I love the start-up world. I love working with founders and young companies. I love the excitement of working on business ideas that are new and different. I love seeing the success that often comes from this hard work. I’ve never before in my professional life seen a time of such innovation and creativity. At Foundry we see more business plans now than we ever have. And what’s more, more of those business plans are really interesting (and fundable). It goes without saying that I love the business of venture capital. I love helping entrepreneurs work on their ideas. And I love helping companies figure out how to become as successful as possible. I love the challenge of trying to…
Category
Startups
When is your start-up no longer a start-up?
A few days ago I received an email asking me if I had a “rule of thumb for determining when a start-up can no longer be considered a start-up”. The sender proposed a few potential answers but I thought this one might be a good one to put out there for feedback from readers. His suggestions were: *Two consecutive quarters of positive free cash flow?*Drop pooled benefits company like Administaff for in-house benefits administration?*Anything > C round, seeking to lever w/ mezz debt or file S-1?*Name of company becomes a verb in our lexicon?*Receive gov’t stimulus funding?*Oprah uses your product? For a long time I’ve asked entrepreneurs at what point their company no longer felt like it was a start-up….