Venture Capital Archives - Page 2 of 8

Some stuff all web startups should know

Posted on March 27, 2008 by Steve Sammartino

I’ve just read the following book. 50 great e-Businesses and the minds behind them. By Emily Ross and Angus Holland. It includes all our favourites over the past 10 years. Put simply it’s insightful.

I really think you should read it, but if you’re time poor like most entrepreneurs here’s my bullet point summary for you:

More than 80% of these businesses were founded and run by non-technical people (web designers / coders etc)
Only a handful actually went viral and had overnight success
‘Fun parks’ build traffic & members quicker than ‘real commercial sites’ (see next blog entry)
The majority did not have VC funding, fancy offices, or even staff. They bootstrapped.
Most took much longer than 2 years to build
The most unexpected and common thing that drove success was cold calling & collaboration
The entrepreneurs behind them we’re driven by the idea, belief and excitement – not only the potential for big money.

Worth a read.

What to delay & what to fast track

Posted on February 21, 2008 by Steve Sammartino

Start up blog mantra:

Delay expenditure

Bring forward investments

Know the difference between the two. If unsure, ask.

Perspective – internet boom 2.0 ?

Posted on February 13, 2008 by Steve Sammartino

There’s been a lot of talk lately about an ensuing second internet boom. With the billion dollar sales of many web 2.0 companies it’s easy to see why:

$15.1 billion

$2.6 billion

$100 million

$6 billion

$3.1 billion

$1.7 billion

$60 million

Among others…

To give a little perspective the Nasdaq composite index peaked in the year 2000 at 5132 points. Yesterday it closed at 2320, just under 8 years later.

If you invested $10,000 at the peak, today it would be worth $4521. Still a very bearish 55% capital loss.

Sure we’d have to question some of the valuations, but the market hasn’t started to value ‘ideas’ at over a billion – yet.

Start up lesson – your company is worth what someone is prepared to pay for it.

What start-ups can learn from terrorsits

Posted on February 8, 2008 by Steve Sammartino

Extending on one of my favourite strategy topics – terrorism, click on the little Al Qaeda dude below to read my latest Australian Anthill rant!

Enjoy!

Have an opinion

Posted on February 5, 2008 by Steve Sammartino

Quite often it pays to be malleable, especially in a corporate environment. The powers that be only want to hear about incremental improvements that build on the status quo. Not change it.

Once we leave and get out there on our own. We must make sure do this:

Have an opinion, create change and go beyond the incremental.

Money follows ideas

Posted on February 2, 2008 by Steve Sammartino

Lacking the cash to commence a start up is a misnomer. There’s so much cash floating around western markets at present that the owners of this cash simply don’t know what to do with it.

All money in the world resides somewhere based on an idea. Let me explain:

Money in your wallet – based on the idea we’re going shopping, will need cash for lunch or maybe just for an emergency.

Money in the bank – based on the idea we’ll need it at a later date for something more significant and want to save it for this future transaction

Money in shares – based on the idea that this companies fortunes are improving and the money will grow and provide us with dividends and or a capital gain.

Money loaned to us – based on the idea that we can use this money to create something of bigger financial worth than the original loan and the cost of interest repayments.

All money follows an idea. Sometimes both parties profit. Sometimes one party profits, sometimes we all lose. But the thing which there is no doubt about, is the fact that money is out there for any idea, any time.

If our start up is that idea we ought chase it and give that idea the money it deserves. The better the idea the greater the chance of accessing the money.

Over reactions

Posted on January 31, 2008 by Steve Sammartino

Over reactions are omnipresent in humans. The best example is the sharemarket. It is rarely priced at ‘fair value’. The sharemarket sentiment is either overly optimistic or overly pessimistic.

it seems that managers tend to over react

it seems that employees tend to over react

it seems that VC’s tend to over react

it seems that suppliers tend to over react

it seems that customers tend to over react

The funny things is that over reactions never solve the problem, and often compound them.

Isn’t it refreshing when one of the above has a balanced and considered response to the inevitable issues which pop up in any start up business.

Be refreshing.