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How Wayfair quietly built a $500M a year web business

Posted in Board Of Intellectual Capital, Economy, Gerbsman Partners, Intellectual capital, internet, Investments, IPO news, Market research, Marketing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on December 30, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Article fom GigaOm.

In today’s crowded world of e-commerce, it’s not easy to make a name for yourself. New niche sites pop up constantly, while big players such as Amazon are work to undercut the growing competition by spreading into new territories and offering low prices and lots of perks. Meanwhile, the brick-and-mortar retail giants game such as Walmart are getting savvy to e-commerceand investing more and more in building strong online operations.

That’s why it’s particularly impressive that Wayfair, a relatively little known e-commerce company that deals in home furnishings and decor, is set to make more than $500 million in top-line sales for 2011. I talked recently with Wayfair’s CEO Niraj Shah to get details on how the company quietly built a half-billion-dollar-per-year business, and where it plans to go from here.

Start small and widespread, consolidate later

Wayfair as it stands today was founded by Shah and his business partner Steve Conine nine years ago as CSN Stores. At its inception in August 2002, CSN operated a single website, racksandstands.com, which sold storage and home entertainment furniture. Gradually CSN expanded its holdings to include number of individual sites that sold other kinds of home and lifestyle goods, with domain names such as strollers.com and cookware.com. By 2010, CSN had slowly but surely grown to more than 600 employees, and its family of more than 200 websites was bringing in $380 million in annual sales. All this time, CSN had not taken a dime of institutional capital.

It wasn’t until 2011 that Shah and Conine decided to consolidate CSN’s operations under one brand name of Wayfair and take the business to the next level by raising outside funding. In June 2011 Spark Capital, Battery Ventures, Great Hill Partners and HarbourVest Partners pitched into a $165 million funding round. Wayfair now operates under three brands: Wayfair.com, which sells a variety of mid-range home goods; AllModern, which sells higher-end brands such as Alessi and Herman Miller; and Joss & Main, a flash sales site for designer home goods.

Beating out brick and mortar

The consolidation and rebranding is serving Wayfair well. The company now has nearly 1000 staff and a catalog of more than 4.5 million items from 5000 brands. Now it’s closing out its best year ever, with 2011 holiday season sales 30 percent higher than they were in 2010. Cyber Monday 2011 was the best single day of sales in the history of CSN/Wayfair, with an average order size of $143 per customer.

So what’s next? According to Shah, the company is looking at some pretty big players as its competition. And the most pressing competitors are more traditional physical retailers, not other online companies. “We were really focused on online competitors when we started, but over time as we’ve grown we’ve found that our competitors really include Walmart, Target, and folks like that,” Shah said. “We tend to win if someone is looking at our site along with another site. But if people just go directly to a brand they already recognize, like Target, then we may not get the chance to win that business.” That’s exactly why Wayfair has decided to focus on building up its own brand recognition right now, Shah says:

“Right now the home market is a little over half a trillion dollars in the United States, but only about 5 to 6 percent of that is online, and it’s a highly fragmented market within that. That’s all starting to really come online, so we want Wayfair to emerge as a household name. We want to seize the opportunity to be the go-to brand for home decor online.”

The road to an IPO

Ultimately, Shah says that Wayfair plans to return its shareholders’ $165 million investment with an eventual initial public offering. But he also noted that Wayfair’s investors are quite patient, especially seeing that the company was operating with comfortable profits well before outside money was brought in.

“In general for tech companies it seems to be a good time in the market to go public. But part of why we never took investment capital early on is that we didn’t want any time pressure regarding an exit,” Shah said. “If your business is going well you still try to time an IPO well, but it’s not like you’re going to miss a ‘window.’ We could see being publicly traded in five years’ time, but it’s not a big priority now.” In the near-term, he says, Wayfair’s focus is on international expansion and boosting its brand worldwide.

