Both Sides of the Table

JULY 17, 2018

" Revenue doesn't pay your bills, GM does  —  @msuster 2/ Founders obsess with revenue as a vanity metric. Some even grow "bad" revenue just to show growth. But if you want to add some in the comments section on Medium and I’ll make sure to read them.

Founder 242

Founder Dilution Software Review Later Stage 242

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 1, 2009

Consumer spending is 70% of the economy and will continue to be stretched – We can look all we want at tech innovation, VC funding cycles and hot M&A deals, but ultimately growth and therefore investment must be underpinned by revenue. Tags: Pitching VCs Start-up Advice VC Industry startup technology vc venture capital.

Technical Review 269

Technical Review Stock Hawaii Early Stage 269

Steve Blank

APRIL 10, 2019

VC’s have just changed the ~50-year old social contract with startup employees. In doing so they may have removed one of the key incentives that made startups different from working in a large company. For most startup employee’s startup stock options are now a bad deal. Why Startups Offer Stock Options.

Stock Options 335

Stock Options Stock Vesting Common Stock 335

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 5, 2011

2 preamble issues having read the comments on TC today: 1: I know that the prices of startup companies is much great in Silicon Valley than in smaller towns / less tech focused areas in the US and the US prices higher than many foreign markets. That’s the deal you get when you’re raising in a good market for startup financing.

Pre-Money Valuation 336

Pre-Money Valuation Valuation Silicon Valley Stock 336

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 3, 2010

There is a telltale sign of an inexperienced startup entrepreneur. As a startup you shouldn’t focus on buying other companies until you’ve figured out your own business. A close friend of mine in LA who is 3 years into his startup called me about 2.5 How much dilution should I take for it?

Merger 276

Merger Technical Review Early Stage Dilution 276

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 15, 2022

At our mid-year offsite our partnership at Upfront Ventures was discussing what the future of venture capital and the startup ecosystem looked like. Should SaaS companies trade at a 24x Enterprise Value (EV) to Next Twelve Month (NTM) Revenue multiple as they did in November 2021? And it WILL be deployed, that’s what investors do.

Technical Review 416

Technical Review Pre-Money Valuation San Francisco Valuation 416

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 26, 2023

Make sure new solutions offered actually build your brand, rather than dilute it. These disruptive technologies also have the potential for exposing your business to new competitors, including a wealth of startups that can jeopardize your core business, and redefine the marketplace. Solution may require new category development time.

Product 354

Product Technical Review Artificial Inteligence Dividend 354

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 27, 2010

I never implied that startups are all great and job hoppers are all at fault. Most of what I learned about operating startups I learned from the really tough years at my first company from 2001-2003. That is when no customers wanted to work with Internet startups because we as an industry had burned so many customers.

Venture Capital 285

Venture Capital Hiring Software Review Stock Options 285

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 16, 2010

As I’ve highlighted I believe we’re in a unique period similar to 2005-08 where the biggest tech firms of Silicon Valley (and some media companies) are scooping up small software companies as “talent acquisitions&# versus accretive revenue / profit generators. avoid being diluted). This is actually the norm.

Cap Table 283

Cap Table Angel Investor Liquidation Preference Dilution 283

Gust

NOVEMBER 1, 2011

We recently started a series of posts on establishing the pre-money valuation of pre-revenue startup companies for purposes of investment by seed and startup investors. It is one of the useful methods for establishing the pre-money valuation of pre-revenue startup ventures. OK…let’s split the difference.

Venture Capital 161

Venture Capital Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Post-Money Valuation 161

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 11, 2011

I thing I’ve learned over the years is that technology purists hate advertising even when it is that revenue stream that truthfully drives much of our industry. Too many entrepreneurs focus on dilution. But over-optimizing for dilution is a bad attribute relative to focusing on creating a big & winning company.

Product 350

Product Tuvalu Dilution Incubator 350

ReadWriteStart

JUNE 1, 2020

I have often been asked about Startup Funding by entrepreneurs. Many myths surround the subject of startup funding. Here is Startup Funding, a Comprehensive Guide for Entrepreneurs. You must have seen a lot of startups giving out promotions, discounts, and incentives at the early phase of their business.

