Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 28, 2020

Who would not want to join the unicorns (recent startups with a current valuation of over $1 billion)? Investors and partners now look only for a framework of your business essentials, within the context of your opportunity, solution, and financials. Just make sure you can fill in all the details.

Intellectual Property 404

Intellectual Property Startup Angel Groups Social Media 404

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 22, 2011

In addition to FOMO it is partly driven by massive increase in valuations for earlier-stage companies who raised money at bit seed prices but who still have product risk. million pre-money valuation is now raising $1 million at a $12 million valuation the next investor has nowhere to go but up (or sit out the investment).

Saudi Arabia 309

Saudi Arabia Valuation IPO Technical Review 309

VC Cafe

APRIL 26, 2021

The latest edition from March 2021, comes from Glilot Capital Partners in collaboration with IVC. Source: Glilot Capital Partners and IVC Cyberscape ( Download ). billion valuation just one year from funding, or Israeli founded Deel, that recently raised $156M series C at a $1.25 Cybersecurity Tech. Retail Tech.

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Israel Technical Review Artificial Inteligence Startup 215

VC Cafe

MARCH 7, 2025

Anthropic has just raised $3.5bn in a round at a post-money valuation of $61.5bn. NEW APPOINTMENTS Big congrats Iren Reznikov on joining Vintage Investment Partners as a Partner! in funding and a combined valuation of $4.6T. T-Mobile and Perplexity are teaming up on an AI phone. Startup funding -20% YoY to $19.3B

Israel 103

Israel Stealth Taiwan ChatGPT 103

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 9, 2011

Venture Capitalists typically have partners’ meetings on Mondays. So the industry formed around a day of the week when all partners could avoid having company board meetings or traveling. Valuations were enormous relative to progress in companies. This article was originally published on TechCrunch. Why is that?

Stock 305

Stock Technical Review Marketing Greece 305

Steve Blank

JUNE 27, 2017

If they select a business model that targets industry incumbents, they don’t have to worry about upsetting existing customers, partners or distribution channels. Uber – current valuation >$70 billion – knew the day they started that their ridesharing service violated the law in most jurisdictions.

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Startup New York City Valuation Distribution 306

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 3, 2012

He told me he wondered if we should consider switching partners so the company could get more money and at a higher price. The truth is that I wasn’t as valuation sensitive as my original VC partner was and I would have been willing to raise price. I know it’s tempting to switch partners.

Term Sheet 356

Term Sheet Silicon Valley Reputation Partner 356

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 4, 2014

The next default of waiting until later is equally bad, since partners who bow out early will still expect an equal share of that first billion you make later. Investors may not be called co-founders, but they always get equity, commensurate with their share of the total costs anticipated, or share of the current valuation.

Cofounder 261

Cofounder Stock Founder Technical Cofounder 261

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 1, 2023

The next default of waiting until later is equally bad, since partners who bow out early will still expect an equal share of that first billion you make later. Investors may not be called cofounders, but they always get equity, commensurate with their share of the total costs anticipated, or share of the current valuation.

Technical Cofounder 247

Technical Cofounder Equity Distribution Cofounder 247

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 30, 2013

Make sure your plan answers every relevant question that you could possibly imagine from your business partners, spouse, and potential investors. Intellectual property is a large element of most early-stage company valuations, and this value determines what percent of the company an investor will expect to get for his money.

Intellectual Property 281

Intellectual Property Entrepreneur Sweat Equity CTO Hire 281

VC Cafe

FEBRUARY 27, 2024

Everyone moved to earlier stage – part of the decline in late stage investing is the ‘baggage’ of companies that previously raised money at inflated valuations that they would struggle to justify in today’s market. That’s yet another reason for micro funds to move earlier in the fundraising timeline.

Valuation 186

Valuation Software Review Generative AI Technical Review 186

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 10, 2018

The next default of waiting until later is equally bad, since partners who bow out early will still expect an equal share of that first billion you make later. Investors may not be called co-founders, but they always get equity, commensurate with their share of the total costs anticipated, or share of the current valuation.

