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. You can be pissed off, but I don’t set prices. That’s stupid.

Startup 336

Startup Pricing Technical Review Marketing 336

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 11, 2011

He said it was better than the Yellow Pages because he would provide pricing transparency. Bill doesn’t think you should over invest in them but he does believe in protecting ideas when you have a true invention and many of his companies have done so. If it worked in the Yellow Pages, why not on the Internet?

Competition 350

Competition Idealab Product CitySearch 350

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

AUGUST 30, 2010

Every investment so far in this YC batch (and there have been a lot) has been done on a convertible note.&#. I’ve written about the topic of convertible debt at length before specifically about how angels & entrepreneurs should think about pricing. a priced/valued preferred stock financing)?

Equity 319

Equity Pricing Venture Capital Entrepreneur 319

Berkonomics

SEPTEMBER 3, 2020

Many CEOs have asked me if I felt an investment banker adds value if the buyer has already been identified. How investment bankers behave. Investment bankers sometimes slow the process by requiring a cloud-based “data room” and “deal book” to be prepared containing considerable information about a company to help a buyer.

Invest 156

Invest Competition Pricing Guide 156

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 20, 2014

Last year at this time I spoke at VidCon and gave this presentation in which I said YouTube was “the Walmart of Online Video” but I also commented that I felt YouTube was vulnerable to competition because their rev share to MCNs wasn’t high enough to allow MCNs to build a profitable business inside of YouTube.

Invest 291

Invest Content Media Networking 291

Berkonomics

FEBRUARY 9, 2023

The rest of the purchase price was concocted from a brew of zero-coupon bonds (where the face value is many times the invested amount until the reduced cost bonds mature thirty years later), and borrowing using the target company’s accounts receivable and other assets as collateral for a loan to purchase the company. What power!

Pricing 156

Pricing Sales Examples Tool 156

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 15, 2022

<== Our conclusion was that this isn’t a temporary blip that will swiftly trend-back up in a V-shaped recovery of valuations but rather represented a new normal on how the market will price these companies somewhat permanently. Across more than 10 years we have kept the size of our Seed investments between $2–3.5

Venture Capital 416

Venture Capital Marketing Technical Review Seed Funding 416

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 18, 2022

Don’t bash the competition. Every investor knows how vulnerable a new startup is to competitors, so investors always ask about your sustainable competitive advantage in the marketplace. That says you are competitive today, have a real barrier to entry, and the potential to remain ahead of the competition for a long time.

Competition 133

Competition Patents Resource Invest 133

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 30, 2018

VC firms see thousands of deals and have a refined sense of how the market is valuing deals because they get price signals across all of these deals. As an entrepreneur it can feel as intimidating as going to buy a car where the dealer knows the price of every make & model of a car and you’re guessing at how much to pay.

Venture Capital 324

Venture Capital Pricing Startup Invest 324

Berkonomics

JULY 6, 2017

Know your market and competition, or don’t spend a dime on anything else. In 1994, (I know a long time ago), I invested over a million dollars into a company whose entrepreneurs had a vision that I bought into for many reasons, not the least of which was that I had industry experience and understood the need. Back to 1996.

Competition 266

Competition Research Summary Pricing 266

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 2, 2021

In case you hadn’t noticed, the key elements of a competitive advantage for your business have changed as businesses move online, and your domain is instantly global. As a business advisor, I have to recommend even to established companies that they review and revamp their competitive strategy now, even if it appears to be working today.

Competition 142

Competition Software Review Social Media Custom 142

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 27, 2011

You have to understand whether they’re likely to yield revenue growth in the near term OR whether you have access to cheap enough capital to fund your losses until your investments pay off. If you have a market lead then raising capital and making investments now will help you as others enter the market. ” The Details.

Startup 418

Startup Venture Capital Sales Technical Review 418

Berkonomics

FEBRUARY 17, 2010

Know your market and competition, or don’t spend a dime on anything else. I have stated previously that I love absolutes – statements with no wiggle room for gray-area responses. And yet the company was blindsided as it continued to invest in switch and specialized analog phone hardware, soon to be instantly obsolete.

Marketing 247

Marketing Competition Research Summary 247

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 26, 2010

Competition. And the reality is that if you have no competition it will likely be perceived as a negative, not positive. And the reality is that if you have no competition it will likely be perceived as a negative, not positive. where do you need to make investments to make up ground and therefore need capital?).

Venture Capital 313

Venture Capital Slides Competition Education 313

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 14, 2019

Don’t bash the competition. Every investor knows how vulnerable a new startup is to competitors, so investors always ask about your sustainable competitive advantage in the marketplace. That says you are competitive today, have a real barrier to entry, and the potential to remain ahead of the competition for a long time.

Competition 120

Competition Patents Resource Invest 120

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 22, 2010

Due to competitive markets we ended up with a pretty good term sheet until we needed to raise money in April 2001 and then we got completely screwed. Investors will always want to get their money out of the company before founders, which in the case where the company is sold for a low price is fair.

Venture Capital 405

Venture Capital Pricing Startup Funding 405

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 3, 2011

For today's Insights and Opinions section, we have an article from Megan Lisa Jones , an investment banker, on the Fifteen things investment bankers won't tell you. nothing kills a deal faster than a sky high and unrealistic price. Get some competition going for your deal and then you'll see more pricing flexibility.

Invest 113

Invest Guide Competition Pricing 113

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 22, 2011

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. All of that might be true, but the 2006 price might still be over-valued. That’s fine.

