SoCal CTO

SEPTEMBER 27, 2011

Founders vs. Early Employees To help with this discussion, let me start with a definition of "early employee." The first few people into a startup are on a spectrum of founder vs. early employee. Founders are likely not paid for a long time and have a sizeable equity percentage for early risk and having the concept.

Early Stage 391

Early Stage Equity CTO Hire Sweat Equity 391

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 17, 2018

You get to have interesting conversations with founders and review business plans and then see how these businesses evolve over the years. 1/ From vantage point of being able to see hundreds of companies, good & bad I have some advice for founders - Get to know and love "gross margin."

Founder 242

Founder Dilution Software Review Later Stage 242

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 14, 2022

In his classic book, “ The Leadership Capital Index ,” Dave Ulrich, a best-selling author, business consultant, and business school professor, provides some real insights and metrics on what makes up the elements of goodwill in the minds of top valuation experts. I have paraphrased his key points here as follows: Leader personal impact.

Technical Review 323

Technical Review Due Diligence Valuation Leadership 323

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 5, 2011

2: As expected at least one person accused me of writing this post because I want to see lower valuations. I’ve decided to take all of my private conversations and subjective points-of-view on the topic and make them public in a keynote speech at the Founder Showcase in San Francisco on June 15th. That’s stupid.

Pre-Money Valuation 336

Pre-Money Valuation Valuation Silicon Valley Stock 336

VC Cafe

SEPTEMBER 26, 2022

The past year was a wild ride for startups and founders, giving a whole new meaning to the ”rollercoaster” aspect of being an entrepreneur. Patrick Collison , self-made billionaire founder of Stripe. Bill Gates , founder of Microsoft. ValuatIon should be a function of value, not ego. Our goals, their goals.

Founder 187

Founder Startup Valuation Pre-Money Valuation 187

VC Cafe

OCTOBER 31, 2022

It’s a tough time for a lot of startup founders right now. This is not meant to be a negative post, but rather a temperature check of today’s market environment and the levers founders can pull on to survive this period. What is a founder to do? Startups, Don’t Pin Your Hopes on VC Dry Powder ( Source ).

Founder 173

Founder Technical Review Down Round Liquidation Preference 173

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 28, 2020

But for founders who do their homework, the cost of entry is lower and the opportunity is higher than ever. Who would not want to join the unicorns (recent startups with a current valuation of over $1 billion)? He nails the current key startup parameters, including the following: Crafting a lean business plan as your road map.

Intellectual Property 404

Intellectual Property Startup Angel Groups Social Media 404

Steve Blank

JULY 11, 2017

Before the rapid rise of Unicorns, (startups with a valuation over a billion dollars), when boards were still in control, they “encouraged” the hiring of “adult supervision” of the founders after they found product/market fit. The founders. Founders are comfortable in the chaos and disorder. Adult Supervision.

Part-Time VPE 329

Part-Time VPE Liquidity Event Stock Engineer 329

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 28, 2018

My friend Michael Broukhim, founder & co-CEO of FabFitFun and I recently had a catch-up meeting for 3-miles on the Santa Monica “Bird Trail” No company has ever elicited so many questions by friends, colleagues, entrepreneurs, fellow VCs and journalists as has Bird, the company that pioneered the electronic scooter as a service market.

San Francisco 256

San Francisco Valuation Los Angeles Technical Review 256

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 5, 2012

What the entrepreneurs were really saying is, “I don’t want to take a lower valuation now, while I don’t have customers or a full team. In fact, most early investor work hard to help their startups get to the next level so it makes no sense for the angel investor and founders to be at odds. Investors call Bull Cap.

Ratchet 354

Ratchet Liquidation Preference Equity Stock 354

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 10, 2018

I always tell entrepreneurs that two heads are better than one, so the first task in many startups is finding a co-founder or two. Giving a co-founder a salary won’t get you the “fire in the belly” you want. Each co-founder should get equity for value, based on these key variables: Lived a key role in a previous startup.

Equity 238

Equity Cofounder Technical Cofounder Intellectual Property 238

VC Cafe

FEBRUARY 27, 2024

A founder asked me what makes a $2M round “pre-seed”? Everyone moved to earlier stage – part of the decline in late stage investing is the ‘baggage’ of companies that previously raised money at inflated valuations that they would struggle to justify in today’s market.