To me, it seems likely that Wayfair could become an attractive acquisition target for Amazon as it proceeds toward an IPO — Amazon has been known to snap up niche competitors with big price tags before, such as its $540 million acquisition of Diapers.com owner Quidsi. Whatever happens, Wayfair will certainly be a company to watch in the months ahead.

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Facebook, Yelp likely leaders in 2012 IPOs

Posted in Board Of Intellectual Capital, Economy, FaceBook, internet, Investments, IPO news, Market research, tagged , , , , , , on December 29, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Article from SFGate.

“Facebook and Yelp are set to lead the biggest year for U.S. initial public offerings by Internet companies since 1999, testing demand for IPOs after investors lost money on Zynga and Pandora Media.

With Facebook considering the largest Internet IPO on record and regulatory filings showing that at least 14 other Web-related companies are planning sales, the industry may raise $11 billion next year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That would be the most since $18.5 billion of IPOs in 1999, just before the dot-com bubble burst.

While surging sales growth may lure investors to Facebook, the biggest social-networking site, heightened stock volatility and Europe’s sovereign-debt crisis could temper the pace of global IPOs after a 38 percent decline in 2011. Even Internet companies may cut valuations for their offerings after Zynga, the largest developer of games for Facebook, and online radio company Pandora slumped following share sales this year, according to researcher Morningstar.

“Technology is still a place where you can get outperformance in terms of growth against a tepid market backdrop,” said David Erickson, global co-head of equity capital markets at Barclays. “You might see more IPOs emerge if we get resolution in Europe or stability that makes investors more comfortable with the overall market.”

IPOs raised $155.8 billion in 2011, compared with $252 billion a year earlier, and U.S. initial offerings generated $38.8 billion, about 10 percent less than in 2010, Bloomberg data show. In Asia, IPOs this year have raised $79.2 billion, less than half the $176.5 billion last year, Bloomberg data show.

While funds raised in Europe rose for the year, they sank more than 95 percent since August from a year earlier after the worsening debt crisis and a cut to the U.S. credit rating sapped confidence in global markets.

Morgan Stanley

Morgan Stanley took the biggest share of both U.S. and global IPOs for the second year in a row after working on initial share sales by Glencore International, HCA Holdings and Michael Kors Holdings. Pen Pendleton, a spokesman for Morgan Stanley, declined to comment.

The bank also was the lead underwriter on Zynga and Pandora’s IPOs. The stocks’ declines following those public debuts may prompt greater scrutiny of valuations in 2012, said James Krapfel, an analyst at Morningstar in Chicago.

“Investors will take a harder look at the numbers going forward and need to see strong revenue and profit growth,” Krapfel said. Bookings, an indication of deferred revenue, at Zynga have increased more slowly this year, suggesting the company’s IPO price was too high, according to a Dec. 9 Morningstar report.

Zynga, which raised $1 billion in its IPO this month, has since fallen 2.5 percent after going public at a valuation three times that of Redwood City rival Electronic Arts. Oakland’s Pandora has plunged 36 percent since its June 14 IPO.

Facebook, based in Menlo Park, is examining a $10 billion offering that would value it at more than $100 billion, a person with knowledge of the matter said last month. Total sales at Facebook in 2012 may surge 52 percent to 62 percent from this year’s projected $4.27 billion through increased ad revenue, according to Debra Aho Williamson, an analyst at EMarketer. Industrywide, the display ad market may surge 24 percent to $12.3 billion this year.

“Tech offerings generally offer real growth, and investors get very excited when they can’t find growth in the broader market,” J.D. Moriarty, co-head of equity capital markets for technology in the Americas at Bank of America, said at a briefing this month.

Yelp, the consumer-review website operator, and e-mail marketer ExactTarget both filed for IPOs in November. This year, 19 Internet companies generated $6.6 billion in U.S. initial share sales.

