Both Sides of the Table

MAY 28, 2018

There’s a quick litmus-test conversation any early-stage VC will have with the founder and it’s one that you should be as prepared for as your elevator pitch. Founder: “$8–10 million” VC: “What’s your current burn rate?” Founder: “$250k / month.” Founder: “Um. Why are you raising so much?” Let me check my plan.”

Burn Rate 247

Burn Rate Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Dilution 247

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 27, 2013

In his tenure as CEO of DataSift we have never missed a monthly revenue figure. He has grown our US operations from 1 employee (him) to a global organization of 75 employees that will finish the year with 8-digit revenues (90+% recurring) and more than 350% year-over-year growth. Wallflower – yours truly. Have topics.

Advisory Board 365

Advisory Board CTO Hire Fractional CTO Los Angeles 365

Steve Blank

APRIL 23, 2014

buy out an entire company for its revenue and profits. These include the product itself, the customer, the distribution channel, revenue model, how to get, keep and grow customers, resources and activities needed to build the business and costs.). If they decide to buy, large companies can: license/acquire intellectual property.

Acquisition 332

Acquisition Intellectual Property Silicon Valley Startup 332

NZ Entrepreneur

FEBRUARY 27, 2020

This decline has also become evident in startup accelerator programs shifting their focus on later-stage scale-ups that provide higher returns. Capital funding for early-stage companies is drying up and becoming harder to find. Each stage of tech company growth has unique challenges.

Developer 68

Developer Early Stage Later Stage Acquisition 68

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 11, 2017

Friendly or hostile takeover attempts are just a couple of the many ways that company founders sense a loss of control of their own destiny. The board of directors, as well as public stockholders, are no longer part of the inside team focused on the founder’s vision to change the world. Startup founders don’t fit in a public company.

IPO 218

IPO SEC Prospectus Technical Review 218

David Teten

MARCH 18, 2021

(co-written with Stephane Nasser , co-founder of OpenVC , an open-source initiative to collect and analyze all VC theses.). OpenVC is a new, open-source initiative to collect and analyze all publicly available VC theses, to help founders more efficiently find the right investors, and vice-versa. Technical founders .

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Cofounder Venture Capital Deal Flow 78

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 24, 2021

The culture is driven by the 20-something irreverent founder with huge technical chops who in a “David vs. Goliath” mythology take on the titans of industry and wins. But markets have changed and I think investors, founders and experienced executives who want to join later-stage startups can all benefit from playing the long game.

Venture Capital 363

Venture Capital LP Valuation Later Stage 363

Steve Blank

JANUARY 22, 2014

Regional Angel funds that pool investors capital and typically make a one time investment in a startup, sometimes at an early stage but often at a slightly later stage. Late stage large regionally based funds that invest in late stage or mezzanine deals. Large regionally based early stage funds have mostly failed.

Early Stage 286

Early Stage Silicon Valley Oregon Technical Review 286

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 4, 2016

But for founders who do their homework, the cost of entry is lower and the opportunity is higher than ever. Excellent detailed resources are everywhere, including a new book, “ The Startup Checklist ,” by serial entrepreneur and founder of the New York Angels, David S. Incorporating a business entity early through online services.

Intellectual Property 120

Intellectual Property Startup Angel Groups Social Media 120

This is going to be BIG.

MAY 5, 2023

For me, I have at least two years of active board and observer commitments to roll off of and far more time before all the founders I’ve backed hit (or miss, I suppose) their ultimate goal of returning lots of money to their investors. It has been a career that fits my personality well.

Later Stage 218

Later Stage Venture Capital Term Sheet Limited Partner 218

Steve Blank

MAY 9, 2017

The founders were simply wrong about their assumptions about customer needs. It turns out the term “visionary founder” was usually a synonym for someone who was hallucinating. Founders Need to Run the Company Longer. So, almost like clockwork 20 th century startups fired the innovators/founders when they scaled.

Restful 222

Restful Silicon Valley Puerto Rico San Jose 222

Steve Blank

MARCH 17, 2020

Next, take a look at your actual revenue each month – not forecast, but real revenue coming in each month. If you’re an early stage company, that number may be zero. Subtract your monthly gross burn rate from your monthly revenue to get your net burn rate. This math works in a normal market…. The World Turned Upside Down.

