Steve Blank

JULY 11, 2017

It was so compelling, everyone worked extremely long hours, for little pay and some stock. And those early employees got rewarded as their stock turned into cash. The problem was that at some point past employee 1000, the big payoffs ended from pre-public stock and the stock’s subsequent run-up from their IPO.

Part-Time VPE 329

Part-Time VPE Liquidity Event Stock Engineer 329

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 1, 2009

Unemployment coupled with a stock market drop will stop this spending cold IMHO. If these factors impact earnings the stock market may be headed South – If unemployment rises housing prices won’t. This will likely cause the stock market to contract. If the stock market holds then the pace of VC may hold steady.

Technical Review 269

Technical Review Stock Hawaii Early Stage 269

The Next Web

JANUARY 24, 2014

So let’s take stock: What do we offer? The company has a checkered past, but it was the first corporation in history to issue stock in exchange for capital. This legal-financial ingenuity lead to the creation of the world’s first stock exchange in 1602: the Amsterdam Stock Exchange. Not in my view.

Netherlands 143

Netherlands Technical Review Stock Silicon Valley 143

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 25, 2023

Equity is stock, but private company stock has no market value until the company goes public or is sold or merged with another company. IPO – public company initial public stock offering. Here are three important reasons for the question: Good investment paybacks normally require an exit event.

Exit Strategy 264

Exit Strategy Private Equity Equity Technical Review 264

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 23, 2012

There are obvious reasons the industry has had less-than-desirable returns, including: massive over-funding of the sector, huge increases in inexperienced venture capitalists that took a decade to peter out, and the massive correction in the value of the public stock markets that closed many exit opportunities for half a decade.

Venture Capital 347

Venture Capital Technical Review LP Mobile 347

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 22, 2011

And this is happening in mezzanine (pre-IPO) deals as well. And post IPO deals, although these tend to correct more quickly. If everybody is over-paying for early-to-mid stage deals you’d imagine that these all need to feed into a frenzied M&A and IPO market that will garner big returns for these risks investors are taking.

Saudi Arabia 309

Saudi Arabia Valuation IPO Technical Review 309

The Startup Magazine

SEPTEMBER 4, 2020

Stock exchanges is a growing industry where stock investors interact with various companies wishing to exchange the shares. For startups and entrepreneurs, awareness of the stock exchanges will help prepare you for a potential public financing of your company through an initial public offering, known as an IPO.

Stock 114

Stock Initial Public Offering New York China 114

YoungUpstarts

MARCH 24, 2017

Growth stocks provide the ideal opportunity as they see earnings and revenues rise at above-average speed. One risk of investing in growth stocks is that future potential is considered instead of current operations. If the Hero 5 sales surpass expectations continuously, there could be a significant pop in the GoPro stock.

Stock 113

Stock United States China Technical Review 113

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 16, 2010

But VC is an “illiquid asset&# so funds didn’t disappear quickly - In 2000/01 the stock market quickly adjusted punishing investors in the NASDAQ and in individual public technology stocks. What accelerated this was the collapse of the public stock markets. But in bad economies many angels get burned.

LP 311

LP Technical Review Early Stage Silicon Valley 311

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 27, 2011

I find it amusing when a journalist writes an article about a prominent startup (either privately held or preparing for an IPO) and decries that, “They’re not even profitable!” I always remind this to journalists who ask me about public stocks. One of them is profitability.

Startup 418

Startup Revenue Technical Review Flash 418

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 20, 2019

Initial Public Offerings (IPO) are back as an exit strategy. Investors are showing an increased appetite for new stocks, with a good percentage of deals pricing above the marketed share price range. Thus a record number of entrepreneurs (and team members) are getting rich. The median deal size is back over $100 million.

North America 320

North America Incubator Initial Public Offering Valuation 320

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 26, 2020

If your goal is a large national corporation with more than 100 investors, and multiple classes of stock, you might prefer a C-Corp or S-Corp. The options here include going public (IPO), merger/acquisition, liquidate, or no exit, just paying off investors. Quantify the market opportunity in business terms.

Business Plan 423

Business Plan Product Intellectual Property Elevator Pitch 423

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 13, 2010

On July 27th, 2001 Accenture IPO’s and many of the partners grew fabulously wealthy. Since that date the S&P 500 is up 2.45% while Accenture stock is up 206% with revenue of $23 billion and a market cap of $32 billion. Arthur Andersen was embroiled in the Enron scandal and forced out of business.

