Steve Blank

OCTOBER 24, 2017

— Unremarked and unheralded, the balance of power between startup CEOs and their investors has radically changed: IPOs/M&A without a profit (or at times revenue) have become the norm. Typically, this caliber of bankers wouldn’t talk to you unless your company had five profitable quarters of increasing revenue.

Founder 278

Founder Technical Review CTO Hire IPO 278

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 4, 2016

Before you bring on partners, develop intellectual property, raise capital, or generate revenues, you need to establish an official business entity. You don’t have to be a heavily funded later stage startup to get access to “big data,” customer analytics, and metrics dashboards.

Intellectual Property 120

Intellectual Property Startup Angel Groups Social Media 120

Steve Blank

MARCH 17, 2020

Next, take a look at your actual revenue each month – not forecast, but real revenue coming in each month. If you’re an early stage company, that number may be zero. Subtract your monthly gross burn rate from your monthly revenue to get your net burn rate. What are the new financial metrics? Laying off people?

Burn Rate 436

Burn Rate Startup Valuation Sales Cycle 436

View from Seed

MARCH 19, 2015

He’s dubbed the approach “ pretotyping ,” and it shares many of the same principles as both its similar-sounding (if later-stage) cousin, prototyping, as well as the more well-known lean startup movement. The right metrics are key to identifying The Right It. AS: Good question.

Product 120

Product Technical Review Marketing Lean 120

ConversionXL

JUNE 2, 2022

In this article, you’ll learn how to define your ABM strategy so you can target the right accounts and increase your revenue. Think of it as a filter that helps you find the highest chance of return on investment, revenue potential, and profitability. Cloud-based data warehouse Snowflake had an ambitious goal to triple its revenue.

Customer 98

Customer Marketing Channel Acquisition 98

David Teten

DECEMBER 3, 2019

Data companies focused on early-stage startups include Aingel , fundsUP , Preseries , PredictLeads , and Sploda. Later stage investors are using for sourcing private company marketplace services focused on more established companies, listed below under “Step 11: Exit”. They read reviews of the products of target investments.

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Software Review Analytics Private Equity 78

David Teten

SEPTEMBER 23, 2017

An investor had few hard metrics other than the actual financials, and little technology to make the process scaleable. Over the past few decades, better metrics became available, and investors could take a more analytical, data-driven approach. ExitRound helps early stage companies identify buyers.

Private Equity 60

Private Equity Venture Capital Equity Technical Review 60

Reid Hoffman

JUNE 11, 2020

Embedding individual performance metrics in team performance metrics is a central part of how Jeff operates, but he also concerns himself with setting a cultural drumbeat and making everyone feel part of the team. This is so important that I wrote an essay on how to hire a CEO as a later-stage co-founder.

Cofounder 36

Cofounder Leadership Metrics Later Stage 36

View from Seed

FEBRUARY 27, 2019

Analytics is about designing, reporting, and leveraging operating metrics to aid strategic and functional decision-making. These are operating metrics because they are not part of GAAP financial statements, even though they are critical for everyone from the CEO to marketers and PMs to make data-informed decision on a daily basis.

Analytics 149

Analytics Hiring SQL Forecast 149

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 5, 2011

The earlier you invest the higher the chances the company won’t work out and thus you pay a lower price than later-stage investors. million post-money valuation with no revenue. Another firm we saw tried to raise $15 million at a $60 million pre-money with similar metrics. So how exactly are prices determined?

Pre-Money Valuation 336

Pre-Money Valuation Valuation Silicon Valley Stock 336

Berkonomics

JUNE 16, 2022

We can invent lots of metrics to measure progress for a leader, including revenue, profit, employee satisfaction, cost containment, percentage of available market, and more. I prefer a financial goal, such as “achieve $20 million in revenue within five years.” There are many roads to Rio, so they say.

Later Stage 62

Later Stage Early Stage Valuation Acquisition 62

The Next Web

SEPTEMBER 13, 2013

The rest of Asia is still developing with far more angel and early-stage investors than mid-to-later stage folks. Singapore is by far the most developed behind those big three markets with government schemes attracting over a dozen early stage firms to set up shop here (e.g.

