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IRR is a vanity metric

VC Adventure

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. Recycling hurts IRR. This is a mistake.

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What Does the Post Crash VC Market Look Like?

Both Sides of the Table

Should SaaS companies trade at a 24x Enterprise Value (EV) to Next Twelve Month (NTM) Revenue multiple as they did in November 2021? IRRs work really well in a 12-year bull market but VCs have to make money in good markets and bad. It’s just math.

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Flexible VC, a New Model for Companies Targeting Profitability

David Teten

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. Flexible VC: Revenue -based. Of the Inc.

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Valuations 101: The Venture Capital Method

Gust

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. It is one of the useful methods for establishing the pre-money valuation of pre-revenue startup ventures. OK…let’s split the difference.

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Should you raise traditional VC or Revenue-Based Investing VC?

David Teten

Or should they look to one of the new wave of Revenue-Based Investors? Revenue-Based Investing (“RBI”) is a new form of VC financing, distinct from the preferred equity structure most VCs use. For more background, see Revenue-Based Investing: A New Option for Founders who Care About Control. But should they? Aligned incentives.

Revenue 60
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Why Companies are Not Startups

Steve Blank

A consequence of using these corporate finance metrics like RONA and IRR is that it ‘s a lot easier to get these numbers to look great by 1) outsourcing everything, 2) getting assets off the balance sheet and 3) only investing in things that pay off fast. Corporate KPI’s, Policy and Procedures: Innovation Killers.

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ESADE Business School Commencement Speech

Steve Blank

Companies horde cash and squeeze the most revenue and margin from the money they use. Unfortunately as we’ve learned from recent experience, using Return on Net Assets and IRR as proxies for efficiency and execution won’t save a company when their industry encounters creative disruption.