Ben Gilbert: belief

Transcript context

…The debt fund, yeah. They basically invented venture debt and they make a $300,000 loan. I think a revolving credit line in the fall of 2004. That comes with warrants that if the company ever goes public that they could then exercise, they do a deal again the next spring for another $300,000, so they’re in for $600,000. I spoke with someone years ago who told me this ended up being phenomenally, phenomenally successful and the warrant exercise on this I think is the greatest venture debt deal of all time. Has to be. Nice. Spring 2005, Accel comes in, leads a series A, $12.7 million at a $98 million post money valuation. That’s crazy in and of itself for the time, and though still being okay with Mark having board control. Which, one thing at the angel round maybe that’s still pretty crazy but whatever. This is angel round, but no, a real venture capital firm, real series A, 2005, (a) $100 million valuation, (b) being okay with that, that was wild. Oh, also (c) getting less than 20% of the company. Rule of thumb venture investing back in the day was you need at least 20% of the company, ideally more like 25% or 30%.…

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