SoCal CTO

SEPTEMBER 27, 2011

For your first key hires, three, five, maybe as much as ten, you will probably not be able to use any kind of formula. For example, suppose you're just two founders and you want to hire an additional hacker who's so good you feel he'll increase the average outcome of the whole company by 20%. n = (1.2 - 1)/1.2 =.167. and we have 11.1%

Early Stage 391

Early Stage Equity CTO Hire Sweat Equity 391

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 19, 2020

Hire a professional marketing and public relations agency once you have a good revenue stream but you don’t need them to start a free blog, establish Facebook and Twitter accounts with initial content and complete the basics of search engine optimization. Cash flow can be drastically reduced by working out of your garage.

Burn Rate 310

Burn Rate Hockey Stick Salary Social Media 310

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 10, 2021

Often, the number one question that entrepreneurs fail to address is: “How much money do you need, and what valuation do you place on your company?” The same thing goes for incorporating your company, having key hires lined up, and facilities arranged as required. Lack of clear objectives/goals.

Software Review 307

Software Review Due Diligence Elevator Pitch Early Stage 307

YoungUpstarts

OCTOBER 24, 2017

Hire professionals. Is it prudent to have a set formula for valuation before you know how the company will perform or will you require the company to pay for an expert to value the company if one side wants to sell? Plan for your company’s eventual valuation. Proper planning for a valuation can make this process much smoother.

Partner 203

Partner Technical Review Intellectual Property Due Diligence 203

YoungUpstarts

NOVEMBER 19, 2020

EBITDA is the most important profitability metric to consider as many valuations are based on a multiple of this metric. That being said, it makes sense that when business is booming, your valuation will be higher. Finally, hiring the right M&A Advisor to guide you through the process can help in achieving a maximum profit.

Exit Strategy 246

Exit Strategy Intellectual Property Valuation Metrics 246

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 28, 2018

How could Bird really be worth the reported $2 billion valuation that I read about in this press? While I promised not to comment on the exact valuation you can assume that it is very large and perhaps the fastest rise from zero to what some have called a “unicorn” valuation. Forget the valuation?—?I Not really.

San Francisco 256

San Francisco Valuation Technical Review Los Angeles 256

Up and Running

SEPTEMBER 15, 2021

They were able to take their market valuation to $1.0 Don’t hire full time, outsource your project. As a SaaS startup, you would be better off outsourcing components of your project compared to hiring full-time developers. Hire a freelancer for User Acceptance Testing (UAT). If possible, hire a third-party tester.

Cost 158

Cost Developer Azure Churn Rate 158

View from Seed

MARCH 24, 2021

What Are Your Valuation Expectations? But mainly we did it because these corporate VCs were among the only groups willing to invest at PayPal’s somewhat inflated post-money valuation, during the middle of the dot-com crash when traditional VCs pulled back sharply and other sources of funding were constrained.” Hiring Your Team.

Seed Stage 177

Seed Stage Hiring Analytics IPO 177

The Startup Magazine

JANUARY 10, 2023

He knows that quality of startup hiring is linked to the tone the founder sets for the company. He seeks zeal in potential hires. “We Hufnagel hopes the brand will reach a $5 billion valuation. The goal in startup hiring, he says, is to make people feel they can’t walk away. Photo by nappy: [link]. “I

Hiring 132

Hiring Founder Sweat Equity Cofounder 132

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 5, 2018

He just hired Meg Whitman. Startups wrote business plans, generated expansive 5-year forecasts and executed (hired, spent and built) to the plan. And if the company does go public, the valuations are at least 10x of the last bubble. the ex-CEO of HP and eBay, as CEO of NewTV.

Lean 335

Lean Burn Rate Startup IPO 335

ReadWriteStart

OCTOBER 7, 2010

As a thumb rule, try to get enough validation so that you can get to at least a $2 million pre-money valuation before raising equity capital. That is debt financing that converts into equity at the Series A valuation once the price for that is set. (I Sub-$2 million pre-money, it is better to bootstrap. Igor did not have an answer.

Valuation 119

Valuation Silicon Valley Pre-Money Valuation Bootstrapping 119

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 29, 2018

Hire a professional marketing and public relations agency once you have a good revenue stream but you don’t need them to start a free blog, establish Facebook and Twitter accounts with initial content and complete the basics of search engine optimization. Cash flow can be drastically reduced by working out of your garage.

