Greek Complexity

China’s second biggest e-store files for US IPO, aims to raise up to $1.5 billion

Snip: "After years of speculation, one of China’s top e-stores, JD, has filed to list publicly in the US. According to JD’s filing with the SEC, it’s aiming to raise up to $1.5 billion with its US IPO."

More: http://ift.tt/1bBFmJK

This is an auto-generated post from my reading list.

The New Way to Love Food

Snip: "As in romance, a solid relationship with food may benefit from time apart. The "every-other-day diet" involves one day of eating whatever you want, followed by a day of eating very little. Of this year's eating fads, intermittent fasting stands out as one less ridiculous than it might sound."

More: http://ift.tt/1g4isCh

This is an auto-generated post from my reading list.

The modern phenomenon of nonsense jobs

Snip: "In 1930, John Maynard Keynes predicted that, by century's end, technology would have advanced sufficiently that countries like Britain or the United States would have achieved a 15-hour working week. There's every reason to believe he was right. In technological terms, we are quite capable of this."

More: http://ift.tt/14fyRyf

This is an auto-generated post from my reading list.

Resolving the contradictions between web services, clouds, and open source

Snip: "Predicting trends in computer technology is an easy way to get into trouble, but two developments have been hyped so much over the past decade that there's little risk in jumping on their bandwagons: free software and cloud computing. What's odd is that both are so beloved of crystal-gazers, because on the surface they seem incompatible. The first trend promises freedom, the second convenience."

More: http://ift.tt/1kqgnT4

This is an auto-generated post from my reading list.

How Real-Time Bidding Will Influence The 2016 Election — And Change Don Draper's Job

Snip: "Real-time bidding (RTB), a method of selling and buying online display advertising in real time, is one of the fastest growing areas of digital marketing. According to the International Data Corporation, worldwide real-time bidding-based spending is expected to reach $20.8 billion in 2017 — which is a big jump from the $3.2 billion spent in 2013. Jeff Green recently talked to us about how programmatic buying and RTB are influencing the industry, from the 2016 elections to print ads — and how Don Draper's job is about to change."

More: http://ift.tt/1hmMv5o

This is an auto-generated post from my reading list.

Goodnight. Sleep Clean.

Snip: "SLEEP seems like a perfectly fine waste of time. Why would our bodies evolve to spend close to one-third of our lives completely out of it, when we could instead be doing something useful or exciting? Something that would, as an added bonus, be less likely to get us killed back when we were sleeping on the savanna?"

More: http://ift.tt/1h9lr9K

This is an auto-generated post from my reading list.

When a founder goes through multiple funding rounds and ends up with a very reduced stake in the company with little say in board matters, is it better for him to quit at that point or continue working with the company?

It is important to remember that even late-stage investors are looking to invest in the entrepreneur as much as the company. It is the entrepreneur who decides (or at least, should decide) when and how to run one’s fund-raising process. That means deciding the amount to be raised, valuation, identity of the investor, etc. Certainly one’s existing investors will have views on each of these but the entrepreneur should be the face of the company when talking to investors.

If you accept all of this, then it should be clear that late-stage investors will not want the entrepreneur to take the back seat when it comes to making decisions post-investment. Really the only reason for an entrepreneur to find himself side-lined is sub-par performance — and if that does happen, your shareholding has nothing to do with it.

This being said, this is ultimately a personal decision. If it turns out that you do not feel comfortable answering to several investors or if starting another venture from scratch feels more exciting than guiding your current venture further forward, you can certainly consider handing over the reins to someone else. This is not that unusual a decision. However, be aware that, for better or for worse, the future value of your shareholding depends on someone else’s performance from that point on.

---

This is a cross-post of my latest column answering entrepreneurs' questions for Yourstory.com.

Are there any commonly accepted benchmarks for the ROI expected on investments and exit period for their investments?

Very broadly speaking, investors expect 3-4x of invested capital within three years and more than that for any longer period as pretty much the minimum for a given investment.

Early-stage investors are prepared for several of their investments to fail so their return criteria may are likely to be considerably higher. This also means that the required return on the entire fund is going to be lower than the required return from any one investment.

Note again that these are very broad-brush statements that do not apply to all investors.

Exit period depends on the type of investor and the stage of your company. If you are a 10-year- old company raising money from late-stage investors, don’t expect that they are looking to invest for a further 10 years.

---

This is a cross-post of my latest column answering entrepreneurs' questions for Yourstory.com.

Across the Country in a Week

Snip: Michael Patterson started biking for fun and exercise in his 40s and began entering races in his early 60s. Having heard for many years about the 3,000-mile Race Across America—known as the ultimate cycling endurance challenge—he decided that going after the record for the 70-plus age group "would be a reason to look forward to turning 70."

More: http://ift.tt/1iL0l1V

This is an auto-generated post from my reading list.

What are the typical challenges when one gets funding from multiple VC’s?

That’s quite a perceptive question. I believe that it always pays to understand the perspectives of one’s counter-parties, whether they be investors, customers, employees or anyone else. If you do this, you understand both the areas of congruence for you and your counter-party as well as potential pitfalls.

Here are some things to watch out for on the investor front:

• It is not very common to have many VCs early in the game. Companies tend to acquire multiple investors only after two or three rounds of funding. This means that your relationship with your earliest investor may be different from your relationship with your later investors. This doesn’t have to be a challenge in and of itself — just make sure that you build trust with all of your investors, disclose all necessary information to everyone equally and don’t play favourites (even if you do have a favourite).
• Ensure that you have a good idea of each investor’s desired time horizon for an exit while you consider which investors to raise money from. Some investors (possibly your earliest investors) may be looking to exit sooner than others. If you know this in advance, you can manage the situation appropriately, e.g., by finding a buyer for one investor’s shares instead of selling the whole company.
• Similarly ensure that everyone is reasonably aligned on exit price. You don’t want to be in a situation where you have an offer on the table that some investors jump at while others say, hell no. Even if one group of shareholders has the legal right to overrule another group, this is not a terribly fun situation to be in. A collaborative approach is much better. You can maintain alignment over time by initiating discussions on price expectations at reasonable intervals.
• Sometimes two or more investors will want to be heavily involved with your company — and may have differing opinions on key issues. It is your job as the entrepreneur to navigate this delicately and ensure that your company isn’t derailed by disagreements or decision paralysis.
• Investors often have varying views on the legal rights and protections they may need. Unfortunately, maintaining a simple, aligned set of rights comes down to who has greater bargaining power. If you are a super-star entrepreneur running a high-flying company, you may be able to convince all investors to agree to a basic set of protections. If you are not in this fortunate situation, your most paranoid investor may drive the agenda and all your other investors may (quite reasonably) ask that the same protections apply to them too.

---

This is a cross-post of my latest column answering entrepreneurs' questions for Yourstory.com.