Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 31, 2019

Today the rate of startups going public (IPO – Initial Public Offering) is up from the dead zone, but is still half the rate back before 2000. According to a recent Ernst & Young global report , the first half 2019 global IPO activity slowdown continued, following an unusually quiet Q1 2019 as ongoing geopolitical tensions and trade issues dampened IPO sentiment. In addition, most ordinary investors are convinced that IPO rewards only go to insiders.

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Andreessen Horowitz

AUGUST 28, 2020

There’s a popular narrative that evil investment bankers are intentionally underpricing traditional IPOs to steal from companies, lining banker pockets and those of their fatcat Wall Street clients. The proof is seemingly obvious: IPOs are 50x oversubscribed!

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View from Seed

APRIL 30, 2019

2019 is off to an exciting start for IPOs of VC-backed startups. In some respects though Zoom has had the most “successful” IPO of the three companies, which has surprised some folks. All three companies had significant investor interest during their road shows and increased their IPO price ranges, but I believe Zoom’s increased the most by the offering. In the last decade or so, high profile consumer IPOs have often gotten lofty valuations.

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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. The market for recent IPOs also remains extremely volatile, and as a result many of them are currently trading below their opening price.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 3, 2015

For financial reasons alone, an IPO is a statistically rare phenomenon, happening just 275 times in 2014 , out of almost 500,000 startups. As an advisor and mentor to startups, I try to make sure entrepreneurs understand both the pros and cons of an IPO as an exit strategy. Facebook, for example, ended up raising almost $16 billion through its IPO. entrepreneur IPO liability startup

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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. 5% Did the Company Take Advantage of the IPO as a Marketing Event. I was at Google for their IPO.

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Andreessen Horowitz

JUNE 20, 2019

Editor’s Note: This testimony was delivered by a16z managing partner (and former chairman of the board of the National Venture Capital Association) Scott Kupor to the Securities and Exchange Commission as part of their investor advisory committee meeting agenda “discussion … policy field notes IPOs

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Andreessen Horowitz

OCTOBER 30, 2020

In our last deep-dive article on IPOs , we outlined how pricing works, how post-IPO activity is influenced by the four types of stock market investors, why the price of a marginal share is not that of a block trade, … The post In Defense of the IPO and How to Improve It, Part 2: Peeking Behind the Pop appeared first on Andreessen Horowitz.

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Agile VC

APRIL 30, 2019

2019 is off to an exciting start for IPOs of VC-backed startups. In some respects though Zoom has had the most “successful” IPO of the three companies, which has surprised some folks. All three companies had significant investor interest during their road shows and increased their IPO price ranges, but I believe Zoom’s increased the most by the offering. In the last decade or so, high profile consumer IPOs have often gotten lofty valuations. Reading Time: 3 minutes.

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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. What should an entrepreneur look for in his own startup as a reality check on his own aspirations to be a serious IPO candidate? business entrepreneur initial public offering IPO startup

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Reid Hoffman

JULY 23, 2020

The fundamental choice that venture-backed entrepreneurs face is simple: M&A or IPO? You’re also going to be valuable and attractive as an IPO candidate. You don’t need to focus on your IPO financial metrics from day one.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 7, 2013

Based on the final report for 2012 from Thomson Reuters and the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA), it may appear that IPOs are back as a viable startup exit strategy. billion from 49 listings, and represented the strongest annual period for IPOs since 2000. Yet 2013 is still projected by The Fiscal Times as a difficult IPO opportunity for startups, due to choppy markets, continuing fiscal uncertainty, and the Facebook fiasco.

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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). I reviewed a good summary of the advantages and disadvantages of an IPO exit strategy for startups in a widely-used textbook “ Entrepreneurship ,” by Robert Hisrich, Michael Peters, and Dean Shepherd. business entrepreneur exit founder IPO startup

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Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 6, 2017

It is fitting that 2012 is the year that Snapchat really took off in Los Angeles and raised its first venture capital and began a five year ascent to becoming LA’s most recognizable startup company and largest IPO alongside LAs other great startup brands such as Riot Games and Tinder. link] The Snap IPO Happened. Mayor Eric Garcetti at Upfront Summit, February 2017 I first sat down with then councilman Eric Garcetti on the Ides of March 2012 — almost 5 years ago exactly.

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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. I recently reviewed a good summary of the advantages and disadvantages of an IPO exit strategy for startups in a widely-used textbook “ Entrepreneurship ,” by Robert Hisrich, Michael Peters, and Dean Shepherd. entrepreneur startup liability risk IPO business

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ReadWriteStart

FEBRUARY 13, 2020

The problem most startups have — aside from reaching the critical mass necessary to support an initial public offering (IPO) — is deciding exactly when the conditions are exactly right to go public. Here are three IPO lessons and what they hold for today’s startups. First and foremost, you have to exclude the IPO performances of sure things like Saudi-owned Aramco which is en route to becoming the biggest global IPO in history.

