This week, a Bay Area founder was taken aback when an engineer being recruited by his startup asked for both its cap table and information regarding the liquidation preferences of its venture backers. The candidate presumably “worked somewhere where he discovered that these things matter,” says the founder, who asked not to be named in […]
unicorns
StrictlyVC: May 7, 2015
Good morning, dear readers! —– Top News in the A.M. Alibaba, the Chinese e-commerce giant, is replacing CEO Jonathan Lu with the company’s COO, Daniel Zhang. Lu took over as chief executive from Alibaba’s founder and executive chairman Jack Ma two years ago. The New York Times has more here. —– The Venture Math Behind These Giant Financings To better understand […]
The Venture Math Behind All These Giant Financings
To better understand unicorn valuations, the law firm Fenwick & West recently analyzed the financing terms of 37 U.S.-based venture backed companies that raised money at valuations of $1 billion or more in the 12-month period ending March 31. Among the firm’s findings about these financings is that only a quarter were led by “traditional” […]
How Many Tech Companies Break Out Each Year? And Where?
In recent years, it’s become the conventional wisdom that roughly 15 companies each year go on to produce all the returns in venture capital. Marc Andreessen was the first to make a very public case for the approach, citing the research of Andy Rachleff, who cofounded the venture firm Benchmark and who today teaches at […]