Levi King, co-founder and CEO of Nav, shares his philosophy on pricing venture capital rounds and negotiating ownership dilution.
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Nav Burned $87 Million of Its $100 Million Raised Before Turning Profitable
“And here we are a little more than 10 years later, a hundred million bucks raised from great venture capitalists, burned eighty-seven million bucks before we turned our first dollar profit, which was because of how I grew up in business, entirely uncomfortable…”
Insight
Non-Essential Investor Requests Directly Reduce a Startup's Probability of Success
“The CEO's time is simultaneously the company's most valuable resource and it's most constrained, so I don't want stuff lobbed over the fence at me. Anything that I'm dealing with that I don't have to, like, actually reduces the probability of success”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Nav Experiences Counter-Cyclical Demand Surges During Economic Downturns
“For us, fortunately, our business is counter-cyclical. So we do good in a good economy. We do well. We do really well in a down economy because if you're a business owner and credit is easy to access and financing is easy to access, if all of a sudden the econ…”
Insight
Taking Venture Capital Permanently Eliminates the Lifestyle Business Option
“The very first dollar in venture capital that you take, you make one permanent commitment, and that is you're going to provide liquidity. So you lose optionality in the business to just say, ah, I'm going to be a lifestyle business.”
Prediction Open · timeframe Jun 2028
King Predicts Nav's Next Funding Round Will Reach $200M to $300M
“And in our next round of financing would probably be, you know, that two, three hundred million dollar round where, Early investors can get some money or all of their money if they want. Early employees can finally get some liquidity that exercise and pays for…”
Disclosure
Kleiner Perkins Secured 27% Equity in Nav's Series A for $2M Extra
“He said, look, I really want to have 27%. I love this deal. I want to work with you. I'll go down to 25. And I said, how about you give me an extra two million bucks and we'll give you the 27. He said, done.”