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IRR Related Topics 
VC Adventure
MAY 5, 2022
I’m observing that IRR is a metric that is becoming an increasing focus in venture, replacing fund return multiple as the key metric of success. I understand the draw of IRR, and – as a fund draws to a close – there’s no question it’s an important metric. But that doesn’t seem to be stopping funds or LPs from touting IRR as the gold standard for evaluating relative fund performance. Recycling hurts IRR.
Tim Keane
OCTOBER 19, 2016
It’s not very often that angel networks disclose results. Most of us are ready and willing to discuss our approaches, beliefs or methods, but usually stop well short of providing the proof of our assertions. Today, Golden Angels is publishing. Funding startups
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Austin Startup
AUGUST 31, 2016
September 5, 2016: Some recent successful exits in Austin have caught my eye for the relative simplicity of their business models. Patient… Continue reading on Austin Startups
Up and Running
JUNE 17, 2013
And Internal Rate of Return (IRR)? Finance angel investment IRR ROI venture capital Flash: investors don’t believe your ROI projections. News at 11. Why is this news? It shouldn’t be. But recently I joined two other angel investor members of our local group in a conference call giving companies feedback on why they didn’t make the final rounds in our annual event.
VC Cafe
MARCH 8, 2010
The Carmel I Fund, raised in 2000, had the highest performance, giving an internal rate of return (IRR) of 8% and a positive multiple of 1.4. Other funds, including Apax Israel II, Israel Seed IV and JVP showed negative IRRs of 20-30%. Tags: Carmel Ventures Israel Israel seed Sequoia Israel Startvest 09 TriVentures Venture Capital Funds carmel ivc ivc online sequoia E IRR
Version One Ventures
SEPTEMBER 22, 2021
3x the invested capital net of fees over a period of about ten years for a net IRR in the low twenties). When I started Version One Ventures in 2012, every experienced VC shared the same rule of thumb: we had to return 3x net consistently to stay in business (i.e.
Venture Chronicles
JUNE 30, 2010
Over the past 10 years their quarterly internal rate of return (IRR)—the primary measure of VC success—was dismal, hovering in the single percentage points and sometimes dipping into negative territory. Tags: Uncategorized VC IRR This piece in HBR is must read, it details why there will be a lot fewer VC funds in the future. The sky is falling on the venture capital rainmakers.
Gust
AUGUST 16, 2012
The reality is that results in angel investing tend to bifurcate: “Professional” angel investors, who are investing calmly, steadily, relatively-rationally, over a long period of time and with a strong knowledge of both investment math and early stage realities, tend to not only make money, but do quite well: the average return for a comprehensive, well-managed angel portfolio is between 25% and 30% IRR.
Startup Professionals Musings
JUNE 13, 2020
VCs will be looking for a 10X return on their investment in 3 to 5 years, or 30% annual IRR (Internal Rate of Return). Too many entrepreneurs tell me they are looking for an investor, and can’t differentiate between venture capital (VC) investors versus accredited angel investors.
View from Seed
AUGUST 17, 2021
One industry specific example is the strange fascination among some LPs and GPs around term IRR. Even though everyone knows that VC funds take 10+ years to come to fruition, one often can’t help but benchmark themselves based on IRR in the early days. Early on, I sweated the fact that our early funds had pretty “meh” IRR in the first 3-5 years. A few weeks ago, we hosted a small dinner for a number of portfolio company founders, LP’s, and friends of the firm.
Hippoland
NOVEMBER 13, 2016
A common intermediary milestone for most investors is IRR (internal rate of return) of the fund. So there are a lot of unrealized gains built into the IRR of an early fund. Furthermore, we’ve established that companies don’t get credit for revenue — this does not get factored into IRR calculations. IRR calculations are based on two things — changes in a company’s value and the time-scale on which this happens.
Gust
APRIL 30, 2014
Having now invested in over 85 startups, and finding that my personal metrics are very similar to aggregated industry ones, it is clear that (a) there is little to no correlation between my home runs and my personal favorites, and (b) angel investing done correctly really *can* produce a consistent IRR in the 25%-30% range.
View from Seed
DECEMBER 4, 2019
The longer the portfolio maintains the same value without distributing back cash, the worse the fund’s ultimate IRR. This equates to something in the neighborhood of a 10% IRR, which isn’t great given the illiquidity of the asset class and strength of the public markets.
View from Seed
AUGUST 17, 2021
One industry specific example is the strange fascination among some LPs and GPs around term IRR. Even though everyone knows that VC funds take 10+ years to come to fruition, one often can’t help but benchmark themselves based on IRR in the early days.
View from Seed
JULY 15, 2020
This may not hurt the ultimate exit value of these companies, but the passage of time will hurt the fund’s ultimate IRR. One topic of conversation among VC’s over the last few months is how their portfolios are faring during the Covid pandemic.
Hunter Walker
JULY 18, 2021
I never really tracked IRR or net returns, but I did pay close attention to ‘lessons learned.’ I Made These Mistakes A Few Times But You Don’t Need To. Part of successful angel investing is picking winners. Another part is avoiding picking losers.