Turkey 302

Turkey Differentiation IP Technical Review 302

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 28, 2009

Goldman Sachs (an investor in our company) told us we’d IPO within 18 months for $1 billion so not to take any offers. We do hand out stock options. Our company was completely euphoric. We drank our own Kool Aid. We had one of the largest US software companies talk about buying us. Join because as we succeed so will you.

PR 331

PR Software Review Ireland Germany 331

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 2, 2013

I like the work just published by Bob Rice in “ The Alternative Answer ,” which does a great job of summarizing the investment universe, starting with the “conventional” stocks, bonds, and real estate, but moving on through more esoteric alternatives, including hedge funds, private equity, real assets, managed futures, and finally venture funding.

Angel Investor 269

Angel Investor Cram Down Intellectual Property Venture Capital 269

abovethecrowd.com

AUGUST 23, 2020

But in light of where we are in 2020, especially with regard to the degrading efficiency and sky-rocketing cost of capital through the structurally broken IPO process, SPACs may emerge as a legitimate third option for helping Silicon Valley companies efficiently and cost-effectively transition into the public markets.

IPO 118

IPO Silicon Valley Warrant Matching 118

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 30, 2010

My original thinking from Oct ’09 was, while I didn’t (and still don’t) have a crystal ball I worried that: consumers were over-stretched with debt (and make up 77% of the economy), unemployment would continue to rise, which in turn would drive the stock market south and cut the rate of M&A activity and VC investment even further.

Entrepreneur 298

Entrepreneur Technical Review Balance Sheet Government 298

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 21, 2010

Forget to get around to setting up that Employee Stock Option Plan and want to be able to give the early guys their options at a low strike price? They usually ask for warrants (basically like a stock option) in exchange for taking a deferred fee. When we want to sell or IPO companies they’re there again.

Southern California 318

Southern California Silicon Valley IP Stock Options 318

VC Cafe

JANUARY 14, 2022

There are two main forms of exits for startups: trade sale/M&A or IPO. SPACs had their moment in the sun in 2021, with a record number of companies choosing to go public using the SPACs in favour of traditional IPOs. Given that some of these new stocks have low trading volume, in practice the lock up period can be longer.

Israel 158

Israel Technical Review Lock-up Period South Korea 158

ReadWriteStart

OCTOBER 2, 2021

In addition, they can neither issue stocks nor bonds. However, most institutional investors (venture capital groups, for instance) don’t mind this structure, and they, in fact, prefer to invest in corporations due to protections from issuing stocks. While LLCs cannot issue stocks, they can sell bonds to investors.

Technical Review 158

Technical Review LLC IPO Stock 158

Up and Running

NOVEMBER 12, 2014

Initial Public Offering (IPO). Initial Public Offering (IPO): This exit strategy is not suited to most small businesses, primarily because it means convincing both investors and Wall Street analysts that stock in your business will be worth something to the general public. Types of exit strategies. Management buyout.

Exit Strategy 117

Exit Strategy Lock-up Period Merger IPO 117

Gust

JANUARY 31, 2013

Modern theories of economics and finance teach us that in a world of perfect information, the market will decide what a fair price is for any company’s stock at any point in time based on its current financial condition, results of past operations, analysts’ forecasts of future performance, industry conditions and so on.

SEC 158

SEC Prospectus United States Technical Review 158

The Next Web

OCTOBER 7, 2013

Is there an IPO story here? Again this is somewhat simplified as the liquidity event (sale or IPO) may come as cash, stock, or a combination of the two. Stock is naturally more speculative as to value, public or private. Are they especially acquisitive? How much do they cough up?

Engineer 129

Engineer Dilution Option Pool Vesting 129

ReadWriteStart

DECEMBER 14, 2023

Inox India’s initial public offering ( IPO ) opened on Dec. 18, with the IPO scheduled to be allotted on Dec. It will make its stock market listing debut on Dec. crore (Rs 14593200000, or $175,110,373.74) with the IPO, with the company itself receiving nothing for the sales. Photo credit: DALL-E.

