Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 27, 2014

I know I can’t be in every deal and I know that the easy part of being a VC is writing the first check in a deal. If we got an offer to raise $25 million to grow would she take it or be too worried about exit price, dilution, valuation expectations, etc. If an accelerator is writing you they’re also writing 25 other VCs.

Venture Capital 374

Venture Capital Invest Press Startup 374

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 3, 2012

I got a call from a VC friend of mine who said, “we’re looking at this deal but can’t write the full check. I decided to write a $2+ million check along with my co-investor who offered $750k. The company agreed on a price but felt it was a bit lower than they had hoped for. I think you should look at it.”

Venture Capital 356

Venture Capital Pricing Startup Writing 356

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 3, 2011

How did you determine the right price points for your product? Like many companies they experimented with many pricing models. They tried lots of price points – $13.99, $9.99 When they increased price from $9.99 My key take away – frame of reference in pricing is important. to $12 conversion went up!

Startup 303

Startup Venture Capital Pricing Writing 303

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 5, 2013

.” In the article I discussed the downside of raising capital at a too high of a price and referred people to a previous article I had written encouraging founders to raise “ At the Top end of Normal ” as opposed to stratospheric prices. In the comments section Siqi Chen wrote a great question. Startup Advice'

Pricing 302

Pricing Seed Funding Invest Venture Capital 302

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 15, 2010

Investors are writing checks for dots. Entrepreneurs – you might be pumped up with that super quick round done at a high price. I know VCs and sophisticated angels can be difficult, slow and price sensitive, but I also know that in tough times unsophisticated investors can be a right pain in the arse.

Invest 411

Invest Technical Review Venture Capital Startup 411

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 4, 2013

What price? The only way for a company to be overvalued is if there’s someone willing to pay that price. ” Therefore one goal of Y Combinator appears to be “get the highest price and best terms.” They do this because they have amazing skills at writing business plans. What stage? ” Fair play.

Startup 361

Startup Venture Capital Pricing Technical Review 361

InfoChachkie

DECEMBER 8, 2011

Writing a book is very different from writing a blog. One, I wanted to know what it was like to write a book. In my review of the book, my biggest concern was the rather elevated list price of $49.95. As such, I asked Brad how much input he had in determining the book’s price. “We There were a couple motivations.

Venture Capital 224

Venture Capital Writing Entrepreneur Blogging 224

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 11, 2012

As a result I’ve really resisted writing about negotiations. Sometimes I even say, “I will change price / terms if I need to. If I forget to write, “Don’t Negotiation Piecemeal” after that then remind me. Your job is to offer a price (or terms) and walk. submitting term sheets.

Pricing 305

Pricing Startup Examples Writing 305

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 4, 2013

What price? The only way for a company to be overvalued is if there’s someone willing to pay that price. ” Therefore one goal of Y Combinator appears to be “get the highest price and best terms.” Or maybe I’m paying the highest price? What kind of deals should I be doing? What stage?

Venture Capital 347

Venture Capital Startup Pricing Invest 347

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 2, 2010

Some objections are real and they end up becoming changes to your product, your service plan or your pricing / bundling. As a founder, when you’ve been dealing with these kinds of objections for a couple of years it becomes natural and you easily handle objections on price, product & competition without much thought.

Sales 289

Sales Startup Training Pricing 289

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 14, 2012

…” I’ll write soon on my views of why I believe Instagram took off as a social network and what I think comes next. But if you raise the money at the big price (or any price) please go in with the expectation that you are going to build a large, long-term business. to justify a “strategic” price.

Venture Capital 316

Venture Capital Pricing Social Network Acquisition 316

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 22, 2010

I’m not sure I really even need to write this at length because Nivi absolutely nailed the topic in his article “ The Option Pool Shuffle.&#. The price / share is actually $2.40 (not $3.00), which is $3,000,000 pre-money / 1,250,000 shares (because you had to create the 250,000 share options).

Venture Capital 405

Venture Capital Pricing Startup Funding 405

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 5, 2011

I’ve started writing up some of those sales & marketing lessons and I plan to continue to build that section out over time. They like a solid product, well defined pricing, good references to sell against, a clear quota and well defined competitors. Sales people will often blame your pricing.

