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

YoungUpstarts

AUGUST 18, 2020

However, to the market of potential buyers, your business likely has a much more tangible price point. To help you navigate this gap and come to a realistic figure on what your company is worth, there are a number of different steps you can take and numbers to crunch to arrive at fair market value. If your company is worth only $2.5

Balance Sheet 195

Balance Sheet Valuation Software Review .Net 195

Steve Blank

JUNE 27, 2017

Initially, a startup has no business model and no market share to defend. But often the legal obstacles confronting startups have been put in place by companies that look to the government and regulators as their first line of defense against new market entrants. Startups can do anything. to stifle competition.).

Startup 306

Startup New York City Valuation Distribution 306

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 20, 2019

There is additional encouraging news for aspiring entrepreneurs on many fronts, just in case you are thinking about joining the existing ranks: Valuations of successful startups have hit an all-time high. Investors are showing an increased appetite for new stocks, with a good percentage of deals pricing above the marketed share price range.

North America 320

North America Incubator Initial Public Offering Valuation 320

The Startup Magazine

NOVEMBER 1, 2021

In a nutshell, affiliate marketing is a form of performance-based marketing. This is where a company will reward one or several affiliates for every customer or visitor brought by the affiliate’s own marketing efforts. The main purpose of an affiliate marketing strategy is to influence others to buy from you.

Affiliate 197

Affiliate Marketing Technical Review Software Review 197

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 28, 2020

Who would not want to join the unicorns (recent startups with a current valuation of over $1 billion)? Minimum viable products (MVPs) are recommended for validating the market, with iterative enhancement to quickly meet market feedback. Incorporating a business entity early through online services.

Intellectual Property 404

Intellectual Property Startup Angel Groups Social Media 404

VC Cafe

JUNE 10, 2022

The market correction has come for series A and seed startups. For the past few week I’ve been sharing here the impact of the current downturn that started in the public markets on startups and venture capital. The market correction has come for Series A and seed startups (Source: Pitchbook ). Lemkin #????????????

Valuation 151

Valuation Marketing Israel Venture Capital 151

View from Seed

NOVEMBER 18, 2020

Sales and marketing has been 30%+ basically forever, though undoubtedly Airbnb has enough brand recognition and loyal customers that if you turned off marketing spend then revenue would drop but not to zero. Uber is an $85B+ market cap company today but is essentially flat to its IPO price and late private round valuations.

North America 401

North America IPO Prospectus Europe 401

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

MARCH 21, 2017

Rather, buyer behavior is rooted in their strategy — a combination of product thesis, their theory of their market’s evolution, how they need to position for customers and against competitors, their long-term brand development, geographic expansion plans, and so on. ” “How can we become #1 or #2 in a new market?”

Balance Sheet 242

Balance Sheet Vertical Acquisition Revenue 242

VC Cafe

FEBRUARY 27, 2024

Seed is about showing initial product market fit. Below are just a few contributors to the rise of pre-seed in the current market: Explosion of Micro funds – In recent years, there’s been a steep increase in the number of micro funds, which are generally below $100M in size.

Valuation 186

Valuation Software Review Generative AI Technical Review 186

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. Adult Supervision. It was so compelling, everyone worked extremely long hours, for little pay and some stock.

Part-Time VPE 329

Part-Time VPE Liquidity Event Stock Engineer 329

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 30, 2022

Every business owner and entrepreneur I meet in my consulting rounds dreams of finding that “ disruptive ” innovation that will supercharge their business and move it into the ranks of business unicorns (billion-dollar valuations), such as SpaceX and Apple. If you don’t keep it top of mind today, then you are going to be left behind.

Technical Review 252

Technical Review Silicon Valley Software Review Metrics 252

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 2, 2021

Semiconductors: Technology and Market Primer 10.0” We discussed whether 1) that was true or just anecdotal 2) if true, was it the same in other research universities, 3) why it happened (software startups are getting funded at obscene valuations)? Oppenheimer , Dec. 15, 2021.