Burn Rate 223

Burn Rate Hockey Stick Startup Salary 223

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 5, 2011

2: As expected at least one person accused me of writing this post because I want to see lower valuations. As the risks below get eliminated the higher the valuation investors are prepared to pay. So rounds tend to be “range bound&# where the top end of the valuation spectrum often being done in boom markets (i.e.

Pre-Money Valuation 336

Pre-Money Valuation Valuation Silicon Valley Stock 336

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 4, 2015

In a new book, “ The Leadership Capital Index ,” Dave Ulrich, a best-selling author, business consultant, and business school professor, provides some real insights and metrics on what makes up the elements of goodwill in the minds of top valuation experts. I have paraphrased his key points here as follows: Leader personal impact.

Leadership 120

Leadership Technical Review Due Diligence Valuation 120

Steve Blank

JULY 11, 2017

Before the rapid rise of Unicorns, (startups with a valuation over a billion dollars), when boards were still in control, they “encouraged” the hiring of “adult supervision” of the founders after they found product/market fit. Adult Supervision. These new CEOs would also act as a brake to temper the founder’s excesses.

Part-Time VPE 308

Part-Time VPE Liquidity Event Stock Engineer 308

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 22, 2011

In addition to FOMO it is partly driven by massive increase in valuations for earlier-stage companies who raised money at bit seed prices but who still have product risk. million pre-money valuation is now raising $1 million at a $12 million valuation the next investor has nowhere to go but up (or sit out the investment).

Saudi Arabia 309

Saudi Arabia Valuation IPO Technical Review 309

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 10, 2021

I’m over-paying for every check I write into the VC ecosystem and valuations are being pushed up to absurd levels and many of these valuations and companies won’t hold in the long term. On the one hand, you’re over paying for every investment and valuations aren’t rational. Seksom Suriyapa ?—?he

Pre-Money Valuation 471

Pre-Money Valuation Valuation Venture Capital Early Stage 471

VC Cafe

AUGUST 2, 2022

billion valuation) to invest in the Metaverse and build the future of digital entertainment Epic owns Fortnite, one of the most popular multiplayer games, enabling users to interact with each other online in an immersive way to play, socialise, attend to virtual concerts. In April 2022, the company announced it has raised $2 billion (at $31.5

IP 206

IP Cofounder Valuation Acquisition 206

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 14, 2017

As a startup in this phase you often raise capital, get press, hire staff and everything feels possible. I always push companies to hire “an operationally focused CFO” during this phase because in order to systematize you need somebody who brings economic rigor to decision making. As an early-stage VC I love this phase.

Operations 286

Operations New York City Technical Review Startup 286

Mucker Lab

MAY 28, 2020

These lost startups land higher valuations, have larger teams, outsource more product development and spend more money on customer acquisition than their peers. Hire the wrong people. Bad hiring decisions are often a symptom of premature scaling. Why hire a sales team when you have nothing to sell yet?

Startup 78

Startup Cofounder Burn Rate Technical Review 78

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 22, 2012

After all, growth equals high valuations and loads of venture capital! Instant growth = huge valuation from follow-on investors = big VC mark-up on our quarterly reports = LP interest. And it launched this author’s career and taught me everything I know about sales, marketing, hiring, firing, fund raising and so on.

Silicon Valley 390

Silicon Valley Venture Capital Startup Technical Review 390

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 17, 2023

You are now entering the rollout stage , with money required for marketing, hiring a full-time team, and a production process. Another good indicator of your real stage is the valuation you can set for your company at any given moment, to determine what portion of your equity an investor will expect of his money.

Angel Investor 313

Angel Investor Intellectual Property Investment Bankers Private Equity 313

YoungUpstarts

MARCH 11, 2015

With the daily demands of running a business along with the financial pressures and challenges inherent in early-stage companies, a business valuation may not be the first thing an entrepreneur thinks of when he awakes each morning. When does a startup company need a business valuation? The timing will vary depending on the purpose.

Valuation 100

Valuation Stock Options CPA Merger 100

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 5, 2014

Hire a professional marketing and public relations agency once you have a good revenue stream but you don’t need them to start a free blog, establish Facebook and Twitter accounts with initial content and complete the basics of search engine optimization. Cashflow can be drastically reduced by working out of your garage.

Burn Rate 262

Burn Rate Hockey Stick Entrepreneur Salary 262

VC Adventure

AUGUST 15, 2018

However the board could determine what that fair market value was and, generally speaking, there wasn’t a practical way that these valuations could be challenged. Over night a cottage industry was created to conduct these valuations. So what should this discount be? I was wrong.

