1) Raising funds from Silicon Valley investors requires Polish startups to demonstrate rapid growth, a large total addressable market, and a proven management team.
2) When choosing Silicon Valley investors, companies should reference check the investors' past portfolio companies to evaluate how they support struggling firms.
3) While Silicon Valley remains an attractive source of funding, its high costs may lead startups to consider global trends like declining smartphone and bandwidth expenses that could support development outside of the US.
Early Stage Edtech Investment Thesis (Sept 2016)Earnest Sweat
Here is an example of a personal investment thesis that I created to share with venture capital firms. In this example, I provide my personal perspective on the edtech sector. For details on how I build this thesis check out my blog (https://goo.gl/CU4Qid).
Note: Some of the confidential information has been redacted for privacy.
Want to make professional looking PPT related to Crowdfunding? We bring you our Crowd Funding PowerPoint Presentation Slides having readymade 57 slides to correctly showcase crowdfunding strategies. Our PPT presentation supports to underline the important challenges and strategies required to achieve the crowdfunding target. This Crowd Funding PPT deck has slides like agenda, what is crowdfunding, outline of crowdfunding, crowdfunding timeline, how it works, crowdfunding process, forms of crowdsourcing, types of crowdfunding, crowdfunding escalator and many more such slides to name a few. With help of our PowerPoint presentation motivate workforce to maintain the crowdfunding process on track. Furthermore, using this PowerPoint presentation slide deck model you can brief employees about the ways to develop strategies among team members as well as to run a successful crowdfunding campaign. Above all, unique presentation slides like reward vs equity, equity crowdfunding, reward and donation-based crowdfunding, researching target audience, setting a budget, marketing collateral etc. are included to touch all aspects of successful crowdfunding. So, what’s holding you back? Click and download our pre-made Crowd Funding presentation sample deck for better understanding and managing crowdfunding at your workplace. Our Crowd Funding PowerPoint Presentation Slides encourage bonding. They can be an effective glue.
[Presentation] Startup Ecosystem: Bangladesh — Coming of AgeLightCastle Partners
Bangladesh’s startup ecosystem has picked up rapidly since 2013 – driven by participation from angels; rise of eco-system enablers like co-working space, community events, local and global incubators; and a growing active interest from government/development partners. However, major deals and growth have started happening since the end of 2017. While a number of international/local funds have present operations along with incubator/accelerator programs for pipeline development in the economy, Series A funding is yet to properly kick off. The embedded presentation gives a high level overview of the current status, the story of evolution and growth, the promising and thriving sectors, the potential bottlenecks and the role of ecosystem enablers. The conclusion is clear: Bangladesh’s startup ecosystem is slowly, but surely, coming of age.
Early Stage Edtech Investment Thesis (Sept 2016)Earnest Sweat
Here is an example of a personal investment thesis that I created to share with venture capital firms. In this example, I provide my personal perspective on the edtech sector. For details on how I build this thesis check out my blog (https://goo.gl/CU4Qid).
Note: Some of the confidential information has been redacted for privacy.
Want to make professional looking PPT related to Crowdfunding? We bring you our Crowd Funding PowerPoint Presentation Slides having readymade 57 slides to correctly showcase crowdfunding strategies. Our PPT presentation supports to underline the important challenges and strategies required to achieve the crowdfunding target. This Crowd Funding PPT deck has slides like agenda, what is crowdfunding, outline of crowdfunding, crowdfunding timeline, how it works, crowdfunding process, forms of crowdsourcing, types of crowdfunding, crowdfunding escalator and many more such slides to name a few. With help of our PowerPoint presentation motivate workforce to maintain the crowdfunding process on track. Furthermore, using this PowerPoint presentation slide deck model you can brief employees about the ways to develop strategies among team members as well as to run a successful crowdfunding campaign. Above all, unique presentation slides like reward vs equity, equity crowdfunding, reward and donation-based crowdfunding, researching target audience, setting a budget, marketing collateral etc. are included to touch all aspects of successful crowdfunding. So, what’s holding you back? Click and download our pre-made Crowd Funding presentation sample deck for better understanding and managing crowdfunding at your workplace. Our Crowd Funding PowerPoint Presentation Slides encourage bonding. They can be an effective glue.