VC Adventure
OCTOBER 5, 2020
IRR will depend on the timing of cash flows but as a quick rule of thumb, venture funds look to return at least 3 times the invested capital – after fees, so more like 3.5x
View from Seed
AUGUST 17, 2021
One industry specific example is the strange fascination among some LPs and GPs around term IRR. Even though everyone knows that VC funds take 10+ years to come to fruition, one often can’t help but benchmark themselves based on IRR in the early days. Early on, I sweated the fact that our early funds had pretty “meh” IRR in the first 3-5 years. A few weeks ago, we hosted a small dinner for a number of portfolio company founders, LP’s, and friends of the firm.
Both Sides of the Table
MAY 24, 2021
as measured by MOIC, TVPI and IRR and by sources that don’t reveal the underlying data and who themselves have to rely on incomplete datasets. Silicon Valley and the media industry that surrounds it values youth.
Steve Blank
MARCH 4, 2014
They include: return on net assets ( RONA ), return on capital deployed, internal rate of return ( IRR ), net/gross margins, earnings per share, marginal cost/revenue, debt/equity, EBIDA , price earning ratio, operating income, net revenue per employee, working capital, debt to equity ratio, acid test, accounts receivable/payable turnover, asset utilization, loan loss reserves, minimum acceptable rate of return, etc. (A
This is going to be BIG.
MAY 16, 2016
Sounds like a huge amount, but only later does he say that only " 476 funds which had known Net IRR values, the overwhelming majority of which were from vintage 2002, or more recently." 3) You can't eat IRRs for breakfast. You know what the IRRs of Quirky and Fab were before they went to zero? Looking at interim IRRs of young funds, especially during boom periods in venture isn't predictive of outcomes.
Berkonomics
JANUARY 6, 2022
You will not be moving your IRR needle enough by grabbing a few extra dollars in a marginal sale, but you will incur the wrath of a number of stakeholders who would be more than willing to spread the word far and wide about your greedy ways.
Steve Blank
JUNE 11, 2013
What is an IRR? Not all that glitters is gold. William Shakespeare. For many entrepreneurs “raising money” has replaced “building a sustainable business” as their goal. That’s a big mistake. When you take money from investors their business model becomes yours. ———– One of my ex students came out to the ranch to give me an update on his startup. When I asked, “What are you working on?” the first words out of his mouth was his fund raising progress.
Hunter Walker
NOVEMBER 13, 2018
You’re basically along for the ride with an investor who has very different incentives than you do – a different time frame, the AUM business vs IRR business, and requiring a scale in outcome that’s just astronomical. Oh boy, conference season in the venture world and one enduring question this year has been “What to do about the Vision Fund?”
Startup Professionals Musings
DECEMBER 16, 2017
There is a rarified brand of successful investors who can show average IRRs of 25 percent or greater over the years. Entrepreneurs who require funding for their startup have long counted on self-accredited high net worth individuals (“angels”) to fill their needs, after friends and family, and before they qualify for institutional investments (“VCs”).
Startup Professionals Musings
JUNE 5, 2015
There is a rarified brand of successful investors who can show average IRRs of 25 percent or greater over the years. Entrepreneurs who require funding for their startup have long counted on self-accredited high net worth individuals (“angels”) to fill their needs, after friends and family, and before they qualify for institutional investments (“VCs”).
VC Adventure
AUGUST 12, 2014
The resulting fund would have an IRR in the range of 10% (the exact IRR would depend on the timing of the cash flows, but I constructed a few models to approximate this and 10% was the average return). The typical “successful” venture portfolio is often described as having the following outcome: 1/3 of companies fail. 1/3 of companies return capital (or make a small amount of money). 1/3 of companies do well.
Startup Professionals Musings
MAY 9, 2014
There is a rarified brand of successful investors who can show average IRRs of 25 percent or greater over the years. Entrepreneurs who require funding for their startup have long counted on self-accredited high net worth individuals (“angels”) to fill their needs, after friends and family, and before they qualify for institutional investments (“VCs”).
Startup Professionals Musings
AUGUST 2, 2014
VCs will be looking for a 10X return on their investment in 3 to 5 years, or 30% annual IRR (Internal Rate of Return). Too many entrepreneurs tell me they are looking for an investor, and can’t differentiate between venture capital (VC) investors versus accredited Angel investors. They argue that the color of the money is the same from either source.
This is going to be BIG.
JULY 30, 2015
So here's what the charts say for follow on strategies: If you run down the first column, what it says is that it basically doesn't matter if you follow on from an IRR perspective--a percent won't kill you here or there. If you're following on in the A round, then you shed a full 500 basis points on your IRR. Well, clearly the dollars are much better--which is nice for VCs who get a cut of the dollar profits (as opposed to being paid on IRR). Time is the enemy of IRR.
