VC Cafe

MARCH 1, 2024

Personal Finance Cross-account visibility and management – Today’s AI products can analyze and move money between accounts – as agents improve, they will make trades across accounts. Bitcoin Allocation – Growing the role of bitcoin in investment portfolios. and generate a post mortem.

Artificial Inteligence 176

Artificial Inteligence Technical Review Software Review Generative AI 176

YoungUpstarts

APRIL 22, 2019

A report that can be filtered and aggregated by data points like team, portfolio, or customer, also acts as a KPI that allows teams to identify which projects need attention, which are profiting, and which are facing losses. How are team members performing and interacting?

Artificial Inteligence 168

Artificial Inteligence Software Review Management Software Developers 168

Board Effect

JUNE 24, 2024

With board and organizational accountability in the spotlight, how can nonprofit boards define discrete impact metrics, consistently measure them, and clearly communicate them to stakeholders? Regular sense checks on where the organization is in relation to those metrics can then be built into your board meetings to keep on top of trends.

Software Review 52

Software Review Technical Review Retention Security 52

David Teten

NOVEMBER 26, 2019

Instead of budget approvals, monitor key metrics and give managers more flexibility. So here’s the solution I have recommended to some of my portfolio companies: “ agile budgeting ”, i.e., monitoring a few key variables while giving managers significant flexibility. Traditional budgets can be destructive and a huge waste of time.

Agile 60

Agile Management Forecast Silicon Valley 60

Steve Blank

MARCH 31, 2014

Metrics like Return on Net Assets, Return on Capital and Internal Rate of Return are the guiding stars of the board and CEO. As Harvard professor Clayton Christensen noted, these efficiency metrics provided wise guidance for times when capital was scarce and raising money was hard. Ultimately this is not just another staff function.

Private Equity 330

Private Equity Metrics China Intellectual Property 330

David Teten

DECEMBER 3, 2019

However, in private markets, there is more room to optimize across all 11 steps of the investing process: firm management , marketing, fundraising , origination , manage relationships, due diligence, negotiation, monitoring, portfolio acceleration , reporting, and.

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Software Review Analytics Private Equity 78

VC Adventure

AUGUST 31, 2017

If you read my blog regularly you know I love (LOVE) metrics. They took the 92 public SaaS companies and analyzed their key operating metrics. The valuation metrics show this clearly. There are a ton of private SaaS financings. In 2016 there were over 2,000 financing rounds of private SaaS companies ($18.5Bn invested).

IPO 113

IPO Vertical Balance Sheet Valuation 113

Hearpreneur

JANUARY 25, 2023

You'd only need your iPhone to manage this content and analyze these metrics so you can work anywhere else in the world as long as there is an internet. You can help your clients create cover letters and portfolios they’ll be confident to share. Aside from that, you can also make video content and upload it to Youtube.

Software Review 127

Software Review Technical Review Artificial Inteligence Entrepreneur 127

The Startup Magazine

SEPTEMBER 11, 2024

This metric follows the equity securities that are issued by 100 of the largest non-financial businesses and which the Nasdaq Stock Market displays on its platform. This shows once again that although many struggle to admit it, the worlds of Bitcoin and traditional finance remain interrelated.

Stock 121

Stock Metrics Equity Portfolio 121

Hearpreneur

JANUARY 19, 2022

11- Paying attention to metrics. Metrics do not lie, and metrics over a longer time period are much more useful to study. Although your company's analytics are vital, simply investigating your own metrics is insufficient. Instead, you should monitor metrics for the whole sector. Photo Credit: Shiv Gupta.

Entrepreneur 127

Entrepreneur Metrics Technical Review North America 127

The Startup Magazine

APRIL 1, 2018

Understand which one is right for you by learning about their reputation, taking a look at their website and examining their portfolio. If there’s a business in their portfolio that could be a direct competitor to your product, you’ll be better off avoiding them. Many VCs see a long winded and complicated pitch as a red flag.

Startup 95

Startup Portfolio Software Review Technical Review 95

View from Seed

MARCH 15, 2017

Internally, the scarcity of tangible business metrics – product usage or revenue multiples for example – can make an investment decision feel daunting. We draw largely from publicly available information and in-network, in-portfolio diligence calls in constructing this section of the memo.