[Presentation] Startup Ecosystem: Bangladesh — Coming of AgeLightCastle Partners
Bangladesh’s startup ecosystem has picked up rapidly since 2013 – driven by participation from angels; rise of eco-system enablers like co-working space, community events, local and global incubators; and a growing active interest from government/development partners. However, major deals and growth have started happening since the end of 2017. While a number of international/local funds have present operations along with incubator/accelerator programs for pipeline development in the economy, Series A funding is yet to properly kick off. The embedded presentation gives a high level overview of the current status, the story of evolution and growth, the promising and thriving sectors, the potential bottlenecks and the role of ecosystem enablers. The conclusion is clear: Bangladesh’s startup ecosystem is slowly, but surely, coming of age.
Event Report - Informatica Informatica World 2016Holger Mueller
Learn about theTop 3 Takeaways Constellation Research analyst Holger Mueller has distilled from Informatica Informatica World 2016, happening in San Francisco, May 23rd till 26th 2016.
H1 2015 Venture Capital Financing in CanadaAmir Bashir
Developed a deep-dive summary of how venture capital was distributed across Canada in H1 2015. The report analyzed vc financing by location, industry and technology trend. I developed this report because I found publicly available information to be too broad for the insights I was looking for. Hopefully this will be more helpful to the community.
Supply Chain Metrics That Matter: Semiconductors and Hard Disk Drives - 18 FE...Lora Cecere
Executive Overview
Supply chain leaders struggle to align corporate and supply chain strategy and drive improved performance. We term this difficult balancing act The Effective Frontier and explain it as the process of balancing growth, profitability, cycle and complexity within a company’s supply chain operations.
A supply chain is a complex system with increasing complexity. A major gap in many supply chain strategies is a nuanced understanding of supply chain potential when these elements are viewed together as a system.
The focus of this report is semiconductor and hard disk drive manufacturers. As seen in table 1, when it comes to supply chain performance, the industry is neither the best nor the worst. They fall squarely in the middle. While middle of the pack in operating margin, the industry has shown an increase in the cash-to-cash cycle and a decrease in inventory turns. With increasing complexity, the industry has struggled to maintain inventory turn performance over the period.
Companies further back in the supply chain have struggled to a higher degree to balance The Effective Frontier than those closer to usage. This is largely due to the bullwhip effect—the distortion of a demand signal as it gets passed downstream from trading partner to trading partner. The chemical industry manufacturers, like semiconductor & hard disk drive manufacturers, are three to five levels back in the supply chain. Comparing the results in table 1 for the two industries illustrates how much better the semiconductor & hard disk drive manufacturers have done in a similar orientation. Operating margin is comparable across the two, but the chemical industry has a higher cash-to-cash cycle level and almost a 50% lower inventory turns value.
Semiconductor and hard disk drive manufacturers have been successful in a challenging downstream position. Cost pressure from OEMS has not (as of yet) cut into margin, and growth levels have remained strong with the move to mobile. Inventory remains problematic with all six companies in this report, demonstrating increased DOI and decreased inventory turns, since the start of the century. Part of this is likely due to the lengthening of the global supply chain, while another part is partly due to rising product and process complexity, but it remains a concern.
Historically, the industry has made strong gains on productivity. An increasing move towards automation in the precision driven manufacturing environment is expected to continue the rise in revenue per employee performance.
In this report, we discuss the financial realities of the semiconductor and hard disk drive supply chain and offer recommendations for improvement.
Sustainability isn’t about the fuzzy “we care about people and the environment” statements any more. Consumers and analysts increasingly demand hard evidence to support your claims and hold you accountable for the actions of your suppliers. Are you doing enough?
UE Startups -- 9 Factors in Raising Funding in Silicon ValleyPeter Szymanski
9 Factors Silicon Valley investors consider for European startups, how to choose an angel or venture capital investor, and market trends that support growing a startup outside the USA.
Event Report - Informatica Informatica World 2016Holger Mueller
Learn about theTop 3 Takeaways Constellation Research analyst Holger Mueller has distilled from Informatica Informatica World 2016, happening in San Francisco, May 23rd till 26th 2016.
