I was recently asked by a new entrepreneur for thoughts on “fair terms” for a preferred equity financing. I have been through the negotiating process for a new round, as the new investor and as a company representative, many times, but admit I had never written down how I think about what is “fair” concerning […]
Startup Valuations
Valuation – the monetary value of a company – is the source of much worry on the part of the typical entrepreneur. But it need not be such a tremendous stressor. Certainly, valuation matters, but, for early-stage startups, it is much less a reflection of intrinsic value or accomplishment and much more a product of […]
Making the Most of Startup Advisors
As an investor in startups, I get a lot of questions about advisors. Should we bring on this advisor or that one? How do we compensate advisors? What should I expect an advisor to do? I’ll try to answer these and other questions in this post; I’ll direct my comments to the leaders of startups […]
What Is Pre-Seed?
I was talking with a group of accomplished technologists this week – academics, former entrepreneurs – discussing the fundraising strategy for a company that has raised some angel funding. At one point, there was discussion of a “Series A” financing in the near-term future of the company. The company was not ready for a Series […]
Principles of Good Projections
This post was written for founders of relatively new businesses… it started as an e-mail to one such founder about how to build an early financial model and, in particular, how to project revenue. I suggest you not try too hard (if at all) to make revenue projections until you start selling, or at […]