Burn Rate 436

Burn Rate Startup Valuation Sales Cycle 436

Steve Blank

JUNE 15, 2010

So if you’re the founder of a startup, you may want to consider who you take money from. Is Your VC Founder Friendly? What startup stage do they typically invest in? How many of their founders are still with their company? Will they tailor your vesting to your contribution as a founder? Is it for your technology?

Founder 231

Founder Vesting Later Stage Early Stage 231

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 29, 2022

Friendly or hostile takeover attempts are just a couple of the many ways that company founders sense a loss of control of their own destiny. The board of directors, as well as public stockholders, are no longer part of the inside team focused on the founder’s vision to change the world. Startup founders don’t fit in a public company.

IPO 245

IPO SEC Prospectus Startup 245

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 1, 2015

Friendly or hostile takeover attempts are just a couple of the many ways that company founders sense a loss of control of their own destiny. The board of directors, as well as public stockholders, are no longer part of the inside team focused on the founder’s vision to change the world. Startup founders don’t fit in a public company.

IPO 120

IPO SEC Prospectus Startup 120

David Teten

DECEMBER 3, 2019

Tim Friedman, Founder, PE Stack , said, “If I could offer one piece of advice to today’s managers, it would be to take the time to understand the demands of the modern institutional LP. Data companies focused on early-stage startups include Aingel , fundsUP , Preseries , PredictLeads , and Sploda. 3) Raise capital.

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Software Review Analytics Private Equity 78

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 27, 2014

We both agree that the later-stage valuations are being driven up to a point that feels irrationally priced [he uses b-round SaaS valuations as an example and I am willing to be even more broad based]. Most of those industries are fee-based and are competing on revenue growth. I don’t totally agree with that view.

Valuation 309

Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Later Stage Non-Compete 309

View from Seed

APRIL 30, 2015

What is it, and how should founders think about it? note: We’d like to be extra clear that founders should not take on venture debt if they don’t have 100% visibility into repaying the loan, as banks that need to recoup their loan my force the company or you as the guarantor into liquidation or bankruptcy. Business model?

Term Sheet 120

Term Sheet Equity Startup Seed Stage 120

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 earlier you invest the higher the chances the company won’t work out and thus you pay a lower price than later-stage investors.

Pre-Money Valuation 336

Pre-Money Valuation Valuation Silicon Valley Stock 336

This is going to be BIG.

SEPTEMBER 30, 2012

How else can you explain this headline matching a story about a professional social network still trying to explore revenues raising $17mm on an $80mm valuation? Did I mention it only took the founder a month? venture capitalists are now asking tougher questions about start-ups' revenue and profits.". How can you measure it?

Venture Capital 114

Venture Capital Marketing Term Sheet Software Review 114

VC Cafe

JANUARY 2, 2023

As a result, I expect to see slower pace of investing across stages. Lower valuations , especially in later stage. Down rounds, especially for growth stage companies, and bridge rounds galore. We started to see down rounds taking place especially in growth stage. ” Fred Wilson. ” Fred Wilson.

Valuation 158

Valuation Down Round Venture Capital 158

Reid Hoffman

JUNE 11, 2020

Why do you call Jeff a co-founder of LinkedIn, even though he joined when the company was already five years old? When a company no longer has active co-founders, the professional managers running it will focus on business metrics — EBITDA, revenue, CAC, LTV — business-oriented MBA stuff.

Cofounder 36

Cofounder Leadership Metrics Later Stage 36

Austin Startup

JUNE 26, 2019

Many people have reached out sharing knowing and kind words about our journey and choice to wind down our venture, as well as their appreciation for my choice to pull back the curtain on what is statistically a common road for many founders. It details a landscape founders like me are excited to sink their teeth into? Of course not!

Silicon Valley 54

Silicon Valley Startup B2C Sweat Equity 54

David Teten

SEPTEMBER 23, 2017

Even for later-stage companies with predictable financials, the lack of liquidity, audited financials, and standardized metrics creates real challenges to scaling quantitative investing. Signal is a fundraising tool for founders run by NFX Guild, which identifies the most relevant VCs for you. . Pitchbot.vc

Private Equity 60

Private Equity Venture Capital Equity Technical Review 60

Hippoland

OCTOBER 9, 2016

If you’re still in the early stages of your entrepreneur-education/journey, you may even think you need to protect your idea and not share it with anyone. revenue / traction / setting up infrastructure / etc) This can set you apart, because the vast majority of businesses I see at the seed stage are just ideas with no action.

