Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 1, 2009

The IMF just raised its global growth forecast from 2.5% Bad stock markets mean less IPO’s and lower prices for M&A. Eventually it becomes self healing, but I don’t believe consistent growth will happen too quickly. That said, the IMF (international monetary fund) is more bullish.

Technical Review 269

Technical Review Stock Hawaii Early Stage 269

Up and Running

MAY 1, 2014

Your business plan isn’t complete without a financial forecast. Business financials for most startups are less complicated than you think, and a business degree is certainly not required to build a solid financial forecast. Three-year projections are typically adequate, but some investors will request a five-year forecast.

Business Plan 163

Business Plan Forecast Balance Sheet Distribution 163

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

The Startup Magazine

FEBRUARY 19, 2019

Whatever funding stage your business is at, use the executive summary to clearly outline the objective, whether that be a future round of funding or potential exit routes, whether they are a trade sale, management buyout (MBO) or initial public offering (IPO). Market analysis. Your business should address a market need.

Business Plan 93

Business Plan Technical Review Initial Public Offering Due Diligence 93

ReadWriteStart

JULY 18, 2011

Kedrosky: "In the 90's I was an analyst through all this [tech investment and IPO] madness. You want to build your own IPO and exit. Every company has a forecast for how it will get to an arbitrary $100 million in revenue and they all hit it on year five. For 10 years there have been no gazelles to take down.

Investment Bankers 153

Investment Bankers Technical Review Cofounder Due Diligence 153

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 28, 2009

Goldman Sachs (an investor in our company) told us we’d IPO within 18 months for $1 billion so not to take any offers. Our sales forecasts were revised downward – many times. Our company was completely euphoric. We drank our own Kool Aid. We had one of the largest US software companies talk about buying us.

PR 331

PR Software Review Ireland Germany 331

crowdSPRING Blog

MARCH 28, 2013

Lessons Learned from Bill Gross’ 35 IPOs/Exits and 40 Failures – [link]. Forecasting Fox | NYTimes – [link]. Lead Or Follow, But Keep Your Eyes On The Crowd – [link]. Invest in Your Customers More Than Your Brand | Michael Schrage-Harvard Business Review – [link].

Social Media 107

Social Media Small Business Design Media 107

crowdSPRING Blog

JANUARY 18, 2013

Thanks To Facebook, Strongest Year For IPOs Since 2000 With $21.5 Creative Forecast: How Marketing Will Change In 2013 | Co.Create – [link]. Why You Should Give Yourself Permission to Screw Up - [link]. Good discussion about the tension between being a maker and manager … Becoming A Boss - [link].

Social Media 94

Social Media Small Business Design Media 94

YoungUpstarts

MAY 16, 2018

There, he would be showered in venture capital, build a team of similarly brilliant twenty-somethings, acquire millions of customers seemingly overnight, and steer his startup to an IPO and himself to the cover of Inc magazine well before his 30th birthday. Oh, how wrong you would be.

Silicon Valley 157

Silicon Valley Forecast Venture Capital Business Plan 157

The Equity Kicker

AUGUST 19, 2013

As you can see from the chart below the latest projections for 2013 revenues are 2x what they promised in their 2011 IPO, and EBITDA is forecast at over 2x. On the back of outstripping expectations LinkedIn has had an easy ride from Wall Street and the media and the share price has risen from $93 at the IPO to $227 today.

IPO 94

IPO Forecast Revenue Media 94

Agile VC

MAY 26, 2011

Google is still a private company (their IPO was Aug 2004). In another we decended into a debate about our 5 year forecasts (I built the models so fielded most of these questions), and it became clear they probably weren’t the best fit for our Series A round (this group is no longer in the early-stage VC business).

Term Sheet 178

Term Sheet Silicon Valley Technical Review Social Network 178

The Next Web

FEBRUARY 19, 2014

It was the biggest IPO the Australian market had seen all year , and sparked a flurry of subsequent listings – but ‘going public’ was not the only option we considered, and until we had progressed our exit strategy to near completion, it also seemed the most unlikely. An IPO requires special preparation of its own, some of it complex.

Prospectus 121

Prospectus IPO Exit Strategy Private Equity 121

The Equity Kicker

APRIL 11, 2012

I think the answer is pretty clear – it’s all about Facebook’s IPO price. In this case Facebook’s pending IPO make it particularly easy to understand the logic. In this case Facebook’s pending IPO make it particularly easy to understand the logic.

