Anand Sanwal
@asanwal
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Please buy a subscription to @cbinsights . I owe people money.
New York, NY
Joined September 2008
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On April 17, 2017, my dad passed away
For the last 13 months, I worked
@CBinsights
and also ran his chemical manufacturing biz in India
It was acquired on June 1
Lessons, thank yous and observations here
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Guy in white shorts = VC-backed startup
Guy in black shorts = bootstrapped, revenue-funded startup
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Earlier today, I declined a $100M offer to acquire
@CBinsights
1. See how it unfolded in these screenshots
2. A great reminder to never check or respond to Twitter DMs again
cc: CBI board, investors & team
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Pro tip: If you're a startup raising right now, don't emphasize your 4 day work week
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Your tweets did it.
You saved the US economy.
Great job guys.
America owes you.
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Airtable is probably worth less than the total equity funding it has raised
I'm not talking about the $11.7B valuation it raised at in December 2021
I'm talking about it being worth less than the ~$1.4B+ in financing it has raised
Here's the math/data
Airtable is on track for…
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“Vacation with kids is often not vacation at all”
- Aristotle
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Breaking news: Successful startup has intense work environment. Is not for everyone.
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Thinking of changing my Twitter bio to include:
Stripe alum
YC founder
Stanford grad
Thiel Fellow
5 successful exits
What else should I add to make me look smart & accomplished?
Needn’t be true as people won’t check
Lmk
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What's the most unsexy, "boring" business you've ever seen that makes a crap ton of money?
(riches in niches)
What are the best TV shows, movies, documentaries about business, technology, markets, specific company histories?
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1/ Some signs to look for that suggest your startup equity won't be worth shit
(note: there are probably exceptions but generally, these will steer you right)
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PSA: 9.9 of 10 times, that big company person who says they want to work at a startup really doesn't.
They think they do. They want to think they could.
But they don't. And they can't.
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All VC websites say they partner with exceptional founders
There is a large untapped opportunity for a VC to come along that partners with average and perhaps mediocre founders
Who will own this space? 🤔
#blueocean
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Reference checks are not taken seriously enough
A couple of years ago, I got religion on them
Here are 8 reference call questions that get past BS and really help understand a candidate
🧵
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Guy in white shorts = VC-backed startup
Guy in black shorts = bootstrapped, revenue-funded startup
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New startup model to build $10-25M revenue cos
Here’s the constraints
- never have >50 on the team
- everyone takes profit distributions (eventually)
- no outside capital
- product quality + automation to keep < 50
Anyone building cos w/ headcount constraint?
What ya think?
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Want to write great copy?
Study this
"1999 Toyota Corolla - Fine AF"
Absolute masterclass
Just read it
Thank me later
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When someone's thought leadership volume increases suddenly, they're looking for a new job
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$170M in revenue
Awesome
“They bootstrapped and turned down offers of VC funding. Before the sale, Park and Marino owned the vast majority of the biz, with the only other stockholders being employees to whom they had given equity grants”
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From the "it ain't talking shit if you can back it up" school of living is this 2016 letter from TopTal CEO to potential investors
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Lord, give me the confidence of a founder who just raised a $2m seed round from a tier 2 VC
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Prediction: In 3 years, this is what air travel will look like due to the Apple Vision Pro
Agree or disagree?
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Ok - doing some market research for my next startup
How fast do you really need your groceries?
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I had no idea VCs were also experts about coronavirus and pandemics
What don't these guys know?
#impressive
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Dear VCs - here's an example of a great outreach email from a junior VC
Note: this intern will go far
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To: My fellow data/info-biz nerds
This is a great summary and another reason why proprietary quantitative or qualitative data & insights are going to be so powerful in this generative AI / LLM future
h/t
@joeobrien513
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Alright, some napkin math analysis that suggests
@flexport
's current valuation might actually be 80+% lower
Yup - not the $8 billion valuation it last raised at in 2022
But more on the order of $1.41 to $1.58 billion
Ouch … but why?
It’s a combo of the company being priced…
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A tweet is currently selling for $267k
What the f^ck is happening?!!!!!
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VC on Twitter: "Who are the most promising early-stage companies in __________?"