Going public

Glam Media, a Web-advertising company that targets women, plans to make its first IPO filing by the end of the second quarter, people familiar with the matter said. AppNexus, the online-ad company backed by Microsoft, may go public in late 2012, Chief Executive Officer Brian O’Kelley said. Companies like MobiTV and Eloqua, which rely on the Internet to distribute cloud- based software products to clients, may seek an additional $650 million, regulatory filings show.

In Europe, the IPO market has “essentially come to a halt” as the sovereign-debt crisis spread from Greece to Portugal and Italy, said Mary Ann Deignan, head of equity capital markets for the Americas at Bank of America. In September, Siemens AG suspended an IPO of its Osram lighting unit and Spain pulled the initial public offering of its lottery operator as global stocks headed for a one-year low.

“There are companies that would like to go public but are waiting for the right market environment to do so,” said Deignan, speaking at a briefing this month. “As long as policymakers and politicians control the headlines, Europe remains a challenge.”

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/12/28/BUE01MHK4V.DTL#ixzz1hv9KomS3

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Zynga IPO goes live: Opens at $11, quickly dips below IPO price

Posted in Board Of Intellectual Capital, Economy, Investments, IPO news, tagged , , , , , , , on December 16, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Article from GigaOm.

Zynga has officially made its public market debut. The social gaming company’s stock began trading on the NASDAQ stock market at just after 11:00am Eastern Time (8:00am Pacific Time) on Friday morning with an opening price of $11.00, a significant bump up from its initial public offering price of $10.00.

Right out the gate, Zynga was not as much of a runaway success as other web stocks such as LinkedIn on its IPO day: Within the first ten minutes Zynga was on the market, its shares already dipped below the IPO price, reaching as low as $9.48.

But as we’ve written before, covering the ups and downs of a company’s stock price on its first day of trading is a bit of a horse race. It will take much more time to gauge Zynga’s success as a public company, and the idea of going public is to build toward longer-term sustainable operations.

Right now, the most salient fact is that Zynga is officially a public company and it has raised $1 billion in its IPO, the biggest Internet IPO since Google went public more than seven years ago. Founder and CEO Mark Pincus rang the NASDAQ opening bell on Friday morning remotely from Zynga’s San Francisco headquarters, accompanied by his wife Alison. The whole thing is a success in itself for the four-and-a-half year old company, and it’s likely that regardless of the stock’s first-day ups and downs, today will be a happy one for many of its founders, investors and employees.

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As Investors Flee Groupon, Outlook for I.P.O.’s Darkens

Posted in Board Of Intellectual Capital, Business models, Economy, FaceBook, internet, Investments, IPO news, Market research, Social Networks, Strategy, Technology, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on November 25, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Article from NYTimes.

“Unable to break a three-day slide, shares of Groupon tumbled again on Wednesday, as more investors dumped shares.

For the first time since it went public earlier this month, Groupon broke below its offering price of $20 per share. Shares of Groupon fell 16 percent on Wednesday to close at $16.96.

The popular daily deals site had wrestled with intense scrutiny and volatile equity markets in the weeks leading up to its offering, but its debut was widely heralded as a strong performance. On its first day of trading, Groupon rose as much as 50 percent, before settling at $26.11 per share.

Wednesday’s drop is a disturbing signal for technology investors and other start-ups waiting to go public.

“Selling begets selling,” said Paul Bard, a director of research at Renaissance Capital, an I.P.O. advisory firm. “In the environment we’re in right now, investors are wary of risk, and so these less-seasoned companies will naturally face more selling pressure.”

Technology companies have largely outperformed other sectors in their debuts this year.  Shares of LinkedIn, for instance, doubled on their first day of trading, while Yandex, the Russian search engine, surged more than 55 percent on its debut.

But for many, the glitter has come off just as fast. Pandora, which went public in June, has dropped nearly a third from its offering price. Renren, often described as the Facebook of China, is about 74 percent below its offering price. Both Pandora and Renren tumbled again on Wednesday, with Pandora off roughly 11 percent and Renren down 6 percent.

