View from Seed

MARCH 24, 2021

In this comprehensive template and guide we break down each of the nine core sections in the deck: intro , team , what do you do , is it working , why does it matter (market) , can you be the best in the world (product, growth, financial metrics) , where are you going , what do you want (the ask) , and appendix. ” (Melody Koh).

Seed Stage 177

Seed Stage Hiring IPO Analytics 177

View from Seed

DECEMBER 4, 2019

At the time, I spent most of my time describing the metrics themselves and how VCs and their LPs evaluate performance based on these measurements. If you aren’t familiar with these metrics, I recommend reading the original post to get a sense of the numbers that I’ll be reviewing here. So, is this good or bad?

LP 256

LP IRR Distribution Portfolio 256

Agile VC

NOVEMBER 9, 2015

Square filed its S-1 several weeks ago and is now in the middle of its IPO road show process. This past Friday Square also filed an initial pricing range of $11-13/sh which would give them an enterprise value less than their last round of financing ($6B post-money). The post Square IPO: Is Square A Good Payments Business?

IPO 165

IPO .Net Revenue Acquisition 165

David Teten

JANUARY 19, 2021

This structure allows for alignment on the front end, and real-time flexibility for performance metrics,” says Samira Salman , a family office investor and advisor. . Flexible VCs have created structures based on other company performance metrics than revenues, such as profits or founder salaries. Flexible VC 102: Variations.

Cofounder 78

Cofounder Technical Review Equity Dividend 78

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 5, 2011

Early-stage investors in technology startups are only looking for growth-oriented companies that can achieve an “exit&# someday – either via selling your company to a larger company or via an IPO. That’s the deal you get when you’re raising in a good market for startup financing. That’s fine.

Pre-Money Valuation 336

Pre-Money Valuation Valuation Silicon Valley Stock 336

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 10, 2021

And the loosening of federal monetary policies, particularly in the US, has pushed more dollars into the venture ecosystems at every stage of financing. What Has Changed in Financing? even before the pandemic itself has been fully tamed. We have global opportunities from these trends but of course also big challenges.

Pre-Money Valuation 471

Pre-Money Valuation Valuation Venture Capital Early Stage 471

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 14, 2009

On top of all this it was considered very bad form not to have at least four additional consecutive quarters of profits after an IPO.) The IPO Bubble – August 1995 – March 2000 In August 1995 Netscape went public, and the world of start ups turned upside down. Tech acquisitions went crazy at the same time the IPO market did.

Silicon Valley 217

Silicon Valley IPO Technical Review Venture Capital 217

Cracking the Code

JULY 6, 2007

SaaS business metrics: why are they different? I was surprised today when I went through the NetSuite IPO filling (S1) to see that it looked very much like any Enterprise software document - not a single mention of churn or % of recurring revenues. Different models require different performance metrics. Friday, July 06, 2007.

Software Review 66

Software Review Metrics Valuation Technical Review 66

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 23, 2012

Yes, it’s true that FOMO (fear of missing out) is driving some irrational behavior and valuations amongst uber competitive deals and well-financed VCs. Try charging customers for your product when you have 12 competitors giving the product away free finances by $20 million of VC. The Exit Problem.

Venture Capital 347

Venture Capital Technical Review LP Mobile 347

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 4, 2021

It was one of the year's most successful IPOs so far, and has been heralded as a "landmark moment" for cryptocurrency's entrance into mainstream investing. Just before the IPO, I had a far-reaching conversation with co-founder and CEO Brian Armstrong as he approached this major milestone for the company he co-founded back in 2012.

IPO 113

IPO Cofounder Technical Review Government 113

Gust

JANUARY 31, 2013

Modern theories of economics and finance teach us that in a world of perfect information, the market will decide what a fair price is for any company’s stock at any point in time based on its current financial condition, results of past operations, analysts’ forecasts of future performance, industry conditions and so on.

SEC 158

SEC Prospectus United States Technical Review 158

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 18, 2014

It’s like we need a finance 101 course for entrepreneurs. There were no metrics. Him: On metrics. In finance they call it “terminal value” but the truth is the price is as arbitrary at your A round as it is at your seed round. Maybe an IPO – who knows? So a convertible note was easier.