VC to their LPs: "We have unrivaled proprietary dealflow"
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We bootstrapped
@cbinsights
by first building a totally different business
It involved hedge funds, too big too fail banks and $100,000 PDFs
For nerds interested in data and information services businesses, you might enjoy this
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VC is a crazy game
"When founders get diluted below double-digit ownership, they begin to see themselves as employees, not owners and that is bad for the company, the team & investors. For some founders, they start to feel that way at below 20% or 15%"
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Still amazed at how many deal makers (VCs, M&A folks, corporate VCs) don't do double opt-in intros
They should teach you this in day 1 of dealmaking school
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Your startup has more than 5 people
Here's 18 things you can do in 2022 to screw it up
Want your startup to end 2022 weaker than when you started?
Follow these tips
🧵 (ya, I know)
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Lol at all the VCs who did undisciplined deals with crazy valuations now lecturing startups about discipline
(Note: not talking about any VCs I personally know. Just the other ones)
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When Sam Altman is less busy, he should write a book on negotiating
Absolute assassin as a deal maker
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What are your top 5 podcasts?
- MFM
- All-In
- People v Algorithms
- Hard Fork
- Limited Supply
- Mktg Against the Grain
- Colin & Samir
- Flagrant (only on YT)
That's actually 8
Who do you like?
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Unpopular opinion
I think founders speaking at / keynoting conferences is generally a huge waste of time
Good for ego but branding/biz dev value is meh
Used to speak at lots of events and should have just spent that time generating content which pays dividends forever
WDYT?
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“People rarely see the small steps when they’re looking for enormous outcomes, but deserving enormous outcomes is mostly the result of a series of small steps that culminate into something visible.“
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So capital-as-a-weapon doesn't work in:
- startups
- politics
Any other domains?
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How much customer interest founders expect they'll get from the TechCrunch article on their $2.5M seed round
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2018 startup founder’s toolkit
1. Must have read Radical Candor
2. Swear by intermittent fasting
3. Be doing something in AI
What’d I miss?
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Would this be illegal?
1. Organize a few hundred thousand folks to simultaneously cancel their subscriptions to a Netflix, Disney, etc
2. Short the stock
I know it's not easy to do but curious if illegal?
Don't you dare reply to this saying it's a perfect use case for a DAO
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Is there a Glassdoor for tech cos to evaluate and see ratings of advisors/service providers like lawyers, bankers, accountants?
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Why do kids learn about sedimentary vs igneous vs metamorphic rocks in school?
Genuinely curious the value school systems believe this type of information provides
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When a founder shares revenue w/ media, here's how to decode:
"7 figures of revenue"
>>> revenue is $980k
"millions in revenue"
>>> revenue is $2 million
"tens of millions in revenue"
>>> revenue is $10.05M
"close year with $100M ARR"
>>> ARR is $70 million
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Robinhood got 600k signups (as of yday) for their checking/savings aka cash management account
This was fantastic marketing
They had to change the copy today but only after they’d derived most of the value from the launch
Well played by their team
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7/ Early stage founders (Seed/Series A) lecturing others on how to build a business vs actually talking about their business
Personal brand building founders trying to be 'gurus' are almost always a total dumpster fire
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So good. Someone sent a cover letter in the format of our newsletter.
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"What makes great products is not process. It's content."
1 minute of wisdom by Steve Jobs
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When people at big co say
"I'm on a small team. It's like working in a startup inside a large organization"
I'm like
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Periodic reminder that when folks say "It's like working at a startup in a big company", they have no idea what it's like to actually work at a startup
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The intense drama about SVB has died down
But the implications on the pvt markets will be felt in coming weeks & months
They will be big for VCs, PE and startups
We’ll dig into what the data says here
First stop - Let’s dig into how debt was being used to prop up valuations
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"Valuation is temporary. Control is forever."
Not discussed nearly enough in the unicorn boom. Wonder how many founders work for their investors now?
Prob works if you’re consistently going up & to the right. Prob not ideal when you hit a bump
quote by
@naval
via
@lpolovets
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68 things not to do in your SaaS company. Learn from
@cbinsights
screwups my presentation from
#SaaStrAnnual
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4/ Mid- to later-stage company and the about us page is all about their investors
That's ok at the early stages but eventually you gotta build some shit for customers
If you're bragging about your investors at Series B, C, the actual biz model is fundraising
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What essay or article have you read that has had a significant impact on how you think about business, markets, entrepreneurship and/or technology?
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🔥 💣 I’ve decided to “fire” myself after 14 years as CEO of
@CBinsights
I'll still be working 180% at CBI but now in the role of Founder & Executive Chairman.
In this role, my focus shifts to customer conversations, product, content & partnerships.
