• Home
  • Blog
  • About
  • Contact
CloudAve
Software in Business. The Business of Software.
  • Business
    • Analysis
    • Entrepreneurship
    • Marketing
    • Strategy
    • Small business
  • Technology
    • Application Software
    • Infrastructure
    • Open Source
    • Mobile
    • Platforms
    • Product reviews
    • Security
  • Misc
    • Design
    • Just for fun
    • Trends & Concepts
  • Your POV
  • Sponsors
Browse: Home / venture funding

venture funding

What is it Like to Negotiate a VC Round?

What is it Like to Negotiate a VC Round?

By Mark Suster on June 7, 2015

Over the years I’ve written extensively about the downsides of convertible notes for startups such as here, here and here. The truth is that I’ve been warning about convertible notes since 2010 it was first declared that “convertible notes have won.” Today I want to talk about how a VC thinks about equity pricing on your […]

Posted in Business, Featured Posts | Tagged Angel investor, Convertible Notes, investment, startup lessons, vc funding, venture funding

Is 5x the New 2x in SaaS?

Is 5x the New 2x in SaaS?

By Jason M. Lemkin on March 3, 2014

Back in 2012, when the SaaStr audience was about 1/30th of what it is today, I wrote a post that a lot of folks didn’t like:  ”Workday is Growing 90% this Year.  At $250m in ARR.  So Wake Up:  You Probably Need to Do A Lot, Lot Better.“ In fact, it was the first post […]

Posted in Entrepreneurship, Featured Posts | Tagged 5x, echosign, Entrepreneurship, growth, saas, software as a service, startups, venture funding, whatsapp, workday

Why You and Your VCs Can’t Really Be Friends

Why You and Your VCs Can’t Really Be Friends

By Jason M. Lemkin on November 7, 2012

There’s a pattern I’ve observed in a number of my friends who are SaaS CEOs.  Some fear their board and VCs.  The VCs say “Jump”, they say “How High?”  That’s for a different post.  That doesn’t work out well for anyone.  {This tends to happen when you have an insecure CEO, and VCs who control […]

Posted in Entrepreneurship, Featured Posts | Tagged management, startups, vc funding, venture funding | 1 Response

The 10x Rule:  What Raising $1 of Venture Capital Really Means

The 10x Rule: What Raising $1 of Venture Capital Really Means

By Jason M. Lemkin on October 23, 2012

Recently, a good friend of mine asked me how much he should raise in his round.  He was lucky enough to have a range of options.  My simple advice was:  assume you have to return a liquidity event (sale or IPO) of at least 10x the amount you raise. Valuations change from round to round. […]

Posted in Entrepreneurship, Featured Posts | Tagged ipo, m&a, saas, startups, VC, vc funding, venture capital, venture funding | 1 Response

Understanding How Dilution Affects You at a Startup

Understanding How Dilution Affects You at a Startup

By Mark Suster on October 14, 2011

Dilution. Or as industry insiders call it, “taking a haircut.” Everybody knows that when you raise money at a startup your ownership percentage of the company goes down. The goal is to have the value of the startup go up by enough that you own a smaller percentage of a much larger business and therefore […]

Posted in Entrepreneurship, Featured Posts, Strategy | Tagged Pre-money valuation, Startup Advice, startup valuation, startups, vc funding, venture capital, venture funding

The Lesson of Dropbox: Usage = Value

The Lesson of Dropbox: Usage = Value

By Chris Yeh on August 14, 2011

Word on the street is that Dropbox is about to raise a major round of financing at a $5 billion+ valuation. While some will cry “Bubble!”, I think there’s a different lesson we can learn: Usage = Value. Let’s face it–Dropbox isn’t the most complicated business or technology. It’s a relatively simple storage app that […]

Posted in Entrepreneurship | Tagged Amazon S3, box.net, dropbox, online storage, startups, storage, userexperience, valuation, venture funding

Should a Startup Have a COO?

Should a Startup Have a COO?

By Zoli Erdos on May 26, 2011

It’s rare I can dust off a 6-year old article, find it still relevant and repost it without any changes.  But that’s what happened this morning, I felt provoked by this VentureBeat title:  Even start-ups need a COO – wanted to respond, than I had that “I’ve already said this” feeling and realized I would […]

Posted in Entrepreneurship, Featured Posts | Tagged Entrepreneurship, management, startups, title inflation, vc funding, venture funding, venturebeat | 3 Responses

What Should You Do with Your Crappy Little Services Business?

What Should You Do with Your Crappy Little Services Business?

By Mark Suster on April 25, 2011

There’s a line of thinking in Silicon Valley that you should build product businesses rather than services businesses. This thinking is largely driven by the venture capital industry (and subsequently Wall Street) who are in search of high margin, highly scalable businesses. It’s nearly impossible to get a services company financed by VCs. You’re small fish.

