Both Sides of the Table

MAY 28, 2018

Founder: “$8–10 million” VC: “What’s your current burn rate?” A VC wants to know that you have a solid plan to execute a stand-alone business and if you require capital for an acquisition they’d rather evaluate it at the time rather than over-fund you now. It goes something like this … VC: “How much money are you raising?”

Venture Capital 247

Venture Capital Capital Funding Demand 247

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 3, 2013

Between 7-10 she was busy seating guests so had to put your on hold. As long as they didn’t lose the book or make a mistake. We spent a year (2012-2013) building a merchant acquisition machine and all of the systems to support bookings, calendar integrations, location services, etc. It sounds crazy, right?

Development Team Review 324

Development Team Review Course Mobile Writing 324

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 26, 2016

Perhaps the most misused terms I see these days from entrepreneurs involve CAC (customer acquisition costs) and LTV (life time value) and a lack of understanding these critical components is driving many companies to premature failure. CAC is often measured incorrectly and doesn’t often doesn’t capture the true costs of acquisition.

Metrics 150

Metrics Startup SaaS Course 150

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 3, 2019

This can be customer acquisition cost, revenue growth, profit, or whatever other parameters are key to your success. You can fail by not being there at all (see the United Breaks Guitars story ), or making a big mistake (see The Biggest Social-Media Fails of 2018 ). Pick the ones that fit your desired outcome.

Social Media 96

Social Media Media Marketing Metrics 96

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 16, 2015

So he would allocate say – 20% to sales, 15% to marketing, 20% to eng priorities, 10% to customer support, 10% to ops, 20% to ‘platinum customers’ and maybe 5% directly to me as the CEO. These are always mistakes in a growing company. So I would get ANYTHING I wanted within the confines of my budget.

Startup 150

Startup Sales CTO Coach Course 150

InfoChachkie

MAY 16, 2011

“Learn from the mistakes of others. As an entrepreneur and startup investor, I have helped create companies which achieved two IPOs which collectively raised over $100 million, as well as two acquisitions which totaled $385 million. During those same 25-years, I also made innumerable mistakes. Make Your Own Mistakes.

Startup 242

Startup Outsource Development Outsource Sales 242

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 13, 2018

A reverse merger is the acquisition of an already public company (usually a dormant shell) to avoid the Initial Public Offering (IPO) process and cost, to quickly get your startup on a public exchange for fund raising through visibility and selling stock. There just aren’t enough angel investors and VCs to go around.

Summary 79

Summary Startup Entrepreneur Funding 79

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 18, 2015

When an entrepreneur first incorporates his or her business, he or she may find him or herself the proud owner of 10 million shares of common stock, commonly called founder’s shares. Startup owners need to assume a three to five year wait for a liquidity event, such as acquisition or going public, before they can cash out. In the U.S.,

Startup 99

Startup Entrepreneur Acquisition Demand 99

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 4, 2011

4 times / 100 means if a customer uses your app frequently (say 10-20 times / day) then they are crashing nearly every day. Customer Acquisition. I see this mistake all the time, actually. Those two things together would lower your acquisition costs nearly in half to $6.11. That’s not acceptable. Is it 4/1,000?

Metrics 346

Metrics Startup SEO Customer 346

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 15, 2015

A reverse merger is the acquisition of an already public company (usually a dormant shell) to avoid the Initial Public Offering (IPO) process and cost, to quickly get your startup on a public exchange for fund raising through visibility and selling stock. There just aren’t enough Angel investors and VCs to go around.

Funding 102

Funding Summary Startup Entrepreneur 102

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 3, 2014

A reverse merger is the acquisition of an already public company (usually a dormant shell) to avoid the Initial Public Offering (IPO) process and cost, to quickly get your startup on a public exchange for fund raising through visibility and selling stock. There just aren’t enough Angel investors and VCs to go around.

Funding 98

Funding Startup Entrepreneur Summary 98

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 1, 2009

Once it’s set up I recommend bringing in a co-founder and giving them 10-30% of the company depending upon when you bring them in. Your company of 10 people doesn’t need 5 that are like you. Have you worked in marketing / customer acquisition before? - Plug your holes. Are you a leader vs. a manager? -

Startup 289

Startup Venture Capital Entrepreneur Sales 289

InfoChachkie

NOVEMBER 23, 2015

However, they seldom acknowledge their mistakes. What’s The Worst Mistake? Mistakes can be categorized as “false positives” or “false negatives.” Jeff Lawson < *@twilio.com> 10/5/15. There are a number of reasons why Rincon Venture Partners passed on Twilio’s Seed Round. VC's love to talk about their successes.

