Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 4, 2013

Even though the Initial Public Offering (IPO) alternative for a successful startup seems to be coming back, it is relatively rare. IPOs in 2008, the market was up to a still trivial 128 in 2012 (compared to 675 in 1996). business entrepreneur exit founder IPO startup' After a record low of 39 U.S. Marty Zwilling.

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IPO Founder Exit Strategy Investment Bankers 224

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 1, 2015

Today the rate of startups going public (IPO – Initial Public Offering) is up from the dead zone, but is still less than half the rate of 15 years ago. According to a recent Ernst & Young global report , 2014 was a strong year with IPOs actually outperforming other indices by 10 percent. Going public is an expensive process.

IPO 120

IPO SEC Prospectus Startup 120

ReadWriteStart

OCTOBER 2, 2021

Why should a founder entertain this idea? In addition, they can neither issue stocks nor bonds. However, most institutional investors (venture capital groups, for instance) don’t mind this structure, and they, in fact, prefer to invest in corporations due to protections from issuing stocks. LLCs vs Corporations. Definitely not.

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Technical Review LLC IPO Stock 78

Steve Blank

MARCH 16, 2016

To most founders a startup is not a job, but a calling. Risk capital takes equity (stock ownership) in your company instead of debt (loans) in exchange for cash. What does this mean for startup founders? A liquidity event means that the equity (the stock) you sold your investor can now be converted into cash.)

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Liquidity Event Founder Liquidation Preference Venture Capital 120

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 29, 2022

Today the rate of startups going public (IPO – Initial Public Offering) is finally up from the dead zone of the last two decades, and is now double the rate back in 1999. Thus, today around 90 percent of successful startups are still acquired by bigger companies versus an IPO, as the safer and preferred method of growth and funding.

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IPO SEC Prospectus Startup 245

The Startup Magazine

MARCH 14, 2022

At this stage, the founder mainly raises funding from their sources or family and friends. At this stage, since the company has created a presence for itself, the founder turns to Venture Capitalists to secure funding for further company growth. Let us look at various ways to invest in startups in India. 1) Pre-seed funding round.

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Technical Review Due Diligence India Startup 145

Steve Blank

APRIL 10, 2019

For most startup employee’s startup stock options are now a bad deal. Why Startups Offer Stock Options. In tech startups stock options were here almost from the beginning, first offered to the founders in 1957 at Fairchild Semiconductor , the first chip startup in Silicon Valley. Here’s why. Why would they do that?

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Stock Options Stock Vesting Common Stock 334

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 26, 2018

Despite the fact that the number of IPOs (Initial Public Offerings) for startups have continued to stay low, I still hear it touted often as the preferred exit strategy. I suspect the exuberance for an IPO is still being driven by the highly visible successes of a few companies several years ago, including Facebook, Yelp, and Twitter.

Exit Strategy 128

Exit Strategy IPO Initial Public Offering SEC 128

Hunter Walker

DECEMBER 18, 2020

[I originally published this on Medium pre-IPO, so the tense is outdated, but I think the framework holds]. Every big tech IPO results in predictable Twitter chatter. That’s a harder question than just a “did the stock go up or down on Day One” but it’s the question we should be asking. 65% Did the Company Raise Enough Money.

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IPO Stock Retention Valuation 91

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 5, 2011

I’ve decided to take all of my private conversations and subjective points-of-view on the topic and make them public in a keynote speech at the Founder Showcase in San Francisco on June 15th. The price of public stocks change instantly in reaction to news that is perceived to affect the future value of that company.

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Pre-Money Valuation Valuation Silicon Valley Stock 336

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 11, 2013

Today the rate of startups going public (IPO – Initial Public Offering) is at an all-time low, and most entrepreneurs avoid this option like the plague, knowing the process is painful, and public company executives are seen as greedy sharks. Startup founders don’t fit in a public company. Going public is an expensive process.

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IPO SEC Prospectus Startup 242

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 6, 2014

" Current IPO activity feedback seems to support their excitement. IPO market showed more activity than any other first quarter since 2000, with 64 companies raising $10.6 That is more than double the number of IPOs in the first quarter of 2013. Most startup founders voluntarily exit or are pushed out, and the fun is gone.

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IPO Initial Public Offering Startup Small Business Administration 236

David Teten

JANUARY 19, 2021

From RBI, Flexible VCs borrow the ability to reap meaningful returns without demanding founders build for an exit. Every Flexible VC structure allows founders to access immediate risk capital while preserving exit, growth trajectory, and ownership optionality. . Flexible VC 102: Variations.