One area I'll be spending…
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Generative AI company revenue multiples
•
@OpenAI
18.1x
•
@AnthropicAI
20.5x
•
@AI21Labs
28x
•
@glean
56.4x
• MosaicML 65x (acq by Databricks)
•
@perplexity_ai
65x
•
@harvey__ai
71.5x
•
@cohere
100x
•
@huggingface
150x
OpenAI a bargain? :)
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Elon Musk is the best business builder of this generation (perhaps ever)
I wish he'd share more about business building
This video of him is great
My favorite parts
* "Make your requirements less dumb"
* Name people, not departments
* "Don't optimize something that should not…
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Name a startup (not your own) that you admire.
And why?
Mine:
@AngelList
Why: Product shipping velocity
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5 yo son: what does famous mean?
Me: someone or something known by a lot of people
S: ok. So like wheels are famous.
Me: huh?
S: everyone knows what a wheel is
Me: please eat your breakfast
Anyone got a good way to explain “famous” to a 5 yo?
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We just announced our first M&A transaction
@CBinsights
acquired Dow Jones VentureSource assets which gives us a ton of data on valuations, mgmt teams and service providers
Excited to get this data in the hands of our clients
More surprises soon :)
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8/ Founders that rush into raising $ to build a co in a hot space to become player no 10
These folks aren't actually motivated by the problem they're solving. They just see an opportunity for a quick flip
They'll get bored when the momentum dies and then they'll pivot to web3
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yday
tech investor: "I'm a fan of free markets."
today
tech investor: "A bail out of SVB makes sense."
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Curios -- Why do VCs get a 1x liquidation preference when investing?
Is the idea this aligns incentives in some way?
Given VCs makes their money on the outliers and it is called "venture" capital, why do VCs get this protection?
"It's industry standard" is not an answer
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Your startup is a wrapper on GPT-4?
OpenAI is "going to steamroll you" per Sam Altman
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"Big companies are slow"
In < 3 months...
* Microsoft relaunched and rearchitected parts of Bing to integrate chatGPT
* They integrated it into Edge browser
* Did a mktg launch event that put Google on their heals
Insanely killer execution
Is your startup running this fast?
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Proud to announce my new online class where I will teach ppl to click an unsubscribe link in a newsletter instead of replying "unsubscribe"
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2/ Companies who talk about innovation in HR and other functions more than they talk about innovating on the product
Gimmicky isht like this is never a good sign
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1 of the best acquisitions of all time
Microsoft bought Forethought, maker of PowerPoint, for $14M cash
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For 17+ years, I've been wondering about this intro request I made on LinkedIn
Today, I am happy to say it worked out
#happilyeverafter
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UES NYC parent success formula
Get kid into Trinity
They get into Harvard
They get job at Goldman
They then into Wharton MBA
They then get a job at Apollo
What did I get wrong?
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What's the worst investment you've ever made?
mine: buying an apartment in NYC in 2007. Absolute money pit. I'm now a renter for life.
What about you?
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Dear founders,
Pls remember the investors sharing uninformed takes, talking their book/PR'ing it up and who were chaos agents
Would you want those people on your cap table when isht hits the fan?
In good news, lots of investors were busy actually helping and not tweeting
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If there is an "accelerator" that rivals Y Combinator, it is not 1 of the usual suspects
TBH, it is the Thiel Fellowship
For those unfamiliar, the Thiel Fellowship gives $100k to young people to build things (companies) instead of going to college
It differs from YC in many…
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My new goto line when I'm asked about a competitor
"Just because Yahoo has a search box, doesn't mean that they're Google."
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In March 2022, I declined a $100M offer received on Twitter to acquire
@CBinsights
1. Here's how it went down in screenshots
2. A reminder to never check/respond to Twitter DMs
cc: CBI board, investors & team
AMA
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Bubble signal: the number of absolute f'n idiots giving startup advice is up 273% year over year
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I'm not sure I've ever heard of a more evil genius affiliate marketing play than this
Please share if you know of one
Wait for the reveal about in
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It's not hard to bootstrap a $1M/year revenue business
But for whatever reason, folks overcomplicate it
LM break it down
Find 10,000 customers willing to pay you $100/year
Done
$1M revenue
Don't overthink it folks
Now, get after it
DMs are open for more coaching & tips
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If a VC sold their stake in Hopin in that crazy stupid valuation round, they’d be lauded as a great investor / capital allocator
Founder did it and dude is vilified 🤔
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This whole US share of VC is declining is a non-story
The US was the only real VC scene for a long-time. It’s share could only decline. $ in US remains very high
Silicon Valley hitting a peak has been a popular narrative we’ve seen every year
@cbinsights
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