David Morse’s Post

Scaling to $100 Million by Bessemer Venture Partners👇 Here's what you'll find inside: 1) ARR as Your North Star: Discover why growing your Annual Recurring Revenue is crucial for scaling effectively, with benchmarks from companies that soared from $1M to $100M+ ARR. 3) Winning with Wide Margins: Unpack the significance of optimizing costs and expenses to achieve superior gross margins, crucial for delivering your software to customers efficiently. 3) Understanding Your Worth: Navigate the complexities of cloud company valuations, learn the average multiples at different stages, and find out what investors are willing to pay based on growth. 4) Mastering Fundraising Dynamics: Get insights into round sizes, dilution trends, and how much equity companies typically give up at each fundraising stage, from seed through Series E and beyond. PS. check out 🔔 for a winning pitch deck the template created by Silicon Valley legend, Peter Thiel https://lnkd.in/ejp-Bhnu

Why early planning for growth is non-negotiable: Understand the law of diminishing distribution arbitrage to stay ahead 👇 David Peterson, Partner at Angular Ventures, offers practical insights on the critical role of distribution in achieving breakout success and how to innovate beyond diminishing returns of common tactics in “The Law of Diminishing Distribution Arbitrage”. Check out the key insights in the attached presentation 👇 ───── 👉 Follow me, Alexander Small, for tactics and strategies for building startups from industry-leading Founders, Operators and Investors

Back in 1999, Ron Conway invested $25,000 in Google by chance, which turned out to be one of most successful investments of all time. Sadly we can't all be like Ron. You see, investing in Venture Capital is like riding a roller coaster blindfolded – thrilling but unpredictable. VC follows a "power law", where 80% of your returns come from just 20% of your investments. And the power law isn't limited to the companies you invest in either. Data showed that over a 22 year period, 80% of returns came from just 5-7 of those years. To solve for this, Jaap Vriesendorp firms, Welt Ventures and Marktlink Capital, use a 3 principle approach they call 'The time machine approach to investing in Venture Capital': ❶ Diversify Entry Valuations: Invest consistently over many years to optimise entry valuation and capture outlier years. ❷ Diversify Exit Windows: Invest across different stages (seed, early, growth) to spread exit timelines. ❸ Invest in Primaries and Secondaries: Purchase both newly issued shares and existing shares to spread risk and increase liquidity. Want to learn more? We go into the details in this weeks episode of "The Unsophisticated Investor". Link in comments. #venturecapital #investing #privatemarkets

📣 There's still time to register for our next webinar — "Venture Capital Investor and Founder Dynamics" — scheduled for Thursday, April 18, from 12-1:30pm ET. 💻 Register Now: https://lnkd.in/eM2RVpHa Details are below 👇 #venturecapital #founderdynamics #investor #vcinvestor

📣 Registration is open for our next webinar — "Venture Capital Investor and Founder Dynamics" — scheduled for Thursday, April 18, from 12-1:30pm ET. 🏦 VC investor and founder dynamics are crucial to a start–up's success—it’s more than just a financial arrangement! Understanding this dynamic can be confusing, but it is critical for first-time founders who are still mastering the art of this partnership. So, what can founders and investors do to ensure they are aligned and create the best possible outcome for the business? We will explore this in our upcoming webinar. Hosted by Mark Mason, an early-stage venture investor in firms like Airbnb, Pinterest, CAVA and more, this 90-minute webinar will cover: ➡ The formal and informal aspects that govern founder-VC interactions. ➡ Deep-dive into the relationship between Uber and Benchmark, an elite venture capital firm. ➡ The underlying incentives driving both founders and investors. ➡ Common sources of conflict and how they can derail a business. ➡ Effective strategies for aligning goals and visions to ensure mutual success. 💻 Register Now: https://lnkd.in/eM2RVpHa #venturecapital #founderdynamics #investor #vcinvestor

Random thoughts . Here is something new that I have never really shared before. This is a good one. I began angel investing back in 2012 (when corporate life was so great 😀 ) through FundersClub as experiment and to gain experience, where I was very fortunate to get exposure to startups like Coinbase and Instacart. From these, I received a good returns that allowed me to send my kids to a good school. I tried to join the VC side in 2016, but it never really clicked with me, so I returned to company building. After denarii, I went back to angel investing with the earn-out from my previous company that I had sold. I invest super duper small ticket sizes😂, but this allows me to stay closer to the ecosystem that I love, pay it forward to the next one, and always be learning. I am now on my fourth startup investment this year , to startups that are just in the ideation stage and still hopeful that in the future, I can do this at scale, doing what I love. - Building tech business with a purpose.

Had a great chat with Erin Griffith as she was getting this story together. She was intensely curious about the rapidly growing volume in private markets for startup stock. The article is a quick primer on the evolution of this explosive and, until recently, very secretive and opaque market. Covers the evolution of the pre-IPO market from the Facebook days, all the way up to the latest rollercoaster frenzy around Destiny (D/XYZ), and the role that marketplaces like Hiive are playing as alternative access point for the broader investment community. Ultimately, this story leads to many more questions: Should average retail investors have some form of access to this currently exclusive asset class? Are listed, closed-ended funds like DXYZ the right way for retail investors to access this market, or does its extreme volatility and apparently irrational price action pose a risk to those investors? Can market forces work out these problems as more supply comes to market via DXYZ and other closed-ended funds? Do unlisted open-ended funds like ARK Investment Management LLC's Ark Venture Fund which enable retail investors to buy-in at NAV instead of a floating public market price, albeit with significantly less liquidity, hold the key? Or, should regulators look at enabling other alternative options for small two-legged investors? #preipo #privatemarket #liquidity #unicorns

Really enjoyed our pre panel discussion going through some of the topics and insights we bring to the table. This will be great #capitalraising #startups #fundraising #founders #venturecapital #investors #vc #vcfunding #technology #startup #tech

Bootstrapping isn’t for everyone, but for tech founders with a somewhat niche market and / or less competition, it can be a smart strategy. When I founded my vertical SaaS company, we kind of split the difference by raising *some* money, but not a ton - we focused on more deliberate growth, prioritizing low burn over hyperscaling. (NB: In our market, it felt like growing 10,000% might not even be possible anyway because the pace of adoption was naturally slower -- throwing more money at the problem might not have changed that) By avoiding big VC money, you can reduce the risk of going to zero and maintain more of your ownership -- this can increase your chances of a nice exit, especially in the $20-100M range!

What a fun evening discussing everything Angel investor related 🙌🏼 A huge thanks to Rupa, Scott, and Marla for joining me and a room full of early-stage founders to answer all the difficult questions surrounding angel investing. My three big takeaways 👇🏼 1️⃣ Anyone can be an Angel investor. Cheque size and value are not linked, so never discount a highly relevant individual because of their cheque size. 2️⃣ Prepare, prepare, and prepare. Start your conversations with angels and have your materials ready long before you need capital. 3️⃣ Fundraising can be all-consuming, but if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. The commitments only count when the money is received. A huge thank you to Sebastian and the team at Google Cloud for hosting us last night. If you missed out on this event and want to come along to the next one, keep an eye out for a big announcement next week 🙌🏼 #founders #angels #investment #startup