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Cofounder Technical Review Equity Dividend 78

View from Seed

MARCH 24, 2021

Doing Reference Checks on VCs “Try to speak to at least one founder that the investor has worked with in a failed investment. The Seed VC Decision Tree “If the market is attractive and there just isn’t great founder/market fit, we will be open minded as well. Why Do Consumer IPOs and B2B IPOs Get Treated Differently?

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Seed Stage Hiring IPO Analytics 177

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 30, 2012

Even though the Initial Public Offering (IPO) alternative for a successful startup seems to be coming back into vogue, it is relatively rare. IPOs in 2008, the market was up to a still trivial 159 in 2011. Even in most of these cases, the original startup founders were pushed out, or heavily supplemented, with “experienced” executives.

Exit Strategy 239

Exit Strategy IPO Investment Bankers Entrepreneur 239

VC Cafe

JANUARY 24, 2021

Gamestop stock becomes more valuable than Google :-) Just kidding. I’m excited to back the founders that are building the future in this space. The post The most important 2021 Predictions in entertainment tech and gaming appeared first on VC Cafe.

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Technical Review Audio Forecast Social Media 207

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 24, 2017

Why do these founders get to stay around? Because the balance of power has dramatically shifted from investors to founders. — 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.

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Founder Technical Review CTO Hire IPO 252

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 6, 2010

Options are gravy - I lived through the first dot com era where we used stock options as a recruiting tool. We set our sites on our IPO price and then worked back to our current valuation and showed potential employees what we thought they could earn (with all legal caveats) if the company was successful. We give out stock options.

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Stock Options Stock Valuation Liquidation Preference 294

Agile VC

APRIL 17, 2011

GameFly filed in 2010 and remains in registration, though 2011 has seen a positive start for VC-backed IPOs with 14 in Q1 2011. Kayak was started here in my backyard of Boston… co-founder & CTO Paul English and the product/engineering team is based here in Concord MA. Kayak Software Corporation. Series A Preferred.

Pre-Money Valuation 113

Pre-Money Valuation Liquidation Preference Dividend Common Stock 113

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 22, 2011

I recently spoke at the Founder Showcase at the request of Adeo Ressi. I said that at the Founder Showcase, too. And this is happening in mezzanine (pre-IPO) deals as well. And post IPO deals, although these tend to correct more quickly. some founders lose their life savings. Why does all this matter? That may be.

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Saudi Arabia Valuation IPO Technical Review 309

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 7, 2021

That implies that a board of directors has no value to the founder, and is just another burden that to be assumed for the privilege of attracting outside investors or going public. Members should be compensated, starting at one percent of stock or a small retainer plus expenses per quarter. Less than three is not a board.

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Advisory Board IPO Government Acquisition 362

Start Up Blog

MAY 13, 2019

Last Friday night, I did a TV interview on ABC regarding Uber’s long awaited IPO. An IPO is when a company first becomes a publicly traded stock that anyone can buy and hold. To be clear, the founders, early investors and many employees ended the day very rich indeed.

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IPO Valuation Stock Cost 48

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 16, 2023

None of these investment banks offer traditional banking services, as you would expect from one of the following: Retail banks Commercial banks Credit unions Savings and loans As startup founders, you first need to deal with one of these traditional banks, probably a commercial bank. Commercial banking is also known as business banking.

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Early Stage Silicon Valley Private Equity Initial Public Offering 182

Feld Thoughts

APRIL 21, 2014

Yesterday I read Kara Swisher’s post What Does the Recent Tech Stock Downturn Mean? In the last two weeks there’s been a flurry of articles about the implications of a 25% decline in the public market value of a bunch of Internet stocks. I was a co-founder and co-chairman. Suddenly the IPO market window closed.

Stock 140

Stock Internet SEC Italy 140

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 26, 2020

None of these investment banks offer traditional banking services, as you would expect from one of the following: Retail banks Commercial banks Credit unions Savings and loans As startup founders, you first need to deal with one of these traditional banks, probably a commercial bank. Commercial banking is also known as business banking.

Silicon Valley 362

Silicon Valley Private Equity Initial Public Offering Term Sheet 362

YoungUpstarts

JANUARY 10, 2018

You’ll find exceptions to this rule, like Snapchat, which was operating at a loss at its IPO, when it experienced high initial trading prices due to its huge popularity and untapped monetization capabilities. Founders that have a unique skill set and essential network might set themselves up for failure upon exiting.

