What Startup To Build?

George Roberts

December 28, 2011

I read Steve Poland’s guest post at Tech Crunch last week. While I enjoyed his post, what I really enjoyed was the image that accompanied it:

OpenView Venture Partners invests growth capital in expansion stage software, internet software, software leveraged services or software based appliance companies that are generating bookings and or revenues of at least $500K a quarter up to $5mm a quarter.

The image above is how we look at companies when we are determining whether an investment in the company today can lead to a successful exit tomorrow for the founders, management team and OpenView.

We don’t need to see a market that is $5B+ (1B+ is large enough to build a great company), but make sure that your solution

  • Solves a visible business problem (preferably a must-have versus a nice-to-have)
  • Has a targeted market segment with buyers and users identified
  • Has an economic distribution model that is appropriate for the market segment
  • People are willing to pay you for your solution so you can monetize the company successfully
  • Have a core team that OpenView can work with  the founders to build out as the company scales

The clearer the proof points are for the above bullets the better the chance that you can work with a venture capital partner to build a great company that everyone can be proud of.

All the best!

G

Venture Partner

<strong>George Roberts</strong> is a Venture Partner at OpenView. He enjoys partnering with companies and helping them achieve their goals through strategy, focus and operational execution. From 1990 to 2003, George spent 13 years at Oracle Corporation, most recently having served as Executive Vice President of North American Sales. While at Oracle, George was responsible for over $1 billion in revenue and more than 2,000 employees, reporting directly to the company’s CEO and Chairman, Larry Ellison.