Tim Marman's Loosely Coupled

Browse by Tags

• Business
• Innovation
• Law
• NextNY
• Software Development
• Startup
• Technology

• Serial Entrepreneurs and High Valuations

  I wrote in the past that sometimes you can take too much money - doing so creates certain expectations for an exit that might not be achievable and limits your flexibility. In the context of the discussion last week, I think it's important to highlight that these economics are not always the fault of the venture capitalist. For example, Jason Calacanis said you should take as much money as you can get and Marc Andresseen said “ in general, [you should raise] as much as you can ”. Billions or Bust Another one of my favorite recent examples is Slide, founded by Max Levchin of PayPal fame. Slide recently raised $50M from T-Rowe Price and Fidelity - giving up 9% for a pre-money valuation of roughly $500M. Granted, T-Rowe Price and Fidelity probably aren't quite expecting the same kind of returns over the same time frame as a VC, but it still sets a ridiculous high floor for an exit. That is, in part, the plan. As Sarah Lacy put it , "Levchin, who co-founded and later sold PayPal... Posted Jun 09 2008, 09:06 AM by Tim with | with no comments Filed under: Web 2.0, Business, Entrepreneurship, Startup, Venture Capital, NextNY

• What's the best state to incorporate in? (Hint: Delaware)

  AskTheVC recently addressed the question of what was the best state of incorporation . The short answer is one of 3 preferred states: "Delaware, whatever state the company is in and whatever state(s) the VCs are located in." Obviously, the last is hard to determine if you're going to incorporate before you close financing. California is notoriously employee-friendly so it should be avoided. Some of those laws may still apply if you are based in California, but if you are elsewhere you should definitely assume those burdens. New York is also undesirable. It's fairly balanced when it comes to dealing with owners vs. employees, but the one big red flag is Section 630 of the NYS BCL. This section states that the top 10 shareholders are liable for employee wages if the company goes out of business and employees aren't paid. This statute does not apply to foreign companies (i.e., those incorporated in other states) even if they're doing business in New York. Considering... Posted Jul 23 2007, 05:53 AM by Tim with | with 5 comment(s) Filed under: Web 2.0, Business, Law, Entrepreneurship, Startup, Venture Capital, NextNY

• There's no such thing as Web 2.0

  I've said before that I hate the term Web 2.0 but that it's more than a buzzword . Perhaps what I meant to say is what Marc Andreessen said: there's no such thing as Web 2.0 ( via Fred Wilson ) - thing being the key word there. The first Web 2.0 conference was held in the fall of 2004, and coincided with a large number of people in the tech industry (myself included) peeking our heads out from the fallout from the nuclear winter of 2001-2003 and realizing that the Web was not only not dead, it was thriving. From there, it was easy to conclude that "Web 2.0" was a thing , a noun, something to which you could refer to explain a new generation of Web services and Web companies. Many people have since pointed out that there is no clear definition of Web 2.0. Tim O'Reilly, whose organization created the conference (and the term), attempted to define Web 2.0 as follows: "Web 2.0 is the network as platform, spanning all connected devices; Web 2.0 applications are those that make the most of the... Posted Jun 11 2007, 03:09 PM by Tim with | with no comments Filed under: Technology, Software Development, Web 2.0, Innovation, Entrepreneurship, Startup, Venture Capital