Valuation 145

Valuation Technical Review Exit Strategy Metrics 145

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 19, 2013

Most entrepreneurs struggle with many startup Founders dilemmas in building their business, and these key dilemmas are probably the biggest source of pain and failure for the entrepreneur lifestyle. Should you start a company solo or find co-Founders to help you? The co-Founder relationship dilemma.

Founder 245

Founder Hockey Stick Cofounder Liquidity Event 245

Eric Friedman

JANUARY 3, 2020

With the stock price off since IPO and the need to “rollup” enterprise chat + video MSFT takes a swing at solving a huge b2b problem with a startup friendly platform. The 13 year bull run ends, and we go into a decline/recession scenario. 7/ Microsoft buys Slack. 8/ Deep Fakes become a huge problem for the 2020 elections.

Technical Review 79

Technical Review Software Review Vertical IPO 79

Agile VC

AUGUST 9, 2012

The company’s lost nearly 80% of its value from the peak earlier this year, in the run up to Facebook’s IPO, and currently trades below $3/share… a fraction of it’s IPO price of $10. So I can appreciate why public stock investors would be leery of Zynga and why the stock price has been punished recently.

Stock 160

Stock LBO .Net Valuation 160

ReadWriteStart

JULY 18, 2011

Clavier began his presentation at the beginning of a company's lifecycle, asking how many co-founders a startup ought to have. If you like this kind of advice, check out my coverage of a talk by Paul Palmieri, Co-Founder and CEO of mobile advertising service Millennial Media, titled " Investing in Your Influencers. ".

Investment Bankers 153

Investment Bankers Technical Review Cofounder Due Diligence 153

Up and Running

AUGUST 18, 2014

In comparison to traditional business ventures, startups are expected to grow rapidly, at a rate of between 5% and 7% per week in their initial stage – Paul Graham, co-founder of Y Combinator. This is why many startup founders launch with exit strategies that focus on a buy-out. Is a startup business right for you?

Small Business 154

Small Business Exit Strategy Cofounder Angel Investor 154

Hunter Walker

MAY 13, 2023

I was on both sides of these transactions – buying startups for Google/YouTube and angel investing in high quality technical founders. Sometimes you’d even get lucky and receive stock in the acquirer, which was how I gained pre-IPO equity in high growth stars like Pinterest and Facebook.

Early Stage 118

Early Stage Cap Table Acquisition Sales 118

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 16, 2010

But VC is an “illiquid asset&# so funds didn’t disappear quickly - In 2000/01 the stock market quickly adjusted punishing investors in the NASDAQ and in individual public technology stocks. What accelerated this was the collapse of the public stock markets. But in bad economies many angels get burned.

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LP Technical Review Early Stage Silicon Valley 311

Up and Running

DECEMBER 1, 2015

At the time, Facebook wasn’t the goliath it is today and so, Choe was given a couple of options: he could have $60,000 in cash, or stock (equal to the equivalent amount of the cash back then). If however you are giving a “normal employee” an incentive stock option plan (more on that later), that’s entirely different.

Equity 60

Equity Employee Stock Options Vesting 60

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 10, 2019

Most entrepreneurs struggle with many startup founders quandaries in building their business, and these key dilemmas are probably the biggest source of pain and failure for the entrepreneur lifestyle. Should you start a company solo or find co-founders to help you? The co-founder relationship dilemma.

Hockey Stick 243

Hockey Stick Cofounder Liquidity Event Startup 243

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 27, 2014

Yet Mark also pointed out that the recent corrections in the public market valuations and the scrutiny new IPOs have undergone is a health sign. Video 2 is here : In part two of the group discussion Dave asked us about the trend of founders and early investors being able to liquidation some of their position in later-stage venture rounds.

Valuation 309

Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Later Stage Non-Compete 309

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 10, 2021

In 2001 companies IPO’d very quickly if they were working, by 2011 IPOs had slowed down to the point that in 2013 Aileen Lee of Cowboy Ventures astutely called billion-dollar outcomes “unicorns.” They might be ideas they hatch internally (via a Foundry) or a founder who just left SpaceX and raises money to search for an idea.

Pre-Money Valuation 471

Pre-Money Valuation Valuation Venture Capital Early Stage 471