【Investment 0327】初创公司什么情况下可以利用债务融资？

刘颖

The fall of Visible Measures, an ad-tech startup, is as much a cautionary tale about the advertising technology market as it is about the danger of startups using debt. On top of recent commentary from venture investor Fred Wilson and writer Dan Primack about the same issue with ModCloth, it might seem like startup debt is a dangerous, risky drug to be avoided at all costs. In conversations, several debt-providers readers predicted more debt-related collapses - there are "ticking time bombs" out there. But they're worried that startups will get the wrong impression about their product. (They're not drug dealers!) The gist:

The best time for startups to raise debt are:

(1) when the company is growing, but not fast enough to get a bunch of new equity investors interested,

(2) when unit economics actually work but there is a valuation gap or management does not want to be diluted further,

(3) when the company is close to profitable and equity is too expensive or will take too long to raise,

(4) the company is more than ten years old and equity investors are tapped out in their older funds.

The exact wrong time to raise debt is when you're in a situation like Visible Measures or ModCloth -- revenue is stalled or declining and you're in the middle of a business model shift or pivot. "In that case, a lot of the lenders are saying, ‘I'm relying on the equity to come in to save my butt here,'" one debt provider said. Often debt providers only make the loan on faith that the startup's well-connected venture investor will pull strings to get the next round done.

In his blog post, Wilson named Foursquare as an example of a startup that had success using debt. (It raised $41 million from buyout firm Silver Lake in 2013.) He's right, but it's worth noting that Foursquare raised debt at the riskiest possible time: It had little to no revenue, and it was embarking on a big pivot. Again, it worked out well for the company, but as one debt provider cautioned, "it easily could have gone the other way."

刘颖

TRANSLATIONS

一家名为Visible Measures的广告技术初创公司失败，不仅给广告技术市场敲响了警钟，也在提醒所有初创公司利用债务融资的危险。根据最近风险投资家弗莱德·威尔森和撰稿人丹·普利马克对ModCloth债务融资问题的评论，似乎初创公司债务融资是一剂危险的、高风险的毒药，应该不惜一切代价避免使用。在与读者交流过程中，有几位债务融资提供商预测了更多因债务融资陷入失败的初创公司——这些是随时会爆炸的“定时炸弹”。但他们担心，初创公司可能对他们的产品产生错误的印象。（他们并不是毒贩子！）谈话的要点如下：

初创企业进行债务融资的最佳时机：

（1）公司正在增长，但速度不足以吸引大批新股权投资者的兴趣，

（2）单位经济效益实际上并不差，但存在估值差距，或管理层不希望股份被进一步摊薄，

（3）公司即将实现盈利，但股价过高，或融资周期过长，

（4）公司已成立超过10年，但股权投资者早期的资金已经一分都不剩了。

而债务融资的错误时机是，处在与Visible Measures或ModCloth类似的状况下——收入陷入停滞或下降，而且公司正在进行商业模式转变或转型。一位债务融资提供商表示：“在这种情况下，许多贷款人会说：‘我必须依靠股权来维护我的利益。’”债务融资提供商通常只有在相信初创公司人脉丰富的风险投资方会在幕后操作，完成下一轮融资的时候，才会提供贷款。

威尔森在博客中提到，Foursquare是初创公司利用债务融资的成功案例。（该公司在2013年从收购公司银湖资本（Silver Lake）融资4,100万美元。）事实确实如他所说，但需要注意的是，Foursquare的债务融资可能选在了风险最高的时机：当时公司的收入可以忽略不计，并且即将开始一次大规模的转型。虽然公司取得了成功，但一位债务融资提供商警告：“公司的债务融资很容易走向相反的方向，遭遇失败。”