Blog
Thesis- USV
Thesis- Dave McClure
- Helping others to achieve greatness as I attempt a bit of my own (cf. Dave McClure)
- Dave McClure’s Investment Thesis
- Dave McClure: MoneyBall for Startups: Invest BEFORE Product/Market Fit, Double-Down AFTER.
Teardown
MBA Mondays
Financial Statements
- Analyzing Financial Statements
- Cash Flow
- The Balance Sheet
- The Profit and Loss Statement
- Accounting
- Opportunity Costs
- Sunk Costs
- Off Balance Sheet Liabilities
Corporate Entity
Due Diligence
Financing Options
- Financing Options For Small Tech Companies
- Financing Options For Startups (cf. Brad Feld and Jason Mendelson)
- Friends and Family
- Contests/Prizes/Accelerator Programs
- Government Grants
- Customers
- Vendor Financing
- Convertible Debt
- Preferred Stock (cf. Brad Feld and Jason Mendelson)
- Here’s Why You Need A Liquidation Preference
- Venture Debt
- Capital Equipment Loans and Leases
- Bridge Loans
- Working Capital Financing
- Andy Sack: Revenue Based Financing
Revenue Models
- Fred Wilson Revenue Models
- Fred Wilson Revenue Models Hackpad
- Fred Wilson Revenue Models Hackpad Take 1
- Fred Wilson Revenue Models Hackpad Take 2
- Hackpad Final
- Hackpad Preliminary
- Transaction Processing
- Subscriptions
- Peer to Peer
- Licensing
- Mobile
- Gaming
- Data
- Commerce
- Advertising
- My Favorite Business Model
- Fred Wilson Revenue Models- YCombinator Discussion
Profit, Income, Capital
Pricing, Bookings, Revenue, Collections, Commission
- Price: Why Lower Isn’t Always Better
- Bookings vs Revenues vs Collections
- Jim Keenan: Commission Plans
Projections- Budgeting and Forecasting
- Projections, Budgeting and Forecasting
- Scenarios
- Budgeting In A Small Early Stage Company
- Budgeting In A Growing Company
- Budgeting In A Large Company
- Forecasting
Time Value of Money
- The Time Value Of Money
- The Present Value Of Future Cash Flows
- Compounding Interest
- Compounding Interest Google Doc
Margins
ROI
Cap Tables
Liquidation Analysis (Waterfall)
- Liquidation Analysis
- Liquidation Analysis (Continued) (cf. Brad Feld and Jason Mendelson)
- Liquidation Analysis Google Doc (Second Tab)
Valuation, Option Pool, Ownership
- The Valuation Blues (aka How FAS157 Is Tortuous) (cf. Roger Ehrenberg)
- Enterprise Value and Market Value
- Valuation and Option Pool
- Sizing Option Pools In Connection With Financings
- Valuation vs Ownership
Determining Valuation Multiples, Revenue Multiples And Growth
- Determining Valuation Multiples
- SaaS Valuation Multiples Google Doc
- Revenue Multiples And Growth
- EBITDA
Pricing A Follow-On Venture Investment
Risk and Return
- Risk And Return, Capital Asset Pricing Model Wikipedia, and Beta Wikipedia
- Diversification and Portfolio Theory Wikipedia
- Hedging
- Currency Risk In A Business
- Purchasing Power Parity, Purchasing Power Parity Wikipedia, and Big Mac Index Wikipedia
Buying and Selling
M.A.
- M&A Fundamentals
- The Integration Plan
- The Stay Package
- Governmental Approvals
- Breakup Fees
- Reps, Warranties, Indemnities, and Escrows
- Governmental Approvals
- Timing
- Consideration
- Price
Strategy and Product
- What Is Strategy?, Strategy Wikipedia, and Strategic Management Wikipedia
- Product > Strategy > Business Model
- Revenue Traction Doesn’t Mean Product Market Fit
Sales
Key Business Metrics
Burn Rate
Scaling
- Turning Your Team
- The Similarities Between Building and Scaling a Product and a Company (cf. Roelof Botha)
- When Its Not Your Team
- Building A Company vs Building A Business
Board of Directors
- MBA Mondays Series: The Board Of Directors
- Role and Responsibilities
- Selecting, Electing & Evolving
- The Board Chair
- Board Chemistry
- Board Meetings
- Board Committees
Management Team
- What A Management Team Does
- Scaling The Management Team (cf. Bijan Sabet)
- The Management Team – While Building Product
- The Management Team – While Building Usage
- The Management Team – While Building The Business
- Leveraging Your Partners To Grow And Develop Your Team
Roles
HR
- MBA Mondays Series: Human Capital
- People
- Culture And Fit
- Where To Find Strong Talent
- Optimal Headcount At Various Stages
- Best Hiring Practices
- Retaining Your Employees
- 360 Reviews (cf. Albert Wenger)
- Asking An Employee To Leave The Company (cf. Ben Horowitz)
- Exit Interviews
Employee Equity
- Andy Rachleff: Employee Equity Wealthfront (Slideshare)
- Employee Equity
- Cap Table Google Doc
- Dilution
- Dilution Google Doc
- Appreciation
- The Liquidation Overhang
- Options
- The Option Strike Price and Internal Revenue Code Section 409A Wikipedia
- Restricted Stock and RSUs and 83B Election
- Vesting
- How Much?
Outsourcing and Offshoring
Sustainability
- Sustainability (cf. Clay Christensen)
- How to Be in Business Forever: A Class On Sustainability
- Week One
- Week Two
- Week Three
- Week Four
- Sustainability Class Wrapup
- One More Thing On Sustainability Before We Move On (cf. Clay Christensen)
Bubble
Arcanery
Words of Wisdom
- Taking To Dos and Moving Up The Y Axis
- Focus
- Success Has A Thousand Fathers
- Great Entrepreneurs Will Listen To You But Will Follow Their Own Instincts
- Because It’s Standard
- You Are Working Too Hard And Not Getting Anywhere
- Tenacity And Persistence Pays Off
- Don’t Let A Good Crisis Go To Waste (cf. Albert Wenger)
- Competition – The Pros and Cons
Carlota Perez and USV Investment Thesis
- The Carlota Perez Framework
- Lineage
- Required Reading For The Carlota Perez Interview
- My Interview With Carlota Perez
- Technological Revolutions And Financial Capital
- Retooling Stale Businesses (cf. Carlota Perez)
The Dentist Office Software Story
Hobbyists
- Hobbyists and Hobbyists, Continued (cf. Chris Dixon and Paul Buchheit)
Return and Ridicule, Mocked and Misunderstood
This for That and Cloning
Double Opt-In
Narrative
Pitches
- Six Slides, Three Slides, or No Slides
- Phone Pitches
- Six Slides
- Paying To Pitch (cf. Jason Calacanis)
Angel Investing and VC
VC Firm/Syndicate Structure
- Are Universities The New VCs?
- VC Syndicates: How Many VCs Is Too Many?
- What Is A “Venture Partner” And Why Does It Matter To You?
VC- General
- The Rich Get Richer (MoneyTree Report)
- VC Fund Economics (cf. Charlie O’Donnell)
- The Difference Between Large Funds and Small Funds
- The Perception Of Conflict Is Conflict
- On Corporate VCs
- Venture Capital Returns
- In Between: The Tough Place To Be
- Hitting Your Stride
- Can The Crowd Be More Patient?
- Coming Of Age (cf. Ben Horowitz)
- The Nature Of The Firm and Work Markets (cf. Ronald Coase)
- Herky Jerky Investing
- Want To Be A VC? Start A Company.
- What We Are Seeing
- There Are Two Venture Capital Industries
- Lockups and Insider Selling
- Entrepreneurs Have Control When Things Work, VCs Have Control When They Don’t (cf. Dave Winer)
- The Power Of Diversification
- he Poker Analogy (From The Archives)
- Contrarian Investing
- Venture Capital Creating Systemic Risk???
