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Cramdowns are back – and I’m keeping a list. Except, that is, for the bottom feeders of the Venture Capital business – investors who “ cramdown ” their companies. A cramdown is different than a down round. Cramdowns wouldn’t exist without the founder’s agreement. Stopping CramDowns.
No VC or Angel investors I know are interested in a bunch of angry, crammed-down small investors as co-shareholders. When legal, it may be an alternative if you only need a small amount (less than $100,000), and don’t ever plan to come back for more.
He also says it is important to be able to participate in follow on rounds so as not to get “crammeddown”. Howard states the most successful angel investors are the ones who can place many small bets, increasing the possibility of hitting a home run. First Round Capital makes 20-25 investments a year with an average size of $500k.
In times when venture capital is hard to get, investors extract high costs for failure (down-rounds, cramdowns , new management teams, shut down the company.)
Many VCs would prefer to avoid having to cramdown other VCs by investing at a lower price or even if it’s not a cramdown they prefer not to invest in a down round that forces the VC to take a “write down” on their valuation sheets they should their LPs.
New money from professional investors sees no value in old money, so the equity of early investors is “crammeddown” and often lost in the scale-up surge. A second harsh reality for entrepreneurs is the realization of how little power you have to protect the position of these early investors.
New money from professional investors sees lesser value in old money, so the equity of early investors is “crammeddown” and often lost in the scale-up surge. A second harsh reality for entrepreneurs is the realization of how little power you have to protect the position of these early investors.
New money from professional investors sees lesser value in old money, so the equity of early investors is “crammeddown” and often lost in the scale-up surge. A second harsh reality for entrepreneurs is the realization of how little power you have to protect the position of these early investors.
New money from professional investors sees no value in old money, so the equity of early investors is “crammeddown” and often lost in the scale-up surge. A second harsh reality for entrepreneurs is the realization of how little power you have to protect the position of these early investors.
Chapter 13 can be used by sole proprietors, one-person corporations, and certain LLCs in some states to repay some debt, “cramdown” any assets that are subject to loans and otherwise reorganize their business under a three- to five- year repayment plan. The value of assets can be “crammeddown” to market value; debtor pays less.
New money from professional investors sees lesser value in old money, so the equity of early investors is “crammeddown” and often lost in the scale-up surge. A second harsh reality for entrepreneurs is the realization of how little power you have to protect the position of these early investors.
This combo all too often leads to various forms of deal unpleasantness, like cram-down rounds, liquidation preferences, and change of control provisions, which in turn, often lead to unhappy founders and angel investors even in somewhat successful exits. And they hire very aggressive securities attorneys to represent their interests.
If the 2010’s were about the institutionalization of seed funds, I believe the next decade ahead will be a test of who can stake out their territory as these forces rise from the bottom and cramdown from the top.
Getting CrammedDown. If a), you reduce the cram-down risk, but also reduce the fund’s upside because you own less of your portfolio companies to begin with. These platforms are really interesting to seed funds because they are simultaneously a threat, a weapon, and a sourcing mechanism.
Once the money is spent, young entrepreneurs are usually faced with this situation: The Cram Round - Founders raise money at a lower valuation than the first round and now understand what anti dilution clauses really mean. Tough situation.
In addition, in the more dire cases, these investors may see their holdings crammeddown by a reverse split where the preferred converts to common on a x:1 basis, so x shares of preferred go to 1 share of common. A 5% equity stake could get cut down to 1%.
Angels don’t want to look stupid by having the large number of losses required to catch winners, or get crammeddown by VCs investing big dollars ahead of them. VC’s don’t want to look stupid by investing in things too early, or trying to use capital as a weapon only to go down in flames.
" The problem has been that too-high valuations and too generous terms have spawned painful down rounds that squash the entrepreneur and his early investors. New money, usually VC money, comes in and cramsdown those early investors and takes substantial shares from the entrepreneur.
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