Lightspeed Venture Partners' Jeremy Liew elaborated on his previous analysis showing how exceptional a media or e-commerce startup must be before even pondering an IPO.

During a presentation at this afternoon's Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco, Liew showed that the average content startup must record revenue of just $2.8 million to breakeven but must achieve revenue of $133 million to become a viable public entity worth about $500 million.

E-commerce startups must tread a similarly arduous trail. While breaking even only requires annual revenue of $7 million, completing a respectable IPO would require $277 million in annual revenue. Interestingly, he noted that there are only about ten pure-play e-commerce companies that have cleared that mark.

Since you can't rely on acquisitions, the idea is that entrepreneurs must target an IPO as an exit if they intend to raise venture capital. And the likelihood of taking a content or e-commerce company to those heights is low.

Liew hasn't given up hope. He recently invested in movie content startup Flixster. And he encouraged anyone in the audience trying to build a big company that is in need of venture capital to see him after his talk.

Judging by the the mob surrounding him afterward, I'm not sure his message got through.

For more on the the Web 2.0 Expo, see:
Red Herring
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Tags: web2, web2expo, web+2.0+expo, jeremy+liew, flixster, vc, venture+capital