Venture Capital 100

Venture Capital Technical Review Software Review Southern California 100

socalTECH

MARCH 6, 2017

I told him--you are a top 10 guy worldwide, when it comes to understanding mobile applications, how to acquire them, how to improve monetization, and how to improve the user experience on those apps, and I thought our skill sets would be complementary. We have a huge acquisition pipeline. Why not just go and build your own apps?

Media 153

Media Mobile Startup Acquisition 153

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 1, 2017

This can be customer acquisition cost, revenue growth, profit, or whatever other parameters are key to your success. You can fail by not being there at all (see the United Breaks Guitars story ), or making a big mistake (see The 12 Worst Social-Media Fails of 2016 ). Pick the ones that fit your desired outcome.

Social Media 62

Social Media Media Metrics SEO 62

socalTECH

DECEMBER 11, 2017

The top 10 companies only make up 45 percent of the entire space. One of the mistakes that most startups make, is they get impatient, and throw lots of capital at something. You have to make sure your cost of acquisition, retention rates, and conversion metrics are all in place. You cannot grow your problems.

Startup 174

Startup Metrics Customer Custom 174

InfoChachkie

JANUARY 31, 2011

10) Ian, why does the world need ZipRecruiter? . “I 9) In Competing From The Fringe , I caution entrepreneurs to not alert their competitors when they are making mistakes. If there are 10 things that make a company successful, you’re only accountable for 1 – 4 of them as an executive. free weekly Infochachkie articles!

MyLife 160

MyLife CitySearch Web Technical Review 160

InfoChachkie

JANUARY 31, 2011

10) Ian, why does the world need ZipRecruiter? . “I 9) In Competing From The Fringe , I caution entrepreneurs to not alert their competitors when they are making mistakes. If there are 10 things that make a company successful, you’re only accountable for 1 – 4 of them as an executive. free weekly Infochachkie articles!

MyLife 157

MyLife CitySearch Web Technical Review 157

InfoChachkie

FEBRUARY 8, 2011

10) Lynda, why does the world need lynda.com? However, if you could wipe the slate clean and start a new company tomorrow, what would that company’s mission be, what markets would you pursue and what mistakes (that you suffered through at lynda.com and otherwise) would you avoid? “ 10) Lynda, why does the world need lynda.com?

Entrepreneur 245

Entrepreneur Training Startup Web 245

InfoChachkie

FEBRUARY 8, 2011

10) Lynda, why does the world need lynda.com? . However, if you could wipe the slate clean and start a new company tomorrow, what would that company’s mission be, what markets would you pursue and what mistakes (that you suffered through at lynda.com and otherwise) would you avoid? “ 10) Lynda, why does the world need lynda.com? .

Entrepreneur 245

Entrepreneur Training Startup Web 245

SoCal Delicious

JANUARY 9, 2014

Why make your own mistakes when others that have tread before you can help steer you in the right direction? Customer acquisition ultimately makes or breaks any start-up. No clear vision or purpose This should be the starting point for any startup founder, but it’s often overlooked. Find the right person and it can be a win-win.

Startup 78

Startup Design Customer Custom 78

socalTECH

MAY 14, 2015

EQAL was a successful exit, and our investors did well, we did well, even if we made a million mistakes along the way. MCNs are just the first wave of big acquisitions, I see lots of innovation there over the next five to 10 years, which is really cool. Anything you learned at EQAL you think you'll leverage here?

Startup 100

Startup Content Technical Review Product 100

InfoChachkie

OCTOBER 24, 2011

Money is plentiful for those who understand the simple laws which govern its acquisition.”. This does not give you a license to only work 10-hour days and take off both days every weekend. Customer Dollars Taste Great. George Clason , financial author and publisher. In flush times, many startups raise too much money. Bargains Galore.

Company 257

Company Companies Startup Study 257

socalTECH

OCTOBER 12, 2015

Talk a bit about where the company was at the time of the acquisition? That gave us five years of machine learning and big data experience with Jake, which allowed us to execute on our technology quickly, and not make mistakes building this up. Plus, we didn't have $10 million in our coffers to do stupid deals.

Mobile 100

Mobile Startup Content Advertising 100

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 14, 2017

How long does it take me to pay back my original customer acquisition costs? So with operations in four key cities and recurring revenue now firmly above $10 million per year and with 10,000+ customers we realized that we needed a proper CFO to guide our growth. How profitable is my product or service?

Startup 286

Startup Technical Review Customer Custom 286

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 13, 2011

I called the meeting a 10/10 because we had a great 90-minute discussion in which we had great rapport. And when you finish the demo you can bring in the other important components such as competition, team, customer acquisition strategy, etc. I funded them 8 weeks later. Isn’t it antithetical to my arguments above?