Startup Professionals Musings
FEBRUARY 5, 2018
Investors measure their success by looking at the internal rate of return (IRR). As an active angel investor, I’m accustomed to hearing entrepreneurs pitch their expectation to quickly create a new dominant brand, based on their disruptive technology. In the past, such statements have been credibility red flags, since “everyone” knows that a dominant brand takes decades to establish and scale. Only recently, I realized that times are rapidly changing.
VC Adventure
AUGUST 12, 2014
The resulting fund would have an IRR in the range of 10% (the exact IRR would depend on the timing of the cash flows, but I constructed a few models to approximate this and 10% was the average return). The typical “successful” venture portfolio is often described as having the following outcome: 1/3 of companies fail. 1/3 of companies return capital (or make a small amount of money). 1/3 of companies do well.
David Teten
JANUARY 28, 2013
The good news for Techcrunch readers: Every major study conducted to date has placed angel investors’ IRR between 18 and 38 percent, as summarized by my Partner John Frankel and Professor Robert Wiltbank in prior Techcrunch articles. Every major angel study conducted to date has shown high IRR. I previously published this at Techcrunch. .
Steve Blank
JUNE 11, 2013
What is an IRR? Not all that glitters is gold. William Shakespeare. For many entrepreneurs “raising money” has replaced “building a sustainable business” as their goal. That’s a big mistake. When you take money from investors their business model becomes yours. ———– One of my ex students came out to the ranch to give me an update on his startup. When I asked, “What are you working on?” the first words out of his mouth was his fund raising progress.
Startup Professionals Musings
JUNE 5, 2016
VCs will be looking for a 10X return on their investment in 3 to 5 years, or 30% annual IRR (Internal Rate of Return). Too many entrepreneurs tell me they are looking for an investor, and can’t differentiate between venture capital (VC) investors versus accredited Angel investors. They argue that the color of the money is the same from either source.
Both Sides of the Table
MAY 19, 2018
Or if you’re a VC raising from LPs you have to list all of your deals, your investment value, your carrying value, your multiples, your IRRs, TVPIs, DPIs, etc along with net cashflows plus your previous LPAs. Why you should never have a data room?—?the the most counter-intuitive fund-raising advice you’ll ever get I’m about to offer you some fund-raising advice that flies directly in the face of what most conventional wisdom will tell you.
Gust
NOVEMBER 1, 2011
Based on the Wiltbank Study, investors should expect a 27% IRR in six years. We recently started a series of posts on establishing the pre-money valuation of pre-revenue startup companies for purposes of investment by seed and startup investors. The Venture Capital Method (VC Method) was first described by Professor Bill Sahlman at Harvard Business School in 1987 in a case study and has been revised since.
The Equity Kicker
OCTOBER 25, 2012
This LP is one of the more successful ones, they have positions in many of the top funds and have achieved a very comendable IRR from their investments in venture funds (well north of 20%, which is great as an average). One of the world’s larger investors in venture capital recently shared data with us about the multiples they have made on over 5,000 companies they had stakes in via their LP investments in US VC funds.
Startup Professionals Musings
APRIL 3, 2012
Another rule of thumb is a target of 50% IRR (a discounted cashflow calculation). If your startup desperately needs an investor, you may not care if the investor is a so-called “angel” investor, or a venture capitalist (VC). The money is the same color in either case. But I have found that making the right choice at the right time can have a major impact on your long-term valuation, and the decision process is complex. The basics are simple.
The Equity Kicker
MAY 27, 2015
The definitive answer to these questions will come over time as our portfolio matures, our companies exit, and we can demonstrate a high cash to cash IRR. Fund managers are assessed, in part, on their ratio of expenses to assets under management. This applies to all classes of fund managers, including pension fund managers, IFAs, private equity fund managers, and venture capital fund managers.
Both Sides of the Table
OCTOBER 17, 2019
An example was that while we were in the seed round at Ring and followed in the A, B, C and D … we were also able to lean into the E round when Jamie really wanted to scale up his funding and the final check was still > 420% IRR! I became a VC 12 years ago in 2007 when the pace of deals was much slower. I had just left Salesforce.com where I was VP, Products, after they had acquired my second startup.
SoCal CTO
MAY 19, 2010
The example he uses is: THE RAISE Investment $500,000 Pre Money $600,000 Post Money $1,100,000 OWNERSHIP Founders 55% Investors 45% EXIT Sale Price $5,000,000 Time 5 years INVESTOR RATIOS ROI 355% Multiple 4.55x IRR 35% NPV @ 10% $828,000 Admittedly that valuation and the resulting ownership causes me to wonder, but the most interesting aspect is that Bob is talking about investing in a much smaller exit, with no future investment planned.
Up and Running
DECEMBER 22, 2015
My personal favorite in the “pure nonsense category” is the IRR, the Internal Rate of Return , something that was interesting for about one hour as part of the MBA curriculum, but which has no relevance in the real world. I have to admit, I’ve seen some judges of graduate-level business plan competitions care about IRR, but never an actual angel investor during actual due diligence. Read more of my articles related to this topic: You Can Take That IRR and Shove It.
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