This is going to be BIG.
APRIL 14, 2014
'Last week, there was a Business Insider article measuring the percent of female founded companies that NYC seed funds invest in. Brooklyn Bridge Ventures came in first, with a whopping 61%. Lerer Ventures was second, with just under 20%. So, clearly, I''m making some kind of a portfolio-wide bet there, right? Nope. Well, it''s gotta mean something, right?
Both Sides of the Table
APRIL 27, 2014
'I was having dinner with a friend last night and we were chatting about venture capital and a bit about what I’ve learned. I started in 2007 with a thesis that my primary investment decision would be about the team (70%) and only afterward about the market opportunity (30%). I was telling him that it was much easier when I started because there were fewer deals, life was less public and somehow the world seemed to be spinning more slowly.
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Gust
APRIL 27, 2014
'Software Development Process via Wikipedia. Even when your startup is a one-man show and lots of fun, a “business” needs some discipline and controls to keep it from being defined as a hobby by investors, and assure some financial return. Like it or not, you are now entering the dreaded realm of specifying and documenting “formal business processes.
Berkonomics
APRIL 24, 2014
'Often I see executive summaries from entrepreneurs who have never managed any form of business, or even managed employees in their past life, and who don’t know the first thing about business formation and managing for growth. I used to tell them to find a partner with knowledge in business creation and management. Although that is still a good idea in many cases, there is a recent alternative available to some entrepreneurs on a competitive basis that seems most attractive and positive.
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Tomasz Tunguz
APRIL 14, 2014
Last week, we proved SaaS startups are raising more than they have in the past and newer SaaS companies seem to be generating more revenue per dollar invested. But do newer SaaS companies actually spend less on sales and engineering than their older counterparts? In fact, the 2014 cohort of public SaaS companies spend more on sales & marketing and engineering than previous IPO cohorts.
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This is going to be BIG.
APRIL 1, 2014
'They say you can''t go home again. I think "they" are wrong. After much thought and consideration, I''ve decided that the best move for my career right now is a second stint as an analyst at Union Square Ventures. By the end of the day, I will have formally completed their analyst application. Why now? Why go back to a job I first took nine years ago when things are going so well for me and I''m running my own fund, Brooklyn Bridge Ventures.
Both Sides of the Table
APRIL 2, 2014
'There’s an old joke in software development, “How much time does it take to design software?” Answer: As long as you have scheduled for the design phase. I know. Not funny, “ha, ha” but pretty apropos. If you’ve been involved with a number of software projects you already have an intuitive sense for this. We’ve all been involved with projects that seem to drift and drift and make progress.
Gust
APRIL 13, 2014
'Photo of Chairman of Google Eric Schmidt with Sergey Brin and Larry Page via Wikipedia. A while back I talked about how and where to find a co-founder in “ For a Startup, Two Heads are Always Better Than One ”. The feedback was good, but some readers asked me to be a bit more specific on attributes that might indicate an ideal startup partner. Even if you are looking in all the right places, it helps to know what you are looking for.
Berkonomics
APRIL 17, 2014
'With help from JJ Richa. Can you imagine having 300 shareholders? With recent legislation and new portals on the Web, it’s entirely possible, perhaps for the first time for small businesses. Simply stated crowd funding or crowdfunding is the raising of capital in small amounts, from a broad base of investors. Usually the investors are non-accredited, and only invest a small amount.
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Tomasz Tunguz
APRIL 28, 2014
Since 2008, there has been a secular trend to increase cash compensation and decrease equity to startup management teams. Tho two tables below tell the story for VPs of Engineering (VPE) and VPs of Product (VPP) across the US broadly and in the SF Bay Area. VPE US SF. Cash +10% +16%. Equity -19% -17%. VPP US SF. Cash +26% +8%. Equity -31% -25%. In the past 5 years, VPEs have benefitted from a 10 to 16% increase in their cash compensation, but have seen their equity grants fall by 17-19%.
Fink About It
APRIL 4, 2014
In part two of this series I wrote about how I believe that founding CEOs who are deep domain experts are the best at getting to product-market fit in a capital efficient way. I profiled ServiceChannel’s CEO’s 30+ year history solving problems in the contractor and facility management space. In this post I will profile [.]. The post Pinpointing Problems Worth Solving (Part Three of Three) appeared first on Fink About It.
This is going to be BIG.
APRIL 7, 2014
'The other day, I met up with one of my favorite investors. We talked about some deals we had done and this investor brought up how they weren''t really doing true first money in anymore. Instead, they said that entrepreneurs should raise 200-300k on their own and get something up and off the ground first with traction and that they''d rather wait to see where that goes.
