fredwilson

9 ms·

61.
by fredwilson 14y ago
we haven't seen that yet although i suspect you are right. we tend to stick with our portfolio companies longer than we maybe should so it will take a while before we see what the failure rates are. in our 2004 fund, which is pretty mature
62.
by fredwilson 14y ago
you can put those investors on your advisory board and give them some options, explicitly recognizing them as valuable. this makes your round a lot less complicated and also allows you to be more concrete that you expect certain investors t
63.
by fredwilson 14y ago
i may be living in the past, but rounds/syndicates are held together by the glue of price and terms. when you don't have that, there is no round. just a bunch of investors, like you have in the public markets. you might want the private mar
64.
by fredwilson 14y ago
we don't invest in public companies at USV
65.
by fredwilson 14y ago
we would have made 10x or more on airbnb. apple has only gone up about 6.7x since 2009. and i only had a couple hundred thousand at work in apple. we would have invested millions in airbnb. but we've made plenty of great investments at USV
66.
by fredwilson 14y ago
wow. you really went through hell. respect!
67.
by fredwilson 14y ago
aha. thanks for that explanation. makes total sense to me now. but they really shouldn't include the button if they haven't fully implemented the feature
68.
by fredwilson 14y ago
great stuff. i think as a standalone app, its is very well done. but as you say, the potential is so much greater and they have punted on almost all of that.
69.
by fredwilson 14y ago
it might make sense to just focus on the google and samsung phones at first
70.
by fredwilson 14y ago
yes, exactly
71.
by fredwilson 14y ago
exactly https://twitter.com/fredwilson/status/226047103867170816
72.
by fredwilson 14y ago
me too
73.
by fredwilson 14y ago
i should have cropped that out. oh well.
74.
by fredwilson 14y ago
i got a playbook. i tried to use it. i found the OS very frustrating. we put it in our reception area at USV and 9 out of ten people (and these are tech types for the most part) couldn't figure out how to use it.
75.
by fredwilson 14y ago
i hadn't read your post until now. but it is very good and covers a lot of the same ground. thanks for pointing it out.
76.
by fredwilson 14y ago
yup.
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by fredwilson 14y ago
i don't care. i am not going to hire anyone (or invest in anyone) without making phone calls. i don't think anyone should. but the quid pro quo, as you suggest, is don't call the current employer. great point on that.
78.
by fredwilson 14y ago
that is great advice. thanks!
79.
by fredwilson 14y ago
great comment. this is part of a series of MBA Mondays posts i called "People". earlier in the series I wrote about cultural fit. http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2012/05/mba-mondays-culture-and-fit....
80.
by fredwilson 14y ago
i am an early stage "guy" and I can assure you i never "convinced" a later stage investor of anything. they did all the convincing to themselves. it was like feeding pigs at a trough.
81.
by fredwilson 14y ago
you nailed it inclined plane
82.
by fredwilson 14y ago
they are generally accepted by the accounting profession. but not by investors. investors tend to focus on cash flow. at least the smart ones do.
83.
by fredwilson 14y ago
we are not investors in groupon. ugh. yuck.
84.
by fredwilson 14y ago
we raised a fund in 2003. i remember it well. it took us a year to raise that fund. nobody wanted to invest in internet startups. that fund will go down in history as one of the best VC funds raised. certainly one of the best of that decade
85.
by fredwilson 14y ago
GAAP is nonsense. cash flow is what matters. i suggest you go look at all of those non cash charges and see if you think they are really expenses of the business.
86.
by fredwilson 14y ago
here's the math. it is not wonky. market cap = ~$6bn, cash = $1.5bn, enterprise value = ~$4.5bn, pre-tax earnings/EBTIDA in Q1 = $87mm, annualized = $358mm, enterprise value/annualized ebitda = ~13
87.
by fredwilson 14y ago
i don't benefit from the bubble. it drives up the cost we have to pay to invest in companies. i pray for the day the markets tumble.
88.
by fredwilson 14y ago
zynga has earnings. $87mm of pre-tax cash flow in the first quarter that was just reported. Zynga has had earnings/profits/cash flow for years.
89.
by fredwilson 14y ago
rational investors care about their reputation because that is what gets them into the good deals. maximizing profits over a career may require different actions than you think
90.
by fredwilson 14y ago
yes, exactly. that is the thing that many people are missing about the elegance of this hack

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