Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 23, 2010

Reserve the company name on social networks to protect it. It should answer every question an investor or associate might ask, including current valuation, funding needed, and exit strategy. Finalize your financial model. This is called “validating the business model.” Define some intellectual property.

Angel Investor 224

Angel Investor Intellectual Property Technical Review Elevator Pitch 224

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 22, 2010

It doesn’t prove your business model of pricing, distribution, and support. Intellectual property is a large element of most early-stage company valuations, and this value determines what percent of the company an investor will expect to get for his money. Get a real customer and real revenue. Become a visible expert.

Intellectual Property 222

Intellectual Property Sweat Equity Fractional CTO CTO Hire 222

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 6, 2019

Valuations are out of control” is the mantra of others. Others believe that new business models are emerging that could replace venture capital all together. Companies are raising billions of dollars in the private markets and the valuations are enormous PRIOR to the IPO. We’re in a new tech bubble!” some have pronounced.

Venture Capital 292

Venture Capital IPO Mezzanine Early Stage 292

ReadWriteStart

MARCH 24, 2011

First up, Priyanshu Harshavat, from Evanston, Illinois, presented Socioclean , a service for cleaning up your reputation on social networks. Next Chris Ruder from Chicago, Illinois, pitched Spikeball , a new volleyball-esque game that is being played at camps and college campuses.

Illinois 114

Illinois Entrepreneur Silicon Valley Chicago 114

David Teten

DECEMBER 3, 2019

This is a great example of why data businesses have substantial moats. Boardex and Relationship Science make it easier to understand and map social networks into potential limited partners. Modano standardizes Excel models to improve comparability and reduce error rates. If you have one, please contact me. 7) Negotiate .

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Software Review Analytics Private Equity 78

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 23, 2012

The movie, “The Social Network” might have had more of an impact on creating future entrepreneurs than any other event of the past 5 years. Yes, it’s true that FOMO (fear of missing out) is driving some irrational behavior and valuations amongst uber competitive deals and well-financed VCs. Thank you, Aaron Sorkin!

Venture Capital 347

Venture Capital Technical Review LP Mobile 347

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 1, 2017

This doesn’t work well with “nice to have” offerings, like social networks, but does work for new drugs and medical devices that solve critical health problems. This is a very popular model today for Internet services, with monthly or yearly payments, in lieu of one higher up-front price.

Revenue 166

Revenue Affiliate Advertising Retention 166

Steve Blank

MARCH 18, 2011

The signals are loud and clear : seed and late stage valuations are getting frothy and wacky, and hiring talent in Silicon Valley is the toughest it has been since the dot.com bubble. Underwriters realized that as long as the public was happy snapping up shares, they could make huge profits from the inflated valuations. Carpe Diem.

Internet 335

Internet IPO Silicon Valley Agile 335

betashop.com

OCTOBER 8, 2012

But, you can iterate and iterate on features, but you cannot iterate your way to a business model. I’ve seen too many businesses get stuck or fail because of their endless pursuit for the magic new feature that is going to help them gain traction. Never, ever, choose your investors based on valuation.

Technical Review 108

Technical Review Technology Software Review Valuation 108

www.forentrepreneurs.com

FEBRUARY 2, 2010

Business Model I would like to propose that in addition to team, product, and market, there is actually a fourth, equally important, core element of startups, which is the need for a viable business model. These new business models focused heavily on how buying behavior has changed because of the power of the web.

Acquisition 103

Acquisition Cost Customer Entrepreneur 103

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 24, 2012

Reserve the company name on social networks to protect it. It should answer every question an investor or associate might ask, including current valuation, funding needed, and exit strategy. Finalize your financial model. This is called “validating the business model.” Define some intellectual property.

Angel Investor 260

Angel Investor Intellectual Property Elevator Pitch Angel Groups 260

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 14, 2016

Most venture capitalists who have been in this business for a long time foresaw this correction and have been talking about it privately for the better part of the last year or two. I have been talking about my concerns about valuations for the past couple of years because, well, they’ve been rising very rapidly the past two years!

Valuation 150

Valuation Down Round Startup Later Stage 150

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 24, 2011

Here are some key action items that will give you some priority: Create an investment-grade business plan. This means build a plan that hits all the hot buttons; problem/solution, executive team, competition, business model, reasonable financial projections, and what’s in it for the investor. Line up a winning team.