Startup 150

Startup Entrepreneur Elevator Pitch Seed Stage 150

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 4, 2014

Yesterday I wrote a post about “ the politics of startups ” in which I asserted that all companies have politics, which in its purest sense is just about understanding human psychology. He felt the CEO was willing to “sell his soul” for revenue and wanted things to be more pure. Startup Advice'

Founder 340

Founder Cofounder Sacramento Technical Review 340

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

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 28, 2018

There are many things a VC is looking for in reviewing your business plan but beyond things the like the quality of revenue, margins, OPEX and CAPEX there’s a really simple rule I call, “Cash In, Cash Out, Milestones Achieved.” Conversely many VCs believe that constraining cash can often lead to increases in creative solutions at a startup.

Burn Rate 247

Burn Rate Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Dilution 247

VC Cafe

FEBRUARY 27, 2024

especially if the startup already has a product and revenue? While the answers are somewhat semantic, the pre-seed funding round is making a comeback in 2024 startup financing. Pre-seed round tends to be the first ‘institutional’ round of funding in a startup. Seed is about showing initial product market fit.

Valuation 186

Valuation Software Review Generative AI Technical Review 186

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 18, 2009

And for all of this we had no dilution and paid no money. million in recurring revenue of which $600k came from Germany. Tags: Entrepreneur Advice Start-up Advice Startup Advice. We signed deals worth $1.2 million over 2 years that made us profitable in Germany from day 1. Any customer not willing to commit we didn’t sign.

Germany 298

Germany Entrepreneur Merger Los Angeles 298

Gust

OCTOBER 18, 2011

This is the first of a six part series on different methods used by angel investors to arrive at pre-money startup valuations. in the case of one investment round, no subsequent investment and therefore no dilution). He has invested in more than 70 startup ventures. Then: Post-money Valuation = Terminal Value ÷ Anticipated ROI.

Valuation 174

Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Southern California Post-Money Valuation 174

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 25, 2010

But we weren’t optimizing for dilution – we were building a $1 billion+ company and we wanted the runway to succeed. If it’s a biz deal you might care about IP protection, revenue share, investment commitments to joint marketing – whatever. We ended up agreeing a term sheet for $16.5 million at a $15 million pre-money valuation.

Technical Review 301

Technical Review Term Sheet Due Diligence Venture Capital 301

David Teten

JANUARY 21, 2021

This essay is part of a series on alternative VC: I: Revenue-Based Investing: a new option for founders who care about control. II: Who are the major Revenue-Based Investing VCs? III: Why are Revenue-Based VCs investing in so many women and underrepresented founders? IV: Should your new VC fund use Revenue-Based Investing?

Equity 78

Equity Revenue Cofounder Colorado 78

Business Plan Blog

OCTOBER 4, 2013

Aligning the Startup Team Strategy with the Capitalization Strategy. The single most important factor to raising capital for any tech startup is the management team. Furthermore, a startup works differently than a large corporation. Having too many co-founders will only lead to your eventual dilution. Early Stage.

Part-Time VPE 79

Part-Time VPE Fractional VPE Cofounder CTO Hire 79

VC Cafe

JUNE 10, 2022

The market correction has come for series A and seed startups. For the past few week I’ve been sharing here the impact of the current downturn that started in the public markets on startups and venture capital. Until now, early stage startups were relatively unaffected. How quickly should startups scale?

Valuation 151

Valuation Marketing Israel Venture Capital 151

David Teten

AUGUST 19, 2019

So you’re interested in raising capital from a Revenue-Based Investor VC. A new wave of Revenue-Based Investors (“RBI”) are emerging. For background, see Revenue-Based Investing: A New Option for Founders who Care About Control. Rational burn profile, up to 50% of revenue at close, scaling down. Bigfoot Capital.

Revenue 60

Revenue Technical Review Software Review Equity 60

www.paulgraham.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

Want to start a startup? You need three things to create a successful startup: to start withgood people, to make something customers actually want, and to spendas little money as possible. Most startups that fail do it becausethey fail at one of these. Most startups that fail do it becausethey fail at one of these.

Startup 105

Startup Cofounder Software Stock 105

View from Seed

APRIL 30, 2015

There’s been a lot of digital ink spilled around the various types of capital available to startups today. As a startup grows, venture debt becomes a viable option to continue that growth. Glen is an active contributor to the local tech ecosystem and well-versed in how and when startups can use venture debt to their advantage.