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The Startup Magazine

SEPTEMBER 16, 2019

As you move from startup to scaleup, and then to a corporate entity preparing for an IPO for your exit, you learn how to stay focused. But if the same business is going to be traded on a major stock exchange like the NYSE, the DOW or the 100 others in over 70 countries, a business owner can’t make a mistake before it goes public and the IPO is launched. Preparing for an IPO. They need to have everything in place before they start planning an IPO.

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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. But I do think this IPO is very instructive from a technology business strategy and investment perspective, so I thought I’d lay it out in clear terms why I don’t think Uber has a bright future as a publicly traded stock. Amazon IPO 1997 – 2 years after it was founded.

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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. In my view, the key reasons that IPOs have lost their luster from an entrepreneur and investor perspective include the following: The US IPO process seems broken. entrepreneur Mark Zuckerberg startup investor IPO exit

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Andreessen Horowitz

AUGUST 31, 2020

In defense of the IPO, and how to. … The post Swipe debit card, get stock; In defense of the IPO; New models for SMB lending, and more appeared first on Andreessen Horowitz. This first appeared in the monthly a16z fintech newsletter.

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Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 15, 2010

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Thursday, July 15, 2010 Some IPO speculation Inspired by Steve Blank’s post today about the “lost decade&# of IPO’s , I’d like to make some predictions. The fact that IPO’s are disappearing makes intuitive sense to me. And the fact that the effects of this IPO vanishing act are being felt first and foremost in the software business also makes sense to me. Will that cohort of companies need an IPO?

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VC Adventure

NOVEMBER 20, 2014

The graph below shows the trend of exits – IPO vs. M&A over the past handful of years (side note here that Foundry, like many firms, considers an IPO a financing event, not an exit in and of itself; although obviously it can be a path to an exit shortly thereafter). There’s quite a bit of variability year to year (and cyclicality – not surprisingly), but the overall trend has been to more larger acquisitions (at least relative to IPOs).

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Lightspeed Venture Partners

AUGUST 13, 2019

The post Turning $10M Into $1B at Nutanix IPO appeared first on Lightspeed Venture Partners

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deal architect

AUGUST 6, 2010

Bill Hambrecht makes a persuasive case on CNBC for a Dutch Auction for the GM IPO. In my book, his bankers David Marcus and Jim Dohonue explain how it works and why it is usually better for the issuer –.

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Start Up Blog

FEBRUARY 20, 2012

The upcoming Facebook IPO is a very interesting scenario. There are a lot of facts and figures being thrown around, but from my point of view I’m interested in just a few of them and what they mean for tech entreprepreneurs: 100 Billion Valuation: If the IPO is successful the expected valuation is 33 times their current revenue. Which means there will be more startups being funded by the FB IPO gold rush.

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Hunter Walker

DECEMBER 2, 2013

Mattermark notes that this is a potential “IPO List” for ~2014. Mattermark is a startup focused on analyzing private companies. While most of their data is only available via subscription, they’ve got a free daily newsletter that’s worth signing up for – do that here. Today’s newsletter listed the 25 fastest growing companies who’ve raised >$80m in investment capital.

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Feld Thoughts

NOVEMBER 18, 2017

The NYSE recently published a book – The Entrepreneur’s Roadmap – From Concept to IPO that I’ve been involved in. The post Book: The Entrepreneur’s Roadmap – From Concept to IPO appeared first on Feld Thoughts. I wrote a chapter and made a number of introductions to the team working on the book that resulted in a number of other chapters. The book covers a variety of stages of company development, including: The Seed Stage: Starting a Company.

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Austin Startup

SEPTEMBER 8, 2014

Enterprise IPO upland Upland Software, Inc. will soon join the rarefied air of Austin-based public companies. The company announced that it has filed a registration statement on Form S-1 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for a proposed initial public offering of its common stock in an effort to raise $50M in capital. It was founded by Jack McDonald, former CEO of Perficient, and Chairman of the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce.

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Ben's Blog

JUNE 19, 2017

Where has the initial public offering (IPO) gone? But this question matters beyond those interested … policy IPOsThat’s a question the capital markets have been asking for some time, and is a leading concern of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), too.

