Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 10, 2023

Here is my edited summary of their ten principles, which I like and may convince you that you don’t need a business plan at all, or at the very least will help you write a better one later: A new venture is a means, not an end. Build and use social capital. Social capital is people and connections. Acquire the relevant skills.

Startup 142

Startup Capital Resource Research 142

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 29, 2023

On the product side, once you have a proven product and business model, all you need is money to build inventory, and a sales and marketing operation to drive the business. For example, both need to provide exemplary customer service, build customer loyalty, and provide real value for a competitive price. Capture your “secret sauce.”

Startup 111

Startup Training Services Writing 111

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 16, 2021

These are usually characterized as owner-operated, with five employees or less, and less than $250,000 in sales. With the low cost of e-commence entry, and powerful Internet technologies, they require minimal capital to start, perhaps as little as $500. Write down agreements. Record every expense. Keep a monthly profit-loss.

Entrepreneur 121

Entrepreneur Writing .Net Commerce 121

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 31, 2012

I got an email recently from my friend & fellow VC, Jeff Bussgang from Flybridge Capital Partners in Boston. Jeff (also an HBS alum) co-teaches the LTV course with Professor Eisenmann about a student of theirs who had written a blog post about sales taking on some of my previous assertions.

Startup 319

Startup Sales Course Competition 319

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 3, 2020

On the product side, once you have a proven product and business model, all you need is money to build inventory, and a sales and marketing operation to drive the business. For example, both need to provide exemplary customer service, build customer loyalty, and provide real value for a competitive price. Capture your “secret sauce.”

Startup 174

Startup Training Services Writing 174

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 5, 2011

2 preamble issues having read the comments on TC today: 1: I know that the prices of startup companies is much great in Silicon Valley than in smaller towns / less tech focused areas in the US and the US prices higher than many foreign markets. You can be pissed off, but I don’t set prices. That’s stupid.

Startup 336

Startup Pricing Technical Review Marketing 336

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 17, 2017

The most obvious way to explain this is with sales people. If you hire 6 senior sales reps in January at $120,000 / year salary then you’ve taken on an extra $60,000 per month in costs yet these sales people might not close new business 6 months. COGS” represents the amount that each sale costs you.

Startup 227

Startup Venture Capital Sales Course 227

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 27, 2011

I find it amusing when a journalist writes an article about a prominent startup (either privately held or preparing for an IPO) and decries that, “They’re not even profitable!” The most obvious way to explain this is with sales people. One of them is profitability. Internet scale.

Startup 418

Startup Venture Capital Sales Technical Review 418

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 17, 2020

Here is my edited summary of their ten principles, which I like and may convince you that you don’t need a business plan at all, or at the very least will help you write a better one later: A new venture is a means, not an end. Build and use social capital. Social capital is people and connections. Acquire the relevant skills.

Startup 143

Startup Capital Resource Research 143

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 24, 2021

It has historically been the case that VCs would rather fund the promise of 100x in a company with almost no revenue than the reality of a company growing at 50% but doing $20+ million in sales. The abundance of late-stage capital is good for us all. Interim liquidity plus long-term capital gains work really, really well.

Venture Capital 363

Venture Capital Capital Funding Startup 363

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 12, 2018

These are usually characterized as owner-operated, with five employees or less, and less than $250,000 in sales. With the low cost of e-commence entry, and powerful Internet technologies, they require minimal capital to start, perhaps as little as $500. Write down agreements. Record every expense. Keep a monthly profit-loss.

Writing 97

Writing .Net Commerce Entrepreneur 97

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2014

There are many times when being overly capitalized before you’re ready is a negative. Plus, most early-stage M&A fails so this isn’t likely a good use of capital for a young company). Availability of Capital. ” Whatever answers they have manufactured the only thing I hear is, “Because we can.”

Startup 383

Startup Company Companies .Net 383

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 14, 2012

…” I’ll write soon on my views of why I believe Instagram took off as a social network and what I think comes next. 99.9999% of you won’t be contemplating raising capital at $500 million any time soon or selling for a billion. My friend Christin Herron of Intel Capital weighed in on the issue.