Due Diligence 265

Due Diligence Seed Stage Portfolio Metrics 265

The Startup Magazine

MARCH 1, 2021

ICAS® can then be scaled up across the customer’s portfolio bringing enterprise-wide benefits. ICAS® will give customers real visibility over their project, its metrics and progress – ultimately better serving their needs. TSM: What are the disruptive factors in the construction industry that make your business efforts so promising?

Technical Review 110

Technical Review Founder Saudi Arabia Cofounder 110

Austin Startup

MARCH 20, 2017

Since the field’s estimated beginnings in 2009 , subsegments like “feminomics” and “inclusive finance” have spun off, but at it’s core gender lens investing is: incorporating gender as a factor to guide investment strategies. There is also much progress to be made in the standardization of gender lens investment criteria.

Private Equity 54

Private Equity Venture Capital United States Equity 54

A Crowded Space

SEPTEMBER 18, 2015

Don’t get me wrong – we love it when a company in our portfolio does exceptionally well and receives a lot of attention. Notice the distinct absence of little things like revenue, customers, engagement metrics, or gross margin. They can create temporary growth in vanity metrics like downloads.

San Diego 60

San Diego Software Review San Francisco Silicon Valley 60

VC Adventure

MARCH 17, 2022

With the markets down significantly, financings (at least at the later stages) slowing down, and inflation and interest rates on the rise, perhaps now is a good time to talk about your burn rate. Hopefully, you took advantage of the robust financing markets of the past few years to put some money on your balance sheet.

Balance Sheet 121

Balance Sheet Burn Rate Valuation Metrics 121

Occam's Razor

MARCH 23, 2021

upgrades to processes to create deeper integration with Finance & Strategy teams. I’ll give you one guess as to how much our VP of Finance loves this capability. :). The benchmark for the beautiful metric AVOC is 15.3%. Now repeat this across many, many metrics, for many dimensions, in the three clusters you see above.

Analytics 133

Analytics Algorithm Artificial Inteligence Campaign 133

View from Seed

OCTOBER 28, 2019

But this financing contour description is just a proxy for underlying business metrics. In reality, a pre-seed is “an early round of financing that is designed to help a company achieve certain intermediate milestones PRIOR to the magic combination of strong PMF + meaningful traction.”.

Seed Stage 247

Seed Stage Finance Dilution Early Stage 247

David Teten

JANUARY 19, 2021

This structure allows for alignment on the front end, and real-time flexibility for performance metrics,” says Samira Salman , a family office investor and advisor. . Flexible VCs have created structures based on other company performance metrics than revenues, such as profits or founder salaries. Flexible VC 102: Variations.

Cofounder 78

Cofounder Technical Review Equity Dividend 78

View from Seed

NOVEMBER 18, 2014

Recently, we looked at our own portfolio at NextView Ventures to dig a little deeper on how startups actually raise that next round of financing. in our portfolio. These users/buyers then have a clearer LTV/CAC ratio with less focus on the top-line revenue metric. average versus $4.9M Generate Real Revenue.

Syndicate 333

Syndicate Syndication Seed Stage Startup 333

Occam's Razor

JULY 24, 2018

work (collection, processing, reporting, analysis), processes, org structure, governance models, last-mile gaps , metrics ladders of awesomeness , and… so… much… more. Remember, tools, work, processes, org structure, governance models, last-mile gaps, metrics ladders of awesomeness, and… so… much… more. The Implications of Complexity.

Analytics 95

Analytics Framework Metrics Algorithm 95

View from Seed

FEBRUARY 27, 2019

Recently, I’ve been working with a few of our portfolio companies to help them think about how to recruit and interview their first analytics hire. Analytics vs. Finance?—?what’s Analytics is about designing, reporting, and leveraging operating metrics to aid strategic and functional decision-making.

Analytics 149

Analytics Hiring SQL Forecast 149

www.forentrepreneurs.com

FEBRUARY 2, 2010

Blog About Log in Register Designing startup metrics to drive successful behavior Great companies are almost always run by great management teams. Good metrics should also be actionable, and drive successful behavior. In a follow up post, I will use this technique to walk through the design of a set of metrics for a SaaS company.

Metrics 55

Metrics Design Entrepreneur Startup 55

Occam's Razor

MAY 19, 2014

But the problem is that single golden metrics hide valuable insights and, more often than not, drive bad behavior. Here's my proposal: If you are pushed to have a single golden metric, give it a partner. The BFF metric you find should not be one that is very far away. So, great metric. Honestly, who can blame them.