Term Sheet 120

Term Sheet Equity Startup Seed Stage 120

Hunter Walker

JANUARY 2, 2017

And the narrative for 2017 is OLD ECONOMY COMPANIES WANT TO BUY YOUR STARTUP. When Satya and I started Homebrew in 2013 one of our bets for the coming decades was that non-traditional acquirers would become more aggressive in their pursuit of technology startups. Next Level: Buying Customers/Revenue/Distribution. So, is it true?

Technical Review 131

Technical Review Cap Table Acquisition Startup 131

YoungUpstarts

MAY 6, 2019

by Arsalan Sajid, startup community manager at Cloudways. Life is not a box of chocolates and startups are not always easy to start. There is a complete process that governs the startup lifecycle including inception to exit. This startup stage starts from the day you decide to work on a startup idea. Early Stage.

Startup 113

Startup Technical Cofounder Merger Early Stage 113

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

FEBRUARY 26, 2019

Startup strategy is like Kung Fu. All startups are screwed up. HT Mike Maples Jr ) Corollary: A startup has to be so excellent at one or two key things, that they can screw up everything else up and not die. Fermi estimation is a good way to figure out whether a startup or product could even theoretically be viable.

Restful 202

Restful Founder Revenue Acquisition 202

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 15, 2009

Of all the tactics I have advocated as part of the lean startup , none has provoked as many extreme reactions as continuous deployment , a process that allows companies to release software in minutes instead of days, weeks, or months. Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, June 15, 2009 Why Continuous Deployment?

Continuous Deployment 167

Continuous Deployment Software Review San Francisco Lean 167

ReadWriteStart

JULY 18, 2011

Clavier spoke last week at the International Startup Festival in Montreal on the topic of raising money - with a special emphasis on the numbers that a startup should keep an eye on. Clavier began his presentation at the beginning of a company's lifecycle, asking how many co-founders a startup ought to have.

Investment Bankers 153

Investment Bankers Technical Review Cofounder Due Diligence 153

The Next Web

SEPTEMBER 13, 2013

Thomas Clayton has started and run numerous high-tech startups in Silicon Valley. He is currently CEO of Bubbly , a social media startup backed by Sequoia Capital, SingTel Innov8, and JAFCO. The company is one of the largest VC–backed startups in Southeast Asia, having raised over $60M in funding. Sequoia , Accel , NEA , etc.).

Asia 132

Asia Silicon Valley India Term Sheet 132

ReadWriteStart

SEPTEMBER 10, 2010

They already have several customers including some telcos, and are at about $350,000 in revenues. You can get cash without diluting your ownership in the company. Because customer financing equals revenue, not equity. That's why, I advised Gio to keep going with further execution on his business and build more revenue traction.

Cloud 115

Cloud Silicon Valley Incubator Bootstrapping 115

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 7, 2016

This is a very predictable phase of the startup journey and a lot of good can come from it. The founders and team develop a huge confidence level that appropriately increases risk-taking, output, expansion, deals, revenue, press and everything that is a consequence of initial successes. This is a very common post Series A phenomenon.

Churn Rate 150

Churn Rate Vesting Dilution Europe 150

www.paulgraham.com

APRIL 28, 2010

Want to start a startup? A typical startup goes throughseveral rounds of funding, and at each round you want to take justenough money to reach the speed where you can shift into the nextgear. Few startups get it quite right. 1 ] A startups life will be more complicated, legally, if any of theinvestors arent accredited.

Technical Review 76

Technical Review Startup Software Review Angel Investor 76

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2013

So as a startup CEO you constantly have to suspend disbelief. ” A startup CEO’s job is to absorb stress so the team doesn’t have to. Startups have to be optimists because no rational person would actually believe you could build Uber into the amazing company that it is today. We just need your $500,000!!”

Startup 417

Startup Dilution San Diego Stock Options 417

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 17, 2017

There are certain topics that even some of the smartest people I talk with who aren’t startup oriented can’t fully grok. It’s common cocktail party chatter to hear people confidently pronounce that some well known startup is sure to blow up because, “How could they succeed when they’re not even profitable!”

Stock Options 227

Stock Options Startup Dilution Venture Capital 227

YoungUpstarts

SEPTEMBER 16, 2015

Startups don’t raise all the money they are ever going to need to achieve the end goal in the Seed or Series A round. What’s critical for entrepreneurs to understand is that valuations for startups do not increase at a linear rate; they increase geometrically based on achieving the right milestones. Think baby steps.

Valuation 100

Valuation Dilution Chicago Technical Review 100