Valuation 186

Valuation Software Review Generative AI Technical Review 186

Steve Blank

MARCH 12, 2014

For the second startup, we chose a year-old web/mobile startup whose market is college bound teens, with a founder who had skipped the initial customer validation process. Knowing they had 3 weeks before presenting to the company co-founders, the kids felt intensity like no traditional classroom could generate.

Lean 335

Lean Customer Development Startup Silicon Valley 335

Steve Blank

MAY 29, 2011

The email continued, &# The problem I’m working on is that many founders are either making uninformed decisions or inefficiently learning the new skills they need. The solution I’m exploring is a just in time learning methodology that accelerates founders’ learning curve by aggregating relevant content, peers and mentors.&#.

Technical Cofounder 335

Technical Cofounder Early Stage Startup Silicon Valley 335

VC Cafe

AUGUST 4, 2022

This is an incredibly tough time to a lot of founders. The VC markets have contracted almost overnight and last round’s valuations may no longer hold. Many founders have hard choices to make, and face big consequences to the macro trends like inflation, reduce spending, increased interest rates etc. Keep the lines open.

Founder 158

Founder Aggregator Startup Valuation 158

View from Seed

OCTOBER 21, 2014

Using NextView as an example, since we both seek to lead the seed round and only lead during this round, I’ve seen this trend manifest in one of two ways: In a priced round, the entrepreneur will often share their valuation ask (or a stated floor) for the pre-money valuation of their company much sooner in the process.

Valuation 336

Valuation Founder Seed Stage Angel Investor 336

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 4, 2013

Should I trust my instincts for founders and products or should I be more focused on the market size or business plan? ” As far as “terms” go I’m 100% aligned to have the most vanilla, founder-friendly terms I can. And I listen to the reasons their co-founders quit their well-payed job to join them.

Deal Flow 347

Deal Flow Early Stage Investment Bankers Technical Review 347

SoCal CTO

JANUARY 5, 2011

November 23, 2010 Entrepreneurs, Using Outsourcing to Obtain Capital Efficiency Needs to be Thought Through to be Effective - Robert Ochtel , June 7, 2010 Teen Entrepreneur, Brian Wong, Youngest Founder to Receive Angel Funding - teenentrepreneurblog.com , October 28, 2010 Build Your Own Silicon Valley?

Silicon Valley 378

Silicon Valley Startup Term Sheet Venture Capital 378

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 16, 2023

But for founders who do their homework, the cost of entry is lower and the opportunity is higher than ever. Who would not want to join the unicorns (recent startups with a current valuation of over $1 billion)? He nails the current key startup parameters, including the following: Crafting a lean business plan as your road map.

Intellectual Property 261

Intellectual Property Entrepreneur Angel Groups Social Media 261

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 1, 2023

Investors may not be called cofounders, but they always get equity, commensurate with their share of the total costs anticipated, or share of the current valuation. The CTO of many technical startups was the original founder. Amount of venture funding provided.

Technical Cofounder 247

Technical Cofounder Equity Distribution Cofounder 247

View from Seed

NOVEMBER 18, 2020

Uber is an $85B+ market cap company today but is essentially flat to its IPO price and late private round valuations. Source: Airbnb S-1. Airbnb’s Secret Sauce. If that proves to be right, Airbnb may ultimately be a company where the majority of the value creation has occurred in the private markets over the last 13 years.

North America 401

North America IPO Prospectus Europe 401

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 12, 2014

” If you invested at $8m pre-money and put $2m in (thus you own 20% of a company at a $10m post-money valuation) and if you put another $2m into a round at a $40m valuation raising $10m ($50m post) you end up with half your money at $8m pre and half at $40m pre thus your average price goes up dramatically.

Technical Review 336

Technical Review Later Stage Early Stage LP 336

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 4, 2013

Should I trust my instincts for founders and products or should I be more focused on the market size or business plan? ” As far as “terms” go I’m 100% aligned to have the most vanilla, founder-friendly terms I can. And I listen to the reasons their co-founders quit their well-payed job to join them.

Early Stage 361

Early Stage Deal Flow Investment Bankers Technical Review 361

VC Cafe

SEPTEMBER 30, 2024

Despite the war, in the last nine months Sequoia , Greylock and Accel all opened offices in Israel, and Founders Fund appointed a partner to cover Israeli deals. With attractive valuations and immense growth potential, the Israeli tech ecosystem remains resilient—no matter the circumstances.

