Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 16, 2016

This term refers to an initial venture-capital investment, often wrongly sought to seed early product development. These deals usually come with retention packages -- so be careful. It implies runaway investor speculation on future values, fear of missing out on trends, and it leads to unicorns. Frothy is good for entrepreneurs.

Software Review 120

Software Review Sweat Equity Accredited Investor Angel Investor 120

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 27, 2011

They raised $5 million in venture capital to fund growth. They got a bigger office space so their employees would feel comfortable and they could improve employee retention. The company would have had to raise at least $35 million in venture capital to have funded operations like this. What did they actually do?

Startup 418

Startup Revenue Technical Review Flash 418

Mucker Lab

AUGUST 27, 2014

If you took a random sample of 100 entrepreneurs here in LA, over 50% might not be able to tell you how to technically calculate 90-day cohort retention or how to build a cash flow statement. I regularly come across companies who happen to have the #1 paid app in the App Store fly under the radar for years before raising venture capital.

Los Angeles 138

Los Angeles Southern California Silicon Valley Technical Review 138

David Teten

MAY 1, 2013

However, they remain key to your email identity, and fundamental to your marketing and even capital-raising. The ff Venture Capital portfolio is evidence of how much we believe this, e.g., our companies Alerts.com , Gobbler.com , Identified.com , Patents.com , Phone.com , and Plated.com. I previously published this in Forbes.

Naming 114

Naming Semantic Venture Capital Startup 114

Hunter Walker

AUGUST 10, 2023

But after a decade in venture capital, alongside my immense respect for the founders who just keep building, I’ve also come to appreciate that knowing when to get out matters as much. No one is snickering now. I’d toast to all these founders but as a result of these outcomes they probably have better champagne than I do!

Founder 80

Founder Equity Acquisition Retention 80

YoungUpstarts

FEBRUARY 22, 2017

And in the last few years, these cases have prompted D&O insurers to put specific M&A retentions into their policies. Retention, or self-insured retention, refers to the amount of money an insured business is responsible for paying first in the event of a claim before the insurance kicks in.

IPO 147

IPO Prospectus Merger Initial Public Offering 147

ReadWriteStart

APRIL 5, 2012

JBara.com complements and extends traditional CRM software such as Salesforce to improve customer retention and satisfaction. Now that everything is in the cloud, many ventures are looking toward building their own Something as a Service to leverage their expertise and get third parties to adopt their frameworks.

St. Louis 127

St. Louis Kansas City Technical Review Kansas 127

Austin Startup

MARCH 6, 2021

Now the company boasts a global team and a 90% customer retention rate. Then in 2020 they applied to Sputnik ATX. The Nitex team used Sputnik as a launchpad to grow and build credibility needed to convince future investors.

Bangladesh 62

Bangladesh Denmark Retention Austin 62

Cracking the Code

MAY 2, 2019

Retention is a big challenge for every growth company. There has to be acceptance that retention is never total, however; People will eventually leave, and that doesn’t necessarily mean your system is at fault. This gives us a good impression of both their own technical knowledge, and how they would assess and coach that of others.

Part-Time VPE 48

Part-Time VPE Engineer Retention API 48

crowdSPRING Blog

NOVEMBER 30, 2012

The Biggest Problem in Mobile: Retention – [link]. Want Venture Capital Funding? The Biggest Problem in Mobile: Retention – [link]. Seth’s Blog: Persuade vs. convince – [link]. What’s the secret to a great team? Barking Up The Wrong Tree – [link]. Here’s How | Forbes – [link].

Social Media 100

Social Media Small Business Central African Republic Design 100

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 13, 2013

And that is the tension in the acquihire – what is the purchase price for the company, what is the “earn out” if the acquired company hits some performance targets and what is the amount of money set aside for staff retention? Acquihires and Venture Capital. We get the mechanics. I’m a VC.

Liquidation Preference 357

Liquidation Preference Early Stage Retention Lock-up Period 357

David Teten

AUGUST 6, 2015

My colleague Paul Bianco serves as interim CFO for a number of ff Venture Capital ’s portfolio companies, and has built and reviewed hundreds of financial models. If assumptions get better over time (lower customer acquisition, higher gross profit, better retention), note how you plan to achieve those milestones in the model.