According to data from Renaissance Capital, the technology sector has seen 41 I.P.O.’s this year, with an average first-day pop of 20.3 percent. Year-to-date, however, the group has lost about 13.1 percent in value.

The widespread pullback seems to suggest that investors, while eager to capitalize on first-day gains, do not have the confidence, or stomach, to hold on to the Web’s latest offerings. That apprehension is likely to be a major concern for high profile start-ups, like Zynga and Facebook, both of which are expected to go public in the coming months.

“When returns turn negative, that creates a problem for the I.P.O. market,” Mr. Bard said. “Because what’s the incentive to buy into the next I.P.O.? Bankers are now probably revisiting how many and which deals they will launch.”

Read more here.

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Trends in Terms of Venture Financings In Silicon Valley (Third Quarter 2011)

Posted in Board Of Intellectual Capital, Business models, Economy, Fenwick & West, Gerbsman Partners, Intellectual capital, Investments, IPO news, Market research, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on November 21, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Article from Fenwick & West LLP.

Background —We analyzed the terms of venture financings for 113 companies headquartered in Silicon Valley that reported raising money in the third quarter of 2011.

Overview of Fenwick & West Results

  • Up rounds exceeded down rounds in 3Q11 70% to 15%, with 15% of rounds flat.  This was an increase from 2Q11 when up rounds exceeded down rounds 61% to 25%, with 14% of rounds flat.  Series B rounds were exceptionally strong, comprising 38% of the relevant rounds (Series A rounds aren’t included as there is no prior round for comparison purposes), and 89% of the Series B rounds were up rounds.  This was the ninth quarter in a row in which up rounds exceeded down rounds.
  • The Fenwick & West Venture Capital Barometer™ showed an average price increase of 69% in 3Q11, a slight decrease from the 71% increase registered in 2Q11.  However, we note that one internet/digital media company had a 1,500% up round, and that if such round was excluded the Barometer would have been 54%.  This was also the ninth quarter in a row in which the Barometer was positive.
  • Interpretive Comment regarding the Barometer. When interpreting the Barometer results please bear in mind that the results reflect the average price increase of companies raising money this quarter compared to their prior round of financing, which was in general 12‑18 months prior.  Given that venture capitalists (and their investors) generally look for at least a 20% IRR to justify the risk that they are taking, and that by definition we are not taking into account those companies that were unable to raise a new financing (and that likely resulted in a loss to investors), a Barometer increase in the 30-40% range should be considered normal.
  • The results by industry are set forth below.  In general internet/digital media was the clear valuation leader, followed by software, cleantech and hardware, with life science continuing to lag.
Overview of Other Industry Data

  • After 2Q11 there was reason to believe that the venture environment was improving, but the results were more mixed in 3Q11.  While the amount invested by venture capitalists in 3Q11 was healthy, the amount raised by venture capitalists was significantly off the pace set in the first half of the year.  As a result, venture capitalists are continuing to invest significantly more than they raise, an unsustainable situation (and one that perhaps provides increased opportunities for angels and corporate investors).  IPOs also decreased significantly in 3Q11, although M&A activity was up.  The internet/digital media industry continued to lead, while life science continued to lag.

    However there are some clouds on the horizon, as the Silicon Valley Venture Capital Confidence Index declined for only the second time in 11 quarters, there are reports of a number of IPOs being recently postponed and the world financial environment is undergoing substantial turbulence.

    Detailed results from third-party publications are as follows:

    • Venture Capital Investment. Venture capitalists (including corporation-affiliated venture groups) invested $8.4 billion in 765 deals in the U.S. in 3Q11, a 5% increase in dollars over the $8.0 billion invested in 776 deals reported for 2Q11 in July 2011, according to Dow Jones Venture Source (“VentureSource”).  The largest Silicon Valley investments in 3Q11 were Twitter and Bloom Energy, which were also two of the three largest nationwide.  Northern California received 38% of all U.S. venture investment in 3Q11.