Asia 132

Asia Silicon Valley India Term Sheet 132

ReadWriteStart

AUGUST 26, 2022

So first, we were much more sort of with a high growth rate, and we did not even care about how we got the revenue when we got it. And now we are much more careful about revenue quality revenues. So the quality of growth has implications on the revenue stream’s sustainability. Would you say that? . David Zhang.

Partner 132

Partner Cofounder Retention Acquisition 132

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 15, 2016

I know it sounds obvious but just so you understand: There are more capital sources available for earlier-stage capital, the information on which they are evaluating the investment is less (it is almost certainly just team and product) and the risk of the investor getting things wrong is diminished. You are in a classic cap table pinch.

Burn Rate 150

Burn Rate Cap Table Valuation Software Review 150

Duct Tape Marketing

JANUARY 4, 2023

17:16] Is there a small set of metrics that you rely on? [19:43] Then I want to talk to you about adding a new revenue stream to your business that will completely change how you work with clients. Is there a small set of metrics that you rely on as. So the emphasis and the laser focus on metrics is like, not optional. (18:49):

SEO 95

SEO Audience Channel Campaign 95

Steve Blank

JUNE 15, 2010

Certain VC’s like the new class of Super-Angels and small VC funds specialize in the early stage of a startup where you are searching for a business model. And some larger funds that specialize in later stage deals may have a partner or two who likes to invest at this stage. What phase do your VC’s typically invest in?

Founder 232

Founder Vesting Later Stage Early Stage 232

K9 Ventures

JUNE 5, 2015

As the check size increases, investors tend to look for more traction, established revenue models, proven unit-economics, and other metrics that were previously associated with later stage companies. So if the Micro-VCs are looking for Series A-like metrics, what does a company do when it’s just getting started?

Seed Stage 48

Seed Stage Venture Capital Early Stage Valuation 48

K9 Ventures

OCTOBER 10, 2017

If the Micro-VCs are looking for Series A-like metrics, what does a company do when it’s just getting started? In order for a company to attract a full Seed round ($2M – $3M), that company needs to show an almost completed product, an advanced prototype, or some kind of traction/demand metrics. Series A is the new Series B. (~6M-$15M

Seed Stage 82

Seed Stage Finance Later Stage Equity 82

The Startup Magazine

OCTOBER 24, 2018

You can go with the base plan for starters and choose to upgrade in the later stages for additional features such as full API access and multiple monetization options. Pay Per View model of Revenue generation. Video performance analytics to see video metrics, audience metrics, and popular content trending on the platform.

Software 105

Software Bandwidth API Flash 105

View from Seed

JUNE 16, 2015

In my opinion, VCs shy away from directly answering the questions pertaining to “at what point a company is fundable” or give a generic answer regarding revenue. Here are some top-line metrics that I think are worth shooting for: For marketplace businesses: $5M-$10M in annual GMV run rate. For SaaS: At least $100K in MRR.

Boston 120

Boston Syndicate Syndication eCommerce 120

Berkonomics

MARCH 31, 2016

We can invent lots of metrics to measure progress for a leader, including revenue, profit, employee satisfaction, cost containment, percentage of available market, and more. Email readers, continue here…] I prefer a financial goal, such as “achieve $20 million in revenue within five years.”

Later Stage 48

Later Stage Early Stage Valuation Acquisition 48

Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 20, 2009

The sooner you pass your work on to a later stage, the sooner you can find out how they will receive it. If you can start getting ROI on a feature in month one of a twelve month project versus waiting until the end, youve comparatively reduced the cost of development by the revenue generated by that feature over 11 months.

San Francisco 161

San Francisco Software Review Continuous Deployment Development Team Review 161

cdixon.org

AUGUST 3, 2012

For consumer startups with transactional models, e.g. e-commerce, the number of users required is often far lower because revenue is the more important metric. Hence, many early-stage consumer startups are switching to transactional models. - VCs are increasingly focusing on B2B for early-stage investments.

Bridge Financing 86

Bridge Financing Early Stage Valuation Later Stage 86

This is going to be BIG.