IPO 110

IPO Valuation Forecast Acquisition 110

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 13, 2016

What are your forecasts for revenue, expenses and cash flow? Forecasts are evaluated as a level of commitment and a measure of your business savvy. Technically, this is your exit strategy, usually a merger and acquisition (M&A) or initial public stock offering (IPO). Quantify founder investments, both cash and sweat-equity.

Sweat Equity 120

Sweat Equity Advisory Board Liquidity Event Startup 120

The Equity Kicker

OCTOBER 9, 2014

I knew that Zulily , which Crunchbase describes as ‘A daily deal site for mums, babies and kids’ is an amazing ecommerce success story which IPO’d last year with a valuation in the billions. As you can see from the chart below they went from a standing start in Q4 2010 to a forecast $1.1bn in net sales last quarter.

eCommerce 98

eCommerce Flash Forecast IPO 98

crowdSPRING Blog

JANUARY 5, 2012

Some Thoughts On The IPO Market For Web Companies (by @fredwilson) – [link]. CEC’s Startup Forecast – “Never been a better time to start a company in Chicago” – [link]. Five Tips To Improve Employee Performance Reviews – [link]. The ideal product manager – [link].

Social Media 92

Social Media Small Business Design Media 92

David Teten

JANUARY 19, 2021

In all these cases, capital is provided to fuel forecasted growth without creating a commitment to a particular vision for future funding rounds, exit goals, and associated blitzscaling. The value ascribed by subsequent investors (in a secondary); buyers (acquisition); or the public markets (IPO). The State of Flexible VC.

Cofounder 78

Cofounder Technical Review Equity Dividend 78

www.entrepreneur.com

SEPTEMBER 22, 2011

Money Money Home Financing Taxes Accounting Basics Personal Finance Money Management Payments & Collections IPOs and DPOs Will Crazy Market Moves Kill IPOs and Slash VC Investment? Human Resources Play Video Shark Tanks Barbara Corcoran on Bootstrapping a Growing a Business (Video). Financing Some Jobs Act Proposals Make Headway.

Sweat Equity 55

Sweat Equity Equity Fractional CTO CTO 55

VC Cafe

JULY 20, 2010

Nearly half of respondents (45%) forecast the Gaza conflict to have negative affects on venture capital fund raising. All venture capitalists forecast that heavily indebted European countries will negatively impact venture capital. Investment gap in israel is strongest in seed and first stage investments as VCs prefer less risk.

Mezzanine 92

Mezzanine Venture Capital IPO 92

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 1, 2009

IPOs and M&A have returned – and with them the investment bankers have staged a rebound. There have been a number of high profile tech IPO s in the recent months including companies such as OpenTable and more recently LogMeIn. – IPO-able in any normal market. but I’ll save that for post 3/3).

IPO 255

IPO Investment Bankers Venture Capital Marketing 255

The Equity Kicker

OCTOBER 10, 2012

HR software business Workday has just upped the proposed share price in its coming IPO to $24-26, taking its valuation over $4bn. That’s 30x this years forecast revenues of $134m.

Valuation 108

Valuation Acquisition Forecast IPO 108

BeyondVC

NOVEMBER 17, 2006

I am not sure if you saw the news , but Salary.com recently filed for an IPO to raise up to $50 million. I would usually put IPO filings in the nonevent category but as I dug deeper into the company and financial performance, it did raise some interesting questions for me. The post Is the bar lower for a tech IPO?

IPO 60

IPO Investment Bankers Demand Revenue 60

Cracking the Code

OCTOBER 13, 2020

On the IPO front, the one word that comes to mind is “supersize”. While the number of IPOs in 2020 is close to 2019, the average valuation has doubled compared to last year, driven in particular by the massive IPO of Snowflake, which reached a $70 billion market cap on its first trading day.

Europe 71

Europe Cloud Silicon Valley 71

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 13, 2012

Financial forecast and metrics. Going public” (IPO) is another alternative, but not common. The most credible sizing approach is to do your financial model first with the volume, cost, and pricing parameters you want. See where your cashflow bottoms out. Show breakeven and growth assumptions.

Business Plan 283

Business Plan Sweat Equity Exit Strategy Intellectual Property 283

The Equity Kicker

MAY 2, 2012

Facebook’s ability to make money from mobile is a hotly debated topic in the run up to their IPO.

