Measurement

The path from inception to IPO is quite a challenge for new startup founders. For those that want to raise enough capital to build and scale their companies, they are asking themselves: what are the relevant benchmarks and performance metrics that matter to investors in this new market environment? Four charts from the OpenCloud 2023 report that Battery Ventures published last month might help. Something to keep in mind while studying these charts: · There are over a thousand software unicorns but only 74 public software companies with a $1b market cap or more. · Only 95 went public with a $1b market cap or more in the last ten years. · Generating a $1b in ARR before going public will soon replace the old standard of $100m. · From early to growth-stage, you must scale as always but much more efficiently.

Vision seeds the start, Ingenuity sets them apart, Startup life is an art.

Do you ever wonder what a venture fund portfolio looks like? Here is a chart of a made-up portfolio. Assuming it's a $100m fund, $80m was deployed into 15 early-stage startups aiming for approximately 15% ownership in each. This would be a disciplined, concentrated approach. At year 5, it's in the middle of its 10-year life with 9 write-ups but 6 write-offs. No realizations yet but it's on the path to returning the fund. We'll know for sure by year 10.