Technical Review 407

Technical Review Taiwan Technology Silicon Valley 407

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 24, 2017

Uber , Zenefits , Tanium , Lending Club CEOs of companies with billion dollar market caps have been in the news – and not in a good way. This era was a “buyer’s market” – there were more good companies looking to get funded than there were VCs. And while new markets were created (i.e. Board Control.

Founder 281

Founder Technical Review CTO Hire IPO 281

YoungUpstarts

OCTOBER 24, 2017

Is it prudent to have a set formula for valuation before you know how the company will perform or will you require the company to pay for an expert to value the company if one side wants to sell? Plan for your company’s eventual valuation. Proper planning for a valuation can make this process much smoother. Lump sum at closing?

Partner 208

Partner Technical Review Intellectual Property Due Diligence 208

VC Cafe

FEBRUARY 6, 2025

It was common knowledge that to compete in this market, companies need huge access to capital, compute, expensive data and expensive talent. The news sent the US stock market into a spiral, causing the market to shed $1 trillion in value, with Nvidia alone making the biggest single day drop of $600 billion in market cap.

China 97

China Artificial Inteligence ChatGPT Generative AI 97

VC Cafe

MARCH 7, 2025

Anthropic has just raised $3.5bn in a round at a post-money valuation of $61.5bn. Kol hakavod Stav Levi Neumark and team Alta on coming out of stealth with a $7M seed round to bring AI-driven sales agents to market! in funding and a combined valuation of $4.6T. T-Mobile and Perplexity are teaming up on an AI phone. in Feb, U.S.

Israel 103

Israel Stealth Taiwan ChatGPT 103

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? But I think there is a down side that I see in startups that raise artificially at prices above what a normal market might value. What price? With which other investors? Should I focus on geographies or industries?

Deal Flow 347

Deal Flow Early Stage Investment Bankers Technical Review 347

The Startup Magazine

OCTOBER 18, 2024

With the right data, you can respond strategically, adjust your positions, and avoid unnecessary risks, even in unpredictable markets. For crypto market makers , monitoring TVL can help gauge a protocol’s health and community trust. Comparing the mCap/TVL ratio across protocols provides insights into their relative valuations.

Metrics 157

Metrics Valuation API Distribution 157

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 12, 2019

As a result of the IPO window shifting we saw a massive inflow of public-market capital into the latest stages of venture. In this post I set out to explain why the seed market emerged as its own category in the first place and why it’s declined as of late. ( The “A Round” of my startup in 1999 was $16.5

Venture Capital 328

Venture Capital Technical Review Seed Stage IPO 328

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. For their first startup, we chose a 3-year old funded company that was working to refine its customer segment and channel for its physical product.

Lean 335

Lean Customer Development Startup Silicon Valley 335

ReadWriteStart

JUNE 1, 2020

The next reason is to establish a competitive advantage over your competition and quickly acquire a substantial market share. Let’s take an example – In the case of an internet or app business, the user traction and market penetration is a must. Establish a competitive advantage. Both of which are expensive and time-consuming.

Startup 150

Startup Entrepreneur Elevator Pitch Seed Stage 150

VC Cafe

SEPTEMBER 26, 2022

Before product-market fit… just care about speed of iteration according to your customer feedback. ValuatIon should be a function of value, not ego. Kawasaki’s Law of Pre-Money Valuation: for every full-time engineer, add $500,000; for every full-time M.B.A., Team, product, market. Our goals, their goals. 9M Seed: $20M ?

Founder 187

Founder Startup Valuation Pre-Money Valuation 187

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

The Startup Magazine

FEBRUARY 21, 2024

The increasing importance of private credit in today’s market cannot be overstated. The challenges I faced building companies were multifaceted, ranging from securing adequate funding to navigating the labyrinth of market dynamics and building a team that shares a common vision and drive.

