Steve Blank

OCTOBER 24, 2017

A version of this article is in the Harvard Business Review. — 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. 20th Century Tech Liquidity = Initial Public Offering.

Founder 281

Founder Technical Review CTO Hire IPO 281

View from Seed

NOVEMBER 18, 2020

You can read various articles out there which will give you the cursory facts about Airbnb like their overall revenue or profitability or how their business has faired here in 2020 in the COVID environment. But ops & customer support is another 17-20% of revenue and arguably you couldn’t run the business if you took that away.

North America 401

North America IPO Prospectus Europe 401

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 5, 2011

2 preamble issues having read the comments on TC today: 1: I know that the prices of startup companies is much great in Silicon Valley than in smaller towns / less tech focused areas in the US and the US prices higher than many foreign markets. As the risks below get eliminated the higher the valuation investors are prepared to pay.

Pre-Money Valuation 336

Pre-Money Valuation Valuation Silicon Valley Stock 336

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 22, 2011

Ah, but today’s Internet companies have real revenue! Responses ranged from, “hey, they’re in a HUGE market&# to “it is an amazing company and their technology rocks.&# For others it feels like a two-speed economy, where rules apply to hot tech startups that don’t apply elsewhere. and profits!

Saudi Arabia 309

Saudi Arabia Valuation IPO Technical Review 309

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 28, 2018

How could Bird really be worth the reported $2 billion valuation that I read about in this press? While I promised not to comment on the exact valuation you can assume that it is very large and perhaps the fastest rise from zero to what some have called a “unicorn” valuation. Forget the valuation?—?I Not really.

San Francisco 256

San Francisco Valuation Los Angeles Technical Review 256

YoungUpstarts

AUGUST 18, 2020

This is a very introductory place to start, but if your company owns the building, machinery, inventory, and/or technology in which it uses to operate, there is often significant value in this in and of itself. Look at Revenues. Figure Out the Net Assets of the Business. If your company is worth only $2.5

Balance Sheet 195

Balance Sheet Valuation Software Review .Net 195

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

MARCH 21, 2017

Revenue multiples, profit multiples, premium over the previous financing — these are metrics used by sellers to help determine a minimum acceptable price. Even for startups, it takes years for a new product to become good enough to demand many millions of dollars in revenue.). Yet mobile advertising revenues were paltry.

Balance Sheet 242

Balance Sheet Vertical Acquisition Revenue 242

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 14, 2017

Nearly every successful tech startup I’ve observed over the past 20 years has gone through a similar growth pattern: Innovate, systematize then scale operations. An example of the systems companies build are pricing & revenue management tools to best help to optimize yield. Seriously, this happens.

Operations 286

Operations New York City Technical Review Startup 286

Steve Blank

JUNE 27, 2017

This article originally appeared in the Harvard Business Review. As more and more companies face disruption from globalization, new technology, and startups that have more capital than the incumbents, the continuing cry from Wall Street investors is, “Why can’t companies be as innovative as startups?”.

Startup 306

Startup New York City Valuation Distribution 306

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 14, 2009

Posted on September 14, 2009 by steveblank Over the last 30 years Wall Street’s appetite for technology stocks have changed radically – swinging between unbridled enthusiasm to believing they’re all toxic. While there was an occasional bad apple, the public markets rewarded companies with revenue growth and sustainable profits.

Silicon Valley 237

Silicon Valley IPO Technical Review Venture Capital 237

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 9, 2011

Valuations were enormous relative to progress in companies. Companies with less than $2 million in revenue were asking for $50-60 million valuations and getting them. I spent my days meeting companies, figuring out what areas of the market interested me and trying to get a sense for how VCs thought about fair valuations.

Stock 305

Stock Technical Review Marketing Greece 305

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 1, 2009

Consumer spending is 70% of the economy and will continue to be stretched – We can look all we want at tech innovation, VC funding cycles and hot M&A deals, but ultimately growth and therefore investment must be underpinned by revenue. This has a tangible impact on the valuation of start-ups and the pace of investment.

Technical Review 269

Technical Review Stock Hawaii Early Stage 269

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 17, 2018

You get to have interesting conversations with founders and review business plans and then see how these businesses evolve over the years. " Revenue doesn't pay your bills, GM does  —  @msuster 2/ Founders obsess with revenue as a vanity metric. Things happen, people tire, sometimes tragedies.

