Posts Tagged ‘valuation’

Walker Twitter Highlights: September 5th – 11th

by Scott Edward Walker on September 12th, 2011

I’m using Twitter as a form of micro-blogging to share interesting blog posts, articles and podcasts relating to entrepreneurship and startups, M&A and legal issues.  Below are my five most popular tweets (via bit.ly) for the past week and a couple of blog-related tweets.  If you’d like to see all of my tweets (or an RSS feed of them), you can do so here.  Cheers, Scott

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Helping Entrepreneurs Succeed: Kevin Systrom

by Scott Edward Walker on July 22nd, 2011

To Our Clients & Friends: Welcome to our weekly series entitled “Helping Entrepreneurs Succeed.”  Each week, we share a favorite video of a successful entrepreneur, investor or business leader on a variety of topics.  This week, we present Kevin Systrom, the co-founder and CEO of Instagram.

In this interesting, three-minute clip (courtesy of Stanford University’s Entrepreneurship Corner), Kevin provides some outstanding advice with regard to raising capital, including the importance of:

•           seeking out the people you want to work with;

•           optimizing for people, not for valuation; and

•           finding investors as if you’re hiring part of your team.

Kevin also discusses the importance of bringing a prototype to a pitch meeting (as opposed to a deck), which is indeed solid advice.  I hope you enjoy it.  Many thanks, Scott

Venture Capital Term Sheets: Conversion Rights

by Scott Edward Walker on June 9th, 2011

Introduction

This post originally appeared as part of the “Ask the Attorney” column I am writing for VentureBeat; it is another installment of my ongoing series regarding venture capital term sheets.  Here are the issues I have addressed to date:

In today’s post, I examine conversion rights of investors.

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Walker Twitter Highlights: May 30th – June 5th

by Scott Edward Walker on June 6th, 2011

I’m using Twitter as a form of micro-blogging to share interesting blog posts, articles and podcasts relating to entrepreneurship and startups, M&A and legal issues.  If you missed this past week’s Twitter updates, below are my five most popular tweets (via bit.ly) and my blog-related tweets.  If you’d like to see all of my tweets (or an RSS feed of them), you can do so here.  Cheers, Scott

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Walker Twitter Highlights: January 9th – 15th

by Scott Edward Walker on January 16th, 2011

I’m using Twitter as a form of micro-blogging to share interesting blog posts, articles, Quora answers and podcasts relating to entrepreneurship and startups, M&A and legal issues.

If you missed this week’s Twitter updates, below are my five most popular tweets (via bit.ly) and my blog-related tweets.  If you’d like to see all of my tweets (or an RSS feed of them), you can do so here.  Thanks, Scott

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How Do I Swim Safely in the VC’s Option Pool?

by Scott Edward Walker on September 15th, 2010

Introduction

This post was originally part of my weekly “Ask the Attorney” series which I am writing for VentureBeat (one of my favorite websites for entrepreneurs).  Below is a longer, more comprehensive version.  Please shoot me any questions you may have in the comments section – or feel free to call me directly at 415-979-9998.  Many thanks, Scott

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Walker Twitter Highlights: August 29th – September 4th

by Scott Edward Walker on September 5th, 2010

I’m using Twitter as a form of micro-blogging to share interesting articles, blog posts and podcasts relating to entrepreneurship, startup and corporate law issues, and mergers & acquisitions.

For those of you who missed this week’s Twitter updates, below are my five most popular tweets (via bit.ly) and two most popular blog-related tweets.  If you’d like to see all of my tweets (or an RSS feed of them), you can do so here.  Many thanks, Scott

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How Do I Value My Startup?

by Scott Edward Walker on September 1st, 2010

Introduction

This post was originally part of my weekly “Ask the Attorney” series which I am writing for VentureBeat (one of my favorite websites for entrepreneurs).  Please shoot me any questions you may have in the comments section – or feel free to call me directly at 415-979-9998.  Many thanks, Scott

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Helping Entrepreneurs Succeed: John Doerr

by Scott Edward Walker on August 30th, 2010

To Our Clients & Friends: Welcome to our weekly series entitled “Helping Entrepreneurs Succeed.”  Each week, we post a short video clip of a successful entrepreneur, investor or business leader on a variety of topics to help entrepreneurs succeed.

This week, we present legendary investor John Doerr, a partner at Kleiner Perkins.  Eric Schmidt calls John “one of Google’s best board members”; and Jeff Bezos noted that “Doerr (and Kleiner) is the center of gravity in the Internet.”  In this interesting, one-minute clip from 2005 (courtesy of Stanford University’s Entrepreneurship Corner), John discusses how to negotiate valuations with VC’s and related issues.  

I included this clip as a supplement to my blog post today on VentureBeat in which I advised entrepreneurs that: “[Y]ou need to get out there and effectively pitch a bunch of VC’s in your space and get them excited about your venture.  By doing so, you can, in effect, drive the market by creating a competitive environment and playing the VC’s off of each other.”  Many thanks, Scott

What Is a Liquidation Preference?

by Scott Edward Walker on August 25th, 2010

Introduction

This post was originally part of my weekly “Ask the Attorney” series which I am writing for VentureBeat (one of my favorite websites for entrepreneurs).  Please shoot me any questions you may have in the comments section – or feel free to call me directly at 415-979-9998.  Many thanks, Scott

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“Ask the Business Attorney”: What Are the Most Common Mistakes Startups Make Dealing with VC’s?

by Scott Edward Walker on July 28th, 2010

Introduction

This post was originally part of my “Ask the Attorney” series which I am writing for VentureBeat; below is a longer, more comprehensive version.  Please feel free to call me directly if you have any questions (415-979-9998).  Thanks, Scott

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Helping Entrepreneurs Succeed: Marc Andreessen, Ron Conway and David Hornik

by Scott Edward Walker on May 24th, 2010

To Our Clients & Friends:  Welcome to our new weekly series entitled “Helping Entrepreneurs Succeed.”  Each week, we will post a short video interview of one or more successful entrepreneurs, investors or business leaders on a variety of relevant topics to help entrepreneurs succeed.

This week, we present heavyweight VCs Marc Andreessen, Ron Conway and David Hornik courtesy of TechCrunch and its founder Michael Arrington (who conducted the interview).  They discuss valuation issues, hot investments, and issues relating to venture capital generally.  I hope you enjoy it.  Thanks, Scott

Webinar for Entrepreneurs: Venture Capital Term Sheets (Plus More)

by Scott Edward Walker on April 15th, 2010

Introduction

My colleague, Susan Morgan, conducted a webinar yesterday with respect to venture capital term sheets for the “CFO University,” which is group of Chief Financial Officers convening monthly webinars via CFOwise.  As I have previously discussed, Susan recently joined our team and has strong financing experience, including 7+ years at Fenwick & West in Silicon Valley where she closed more than 30 financings.  (You can learn more about Susan’s background on her bio page.)  In conjunction with the webinar, Susan also wrote a brief post on convertible notes.  You can see the webinar and read the post below.  Many thanks, Scott

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“Ask the Attorney” – Types of Angel Financing

by Scott Edward Walker on February 17th, 2010

Introduction

This post is part of a weekly series called “Ask the Attorney,” which I am writing for VentureBeat (one of the most popular websites for entrepreneurs).  As the VentureBeat Editor notes on the site: “Ask the Attorney is a new VentureBeat feature allowing start-up owners to get answers to their legal questions.”

I have two goals here: (i) to encourage entrepreneurs to ask law-related questions regardless of how basic they may be; and (ii) to provide helpful responses in plain English (as opposed to legalese).  Cheers, Scott

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