      The PwC/NVCA MoneyTree™ Report based on data from Thomson Reuters (the “MoneyTree Report”) reported slightly different results – that venture capitalists invested $7.0 billion in 876 deals in 3Q11, a 7% decrease in dollars over the $7.5 billion invested in 966 deals reported in July 2011 for 2Q11.  Investments in software companies were at their highest quarterly level since 4Q01, at $2.0 billion; investments in internet companies fell to $1.6 billion after the ten year high of $2.4 billion reported in 2Q11, and life science and cleantech investments fell 18% and 13% respectively from 2Q11.

      Overall, venture capital investment in 2011 is on track to exceed the amount invested in 2010 according to both VentureSource and the MoneyTree Report.

    • Merger and Acquisition Activity. Acquisitions (including buyouts) of U.S. venture-backed companies in 3Q11 totaled $13 billion in 122 deals, a 33% increase in dollar terms from the $9.8 billion paid in 100 deals reported in July 2011 for 2Q11, according to Dow Jones.  The information and enterprise technology sectors had the most acquisitions, and the acquisition of PopCap Games by Electronic Arts for $750 million was the largest acquisition of the quarter.

      Thomson Reuters and the National Venture Capital Association (“Thomson/NVCA”) also reported an increase in M&A transactions, from 79 in 2Q11 (as reported in July 2011) to 101 in 3Q11.

    • Initial Public Offerings.  Dow Jones reported that 10 U.S. venture-backed companies went public in 3Q11, raising $0.5 billion, a significant decrease from the 14 IPOs raising $1.7 billion in 2Q11.  Perhaps of greater concern is that six of the IPOs occurred in July, with only four in the latter two months of the quarter, and half of the 10 companies went public on non-U.S. exchanges (one each on AIM, Australia and Tokyo, two on Taiwan).  By comparison, all 25 companies going public in the first half of 2011 went public on U.S. exchanges.

      Similarly, Thomson/NVCA reported that only five U.S. venture-backed companies went public in the U.S. in 3Q11 (they do not include offerings on foreign exchanges), raising $0.4 billion, a substantial decrease from the 22 IPOs raising $5.5 billion reported in 2Q11.  This was the lowest IPO level in seven quarters.  Of the five IPOs, four of the companies were based in the U.S. and one in China, and four were IT-focused and one was life science-focused.  The largest of the IPOs was China-based Tudou, raising $0.2 billion.

      At the end of 3Q11, 64 U.S. venture-backed companies were in registration to go public, an increase from 46 in registration at the end of 2Q11.

    • Venture Capital Fundraising. Dow Jones reported that U.S. venture capital funds raised $2.2 billion in 3Q11, a significant decline from the $8.1 billion raised in the first half of 2011.  2011 is on track to be the fourth year in a row in which venture capital fundraising will be less than investments made by venture capitalists, and by over $30 billion in the aggregate.

      Similarly, Thomson/NVCA reported that U.S. venture capital funds raised $1.7 billion in 3Q11, a substantial dollar decrease from the $2.7 billion reported raised by 37 funds in 2Q11.

    • Venture Capital Returns. According to the Cambridge Associates U.S. Venture Capital Index®, U.S. venture capital funds achieved a 26% return for the 12-month period ending 2Q11, less than the Nasdaq return of 31% (not including any dividends) during that period.  Note that this information is reported with a one quarter lag.
    • Sentiment. The Silicon Valley Venture Capitalist Confidence Index® produced by Professor Mark Cannice at the University of San Francisco reported that the confidence level of Silicon Valley venture capitalists was 3.41 on a 5 point scale, a decrease from the 3.66 result reported for 2Q11, and the second quarter of decrease in a row.  Venture capitalists expressed concerns due to the macro economic environment, the uncertain exit environment, high company valuations and regulatory burdens.  The divergence between the internet/digital media industry, which has performed well, and the lagging life science industry, was also noted.
    • Nasdaq. Nasdaq decreased 13% in 3Q11, but has increased 10% in 4Q11 through November 14, 2011.

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