Continuations

At present there are three common exit options for venture backed and bootstrapped startups: trade sale (most common), IPO (increasingly rare) and sale to a PE firm (growing). We need innovation here both in the existing options and by creating new ones that are a better fit for companies that have a vision/mission that is important to them above and beyond financial return. Such vision/mission doesn’t necessarily need to be of the obvious social good variety, but could also include “settling...

First time entrepreneurs often ask me what they should do to maximize their chances of raising venture capital. To which I invariably answer: “Not need it.” Why? Because raising capital or selling your company is all about having a credible alternative. If you have a credible alternative you will arrive at a good deal – if you don’t, then bad things will happen. This is true for raising capital and it is true for exits. In both cases the best credible alternative is not needing the capital an...