Berkonomics

FEBRUARY 8, 2024

After friends and family… Once a company founder has tapped the funds available from his or her resources and from friends and family, if the company needs more cash for growth, the most obvious next step is to look for money from angel investors and venture capitalists, typically in the $300,000 TO $3,000,000 range.

Sales 156

Sales Resource Email Pricing 156

Berkonomics

JUNE 29, 2017

If you have been following our recent insights, you’ll be up to speed knowing that professional investors negotiate tough terms, from provisions of control over asset acquisition, eventual sale of the company, future investments, forced co-sale when others attempt to sell their shares and more.

Invest 243

Invest Entrepreneur Sales Startup 243

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2011

I’ve taken to saying, “Email is our personal to-do list that anybody adds to – whether they know us or not.” about their marathon 4-hour sessions to get to zero inbox or somebody else claiming email bankruptcy ( definition if you don’t know it already ). I have taken to limiting my outbound email.

Email 314

Email Product Startup Writing 314

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 23, 2013

Every sales organization with more than a handful of reps or that is across multiple offices or time zones would benefit from having a sales methodology. I’ve been writing a series on a simple methodology that we used at my first enterprise software company. You can’t quantify the value of email yet everybody needs it!”.

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Sales Customer Custom Examples 328

Berkonomics

AUGUST 3, 2023

Some businesses require very little capital and the founder can self-finance the enterprise and retain 100% of its ownership and control from ignition through liquidity event (startup through sale). Bootstrapping: This term describes your ability to start a business with little investment and grow it using internally generated funds.

Venture Capital 295

Venture Capital Startup Class Invest 295

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 16, 2023

Indeed, while the rules and technologies for lead generation have changed, Forrester and other experts still see it as the most effective way for businesses with limited budgets to maximize their return on marketing investment (ROI). Email marketing. One of these experts, David T. Cold calling.

Marketing 114

Marketing Invest Social Media SEM 114

Berkonomics

JANUARY 6, 2022

First, the marginal exit event: Sometimes the end game or sale of the company is not a happy event for the early investors, including the entrepreneur or the founders. Most sophisticated investors will take either a promissory note or preferred stock, both of which come before founder or management stock in a sale or liquidation.

Venture Capital 156

Venture Capital Sales Pricing Equity 156

Berkonomics

OCTOBER 5, 2023

Fixed overhead for salaries, rent, equipment leases and more make up the majority of the “burn rate” (monthly expenses) for most companies. Since this number is budgeted and pre-authorized, managers tend to focus upon other things such as sales, marketing and product development issues. How about young or pre-revenue companies?

Venture Capital 296

Venture Capital Product Marketing Resource 296

Berkonomics

SEPTEMBER 6, 2018

Minor decisions, such as replacing employees who have left the company or replacing equipment needing updating, are usually considered operational in nature, and unless the business is changing direction, not relevant to this test. Let’s analyze the effect of a potential acquisition upon the value of your company.

Company 120

Company Companies Acquisition Resource 120

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 25, 2018

Irvine-based Cirrus Insight , a developer of software used to help sales people with managing their email inbox and calendar, has received what it says is a "significant" growth equity investment. Cirrus Insight's CEO and co-founder is Ryan Huff; the company's COO and co-founder is Brandon Bruce. READ MORE>>.

Funding 113

Funding Email Equity Sales 113

Berkonomics

FEBRUARY 3, 2022

It is perfectly OK for you to want to grow your company and plan to keep control for you and your offspring, with no intention to sell. Of course, you will find yourself in opposition to your investors and some of most of your board members if you do this after taking outside investment. The advantage of creating an evergreen company.

Equity 156

Equity Course Sales Invest 156

Berkonomics

MARCH 25, 2012

For those of us who’ve invested in early stage companies, especially technology startups, we have confronted a universal problem. There are many ways to project the value of a company for purposes of pricing an investment, but all rely upon the revenue and profit projections of the entrepreneur as a starting point.

