BLOG STARTUPS, VENTURE AND THE TECH BUSINESS
Posts Tagged ‘Venture Capital’
April 24 2012
by Scott Johnson
Yes, You Really Need That Revenue Ramp Slide
I advise entrepreneurs all the time about their pitch decks, and one of the more common complaints I hear is “if we all know that it is complete BS, why do investors insist we show a revenue ramp slide with a $50 million top line in four years?” And I admit, on the surface, it ...
April 12 2012
by Scott Johnson
On Selling Your Company
The most important financial decision you will ever make as an entrepreneur is when to sell your company. What amount of money to raise at what price from whom pales in comparison. For venture capital firms, picking companies that will grow fast is much easier than deciding when to sell them. Misjudging exit timing can ...
March 30 2012
by Todd Hixon
An Insider Perspective On Carried Interest
Public dissection of Mitt Romney’s tax returns has put “carried interest” in the spotlight, but many people don’t know what carried interest is or why it’s there. A segment on the Marketplace radio program last week (link) brought this home for me. [IMHO, Marketplace is about the best business program on the radio.] I was ...
March 9 2012
by Thanasis Delistathis
Takeaways from Jobs’ biography
I recently finished reading Walter Isaacson’s biography of Steve Jobs. It was a fascinating retrospective of Jobs the business person, but also Steve Jobs the individual. I already knew a lot about his role in starting Apple and eventually saving the company, but very few things about his personal life and character. Visionaries that drive ...
March 1 2012
by Scott Johnson
Why I Invested in YieldBot
YieldBot takes the largest advertising demand pool on the internet (search), and plugs it into publisher inventory, the largest source of supply. Advertisers add YieldBot to their keyword buys, and YieldBot delivers high performing, intent driven clicks, just like a search engine. They do this with exceedingly clever analytics that reveal intent, the currency of ...
February 14 2012
by Scott Johnson
2012 Continued: My Take on The Cloud and Innovation
I know – blogging about the cloud has long ago jumped the shark. But I will press forth regardless, because I said I would in a previous post, and because both the smartphone and cloud computing are under-hyped. Properly hyped, the situation sounds something like this: Smartphones accessing cloud services comprise the greatest platform for ...
January 26 2012
by Scott Johnson
No Better Time, Ever, To Be An Entrepreneur
I am often asked “what is new and exciting” by pretty much anyone that knows what I do for a living. And it is a great question that I relish answering – usually. Of late, however, I have been responding in a way that needs polish. I will say “smartphones” or “Health IT” or “the ...
January 9 2012
by John Backus
The Death of Retail 2.0
The 2011 holiday shopping season saw a 15 percent increase in online sales, up to $35.3 billion according to Comscore, but consumer electronics retail bellweather Best Buy reported a one percent decline in holiday sales. What is going on? Pretty simple – we are in the middle of another battle between brick and mortar and ...
November 22 2011
by Todd Hixon
Down With The 1%! Whoever They Are …
Unless you live in a deep cave, you’ve probably heard that the “1%” (top 1% of U.S. households ranked by income) enjoys a large percentage of U.S. after tax income (about 20% in 2007), famously documented by the CBO* (link). The Occupy Wall Street protesters imply that the 1% is mostly Wall Street traders and ...
October 14 2011
by Todd Hixon
How Entrepreneurs Can Survive and Prosper In The Political Crisis
We’re in the midst of a political crisis that has been a century in the making: in the U.S. and Europe the bill has come due for a welfare state that demographic trends and escalating health costs make unaffordable, which has been financed with debt and future promises. The political system is mostly seeking ways to ...
