Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 11, 2017

Today the rate of startups going public (IPO – Initial Public Offering) is up from the dead zone, but is still half the rate of 15 years ago. According to a recent Ernst & Young global report , the first half of 2017 was the most active first half by global number of IPOs since 2007. Going public is an expensive process.

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IPO SEC Prospectus Technical Review 218

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 24, 2017

— 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. In the 20th century tech companies and their investors made money through an Initial Public Offering (IPO).

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Founder Technical Review CTO Hire IPO 245

View from Seed

JUNE 13, 2019

I know some of the investors in Chewy prior to the PetSmart acquisition, but I am not a shareholder nor do I intend to purchase shares in the IPO. revenue business still growing >50% YoY? Chewy now has over 10 million customers, repeat purchases by existing customers account for approximately 90% of their revenue today.

Leadership 214

Leadership .Net Revenue Acquisition 214

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 5, 2018

As a reminder, the Dot Com bubble was a five-year period from August 1995 (the Netscape IPO ) when there was a massive wave of experiments on the then-new internet, in commerce, entertainment, nascent social media, and search. Massive liquidity awaited the first movers to the IPO’s, and that’s how they managed their portfolios.

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Lean Burn Rate Startup IPO 335

Berkonomics

JANUARY 12, 2023

Some types of businesses generate more and more recurring revenues over time, often growing to a size where recurring revenues pay all of the overhead of the company – an enviable position. The surprising recurring revenue trap. Legacy system recurring revenues. The enterprise value of recurring revenue-based companies.

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Revenue Cloud IPO .Net 118

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. Uber — May 9th, 2019.

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IPO Startup Stock Initial Public Offering 147

YoungUpstarts

OCTOBER 23, 2017

The combination of services and infrastructure traditionally housed under one roof – underwriting, research, sales & trading, supported by large back office operations, and monitored by compliance systems – will remain at the sector’s core. At least for investment banks the answer is not so clear cut.

Technical Review 154

Technical Review Artificial Inteligence Software Review IPO 154

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 12, 2014

IPO – public company initial public stock offering. The buyer has the challenge of scaling the business, and managing all the operational growth requirements. entrepreneur exit IPO lifestyle m&a startup' Yet it is an opportunity for you and your investors to cash out. You can kick-off your next startup. Marty Zwilling.

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Exit Strategy Entrepreneur IPO Startup 289

The Startup Magazine

AUGUST 3, 2021

Operating a competitive business and turning a significant profit is even more challenging. Despite the odds against new business success, Lazarus started and operated four businesses by the time he was 25 years old. This is how he came to start and operate Luke Lazarus Consulting in Sydney more than two decades ago.

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United States Entrepreneur Angel Investor Social Media 167

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 27, 2011

I find it amusing when a journalist writes an article about a prominent startup (either privately held or preparing for an IPO) and decries that, “They’re not even profitable!” They have have raised $2-3 million, built a product that has some amount of market traction and got to annualized revenues of around $1 million.

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Startup Revenue Technical Review Flash 418

Agile VC

JUNE 13, 2019

I know some of the investors in Chewy prior to the PetSmart acquisition, but I am not a shareholder nor do I intend to purchase shares in the IPO. revenue business still growing >50% YoY? Chewy now has over 10 million customers, repeat purchases by existing customers account for approximately 90% of their revenue today.

Leadership 100

Leadership .Net Revenue Acquisition 100

Ben's Blog

AUGUST 31, 2020

IN THIS EDITION Fintech products ease more Americans into the stock market In defense of the IPO, and how to improve it What’s inside your (mobile) bank? These products encourage all individuals to participate in and have a point of view on investing, rather than operating under the assumption that it’s strictly for the wealthy.

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IPO Stock Software Review API 36

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

VC Adventure

AUGUST 31, 2017

So no surprise that when River Cities Capital released an overview of SaaS operating and valuation benchmarks, I hung on every juicy detail. They took the 92 public SaaS companies and analyzed their key operating metrics. Companies in the study that scored 40% of greater had TTM revenue multiples of 6.4x on average.

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IPO Vertical Balance Sheet Valuation 113

abovethecrowd.com

FEBRUARY 24, 2015

Every successful technology company raises money throughout its lifecycle, perhaps starting with a seed investment and progressing through Series A, B, C, late-stage investments, and, for the most successful companies, an IPO. Lost in this conversation are the dramatic differences between a high priced private round and an IPO.

IPO 40

IPO Liquidation Preference Valuation Technical Review 40

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.

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IPO SEC Prospectus Startup 120

Steve Blank

APRIL 23, 2014

buy out an entire company for its revenue and profits. VCs like acquisitions as much as IPOs because the acquiring companies often can rationalize paying large multiples over the current valuation of the startup. The founding team is testing for the right combination of product, market, revenue, costs, etc.

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Acquisition Intellectual Property Silicon Valley Startup 332

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. If this were a math class, I’d just say the proof is evident but if you want some data on Twitter’s 2013 YTD revenue here you go.

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IPO Aggregator B2B Internet 194

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. entrepreneur Mark Zuckerberg startup investor IPO exit' Going public is an expensive process.

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IPO SEC Prospectus Startup 242

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. Revenue Composition.

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IPO .Net Revenue Acquisition 165

YoungUpstarts

JANUARY 10, 2018

Few buyers will get excited about a company currently operating at a loss. 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. Profile Your Customer Base. Wrapping Up.