Equity 238

Equity Cofounder Technical Cofounder Intellectual Property 238

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 10, 2021

Often, the number one question that entrepreneurs fail to address is: “How much money do you need, and what valuation do you place on your company?” The key here is to create a win-win partner situation for your investors. Lack of clear objectives/goals. Then you have to have evidence to support your request.

Software Review 307

Software Review Due Diligence Elevator Pitch Early Stage 307

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 31, 2012

Make sure your plan answers every relevant question that you could possibly imagine from your business partners, spouse, and potential investors. Intellectual property is a large element of most early-stage company valuations, and this value determines what percent of the company an investor will expect to get for his money.

Intellectual Property 260

Intellectual Property Sweat Equity CTO Hire Fractional CTO 260

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. Invest in communication skills and use all platforms.

Technical Review 252

Technical Review Silicon Valley Software Review Metrics 252

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. And rather than a small group of our partners and associates all thinking it’s a good idea we don’t mind if there is strong internal debate and at Upfront there often is. Almost nobody believed and now look at it.

Technical Review 362

Technical Review America United States Partner 362

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 1, 2011

The Union Square Ventures partners started whispering in his ear that “it’s all about social now”. Advice on startups raising capital: if you raise your first round at a super high valuation and don’t grow into your valuation, it makes it very hard to live for the long game. Contest details here :

Semantic 302

Semantic Acquisition Valuation Angel Investor 302

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 17, 2018

A firm like ours has almost 100 different investments across all the various partners so we get to see some businesses very intimately. You get to have interesting conversations with founders and review business plans and then see how these businesses evolve over the years.

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Founder Dilution Software Review Later Stage 242

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 26, 2013

It’s higher risk, but higher return, to pick the big winners early, before Angels have set unreasonable valuations and restrictive terms. Being “lifecycle investment partners” has a downside. VCs are finding that they don’t need the “large” funds of $100M to $500M to support a portfolio, if they focus on early-stage startups.

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Angel Investor Entrepreneur Early Stage Silicon Valley 231

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 16, 2023

Who would not want to join the unicorns (recent startups with a current valuation of over $1 billion)? Investors and partners now look only for a framework of your business essentials, within the context of your opportunity, solution, and financials. Just make sure you can fill in all the details.

Intellectual Property 261

Intellectual Property Entrepreneur Angel Groups Social Media 261

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 17, 2009

Assuming normal valuations at fund raising rounds you’ll be down to 6-12% after you’ve created a stock-option pool and raised capital. If you started the company yourself consider bringing on a “partner.&# By this I mean somebody who has a large and meaninful percentage of stock options – but nowhere near 50%.

Founder Vesting 365

Founder Vesting Intellectual Property Stock Options IP 365

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 17, 2013

Often, the number one question that entrepreneurs fail to address is: “How much money do you need, and what valuation do you place on your company?” The key here is to create a win-win partner situation for your investors. Lack of clear objectives/goals. Then you have to have evidence to support your request.

Software Review 265

Software Review Due Diligence Elevator Pitch Startup 265

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 12, 2019

You might like to think that a bunch of savvy venture capitalists saw a market niche for raising smaller funds or perhaps there was a generational shift where disgruntled junior partners spun out of bigger firms to start their own gigs. Well, both of those things happened but they were lagging indicators.

Venture Capital 328

Venture Capital Technical Review Seed Stage IPO 328

Steve Blank

MAY 29, 2011

Max and his partners interviewed and analyzed over 650 early-stage Internet startups. However, this does not mean that investors don’t have a significant effect on valuations and M&A). He set up Blackbox.vc, a seed accelerator for technology startups (and one of the tour stops for entrepreneurs from around the world.)

Technical Cofounder 335

Technical Cofounder Early Stage Startup Silicon Valley 335

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 9, 2014

My partner Steven Dietz is an auto enthusiast and more than just an admirer of amazing cars he has worked around the auto industry for 20 years and backed a couple of billion-dollar startups in the category. His blog is even called SaaStr (a bit too close to Suster if you ask me ;-)).

