Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 22, 2020

For example, if you have a proven product, real revenue, a big potential market, and are ready to scale up the business, every investor will be interested. On the other hand, if you are a new entrepreneur, still in the idea stage, professional investors will only tell you to come back later when you have traction (customers and revenue).

Angel Investor 370

Angel Investor Intellectual Property Investment Bankers Private Equity 370

Steve Blank

APRIL 10, 2019

We slept under the tables, and pulled all-nighters to get to first customer ship, man the booths at trade shows or ship products to make quarterly revenue – all because it was “our” company. At times this opportunity is offered to all employees in a “secondary” offering.)

Stock Options 335

Stock Options Stock Vesting Common Stock 335

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 14, 2022

Thus I’m getting more questions on new mechanisms, like crowd funding, or going public through the side door as a reverse merger. Being a public company isn’t cheap or easy. Is your startup really ready to play in the corporate world? A classic survey from a while back sets the burden at up to $2.5M

Merger 261

Merger OTC IPO Due Diligence 261

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 8, 2019

Thus I’m getting more questions on new mechanisms, like crowd funding, or going public through the side door as a reverse merger. Being a public company isn’t cheap or easy. Is your startup really ready to play in the corporate world? A survey from a while back sets the burden at up to $2.5M

Merger 303

Merger OTC IPO Due Diligence 303

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 29, 2022

In the old days, every entrepreneur planned on taking their startup public, and making it big. Today the rate of startups going public (IPO – Initial Public Offering) is finally up from the dead zone of the last two decades, and is now double the rate back in 1999.

IPO 245

IPO SEC Prospectus Startup 245

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 1, 2015

In the old days, every entrepreneur dreamed of easily taking their startup public, and making it big. Today the rate of startups going public (IPO – Initial Public Offering) is up from the dead zone, but is still less than half the rate of 15 years ago.

IPO 120

IPO SEC Prospectus Startup 120

YoungUpstarts

MAY 31, 2016

In order to be successful as an innovative company, never mind a start-up or small entrepreneurial company, it’s essential to be able to identify the few truly strategic initiatives that will most favorably impact the top revenue line. Develop and evolve your company’s product brands through your customer’s eyes.

Technical Review 100

Technical Review Leadership Early Stage Initial Public Offering 100

YoungUpstarts

MAY 23, 2012

Facebook’s chief online game developer, Zynga , was recently given the enormous market value of $7 billion in its initial public offering and ninety-three percent of Zynga’s yearly revenue is generated through Facebook. In deed, in 2009,World of Warcraft alone represented 10% of global online gaming revenues.

Mobile 157

Mobile Video Design Initial Public Offering 157

Version One Ventures

OCTOBER 7, 2014

However, as Scott Krager points out in his post, the companies have vastly different approaches for generating revenue. Hubspot’s average revenue per customer: $8,670 per year. Moz’ average revenue per customer: $1,295 per year. Moz’ average revenue per customer: $1,295 per year. Moz spends $131 to acquire a new customer.

Initial Public Offering 148

Initial Public Offering IPO SEC Valuation 148

ReadWriteStart

JULY 20, 2023

While venture-backed startups struggle to find relief amidst a backlog of richly priced ventures, some tech companies are defying expectations and going public with resounding triumphs. Despite the allure of high-margin recurring revenue, many smaller firms that sell software products are struggling to demonstrate sustainable profitability.

IPO 107

IPO Startup Initial Public Offering eCommerce 107

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 19, 2018

For example, if you have a proven product, real revenue, a big potential market, and are ready to scale up the business, every investor will be interested. On the other hand, if you are a new entrepreneur, still in the idea stage, professional investors will only tell you to come back later when you have traction (customers and revenue).

Angel Investor 184

Angel Investor Intellectual Property Investment Bankers Private Equity 184

VC Cafe

JANUARY 15, 2024

M&A/ Exits – This situation is compounded by a narrowing window for mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and initial public offerings (IPOs). There’s a pecking order, and perhaps the right timing will be the end of the year or beginning of 2025.

IPO 88

IPO Valuation Israel Private Equity 88

VC Cafe

MARCH 11, 2010

T aking a company through an initial public offering (IPO) is not an easy task. Revenue inched up only two percent to $65.1 It requires months of preparation from management and a tiring roadshow process, in order to convince potential investors on the viability of the company and its plans for growth. million in 2009.

