Bill Janeway, early VC partner at Warburg Pincus and Cambridge economics lecturer, explains why operating cash flow provides critical strategic flexibility for startups.
“Positive cash flow from operations means that you, the entrepreneur, the venture capitalist, Own options. You own the options about whether to sell or not sell, whether to raise more money or not raise more money. You're not a prisoner of the capital markets.”
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More from Bill Janeway
PredictionNot checkable as stated
Janeway: Non-traditional late-stage tech investments will end in painful correction
“Now, when you see investors, hedge funds, mutual funds, paying premium prices, To buy illiquidity, to buy securities with no liquidity and with no governance rights. In the private market. The only thing you know is when it ends, it will end painfully.”
Bill JanewayJan 2, 2019▶ 6:01a16z Podcast | Good Bubbles, Bad Bubbles -- and Where Unicorns Come from
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Janeway: Low launch costs make spray-and-pray seed investing rational
“This means, on the one hand, a step function increase in the number of startups, in the number of Darwinian hopeful monsters. Most of which will fail. Most of which will fail Pretty fast, and without costing an enormous amount of money, so that at the front en…”
Bill JanewayJan 2, 2019▶ 3:23a16z Podcast | Good Bubbles, Bad Bubbles -- and Where Unicorns Come from
PredictionNot checkable as stated
Janeway: Startup Quality Inevitably Declines When Cheap Capital Is Plentiful
“Again, the people on the other side of the market aren't morons, so the quality inevitably will decline. Inevitably.”
Bill JanewayJan 2, 2019▶ 13:56a16z Podcast | Good Bubbles, Bad Bubbles -- and Where Unicorns Come from
Insight
Janeway: Cash and control are the only hedge against startup uncertainty
“The central theme of the whole first half of my book is that there's only one way to hedge against uncertainty in venture startups. You don't have credit default swaps. You know, you don't have instruments that you can buy to hedge your position. It's two word…”
Bill JanewayJan 2, 2019▶ 20:44a16z Podcast | Good Bubbles, Bad Bubbles -- and Where Unicorns Come from
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Janeway: Venture capital functions as distributed R&D for incumbent corporations
“Well, what I'm saying is that because getting public is so difficult and so rare for venture-backed tech companies that, practically speaking, we should be thinking about that what we're doing is funding distributed research and development for big companies.”
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Insight
Janeway: VC funding fundamental science instead of technology commercialization is dangerous
“I mean funding science. Rather than funding, funding the commercialization of technology and finding commercially valuable new innovative applications of technology.”
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