H1 2015 Venture Capital Financing in CanadaAmir Bashir
Developed a deep-dive summary of how venture capital was distributed across Canada in H1 2015. The report analyzed vc financing by location, industry and technology trend. I developed this report because I found publicly available information to be too broad for the insights I was looking for. Hopefully this will be more helpful to the community.
Supply Chain Metrics That Matter: Semiconductors and Hard Disk Drives - 18 FE...Lora Cecere
Executive Overview
Supply chain leaders struggle to align corporate and supply chain strategy and drive improved performance. We term this difficult balancing act The Effective Frontier and explain it as the process of balancing growth, profitability, cycle and complexity within a company’s supply chain operations.
A supply chain is a complex system with increasing complexity. A major gap in many supply chain strategies is a nuanced understanding of supply chain potential when these elements are viewed together as a system.
The focus of this report is semiconductor and hard disk drive manufacturers. As seen in table 1, when it comes to supply chain performance, the industry is neither the best nor the worst. They fall squarely in the middle. While middle of the pack in operating margin, the industry has shown an increase in the cash-to-cash cycle and a decrease in inventory turns. With increasing complexity, the industry has struggled to maintain inventory turn performance over the period.
Companies further back in the supply chain have struggled to a higher degree to balance The Effective Frontier than those closer to usage. This is largely due to the bullwhip effect—the distortion of a demand signal as it gets passed downstream from trading partner to trading partner. The chemical industry manufacturers, like semiconductor & hard disk drive manufacturers, are three to five levels back in the supply chain. Comparing the results in table 1 for the two industries illustrates how much better the semiconductor & hard disk drive manufacturers have done in a similar orientation. Operating margin is comparable across the two, but the chemical industry has a higher cash-to-cash cycle level and almost a 50% lower inventory turns value.
Semiconductor and hard disk drive manufacturers have been successful in a challenging downstream position. Cost pressure from OEMS has not (as of yet) cut into margin, and growth levels have remained strong with the move to mobile. Inventory remains problematic with all six companies in this report, demonstrating increased DOI and decreased inventory turns, since the start of the century. Part of this is likely due to the lengthening of the global supply chain, while another part is partly due to rising product and process complexity, but it remains a concern.
Historically, the industry has made strong gains on productivity. An increasing move towards automation in the precision driven manufacturing environment is expected to continue the rise in revenue per employee performance.
In this report, we discuss the financial realities of the semiconductor and hard disk drive supply chain and offer recommendations for improvement.
Sustainability isn’t about the fuzzy “we care about people and the environment” statements any more. Consumers and analysts increasingly demand hard evidence to support your claims and hold you accountable for the actions of your suppliers. Are you doing enough?
UE Startups -- 9 Factors in Raising Funding in Silicon ValleyPeter Szymanski
9 Factors Silicon Valley investors consider for European startups, how to choose an angel or venture capital investor, and market trends that support growing a startup outside the USA.
Marina Hatsopoulos. Entrepreneur, Director at Cynosure and Levitronix Technologies; Advisor, MIT Enterprise Forum Greece, The EGG accelerator, OK!Thess
Questions in the meeting: From Startups to Venture CapitalistsWiziin Inc.
Are you a startup founder looking to secure funding from venture capitalists? Do you want to know the questions to expect during a meeting with VCs? If so, our new ebook, "Questions in the Meeting: From Startups to Venture Capitalists," is perfect for you.
Securing funding from venture capitalists is critical for many startups. However, it can be challenging to navigate the process, especially if you are not familiar with the types of questions that VCs usually ask during meetings.
To help startup founders prepare for these meetings, our ebook provides a comprehensive list of questions that VCs typically ask when considering investing in a startup. By preparing for these questions, you can communicate your business's value proposition, market opportunity, and growth potential effectively.
In addition, the ebook also provides a list of questions that startups should ask during meetings with VCs. By asking these questions, you can gain a better understanding of the VC's investment strategy, and determine if they are the right fit for your business.
By downloading "Questions in the Meeting: From Startups to Venture Capitalists," you'll have access to a valuable resource that can help you prepare for your next meeting with a VC. With the right preparation, you'll be able to answer any question with confidence and increase your chances of securing the funding that your business needs to grow and succeed.
Don't miss out on this opportunity to take your startup to the next level. Download "Questions in the Meeting: From Startups to Venture Capitalists" today, and start preparing for your next meeting with a VC. With our ebook, you'll be well on your way to securing the funding that your business needs to succeed.