Founder 242

Founder Dilution Software Review Later Stage 242

VC Cafe

FEBRUARY 27, 2024

especially if the startup already has a product and revenue? 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.

Valuation 186

Valuation Software Review Generative AI Technical Review 186

Steve Blank

MARCH 12, 2014

We realized that past K-12 Entrepreneurial classes taught students “the lemonade stand” version of how to start a company: 1) come up with an idea, 2) execute the idea, 3) do the accounting (revenue, costs, etc.). These two startups had problems they could not solve on their own due to lack of resources—time, people, money.

Lean 335

Lean Customer Development Startup Silicon Valley 335

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 25, 2012

Just don’t quit your day job before your new company is producing revenue. Use this approach before you have a real valuation, a real product, or any real customers. This source often gets overlooked, but it should be a major focus these days due to government initiatives on alternative energy and technology.

Technical Review 257

Technical Review Bootstrapping Venture Capital Incubator 257

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 29, 2010

We received so much positive feedback from our This Week in Venture Capital show walking through valuation calculations & term sheets that we decided to do a Q&A show this week to address topics that entrepreneurs want to learn about. The best thing to get is a “right sized&# valuation. A: It’s not best.

Venture Capital 282

Venture Capital Term Sheet Valuation Stock Options 282

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 26, 2013

Due to the struggling economy as well, traditional individual Angel investors haven’t been able to fill the gap. It’s higher risk, but higher return, to pick the big winners early, before Angels have set unreasonable valuations and restrictive terms. Technology costs are plummeting, meaning you can do more with less.

Angel Investor 231

Angel Investor Entrepreneur Early Stage Silicon Valley 231

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 9, 2010

I conclude that the genesis of this trend seems to come from several forces, including the following: Less investment capital available due to the recession. Due to the economy as well, traditional individual angel investors haven’t been able to fill the gap. Technology costs are plummeting, meaning you can do more with less.

Technical Review 215

Technical Review Early Stage Venture Capital Startup 215

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 4, 2011

are eliminated during due diligence. It should answer every question an investor or associate might ask, including current valuation, funding needed, and exit strategy. In most cases, a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet is adequate, with projection formulas for revenue, costs, and cash flow over the next five years.

Intellectual Property 249

Intellectual Property Angel Investor Technical Review Elevator Pitch 249

VC Cafe

JULY 13, 2022

In the big picture, it’s needless to say that the market is going through a challenging economic period, but despite tech layoffs and a decline investments in Q2 2022 (as was seen in the US) the Israeli tech industry faired well. IVC/Leumi Tech Israel tech review Q2 2022. billion in revenue in 2021.

Technical Review 158

Technical Review Israel Early Stage Merger 158

Steve Blank

MAY 19, 2015

These shortcuts add up and become what is called technical debt. You fix technical debt by refactoring , going into the existing code and “cleaning it up” by restructuring it. to drive traffic to their site, which they then turned into ad revenue. Organizational debt was coming due. Refactoring” organizational debt.

Technical Review 120

Technical Review Salary Early Stage Software Review 120

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 16, 2011

Just don’t quit your day job before your new company is producing revenue. Use this approach before you have a real valuation, a real product, or any real customers. This source often gets overlooked, but it should be a major focus these days due to government initiatives on alternative energy and technology.

Technical Review 233

Technical Review Bootstrapping Startup Venture Capital 233

The Startup Magazine

AUGUST 11, 2023

When expanding their businesses, most tech startups and the subindustries that comprise the tech industry typically follow this model. Analysts perform a valuation of the company in question before the beginning of any round of funding. What is the Evaluation of the Funding?

Seed Stage 148

Seed Stage Technical Review Early Stage Due Diligence 148

Up and Running

DECEMBER 16, 2021

In order to avoid formal valuation report costs, shareholders utilize benchmarks of the industry and rules of thumb to estimate the ballpark values of their interests. This article will cover all about the rule of thumb business valuation approaches, when to use them, and their pros and cons. Rules of thumb and business valuation.

Valuation 86

Valuation .Net Metrics Balance Sheet 86

The Startup Magazine

NOVEMBER 1, 2021

To grow your brand and increase revenue, here are some handy tips on how to optimise your affiliate marketing strategy. You need to know the risk factors when picking affiliate partners, otherwise you run the risk of losing revenue. These can include webinars, email marketing , product review blogs, and creating YouTube videos.