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Video Valuation Differentiation Distribution 373

VC Cafe

FEBRUARY 6, 2025

AI has partnered with Alibaba to focus on AI applications in e-commerce rather than competing directly with OpenAI. If completed, this round would value OpenAI at $340 billion, nearly doubling its valuation from October. Baichuan AI is pivoting toward specialized AI models for finance and healthcare.

China 97

China Artificial Inteligence ChatGPT Generative AI 97

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 10, 2012

Often, the number one question that entrepreneurs fail to address is: “How much money do you need, and what valuation do you place on your company?” The key here is to create a win-win partner situation for your investors. Lack of clear objectives/goals. Then you have to have evidence to support your request.

Software Review 250

Software Review Due Diligence Elevator Pitch Entrepreneur 250

View from Seed

MAY 2, 2019

My experience is that YC partners tend to encourage founders to hold off on taking more money shortly after getting into YC, arguing that their value will increase significantly in just a few months. So your net dilution may end up worse and you may miss out on working with a really hands-on pre-seed partner early in your company’s life.

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Early Stage Dilution Valuation .Net 214

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.

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Valuation Founder Seed Stage Angel Investor 336

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 7, 2013

Investment firms specialize by business sectors, and each partner within the firm has a specialty. To make this work, you will need an initial valuation of at least $5M. Identify the right people in the right venture firms. Mass mailing your business plan to every VC in the book won’t get you any credibility or traction.

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Venture Capital IPO Elevator Pitch Initial Public Offering 252

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 25, 2012

Use this approach before you have a real valuation, a real product, or any real customers. Partner with distributor or beneficiary. Just don’t quit your day job before your new company is producing revenue. Friends and family. After bootstrapping, friends and family are the most common funding sources for early-stage startups.

Technical Review 257

Technical Review Bootstrapping Venture Capital Incubator 257

VC Cafe

SEPTEMBER 30, 2024

Despite the war, in the last nine months Sequoia , Greylock and Accel all opened offices in Israel, and Founders Fund appointed a partner to cover Israeli deals. With attractive valuations and immense growth potential, the Israeli tech ecosystem remains resilient—no matter the circumstances.

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Israel Technical Review Startup Generative AI 183

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 20, 2011

Twitter wanted to raise money for this new venture at a pre-money valuation which was quite a bit higher than First Round’s $10 million limit. Office Hours – Two or three partners post a sign-up sheet to meet with entrepreneurs. Office Hours – Two or three partners post a sign-up sheet to meet with entrepreneurs.

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Pre-Money Valuation Technical Review Cofounder Cram Down 284

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 4, 2015

In a new book, “ The Leadership Capital Index ,” Dave Ulrich, a best-selling author, business consultant, and business school professor, provides some real insights and metrics on what makes up the elements of goodwill in the minds of top valuation experts. I have paraphrased his key points here as follows: Leader personal impact.

Leadership 120

Leadership Technical Review Due Diligence Valuation 120

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 30, 2018

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. It’s not uncommon for a VC to ask you how much capital you’ve raised and what the post-money valuation was on your last round. is to start with just the data.

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Valuation Post-Money Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Cofounder 324

View from Seed

OCTOBER 31, 2018

The main value propositions are: user experience and value – home sellers can manage the entirety of their selling activities through its app and cloud-based platform, from valuation to showing scheduling to negotiation and closing, while paying a $5,000 flat fee vs. the industry tradition of 3% commission.

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Atlanta Cofounder Software Review Technical Review 159

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 12, 2014

” If you invested at $8m pre-money and put $2m in (thus you own 20% of a company at a $10m post-money valuation) and if you put another $2m into a round at a $40m valuation raising $10m ($50m post) you end up with half your money at $8m pre and half at $40m pre thus your average price goes up dramatically.

Technical Review 336

Technical Review Later Stage Early Stage LP 336