Sales 316

Sales Startup Pricing Customer 316

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 27, 2021

When you first start your career as an investor (or when you first start writing angel checks) your main obsession is “getting into great deals.” That’s return, not exit price of the company. You’re thinking about one bullet at a time. billion When Ring started, even the folks at Shark Tank wouldn’t fund it.

Funding 294

Funding Startup Writing Invest 294

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 29, 2010

on the entrepreneur side of the table) when I raised at too high of a price. So don’t raise money at a cheap price, but don’t get too far ahead of yourself either. Pricing high also takes exit options off the table. But if you do this early (pre VC) then the price points are pretty low. This is wrong.

Venture Capital 282

Venture Capital Capital Startup Pricing 282

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 15, 2013

Here is my edited summary of their ten principles, which I like and may convince you that you don’t need a business plan at all, or at the very least will help you write a better one later: A new venture is a means, not an end. Carry out reality checks and make appropriate plans. The only reliable test is a real one.

Writing 102

Writing Startup Entrepreneur Capital 102

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 25, 2011

Yesterday I saw a Tweet from Chris Sacca fly by that prompted me to want to write a blog post helping entrepreneurs understand why they should push back against VCs asking for “super pro-rata” rights. So you’re stuck with an internal financing and no leverage to drive a fair price for yourself.

Entrepreneur 310

Entrepreneur Venture Capital Writing Invest 310

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 14, 2010

I pointed to several Economist articles I had read that mapped historical prices of real estate for 400 years and how on average property values grow at no more 1.5% above inflation yet in many markets in the US & Europe prices were rising at 10-25% per year. And it’s driving up prices beyond their inherent value.

Invest 299

Invest Angel Technical Review Venture Capital 299

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 3, 2010

I call this “arming & aiming&# your sales teams where you need to standardize both the assignment of territories, industries & accounts (aiming) as well as the process of selling, the collateral, the legal agreements & pricing. We moved toward more standardized pricing (e.g. less negotiating & haggling).

Sales 296

Sales Pricing Startup Custom 296

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 27, 2014

I wrote my version here and Scott wrote an excellent write-up of his views here. We both agree that the later-stage valuations are being driven up to a point that feels irrationally priced [he uses b-round SaaS valuations as an example and I am willing to be even more broad based]. Each of the two videos is about 10 minutes long.

Venture Capital 309

Venture Capital SaaS Writing Funding 309

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 15, 2010

I give a sneak peek at a blog post I’m writing on the topic next week. If you’re an entrepreneur, all else equal you prefer convertible debt because the deal is priced at a later stage when you’re worth more. A good compromise is “convertible debt with a cap&# meaning the conversion price has a limit.

Venture Capital 210

Venture Capital Seed Funding Pricing Southern California 210

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 27, 2011

I find it amusing when a journalist writes an article about a prominent startup (either privately held or preparing for an IPO) and decries that, “They’re not even profitable!” Fast early growth in a market is often eroded when competition gets fierce and prices are forced down due to competition.

Startup 418

Startup Venture Capital Sales Technical Review 418

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 1, 2011

I started by writing 3-4 times / week. I didn’t have any grand ambitions other than to write, share ideas and try to build awareness of who I am through my thoughts. If I get a holiday bump I’ll raise a round at whatever price I like. &#. Less than 100 people read that original post 2 years ago.

Startup 391

Startup Blogging Venture Capital Writing 391

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 22, 2011

I will write more about this in the next 2 weeks. But that doesn’t mean that people are paying rational prices as investors based on intrinsic value. Rational people can disagree and some may argue that today’s prices are rational and under-pinned by economic drivers. I believe that. That’s fine.

Pricing 309

Pricing Marketing Startup Venture Capital 309

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 27, 2016

I answered in the same way I always do so I thought I’d just write it publicly. “I I think I’m better at the product stage of a business and helping with strategy, marketing, pricing, feature sets and so forth than I am at evaluating later-stage businesses based on financial results and business metrics and priced accordingly.

