A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

JULY 11, 2011

SEOmoz founder and figurehead Rand Fishkin wrote a typically transparent, thoughtful blog post about his struggle of whether to raise a Series B. The typical arguments against: (a) unfair to employees/co-founders, (b) now you’re not hungry so you care less, work less, (c) swinging for fences without attention to detail is imprudent.

.Net 230

.Net Cofounder Dilution Finance 230

Feld Thoughts

JUNE 4, 2014

The salesperson or their marketing department has no experience to draw on or data from which to extrapolate. Moreover, there’s no accounting for the time value of money, the customer time required to deploy the service, or the risk of time wasted if the deployment doesn’t go well.

Software 140

Software Portfolio Sales Cofounder 140

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 8, 2009

We had more than 700 resumes, short-listed 65, interviewed 16 in one-hour meetings had 6 full-day interviews including a presentation by the candidate on a selected market opportunity and we did 3 finalist dinners to test cultural fit. Ask if you could shadow different functions like marketing, finance or product management.

NPV 337

NPV Chicago Balance Sheet Database 337

Seeing Both Sides

JANUARY 11, 2011

With big tech companies awash in cash , nearly every analyst out there is predicting that the M&A market will heat up in 2011. At a (pre-blizzard) conference I attended today run by Gridley & Co, this theme was reinforced, with rosy predictions of an M&A boom. Yet a strong M&A market won't be a panacea for all.

Post-Money Valuation 40

Post-Money Valuation Dilution Cofounder Valuation 40