Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 29, 2009

High burn-rates fueled by over investment – One of the most damning things that happened to the start-up markets in 97-00 and 05-08 was the overfunding of technology companies. Bu when you start to worry that the world is ending (as it seemed it was in late 2008 / early 2009) you tend to get worried about large burn rates.

Burn Rate 263

Burn Rate Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Private Equity 263

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 18, 2023

Every startup founder loves to prompt for questions from investors and potential key team members about their vision, and the huge opportunity that can be had with their disruptive technology. Early stage burn rates over $50K per month, or a runway of less than six months may indicate an inefficient or desperate startup.

Sweat Equity 207

Sweat Equity Burn Rate Technical Review Intellectual Property 207

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 12, 2010

This is probably because many founders are product or technology people. How can you send some young MBA “biz dev type&# out into battle to sign up partners when you’ve never met with your potential business development collaborators and heard what their goals are and how you can meet them?

Hiring 346

Hiring Sales Startup Early Stage 346

YoungUpstarts

MAY 19, 2016

Think of a tech startup the same way. Forty-six percent of those cases fall short due to issues of “incompetence,” which can allude to any type of structural snafu. Use burn rate as an example. Be diligent about income and expenses and how each relates to your milestones. A Jenga tower is a precariously built one.

Technical Review 124

Technical Review Burn Rate IP Intellectual Property 124

VC Cafe

NOVEMBER 2, 2019

When you start with an honest and diligent effort to determine the truth of your situation, the right decisions often become self-evident.” — Jim Collins , author of Good to Great. In this post I’ll focus on benchmarking resources for seed and series A in the following three categories: SaaS B2C / Consumer apps Deep tech.

B2C 141

B2C Technical Review Startup Retention 141

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 8, 2015

Every startup founder loves to prompt for questions from investors and potential key team members about their vision, and the huge opportunity that can be had with their disruptive technology. Early stage burn rates over $50K per month, or a runway of less than six months may indicate an inefficient or desperate startup.

Technical Review 120

Technical Review Due Diligence Sweat Equity Burn Rate 120

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 10, 2016

Every startup founder loves to prompt for questions from investors and potential key team members about their vision, and the huge opportunity that can be had with their disruptive technology. Early stage burn rates over $50K per month, or a runway of less than six months may indicate an inefficient or desperate startup.

Sweat Equity 120

Sweat Equity Burn Rate Technical Review Intellectual Property 120

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 18, 2015

The partner most obsessed with the startup lifestyle tests the water by going to work in an early-stage startup, similar to one they might hope to start someday. Typically you can browse them by region or technology to find founders. What is the startup cash burn rate per month? Kick your networking up a notch.

Technical Review 120

Technical Review Entrepreneur Stock Options Silicon Valley 120

Professor VC

JANUARY 27, 2011

How Much Diligence is Due.Or Ive addressed the due diligence question in previous posts, but this came up again in a debate we were having at a recent meeting of the Sand Hill Angels. And in order to increase our groups returns, one of our goals should be to get more people and man hours involved in the diligence process.

Technical Review 31

Technical Review Due Diligence Silicon Valley San Jose 31

Genuine VC

FEBRUARY 9, 2011

Venture capitalists have an information advantage – startups are required to be fully transparent about everything before a VC invests in it during weeks if not months of diligence, but prospective employees are limited to just a few questions they ask during a series of interviews with only a few people at the company.

Startup 146

Startup Burn Rate Technical Review Down Round 146

Tim Keane

DECEMBER 14, 2009

  He is a partner in a pretty much exclusively software seed stage fund, Y Combinator that you can read more about.    When this happens, (due in part to the need to keep fees low) things get both left out and included that later wisdom will suggest should've been included or left out.  Starting Startups.

Burn Rate 60

Burn Rate Angel Groups Seed Stage Startup 60

Mucker Lab

MAY 28, 2020

This post originally appeared in TechCrunch back in 2015, written by our co-founder and managing partner Erik Rannala. Compass.co, a benchmarking and research service, analyzed 3,200 internet startups and found that 74 percent “fail due to premature scaling.” More and more investors have begun to shun high burn rates.

Startup 78

Startup Cofounder Burn Rate Technical Review 78

techcrunch.com

FEBRUARY 26, 2013

He knows how to advise entrepreneurs on hiring/firing, running teams, managing funding, when/how to control burn rate, and making other tough management decisions in the real environment of startups. How do I measure my partners and myself? Good boards know the difference, and they know what’s important when.

Burn Rate 87

Burn Rate Hiring Engineer Entrepreneur 87

www.paulgraham.com

APRIL 28, 2010

I wassurprised recently when I realized that all the worst problems wefaced in our startup were due not to competitors, but investors.Dealing with competitors was easy by comparison. Angels whove made money in technology are preferable,for two reasons: they understand your situation, and theyre asource of contacts and advice.