SEPTEMBER 7, 2012

There are a lot of people that artificially group together performance metrics for venture, and try to extrapolate successful stratagies from it. In the late 90's, it wasn't surprising that companies with no revenue that were funded at 100 million dollar valuations didn't survive. If you're a multi-stage investor, I get this.

Later Stage 99

Later Stage Down Round Pre-Money Valuation Early Stage 99

This is going to be BIG.

MARCH 30, 2015

Because companies today have way more revenues than the companies that went public or had huge up rounds back then. And, they aren''t necessarily revenues from other dot coms. They''re consumer, SMB and enterprise revenues--maybe not enough to justify their valuation, but much much further from zero than companies in the past.

Hockey Stick 60

Hockey Stick Valuation Startup Maryland 60

Feld Thoughts

SEPTEMBER 9, 2015

Some will demonstrate strategically justifiable metrics and have fantastic ‘up round’ exits; others may see liquidation preferences kick in which will negatively impact founders and employees; others may fulfill the adage “IPO is the new down round” , which has been the case for more than half of the public companies on our list. .”

Liquidation Preference 70

Liquidation Preference Burn Rate Balance Sheet .Net 70

Ben's Blog

AUGUST 17, 2020

OH in South Park, San Francisco (or on Zoom from Big Sky, Montana): “OMG, crazy – that firm just paid 100x revenue to invest in [insert hot startup here] – what could they be thinking?” A multiple is a company value divided by a metric. cash flows beyond that forecast period).

Valuation 36

Valuation Balance Sheet Cofounder Forecast 36

Small Business Force

FEBRUARY 21, 2014

In early stage companies (and even some later stage or mature ones), there is no one area where most entrepreneurs and small business owners are lacking in just basic fundamentals, than in dealing with their company's finances and financial management. Follow the "gospel of cash flow" and it starts with revenue generation.

Finance 37

Finance Management Forecast Entrepreneur 37

abovethecrowd.com

APRIL 20, 2016

A high performing, high-growth SAAS company that may have been worth 10 or more times revenue was suddenly worth 4-7 times revenue. Anything that hints of a down round brings questions about the success metrics that have already been “booked.” The same thing happened to many Internet stocks.

IPO 40

IPO Term Sheet Silicon Valley Valuation 40

Seeing Both Sides

JANUARY 13, 2015

My boss and mentor from Open Market, Gary Eichhorn , made the entire management team read it in the 1990s to hammer home its important lessons as we stumbled through the chasm on our way to scaling from zero to nearly $100 million in revenue in a few years. At each stage, there are different problems. Anyone up for a rewrite?

Mezzanine 20

Mezzanine IPO Finance Business Model 20

Austin Startup

JUNE 26, 2019

You might notice what’s not on that list above: revenue, investors. No revenue isn’t always a problem for venture-style businesses; no investors + no revenue = challenges for most founders without tremendous self-funding. That’s a metric! especially in a winner-take-all category?—?that Hello Chris Yeh!) That’s relative.

Silicon Valley 54

Silicon Valley Startup B2C Sweat Equity 54

Hippoland

AUGUST 31, 2018

Then I asked him about his metrics, which are good, but they are were not at series A level. But Sand Hill VCs who are known for being Series A investors are serving this stage. And companies typically have $2m-$3m revenue runrate at this point. But when we were talking, he expressed frustration in raising his series A round.

Pre-Money Valuation 90

Pre-Money Valuation Valuation Silicon Valley Early Stage 90

Hippoland

AUGUST 31, 2018

Then I asked him about his metrics, which are good, but they are were not at series A level. But Sand Hill VCs who are known for being Series A investors are serving this stage. And companies typically have $2m-$3m revenue runrate at this point. But when we were talking, he expressed frustration in raising his series A round.

Pre-Money Valuation 48

Pre-Money Valuation Valuation Silicon Valley Early Stage 48

Up and Running

DECEMBER 9, 2014

Maybe you are wondering which metrics to track, or whether or not you should take out a loan for your business. They cover funding for small businesses from the initial funding stage to later stages of growth, and other areas in between. Which metrics do you most rely on to understand your business itself.

Small Business 95

Small Business Finance Forecast Metrics 95