IPO 68

IPO SEC Initial Public Offering Stock 68

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 13, 2018

Thus I’m getting more questions on new mechanisms, like crowd funding, or going public through the side door as a reverse merger. Being a public company isn’t cheap or easy. A PwC survey averages the burden of public companies at $1.5M Is your startup really ready to play in the corporate world?

Merger 198

Merger OTC IPO Due Diligence 198

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 4, 2014

For example, if you have a proven product, real revenue, a big potential market, and are ready to scale up the business, every investor will be interested. On the other hand, if you are a new entrepreneur, still in the idea stage, professional investors will only tell you to come back later when you have traction (customers and revenue).

Angel Investor 232

Angel Investor Intellectual Property Investment Bankers Private Equity 232

Version One Ventures

OCTOBER 7, 2014

However, as Scott Krager points out in his post, the companies have vastly different approaches for generating revenue. Hubspot’s average revenue per customer: $8,670 per year. Moz’ average revenue per customer: $1,295 per year. Moz’ average revenue per customer: $1,295 per year. Moz spends $131 to acquire a new customer.

Initial Public Offering 77

Initial Public Offering IPO SEC Valuation 77

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 7, 2015

I recently saw a startup projecting $50 million in revenue for the first year. I recommend five-year projections, to show the evolution of revenues and expenses and funding and profitability expectations over time. My rule of thumb is that startup-revenue projections in the fifth year better be between $20 million and $100 million.

Liquidity Event 120

Liquidity Event Startup Initial Public Offering Equity 120

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 19, 2012

Assuming your startup takes off, you will probably find that the fun is gone by the time you reach 50 employees, or a few million in revenue. For bigger companies, it’s a more efficient and quicker way to grow their revenue than creating new products organically. Initial Public Offering (IPO).

Exit Strategy 241

Exit Strategy Initial Public Offering IPO Startup 241

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 3, 2014

A reverse merger is the acquisition of an already public company (usually a dormant shell) to avoid the Initial Public Offering (IPO) process and cost, to quickly get your startup on a public exchange for fund raising through visibility and selling stock. Being a public company isn’t cheap or easy.

Merger 246

Merger OTC IPO Stock 246

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 13, 2016

For example, if you have a proven product, real revenue, a big potential market, and are ready to scale up the business, every investor will be interested. On the other hand, if you are a new entrepreneur, still in the idea stage, professional investors will only tell you to come back later when you have traction (customers and revenue).

Matching 120

Matching Angel Investor Intellectual Property Investment Bankers 120

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 5, 2012

At this stage, your startup better be selling a commercial offering, have price and cost validated, with significant customer sales and a real revenue stream. This normally means more then 30 employees, and more then $1 million in revenue. Lesser amounts remain in the angel realm. Growth stage. Exit stage.

Investment Bankers 241

Investment Bankers Venture Capital Startup Initial Public Offering 241

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 5, 2011

Assuming your startup takes off, you will probably find that the fun is gone by the time you reach 50 employees, or a few million in revenue. For bigger companies, it’s a more efficient and quicker way to grow their revenue than creating new products organically. Initial Public Offering (IPO).

Exit Strategy 231

Exit Strategy Initial Public Offering Startup IPO 231

Steve Blank

JUNE 15, 2011

Today, the signs of the new bubble are the Linked-In initial public offering (IPO), Facebook’s stratospheric valuation and the rapid rise of early-stage startup valuation. Long before others, they saw that these applications could have hundreds of millions of users with “off the chart&# revenue and profits.

Silicon Valley 331

Silicon Valley Stealth Valuation Mississippi 331

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 11, 2013

In the old days, every entrepreneur dreamed of someday taking their startup public, and making it a multi-national powerhouse. As best, you should reserve this option for later stage VC discussions, once you have a well-proven business model, large market following, and substantial revenue.

IPO 242

IPO SEC Prospectus Startup 242

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 13, 2010

At this stage, your startup better be selling a commercial offering, have price and cost validated, with significant customer sales and a real revenue stream. This normally means more then 30 employees, and more then $1 million in revenue. Lesser amounts remain in the angel realm. Growth stage. Exit stage.