Invest 254

Invest Writing Pricing Metrics 254

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 3, 2011

The truth is I have been thinking a lot about the topic, I just haven’t been writing about it. And I believe these price points are pushing entrepreneurs to start at a much younger age. I plan to write about this phenomenon soon. On AWS and with open source you can achieve amazing results for $500k.

Entrepreneur 341

Entrepreneur Venture Capital Startup Blogging 341

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 23, 2010

If a round of funding does happen then this debt is converted into equity at the price that a new external investor pays with a “bonus&# to the inside investor for having taken the risk of the loan. They also trust VC’s to determine the right price to pay for the company securities that they buy.

Startup 290

Startup Funding Venture Capital Pricing 290

Berkonomics

AUGUST 17, 2023

A liquidity event opportunity Several years later, with the approval of the board and entrepreneur, I was able to engage a very well-known potential acquirer of the business who offered an attractive price for the still young but successful enterprise.

Invest 296

Invest Capital Startup Entrepreneur 296

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 30, 2010

The prices of angel deals have recently crept up, VCs have also gotten their checkbooks out again, frothy deals are happening and people are feeling bullish. VCs have also gone back to writing checks because as an industry we can’t be seen as “sitting on the sidelines” for years at a time. VCs get paid to “put money to work.&#.

Entrepreneur 298

Entrepreneur Venture Capital Technical Review Startup 298

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 31, 2020

June 2019 (left) and November 2020 (right) I’ve been reluctant to write this blog post because historically I don’t like talking about weight. I’ve been reluctant to write about weight in part because I don’t want to sound self righteous. Then should write down your “target goal.” I figured out something that worked for me.

Startup 526

Startup Course Writing Help 526

InfoChachkie

MAY 26, 2011

I was inspired to write this entry after reading Scott Dinsmore’s 11 Quick Actions article. Write about it. Put a price on it. If you haven’t already subscribed yet, subscribe now for free weekly Infochachkie articles! Actions You Can Take Today to Successfully Start…Anything. The following list is from Scott’s entry.

Entrepreneur 211

Entrepreneur Santa Barbara Startup Writing 211

SoCal CTO

JANUARY 5, 2011

Will Price , October 11, 2010 Georgians Should Vote No - Force of Good: a blog by Lance Weatherby , October 28, 2010 Free Software for Managing a Lean Startup - Platforms and Networks , January 17, 2010 Purpose Driven Life - Journey of a Serial Entrepreneur , July 26, 2010 Two Decade-Defining Acquisitions?

Startup 378

Startup Venture Capital Blogging CTO Coach 378

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 21, 2010

When to get a lawyer - If you plan to be a venture or angel backed technology company (what I mostly write about) the best time to start meeting and getting to know lawyers is long before you ever start your company. I write about some of the lessons in my post on Startup Mistakes. Many people start companies arse backwards.

Startup 318

Startup IP Southern California Entrepreneur 318

socalTECH

OCTOBER 6, 2016

The company said the software now supports automated check writing and electronic vendor or owner payments in the software, including full service check procesisng where it prints and mails checks for businesses. Pricing on the new features were not announced by the company. READ MORE>>.

Santa Barbara 138

Santa Barbara Writing Platform Pricing 138

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 30, 2014

It’s true the some VCs have started writing so many checks that they resemble stock pickers but the majority of us still have less than 10 board seats at any time and tend to go pretty deep so the result is that we care deeply about where we commit our time. Could we produce this at cost?

Technical Review 418

Technical Review Software Review CTO Hire IP 418

Berkonomics

MAY 8, 2014

I am chairman of a company that, as I write this, is twelve years old and has not yet taken a dollar of outside investment. Grant writing takes skill and immense amounts of time. First, here’s a link to my recent TEDx talk, “Smiling at success; laughing at failure.”

Companies 166

Companies Company Writing Education 166

socalTECH

OCTOBER 3, 2017

Western Digital said the HGST Ultrastar Hs14 features shingled magnetic recording (SMR) technology, offers up 40 percent more capacity, and more than twice the sequential write performance of the drive's predecessor. Pricing on the new drive was not announced. WD said the drive has an MTBF of 2.5M READ MORE>>.

Sample 133

Sample Class Writing Pricing 133