B2C or e-commerce, you optimize that Add to Cart flow like crazy because that is your revenue. You still have a revenue goal to hit this quarter, something like that. That would happen when a company had some employees using GitLab in their prior job or for a personal project. That’s a PLG motion, right?

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Product CTO Hire Startup Fractional CTO 78

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 2, 2018

At the other extreme, I don’t condone greedy and unethical business practices to unjustly shake down customers and employees alike. You need some innovative new approaches, including digital marketing, as well as metrics to measure effectiveness. Ends with a winning legacy for customers and investors.

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Intellectual Property Initial Public Offering Merger Acquisition 48

Feld Thoughts

SEPTEMBER 9, 2015

Some will demonstrate strategically justifiable metrics and have fantastic ‘up round’ exits; others may see liquidation preferences kick in which will negatively impact founders and employees; others may fulfill the adage “IPO is the new down round” , which has been the case for more than half of the public companies on our list.

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Liquidation Preference Burn Rate Balance Sheet .Net 70

Gust

NOVEMBER 4, 2011

This discussion expands on my Quora answer to a specific question: “ Why were the stock options of MySpace employees worthless even though the company was sold to News Corporation for hundreds of millions? ” The complete story includes a startup-within-a-startup, investments and exits by two VC firms, and some genuine corporate drama.

Valuation 98

Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Merger Vesting 98

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 30, 2008

Not just about expenses, about increasing revenue. Make sure for planned revenues you have "leading indicators" to know if you will hit it. Over-communicate with employees, investors, customers. This can take the form of a traditional sales pipeline or a registration-activation-revenue chart. Offer equity instead of cash.

Lean 121

Lean San Francisco Continuous Deployment DC 121

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

Up and Running

MAY 1, 2014

Milestones and Metrics. You’ll end up with a long, generic statement about how your company is serving its customers, employees, etc. The company history section can provide new employees with background on the company so that they have better context for the work that they are doing and where the company has come from over the years.

Business Plan 163

Business Plan Forecast Balance Sheet Distribution 163

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 15, 2019

Pick a single metric that is the focus for all growth. Today’s world is full of metrics leading to business growth, including customer logins, revenue per customer, retention, and average solution price. Revenue and competitive position followed. Maximize employee engagement by fitting roles to strengths.

Social Media 218

Social Media India Acquisition China 218

abovethecrowd.com

APRIL 20, 2016

All Unicorn participants — founders, company employees, venture investors and their limited partners (LPs) — are seeing their fortunes put at risk from the very nature of the Unicorn phenomenon itself. A high performing, high-growth SAAS company that may have been worth 10 or more times revenue was suddenly worth 4-7 times revenue.

IPO 40

IPO Term Sheet Silicon Valley Valuation 40

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 14, 2017

Pick a single metric that is the focus for all growth. Today’s world is full of metrics leading to business growth, including customer logins, revenue per customer, retention, and average solution price. Revenue and competitive position followed. Maximize employee engagement by fitting roles to strengths.

Social Media 163

Social Media India Acquisition China 163

YoungUpstarts

MAY 5, 2017

The company’s ascension, chronicled in “ Becoming Facebook “ , is a business adventure of unprecedented growth, game-changing acquisitions, recovery from a chaotic IPO and a continuing defense against foes large and small. Decide On, and Obsess About, Your North Star Metric. Above all, that climb was no accident.

Silicon Valley 150

Silicon Valley IPO Metrics Global 150

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 9, 2009

We were focused on revenue, but we didnt understand that revenue is not important for its own sake in an early stage company. Almost all of them got scooped up by pre-IPO Google this time. That year, right before the IPO, those months mattered a great deal in terms of financial outcomes.

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San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 94

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 2, 2009

For example, I often cite a real example of a problem that has as its root cause a new employee who was not properly trained. I pick that example on purpose, for two reasons: 1) most of the companies I work with deal with this problem and yet 2) almost none of them have any kind of training program in place for new employees.