Balance Sheet 60

Balance Sheet Software Review Forecast Acquisition 60

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 17, 2017

Venture capital isn’t right for many business but if you do want to raise from a VC at some point you need to understand that often investors care more about growth than profits. They raised $5 million in venture capital to fund growth. Are you looking to potentially sell the company in the next year or two?

Stock Options 227

Stock Options Startup Dilution Venture Capital 227

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 8, 2014

Given how efficient markets are when a large market like LA starts to blossom it attracts capital pretty quickly. billion in venture capital to LA’s technology startups and 2014 will shatter that figure. In the last full year where we have data LA attracted $1.5 Success begets success. and are guiding LA 2.0.

Los Angeles 376

Los Angeles Silicon Valley Entrepreneur Seattle 376

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 17, 2019

Just as I was getting the swing of things the world shifted beneath my feet and the stock market went into a free fall and venture capital all but shut down for nearly a year. It proved to be fortuitous because it allowed me the time & space I needed to get to know tons of founders and VCs and to hone my craft.

IP 223

IP Intellectual Property IRR Cofounder 223

David Teten

DECEMBER 16, 2015

For early stage companies, the metrics that matter might typically center around activation, engagement and retention. ff Venture Capital portfolio company. Net Income (Loss). Available Cash. Remaining Runway. The Complete Quantitative Guide To Judging Your Startup. A Primer on Startup Metrics – Which Analytics Tool to pick. *

Metrics 60

Metrics Analytics Balance Sheet .Net 60

Austin Startup

AUGUST 13, 2018

Investing in & operating a fast-growth D2C biz” with Roger Chen @ Silverton Partners This will be a panel with two venture capital investors and two entrepreneurs that focus on the consumer goods category.

Austin 48

Austin Technical Review Cofounder Texas 48

Cracking the Code

DECEMBER 1, 2009

Venture Capital. (3). Explore Venture Capital. Favorite Podcasts. (1). internet. (6). McKinsey highlights. (1). Online Gaming. (1). Portfolio. (3). sales and marketing. (10). Small and medium businesses. (2). software. (10). Blog Archive. ► 2012. (1). ► 01/15 - 01/22. (1). BlablaCar - Travel Revolution.

Software Review 48

Software Review Technical Review Cloud Europe 48

VC Cafe

JULY 26, 2020

“After the crash, venture capital was scarce to non-existent. With the risk of sounding too conservative, what matters for startups now, as venture capital becomes less available and consumer spending tightens, is adaptation and survival. In conclusion, I believe most of the Lean Startup isn’t fully dead.

Lean 214

Lean Seed Capital Startup Burn Rate 214

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 26, 2014

In that article I talked about how PR drives: recruiting, employee retention, biz dev deals, funding and even M&A and that often “attribution” to your PR activities is unknown. Contrary to popular opinion I actually believe crowd-funding is best used after seed capital or venture capital.

PR 319

PR Venture Capital Hiring Seed Capital 319

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 16, 2011

But before you jump on the bandwagon, you should consider the advice I saw recently from the maven of venture capital, William H. Do you need this for recruitment and retention? Draper III, in his new book titled “ The Startup Game.” Liquidity can help attract new employees and keep current ones happy.

IPO 223

IPO Social Media Media Exit Strategy 223

Austin Startup

JULY 19, 2021

Beereaders not only helps students to improve their reading comprehension, the company also guides students to improve their learning behaviors, which builds stronger learning habits and improved retention of content.

Austin 111

Austin San Francisco Chile SEC 111

This is going to be BIG.

AUGUST 31, 2011

Keep in mind, though, that retention is just as important. Be quick to hire, and quick to fire. I've heard that you can tell whether or not an employee is going to work out within the first week. Hires - Touchdown! If you keep hiring people and they leave within three weeks, you have an entirely different problem on your hands.

CTO Hire 113

CTO Hire Hiring Bandwidth Metrics 113

The Equity Kicker

OCTOBER 1, 2015

Gil Dibner recommended this video with Bill Gurley in a recent post about the five forces of venture capital. Customer retention is where a lot of companies could do better. A Fireside Chat with Bill Gurley of Benchmark: The Future of Ecommerce — September 15, 2015 from Sailthru on Vimeo.

eCommerce 60

eCommerce San Francisco Customer Portfolio 60

Haystack

FEBRUARY 17, 2019

These customers leverage SecondMeasure to analyze and cross-analyze how consumers are spending their cash, but going deeper, the platform enables customers to analyze rate of growth, cohort retention, benchmark against category competitors or regional performance, and much more.