Technical Review 76

Technical Review Startup Software Review Angel Investor 76

VC Cafe

FEBRUARY 6, 2011

Jussi Laakkonen , CEO & founder of Applifie, summarized it well: We recently raised our seed round at Applifier and it was led by a silicon valley seed fund MHS Capital, whose general partner is Mark Sugarman. R&D outside SV is normally cheaper, so it helps you keeping your burn rate low. And what do the investors think?

Silicon Valley 104

Silicon Valley Startup Seed Stage Delaware 104

www.chubbybrain.com

SEPTEMBER 28, 2011

Also worth a read after you review these startup failure post-mortems. A month ago, half way through my angel funds raised from family members, I decided to review the progress I’ve made and figure out what still needs to happen to make this a viable business. We focused too much on technology. Company : Untitled Partners.

Software Review 79

Software Review Startup Technical Review Vesting 79

David Teten

NOVEMBER 26, 2019

Sean Colrock, Director of Client Partnerships at Wiss & Company , suggests at a minimum you track: cash on hand; fume date; and burn rate. due to inflation, salary increases) to maintain margin in an environment of downward pressure on prices. Successful agile budgeting requires modern technology.

Agile 60

Agile Management Forecast Silicon Valley 60

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. These large, high-priced private financings are the defining characteristic of this particular technology cycle.

IPO 40

IPO Liquidation Preference Valuation Technical Review 40

Professor VC

APRIL 7, 2011

My partner in Menlo Incubator , Gary Kremen , and I had a recent debate on which one of us hates convertible debt more. Technically, the start-up is insolvent from the day they take the first dollar of investment. How Much Diligence is Due. ProfessorVC. The last blogger in Silicon Valley. Thursday, April 7, 2011.

San Jose 36

San Jose Technical Review Angel Investor Valuation 36

Professor VC

JANUARY 27, 2008

During the next four months, we will examine over a dozen entrepreneurial ventures from a diverse mix of industries - technology, service, food & beverage, and fashion. I think this same concept plays into what Ive seen happening a lot more in the venture community: partners at VC firms jumping back into entrepreneurial ventures.

San Jose 28

San Jose Technical Review Angel Investor Venture Capital 28

Professor VC

FEBRUARY 12, 2008

Of course, rigorous diligence is performed, the team is challenged, and assumptions are tested. Once the point is reached where you want to move ahead, we put the sales hat on and convince our partners about the incredible opportunity that we are lucky enough to be able to invest on the ground floor. How Much Diligence is Due.

San Jose 31

San Jose Technical Review Venture Capital Angel Investor 31

abovethecrowd.com

APRIL 20, 2016

All Unicorn participants — founders, company employees, venture investors and their limited partners (LPs) — are seeing their fortunes put at risk from the very nature of the Unicorn phenomenon itself. In Q1 of 2016 there were zero VC-backed technology IPOs. And consequently, the burn rates are 10x larger than they were back then.

IPO 40

IPO Term Sheet Silicon Valley Valuation 40

Professor VC

NOVEMBER 19, 2009

If you have a reputation for cutting corners, not treating employees or partners right, it will become very difficult to do business. How Much Diligence is Due. While Silicon Valley covers a large amount of turf, it is very small. Hope this was helpful and that you enjoy your social entrepreneurship class next semester.

San Jose 43

San Jose Silicon Valley Las Vegas Venture Capital 43

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 6, 2020

We have the machine learning technology to take these disparate, small pieces of molecules, and stitch them together to form an actual anti-COVID drug." Eric Ries : Then somehow you made the transition from the scientist in a lab to the founder of a technology start up. Eric Ries : That's a remarkable use of social media. I certainly.

Artificial Inteligence 60

Artificial Inteligence Open Source Cofounder Design 60

pandodaily.com

JULY 18, 2012

But it’s possible that as the secret sauce of new media swings farther from disruptive technology and business models to a focus on curated and quality content, it’s the older entrepreneurs who are in the pole position. She has been covering technology news for over 15 years, most recently as a senior editor for TechCrunch.

Entrepreneur 45

Entrepreneur San Francisco Silicon Valley Technical Review 45

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 15, 2020

We reviewed the story of The Diary of Anne Frank and what she went through. To talk to other manufacturers and say, "Why don't we organize together and release information about what our daily production is, what our daily deliveries are, what our order rates are, so we reflect demand. My partner, Martin, and I did just that.

Dallas 68

Dallas Employee Government Social Media 68

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 9, 2011

Venture Capitalists typically have partners’ meetings on Mondays. So the industry formed around a day of the week when all partners could avoid having company board meetings or traveling. I introduced my partners, we spent weeks with the team and felt good rapport. Let’s review all of our existing investments.

Stock 305

Stock Technical Review Marketing Greece 305