Seed Stage 48

Seed Stage CTO Hire Email Later Stage 48

Up and Running

AUGUST 19, 2014

I like how the Angel Capital Association describes the difference between angels and venture capitalists: “Angels generally invest their own money in start-ups and very early stage companies, while VCs mostly provide capital they have raised from others to later-stage businesses for growth.”. 51 percent). Tweet This Tip.

Angel Investor 161

Angel Investor Technical Review Due Diligence Startup 161

David Teten

SEPTEMBER 5, 2014

I’ve written on the expert network industry a fair amount in the past: see How to Earn More Consulting Revenue from Expert Networks and How Executives Can Work with Private Equity and Venture Capital Portfolio Companies. We’re not mainly for B2B companies or later stage companies or anything like that.

New York 114

New York Technical Review Networking Advisory Board 114

K9 Ventures

FEBRUARY 8, 2020

3/ The metaphor I use to explain this to founders is “Sometimes there is no direct flight and you have to take a connecting flight.” ” IMHO this was why @cartainc had such a hard time raising in the early stages. This is what makes early-stage investing so much more fun and exciting for me.

Startup 118

Startup Early Stage Later Stage Revenue 118

Reid Hoffman

MARCH 9, 2021

Looking back, I believe that Jeff is one of most iconic, successful founders and CEOs of all time. Jeff is also one of the few founders I know of who sets OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) for his board members. Many default to sales (because that’s what drives revenue) or product (because that’s what customers buy).

Leadership 42

Leadership Technical Review Cofounder Later Stage 42

Steve Blank

JUNE 11, 2013

The test is: If you add one more sales person or spend more marketing dollars, does your sales revenue go up by more than your expenses? What are revenue strategy and pricing tactics? These sources are a lot more forgiving of iterations and pivots than later-stage venture-capital funds. When to raise money.

Venture Capital 333

Venture Capital IRR Liquidity Event Business Model 333

K9 Ventures

JUNE 5, 2015

So in this post, I present the epilogue to The New Venture Landscape that highlights my take on what I think the venture landscape looks like today and what the implications are for founders, for GPs and for LPs. Implications for Founders. Too many founders still think that. The Epilogue. Seed is the New A. Well, yes they do.

Seed Stage 48

Seed Stage Venture Capital Early Stage Valuation 48

Berkonomics

AUGUST 3, 2023

Some businesses require very little capital and the founder can self-finance the enterprise and retain 100% of its ownership and control from ignition through liquidity event (startup through sale). Typical VC investments begin at $2 million and quickly rise to $5 million and above, depending upon the size of the fund and stage of investment.

Private Equity 118

Private Equity Valuation Cap Table Accredited Investor 118

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 19, 2017

As a VC, burn rate is one of the most discussed topics I have with teams who are pitching me for raising capital and it is one of the most common discussions points I have with founders in companies that I’ve backed. So let me walk you through the discussion points I have with founders. But here’s also a good rule of thumb for you.

Burn Rate 212

Burn Rate Startup .Net Venture Capital 212

View from Seed

FEBRUARY 27, 2019

Given the common challenges encountered by founders as they navigate through this hiring decision, I thought I’d outline some of my thoughts below that can hopefully serve as a simple framework when it comes to making the first Analytics hire at your startup. Many founders confuse the two as they both involve lots of numbers.

Analytics 149

Analytics Hiring SQL Forecast 149

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 3, 2013

I’m super proud to announce that DataSift has just completed a $42 million financing round coming at the end of a year where its revenue grew several hundred percent year-over-year. Considering our revenue is SaaS revenue this achievement is even more remarkable. I’m an early-stage investor. Not so DataSift.

Iran 358

Iran API San Francisco Nigeria 358

This is going to be BIG.

FEBRUARY 21, 2021

I’m a female founder. I don’t have a technical co-founder. These are all of the things I heard from a founder that I recently backed. So what about all of the above statements—things that founders widely hold to be true barriers to fundraising? Nearly half of the teams I’ve backed have female founders.

Venture Capital 162

Venture Capital Cofounder Deal Flow Later Stage 162

View from Seed

MARCH 19, 2015

Founders laud their own “end-to-end” thinking. He’s dubbed the approach “ pretotyping ,” and it shares many of the same principles as both its similar-sounding (if later-stage) cousin, prototyping, as well as the more well-known lean startup movement.

Product 120

Product Technical Review Marketing Lean 120