Valuation 48

Valuation Common Stock Cap Table Software Review 48

Hunter Walker

DECEMBER 13, 2020

If things are going great, you still may get a lower valuation or smaller round. A hire or two that you should have been able to close won’t join. You may end up decreasing the quality of outcomes by a standard deviation or more. How does this harm occur?

Technical Cofounder 144

Technical Cofounder Cofounder Startup Matching 144

Start Up Blog

MAY 28, 2020

Uber has lost $38 billion since 2013 and yet still has a market valuation of around $60 billion. – Tesla $ valuation per car sold = $302k. – GM $ valuation per car = $5k. – Ford $ valuation per car sold = $17k. – Toyota $ valuation per car sold = $15k. It just doesn’t add up.

Valuation 48

Valuation Technical Review Singapore India 48

Steve Blank

APRIL 23, 2014

In response, venture capital firms like Sequoia and Andreessen/Horowitz are hiring new partners just to work with their portfolio companies and match them to corporations. VCs like acquisitions as much as IPOs because the acquiring companies often can rationalize paying large multiples over the current valuation of the startup.

Acquisition 332

Acquisition Intellectual Property Silicon Valley Startup 332

YoungUpstarts

MARCH 9, 2016

Here are four areas to look at in your assessment that can help you to determine if a particular advisor is right for your deal: Valuations Expertise. Your own valuation of your business might not be correct. Look for an advisor who lays out the details for you when it comes to determining appropriate market value.

Technical Review 100

Technical Review Due Diligence San Francisco Merger 100

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 6, 2016

You also ran the risk that if you hired employees quickly and then demand wasn’t as strong as expected it was incredibility hard to fire people. In France in some ways it was worse because if you failed as a startup founder you shouldered personal liabilities that don’t exist in the US under our bankruptcy laws.

South Korea 261

South Korea Silicon Valley Los Angeles Japan 261

VC Cafe

JULY 4, 2022

The WSJ confirmed what we already know: Q2 venture capital investments declined both in size and in valuation. billion valuation, according to the WSJ, down from $45.6 Remote hires represent the majority in the US in H1 2022. In 2019, about 35% of new hires were based in a different state than the primary company headquarters.

Venture Capital 167

Venture Capital Valuation Private Equity LP 167

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 17, 2013

Often, the number one question that entrepreneurs fail to address is: “How much money do you need, and what valuation do you place on your company?” The same thing goes for incorporating your company, having key hires lined up, and facilities arranged as required. Lack of clear objectives/goals.

Software Review 265

Software Review Due Diligence Elevator Pitch Startup 265

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 15, 2023

With the unlimited access to “how-to” videos and detailed instructions on the Internet, you shouldn’t need to hire experts for most things. Adding free users or customers to increase valuation makes sense for a venture-backed startup looking to go public, but will kill bootstrapping. Learn to be a generalist rather than a specialist.

Equity 349

Equity Hockey Stick Bootstrapping Sweat Equity 349

YoungUpstarts

JANUARY 17, 2017

This is fine as long as you do not hire people or choose not to outsource any component of your business to a third party agency. You can also hire virtual assistants who can perform operational tasks like reading up feedback email from customers and answering them. Automate Your Business Process. .

Customer 100

Customer Technical Support Valuation Lead Generation 100

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 16, 2016

This term is currently applied to recent startups who profess a current valuation which exceeds $1 billion. Frothy startup valuations. They may decide to acquire the startup in order to hire the team for another project in their portfolio. Prime examples include Uber, Airbnb and Snapchat. Could your startup be the next one?

Software Review 120

Software Review Sweat Equity Accredited Investor Angel Investor 120

YoungUpstarts

OCTOBER 28, 2020

The only way to get an accurate value estimation is to hire a business broker to perform a business valuation. Whether you’ve gotten an official valuation or not, here’s how you can increase the value of your ecommerce business. This detailed information will be important to potential buyers. Are you selling your business?

eCommerce 264

eCommerce Database Social Media Valuation 264

Up and Running

SEPTEMBER 19, 2017

They allow you to hire more people, purchase new technology, and establish new business connections, among many other benefits. That’s because obtaining a pre-money valuation for a concept level technology company in excess of $1 million is difficult, particularly for a startup founder without a proven track record.

Private Equity 94

Private Equity Pre-Money Valuation Equity Startup 94