Early Stage Investments in New Technology Based Firms

Early Stage Investments in New Technology Based Firms
Author: Holger Ludewig
Publisher: diplom.de
Total Pages: 192
Release: 1999-01-04
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 383241214X

Inhaltsangabe:Abstract: In recent years the issue of early stage investment in new technology based firms has drawn considerable attention. Its relevance emerges from the rise of high technology industries in the global economy. As competition in established, mature industries all over the world is ever increasing, the importance of keeping up and increasing the speed of innovation to ensure competitiveness of companies and national wealth is widely recognized. Innovation may concern products or processes. It refers to the development of new proprietary knowledge, i. e. technology, which is embodied in marketable products or services. In as far as the added private knowledge increases the utility of a product to the customers, it adds value. Unless the new features of a product are matched by competitors, a company may earn innovation rents. Thus proprietary knowledge attained through innovation is an important source of strategic advantage. In a competitive, dynamic market, however innovation rents are not sustainable. Competitors will attempt to match and exceed the innovation advantage. This may be achieved by imitation or by adding other or more innovative features. Whereas following the product life cycle model initial growth may be steep and rents may be high for the first mover, imitators competing on price and other rivals competing on innovations, may inflate the monopolistic power of the proprietary knowledge. Striving to maintain and increase market shares and profitability, companies thus have a strong incentive to keep innovating. For new technology-based firms the importance of proprietary knowledge is particularly pronounced. These start-ups operate in a hostile competitive environment, characterized by high uncertainty, offering the potential for rapid growth and high profits on the upside, but also the substantial threat of incurring deep losses on the downside. Whereas large companies generally possess a diversified product portfolio and a host of strategic assets, small companies will need to compete on a single new product or service and the determination of its management team. Politicians, worried by high unemployment and budget deficits, lately fell in love with the high-technology start-ups for their ability to create jobs and ensure future tax revenues. New technology-based firms are drivers of structural change in the economy in that they are among the first to enter new high growth potential industries. For [...]

How Venture Capital Works

How Venture Capital Works
Author: Phillip Ryan
Publisher: The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc
Total Pages: 82
Release: 2012-07-01
Genre: Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN: 1448867959

Explanations to the inner workings of one of the least understood, but arguably most important, areas of business finance is offered to readers in this engaging volume: venture capital. Venture capitalists provide necessary investment to seed (or startup) companies, but the startup is only the beginning, there is much more to be explored. These savvy investors help guide young entrepreneurs, who likely have little experience, to turn their businesses into the Googles, Facebooks, and Groupons of the world. This book explains the often-complex methods venture capitalists use to value companies and to get the most return on their investments, or ROI. This book is a must-have for any reader interested in the business world.

Why Startups Fail

Why Startups Fail
Author: Tom Eisenmann
Publisher: Currency
Total Pages: 368
Release: 2021-03-30
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0593137035

If you want your startup to succeed, you need to understand why startups fail. “Whether you’re a first-time founder or looking to bring innovation into a corporate environment, Why Startups Fail is essential reading.”—Eric Ries, founder and CEO, LTSE, and New York Times bestselling author of The Lean Startup and The Startup Way Why do startups fail? That question caught Harvard Business School professor Tom Eisenmann by surprise when he realized he couldn’t answer it. So he launched a multiyear research project to find out. In Why Startups Fail, Eisenmann reveals his findings: six distinct patterns that account for the vast majority of startup failures. • Bad Bedfellows. Startup success is thought to rest largely on the founder’s talents and instincts. But the wrong team, investors, or partners can sink a venture just as quickly. • False Starts. In following the oft-cited advice to “fail fast” and to “launch before you’re ready,” founders risk wasting time and capital on the wrong solutions. • False Promises. Success with early adopters can be misleading and give founders unwarranted confidence to expand. • Speed Traps. Despite the pressure to “get big fast,” hypergrowth can spell disaster for even the most promising ventures. • Help Wanted. Rapidly scaling startups need lots of capital and talent, but they can make mistakes that leave them suddenly in short supply of both. • Cascading Miracles. Silicon Valley exhorts entrepreneurs to dream big. But the bigger the vision, the more things that can go wrong. Drawing on fascinating stories of ventures that failed to fulfill their early promise—from a home-furnishings retailer to a concierge dog-walking service, from a dating app to the inventor of a sophisticated social robot, from a fashion brand to a startup deploying a vast network of charging stations for electric vehicles—Eisenmann offers frameworks for detecting when a venture is vulnerable to these patterns, along with a wealth of strategies and tactics for avoiding them. A must-read for founders at any stage of their entrepreneurial journey, Why Startups Fail is not merely a guide to preventing failure but also a roadmap charting the path to startup success.

Small Firm Growth

Small Firm Growth
Author: Per Davidsson
Publisher: Now Publishers Inc
Total Pages: 111
Release: 2010
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1601983565

Small Firm Growth comprehensively reviews the empirical literature on small firm growth to highlight and integrate what is known about this phenomenon and take stock of what past experiences of researching this area implies for how the phenomenon can or should be studied in future research.