Posted in Entrepreneurship, Featured Posts | Tagged Entrepreneur, mark suster, silicon valley, Startup Advice, startups, techcrunch, VC, venture capital, venture funding

The Art of Riding the Bubble

The Art of Riding the Bubble

By Bob Warfield on March 24, 2011

People are increasingly asking whether there is a Bubble underway in the tech business.  The answer is that by the time you know there is a Bubble it’s probably too late to do anything about it.  But if all you’re doing is asking whether there is a Bubble, the Bubble is probably not here, yet. […]

Posted in Entrepreneurship, Featured Posts, Your POV | Tagged bubble, Dot-com bubble, Entrepreneurship, Fred Wilson, ipo, PointCast, startup valuation, startups, Strategy, valuation, vc funding, venture, venture capital, venture funding | 1 Response

8 Questions to Help Decide if You Should be Raising Money Now

8 Questions to Help Decide if You Should be Raising Money Now

By Mark Suster on February 17, 2011

A year ago I blogged about one of my most common mantras that applies to sales, biz dev & fund raising alike: “Time is the Enemy of all Deals.” When times are really good for fund raising many teams delay to maximize their valuation. Sometimes this pays off, other times it doesn’t. So how should […]

Posted in Entrepreneurship, Featured Posts | Tagged business, Entrepreneur, Entrepreneurship, Eric Ries, Fundraising, Investor, Startup Advice, startups, vc funding, venture capital, venture funding

Why Did I Invest in Pose?

Why Did I Invest in Pose?

By Mark Suster on January 18, 2011

What a sweet feeling it was last week to see the launch of the photo sharing site Pose, whose application targets shoppers of apparel.  If you don’t know it and own an iPhone (soon Android) please check it out. What I’d like to do is tell you the story of how the investment came to […]

Posted in Entrepreneurship | Tagged Pose, startups, Tech Market Analysis, vc funding, venture funding

An Entrepreneur’s Growth Equity Conundrum: Should I sell stock or sell growth?

An Entrepreneur’s Growth Equity Conundrum: Should I sell stock or sell growth?

By Derek Pilling on November 12, 2010

Two times in the past year, I’ve been close to making an investment in two separate micro-cap growth equity opportunities only to have the opportunity go sideways deep into the process. The two businesses share a lot in common; they are similar in size, profitability, and growth prospects. Both are capital-intensive; the first being asset […]

Posted in Entrepreneurship, Featured Posts | Tagged business, Entrepreneur, Entrepreneurship, Growth Equity, Investor, Private equity, startups, vc funding, venture capital, venture funding

Atlassian: Fully Funded. By Customer Revenue. Oh, and the $60M T-shirt

Atlassian: Fully Funded. By Customer Revenue. Oh, and the $60M T-shirt

By Zoli Erdos on July 14, 2010

It was 2006, the first Office 2.0 Conference in San Francisco and I just met Jeffrey Walker, President of Atlassian. I had followed the company for a while (OK, I admit, had been a fan), met Mike, but this was the first time with Jeffrey, so we took our box lunch to a cozy little […]

Posted in Entrepreneurship | Tagged accel partners, atlassian, bootstrapping, confluence, Entrepreneurship, esop, ipo, jira, social software, startups, vc funding, venture capital, venture funding, zoho

Who Will Twitter Acquire With Their Fresh $100 Million?

Who Will Twitter Acquire With Their Fresh $100 Million?

By Guest Authors on September 28, 2009

Last week the NY Times reported that Twitter has raised about $100 million of new funding, making the company’s value to be $1 billion. Just to put things in perspective, they also provide an example: For context, that is almost double the market capitalization of Domino’s Pizza, which has 10,500 employees and had $1.4 billion […]

Posted in General | Tagged acquisitions, twitter, valuation, venture funding | 1 Response

feed mail facebook twitter linkedin

Sponsor Posts

    No feed items found.

    No feed items found.

Cloud Tweets

Tweets from @ZoliErdos/cloudave-widget

Popular Posts

  • Home
  • Understanding VMware vShield Endpoint And Agentless Malware Protection
  • Looking Back 2010: OpenStack Offers Promise
  • 10 Critical Requirements for Cloud Applications
  • Amazon, Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Apple, and Oracle Org Chart
  • Google Docs Meets Outlook? – Yes, You Read That Right!
  • About
  • OpenDNS? Google DNS? Comcast? Surprising Results.

Archives

Authors

  • Adron Hall
  • Chirag Mehta
  • Christian Reilly
  • Dan Morrill
  • Derek Pilling
  • Hutch Carpenter
  • Jarret Pazahanick
  • Jason M. Lemkin
  • Joel York
  • John Taschek
  • Krishnan Subramanian
  • Mark Suster
  • Michael Krigsman
  • Ofir Nachmani
  • Paul Miller
  • Quinton Wall
  • Randy Bias
  • Robert Duffner
  • Sadagopan
  • wprss
  • Zoli Erdos
Sponsored by: