Please respect outstanding entrepreneurial achievements
Blue Apron went public today. It was not the easiest road for them as they had to cut the originally proposed price range of $15-17 to $10 and closed the first day just around that at $10.01. As one can imagine, the media commentary was not pretty, calling the IPO a disappointment, the stock stale out […]
Go Big or Go Home: It’s a binary outcome for marketplace start-ups
It’s typically a binary outcome for marketplace start-ups at the beginning: either you figure out the chicken-and-egg problem or you don’t. But, marketplaces can face a binary outcome at the other end too: either you scale your marketplace into a large, stand-alone company that can go public, or you find yourself with few other exit […]
How we determine valuations for marketplaces
I often get asked about how to determine the valuation for a marketplace startup that is starting to scale. So I’ll run through some basic math for how we value marketplaces at version one. The main multiple we like to use for marketplace businesses is GMV (Gross Merchandise Volume…the total volume of goods sold on […]
Comparing Two SaaS Models: Hubspot and Moz
Rick Perreault of my portfolio company Unbounce recently called my attention to an interesting comparison between two SaaS models: Hubspot & Moz – A Tale of Two (Very Different) SaaS Business Models. At first glance, Hubspot and Moz are very similar companies: both are popular marketing platforms, use web-based subscription models, and primarily target the SMB […]
Looking back at my 2010 predictions
The year is slowly coming to an end and it is time to look back at my 2010 predictions for the consumer internet space – overall, I would give myself a 3.5 out of 5: Prediction #1: Facebook will lock down on its dominance of the social graph: Facebook Connect will become the standard for […]