Both Sides of the Table
AUGUST 20, 2015
VC funding. Our perspectives on the topic wax and wane with market cycles. We love capital efficiency until we love land grabs until we abhor over funding until we get huge payouts and ring the bell for more funding until we attract every non-VC on the planet to invest in startups until it crashes and we start the cycle all over again none the wiser.
This is going to be BIG.
AUGUST 17, 2015
Almost a majority of the time, when I pass on an investment opportunity, there's something wrong with the company that can be traced back to the moment the entrepreneur came up with the idea. I find myself thinking, "You should really be doing something else." People are excited about the idea of starting a company, but don't spend nearly enough time vetting what to work on.
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Gust
AUGUST 17, 2015
With all the news about hundred million dollar rounds and billion dollar valuations, it can be hard not to look at the world of entrepreneurship and angel investing as a thrilling ride that only has one stop: success. But to be a successful entrepreneur or serious angel investor, you must have a realistic understanding of the startup failure rate and Read more >.
Berkonomics
AUGUST 27, 2015
Dave’s note: We are privileged this week to host a post by Arthur Lipper, a well-respected member of the international financial community since 1954. He has served as advisor to and member of numerous financial exchanges, and was the founder and CEO of Arthur Lipper Corporation and co-founder and Chairman of New York & Foreign Securities Corporation.
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Tomasz Tunguz
AUGUST 29, 2015
During their fundraising processes, founders often tell me “I’d really like to get back to building the business.” I’m certain it’s true. Every founder surely would certainly rather be building their product and company than fundraising. Nevertheless, a founder skilled in fundraising can create enormous leverage for their business and develop unassailable competitive advantages.
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Both Sides of the Table
AUGUST 17, 2015
There is much discussion about this weekend’s article in the NY Times regarding Amazon’s work practices. People seem polarized between, “that’s what it takes to succeed” to “I can’t believe what a heartless, intolerant and misogynistic company culture they’ve built.” I’ve heard the gamut from reading opinions online and even hearing the debate in circles of my close friends and family.
This is going to be BIG.
AUGUST 13, 2015
1. Don't bother creating any kind of cash flow model, because it's b t, right? 2. Overestimate the value and volume of the "data" that you'll collect when lots of users are on your platform. 3. Assume that lots of users will be using your platform when you don't even have a good plan to get the first 500. 4. Skip talking to the specific person at that big customer who you believe will one day spend lots of money on your platform. 5.
Derek Sivers
AUGUST 28, 2015
Internalizing books. Wanting to be successful, I’ve always read every book I thought could help. Even if a book had just one useful insight, it was worth the $20 and my time spent reading and thinking. A few years ago, I realized I was forgetting the lessons I’d learned from past books. So I started taking detailed notes while reading, saving every important idea.
Berkonomics
AUGUST 20, 2015
Dave’s note: Guest author, David Steakley returns to explain his theory of exit valuations. It’s a short but excellent read… By David Steakley. You may recall that earlier in this series, I explained the definition of an inciting incident, using the movie industry and its story telling as the model. The inciting incident in a movie is the event at the beginning of the story that causes the hero’s life to be completely transformed and irrevocably changed, and makes the w
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Tomasz Tunguz
AUGUST 24, 2015
Over dinner, a veteran product manager argued most SaaS products’ onboarding practices miss a crucial step: create value for the user in the first session. After that conversation, I signed up for many brand-name SaaS products pretending it was for the first time, and I couldn’t help but agree with him. Most SaaS products guide a user through three steps.
500 Hats
AUGUST 28, 2015
Failure isn’t the worst thing to happen to you in Silicon Valley.
Both Sides of the Table
AUGUST 24, 2015
If you didn’t notice that the stock markets in the US dropped nearly 4% today (after falling last Thursday and Friday) then you were probably completely off-the-grid and on vacation. It was a nerve racking morning. My favorite Tweet of the morning came from Hunter Walk. You thought media twitter was bad… You thought tech twitter was bad… — Hunter Walk (@hunterwalk) August 24, 2015.
Both Sides of the Table
AUGUST 30, 2015
Technology. It has been a hobby of mine since 1981 when I fell in love with programming, applications and online games. My brain is wired for logic and for problem solving and computers have always helped me fill this compulsion. And since I was 13 years old I have been accustomed to the debate about the limitations of technology or rather the downsides of being overly obsessed with gadgets, devices, software or applications.
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Both Sides of the Table
AUGUST 25, 2015
Last night I wrote a post about how the fall in the stock market over a 3-day period may affect the venture capital markets. If you’re an entrepreneur or VC who wants somebody else’s view on that you should read it. This morning the US stock markets are rallying. So now what? Let me give you the quick summary of what I said yesterday: Public markets affect venture funding.