Seed Stage 106

Seed Stage Retention Finance Conversion 106

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 5, 2012

It was a journalist who covered Venture Capital. It is 101 for anybody who understands memory and information retention. He is clearly intellectually very smart yet simplifying to “software is eating the world” helped him better deliver his message. He did the interview and was eviscerated in the article.

Entrepreneur 370

Entrepreneur Silicon Valley Startup United States 370

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 5, 2011

When you account for competition for talent, the difficulty of retention, the cost of living and the difficulty of rising above the noise – there are many advantages of staying put. When you think about the success that is Silicon Valley, the unfair advantage is not just the huge amounts of available venture capital.

Seattle 317

Seattle Silicon Valley Technical Review Los Angeles 317

Jason Ball

JUNE 17, 2013

As part of an ongoing effort to be more transparent and open about venture and investing, I thought I’d set out a few reasons for why I led the effort behind Qualcomm Ventures’ recent investment into Wrapp (great interview with Carl where he discuses product and roadmap). Mobile Venture Capital'

San Francisco 42

San Francisco Venture Capital Retention Cofounder 42

Growthink Blog

JANUARY 20, 2015

to proposals, to sales, to retention, to ongoing revenue. Business Planning Entrepreneurship Financing Investing Jay Turo Management Venture Capital' This might look like building revenue projections based on the conversion ratios of web traffic to inquiries (phone, e-mail, text, etc.)

Conversion Ratio 48

Conversion Ratio Venture Capital Business Model Retention 48

This is going to be BIG.

MARCH 30, 2015

Because most internet business concepts were not capable of productively employing tens of millions of dollars of venture capital does not mean they were bad ideas." Retention, referral and growth hacking experts would be in high demand, asked to squeeze blood from a stone in order to grow a userbase without paid acquisition.

Hockey Stick 60

Hockey Stick Valuation Startup Maryland 60

Growthink Blog

APRIL 29, 2014

High-flying venture-backed companies like AirBnB , Dropbox , Uber , TangoMe , and Domo. For these companies and hundreds of others backed by venture capital firms, by the time the public knows about them, almost always the best opportunity to invest in them has long past. Companies that are Lucky.

Houston 72

Houston Retention Venture Capital Global 72

This is going to be BIG.

JANUARY 14, 2014

Sure, we have e-mail retention policies, but that isn''t really solving the problem. Venture Capital & Technology' We''ve had business e-mail for twenty plus years and there hasn''t been a secure e-mail system that has gained traction yet, despite people getting caught writing damning e-mails time and time again.

Security 105

Security Venture Capital Channel Retention 105

VC Cafe

JULY 21, 2020

In the past I’ve covered the rise of corporate venture capital and the growing number of Fortune 500 companies who are actively launching CVC arms or investing in startups/funds. how do we improve retention) and Google helps the startups with best practices (i.e. But investing is only part of the picture.

Technical Review 131

Technical Review Startup Early Stage Cloud 131

Growthink Blog

NOVEMBER 19, 2010

Focus on Customer Retention Focus more on retaining your customers than getting new ones. Really Listen to Your Customers One of my favorite quotes is from marketing expert Jay Abraham which goes, "Your customers are geniuses; they know exactly what they want." In doing so, your competitors will be at a huge disadvantage.

Retention 121

Retention Venture Capital Hiring Acquisition 121

Growthink Blog

OCTOBER 26, 2016

Mr. Allen Lin, eCommerce Strategist, Retention Science. Retention Science has developed the industry’s first predictive marketing technology powered by Artificial Intelligence, empowering marketers to turn customer data into actionable insights.

Artificial Inteligence 48

Artificial Inteligence Retention eCommerce Web 48

Software By Rob

SEPTEMBER 17, 2013

This is an extremely important distinction because most of the growth advice online makes the assumption that everyone has venture capital. Retention can be relational. They require much less velocity because they are escaping a different kind of gravity. VC companies need hockey stick growth.

Hockey Stick 69

Hockey Stick Bootstrapping Cofounder Acquisition 69

Haystack

NOVEMBER 25, 2018

venture capital deals, a spike in mega-financings where it’s common to see not only $100M private rounds, but companies that raise two or three types of financings like this in the same calendar year! [Here is the Google Doc where we tracked these.]

Technical Review 127

Technical Review Open Source Software Review Venture Capital 127