Seven Ways Traditional Companies Can Succeed with Disruptive InnovationCognizant
Established companies often struggle to develop and launch break-out ideas. Here are the essential capabilities for participating in the next billion-dollar growth market, including the potential of establishing a separate innovation track.
Angel Investor Program, by Paul TwomblyMelissa Glass
Effective strategies; Transforming traditional investment environments from risk-averse to risk-embracing. Portfolio Strategy: Top tips for building a successful portfolio.
Foundation structure of startup assessment is the startup lifecycle. we can Understand where a startup is in their lifecycle allows us to assess their progress. The startup life cycle is made of 6 stages of development, where each stage is made up of levels of sub stages.
2. Advantages for Polish Startups &
Entrepreneurs?
WHY ME?
HOW TO PICK AN INVESTOR?
FOLLOW UP DISCUSSION:
Quick Introduction
What I am doing in Poland
Ten Factors Silicon Valley VC
Investors Look For
SILICON VALLEY FUNDING
Introduction
- From Wroclaw University of Technology, Jun and Oct 2014
- From Warsaw School of Economics, May 2015
Structuring Polish-US investor companies
4. Why Me? Why is Poland the right place right now?Why Poland?
5. Why Me? Polish companies are already being fundedWhy Poland?
Brainly, DocPlanner, UXPin, Estimote, Oort, others
MATTERMARK
MULTIPLE $M FINANCINGS
527 PL startups listed
ANGEL LIST
1,835 PL startups at pre-funding thru growth funding
2,624 PL founder-CEOs (out of 1,560,000 PL professionals on LI)
LINKEDIN
6. Why Me? Sequoia Capital Famous Question – Why Now?Why Poland?
Poland #15
Country for
Internet
Penetration
(25+M people)
7. Why Me? Sequoia Capital Famous Question – Why Now?Why Poland?
Poland #8
Country for
Smart Phone
Penetration
(22+M people)
Poland #5 for
mobile % of
internet traffic at
52%
8. Average investor spends 3m:44s on a pitch deckPitch Deck
Lessons From A
Study of 200
Perfect Pitch Decks
@kimmaicutler
Ave Length = 19 pages
Frequency:
Team = 100%
Product = 96%
Problem = 88%
Financials = 58% (seed)
9. Recommended Deck OrderingPitch Deck
Lessons From
A Study of 200
Perfect Pitch
Decks
@kimmaicutler
Fairly standard, start with:
Company Purpose
Problem
Solution
End with team @ReidHoffman
10. How long does it take; Seed Fund or Angels?Pitch Deck
Lessons From
A Study of 200
Perfect Pitch
Decks
@kimmaicutler
Ave time to fundraise is 12 weeks, but much variation and usually it takes “way longer” than expected
Fundraising with seed funds more efficient than angels:
11. Darwinian Survival of FundraisingPitch Deck
Lessons From
A Study of 200
Perfect Pitch
Decks
@kimmaicutler
9 seed rounds exist for
every Series A Round
(i.e. “Series A Crunch”)
But Series A is more
efficient (<time, fewer
investors & meetings)
12. In a great market — a market
with lots of real potential
customers — the market pulls
product out of the startup
The Market – Existing, Quantifiable, And Proven
Ability To Execute In It
Conversely, in a terrible
market, you can have the
best product in the world and
an absolutely killer team, and
it doesn't matter — you're
going to fail.
10 Factors 1
13. Retention is the single
most important thing for
growth.
Rapid Growth – 30% forward revenue/user growth per
period (per year for M&A or IPO) or per month/quarter
(early stage)
Every single user on their 31st
day after registration, what
percentage of them are monthly
active? Thirty-second day, thirty-
third day, thirty-fourth day. And
that allows you, with only 10,000
customers, to get a real idea of
what this curve is going to look
like for your product.
210 Factors
14. Scale – $1Bn+ market cap potential (a “unicorn”),
with line of sight to $1Bn+ in revenues
The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones VentureSource
are tracking venture-backed private companies valued
at $1 billion or more. See how the club has expanded
since the project began in January 2014.