Both Sides of the Table
APRIL 3, 2014
'Most technology startups seem to be funded by product people or business people. Specifically what is often not in the DNA of founders are sales skills. Nor do they exist in the investors of early-stage companies. The result is a lack of knowledge of the process and of sales people themselves. My first startup was no different. I had never had any sales training so everything we did for the first couple of years was instinctual.
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Gust
APRIL 20, 2014
'Image via Wikimedia Commons. It’s your startup, so you can give early partners any title you want, but be aware of potential investor and peer implications. VCs and Angel investors like to see a startup that is running lean and mean, with no more than three or four of the conventional C-level or VP titles. More executives, or other more creative titles are seen as a big red flag.
Berkonomics
APRIL 10, 2014
'With help from JJ Richa. The next logical step in our analysis of financing tools is to analyze asset-based lending, in which you pledge or assign your short term assets, such as accounts receivable or inventory, to the lender. Often, the lender then tracks the pledged assets until money is received or inventory sold, expecting repayment from the proceeds of sale.
Tomasz Tunguz
APRIL 27, 2014
The chart above compares the contribution of two hypothetical inside sales people with $400,000 quotas to an early-stage startup’s finances. In this case, contribution is the 18 month revenue of sold customers tallied cumulatively minus the salary costs of $100k annualized of the sales person. I’ve modeled a six month linear ramp for the sales person to reach 100% of quota.
Both Sides of the Table
APRIL 1, 2014
'If you’ve watched any industry in the last 20 years where technology has begun to transform how the industry works the results are always predictable driven by what Clay Christensen appropriately called “ The Innovator’s Dilemma ” (one of the most influential books that changed my thinking about markets). Young startups claim they are going to change the world, large companies that dominate that sector scoff at how low quality these new entrants are, until l ike frogs bo
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Both Sides of the Table
APRIL 6, 2014
'Reference calls. We all have to make them. Whether you’re considering hiring a new employee or as an investor whether you’re looking to do a background check on the founders of a company. My friend Jason Hirschhorn Tweeted about this today. Here are some pointers that I’ve learned over the years: 1. Ask for at least 5 references. As your candidate for at least 5 references.
Gust
APRIL 23, 2014
'From a completely biased perspective, I’d nominate the nascent and not yet completely visible rise of online equity investing platforms. While Gust is generally flying under the radar, and currently accounts for an infinitesimally tiny fraction of the marketplace, the actual numbers may be a bit surprising. Today, over 200,000 companies are using it to organize their materials for raising equity, over 1100 venture capital funds and organized business angel groups are using it to manage
Gust
APRIL 19, 2014
'For a sophisticated investor, there are none, because an uncapped note just doesn’t make sense (see my answer to “If a startup’s valuation is $x, how much larger should its cap on a convertible note be?” ). For an unsophisticated investor (ie, friends and family) the only argument is that you’re both babes in the woods, and neither of you is legitimately able to determine a fair cap (aka a valuation) now.
Gust
APRIL 16, 2014
'There is no standard thing called an “Investors Contract”, and it sounds as though you are trying to re-invent the wheel here. It also sounds as though you are doing all of this yourself, instead of using an experienced lawyer…which is a very, very bad idea. For example, in virtually every case I can imagine, the “contract” you are describing is an asset that absolutely would transfer to the investor’s estate in the event of his death.
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Gust
APRIL 9, 2014
'Equity dilution works when the same pie is divided among more people. The Founder of a company starts by owning all the shares representing ownership of the company. Over time, other people receive pieces of equity in exchange for work (employee stock options), money (seed, angel and venture investors), services (attorneys, directors, etc.). Because the total percentage of equity will always equal exactly 100%, every time anyone gets another piece, by definition it “dilutes” all o
Gust
APRIL 30, 2014
'The biggest change is the one that ALL serious angel investors eventually arrive at: no matter how smart or experienced you are, there are simply too many exogenous factors affecting outcomes for you to be able to pick only winners. Having now invested in over 85 startups, and finding that my personal metrics are very similar to aggregated industry ones, it is clear that (a) there is little to no correlation between my home runs and my personal favorites, and (b) angel investing done correctly
Gust
APRIL 6, 2014
'Image via Amazon.com. Most people think that the Peter Principle (employee rises to his level of incompetence) only applies to large organizations. Let me assure you that it is also alive and well within startups. I see startup founders and managers who are stalled transplants from large organizations, as well as highly-capable technologists trying to start and run a business for the first time.
Gust
APRIL 12, 2014
'SIIA (the US Software and Information Industry Association) named Gust the Best Collaboration Solution of 2013, at the gala during the All About The Cloud annual conference in San Francisco on Thursday. Since this is the closest our industry has to the Academy Awards, and since it’s the second year in a row we have won it (beating the other nominated products from Google, Adobe and SalesForce.com ), I’m a very happy camper.
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