Venture Capital 299

Venture Capital Slides Technical Advisors Startup 299

InfoChachkie

FEBRUARY 24, 2011

10) Seth, why does the world need SocialStay? . Yeah, I have made plenty of mistakes in this category in the past. 10) Seth, why does the world need SocialStay? . Value Prop Twitter Style : SocialStay is: "An easy to set up & manage mobile platform designed for the hospitality industry. from the Wharton School.

Startup 233

Startup Design Mobile Social Network 233

InfoChachkie

FEBRUARY 9, 2010

Few mistakes would have such wide-ranging implications in the business world over the next two decades. However, on your road to success, do not repeat Mr. Killdal’s mistake and assume that modest success during the early days of an emerging industry gives you license to reject your Stakeholders’ perception of reality.

IBM 124

IBM IBM Software Review Custom 124

InfoChachkie

JULY 7, 2010

Serial Team mentors will make fewer mistakes than a comparable adVenture led by inexperienced people who are learning on the job. Copyright © 2007-10 by J. The factors that cause Serial Teams to be good investments for venture capitalists make them equally advantageous for young entrepreneurs. Hotel California. from the Wharton School.

Startup 150

Startup IP Entrepreneur Software Review 150

Tech Zulu Event

MAY 8, 2014

Chance was recently featured on Fox News for comments on Facebook’s high profile acquisition of wearable VR company, Oculus, for an impressive $2B – and what that meant for early adopters who initially helped the company get off the ground by funding through Kickstarter. As an entrepreneur, this is a terrible and common mistake.

Invest 83

Invest Platform Entrepreneur Paramount 83

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 8, 2009

I say this as somebody who recruited several Harvard, Wharton and similar MBAs at my first company (the one where I acknowledge that I made every mistake in the book). My family had the very first edition of the IBM XT computer with a 10 MB hard drive. I paid up for the diploma but can’t say that I saw better results.

Startup 337

Startup Venture Capital Study Course 337

Frank Addante

SEPTEMBER 6, 2006

Internet Advertising ASP) Exit: $112M IPO and acquisition Lesson: Think big. 6 startups = 1 IPO, 2 acquisitions, 1 failure, millions in venture capital $, hundreds of employees in cities worldwide and the building of my latest venture, the Rubicon Project - one of the fastest growing advertising companies in history. Zondigo, Inc.

Startup 40

Startup Venture Capital Web 2.0 Outsource Development 40

Frank Addante

JULY 30, 2007

Internet Advertising ASP) Exit: $112M IPO and acquisition Lesson: Think big. 6 startups = 1 IPO, 2 acquisitions, 1 failure, millions in venture capital $, hundreds of employees in cities worldwide and the building of my latest venture, the Rubicon Project - one of the fastest growing advertising companies in history. Zondigo, Inc.

Startup 40

Startup Venture Capital Outsource Development Advertising 40

Frank Addante

MAY 22, 2006

Internet Advertising ASP) Exit: $112M IPO and acquisition Lesson: Think big. 6 startups = 1 IPO, 2 acquisitions, 1 failure, millions in venture capital $, hundreds of employees in cities worldwide and the building of my latest venture, the Rubicon Project - one of the fastest growing advertising companies in history. Big mistake.

Startup 40

Startup Venture Capital Outsource Development Advertising 40

Frank Addante

JULY 5, 2007

Internet Advertising ASP) Exit: $112M IPO and acquisition Lesson: Think big. 6 startups = 1 IPO, 2 acquisitions, 1 failure, millions in venture capital $, hundreds of employees in cities worldwide and the building of my latest venture, the Rubicon Project - one of the fastest growing advertising companies in history. Zondigo, Inc.

Startup 40

Startup Venture Capital Web 2.0 Outsource Development 40

Tech Zulu Event

AUGUST 13, 2010

10 ways to profit off of Twitter participation without a book deal, sponsorship or selling your star. DIY Online Workshops: Best Practices and Worst Mistakes. How to Avoid These Mistakes in Your Startup. Entrepreneurism / Monetization acquisition, entrepreneur, internet. . Eleven Key Mistakes Every Startup Can Avoid.

Guide 69

Guide Startup Venture Capital Entrepreneur 69

SoCal CTO

DECEMBER 1, 2010

Five Reasons You Haven’t Launched - Software By Rob , November 10, 2010 Photo by stevendepolo. Every one of these reasons has haunted me at one time or another over the past 10 years. billion dollar mistake. This post is an accusation. call to arms. sharp stick that says “get off your ass and make something happen.&#.

Technical Review 175

Technical Review Startup Product Technology 175