Venture Capital 233

Venture Capital Revenue Elevator Pitch Silicon Valley 233

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 13, 2012

Explain the business model. Many people seem to use the social network advertising model for revenue, but forget it assumes at least 100M users and $50M investment. Include a current valuation estimate. This is how you will make money, who pays you, and gross margins. See where your cashflow bottoms out.

Business Plan 283

Business Plan Sweat Equity Exit Strategy Intellectual Property 283

Professor VC

SEPTEMBER 26, 2011

RCSMs premise is that they can reach an investment decision (and valuation) based on an application completed by the founders and take gut feel out of the decision process. They have launched a valuation tool that is free to try out. Labels: due diligence , early stage investing , moneyball , valuation. Steve Bennet. at 2:32 PM.

Technical Review 38

Technical Review Early Stage San Jose Angel Investor 38

Gust

DECEMBER 16, 2012

Reserve the company name on social networks to protect it. It should answer every question an investor or associate might ask, including current valuation, funding needed, and exit strategy. Finalize your financial model. This is called “validating the business model.”. Define some intellectual property.

Angel Investor 179

Angel Investor Intellectual Property Elevator Pitch Angel Groups 179

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 13, 2011

Explain the business model. Many people seem to use the social network advertising model for revenue, but forget it assumes at least 100M users and $50M investment. Include a current valuation estimate. This is how you will make money, who pays you, and gross margins. See where your cashflow bottoms out.

Business Plan 290

Business Plan Sweat Equity Exit Strategy Intellectual Property 290

Professor VC

APRIL 7, 2011

In a convertible note structure, Im penalized for increasing your valuation. Instead of getting a 2-3x multiple from seed to Series A, I get a discount off of the Series A, so Im better off financially with a lower valuation. You may say, if you are investing in the next facebook or google, why care about valuation?

San Jose 36

San Jose Technical Review Angel Investor Valuation 36

Professor VC

APRIL 1, 2010

One comment made by Jason was that angels tend to be less sensitive than VCs on valuation and can potentially make it difficult to get a venture financing done at acceptable valuation. We are typically looking at either smaller exits or require a lower valuation to get a reasonable step-up to a venture round. ► January.

Term Sheet 32

Term Sheet Angel Investor San Jose Venture Capital 32

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 14, 2010

Get introduced via one of the social networks, or a professional organization, before you approach a VC with a business proposal. Create an investment-grade business plan. To make this work, you will need an initial valuation of at least $5M.

Venture Capital 123

Venture Capital Elevator Pitch Silicon Valley Massachusetts 123

Gust

AUGUST 5, 2012

Explain the business model. Many people seem to use the social network advertising model for revenue, but forget it assumes at least 100M users and $50M investment. Include a current valuation estimate. This is how you will make money, who pays you, and gross margins. See where your cashflow bottoms out.

Business Plan 182

Business Plan Sweat Equity Exit Strategy Intellectual Property 182

Version One Ventures

DECEMBER 7, 2016

And now, we’re pleased to announce that we have just produced our second eBook, “ Understanding Social Platforms.”. Why social? As individuals, we use social platforms on a daily basis. As investors, we love the underlying business models, including the daily use case, virality, and network effects.

Artificial Inteligence 60

Artificial Inteligence Viral Valuation Networking 60

YoungUpstarts

NOVEMBER 13, 2012

Questionable business model. Just 18 months after this photo sharing program and social network was launched, Facebook offered to purchase Instagram for $1 billion in cash and stock. Unique social networking product. A few attributes that led to this dramatic decline: - Intense competition. - Unprofitable.

IPO 162

IPO San Francisco Exit Strategy Startup 162

Professor VC

JANUARY 17, 2008

While currently free to angel groups, their business model revolves around aggregating the angel investment data. Another comment which probably deserves more discussion is around valuation. He also said they typically only invest at a $1 million pre-money valuation or less.

Pre-Money Valuation 28

Pre-Money Valuation Angel Investor Angel Groups Valuation 28

ReadWriteStart

JANUARY 10, 2013

If you have a startup, ignore the business plan, financial projections, valuations and statistics for now. As the movie “The Social Network” and Facebook’s About Us page attest, Mark Zuckerberg got his initial capital from his then-best friend, Eduardo Saverin to start Facebook. Instead, look at yourself. Let’s face it.

