'It was 20 years ago today' the Beatles famously sang on Sergeant Pepper in 1967. Well, more than half a century later I'm reminiscing and musing about 1999, 20 years ago...Read More
Valuing a tech startup is one of those ‘how long is a piece of string‘ questions (which is no help at all), but it’s still an important factor in trying to raise money for your early stage venture… Naturally, both sides will look at valuation in opposite ways. The plucky founder will want to give...Read More
In the recent Business News corporate finance report for calendar year 2018, I added up over $9.58B worth of equity capital raisings for WA companies, across 548 deals. That’s $17M+ per deal. And this does not count another $41B+ in M&A (merger and acquisition) activity. How much of the capital raising money went to early...Read More
I was speaking with an American CEO a few years ago, just after he had been in Perth a few months. “What’s the biggest difference between doing business in the States and here?” I asked him. “You guys sure love your coffee meetings,” he remarked, “Everyone just rings me up or emails and says ‘Let’s...Read More
The romance of cycling into a co working space, armed with a skinny latte, tight jeans and hipster looks can draw many to the promise of giving a startup a go. It could have been precipitated by being chucked out of that corporate job you always hated. Maybe you’ve struggled with an itch you just...Read More
Over the break I read Eddie Izzard’s excellent ‘Believe Me, a memoir of love, death and jazz chickens‘. Bill Gates, of all people, had recommended it as a top read, and I thought ‘now why would a serious bloke like Mr Gates be into the autobiography of an English cross-dressing comedian?’ Then I reached page...Read More
An oft-heard refrain these days is a lament “Everything’s changing so fast!” and it would be easy to sign up to this notion. Look how we totally rely on our smartphones these days, turning to them an average of 150 times a day. It makes one wonder what we did for entertainment, news and chat...Read More
Reverse psychology can be powerful. Be kind when friends stuff up and they’ll be shamed into doing better next time. Tell a family member “I’m fine!” through gritted teeth when clearing up and they’ll be honour bound to help. And so it goes with early stage (seed) capital raisings for startups. The best advice I was...Read More
This week it was revealed that local tech business, HealthEngine, had raised $26 million from global venture capitalist Sequoia Capital. This is notable for a few reasons: it’s the largest private sector investment in a local tech startup the first such investment from this Silicon Valley VC in Western Australia, and their second in Australia...Read More
Legend has it the wife of King Louis XVI of France, Marie Antionette, uttered the words “let them eat cake” on hearing the starving peasants were in revolt against bread shortages. We’re talking late 18th century, and although the Queen would have probably said the words in French (something like ‘Qu’ils mangent de la brioche‘)...Read More
