Product Update #90

Jason Kirby
Sep 17, 2024

Hi,

This week, some exciting news from Team Thunder. Also:

📸 - Social Snapshot- Hustle Culture

📊 - Exit trends Q3 2024

▶️ - Podcast Spotlight: Exited Founders

🆓 - Startup resource- Term Sheet Negotiation Playbook

Welcome to issue #90! 

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How Much Could You Sell Your Company For?

If a private equity firm or strategic acquirer made an offer to you today, would you take it? Would you know if it's a fair deal? Are you in a position to close a deal?

Getting acquired could transform your life.

Founders don't realize that it usually takes 12-24 months to prepare a company for a successful exit, the sooner you have a plan in place, the greater the potential outcome. 

If you want to get acquired, we can help. Book a free discovery call with our team of experts to explore your options and discuss getting a plan in place that could change your life.

Book a Free Discovery Call

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WhatsApp Image 2024-09-17 at 16.35.03

Check out this take on hustle culture from Brian Town on X. 
Also:
🙏 Hope: the blessing and curse of entrepreneurs. Matt Matros shares on LinkedIn
💴 Are you asking yourself these questions if you're in sales? Check out Alex Hormozi's thoughts on X.

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Exited Founders

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The Fundraising Demystified podcast Season 3 goes live on Thursday! Until then though, here's something from the vaults.
I spoke with lots of different founders last season, and these 3 repeated exited founders shared their stories through bankruptcy, complex industry challenges, and market volatility. Check them out.

Watch Now

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Data Corner

Screenshot 2024-09-17 at 15.11.01

Acquisitions: the leading exits trend

Acquisitions are still the go-to for exits, as most investors and management shy away from public listings. But thanks to some big IPOs, public listing value is up over a third compared to last year, and it’s looking like the number of listings will hit last year’s total too.

Acquisitions brought in nearly $50B last year and over $33B in the first half of this year alone, while public listings are up more than a third in value compared to last year.

Check out the data from Deloitte's white paper on growth company exits and fundraising with PitchBook data here.

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We've Got New Features On The Thunder Platform for You:

I wanted to talk about product updates and how to use them, but then realized we haven't sent one in ages...so, to not be a hypocrite, here are some updates you can benefit from by logging back into the platform:
  • Massive upgrade and recalibration of all match scores between companies and investors:
    • This means scores will be more accurate than ever before.
  • 1000+ new investment firms from family offices, angels, private credit, venture, private equity and more have joined to the platform:
    • This means more investors for you to match with and more types of investors
    • While VCs are still the majority, you'll get more diversity of options that can potentially fund you
  • Updating your KPIs on the traction tab for your business will help keep your company score and investor matches more realistic to your current situation and better reflect your reality.
Don't forget that if you go to our stats.thunder.vc page, or your Stats tab on your company profile you can benchmark yourself against other companies, relative to your stage.
 
 

Yes, all of this is free!

If you want help optimizing your profile, book a call with our team below

Book A Call

Why the update?

Lots of founders love adding updates: sometimes it's because sales made promises to customers that the product team now has to back up.

For me, this was important simply because we wanted to make Thunder better.

When should you consider a product update?

  • When users are screaming (not literally, I hope). If you’re getting the same feedback over and over again—“Hey, this button doesn’t work!” or “Why can’t I do this yet?”—you’ve hit a point where the people have spoken, and they’re probably right. Ignoring them might be the fastest way to lose those hard-earned users.

  • When your team is ready to revolt. You know that meeting where someone on your dev team casually mentions how that one feature was last updated three years ago? Yeah, take the hint. If your team is grumbling about clunky processes or tech debt, it's time to listen. These folks know your product inside and out. If they’re unhappy, it’ll trickle down to your users too.

  • When you’re embarrassed to demo it. If you find yourself cringing during a product demo—“Uh, we’re working on fixing that bug...”—it’s time to update. You want to be proud of showing your product off, not giving a 10-minute disclaimer before you get to the good stuff.

  • When the competition just leveled up. Look, if your competitors just dropped a shiny new feature and you’re still rocking 2015 tech, that’s a sign you might be falling behind. Stay relevant! No one likes to be the founder of the product that’s still running on dial-up.

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If that's you above, then remember to talk to people. Ask your customers and your team- what needs fixing, what needs to be prioritized? Ask yourself what the low-hanging fruit is, and what is an easy win vs. what will actually make you money.

When it’s slowing you down, causing frustration, or falling behind the times—hit the update button. You’ll thank yourself later. 

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Happy with Fundraising Demystified?

👍 or 👎

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Free Fundraising Resources

This week, we share our playbook for setting up your data room to make you investor-ready.

📖 - Playbook for Setting Up and Sharing Your Data Room - Download it Here

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Let's stay in touch:
Jason Kirby

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