The Billion Dollar Startup Club
10 Factors 3
15. One of the most common types
of advice we give at Y
Combinator is to do things that
don't scale
Predictability – Recurring and visible revenue streams /
user growth (lifetime return customers)
The most common unscalable
thing founders have to do at the
start is to recruit users
manually… founders ignore this
path because the absolute
numbers seem so small at first.
The mistake they make is to underestimate the
power of compound growth. We encourage
every startup to measure their progress by
weekly growth rate. If you have 100 users, you
need to get 10 more next week to grow 10% a
week.” (that’s 14,000 users in Y1 and 2 million
users in Y2)
10 Factors 4
16. Pricing before product
– plan distribution first;
is your pricing
scalable?
Product and Customer Diversity – Multiple
proven products, features, customers, industry
distribution channels, find customers
Uncontrolled
distribution leads to all
manner of head-ache
and profit-bleeding.”.
It’s possible to niche market
and mass sell… Whether
Apple or Estee Lauder,
sustainable high-profit
brands usually begin with
controlled distribution.
Remember that more
customers isn’t the goal;
more sustained profit is.
510 Factors
17. Startup probabilities of success where cofounders don't have a long
history are bad; when things go wrong, there is no history to bind…
A bad early hire can kill a company; in the early days the goal is to not
hire and stay small as long as possible…
Be proud of how much can be done with fewer employees; more equals
high burn rate, complexity & slower decisions…
Founders underestimate how hard it is to recruit; the best employees
have options; mission belief is the differentiator.
Proven Management Team – Track record managing
growth increases investor confidence in execution
10 Factors 6
18. Globalization means copying
things that work… There is no
innovation; you go from
building 1 to n typewriters (…)
Weak Competitive Landscape – Emerging leader taking
share from legacy vendors unable to respond (new and
disruptive)
Technologization / technology, by
contrast, involves doing new
things… True technology
companies—Palantir, SpaceX—
involve going from 0 to 1. This
means going from typewriters to
word processors.
10 Factors 7
19. When you are starting a startup
you need revenue. You need
validation. You need users. You
need commitment. Free trials get
you none of those things… You
think you've made progress but
at the end of the free trial you’re
going to have to sell them all
over again.
Strong Economic Model – Quantifiable and proven
inputs for unit cost of customer acquisition,
revenues, margins and contributions over time
Two things you should be doing when
you're starting your company: talking to
your users (selling) or building your
product. As a founder, you have some
unique advantages that make it
possible for you to be really, really good
at sales: passion for the product and
your knowledge of the industry and the
problem that you're solving.
10 Factors 8
20. If you’re going to spend the best
years of your life working on
something, you better make it
something you care about. The
mission is not the exact problem
you’re going to solve, but it’s the
North Star. It’s telling you the
direction in which you should go.
The Elevator Pitch – One Summary that
Describes it All
10 Factors
Frequency, Density, and Pain are three
variables to analyze almost any problem.
Frequency: Does the problem you’re
solving occur often?
Density: Do a lot of people face this
problem?
Pain: Is the problem just an annoyance, or
something you absolutely must resolve?
9
23. How to Pick Investors?
One of the really cool things that's happening
right now is this massive proliferation of ways
to start a company and ways to get your
company funded
MORE OPTIONS THAN EVER TO GET A NEW COMPANY FUNDED:
— Aaron Harris, a partner at Y Combinator
24. HOW DOES A POLISH COMPANY RAISE M ONEY IN THE USA?
VC Funding not only route…
Set up a US affiliate which accepts US
funding (for legal reasons).
When there is a liquidation (sale, IPO),
the flow of funds need to be established
to pass to the international owners
(either directly via shares in US entity or
flow of funds).
Because of some commoditization of basic
entity set-up services in US, this can be
done for small amounts of money
The US company is the economic
and voting entity. The Polish affiliate
is the R&D and operations entity.
$1,000 to set up entity $25,000 to
$50,000 to close financing deal.
Angel Funding, Syndicate Funding,
Crowdfunding viable
How to Pick Investors?
25. Team Leadership skills, operating knowhow
and industry knowledge are all tremendously
important. However, most entrepreneurs seem
to make their decisions more on perceived
brand, past successes and ability to intro.
How to Pick Investors?
