1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Seksom Suriyapa, Partner at Upfront Ventures (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: I’m going to double-click down on your second category. You have product-market fit. The options are, do we sell the company now or do we go for another round of funding. If we choose to go for another round of funding, we will get funded because we have product-market fit. In that scenario, how does valuation compare in an exit versus a funding valuation?

Seksom Suriyapa: This is where things get tricky. Because of the way the venture market is today, which is frothier than where an acquirer is willing to pay, the sticker price on getting venture money will look very attractive from a valuation point of view. The tension is two-fold. One is when you raise money at a relatively high valuation because that’s where the venture is pricing you, you’re also building an execution that could potentially be heroic. You have to grow into these valuations through executions.

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1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Seong Kim, Corporate Strategy & Development at Chegg Inc. (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: Is the driver in that acquisition strategy upselling from your current user base and giving them more products to get into?

Seong Kim: Yes, it serves the two purposes that I alluded to before. It expands the suite of products and services and support we can offer to our existing base. It also extends our addressable market and audience. You look at the other three-quarters or so of language learners out there in the world that engage with this platform or other platform, they are looking at learning for work.

January 20 – 560th 1Mby1M Mentoring Roundtable for Entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurs are invited to the 560th FREE online 1Mby1M Mentoring Roundtable on Thursday, January 20, 2022, at 8 a.m. PST/11 a.m. EST/5 p.m. CET/9:30 p.m. India IST.

If you are a serious entrepreneur, register to “pitch” and sell your business idea. You’ll receive straightforward feedback, advice on next steps, and answers to any of your questions. Others can register to “attend” to watch, learn, and interact through the online chat.

You can learn more here and register to pitch or attend here. Register and you will receive the recording by email, even if you are unable to attend. Please share with any entrepreneurs in your circle who may be interested. All are welcome!

Video FAQs

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Seksom Suriyapa, Partner at Upfront Ventures (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: What role does valuation play in whether an acquisition happens or not?

Seksom Suriyapa: This is a tough one. The reality is that it tends to be the issue of whether a deal happens or not. Very professional corporate development teams are highly disciplined around how they value deals. Similarly, in the case of venture-backed companies, they have investors that are looking to maximize investor returns.

That constant tension between the two causes these deals to be valuation-driven when, in fact, there are a lot of other factors beyond valuation that are important. If I turn to the seller side, it’s often very difficult for minimally-capitalized ones because there is often an asymmetric advantage that buyers have. Sellers are selling their first-ever business. Buyers are doing this all the time.

10 Lessons We Have Learned Mentoring Startups

These days, everyone seems to be a startup mentor. Whether they have ever done a startup or not, whether they have ever raised money or not, they are ready to advise entrepreneurs.

I want to share some things we have learned in running the 1Mby1M program for the past twelve years. I feel that it may be useful for entrepreneurs, investors, incubators, advisors, mentors, and other players in the startup ecosystem to hear some of the highlights.

Throughout the years, we have continuously invited entrepreneurs to come speak with me about their business ideas during our Free Public Roundtables, held almost every Thursday starting at 8 a.m. PST. Serious entrepreneurs “pitch” and sell their business idea and receive straightforward feedback, advice on next steps, and answers to any questions. Others “attend” to watch, learn, and interact through the online chat and all are welcome.

1. First, it is extremely difficult to give negative feedback to entrepreneurs without triggering a defensive reaction. I was not good at this when we started. I am very good at analyzing a business scenario, but I was never good at sugar coating the feedback in a way that is particularly nurturing or reassuring. Very early on in our experiments with online mentoring, we told entrepreneurs that this forum is for candid, constructive feedback, and that may include negative feedback. We don’t tell entrepreneurs what they want to hear. We tell them what they need to hear. While some egos get bruised, entrepreneurs have more or less accepted our approach, and have given us permission to ‘critique’ their ventures. I have, personally, gotten better at giving feedback in a palatable way. The biggest thing that has worked well is that we never, ever give negative input gratuitously. Everything has been in the spirit of helping both the entrepreneur(s) and the businesses grow. >>>

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Seong Kim, Corporate Strategy & Development at Chegg Inc. (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: Let’s do some examples. What have you been up to in the last few years that illustrates some of this framework thinking?

Seong Kim: The most recent acquisition that we just announced was just over a week ago. It was the largest acquisition we’ve ever done in language learning. As a company that has its humble roots as a textbook business that had embarked on a massive transition to digital, all of that has been highlighted by the fact that we bet on the inevitable – the move towards digital learning and the need for democratized access to on-demand, affordable, self-guided contact as a companion to the learner.

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Seksom Suriyapa, Partner at Upfront Ventures (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: Let’s take this example that you started with. Who drives acquisition? Is it product leaders or corp dev? How do you find about this company that you ended up considering an OEM deal with that led to an acquisition?

Seksom Suriyapa: In a very perfect world, I advise that product leaders should drive an acquisition. The world is never perfect. One of the challenges on the sell side is to understand who is driving the acquisition. It’s a moving target and you get passed around a lot. In the case of Twitter specifically, it’s always the product leader who is the decider. Corp dev is there as a collaborator and driver of the deal.

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Seong Kim, Corporate Strategy & Development at Chegg Inc. (Part 1)

Seong Kim, Corporate Strategy & Development for Chegg Inc. discusses exit strategy within EdTech.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s start with a little bit of introduction. What path have you pursued in the industry? Then we’ll get into some specific topics.

Seong Kim: I’ve been working in Corporate Strategy & Development for the past six and a half years. To me, it’s important to articulate my role in that way because the strategy part must lead the development part. The characteristic that most differentiates what I do now versus what I did prior is the strategy part.