Invest 321

Invest Startup Email Competition 321

Berkonomics

FEBRUARY 9, 2023

The most striking example was the one hundred million–dollar purchase of one of my companies by a New York private equity investor using only five million of its cash. If there are enough of these, the CEO or founder can announce a valuation as high as double the actual negotiated enterprise value of the company.

Pricing 156

Pricing Sales Examples Tool 156

Berkonomics

FEBRUARY 23, 2023

When do you sell your company? Companies sometime run out of cash in the midst of their increasing success, and often find that sources of loans or investment are not freely flowing at the moment of need. Not so long ago, Basil Peters wrote his book, “Early Exits,” after analyzing 150 young companies and their exits.

Pricing 156

Pricing Invest Equity Entrepreneur 156

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. The company has been funded entirely by grants from the National Institute of Health, amounting to millions of non-dilutive dollars in all. How refreshing!

Company 166

Company Companies Writing Education 166

Berkonomics

APRIL 20, 2023

Starting a company is HARD – in so many ways. Here I am a professional investor in early-stage companies, and I attempt to find those with the greatest chance of success and growth in value over time. Angel investors hold their average investment for 4.5 And that is after investment, not after a company’s start-up.

Statistics 156

Statistics Startup Study Invest 156

Berkonomics

JANUARY 7, 2021

How many of them, particularly in technology, were able to start a company, supply all the funding, and share no management tasks or equity with others, and still grow the company to any significant size, worthy of a multi-million-dollar opportunity to cash out at exit? Nearly none, if statistics and experience are key to the answer.

Startup 240

Startup Equity Statistics Entrepreneur 240

Tech.Co

FEBRUARY 25, 2022

Ecommerce company Etsy is hiking its transaction fees for sellers for the first time since 2018. for each sale. Etsy revealed the change in emails to sellers as well as a report to investors yesterday. Our new transaction fee will enable us to invest in key areas like marketing and support to further extend our strong momentum.”

Sales 153

Sales Startup Activity Email 153

Berkonomics

JUNE 15, 2017

From the moment such an investor looks seriously at your company, the investor or VC partner is thinking of the end game, the ultimate sale of the company or even of an eventual initial public offering. So be aware that professional investors are in your company for the eventual large profits at the liquidity event.

Venture Capital 243

Venture Capital Sales Invest Class 243

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 31, 2023

Selecting the right sales channels is one of the first strategic decisions that every startup faces. Nurturing stage email performance. That makes it easier to collect results indicators, including number of emails sent, open rate, click rate, and email bounce rates. Return on investment for demand generation.

Metrics 102

Metrics Demand Paramount Content 102

Berkonomics

MARCH 8, 2018

Pay early stage board members of companies that are not lifestyle businesses one percent of the fully diluted equity in the form of an option that vests over four years of service. You do not pay professional investors who are serving on behalf of an investment company or VC and paid by that company.

Venture Capital 256

Venture Capital Equity Sales Invest 256

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 17, 2019

Having read his latest op-ed on email I know why I erred towards the side of of not loving his book as much as some did. Apparently he’s an “organizational psychologist professor and thinks that it’s rude not to answer email. I also surmise that perhaps organizational psychologists don’t get as much unsolicited emails as some of us do.

Email 250

Email Writing Conference Mobile 250

Berkonomics

SEPTEMBER 8, 2022

Research is paramount, and sources are everywhere, especially for public companies and large investment firms. You can list companies you know, have contacts within, or that fit your industry segment. Email readers, continue here.] What would the candidate want from your company in a transaction?” Think carefully.

Outsource Development 156

Outsource Development Paramount Outsource Research 156

Berkonomics

NOVEMBER 11, 2021

Venture capitalists sometimes make an error in directing their portfolio company CEOs to push resources to the limit and scale the business to immense size quickly, all to seize market share. It was true for Amazon and other visionary companies that grabbed market share during the early Internet era. But beware.

Venture Capital 156

Venture Capital Social Media Invest Marketing 156

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 17, 2013

In my last post I pointed out that many of the media commentators who have criticized the YouTube video network companies as not having strong businesses were mistaken. The next part of the margin mix online video companies must get control of is talent margins. The best companies look at data to know what time to post.