Metrics 160

Metrics Analytics SEC Acquisition 160

YoungUpstarts

APRIL 3, 2015

These include making deposits, transferring funds, paying bills and managing stock portfolios. The Internet has also transformed banking for small business owners, particularly when it comes time to apply for business loans and other financing products. Small Business Loan Overview. How it Works.

Small Business 100

Small Business Technical Review Technology United States 100

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 27, 2013

In this period (less than 2 years) he has brought on incredibly talented senior execs is sales, marketing, product management, client services, finance, vp engineering and more. VCs crave the ability to help portfolio companies. Growth like this, this early in a company’s lifecycle rarely happens. Further Reading.

Advisory Board 365

Advisory Board CTO Hire Fractional CTO Los Angeles 365

OnlyOnce

SEPTEMBER 15, 2022

Financing will take longer than expected to come through, receivables will dry up, and so on. Follow up with an all-hands meeting to explain what happened, why you made the choices you did—preferably with metrics to back up your decisions—what’s next for the company, and whether people who weren’t laid off are at risk in the future. (Be

Salary 62

Salary Vesting Employee B2C 62

Board Effect

DECEMBER 19, 2019

Boards can also develop a platform for strategic decision-making that defines the fundamentals of the business portfolio and the dominant business model that will help determine the future allocation of resources and capabilities. Choosing Metrics to Monitor Strategy Implementation.

Management 52

Management Software Review Acquisition Merger 52

Austin Startup

AUGUST 10, 2017

Although we were studying finance, we were always more interested in tech. Before graduating, I decided to forgo the finance path and instead dove into engineering and later sales and product management roles at VersaSuite (health IT) in Austin. But we never lost the finance bug. We were infatuated with tech.

Technical Review 48

Technical Review Cofounder Technical Cofounder Austin 48

Haystack

JULY 4, 2019

If a founder I’ve backed simply sends 5-7 bullet points per month with some key stats, metrics, and requests for specific connections and help, then over time I follow their “story” and it becomes a part of my daily vocabulary. But seed portfolios are largely different than larger funds. Yes, of course.

Early Stage 167

Early Stage Deal Flow Finance Metrics 167

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 23, 2012

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. Try charging customers for your product when you have 12 competitors giving the product away free finances by $20 million of VC. The Exit Problem.

Venture Capital 347

Venture Capital Technical Review LP Mobile 347

YoungUpstarts

MAY 7, 2019

What makes it such a game-changer is that it provides target metrics, strategies and tactics that early stage startups can use to guide them through the crucial go-to-market phase. For us at Wildcat and for the management teams of our portfolio companies, the Traction Gap Framework has proved to be an invaluable resource.

Cleveland 217

Cleveland Early Stage Framework Startup 217

Occam's Razor

OCTOBER 24, 2016

Step 1: Optimal Metrics. You'll find it here: Digital Metrics Ladder of Awesomeness. The metrics ladder lays out a path that will get you there, step by step while ensure your org is coming along with you. Step 1: Optimal Metrics. Tough metrics. Smart metrics. Wait, Wait, What the Heck is Attribution?

Analytics 60

Analytics Metrics Technical Review Channel 60

View from Seed

MAY 31, 2019

Some of the founders in our portfolio have an exceptional ability to raise additional capital (and at loftier valuations) remarkably ahead of where the underlying metrics of the business current would yield. My partners and I most often talk about defying gravity in the context of fundraising.

Valuation 149

Valuation Portfolio Metrics Founder 149

Steve Blank

JUNE 26, 2015

To help Horizon 2 and 3 organizations navigate all the processes, procedures and metrics the company has built to support Horizon 1 activities, individuals from support organizations (legal, finance, procurement, etc.) Horizon 2 and 3 activities are not entirely separated from the corporate structure.

Lean 120

Lean Management Business Model Incubator 120

View from Seed

OCTOBER 15, 2014

Over the summer, based on feedback from our portfolio and the broader startup community, NextView created pre-formatted board deck templates for seed-stage startups — part of our Growth Guides series. Finance is mission critical, for instance – it just appears on a recurring basis. The seed stage is all about traction.

Seed Stage 331

Seed Stage Cap Table Metrics Burn Rate 331

Genuine VC

MARCH 24, 2014

A couple years ago, my partner Lee penned a blog post about the milestone benchmarks for startups raising a Series A round of financing. This focus translates into big top line figures, (admittedly) vanity metrics, and pretty graphs with less substance on business metrics or even deep engagement for now.

Seed Capital 212

Seed Capital Metrics Cofounder Revenue 212