Time Horizons and Technology Investments

Time Horizons and Technology Investments
Author: National Academy of Engineering
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 119
Release: 1992-02-01
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0309046475

It is frequently argued that U.S. corporations have shorter time horizons for planning and investment than their Japanese and German competitors. This argument, though widely accepted in studies of U.S. competitiveness, has rarely been examined in depth. Time Horizons and Technology Investments explores the evidence that some U.S. corporations consistently select projects biased toward short-term return and addresses factors influencing the time-related preferences of U.S. corporate managers in selecting projects for investment. It makes recommendations to policymakers and managers about policies to mitigate negative external influences and about strategies to remove internal biases toward noncompetitive decisions.

Secrets of Sand Hill Road

Secrets of Sand Hill Road
Author: Scott Kupor
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 322
Release: 2019-06-04
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0593083598

A Wall Street Journal Bestseller! What are venture capitalists saying about your startup behind closed doors? And what can you do to influence that conversation? If Silicon Valley is the greatest wealth-generating machine in the world, Sand Hill Road is its humming engine. That's where you'll find the biggest names in venture capital, including famed VC firm Andreessen Horowitz, where lawyer-turned-entrepreneur-turned-VC Scott Kupor serves as managing partner. Whether you're trying to get a new company off the ground or scale an existing business to the next level, you need to understand how VCs think. In Secrets of Sand Hill Road, Kupor explains exactly how VCs decide where and how much to invest, and how entrepreneurs can get the best possible deal and make the most of their relationships with VCs. Kupor explains, for instance: • Why most VCs typically invest in only one startup in a given business category. • Why the skill you need most when raising venture capital is the ability to tell a compelling story. • How to handle a "down round," when startups have to raise funds at a lower valuation than in the previous round. • What to do when VCs get too entangled in the day-to-day operations of the business. • Why you need to build relationships with potential acquirers long before you decide to sell. Filled with Kupor's firsthand experiences, insider advice, and practical takeaways, Secrets of Sand Hill Road is the guide every entrepreneur needs to turn their startup into the next unicorn.

The AgeTech Revolution

The AgeTech Revolution
Author: Keren Etkin
Publisher:
Total Pages: 218
Release: 2021-12-20
Genre:
ISBN: 9781637307069

Have you ever thought about what your life may be like as you grow older, and what technology will be available to you at that time? In The AgeTech Revolution, Keren Etkin takes you on a journey to explore what the intersection of tech and aging looks like today. This book explores the changing face of aging in the 21st century, through the lens of the fast-paced digital transformation our society is going through. It goes into challenges of aging that are currently being tackled by technology - using the real-life stories of tech entrepreneurs and older adults. Etkin also provides a glimpse into the future, and what agetech could be like five, ten, fifteen years down the road. We have a unique, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to impact the experience of living as an older adult in this world, using technology. The AgeTech Revolution provides us with the data and perspective necessary to change our tech landscape and to create a world that is more inclusive and supportive of older adults.

Venture Deals

Venture Deals
Author: Brad Feld
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 245
Release: 2011-07-05
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1118118642

An engaging guide to excelling in today's venture capital arena Beginning in 2005, Brad Feld and Jason Mendelson, managing directors at Foundry Group, wrote a long series of blog posts describing all the parts of a typical venture capital Term Sheet: a document which outlines key financial and other terms of a proposed investment. Since this time, they've seen the series used as the basis for a number of college courses, and have been thanked by thousands of people who have used the information to gain a better understanding of the venture capital field. Drawn from the past work Feld and Mendelson have written about in their blog and augmented with newer material, Venture Capital Financings puts this discipline in perspective and lays out the strategies that allow entrepreneurs to excel in their start-up companies. Page by page, this book discusses all facets of the venture capital fundraising process. Along the way, Feld and Mendelson touch on everything from how valuations are set to what externalities venture capitalists face that factor into entrepreneurs' businesses. Includes a breakdown analysis of the mechanics of a Term Sheet and the tactics needed to negotiate Details the different stages of the venture capital process, from starting a venture and seeing it through to the later stages Explores the entire venture capital ecosystem including those who invest in venture capitalist Contain standard documents that are used in these transactions Written by two highly regarded experts in the world of venture capital The venture capital arena is a complex and competitive place, but with this book as your guide, you'll discover what it takes to make your way through it.

The Founder's Dilemmas

The Founder's Dilemmas
Author: Noam Wasserman
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 490
Release: 2013-04
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0691158304

The Founder's Dilemmas examines how early decisions by entrepreneurs can make or break a startup and its team. Drawing on a decade of research, including quantitative data on almost ten thousand founders as well as inside stories of founders like Evan Williams of Twitter and Tim Westergren of Pandora, Noam Wasserman reveals the common pitfalls founders face and how to avoid them.

The Venture Capital Cycle

The Venture Capital Cycle
Author: Paul Alan Gompers
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 592
Release: 2004
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9780262072557

An analysis of the venture capital process, from fund-raising through investing to exiting investments; a new edition with major revisions and six new chapters that reflect the latest research.