cmullen

OP here - in the very early stages of language design, but would appreciate any feedback / help the community can provide

Former founder, software investor and banker. Email me directly for some free advice on this one. You’ve got some options and good approaches - I can point you to some friends who work at shops that help companies like yours. [email protected]

HP has HP ALM and IBM has Rational. HP also uses CollabNet TeamForge for source control in some groups.

Under the SEC's Reg FD, public companies are required to disclose all material information to all investors at the same time. So, what you propose is not really workable under the current regulatory regime. Sometimes public companies will give extra disclosure to help investors (e.g., product line revenue, numbers of employees within each function, etc.), but often that information is not enough to truly diligence an investment thesis.

As a result, there is a slight information asymmetry penalty in the valuation; however, this penalty is dwarfed by the liquidity premium you get as a public company.

Mid-sized mature software businesses have figured out how to run very very profitably (25%+ EBITDA margins). Tech management teams have learned from the giants (Oracle, SAP, etc.) about how to extract maximum value from their IP and past investments. This innovation helps drive earlier stage investment, as investors know that there is a potential for a ton of cash flow available down the road.

GP commit is always at least 2%. Also, I think its pretty disingenuous to say that partners at VC / PE make money whether the fund does well or not. The management fee (2%) almost all goes into operating expenses - mostly salaries for mid-level / junior folks, professional / legal fees, research, consultants, etc. Partners make almost no money off of the management fee (LPs make sure that the management fee is just sufficient to cover the operating expenses of the fund) The way that partners make real money is through carried interest. Most funds have a hurdle rate of return (around 8%) below which, no carry gets paid. Furthermore, the vast majority of LP agreements have clawbacks associated with early carry paid in the event that later investments prove unsuccessful. So, unless the fund returns 8% per year to its investors, the partners make only their salaries.

Public markets investors typically have far less information about companies than do private investors. For most technology companies, the probability of success / profit is driven more by specific company factors rather than larger industry and macro trends. Most public tech companies are understandably worried about disclosing detailed sales metrics / technology roadmap to all investors for competitive reasons; however, as part of any PE / VC backed investment process, private investors are typically given access to all of this detailed information.

This isn't really applicable for high-growth venture backed companies because generally, they aren't leverageable. It's almost impossible to lever a minority equity investment in a private company. It's true equity capital going into late stage VC / growth equity.

However, for mature tech businesses that have real cash flow, LBO valuations are driven by a levered cash flow yield. Valuations in this world are increased with higher debt availability and low interest rates.

The primary mechanism by which low interest rates influence late stage VC / growth equity valuations is in the amount of capital the LP community / institutional investor base allocates to those asset classes. Right now, that allocation is quite large driven by the need to move into riskier asset classes to drive investment yield.