Venture Capital 316

Venture Capital Pricing Social Network Acquisition 316

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 14, 2010

I pointed to several Economist articles I had read that mapped historical prices of real estate for 400 years and how on average property values grow at no more 1.5% above inflation yet in many markets in the US & Europe prices were rising at 10-25% per year. And it’s driving up prices beyond their inherent value.

Invest 299

Invest Angel Technical Review Venture Capital 299

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 22, 2011

I will write more about this in the next 2 weeks. But that doesn’t mean that people are paying rational prices as investors based on intrinsic value. Rational people can disagree and some may argue that today’s prices are rational and under-pinned by economic drivers. If you are interested the Vimeo is here.

Pricing 309

Pricing Marketing Startup Venture Capital 309

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 13, 2018

The most important advice I could give you before you set out in fund raising mode is to understand that fund-raising a sales & marketing process and needs to be managed. Somehow many first-time founders equate “sales” with something that is beneath them. In sales there are also three rules: Qualify, qualify, qualify.

Venture Capital 332

Venture Capital Funding Startup Sales 332

Berkonomics

JUNE 11, 2015

I was fortunate that I could write software and doubly fortunate that my despair at working for ‘the Man’ – and feeling compelled to strike out on my own – coincided with the dawn of the personal computer era. We went from our largest-ever sale of 3 licenses at one time to a thousand.

Customer 120

Customer Custom Writing Southern California 120

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 9, 2016

These are usually characterized as owner-operated, with five employees or less, and less than $250,000 in sales. With the low cost of e-commence entry, and powerful Internet technologies, they require minimal capital to start, perhaps as little as $500. Write down agreements. Record every expense. Keep a monthly profit-loss.

Writing 96

Writing .Net Commerce Entrepreneur 96

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 2, 2011

Thiel is providing his mentees with capital to make their startups a reality. When you don't accept capital from someone else, you aren't beholden to anyone else's input. An inflated sense of financial well-being can result in sloppy budgeting and accounting as you write checks here and there without pause.

Startup 92

Startup Capital Blogging Ideas 92

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 1, 2011

I think that’s the beauty of both capitalism and innovation. I started by writing 3-4 times / week. I didn’t have any grand ambitions other than to write, share ideas and try to build awareness of who I am through my thoughts. Just like a sales person at the end of a quarter. So which is it? Feast or famine?

Startup 391

Startup Blogging Venture Capital Writing 391

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 23, 2010

Often when startups who have raised venture capital need another round of financing they will turn to their existing investors to give them money before raising from outsiders. If no financing happened then this “note&# may not be converted and thus would be senior to the equity of the company in the case of a bankruptcy or asset sale.

Startup 290

Startup Funding Venture Capital Pricing 290

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 22, 2010

Back in 1999 when I first raised venture capital I had zero knowledge of what a fair term sheet looked like or how to value my company. I’m not sure I really even need to write this at length because Nivi absolutely nailed the topic in his article “ The Option Pool Shuffle.&#. Thus the “true&# pre-money is only $2.4

Venture Capital 405

Venture Capital Pricing Startup Funding 405

SoCal CTO

JANUARY 5, 2011

- SoCal CTO , January 13, 2010 5 Lessons from 150 startup pitches - A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks , July 11, 2010 9 Reasons Why Many Smart People Go Nowhere - Life Beyond Code , March 29, 2010 No Accounting For Startups - Steve Blank , February 22, 2010 Startup Advice In Exactly Three Words - #StartupTriplets - OnStartups , January (..)

Startup 378

Startup Venture Capital Blogging CTO Coach 378

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 4, 2018

Here is my edited summary of their ten principles, which I like and may convince you that you don’t need a business plan at all, or at the very least will help you write a better one later: A new venture is a means, not an end. Build and use social capital. Social capital is people and connections. Acquire the relevant skills.

Startup 94

Startup Capital Resource Research 94

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 2, 2018

On the product side, once you have a proven product and business model, all you need is money to build inventory, and a sales and marketing operation to drive the business. For example, both need to provide exemplary customer service, build customer loyalty, and provide real value for a competitive price. Capture your “secret sauce.”

