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

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 8, 2016

Much has changed in the past four months of the technology startup world and how outsiders value the business. If you raised money in the past 2 years and have grown it is possible that your next round valuation might be flat (or lower) even though you have a higher revenue because investors may value your multiple differently.

Burn Rate 150

Burn Rate Cap Table Startup Dilution 150

The Next Web

JANUARY 22, 2014

Age (young founders are more likely to be able to pay themselves low salaries), company revenue (not just funding raised) and team size were flagged as potential influences on why a founder may pay him- or herself a particular amount. Startup revenue and founder salary. Founder age and salary.

Salary 152

Salary Founder Entrepreneur Burn Rate 152

Transformify

AUGUST 27, 2017

Their investors may push them into that direction too, as the high burn rate is often seen as a prerequisite for high growth. You don’t have the right people on board, you are burning cash and the work is not done, at its worst, your product is already live and you are losing clients due to software bugs and poor user experience.

Hiring 64

Hiring Software Review Burn Rate Startup 64

Up and Running

OCTOBER 7, 2019

Many startups focus on growth (instead of profits) and often need to track KPIs that may be different from those used by established businesses: Burn rate : indicates the company’s negative cash flow or how quickly it’s spending money. Activation rate: measures how many visitors are engaging with your website or app. Sales KPIs.

Founder 71

Founder Retention Metrics Technical Review 71

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2014

I was reading Danielle Morrill’s blog post today on whether one’s “ Startup Burn Rate is Normal. Danielle goes through some commentary from Bill Gurley, Fred Wilson and Marc Andreessen about burn rate and then goes on to discuss her own burn rate and others publicly weigh in.

Burn Rate 383

Burn Rate Balance Sheet .Net Valuation 383

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

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 3, 2009

Let’s take your revenue line. If you’re a consumer destination the revenue and COGS lines should tell me about how big your funnel is, how you fill the top end of the pipe and what your conversion rates will be. Usually in a tech / software startup 70-80% of your costs will be people. Here’s why.

Business Plan 334

Business Plan AJAX Venture Capital Technical Review 334

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 28, 2018

Founder: “$8–10 million” VC: “What’s your current burn rate?” VC: “So at a constant rate of burn rate you’d be raising enough for 2.5–3 If you’ve raised $3 million previously, have $250k in monthly recurring revenue and 23 staff an $8–10 million round might be more down the fairway. Founder: “Um.

Burn Rate 247

Burn Rate Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Dilution 247

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 5, 2018

A version of this article first appeared in the Harvard Business Review. Tech IPO prices exploded and subsequent trading prices rose to dizzying heights as the stock prices became disconnected from the traditional metrics of revenue and profits. Then the cycle repeats with a new set of technologies. IPOs dried up.

Lean 335

Lean Burn Rate Startup IPO 335

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 7, 2009

Instead of a Sales team and organized to sell with a consistent and successful sales roadmap generating revenue, it is a disorganized and unhappy organization burning lots of cash. Because the company based its headcount and expenses on the expectation that the Sales organization will bring in revenue according to plan.

Customer Development 233

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 233

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. There never has to be atime when you have no revenues. I dont mean to suggest that our investors were nothing but a dragon us. Whendel.icio.us

Technical Review 76

Technical Review Startup Software Review Angel Investor 76

www.chubbybrain.com

SEPTEMBER 28, 2011

Also worth a read after you review these startup failure post-mortems. spent $20 million to get back to the same revenue that I had when I was CEO. created a vastly higher cost structure; I had 80 people mostly on base salaries under $100,000 and was bringing in revenue at the rate of $20 million annually. .”).

Software Review 79

Software Review Startup Technical Review Vesting 79

abovethecrowd.com

APRIL 20, 2016

The pressures of lofty paper valuations, massive burn rates (and the subsequent need for more cash), and unprecedented low levels of IPOs and M&A, have created a complex and unique circumstance which many Unicorn CEOs and investors are ill-prepared to navigate. In Q1 of 2016 there were zero VC-backed technology IPOs.

IPO 40

IPO Term Sheet Silicon Valley Valuation 40