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Agreed.

They just amended their S-1 to explain how they account for the costs of production for content.

http://kara.allthingsd.com/20101223/demand-medias-ipo-which-...

Rather than expense the costs on payment (like every other publishing company), they are trying to amortize it (like a machine or factory) over a four year period.

If they treat costs like every other company in their industry, they are losing a significant amount of money each year. (More importantly, in real world cash accounting, they are burning through significant amounts of cash each quarter.)

If they go public, investors who don't understand the underlying risks of the Demand Media Business (like Google changing their algorithm) or understand why this type of accounting artificially inflates profits will get burned - and it will hurt the overall technology ecosystem (much akin to the everything.com IPOs of the late 1990s)


The word "exit" has totally changed its meaning over the last 6 months.


If someone is smart enough to figure a EULA that guarantees end-users that the site can't shutdown in such "exits", I'm interested.


how so?


It used to mean 'acquired company, including userbase, products, revenue streams etc'.

Now it means 'hired team and shutdown previous company'.


I think it's always just meant 'liquidity'.


Yes, used to be called "liquidity event".


I respectfully disagree. Exits have always had the potential to go that way..


More broadly, it just shows how important time is to any startup.

You never know when some chance meeting will lead to a key hire, a biz dev deal, or even a new investment.

The longer you keep going and working at it - the more chances you have for this moment to happen.


The only two metrics that really matter are: 1) Cash on Hand 2) Monthly Burn.

Until a business is cash flow positive, the above two metrics are the most important things that need to be managed.

PS For an awesome startup budget / dashboard tool - check out 60mo.com It's simple, beautiful and the UI focuses on cash remaining


Interesting recommendation. I had trouble telling (from index.html page) whether this was alt to QuickBooks, but since the features page includes "Integrate QuickBooks to eliminate data entry"... apparently it sits atop QB and bases it analysis on what you've entered. Bookmarked. Thanks for the lead.


Stick with WordPress and use some of the third party themes specifically designed for this - WooThemes has some great themes designed specifically for this case use.

http://www.woothemes.com/2009/06/featurepitch/ http://www.woothemes.com/2010/05/inspire/ http://www.woothemes.com/2009/08/coffee-break/


You can have my couch (or area where there should be a couch) starting July 12 when I move into my new place.


Infodome (fka MightyDB)

http://www.infodome.com/


This is a great graphical resource of a cap table simulation across three rounds ...

http://www.ownyourventure.com/equitySim.html


Reported attack page...


Still for most startups - though outside the realm of this board - cleantech, life sciences, and enterprise hardware startups still require major VC and PE backing over their life cycle.

For example - Better Place - a provider of Electric Car Service Stations just raised a $350 MM Series B with HSBC as the lead investor. HSBC doesn't bring management expertise - but they did bring $150 MM of investor dollars.


True Ventures is looking for interns graduating in 2011 or 2012 for our summer TEC program this summer in the Bay Area. As a member of our program, you will be paired with one of our companies and spend eight weeks working on a variety of projects both appropriate to your background and skillset and of value to the company. There is a stipend paid for the completion of the summer program.


Any options for students graduating this year, sounds like an amazing opportunity. I'd love to chat more, pjharrin [at] gmail d0t com


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