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Valuation Technical Review Exit Strategy Metrics 145

Seeing Both Sides

JULY 22, 2012

Over a year and a half ago, I did a two-part blog post on the East Coast IPO malaise – one focused on Boston (Massachusetts more broadly), another focused on New York. On the heels of the successful Kayak IPO, I thought I would do a retrospective look back. Meanwhile, not a single New York technology IPO has taken place.

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Boston IPO Technical Review New York 52

VC Cafe

JANUARY 15, 2024

With the IPO window closed, growth funding severely dwindled and multiples down as a result of the public market, unicorns face tough choices in 2024. With limited options for liquidity (M&A or IPO) and significantly less growth capital, unicorns face an uncertain future. trillion, according to CB Insights.

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IPO Valuation Private Equity 88

YoungUpstarts

MARCH 24, 2017

Growth stocks provide the ideal opportunity as they see earnings and revenues rise at above-average speed. One risk of investing in growth stocks is that future potential is considered instead of current operations. Snap Inc’s stock SNAP increased 44% from the initial IPO rate on the first trading day. and $24.48

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Stock United States China Technical Review 113

VC Cafe

AUGUST 2, 2022

billion revenue in 2021 for Epic Games and was played by 83.3 monthly active end-users who are engaging with content created or operated by Unity solutions in 2020. billion revenue in 2021, a 107% increase year-on-year. billion revenue in 2021, the second year in a row it made over $1 billion. Fortnite generated $5.8

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IP Cofounder Valuation Acquisition 206

Growthink Blog

DECEMBER 27, 2017

Operations Plan Goal of the operations plan: Present the action plan for executing on your company’s vision. The operations plan transforms the business plan from concept into reality. And the operations plan proves that the management team can execute on your concept better than anybody else. Detail all revenue streams.

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Venture Capital Business Plan Technical Review Private Placement 129

David Teten

JANUARY 19, 2021

More and more startups are pursuing Revenue-Based VCs , but “RBI” doesn’t fit everyone. Flexible VC 101: Equity Meets Revenue Share. By tying payments to actual revenues, founders and investors remain aligned around the company’s real-time performance, good or bad. Of the Inc. 5000 companies, only 6.5% raised from angels.

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Cofounder Technical Review Equity Dividend 78

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 14, 2009

Five Quarters of Profitability During the 1980’s and through the mid 1990’s startups going public had to do something that most companies today never heard of – they had to show a track record of increasing revenue and consistent profitability. There was now a public market for companies with no revenue, no profit and big claims.

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Silicon Valley IPO Technical Review Venture Capital 217

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 27, 2016

IPO – public company initial public stock offering. The buyer has the challenge of scaling the business, and managing all the operational growth requirements. This should be perceived as a win-win event, where your startup is bought or merged into a larger peer or competitor, allowing both you and investors to cash out.

Equity 120

Equity Exit Strategy Private Equity Startup 120

VC Cafe

APRIL 29, 2020

Many of these businesses operate in the digital realm and have seen limited impact on revenues – some have even seen their revenues explode VC Backed Startups and PPP: Do You Really Need It? Source: NVCA , “Startup Ecosystem Faces Capital Crunch over Coming Months” USA – SBA Loans and PPP.

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SBA Technical Review Startup 124

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. Now that Google’s acquisition of ITA is closed, following lenghty FTC review, it would appear Kayak is poised to proceed with their IPO in the coming months. =. 2010 Operating Income: $16 million.

Pre-Money Valuation 113

Pre-Money Valuation Liquidation Preference Dividend Common Stock 113

BeyondVC

MARCH 21, 2017

As we move to a cloud-only world with instant-on capabilities and low friction in onboarding customers, why does professional services revenue keep increasing year over year for these enterprise cloud businesses. Professional services drives subscription revenue. However, since 2014 the percentage increased from 4.1%

IPO 88

IPO Cloud Azure Revenue 88

View from Seed

NOVEMBER 7, 2019

Companies are retrenching, VC firms are going through their own upheavals, and IPOs are non-existent. Year over year revenue growth rates are measured in multiples not percentages. But overall this is a period where the IPO market remains largely closed to VC-backed startups. Survival is the order of the day.

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IPO Early Stage Cofounder B2C 202

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 11, 2011

I thing I’ve learned over the years is that technology purists hate advertising even when it is that revenue stream that truthfully drives much of our industry. In 1995 Netscape IPO’d and browsers started to become more prevalent. He created GoTo.com (later renamed Overture) out of a frustration with search.

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Product Tuvalu Dilution Incubator 350

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 23, 2012

In an over-funding environment companies are encouraged to eschew revenues in a land grab to acquire eyeballs, clicks, page views or whatever other vanity metrics give VCs the false comfort that they’re sitting on a gold mine. IPO markets had burned an entire cycle of retail stock investors and many institutional investors to boot.

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Venture Capital Technical Review LP Mobile 347

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 13, 2020

Find some credible opportunity statistics that can support your own revenue expectations of between $20 million and $100 million in the fifth year. Demonstrate an understanding of business operation realities. > Market penetration and revenue targets related to opportunity size.

Liquidity Event 308

Liquidity Event Forecast Exit Strategy Bootstrapping 308

BeyondVC

APRIL 4, 2018

Look at the Dropbox IPO which priced above its initial value and came out white hot at the end of one of the worst weeks in stock market performance. Couple that with Mulesoft being bought for 21x TTM revenue ( see Tomasz Tunguz analysis ) at $6.5 Their growth to over $509mm of revenue from $281mm 2 years ago is a case in point.

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Cloud Agile Architecture Azure 60