IPO 60

IPO India Initial Public Offering Technical Review 60

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 6, 2010

Options are gravy - I lived through the first dot com era where we used stock options as a recruiting tool. We set our sites on our IPO price and then worked back to our current valuation and showed potential employees what we thought they could earn (with all legal caveats) if the company was successful. We give out stock options.

Stock Options 294

Stock Options Stock Valuation Liquidation Preference 294

The Startup Magazine

MARCH 14, 2022

Once the company has established itself and created brand recognition, then the company’s promoters look to list the shares of the company on the stock exchanges. New-age platforms allow an investor to start investing with even a tiny sum of a few thousand rupees, and participate in the company’s success.

Technical Review 167

Technical Review Due Diligence India Startup 167

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 27, 2016

Equity is stock, but private company stock has no market value until the company goes public or is sold or merged with another company. IPO – public company initial public stock offering. Here are three important reasons for the question: Good investment paybacks normally require an exit event.

Equity 120

Equity Exit Strategy Private Equity Startup 120

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 29, 2009

Three reasons: There is a relative valuation between the price a VC pays and their expectations of what it will exit for in an IPO or trade sale. The professor plotted data and showed us statistically that most people buy stocks when they are booming (e.g. Short answer – yes. The best MBA class I took was an investment strategy class.

Burn Rate 263

Burn Rate Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Private Equity 263

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. Usually a small company can sell about 20 percent of its stock in an IPO. In 1999, there were 486 IPOs nationwide; just 10 years later, in 2009, there were only 63.

IPO 223

IPO Social Media Media Exit Strategy 223

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 11, 2013

Today the rate of startups going public (IPO – Initial Public Offering) is at an all-time low, and most entrepreneurs avoid this option like the plague, knowing the process is painful, and public company executives are seen as greedy sharks. entrepreneur Mark Zuckerberg startup investor IPO exit' Going public is an expensive process.

IPO 242

IPO SEC Prospectus Startup 242

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 21, 2018

Initial Public Offerings (IPO) are back as an exit strategy. Investors showed an increased appetite for new stocks, with 18 percent of deals pricing above the marketed share price range. Thus a record number of entrepreneurs (and team members) are getting rich. The average amount raised also increased to $175 million.

Entrepreneur 166

Entrepreneur Valuation Incubator Initial Public Offering 166

Ben's Blog

AUGUST 31, 2020

IN THIS EDITION Fintech products ease more Americans into the stock market In defense of the IPO, and how to improve it What’s inside your (mobile) bank? Among the most interesting is Stash’s “stock back” program, which is essentially an alternative form of rewards. Thanks for signing up. in addition to home ownership.

IPO 36

IPO Stock Software Review API 36

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 12, 2014

And because they are so much larger by the time they go public (think: Facebook $104 billion, Twitter $18 billion, Alibaba > $200 billion) the private value of the most successful companies pre-IPO is more more valuable than it ever was. Why prorata rights are now sought out by LPs. As I like to point out, the truth is often more nuanced.

Technical Review 336

Technical Review Later Stage Early Stage LP 336

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 30, 2012

Even though the Initial Public Offering (IPO) alternative for a successful startup seems to be coming back into vogue, it is relatively rare. IPOs in 2008, the market was up to a still trivial 159 in 2011. Consider the recent example of Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg. After a record low of 39 U.S.

Exit Strategy 239

Exit Strategy IPO Investment Bankers Entrepreneur 239

Growthink Blog

MAY 29, 2012

Unfortunately, lost in too much of the "dramatic" coverage of the Facebook IPO has been the real lessons to be learned for those interested in successful technology and growth company investing. Part of the confusion is understandable.

IPO 85

IPO Stock Technical Review Valuation 85

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 4, 2013

Even though the Initial Public Offering (IPO) alternative for a successful startup seems to be coming back, it is relatively rare. IPOs in 2008, the market was up to a still trivial 128 in 2012 (compared to 675 in 1996). business entrepreneur exit founder IPO startup' Consider the recent example of Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg.

IPO 224

IPO Founder Exit Strategy Investment Bankers 224

Up and Running

AUGUST 18, 2014

If you’d still like to be running the company in 10 years time, you’re probably going to want to ensure that exit plan comes in the form of a steady revenue stream that allows you to pay off investors; an IPO instead of a buy-out; or simply opt for a different strategy – your own funds or private/government loans and grants.

Small Business 154

Small Business Exit Strategy Cofounder Angel Investor 154