On Wednesday, March 25, 2020 I delivered the webinar Startup Survival Strategy in the Coronavirus Era. This session was created just at the start of the Coronavirus pandemic. Topics covered include: Setting up an early warning system Understanding your KPIs and the connection to your cash flow Taking decisive action to protect your company Common […]
The Casper IPO – Investor Leverage, The Hit To Employee Morale and The Tough Road Ahead
I recently wrote a post about the negative impact of the Casper IPO on investor sentiment in the Direct-To-Consumer (“DTC”) space. Anytime a company in a sector goes public at a valuation that is less than half the valuation of its last round, it’s going to ripple through the rest of the ecosystem. But there […]
Learning From the Casper IPO – Investor Sentiment Shifts Fast
In the world of startups and venture capital, industries move in and out of favor very fast. It doesn’t take much for an industry that’s been attracting huge amounts of investor attention and capital to suddenly lose its shine. We are seeing this happen right now in the direct-to-consumer (DTC) space. Casper recently filed for […]
Gross Margin Is Sexy Again
What do WeWork, Uber and Blue Apron all have in common? Two things actually. First, their investors have taken a beating in the past year. WeWork just pulled it’s IPO, and might become the fastest company to ever fall from a $47 billion valuation to zero. Uber, which went public in May at $45 a […]
Build Your Pricing Strategy On The Foundation of Testing and Iteration
Digiday published an interesting piece yesterday on the subscription pricing strategy of the Daily Beast. For those that don’t know, the Daily Beast is a news and opinion site owned by IAC that was originally founded by Tina Brown in 2008. It has publicly struggled to find a sustainable business model over the years. When […]
Pulling Back The Curtain on the Softbank Vision Fund
If you’re interested in the inner workings of the venture capital industry, paying attention to the proposed WeWork IPO is a great place to start. Last week I wrote about the IPO in terms of some of the problems on the company side. But Softbank Capital, WeWork’s largest investor by far, deserves scrutiny here as […]
