The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf(CBTL), Business strategy case study
Startup rule to invest
1. 1
Startup Rule to Invest
• Using Syndicate
• Based in Silicon Valley or competence center
• Has at least two founders or just one big founder
• Has a product on market or six months of revenue
• Has a notable investor
• Burn cash >= 18 months
Write Deal Memos on spreasheet
1. Invested (why invest, pro to money, against to risk)
2. No invested (why you passed)
• Business to scale: NO film, bed-breakfast, bar, food & beverage point of sale, clothing
• Eliminate small idea or weak founder
• Use Alexa or Quantcast or www.similarweb.com. Monitoring campany using
https://www.crunchbase.com or www.owler.com
Angel Investor: Your job is to support founders when no one else will and steer
them into the hands of professional investors. <<Jason Calacanis rules>>
2. 2
Startup Rule
Analyze Founder
Why choose the business Founder role Successful in business & life
Frequency update: monthly or max quarter update includes key metrics business, burn rate,
how much cash left, plan for future raises
3. 3
Startup rules
Main characteristic in order to say YES
Revenue and MRR, monthly recurring revenue, significant growth
Churn rate, below 7/8 percent
CAC,
customer acquisition rate := Sale & budget marketing / new customer
CLV, customer life time value
(Avg Monthly Revenue per Customer * Gross Margin per Customer) /Monthly Churn Rate
Compare CLV with CAC 3
Start-up post revenue valuation. Revenue is a proxy of EBITDA
Startup value = EBITDA * 8/10
4. 4
Startup Rule
Manage Portfolio
Founder: review product, his history, why are
you doing this ? why now ? Tell me the three
main reasons why this business might fail
Market and competitor
Who invests in the company
Meet founder at incubator but invest 6 or 12
month later. Because incubator is for founder
of startup can not raise money in own
Pitch meeting
Ten/twenty syndicate deals € ~1000 to
3.000 for each
Based on
“Jason Calacanis rules”
New round, company value increase, should
look who is investing in the company and
decide to quadruple or more.
Re-Check <<Jason Calacanis rules >>
New round in series A, B, C, … company
value increase, should look who is investing
in the company and decide to quadruple.
Re-Check <<Jason Calacanis rules >>
Pro rata rights are a must , Bridge over
the time is almost always negative
5. 5
Startup rules more details
More details in order to say YES
Try to choose the company based on people running and the founder not the idea
nor market but you have to evaluate person and motivation
There is not difference between founder and company
Burn rate and income figure
Income := Monthly revenue - (FTE*6000 or FTE*9000 Silicon Valley)*1.2
FTE:= Full-Time Equivalent
More details to stil YES overtime
Create a Spreadsheet with two sheets and compare the outcome over the time
1. companies which you have invested where there is a row for each company with six columns
a) Great/Good/Okay rating, b) Revenue, c) GMV, d) Value (estimate o based on last round)
e) Financed rating 1 to 10, f) Founder & team rating 1 to 10
2. companies which you have NOT invested where there is a row for each company with three columns
a) why you are not investing, b) Financed rating 1 to 10, c) Founder & team rating 1 to 10