Israel 183

Israel Technical Review Startup Generative AI 183

View from Seed

MAY 2, 2019

There may be some twists and turns along the way, like a bridge or seed extension, but I think something like this is plan A for most founders. Unless a founder has angels interested who are not really price sensitive, a founder might find themselves selling a pretty big chunk of their company for not that much money.

Early Stage 214

Early Stage Dilution Valuation .Net 214

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 14, 2017

As the idea went from innovating on software & systems to launching a company to rolling it out in the field brought on Rahul Gandhi as his co-founder to physically launch the company. Sam & Rahul have worked closely together on “innovate & operate” since the earliest days of MakeSpace. Seriously, this happens.

Operations 286

Operations New York City Technical Review Startup 286

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 22, 2014

When you look at a deal so much of what you’re trying to understand are the skills, resiliency , work ethic, motivation and team dynamics of the founders. Nothing blows up great opportunities faster than founders who are constantly fighting. There are times you just need help getting s**t done.

Portfolio 364

Portfolio Chicago Sales Incubator 364

Steve Blank

MAY 9, 2017

The founders were simply wrong about their assumptions about customer needs. It turns out the term “visionary founder” was usually a synonym for someone who was hallucinating. Founders Need to Run the Company Longer. So, almost like clockwork 20 th century startups fired the innovators/founders when they scaled.

Restful 249

Restful Silicon Valley San Jose Puerto Rico 249

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 12, 2019

And this era ushered in by Amazon changed everything from the age of founders to the skill sets required to the structure of the VC industry and even to the layout of cities (yes, I would proclaim that boldly that Amazon AWS affected city development). The “A Round” of my startup in 1999 was $16.5 thus the rise of “pre seed” investing).

Venture Capital 328

Venture Capital Technical Review Seed Stage IPO 328

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 9, 2014

This is certainly the case when I met Nick Halstead , the founder of DataSift which is why I invested in their A round despite the company being based in England (a long way from home). Something in their strong sense of purpose for what they’re pursuing and my belief both in them and their concept stands out.

Video 373

Video Valuation Differentiation Distribution 373

VC Cafe

FEBRUARY 26, 2023

” – Marc Andreessen In the book “ Super Founders “, author Ali Tamaseb, studied 200 Unicorns, aka startups valued at over $1 billion, started between 2005 to 2018. The 7 Traits of “Super Founders” 1. They are able to articulate this vision in a way that inspires others and generates excitement.

Founder 88

Founder Cofounder Seed Stage Valuation 88

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 6, 2016

When I hear the realism that comes from founders with setback it elicits an understanding of what it takes to be successful at a startup that frankly can’t exist unless you’ve walked in those shoes before. In London when founders failed they were ostracized in the press and culturally I believe it became harder to raise capital.

South Korea 261

South Korea Silicon Valley Los Angeles Japan 261

ReadWriteStart

JUNE 1, 2020

I have interacted with a lot of founders who funded their initial business expenses through credit cards. The bridge or exit stage is generally of very large transactions and for companies with substantial valuation. Point number 3: Never raise money with an increased valuation. Bridge or exit stage. It has to be the right fit.

Startup 150

Startup Entrepreneur Elevator Pitch Seed Stage 150

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 15, 2014

Many questioned whether it could survive under the fail whale, inevitable competition from Facebook, founder fighting, fights with 3rd-party developers let alone become a revolutionary business that could make money. I know – I was there when the first people debating funding it at less than a $5m valuation. Far from it.

Technical Review 362

Technical Review America United States Partner 362

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 14, 2017

I read commentary or Twitter or blogs and realize that there are also strongly held convictions that there are these evil VCs who do terrible things to mostly altruistic founders. But unlike the popular press reporting of this conflict — 80% of the time it is founder-to-founder conflict and not investor-to-founder conflict.

Cofounder 217

Cofounder Stock Options Equity Technical Review 217

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 30, 2018

I thought I’d write a post about how to talk about valuation at a startup and give you some sense of what might be on the mind of the person considering funding you. It’s not uncommon for a VC to ask you how much capital you’ve raised and what the post-money valuation was on your last round. is to start with just the data.

Valuation 324

Valuation Post-Money Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Cofounder 324

View from Seed

OCTOBER 31, 2018

The main value propositions are: user experience and value – home sellers can manage the entirety of their selling activities through its app and cloud-based platform, from valuation to showing scheduling to negotiation and closing, while paying a $5,000 flat fee vs. the industry tradition of 3% commission.

Atlanta 159

Atlanta Cofounder Software Review Technical Review 159