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San Francisco Lean Technical Review Software Review 164

VC Cafe

AUGUST 3, 2023

Whether it’s gaming, commerce/ DTC or creator economy, there are many Israeli startups selling at over $10M and even $100M in annual revenue. Many exited or IPO’d (and subsequently lost much of their value in the recent downturn), but new success stories have also emerged. Surpassed the $100M revenue mark in 2022.

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B2C Generative AI Artificial Inteligence 148

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 9, 2020

He also has strongly held ideas about structuring a company to institutionalize these intentions to make sure the next leader, future employees, and the next board will be true to that philosophy. 47:49) Brian on the letter he wrote to employees to announce the layoffs and the response to it. (50:17) 6,000, 7,000 employees.

Silicon Valley 60

Silicon Valley Hosting Cofounder Employee 60

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 1, 2009

LIKED: Y startups fail, cont deployment vs waterfall vs agile, small batches & learn fr biz metrics #leanstartup As concise a summary as Ive ever seen. I covered a few of them on twitter already: Q: "Do you reccomend removing features that youve launched but dont movethe needle on engagement or revenue?" A: yes, absolutely.

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Lean San Francisco Startup Continuous Deployment 60

Austin Startup

MAY 19, 2018

If we think you may be cutting a sizable check and joining the board, we are evaluating you as a potential employee of our company. If you have some common friends, feel free to ask around about them, but if you want to talk to former employees, colleagues or other investors, don’t until you are fully committed. That’s awesome.

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Founder Early Stage Software Review Deal Flow 75

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 49

Entrepreneur Switzerland Revenue Differentiation 49

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 27, 2009

To increase the number of iterations you have left, you can either increase cash on hand (by raising money or increasing revenues), reduce burn rate, or increase the speed of each iteration. The key is to be able to refute as many major hypotheses as you can. Were talking PayPal -sized variations. Join the Lean Startup discussion at Web 2.0

San Francisco 117

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 117

Reid Hoffman

JUNE 8, 2021

Airbnb was preparing for an IPO right when the pandemic hit, and everything changed in a matter of days. The burden [should] just be that we care; that if we learn something, we improve it, and that we don’t only use single output metrics and its growth at all costs. Obviously, the challenges of 2020 were next level. BC: Exactly, Reid.

Silicon Valley 69

Silicon Valley Hosting Rhode Island Design 69

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 1, 2009

Not even if its generating revenue. The videos are Steve explaining the company's path forward to Next employees. ► August (2) SXSW Case Study: SlideShare goes freemium ► July (4) Case Study: kaChing, Anatomy of a Pivot Some IPO speculation Founder personalities and the “first-class man&# th.

San Francisco 166

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 166

Austin Startup

OCTOBER 6, 2018

To prepare for our IPO at Bazaarvoice, I leveraged three additional coaches?—?one investors, employees, clients, and partners. All metrics were revealed. For example, we recently hired Ryan Cush as our Chief Revenue Officer and he has been a game-changer for us. It is easy to get defocused as a young company.

Founder 51

Founder Cofounder Software Review San Francisco 51

Reid Hoffman

JUNE 8, 2021

Airbnb was preparing for an IPO right when the pandemic hit, and everything changed in a matter of days. The burden [should] just be that we care; that if we learn something, we improve it, and that we don’t only use single output metrics and its growth at all costs. Obviously, the challenges of 2020 were next level. BC: Exactly, Reid.

Silicon Valley 36

Silicon Valley Hosting Rhode Island Design 36

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! SaaS business metrics: why are they different?

Software Review 48

Software Review Software Technical Review Cloud 48

Cracking the Code

FEBRUARY 4, 2008

2007 was a turning point for the SaaS industry with the successful IPOs of NetSuite, SuccessFactors, DemandTec, Salary.com, Aprimo and Constant Contact. This introduction was also the opportunity to illustrate the amazing growth of our software and saas portfolio in the past years, with aggregated revenues reaching $1.2B

Software Review 48

Software Review South Korea IPO Portfolio 48