- Plant More Seeds vs Tending The Crop
- The Venture Diet Is Working
- Trading Deals, A Lost Art?
- Thematic vs Thesis Driven Investing
- The Biggest Loser Can Be The Biggest Winner (cf. Bill Gurley)
Great Companies, Investors, and Entrepreneurs
- Difficult Is Good
- Matt Blumberg: 10 Characteristics Of Great Investors
- Ten Characteristics of Great Companies
Reverse Engineering Investment Strategies
Lead Investor
Third Party Validation
Milestone Based Investing
Fundraising
- VCs as Gas Stations
- How Much Money To Raise
- Continuous Financing (cf. Chris Dixon and Mark Suster)
- Raising Money During The Summer Slowdown
When They Are Throwing Money At You/Competing To Win Deals
Collusion
Competing Companies
Competitor Fundraising and Competitor Attacks
- Messing With A Competitor’s Fundraising
- How Would An Entrepreneur Attack Your Business? (cf. Benedict Evans)
Valuation and Ownership
Price
Venture Firm Investment Decisions
Handshake
Don’t Let Good Friends Hear About It On TechCrunch
Venture Funding Docs
Term Sheets
- Terms, Term Sheets, and Terminal Value (cf. Mark Suster)
- The Ideal First Round Term Sheet and The Ideal First Round Term Sheet, Continued (cf. Chris Dixon)
Seed Rounds
- More On Seed Rounds
- Some Thoughts On Seed Investing
- What Seed Financing Is For (cf. Marc Andreessen)
- Some Thoughts On The Seed Fund Phenomenon (cf. Paul Kedrosky, Chris Dixon, John Boyd)
Convertible Debt
- Late Stage Convertible Debt
- Convertible Debt (cf. Mark Suster)
- Some Thoughts On Convertible Debt (cf. Seth Levine)
Milton's Three Things
Employee Equity, Options and Offer Letters
- Options and Offer Letters
- Employee Equity: Too Little? (cf. Sam Altman)
- How To Allocate Founder and Employee Equity (cf. Joel Spolsky)
- Equity Grant Math (cf. Chris Dixon)
Cap Tables
Pro Rata
Participating Preferred
Founder Liquidity
Board
- The Perfect Board (cf. Sam Altman)
- Independent Directors
- Who You Want On Your Board
- Board Of Directors, Continued (cf. Brad Feld)
- Board or No Board (cf. Matt Blumberg)
- The Agile Board (cf. Mark Suster)
- The Executive Session
- Face To Face Board Meetings
Mentor/Investor Whiplash
Reception Desk NDAs
Stay Compensation
Transitioning From One Job To Another
Parting Ways With A Founding Team Member
Outsourcing Reversal
Cohort Analysis
Burn Rate and Runway
Growth
Startup Curve
Hits and Misses
- Counting The Hits (cf. Aileen Lee, William Mougayar)
- Loss Ratios In Early Stage VC
- When Things Don’t Work Out
- Let Your Winners Run
- Swinging For The Fences
- Doubling Down
Staying Independent
Exits, M&A, The HR Acquisition
Postmortem
Billion Dollar Valuations and Checks
Social Proof, The Herd Instinct, Chasing Returns
Revenue Multiples and Growth
Bimodal Returns
Capital Gains
- Qualified Small Business Stock (IRS Sections 1202 and Sections 1045)
- The 15% Tax Rate
- Why Taxing Carried Interest As Ordinary Income Is Good Policy (Capital Gains)
Reinvesting Capital
Stock Buybacks
Public Filing
IPO
- The Sub $1bn Revenues IPO Act
- Some Thoughts On The IPO Market For Web Companies (cf. Chris Dixon)
- The Second Coming Of The Internet IPO (cf. John Battelle)
- Bashing The Collective Wisdom On IPOs (cf. Bill Gurley)
- IPOs Just Aren’t What They Used To Be
Bubble
Embrace Your Fatness
DMCA
No City Has A Lock On Innovation
Twitter Patent
Mutual Company
Slow Money
The Other Co-Founder – Your Family