Services 72

Services Startup Training Writing 72

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 24, 2019

I still see too many aspiring business leaders highlighting their technology, product features, and price, more than customer value and usability. Now customers judge you by your visibility to them at public forums, your writing, videos, and what other public figures say. Highlight your credibility by visibility and relationships.

Customer 93

Customer Custom IBM IBM 93

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 26, 2013

These are usually characterized as owner-operated, with five employees or less, and less than $250,000 in sales. With the low cost of e-commence entry, and powerful Internet technologies, they require minimal capital to start, perhaps as little as $500. Write down agreements. Record every expense. Keep a monthly profit-loss.

Startup 98

Startup Writing .Net Commerce 98

socalTECH

NOVEMBER 7, 2011

The other thing that struck me, is because it is only men, they tend to write with lots of testosterone. Their writing style, even for a mainstream publication, is they write with lots of testosterone. They write about the transmission, the brakes, and the suspension, and that creeps into all of their evaluations of cars.

Truecar 204

Truecar Writing Edmunds Sites 204

InfoChachkie

JANUARY 16, 2018

Without taking a dime of outside capital, the company has achieved impressive success in a competitive, SaaS market segment, landing companies such as Nike, Intuit, NASA, AutoDesk and PBS. The problem is that stakeholders, like marketing and sales, don’t know what the latest version of the roadmap is.

Venture Capital 115

Venture Capital Entrepreneur Santa Barbara SaaS 115

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 14, 2017

I have been meaning to write this for a while as I’ve noticed that much of my board time is involved in trying to be an independent referee for founders who themselves are trying to resolve their own conflicts. The administrative work we actually do at board meetings? Those seldom get reported.

Startup 217

Startup Technical Review Equity Report 217

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 30, 2012

Alain Theriault, better known as StartupCoach , tells entrepreneurs that, on your way to being a great chef, you don't start by writing a cook book (business plan), you work in the kitchen for a while, you learn some tools of the trade, you experiment with a few recipes, you test on willing clients. then you can start writing a recipe.

Startup 96

Startup Writing Metrics Marketing 96

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 27, 2014

On the product side, once you have a proven product and business model, all you need is money to build inventory, and a sales and marketing operation to drive the business. For example, both need to provide exemplary customer service, build customer loyalty, and provide real value for a competitive price. Capture your “secret sauce.”

Services 105

Services Startup Training Writing 105

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 9, 2012

You may have already found several articles, web pages, or books about writing the perfect executive summary. They all offer a list of requirements that might take 50 pages to address, but of course they ask you to write concisely. Who is your customer, what is the price, and how much does it cost you to build one?

Summary 97

Summary Writing Competition Sample 97

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 15, 2013

range in the $20 to $40 range for a year registration, but you can find sales on certain extensions for as little as fifty cents per year. As a startup, cost to rename your company and change existing collateral may be less than dealing with unmatched names or premium domain pricing. Get the agreement in writing as quickly as possible.

Startup 87

Startup Pricing Tips .Net 87

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 9, 2012

These are usually characterized as owner-operated, with five employees or less, and less than $250,000 in sales. With the low cost of e-commence entry, and powerful Internet technologies, they require minimal capital to start, perhaps as little as $500. Write down agreements. Record every expense. Keep a monthly profit-loss.

Writing 99

Writing .Net Commerce Entrepreneur 99

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 29, 2009

But any entrepreneurs raising capital should keep in mind that this opening of the markets could possibly be temporary. Three reasons: There is a relative valuation between the price a VC pays and their expectations of what it will exit for in an IPO or trade sale. Short answer – yes. The deal was done in late 2007.

Venture Capital 263

Venture Capital Startup Invest Funding 263

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 19, 2011

What better than to have capital from somebody who has actually done it in the trenches? Matt’s commitment to re-investing in tech startups is reminiscent to this great Fred Wilson post of “recycling capital. &#. Big thank you to Darius Vasefi , of EyeOnJewels for the write up. He told them it was now or never.

Acquisition 304

Acquisition Startup Customer Custom 304