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YFS Magazine

MAY 3, 2016

Finance Grow fast business growth hostile takeover investors ipo money raising capital selling stockGoing public is much more involved than the prestige of seeing your company name in lights on the NASDAQ or NYSE ticker. Such a momentous decisions has to come with a huge amount of forethought.

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BeyondVC

MARCH 21, 2017

The post Thoughts from Mulesoft and AppDynamics IPO Filings appeared first on BeyondVC. Enterprise Software enterprise software ipoI finally had a chance to take a quick read of the respective S1 filings for AppDynamics and Mulesoft. While the growth for each company is quite amazing, two thoughts jumped out at me.

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Agile VC

NOVEMBER 6, 2013

Twitter’s IPO has garnered a ton of attention in the tech and popular press. So their revenue figures, pre IPO financing and ownership, and other info is all widely available. Since they upped their IPO pricing range to $23-25/share the offering will imply a market cap of $12-14B, but where it will stand after the first day of trading is anyone’s guess and most of the guesses are $15-20B+. Growth IPOs Are Back.

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The Equity Kicker

JANUARY 28, 2015

With IPOs like this European venture funds must be performing better, and that will bring more money into the market. These are two great charts! It has taken us a long time to get over the 1999/2000 bubble and build a sustainable ecosystem. It would be nice if we could expect a recognisable moment when we all know that we have achieved critical mass and crossed over into sustainability, but unfortunately things don’t work that way.

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Lightspeed Venture Partners

AUGUST 13, 2019

The post Snap IPO Launches VC Firm Into Valley Elite appeared first on Lightspeed Venture Partners

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Agile VC

SEPTEMBER 15, 2011

Startup IPO Market: A Fickle Mistress. The IPO market, she is a fickle mistress. In the first half of 2011, the IPO markets were looking strong for VC-backed companies. For a time that meant that other category leaders accelerated their own IPO plans… think Groupon and Zynga. What will happen for the startup IPO market? The global macro conditions could weigh heavily on the IPO market for awhile. How to Evaluate Firms for a Seed VC.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 26, 2020

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. million spent directly on their IPO, in addition to underwriter fees of 5 to 7 percent of proceeds.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 16, 2011

It has been at least a decade since going public via an Initial Public Offering (IPO) has been considered a credible exit strategy for startups. But the word is out on Reuters that LinkedIn, Twitter, and maybe even Facebook are looking hard at going public this year, so all of a sudden the IPO option is back in business plans again as an exit strategy for startups. Usually a small company can sell about 20 percent of its stock in an IPO.

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Start Up Blog

FEBRUARY 20, 2012

The upcoming Facebook IPO is a very interesting scenario. There are a lot of facts and figures being thrown around, but from my point of view I’m interested in just a few of them and what they mean for tech entreprepreneurs: 100 Billion Valuation: If the IPO is successful the expected valuation is 33 times their current revenue. Which means there will be more startups being funded by the FB IPO gold rush.

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Gust

DECEMBER 28, 2011

If the company was successful, this quickly led to an IPO – a very happy ending for the entrepreneur, the angels, and the venture capitalists. The two major differences in the exit environment in the past decade are (1) the disappearance of the IPO market and (2) the rapidly increasing size of the average VC fund. Larger VC rounds and the lack of early IPOs have also resulted in substantially longer pre-exit waiting periods for venture capitalists.

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Austin Startup

AUGUST 26, 2011

In the “you knew this was coming&# category, Bazaarvoice filed for an Initial Public Offering (IPO) of it’s stock today. Enterprise Bazaarvoice IPOThe news is being covered by TechCrunch and The Statesman. The company is one of the fastest growing in Austin, going from 70 employees in April 2007 to over 600 today.

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Steve Blank

JULY 15, 2010

The collapse of the IPO market and dysfunctional math in the venture capital community has stacked the odds against you. Startup lifecycle in an IPO Market. Netscape’s 1995 IPO changed the rules. The size of the red bars (IPO’s) versus blue (mergers and acquisitions) illustrates that while venture-backed startups did get acquired, the IPO market was booming. They’ve created virtual IPO’s for founders and employees via late-stage private financing.

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The Next Web

SEPTEMBER 17, 2016

Earlier this year, I released the book Progressive Partnerships – The Future of Business. The central tenant of the book was that we are moving away from competition and into a period of collaboration. In it, I show how, whatever stage your business is at – even if it’s nothing more than a vague idea – you can use partnerships to achieve pretty much anything.

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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. A bunch of articles came out saying that Square had “priced” their IPO below last round and this was something terrible ranging from the bursting of a tech bubble to the coming of the apocalypse. Anyone who’s familiar with the IPO process knows that companies state an “initial” range as they begin their road show.

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