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Browse: Home / Raising Capital

Raising Capital

Unicorpse and The Moral Hazard of Making Unicorns

Unicorpse and The Moral Hazard of Making Unicorns

By Derek Pilling on January 8, 2016

I’m sure that many more thoughtful than me has written about the moral hazard of venture capital. In economics, moral hazard occurs when one person takes an unreasonable risk because someone else will bear the burden of the negative consequences. In the age of unicorns, the moral hazard in venture capital has never been greater. Moral hazard […]

Posted in Business, Featured Posts | Tagged Company Building, Entrepreneuriship, Growth Equity, lessons learned, moral hazard, Raising Capital, unicorn, unicorpse, venture capital

We Sell the Ultimate Commodity – Money

We Sell the Ultimate Commodity – Money

By Derek Pilling on May 1, 2014

Last month I participated in a panel discussion at Denver University organized by Maclyn (Mac) Clouse. Mac is a long-time educator and supporter Denver’s entrepreneurial community. I was joined by Peter Adams, Executive Director of the Rockies Venture Club. Mac’s setup for the discussion was “dangerous” because he offered both Peter and I the opportunity […]

Posted in Business, Entrepreneurship, Featured Posts | Tagged DU Finance Forum, Growth Equity, lessons learned, Mac Clouse, Peter Adams, Raising Capital, restrictive covenants, Rockies Venture Club, value-add, venture capital

Founder Liquidity and Growth Equity

Founder Liquidity and Growth Equity

By Derek Pilling on March 13, 2014

I’m seeing more and more growth equity financings come to market with an over-sized component of the financing allocated to existing shareholder liquidity. I’ve seen enough of these transactions to consider it as a trend and to wonder what is motivating it. Founder Liquidity in Context Whereas liquidity isn’t typically a feature of venture financings, it is […]

Posted in Entrepreneurship, Featured Posts | Tagged founder liquidity, Growth Equity, investment bankers, Raising Capital, risk, venture capital | 1 Response

Basics of Unit Economics Analysis

Basics of Unit Economics Analysis

By Derek Pilling on January 22, 2014

When an investment passes our first-screen at Meritage Funds, the first deep-dive we typically do is on the unit economics of the business. Unit economics are the fundamental financial building blocks of a business. If you can pin down the unit economics, you can determine contribution margins, break-even points and perform ROI calculations all of which […]

Posted in Business | Tagged average customer lifetime, capital expenditures, churn, contribution margin, Economics, Growth Equity, Investment Selection, marginal operating costs, Raising Capital, unit economics

Image credit: GigaOM

One Surefire Way to Screw up Your Lifestyle Business

By Derek Pilling on September 2, 2011

Some businesses are designed – maybe even destined – to be owner operated. Industry parlance often refers to these businesses as lifestyle businesses. Wikipedia has a nice definition. They are typically small, profitable, generate cash and enable their owner-operator to sustain a well-above average lifestyle. In some circumstances, they may even make their owner-operator filthy […]

Posted in Entrepreneurship | Tagged Entrepreneur, Growth Equity, Investment Selection, Investor, lessons learned, lifestyle business, Raising Capital

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