Investment Bankers 231

Investment Bankers Venture Capital Startup Initial Public Offering 231

Steve Blank

MARCH 18, 2011

VC’s worked with entrepreneurs to build profitable and scalable businesses, with increasing revenue and consistent profitability – quarter after quarter. The reward for doing so was a liquidity event via an Initial Public Offering. The revenue, profits and speed of scale of the winning companies can be breathtaking.

Internet 335

Internet IPO Silicon Valley Agile 335

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 15, 2015

Thus I’m getting more questions on new mechanisms, like crowd funding, or going public through the backdoor as a reverse merger. Being a public company isn’t cheap or easy. Experts estimate the burden of public companies at up to $1M a year. Is your startup really ready to play in the corporate world?

Merger 120

Merger OTC IPO Due Diligence 120

Gust

NOVEMBER 22, 2011

At this stage, your startup better be selling a commercial offering, have price and cost validated, with significant customer sales and a real revenue stream. This normally means more then 30 employees, and more then $1 million in revenue. Lesser amounts remain in the angel realm. Growth stage. Exit stage.

Venture Capital 171

Venture Capital Investment Bankers Angel Investor Initial Public Offering 171

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 16, 2011

It has been at least a decade since going public via an Initial Public Offering (IPO) has been considered a credible exit strategy for startups. Draper III, in his new book titled “ The Startup Game.”

IPO 223

IPO Social Media Media Exit Strategy 223

Berkonomics

JULY 8, 2021

Years ago, a young entrepreneur joined one of the roundtables, and we followed his progress with his issues, many of them directly related to fundraising, as he grew his company from a raw start-up to an initial public offering on the NASDAQ exchange, followed by continued growth in revenues and stock price.

Initial Public Offering 62

Initial Public Offering Angel Investor Stock Email 62

Version One Ventures

JUNE 29, 2017

What I missed in most of this commentary was the fact that Matt Salzberg and his team had created a company with over $800m in revenues and a $2b valuation in a short 5 (!) As one can imagine, the media commentary was not pretty, calling the IPO a disappointment , the stock stale out of the box , and lamenting that the stock forgot to pop.

IPO 141

IPO Stock Valuation Business Model 141

YoungUpstarts

MARCH 11, 2015

This compensation can come in the form of a stock option , a stock appreciation right, or a similar financial instrument, which can potentially be quite lucrative for employees at the time of a merger, acquisition or initial public offering (IPO). A company can have value, even if there is no current income or revenue.

Valuation 100

Valuation Stock Options CPA Merger 100

Austin Startup

FEBRUARY 12, 2019

Qualtrics, a company purchased for $8 billion by SAP in late 2018 just days before a planned initial public offering, grew rapidly for a decade before taking in VC funding and is only the latest example of a company that found most of its success without VC firms behind the scenes.

Silicon Valley 48

Silicon Valley Technical Review Venture Capital San Francisco 48

Rob Go

OCTOBER 1, 2014

It’s the eve of Wayfair’s Initial Public Offering, and I’m so excited for the company. Big congrats to the entire team there, especially NextView Venture Advisors Niraj and Steve (who were among the first people to get behind NextView in the early days).

Initial Public Offering 51

Initial Public Offering Metrics Revenue Operations 51

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 2, 2018

Constituents look for a long-term strategy of continuing return, normally including an initial public offering (IPO) or merger/acquisition, to on-going value or option to cash out. A huge user base may also be a source of profitability, if it results in a multi-billion dollar valuation.

Intellectual Property 48

Intellectual Property Initial Public Offering Merger Acquisition 48

ReadWriteStart

APRIL 2, 2012

The real truth is, since the "Internet bubble" burst in 2001, initial public offerings have not resumed the vitality levels of the late 1980s, let alone the boom years of the '90s. It refers to this specific, new group of young, low-revenue companies for whom some of the SOX reporting regulations will no longer apply.

IPO 121

IPO Startup Florida Seed Capital 121

Eric Friedman

MAY 30, 2008

The shortage of revenue among social networks, blogs and other “social media” sites that put user-generated content and communications at their core has persisted despite more than four years of experimentation aimed at turning such sites into money-makers.

Web 60

Web Initial Public Offering Social Network Social Media 60