Mobile 113

Mobile Forecast IPO Valuation 113

The Equity Kicker

DECEMBER 18, 2012

After the Admob and Quattro deals we had the near $1bn Milennial IPO earlier this year. The other big player was Facebook who went from $0 in mobile ad revenue last year to a forecast $339m this year. I would posit that we may have seen the last big exit from a pure play on the mobile ad market (i.e.

Mobile 100

Mobile Acquisition Forecast IPO 100

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 13, 2011

Financial forecast and metrics. Going public” (IPO) is another alternative, but not common. The most credible sizing approach is to do your financial model first with the volume, cost, and pricing parameters you want. See where your cashflow bottoms out. Show breakeven and growth assumptions.

Business Plan 290

Business Plan Sweat Equity Exit Strategy Intellectual Property 290

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 30, 2016

Many had started IPO’ing and we started to think about our future. If you want to see what was on my mind – I started foreshadowing change publicly in October 2015 with a forecast of what I expected in 2016 VC funding markets at a presentation I gave at the annual Cendana VC/LP conference hosted by Michael Kim.

Balance Sheet 150

Balance Sheet Burn Rate Valuation Forecast 150

VC Cafe

JULY 12, 2011

The recent wave of Internet IPOs seems to remind the Israeli VCs of the previous tech bubble. 50% of them, believe that we’re about to enter a second bubble and 33% claim that Groupon, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Zynga are overvalued, according to the latest Israel VC Indicator Survey for Q2 2011, published by Deloitte.

Internet 84

Internet Venture Capital IPO 84

VC Cafe

JUNE 19, 2020

The Forecasted 2016 to 2026 job growth stands at 120%. According to her data, Montanes says impact tech VCs have yet to realize exits: around 100 startups have been acquired (and a few IPOs) with an aggregate value of around $90 billion (excluding $18 billion of Tesla’s IPO). Source: Fundera . Enter Impact Tech.

Venture Capital 174

Venture Capital Global South Africa 174

Gust

AUGUST 5, 2012

Financial forecast and metrics. Going public” (IPO) is another alternative, but not common. The most credible sizing approach is to do your financial model first with the volume, cost, and pricing parameters you want. See where your cashflow bottoms out. Show breakeven and growth assumptions.

Business Plan 182

Business Plan Sweat Equity Exit Strategy Intellectual Property 182

abovethecrowd.com

JULY 10, 2014

Consider the following example from 34 years ago that included the exact same type of prediction error: “In 1980, McKinsey & Company was commissioned by AT&T (whose Bell Labs had invented cellular telephony) to forecast cell phone penetration in the U.S.

San Francisco 111

San Francisco San Jose Marketing Technical Review 111

Up and Running

APRIL 28, 2015

Investors will expect to see your sales forecast, profit and loss statement, and cash flow forecast for at least three years. Having an IPO and going public is a viable option for some high-growth startups, while other businesses are more likely to be bought by larger players in your market. Slide 9: Financials. Partnerships.

Forecast 60

Forecast Hockey Stick Exit Strategy Intellectual Property 60

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 2, 2018

As an investor myself, I look for a balanced story focused on the major elements that drive profitability, including the following: A 5-year financial forecast achieving a positive cash flow early. At the other extreme, I don’t condone greedy and unethical business practices to unjustly shake down customers and employees alike.

Intellectual Property 48

Intellectual Property Initial Public Offering Merger Acquisition 48

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.   In a bottom up approach, the forecast is built from actual user projections.   In a bottom up approach, the forecast is built from actual user projections.

Term Sheet 68

Term Sheet Valuation Dividend Liquidation Preference 68

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 22, 2010

Financial forecast and metrics. IPO as an exit strategy is not recommended these days. The most credible sizing approach is to do your financial model first with the volume, cost, and pricing parameters you want. See where your cashflow bottoms out. If it bottoms out at minus $400K, add a 25% buffer, and ask for $500K funding.

Business Plan 186

Business Plan Exit Strategy Sweat Equity Intellectual Property 186

www.mint.com

MARCH 9, 2010

If the answer to the question centers around “We will achieve revenue soon so our net will improve and give us more runway,” it means the company is in trouble because no product ever ships on time nor achieves the company’s “conservative forecast.” After that, an IPO or FPO will decide who owns portions of your new USA based company.

Software Review 68

Software Review Startup Post-Money Valuation Technical Review 68