Technical Review 158

Technical Review Due Diligence Bankruptcy Intellectual Property 158

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 16, 2023

Who would not want to join the unicorns (recent startups with a current valuation of over $1 billion)? Minimum viable products (MVPs) are recommended for validating the market, with iterative enhancement to quickly meet market feedback. Incorporating a business entity early through online services.

Intellectual Property 261

Intellectual Property Entrepreneur Angel Groups Social Media 261

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 12, 2014

Prorata rights are one of the most important rights of a private market technology investors and yet are seldom fully understood. Because companies are raising way more capital in private markets than they ever did in the past. So the answer is: sometimes they take it, sometimes they don’t. Times won’t always be good.

Technical Review 336

Technical Review Later Stage Early Stage LP 336

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 30, 2018

VC firms see thousands of deals and have a refined sense of how the market is valuing deals because they get price signals across all of these deals. 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.

Valuation 324

Valuation Post-Money Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Cofounder 324

VC Cafe

SEPTEMBER 30, 2024

Israel continues to be a relatively liquid market Another strong indicator for the strength of the Israeli startup ecosystem has been exits/ liquidity, especially given the shortage of exits in the venture capital industry. For example, In the last 30 days Salesforce acquired three Israeli startups for a combined $2.6

Israel 183

Israel Technical Review Startup Generative AI 183

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 24, 2021

Select it well – marketers will tell you that you will be selling your name, more than your products. Later, good intellectual property can be worth millions when your company valuation is set for investment purposes, or when the company is acquired or sold. Sole proprietorships need to trademark the name to protect it.

Intellectual Property 363

Intellectual Property Portfolio Valuation Non-disclosure Agreement 363

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 18, 2019

An Insider’s Perspective “Bird Zero” that are custom designed by the company There is a story arc of the electric scooter market that took the world by storm in 2018, was second-guessed late in the year and has quietly re-emerged as a powerful force of growth where few really appreciate the speed and scale of what has happened.

South America 250

South America Global New York City Software Review 250

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 14, 2017

What sized team can I afford in order to sell, market & provide service to these customers? But expanding beyond our core customers was going to take more effort than simply launching in new markets. We realized that operating a business in distributed markets presented multi-city coordination efforts that we weren’t prepared for.

Operations 286

Operations New York City Technical Review Startup 286

The Startup Magazine

AUGUST 11, 2023

It is necessary to cover the early stages of product development, thorough market research, and other processes during the initial step. pexels A war chest is virtually always a competitive edge in all aspects that count, including employing key staff, public relations, marketing, and sales. Hence they will miss the finish line.

Seed Stage 148

Seed Stage Technical Review Early Stage Due Diligence 148

View from Seed

MAY 2, 2019

Once early data exists, there are all sorts of comps out there that create some gravitational pull towards “market” pricing. But prior to actual data, valuation ends up being driven entirely by demand, competition, and ownership targets. If the strategy is successful, they will emerge with less dilution and more funding more quickly.

Early Stage 214

Early Stage Dilution Valuation .Net 214

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 15, 2014

I know – I was there when the first people debating funding it at less than a $5m valuation. They point out perceived market risks, they might question the management team’s experience, they might worry about regulatory risk or incumbent competitive powers. So if you add people like me the target market is tens of millions.

Technical Review 362

Technical Review America United States Partner 362

The Startup Magazine

MARCH 17, 2020

In addition, the method is very versatile — it can be applied not only to a company’s overall business situation but also used to analyze segments of the business or individual marketing campaigns. It can show how your marketing efforts align with your growth trajectories and business goals. Improve conversion rates on your website.

Marketing 150

Marketing Intellectual Property eCommerce Advertising 150

View from Seed

DECEMBER 4, 2019

This equates to something in the neighborhood of a 10% IRR, which isn’t great given the illiquidity of the asset class and strength of the public markets. Over the last 10 years, we’ve been in a bull market with considerable froth in late stage financing activity and valuations. How Have the More Recent Vintages Performed?

LP 256

LP IRR Distribution Portfolio 256