Pricing 309

Pricing Marketing Startup Venture Capital 309

Berkonomics

JANUARY 26, 2017

The rest of the purchase price was concocted from a brew of zero coupon bonds (where the face value is many times the invested amount until the reduced cost bonds mature thirty years later), and borrowing using the target company’s accounts receivable and other assets as collateral for a loan to purchase the company. What power!

Pricing 120

Pricing Sales Tool Equity 120

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 16, 2010

The VC industry grew dramatically as a result of the Internet bubble - Before the Internet bubble the people who invested in VC funds (called LPs or Limited Partners) put about $50 billion into the industry and by 2001 this had grown precipitously to around $250 billion. So the people who invest in VC funds have two problems.

Venture Capital 311

Venture Capital Startup Seed Funding Rustic Canyon 311

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 12, 2014

They often create the biggest tensions between investors who are investing at different stages in the business. Prorata investments rights given investors the right to invest in your future fund-raising rounds and maintain their ownership % in your company as your company grows and raises more capital. Thus begins the dance.

Guide 336

Guide Venture Capital Startup Writing 336

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 23, 2013

One of the toughest decisions for a startup is how to price their product or service. The alternatives range from giving it away for free, to pricing based on costs, to charging what the market will bear (premium pricing). In this more traditional product pricing model, the price is set at two to five times the product cost.

Pricing 116

Pricing Product Custom Customer 116

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 26, 2010

One of the toughest decisions for a startup is how to price their product or service. The alternatives range from giving it away for free (like Twitter), to pricing based on costs, to charging what the market will bear (premium pricing). Portfolio pricing. Tiered or volume pricing. Competitive positioning.

Pricing 98

Pricing Product Startup Competition 98

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 23, 2010

The traditional way that this type of financing is offered is what is known as “convertible debt.&# This means that the investment does not have a valuation placed on it. They trust the judgment of the VCs to source, finance, help manage and then create some sort of exit for the investments that they make.

Startup 290

Startup Funding Venture Capital Pricing 290

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. Ditto the CFO.

Sales 296

Sales Pricing Startup Custom 296

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 15, 2010

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. If you’re an angel investor you prefer a “priced&# rounds because you want to lock in a lower price given that you’re taking more risk up front.

Venture Capital 210

Venture Capital Seed Funding Pricing Southern California 210

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 22, 2011

So why else would they invest if not as an option to re-up in the next round? These are all dumb reason to invest – of course. So let’s consider a bad (but likely) scenario where either you don’t hit your targets, the market sours or competition is kicking your butt making it hard to fund raise. But it happens.

Venture Capital 314

Venture Capital Startup Invest Pricing 314

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 4, 2013

Put simply – you need enough users in a segment who care about what you’re doing to dictate investing further in the product or in sales & marketing resources. My most read post on marketing tips highlights this – please pay attention to tip #4 – you can’t have great marketing for bad or mediocre products.

Startup 401

Startup Custom Customer Technical Review 401

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 27, 2010

The VC industry has different segments in it that have different fund sizes, different investment amounts and different risk / return expectations. If you’re an angel you invest your own money and you have nobody to answer to except your spouse. If you invest it in startups you’re a VC professional money manager.

Venture Capital 308

Venture Capital Training Startup Entrepreneur 308

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 31, 2012

Many MBA programs still cater too much to the needs of large, corporate management jobs or prepare students to enter big consulting companies or investments banks. My list of excuses includes: product, pricing, competition and lack of sales support. It’s about helping weed out the non-serious leads from the urgent ones.

Startup 319

Startup Sales Course Competition 319

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 14, 2014

This raises a big red flag with potential investors, who conclude that no competitors means no market, or you haven’t looked, and the new startup is likely not investable. Competition for your new hydrogen fuel auto engine is not limited to other hydrogen auto engine offerings, or even other autos. Investors check connections.

Competition 93

Competition Startup Patents Slides 93

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 29, 2013

AngelList 101 : As you know, AngelList is a platform where angels can invest in semi-screened tech deals. As an angel you can look for the social proof in deals “Dave Morin is investing …” to make your decision. AngelList Syndicate leads don’t take any fees on the investment, which should help with returns.

Venture Capital 356

Venture Capital Invest Course Technical Review 356

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 8, 2010

When I recently wrote about how excited I was about investing in “ The Digital Living Room ,&# Hulu was only mentioned in the context of how Clicker.com was a much better metaphor for content discovery and search. Because they are anti-competitive most countries ban cartels. So what does this have to do with OPEC?

Hulu 292

Hulu Technical Review Content Advertising 292

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 14, 2012

“it’s smart to use an impending investment valuation to drive a higher acquisition valuation” I would like to amend her statement slightly to read, “it’s smart to use an impending investment valuation to drive an higher acquisition.” to justify a “strategic” price.

Venture Capital 316

Venture Capital Pricing Social Network Acquisition 316

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 4, 2010

The framework of his book has profoundly altered how I think about the technology market and affects how I thought about building my businesses and how I think about investing in venture capital. In fact, the incumbent is usually very dismissive of this new competition as our the large buyers of the incumbent’s products.

Startup 376

Startup Framework Marketing Custom 376

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 30, 2014

If electricity could be transferred like WiFi but as safe as a soundwave we use on pregnant women’s bellies and at a price-point that was attractive this is a multi-billion market. He was doubling down on his investment and also gave me a great lay of the land on handicapping how all of the other seed investors saw the company.

Technical Review 418

Technical Review Software Review CTO Hire IP 418