startup galore the best way of financing ramp up for founders ... a view from a venture capitalist
DESCRIPTION
I gave a speech to young founders and entrepreneurs about the best way to ramp up financing for their startups. What are the pitfalls from early financing. How to get best return on taking on investors. Why consider thinking about exits throughout the whole process for a Startup founders. A lot of do's and don'ts to be considered.TRANSCRIPT
Startup Galore … … -‐ the best way for founders to ramp up financing.
Thomas Grota, Investment Director T-‐Venture (Deutsche Telekom) @thomasgr Blog: thomasgr.tumblr.com
Thomas Grota, Investment Director T-‐Venture Venture Capital Firm of Deutsche Telekom AG
§ CTO of Pironet AG for 7 years (IPO 2000) § Dynamic CMS & Digital Asset Management
§ Deutsche Telekom 2003 -‐ today: § VP MarkeSng & Strategy (Paris, London) § IPTV Expert at Detecon (Asia, MENA) § Investment Director at T-‐Venture
§ Exited apprupt to Opera § Exited Swoodoo to Kayak § Exited 6Wunderkinder to Sequoia § Raised +$250m for his por`olios
Thomas Grota – Investment Director T-Venture Holding GmbH – @thomasgr
My current por`olio and areas of VC experSse:
Mobile Internet, Big Data & Cloud based Pla`orms
Thomas Grota – Investment Director T-Venture Holding GmbH – @thomasgr
E X I T S
Selected successful exits of T-‐Venture
E-Commerce solution 1998: IPO
@motion Wireless internet access
2000: trade sale to Openwave (formerly: phone.com)
Web conference provider
2000: IPO
Internet payment services 2010: trade sale to Deutsche Telekom
Online Flight Search and Bookings 2010: trade sale to KAYAK
Optical Networking Applications 2010: trade sale to Cisco
Fabless Semiconductors 2010: trade sale to Broadcom
Real-Time Collaboration Software 2011: trade sale to Citrix
Search Portal for Discount Offers of Local Retailers
2011: trade sale to Axel Springer
Wireless Access Technology 2012: trade sale to Ericsson
"On-Demand" E-Commerce 2012: IPO
Wireless Systems for Home Networks 2012: IPO
Security Solution for Mobile Enterprise Devices
2012: trade sale to Rapid7
Mass calling service 2002: trade sale to Deutsche Telekom
Femtocell Technology 2013: trade sale to Cisco
Customer experience management solution. 2009: trade sale to Tektronix
Communications Mobile messaging solutions
2008: trade sale to Nokia Web based calling company
2010: trade sale to Telefonica End-to-end wireless internet solution
2008: trade sale to Microsoft
E-Commerce 2006: shares sold to
Holtzbrinck + Weltbild Multimedia core solutions
2007: IPO
Core networking infrastructure provider. 2008: trade sale to
Nokia Siemens Networks
Social P2P media networking platform 2006: trade sale to
Sony Pictures Entertainment
M-commerce infrastructure solution
2006: trade sale to Amdocs
Mobile broadband 2005: trade sale to
QUALCOMM
Transit application 2013: trade sale to Apple
Multi-platform productivity solution 2013: trade sale to Sequoia
Mobile advertising 2014: trade sale to Opera Software
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1st Stage: Equity is the most valuable asset you have.
Don't run for the big check -‐ at least in the begining.
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Keep your costs low: office, travel, opex, etc. a lot is for free out there or share from friends
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Always ask for advise -‐ not for money. (money will come if advisor is interested)
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When taking investors on Board, let them pay with connecSon, operaSons, biz dev, sales, markeSng...
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2nd Stage: Be carefull … when taking on financial investors
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Prefer more parSes, at least two parSes from start. (Google took SeqCap & KPCB)
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Aeer first round always seek new investors. Don't get depended on your current investors.
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You will be in fundraising mode allways & at all Smes Never stop, Never give up.
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Consider secondaries whenever possible. Exit for early investors to protect your own equity.
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3rd Stage: Think about Exit as a precausion
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Opportunity for Exit can come every day, be prepared Have made up your mind -‐ 'No' is always an opSon.
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Consider: Early Exit: lower price, big stake vs. Late Exit: higher price, small stake
Opportunity for New Venture is in Early Exit.
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Stay in driver seat during Exit process – it will consume ressources but is worth while.
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Breakup could happen – so be prepared.
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Have enough runSme for your exit road.
T-‐Venture Por`olio contains currently 100 companies. Two Funds managed for Deutsche Telekom AG
Thomas Grota – Investment Director T-Venture Holding GmbH – @thomasgr