Venture Capital 417

Venture Capital Liquidation Preference Valuation Term Sheet 417

abovethecrowd.com

APRIL 20, 2016

Why the Unicorn Financing Market Just Became Dangerous…For All Involved. 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.

IPO 40

IPO Term Sheet Silicon Valley Valuation 40

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. Plus, there’s all the other costs — R&D to build the stuff, office space, executive salaries, billing, legal, finance, HR, tech support, account managers. Except, they lost $35m. for every $1.00 Just wait! But: $1.5R

Business Model 335

Business Model .Net Revenue IPO 335

YoungUpstarts

APRIL 7, 2013

Startups are hungry for credit, but banks and other financial institutions have never been stricter with their financing parameters. They’re using metrics that are often unworkable in the current business environment, causing growing businesses to look elsewhere for capital and increasingly towards alternative forms of financing.

Advisory Board 249

Advisory Board Entrepreneur Portland Oregon 249

Cracking the Code

MAY 25, 2010

One of his secret: "Incentivize your marketing team on sales not leads" Jeff Jordan, CEO of OpenTable speaking about his IPO process: " Build relationships with key public investors 2-3 years before going public (Morgan Stanley, Fidelity and T. ipo process. SaaS business metrics: why are they different? Yahoo Finance.

Software Review 74

Software Review Cloud IPO Jordan 74

Feld Thoughts

DECEMBER 14, 2018

Examples would be “an acquisition” or “a financing” or “an IPO.” Then, I like to roll into metrics that create a floor on how the business will operate. .” While this is a high-level list of things not to do, it can be on multiple dimensions.

Acquisition 145

Acquisition IPO Metrics Finance 145

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

reidhoffman.org

NOVEMBER 12, 2013

You may happen to emphasize the right points that pique an investor’s interest, but you shouldn’t leave your financing up to chance. Second, understand the broader financing climate. There will be one to three issues that are potentially problematic for your financing — address them head on. What will their concerns be?

Entrepreneur 111

Entrepreneur Revenue Viral Networking 111

Ben's Blog

MARCH 24, 2011

Similarly, in recent high profile private financing rounds for private technology companies with valuations over $1B, the valuation multiples were at or below corresponding multiples for publicly traded companies such as Google. For example, the 1998 IPO class had average revenue of $120 million (and net losses of $65 million to boot).

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Venture Capital Valuation Database 78

K9 Ventures

OCTOBER 10, 2017

This post is intended to be a dynamic document, and I will attempt to update it from time to time with new questions that may arise or as financing trends evolve. Q: What amount of financing is considered Pre-Seed? It’s a legitimate stage of financing in the venture eco-system as of this writing (October 2017).

Seed Stage 82

Seed Stage Finance Later Stage Equity 82

Gust

SEPTEMBER 17, 2014

It’s like we need a finance 101 course for entrepreneurs. There were no metrics. Him: On metrics. In finance they call it “terminal value” but the truth is the price is as arbitrary at your A round as it is at your seed round. Maybe an IPO – who knows? I really just want to champion Finance 101 to entrepreneurs.

Liquidation Preference 153

Liquidation Preference Valuation Term Sheet Stock 153

Tim Keane

JANUARY 12, 2010

For angel groups, the distinction between groups and VCs on this issue is dwindling, especially as angel groups do bigger rounds of financing.   Note that this applies only to earl stage Series A-type equity financings and assumes no cash dividends are paid to investors. . times the investment.). here of 7.65 [2].

Term Sheet 68

Term Sheet Valuation Dividend Liquidation Preference 68

Haystack

DECEMBER 26, 2018

TechCrunch’s Kate Clark has done a round-up of the largest “private VC” rounds of 2018, and there’s a whole other list for just $100M+ financings led by Softbank’s Vision Fund. I am expecting a downturn at some point. Maybe it will be 2019, or 2020 — or even 2021. Money has been coming into the U.S.

IPO 76

IPO Private Equity Valuation Acquisition 76

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. What metrics should I be using to drive a saas business? or What do I need to do to get ready for an IPO. Save Asia for post-IPO. “Bookings” is for suckers.

