entrepreneur

Finding harmony between advice and self-interest

Derek Pilling, Leave a comment

advice and self-interestI just wrapped one of those calls where I had the opportunity to give advice to an entrepreneur that runs counter to my short-term interests. In this case, it is a story of a first-time entrepreneur who has built a $7 million revenue business and is wrestling with the decision whether to take growth capital or sell the business. He owns the vast majority of the company and he has a fair offer from a strategic buyer that emerged during the course of his exploring financing alternatives.

After meeting yesterday (our third meeting or so), I committed to outlining how a growth equity investor would structure an investment transaction for his business.

Finding harmony between advice and self-interest

After the honeymoon

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Earlier this week, I participated in a panel discussion organized by Holland & Hart, a Denver-based law firm that has a strong practice area working with entrepreneurial growth-stage businesses. The topic of the panel was “After the Honeymoon”, focusing on investor/entrepreneur relationship dynamics in the critical period following the closing of an investment or acquisition transaction. Also on the panel with me were Matt Hicks of Excellere Partners and Flint Seaton, CFO of Accellos, an Accel-KKR backed business.

After the honeymoon

What is this “momentum” of which you speak?

Derek Pilling, , , 1 Comment

A meeting with an entrepreneur last Friday reminded me of the most frustrating and overused feedback entrepreneurs receive from VCs:
Talk to me when you have “momentum”; or

I need to see some “traction” first.
With more and more VCs looking to make later stage investments, entrepreneurs are receiving this feedback more than ever. You can understand why an entrepreneur might find this feedback frustrating. If they had massive traction, they probably wouldn’t need VC money, or if they did, the deal should be priced at a much higher valuation. That said, the real issue with this feedback is that it triggers a conversation about the definition of momentum. Entrepreneurs complain (rightly so I might add) that the VC definition of momentum comes in the following forms: 1) VC defines momentum by saying; “I know it when I…

What is this “momentum” of which you speak?