Remove Liquidation Preference Remove Metrics Remove Revenue
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Praying to the God of Valuation

Both Sides of the Table

And then in the late 90’s money crept in, swept in to town by public markets, instant wealth and an absurd sky-rocketing of valuations based on no reasonable metrics. We had nascent revenues, ridiculous cost structures and unrealistic valuations. Until we weren’t. 2001–2007: THE BUILDING YEARS The dot com bubble had burst.

Valuation 466
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Bad Notes on Venture Capital

Both Sides of the Table

At an accelerator … Me: Raising convertible notes as a seed round is one of the biggest disservices our industry has done to entrepreneurs since 2001-2003 when there were “full ratchets” and “multiple liquidation preferences” – the most hostile terms anybody found in term sheets 10 years ago.

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So What is The Right Level of Burn Rate for a Startup These Days?

Both Sides of the Table

When you raise larger rounds there is more “due diligence,” which includes: calling customers, looking at financial metrics, doing cohort analysis (looking for trends like changes in churn rates), evaluating competitor positioning and understanding more of the competency of your executive team.

Burn Rate 150
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In 15 Years From Now Half of US Universities May Be in Bankruptcy. My Surprise Discussion with @ClayChristensen

Both Sides of the Table

He believes that one of the financial metrics taught at business schools and reinforced by Wall Street has accelerated offshoring of industries. We talked about Liquidation Preference, Voting Rights, and all of the other valuable terms crowd-funding investors don’t understand. Neither does Clayton. No minority shareholder.

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Term-sheets and Valuations: Thinking about Negotiations - Startups.

Tim Keane

3]   However, if they are built bottom up, they demonstrate and make explicit a range of business model assumptions the entrepreneur is using to think about his business and its revenue model. Second a liquidation preference and a participation. This is why a bottom up approach is more credible.   First , dividends.

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How Open Should a Startup CEO be with Staff?

Both Sides of the Table

The don’t understand VC liquidation preferences or multiple return expectations. Good press and industry mojo wasn’t enough to overcome the financial metrics of the business and the offers came in at more like $10 million. Sure, our revenue is growing, but is that enough to raise an internal round? It was not.

Startup 417
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Bad Notes on VC

Gust

Me: Raising convertible notes as a seed round is one of the biggest disservices our industry has done to entrepreneurs since 2001-2003 when there were “full ratchets” and “multiple liquidation preferences” – the most hostile terms anybody found in term sheets 10 years ago. There were no metrics. Him: On metrics.