Company 339

Company Companies Technical Review Content 339

Berkonomics

JANUARY 28, 2021

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve walked away from deals where the entrepreneur insists on a start-up pre-money valuation that is so high, no angel could expect to make a return upon the investment, even with a reasonable sales price for the company down the road. And here’s the “why.”. Lessons founders learned.

Outsource Development 156

Outsource Development Startup Outsource Venture Capital 156

Berkonomics

SEPTEMBER 27, 2018

Almost anyone who has sold a company has a story to tell about their good deal, the problems with the buyer, a last-minute change of terms, or more. I’ve been offered $15 million for my company and my partner is suing me for all I am worth. How the industry was growing around the company. The year was 1998. What can I do?”.

Sales 120

Sales Web Design Web Design 120

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 19, 2018

When you raise money from investors you produce information that you are told they want and care about: A fund-raising deck that articulates your company strategy, plans, team, market, competitors and so forth. These collective sets of documents form the basis of what somebody looking at investing would call “financial due diligence.”

Funding 336

Funding Venture Capital Startup Email 336

Berkonomics

DECEMBER 31, 2020

I was chairman of a company that, for twelve years never took a dollar of outside investment. The company was funded entirely by grants from the National Institute of Health, amounting to millions of non-dilutive dollars in all. Email readers, continue here…] Grant writing takes skill and immense amounts of time.

Equity 156

Equity Writing Education Research 156

TechCrunch LA

JULY 16, 2020

The round was led by Greycroft, which had been following the company’s progress for years, and included participation from strategic investors like Okta Ventures, the venture capital investment arm of Lincoln Property Companies, Allegion Ventures and Sentre, and included follow-on from existing investors. ”

Los Angeles 177

Los Angeles Mobile Sales Venture Capital 177

Berkonomics

MARCH 9, 2023

The truth behind the question: [Email readers, continue here…] And the truth is that sometimes our business runs end badly, not with a crazy–large wire transfer or retirement bonus, but with a quick goodbye or a failed enterprise. But for most of us, this question is or should be real and very personal.

Course 156

Course Blogging Email Sales 156

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 14, 2018

I know that you can use an email system with this to track my open rate, whether I forwarded the email, the IP address where I read it, whether I was on a mobile device or a wired computer and you can tell who else read the document. Because I invest in “ lines, not dots ” it’s actually the delta that I’m investing in.

Funding 239

Funding Venture Capital IP Email 239

Berkonomics

JUNE 25, 2020

There are several key performance indicators that help new generation company management see more clearly their progress and corporate health. The old measures, including return on investment, percentage of profit against revenue or employee count, and more, obviously are still relevant. CPA (Cost per Acquisition).

Acquisition 156

Acquisition Statistics Sales Customer 156

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 13, 2018

The most important advice I could give you before you set out in fund raising mode is to understand that fund-raising a sales & marketing process and needs to be managed. Somehow many first-time founders equate “sales” with something that is beneath them. an investment in your company.

Venture Capital 332

Venture Capital Funding Startup Sales 332

Berkonomics

MARCH 9, 2017

Starting a company is HARD – in so many ways. Here I am a professional investor in early stage companies, and I attempt to find those with the greatest chance of success and growth in value over time. And that is after investment, not after a company’s starting up. Way above market investment returns.

Startup 266

Startup Statistics Tech Coast Angels Study 266

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 14, 2014

If you follow the tech media you would be subject to a lot of narrative biases that are completely off base – and this includes the value of email and phone calls. All the data actually suggests with the growth of mobile, inbound sales calls will double from 30 billion to 60 billion in 3 years (source: Kelsey). THE FULL STORY.

Email 339

Email SaaS Venture Capital Google 339

Berkonomics

JULY 19, 2010

Once a company founder has tapped the funds available from his or her resources and from friends and family, if the company needs more cash for growth, the most obvious next step is to look for money from angel investors and venture capitalists, typically in the $300,000 TO $3,000,000 range. Email readers continue here.]

Pricing 120

Pricing Invest Startup Sales 120