Entrepreneur 60

Entrepreneur Equity Valuation Social Network 60

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 22, 2010

Explain the business model. Many people seem to use the social network advertising model for revenue, but forget it requires at least 100M users and $50M investment. Include a current valuation estimate. This is how you will make money, who pays you, and gross margins. See where your cashflow bottoms out.

Business Plan 186

Business Plan Exit Strategy Sweat Equity Intellectual Property 186

reidhoffman.org

NOVEMBER 12, 2013

Friendster’s valuation set the tone for the entire social networking space. Press and analysts characterized LinkedIn in one of two ways: “LinkedIn is an interesting niche that might be worth paying attention to” or “LinkedIn is the Friendster for business”. The general rule is one business model drives the business.

Entrepreneur 111

Entrepreneur Viral Revenue Networking 111

The Next Web

JANUARY 15, 2014

Today, its tagline is social networking and micro blogging, but its first promise remains in our minds. This model was adopted by companies such as Facebook, Instagram, Waze, Twitter, Google, YouTube, Pinterest and Shazam, some of which gained a billion-dollar market evaluation without actually showing profits.

Web 141

Web Tampa Non-Compete Search 141

Venture Chronicles

JUNE 4, 2011

. “In trying to determine the likelihood of another bubble, there is on the one hand, the large worldwide growth in the number of Internet users since 2000, and the improvement in the business models of online companies. This might well mean that the present situation is very different than the bubble in the late 1990s.

San Francisco 32

San Francisco Curation Social Network SEO 32

Venture Chronicles

APRIL 19, 2010

cities, including Chicago, Boston, New York and San Francisco, for large groups of potential buyers on the Web, through email or via social networking sites like Facebook or Twitter. From Groupon Grabs $135 Million From DST and Battery–Valuation Above $1 Billion for Social Buying Site | Kara Swisher | BoomTown | AllThingsD ].

San Francisco 39

San Francisco Stock Options Valuation Chicago 39

BeyondVC

JULY 20, 2006

It is always helpful to get benchmark data on your competitors and on other companies that have a similar business model. In other words, I like to know what company out there today has a business model that you would like to emulate.

Software 60

Software SEC Affiliate Early Stage 60

Professor VC

AUGUST 26, 2011

Is the model consistent with the business plan? Does the business model make sense? Do you understand the business and market? The process of building the model forces you to answer the difficult questions related to the business model and give a complete picture of the opportunity.

Silicon Valley 35

Silicon Valley San Jose Hockey Stick Venture Capital 35

Professor VC

FEBRUARY 18, 2011

In this case, LinkedIn was the only logical one that came to mind and didn’t see a viable business model short of that result. I asked him how the deal came out for investors since the sale price was significantly lower than the valuation on the round they were raising when we met. ► January. (1). ► 2010. (7).

Acquisition 31

Acquisition San Jose Angel Investor IPO 31

Professor VC

JUNE 20, 2011

I took a look back at our original financial model we presented to VCs in 2004. The business model (OEM through broadband and home security companies for mass distribution) if not specific product functionality has remained largely the same. Don't Stop Believin' Is There Any Truth in "The Social Network"?

San Jose 28

San Jose Angel Investor Term Sheet Venture Capital 28

Professor VC

FEBRUARY 26, 2010

A Comparison Between Novice and Serial Entrepreneurs" Her research shows that there is a positive correlation between prior founding experience and new venture performance due to stronger and more diverse social networks, access to capital, reliance on collaborators and other factors. A Lot of Horn Tooting over a Kazoo sized deal.

San Jose 28

San Jose Silicon Valley Venture Capital Angel Investor 28

techcrunch.com

FEBRUARY 19, 2010

According to VCs, there’s been a 65% decrease in up-rounds (where a company gets a bigger valuation) in the last six months and more than 60% of those polled expect a longer wait for an exit. Especially since even Youtube is still struggling to try find a viable business model. A lot of the stats weren’t surprising.

Venture Capital 62

Venture Capital Technical Review Sweat Equity Valuation 62

www.vccafe.com

MARCH 11, 2013

Social networking. Social/Sharing. Create your own social network. free enterprise social network. Seed Stage Valuation Guide. broken vc model. Business Culture. Business Model Canvas. Business plan. business symbiosis. Social Commerce.

Software Review 53

Software Review Technical Review Israel Startup 53