Tomasz Tunguz
AUGUST 19, 2015
I’ve been to many YC Demo Days and I always look forward to them. This year was no exception. There are so many wonderful ideas and companies founded by terrific entrepreneurs. In addition to the pitches themselves, the types of companies presenting forbear trends in the startup world more broadly. To get a better sense of those trends, I’ve categorized more than 250 startups in 3 recent classes and plotted the evolution of the classes.
Tomasz Tunguz
AUGUST 13, 2015
In a book called The Outsiders - Eight Unconventional CEOs and their Radically Rational Blueprint for Success , the author William Thorndike asks the question, who have been the best CEOs ever? And what metric should be used to gauge them? Thorndike doesn’t choose Jobs or Welch or Gates. Instead, he selects the 8 CEOs whose company’s share price appreciated the most compared to the S&P 500.
Tomasz Tunguz
AUGUST 12, 2015
No matter the stage of the business, startups need to manage the size of their Employee Stock Option Pool or ESOP. The ESOP contains the shares set aside by the company for hiring and retaining employees. Like a financial budget, ESOP budgets help a startup plan how to finance its growth. Most Series A companies create pools of 15-25% of outstanding stock.
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Tomasz Tunguz
AUGUST 27, 2015
Much has been written about the consumerization of IT , the movement fueling many SaaS startup’s growth by targeting individuals in a target customer called B2C2B , rather than selling top down. But until yesterday, I hadn’t found anyone who had quantified the size of the movement. In mid-2014, CEB published Harnessing Business-Led IT to answer this question.
Tomasz Tunguz
AUGUST 25, 2015
The SaaS ecosystem has been evolving incredibly quickly. Most of the time, the changes in the ecosystem are embodied in one particular company which grows exceptionally quickly. Focusing on these fast-growers, the macro shifts can be hard to discern. Last week, Okta released a report Business at Work sweeps across SaaS to reveal these recent evolutions.
Tomasz Tunguz
AUGUST 17, 2015
The most potent weapon in sales is understanding a buyer’s perception of time. As Mark Roberge wrote , “At HubSpot, this lacking sense of urgency is the number one objection we face in the sales funnel.” To succeed, SaaS startups’ sales teams must consistently create urgency in the sales process. Time is scarce. Either the seller’s time is scarce or the buyer’s time is scarce.
Tomasz Tunguz
AUGUST 8, 2015
When we say a startup has raised a big round, we often mean the round is big in two dimensions - total amount invested and valuation. And when we say a big valuation, more precisely we imply the round was priced at a high revenue multiple. A SaaS company that will generate $400M in revenue next year that raises $200M at $1B valuation has raised a big round, but at low valuation-to-revenue multiple of 2.5x.
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Lack of digitalization decreases business competitiveness. To thrive, embracing modern solutions becomes essential. The approach to digitalization often aligns with a company's business model. This shift not only boosts productivity but also automates processes and improves security. The tech market offers a wealth of technologies tailored for management, planning, and forecasting, replacing outdated pen-and-paper methods.
Tomasz Tunguz
AUGUST 6, 2015
Startups today are growing faster than they have in the past. US VC backed startups in 1998 grew revenue 63% per year on average. In 2014, the median startup grew at 85% CAGR before going public. More impressively, newer startups must be 5x larger than 15 years ago before going public. In 1998, the median IPO-bound startup reported $11.8M in revenue in their S-1 (inflation adjusted dollars).
Berkonomics
AUGUST 6, 2015
This piece of wisdom came from Jeff Bezos, founder & CEO of Amazon, during a board meeting for one of the companies where he sits as board member. Jeff asked the question “Is there anything big or small, which is working better than you expected? Is there anywhere we could double down?”. Bezos’ point was that we spend a lot of time focusing on what’s not working in Board meetings (especially during difficult times) and not enough time focusing on what is surpassing expectations and how we c
Berkonomics
AUGUST 13, 2015
Dave’s note: John Huston is founder and past manager of the 300+ member Ohio TechAngel Funds and a past Chairman of both the Angel Capital Association and the Angel Resource Institute. . By John Huston. While you are busy building your high growth venture, you may have occasionally thought about which large companies might be the ultimate buyer of your company – a buyer that could optimize your idea, customer base, and team.
Tomasz Tunguz
AUGUST 16, 2015
While culture may seem an ambiguous and fuzzy concept, strong cultures are the best way for leaders to manage their companies throughout their evolution. One founder/CEO described his company’s rapid growth to several hundred employees in just a few years this way. First, I was one of a few founders. As we grew, I became a manager of people. Then a manager of managers.
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