At the time the slides were shocking to me and completely altered how I think about building my start-up.
For starters the economic analysis at the start of the presentation made me aware that 'best practice', aka what Sequoia Capital does, is to track and analyse the wider macro and micro global economic forces. Since then I've learnt a lot more about economics and I track key economic indicators.
The other takeaway was the the two slides titled "Survival" and "Survival of the Quickest".
The "Survival" slide had the following bullet points:
* Must-Have Product
* Established Revenue Model
* Understanding of Market Uptake
* Customer's Abilities to Pay
* Assessment vs. Competitors
* Cash is King
* Need for Profitability
...which is pretty much the criteria I'm constantly assessing myself on.
And lastly the "Survival of the Quickest" side was making the point that unless a massive cut in costs was made right at the beginning of the recession your company would die in a Death Spiral. I can't stress how freaked out I was when I saw that Death Spiral diagram.
I know those slides are 5 years old but even now for my own start-up I keep those slides in the back of my mind as I pursue growth from my balance sheet and keep my burn rate as low as I can.
It reminds me of the presentation that Sequoia Capital gave to its portfolio company CEO’s back in Oct 2008 with the title "RIP Good Times" found here: http://www.scribd.com/doc/73886447/R-I-P-Good-Times-10-7-08-...
At the time the slides were shocking to me and completely altered how I think about building my start-up.
For starters the economic analysis at the start of the presentation made me aware that 'best practice', aka what Sequoia Capital does, is to track and analyse the wider macro and micro global economic forces. Since then I've learnt a lot more about economics and I track key economic indicators.
The other takeaway was the the two slides titled "Survival" and "Survival of the Quickest".
The "Survival" slide had the following bullet points:
* Must-Have Product * Established Revenue Model * Understanding of Market Uptake * Customer's Abilities to Pay * Assessment vs. Competitors * Cash is King * Need for Profitability
...which is pretty much the criteria I'm constantly assessing myself on.
And lastly the "Survival of the Quickest" side was making the point that unless a massive cut in costs was made right at the beginning of the recession your company would die in a Death Spiral. I can't stress how freaked out I was when I saw that Death Spiral diagram.
I know those slides are 5 years old but even now for my own start-up I keep those slides in the back of my mind as I pursue growth from my balance sheet and keep my burn rate as low as I can.