26. Look at their portfolio list … Subtract out the extremely successful
companies. a) they have no time for you & b) everybody who has a super
successful out-of-the-gate company loves their VC because there was no
conflict
Call the companies that are doing well but not yet household names. Ask
about the criteria above
More importantly, call the companies that struggled. You’ll learn most
about VCs when you find out how they handled themselves in tough
situations. Make sure to call 3-4 members of the management team to
avoid one person’s bias
Past successes aren’t always relevant to future ones (web vs. mobile,
Traditional software vs. SaaS, SEO marketing vs. social marketing)
REFERENCE CHECK IS BEST WAY TO CHOOSE A VC:How to Pick Investors?
27. Never been easier to start a technology company…
In the USA or anywhere else…
Why?... Decreasing costs, market factors…
On the other hand… Silicon Valley is very
expensive…
Global Trends
28. What about the Silicon Valley funding bubble?Global Trends
Maybe in the
future…
Today we are
in a boom!
29. It’s become 2x more expensive to scale a startup in
Silicon Valley in 2015 versus 2009
The combined inflation of real estate and
wage costs in Silicon Valley have a
dramatic impact of the operating expenses
of startups. This chart compares the op-ex
(excluding marketing spend) of a
hypothetical 20 person Series A startup and
a hypothetical 80 person Series B startup
over the past five years in Silicon Valley. In
both cases, the op-ex figures double from
$2.5M to $5.0M and from $7.9M to $15.6M
respectively.
Global Trends
31. Global Trends Bandwidth costs declining… 27% annually from
1999-2013…
Declining cost /
Performance of
bandwidth
enables faster
collection &
transfer of data
to facilitate richer
connections /
interactions
32. Global Trends Compute costs declining 33% annually (1990-2013)
Decreasing cost /
performance curve
enables
computational power
at core of digital
infrastructure….
42. Global Trends Sensors Growing >30% Per Year, Where in 5 Years?
Beacon Valley
Poland has strong
Position in sensors
43. Global Trends User Generated Content = 2/3 of All Content
Sharing Content
Not Slowing Down
Where Does It
All Go?
How to organize?
44. Global Trends User Generated Content = 2/3 of All Content
1.8 B Photos
Uploaded Daily
Are your Photos
And Messages
Organized?
45. Global Trends Which Way Are Mobile Apps Moving?
Sharing with Friends
And Finding New
Friends…
Not Researching
Information…
46. Global Trends What about the Blockchain / Crypto Currency?
Too Many Smart
People Believe
It’s Here to Stay
Who will find the
1st Mainstream
App / Use Case?
49. Global Trends Changing Workforce Brings Tides of Change
Entrepreneurs and Freelancers have more independence
than ever, that’s attractive but requires discipline and tools!
Freelancers and Entrepreneurs say…
50. Global Trends Evolution of Communications
Smaller Groups
Small Messages
More Frequent
Communication
What’s Next? An
Encyclopedia of
Tweetable Premises?
51. Global Trends What is Growth Hacking = Leveraging a Platform to
identify a segment of users
Product-Market Fit
2,000 legitimate entrepreneurs added per month on Twitter
500 legitimate entrepreneurs added per month on Linkedin
Finding users =
Not a Problem
Sales and
Marketing /
Distribution
@500Startups
52. Global Trends www.SiliconValleyCounsel.com
1. Network Effects / Lean Ops
/Founder Fit / Pricing / Sales
and Distribution Execution
1. Expensive law firms /
consultants = incomplete
1. 200 page books / 1,000 Blog
posts… who has time, pieces
of a puzzle!
1. Product Hunt = 1M upvotes
Mattermark = 1M startups
Linkedin = 3Mentrepreneurs
53. Global Trends Technology Has Changed Communications
Facebook, Twitter,
Linkedin, Instagram,
Pinterest, and
Tinder…
Change how people
Interact /
Communicate
UI Simplicity makes
their virality
54. Global Trends For Apps, User Interface Needs to Be Super Simple
Hypothesis/Assumptions:
The Ultimate App =
Press 1 Button
To Get Instant
Gratification
Entrepreneurs love
Short form bullet
Points
55. Let’s Connect Find the info you need for your startup
questions right now!
Linkedin: Peter Szymanski
Twitter: @szymap and @SiliconVCounsel
www.SiliconValleyCounsel.com