Software Review 48

Software Review South Korea IPO Portfolio 48

Pascal's View

NOVEMBER 15, 2011

Dan Primack posted an article in Term Sheet last week titled Yelp This: IPO Market Is Killing It. Responding to these comments in a new post on Monday November 14, IPO Worries Put to the Test This Week , Dan reasserts “my belief that the death of small company IPOs has been greatly exaggerated.” jobs today.

IPO 31

IPO Term Sheet Marketing United States 31

Austin Startup

MAY 19, 2018

Don’t boomerang founders If you have specific metrics you look for in early stage companies. When I was fundraising if I heard “I’d like to invest when you get to $X in revenue” and their metrics weren’t disclosed up front, I often thought of the investors as chickens and I always heard it as a “no”. That’s awesome.

Founder 75

Founder Early Stage Software Review Deal Flow 75

Feld Thoughts

OCTOBER 30, 2014

In it, he talks about how he handles public company stocks that he ends up with either via an IPO or a sale of a company he’s involved in to a public company. He’d gotten a random note asking about his valuation when we invested relative to another financing that was just announced.

Valuation 143

Valuation Stock Angel Investor IPO 143

Cracking the Code

OCTOBER 10, 2008

Save Asia for post-IPO Single instance, multi-tenant, single datacenter - Have only one version of the code in production. Effectively measuring and understanding your CAC and CLTV metrics are key to future success. Only after reaching $1M in CMRR should you consider hiring European sales and services execs behind customer demand.

Software Review 48

Software Review North America Europe Metrics 48

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 14, 2009

Every board meeting, the metrics of success change. Time-to-complete-a-sale is not a bad metric for validated learning at this stage. but few step back and really examine the underlying assumptions of startup finance. Thank you for your simple, insightful explanation of why that is the wrong metric to use.

Customer 167

Customer San Francisco Lean Hockey Stick 167

Growthink Blog

APRIL 15, 2015

Now given that the company has yet to even come close to breaking even, this can be viewed as either a great validation of Domo''s business model, or as more evidence of the “Bubble Mania” of the current technology financing landscape and a screaming signal to get out while you still can.

Valuation 48

Valuation Venture Capital Finance Acquisition 48

VC Cafe

JUNE 19, 2020

This is also backed by other research findings, such as the International Finance Corporation (IFC) which noted that the impact investing market is “growing and maturing”. In its latest report , the private sector arm of the World Bank Group estimated that in 2019 between $505 billion and $3.5 The generational point is worth lingering on.

Venture Capital 174

Venture Capital Global South Africa 174

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 28, 2009

Compounding is not a process that most people find intuitive, and thats as true in engineering as it is in finance, so it requires a lot of encouragement in the early days to stay the course. Only one occasion was a substantial rewrite justified based on performance metrics. Its a version of the law of compounding interest.

San Francisco 79

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 79

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 1, 2010

He’s personally led more than 50 financing rounds. Scott left the company, which eventually IPO’d and became Internet Brands. And finally, Scott demonstrated his internal management tool for managing the metrics of his business. Offers two products: Palantir Government and Palantir Finance. Foursquare.

San Francisco 248

San Francisco Venture Capital Analytics Government 248

www.huffingtonpost.com

MAY 10, 2011

Set up the metrics first, then youll know if you succeeded. Hiring the best developers is essential because [link] History | Permalink | Share it ecohistorical 0 Fans Follow 01:39 PM on 10/12/2010 Great post, Mariam. It always comes down to the fact that you cant get what you want (or need) unless you know what youre looking for.

CTO 43

CTO CTO Hire PHP Cofounder 43

500hats.com

AUGUST 2, 2012

Mega VC has focused on the challenges of the post-SarbOx IPO market in the US, and has discovered opportunity in offering larger amounts of growth capital ($10-100M+) to private companies with reduced access to public markets. (note: apologies in advance for the west coast bias; i’m in silicon valley).

Silicon Valley 74

Silicon Valley Early Stage Venture Capital Valuation 74

cdixon.org

AUGUST 3, 2012

Facebook’s market cap is about half of what most tech investors expected before the IPO. - For consumer startups with transactional models, e.g. e-commerce, the number of users required is often far lower because revenue is the more important metric. VCs are increasingly focusing on B2B for early-stage investments.

Bridge Financing 86

Bridge Financing Early Stage Valuation Later Stage 86