Valuation - The 411 On Startups (tm)

Setting The Right Valuation For A Competitive Series A Round | TechCrunch

Aug

2015

Founders are often puzzled by how VCs derive valuations for competitive Series A rounds. A competitive Series A round is an equity round where a company generally raises greater than $5 million led by a top-quartile venture capital firm. During these Series A rounds, it is not uncommon for founders to receive multiple term sheets from lead investors at different ...

2014 Pre-Money Valuation of Seed Stage Angel Deals

May

2015

The median pre-money valuation of seed stage deals has increased since 2010, as the US economy has emerged from the recent recession. The following table shows the pre-money valuation of seed stage deals from several sources over the past five years: Payne’s survey data was provided by 30 angel groups from all regions of the ...

Investors Weigh In With Convertible Note Caveats for Start-Ups – Venture Capital Dispatch – WSJ

May

2013

Tech entrepreneurs take note: Convertible notes are not free money and, if not structured properly, can prevent you from raising additional financing. Investors speaking at the TechCrunch in San Francisco this week had this gem and a few other choice observations about early-stage financing for start-ups. “We’ve had companies come in for their Series A ...

Ideal first round funding terms

May

2012

My last 2 posts were about things to avoid, so I thought it might be helpful to follow up with something more positive. Having been part of or observed about 50 early stage deals, I have come to believe there is a clearly dominant set of deal terms. Here they are: – Investors get either ...

Valuation and Option Pool — Understand the trade off

May

2012

One of the more contentious things in the negotiation between an entrepreneur and a VC over a financing, particularly an early stage financing, is the inclusion of an option pool in the pre-money valuation. As my friend Mark Pincus likes to say, “it’s just another way to lower the price”. I’ll accept that critique. And ...

Current Pre-money Valuations of Pre-revenue Companies

May

2012

I just returned from the 2011 Angel Capital Association Summit in Boston, April 4-6, 2011. It was attended by over 500 angels and associates, including about 60 international angel leaders. It was an excellent meeting – the best yet of the half-dozen or so US ACA angel Summits to date. On Wednesday afternoon, I was ...

Option Pool, Post-Money and True Pre-Money. Trade Pool for Valuation.

May

2012

One of the common areas of misunderstanding, and therefore conflict, in financing negotiations has to do with the relationship between the pre-money valuation and the option pool. Investors want the company to have an adequate option pool for future hiring and it is customary to include the pool in the pre-money valuation. Some entrepreneurs see ...

Venture Hacks Series A Cap Table, with Note Conversion and Option Pool

Apr

2012

This is a Youtube video explanation of a cap (capitalization) table example that is available online. It may take a while get your head around the terminology and concepts involving the option pool and note conversion, and their impact on valuation. It is worth taking time to understand this if you want to see how ...

Revenue Based Financing — often non-dilutive to founders, no valuation impact

Apr

2012

A revenue-based finance (RBF) investment provides capital to a business by “selling” an ongoing percentage of a company’s future revenues to the investor. For simplicity, you can think of it as a revenue share type of arrangement. Investor gives capital to company in exchange for a small percentage of gross revenues. RBF lives as a ...

High Tech Startup Valuation Estimator

Oct

2008

(Note: the best way to use this valuation estimator is to answer the questions, see the valuation, and then change an answer or two to see the effect.)Wondering what your pre-money valuation will be if a VC ever puts a term sheet on the table? Valuing a startup is intrinsically different from valuing established companies. ...