Affiliate 197

Affiliate Marketing Technical Review Software Review 197

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 29, 2009

They should heed the age old advice that raising slightly more money while you can is always better than trying to optimize future valuations. Should VC’s really be impacted by public market valuations when the money that they’re investing today should be for returns in 7-10 years? Short answer – yes.

Burn Rate 263

Burn Rate Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Private Equity 263

Growthink Blog

MAY 20, 2011

I received an email last week from an entrepreneur (let's call him Mike) Now to begin, I was pretty impressed with Mike since he used a nice technique to get his email in my inbox (due to the volume of emails I receive, they are screened by others before they get to me). Getting a $100 Million valuation is impossible for a startup.

Venture Capital 109

Venture Capital Valuation NDA Non-disclosure Agreement 109

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 23, 2010

are eliminated during due diligence. It should answer every question an investor or associate might ask, including current valuation, funding needed, and exit strategy. In most cases, a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet is adequate, with projection formulas for revenue, costs, and cash flow over the next five years.

Angel Investor 224

Angel Investor Intellectual Property Technical Review Elevator Pitch 224

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 7, 2013

Yet 2013 is still projected by The Fiscal Times as a difficult IPO opportunity for startups, due to choppy markets, continuing fiscal uncertainty, and the Facebook fiasco. Your friends and family are really the only answer until you have a significant revenue stream. Identify the right people in the right venture firms.

Venture Capital 252

Venture Capital IPO Elevator Pitch Initial Public Offering 252

VC Cafe

JULY 5, 2010

investors the opportunity to participate in the Israeli high-tech market. based Angel capital with early stage technology companies in Israel, and do so in a way that substantially mitigates the risk of seed stage investing. Janvest: In 2009, roughly 450 Israeli high-tech companies raised a little over $1.0B.

Israel 106

Israel Technical Review Software Review Seed Stage 106

Agile VC

JANUARY 13, 2016

But by the time we ended 2015, the headlines like “ The Dangers Ahead if Tech Unicorns Get Gored (WSJ) ” and “ Regulators Look Into Mutual Funds Procedures for Valuing Startups (WSJ) “ “Unicorn” went from being a brass ring to reach for to a term used with sarcasm or derision. Revenue is revenue, right?

Technical Review 157

Technical Review .Net Revenue Software Review 157

Gust

NOVEMBER 15, 2011

The Risk Factor Summation Method the fifth methodology for estimating the pre-money valuation of pre-revenue companies we have described in recent posts. Readers may have noted that both the Scorecard Method and the Dave Berkus Method considered a narrow set of important criteria for investment in arriving at a pre-money valuation.

Valuation 102

Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Ohio Early Stage 102

David Teten

DECEMBER 3, 2019

When I met my now-wife, I realized that any technology that can find me a spouse is a killer app. I’d argue that the same type of technologies that have revolutionized dating can revolutionize our industry. . I walk through below how progressive investors are using technology and analytics throughout all of their operations.

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Software Review Analytics Private Equity 78

ReadWriteStart

OCTOBER 7, 2010

At today's roundtable we had some interesting companies and a lot of fundraising discussions, and I will review them shortly. As a thumb rule, try to get enough validation so that you can get to at least a $2 million pre-money valuation before raising equity capital. Bottom line, early stage equity is very, very expensive.

Valuation 119

Valuation Silicon Valley Pre-Money Valuation Bootstrapping 119

The Startup Magazine

FEBRUARY 21, 2024

Billion in investments across a range of industries, including technology, sustainability, traditional and alternative energy, mining, construction services, transportation, and healthcare. Are there new revenue streams you can tap into? The firm has made more than $4.5 It is also the time to take a hard look at your business model.

Technical Review 158

Technical Review Due Diligence Bankruptcy Intellectual Property 158

betashop.com

OCTOBER 8, 2012

90 Things I’ve Learned From Founding 4 Technology Companies. On October 27, 2010 I wrote a blog post about the “ 57 Things I Learned Founding 3 Tech Companies.”. 90 Things I’ve Learned Founding 4 Tech Companies: Find your company’s One Thing. ?? We do twice-yearly reviews of all Fab team members. So, here goes.

Technical Review 108

Technical Review Technology Software Review Valuation 108