Peter Urban’s Post

Carta, a Silicon Valley startup, is reportedly working on a secondary sale that would value the company at $2 billion. This is a significant drop from its previous valuation of $7.4 billion in 2021 and $8.5 billion in 2022. Key takeaways: Carta's initial goal was to become the primary platform for all private stock transactions, but it has faced challenges in different business lines and potential data privacy issues. The company has also been embroiled in controversies surrounding its toxic work culture and lawsuits from former employees. With its current focus on its cap table management software, Carta generated $380 million in revenue in 2023 but also lost $65 million. Counter arguments: Some argue that Carta has mashed together various businesses and inflated its valuation, making the $2 billion valuation more realistic for its operations. The company has also faced competition from bigger players as its early customers outgrow its services and move on to larger banks for similar services. #venturecapital #vc #venture #startups

Latest 'In the Market' column for Reuters zeroes in on the story of one startup, Tractiv, as it tries to make it in a world where interest rates are expected to be higher-for-longer. Read how the Hollywood strike threw a spanner in the works. Thanks to Drew Orsinger, Hans Morris, Mark Almeida and others for speaking with me for this story. https://lnkd.in/eHk7CWAg

Hey Startups! Dive into Cypher Insights 📘: Unraveling the accounting intricacies behind modern marketplaces. Efficient on the front, but complex behind the scenes! 🛒💡 Cypher (formerly PROKONECT) - https://lnkd.in/eFzN-HkM

"Unicorns Ruled for a Decade. Tech Needs a New Beast. The era of obsessing over lofty valuations needs to end. It’s time to refocus on revenue." - Parmy Olson in Bloomberg At #LondonTechWeek earlier this week, Phoenix Court and Dealroom.co published new insights about startup fundamentals in Europe and beyond. In the UK alone, 118 startups are bringing in more than $100 million in revenue. 785 do more than $25 million in revenues. Dealroom's mission is to help unleash the potential of startup ecosytems with intelligence. Revenue data is a key element of this. At Dealroom.co we now cover financial regulatory data on 80% of the European startup ecosystem. Outside Europe, we are also making strides although the financial disclosure is more limited. We believe this is the start of a new era with much more focus on fundamentals. This matters hugely not only for investors, but also for employees and all stakeholders.

In a recent article from Forbes Advisor - “Ranked: The Best States To Start a Business In 2024”, Ohio was ranked one of the best states to start a business in 2024 and as our startup ecosystem in Central Ohio continues to grow and scale, we understand why. If you have ever wanted to start a business in tech or even have an idea for using innovative technology but just don’t know where to start, hit the link below, fill out the get started form, and let’s talk about it. https://bit.ly/3Udd9bX

Thanks to all the accomplished leaders who reached out to take me up on my challenge to debate at Collision Conf. Amazing to see all the passion on both sides of the topic. It was a tough decision but I have found the formidable opponent I was seeking in Alon Zieve, whom we are flying in from #Israel for the debate. Alon has had an incredible career at the highest ranks of startups, investment media, and even marketplaces. Over the last 15 years he has had significant stints in the C-suites of Bringg, a unicorn in the logistics industry, Seeking Alpha, the world’s largest investing community, and Natural Intelligence, a multi-vertical marketplace comparison platform with half a billion in revenues. One thing that Alon and I can agree on is that founders should have a way to reduce their highly concentrated exposure to their own startup before the company itself achieves an exit. However Alon does not believe that this can or should be achieved by allowing private shares to be sold more freely. Rather, his new startup Aption seeks to provide founders and early employees with the ability to contribute their shares to, and in turn take a stake in, a broader diversified pool of shares created by the contributions of other founders. While this approach does not address the need for near-term liquidity, it could reduce the founder’s personal financial risk by allowing them to diversify away from their own startup (and theoretically get distributions over time as companies in the pool achieve exits). So, each of Alon and I have a deeply vested interest in our respective sides of the debate. Hiive benefits from allowing people to sell their shares, and Aption represents an alternative to trading that at least enables employees to diversify.  While we will not be on stage to debate each other’s business models, I am curious to hear what people think of the Aption’s approach. Alon, see you Wednesday. And may the best founder win. #liquidity #secondarymarket #privatemarket #preipo #stockoptions

"Unicorns Ruled for a Decade. Tech Needs a New Beast. The era of obsessing over lofty valuations needs to end. It’s time to refocus on revenue." - Parmy Olson in Bloomberg At #LondonTechWeek earlier this week, Phoenix Court and Dealroom.co published new insights about startup fundamentals in Europe and beyond. In the UK alone, 118 startups are bringing in more than $100 million in revenue! 785 do more than $25 million in revenues. One of the key things we discovered is also that the number of new startups with $100M+ revenues and the number of new unicorns moved pretty much in synchronous in recent years, apart 2021 when valuations went nuts! This new research marks a further step in Dealroom's mission to help unleash the potential of startup ecosystems with intelligence. At Dealroom.co we now cover financial regulatory data on 80% of the European startup ecosystem. Outside Europe, we are also making strides, although the financial disclosers are more limited. We believe this is the start of a new era with much more focus on fundamentals. This matters hugely not only for investors but also for employees and all stakeholders. #venturecapital #unicorns #revenues

Exciting learnings from Bryce Kaiser⚡at City Innovations | A Venture Studio. Bryce sits down with Infrastructure Week to discuss his team's groundbreaking trade finance product and how they're leveraging revenue-based repayments to empower their startup partners. The new offering clears a path to provide their customers with upfront support - go to market guidance, digital services - and get paid back over time with customer revenues. At a time when more about more vendors are providing creative credit or payment terms, City Innovations is quickly building a playbook. #TradeFinance #Innovation #StartupSupport

Keeping your business model simple is intelligent and holds good, not only for startups but also for large businesses. Check out this great article from TechCrunch for sagely wisdom on the benefits of simplicity for both sellers and buyers in various markets. #businessmodeling #simplicity #startup #techcrunch

Founders often hear the dreaded phrase "We need to see some traction before we can invest" all too often. Traction almost always means revenue - but mainly as a proxy for product-market fit (PMF). Product-Market fit means that have validated that your startup hypothesis holds true in the real world and that people will consistently use what you've built and (preferably!) pay you for it. But not all PMFs are created equal. In the comments there's a brilliant article that articulates the 3 PMF archetypes Sequoia Capital talk about. Definitely worth a read!