The Ledger
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Former Yahoo executive Marvin Liao predicts the company is 'toast'
“If I'm honest, I think they're probably toast. It's a one point O company in a three point O world. I just, I'm very skeptical. And this isn't anything against Marissa, but I just think it's just, it was such a mess when I left and I probably take some credit …”
Founders should avoid mentors who advise startups as their primary income
“I worry about, sort of, like, mentors who do this as, like, as their job, where they're, like, advising, sort of, startups as, like, their, you know, like, their main, sort of, like, income. I do, sort of, worry about that, where I, kind of, like, you do it be…”
Liao: Seed-stage startups are 'stupid' to form a board of directors
“And in this early stage, like, frankly speaking, like, I think you'd be kind of stupid to have a board at a company like this early, at least the stage that we're investing in.”
Emerging startup markets lack investor sophistication, not entrepreneurial talent
“I think the big, sort of, gap in many, many markets now is really on the investor side, like, investor education and sophistication,”
Liao: Investors who dislike science fiction should not be in venture capital
“Like, any investor who doesn't like science fiction, I think, should not be in the investing game.”
Liao: Using M&A as R&D fails for most large tech companies
“I mean M&A is hard in, in general. I think most big companies are not good at M&A. I think like Cisco used to have a good reputation for doing good M&A. Boy, Facebook I think has done a great job. I think in the last week they'll be done. But outside of that, …”
Silicon Valley's 'rule of 2-3' limits free mentor meetings before compensation
“There's this rule in Silicon Valley called the rule of two to three. ... You know, your first, like, two to three meetings, your first two to three introductions are free, but, sort of, if you, if they want more than that, there needs to be some type of, sort …”
Liao requires $10K-$50K MRR before investing in enterprise SaaS startups
“Like, I won't look at a pre-launch sort of like enterprise SaaS company. I want to see something in the range of 10 to sometimes 50,000 dollars a month in recurring revenue.”
500 Startups employs 80-90 staff, including 14 growth and distribution experts
“We have almost close to, like, 80, 90 staff, and, you know, we have a team of almost 14 distribution, sort of, like, distribution in our terminologies, like, sort of, online marketing sales experts who help our companies and accelerator and, sort of, in the po…”
500 Startups has invested in over 1,200 companies across its funds
“1200, I think to be exact, the accelerator and the, and our sort of main fund and some of the micro funds. Yes, probably about 1200. I think it's a little bit over 1200 now.”
500 Startups evaluated 1,100 applicants to select 36 for Batch 14
“We looked at over close to 1100 companies to get down to 36 companies.”
500 Startups increased its average initial check size to $75K–$100K
“It ranges between 50,000 to about a 100,000 dollars, so it, there's a range. But I would say, right now, you know, before, probably about two years ago, it was probably average of a fifty-k check. We're probably doing about 75 to about a hundred-k check sizes …”
500 Startups takes board observer rights rather than formal board seats
“No, we have board observer rights, but we don't take board seats.”
Liao made seven or eight digital health investments in six months
“I've probably made about seven or eight digital health investments in the last probably six months now.”