Remove Angel Remove Customer Remove Satisfaction Remove Statistics
article thumbnail

8 Tasks To Prepare You For Starting Your Own Business

Startup Professionals Musings

Based on my own experience as a mentor and angel investor, I find that as many as ninety percent of startups fail in the first five years, despite their best efforts. These are necessary to attract customers, investors, and give you a line of defense with competitors. Test your plan to get feedback from real customers.

article thumbnail

10 Startup Founder Decisions That Have No Good Answer

Startup Professionals Musings

That’s not an attractive statistic if you crave control and power. You don’t want to take money from friends and family, but it’s too early for angel investors and VCs. Bootstrap if you can, otherwise climb the pyramid of family, friends, angels, and VCs. The right motivated employees dilemma. Marty Zwilling.

Startup 130
Insiders

Sign Up for our Newsletter

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

article thumbnail

10 Startup Quandaries That May Redefine Your Business

Startup Professionals Musings

That’s not an attractive statistic if you crave control and power. You don’t want to take money from friends and family, but it’s too early for angel investors and VCs. Bootstrap if you can, otherwise climb the pyramid of family, friends, angels, and VCs. The right motivated employees dilemma. Marty Zwilling.

Startup 97
article thumbnail

Scaling a Business by Cloning Yourself is Tough

Startup Professionals Musings

Obviously we can find many critical success factors, like finding and retaining high-value customers, which apply to companies that are product centric or services centric. Customers don’t like people who don’t show their passion and love for the job. Customers don’t like to see you learning on the job or outsourcing.

article thumbnail

Products vs Services – Critical Success Factors

Startup Professionals Musings

Obviously we can find many critical success factors, like finding and retaining high-value customers, which apply to companies that are product centric or services centric. Customers don’t like people who don’t show their passion and love for the job. Customers don’t like to see you learning on the job or outsourcing.

Product 91
article thumbnail

Don’t Let Outside Funding Kill Your Startup Passion

Startup Professionals Musings

They don’t realize that according to statistics , more than 90 percent of satisfied entrepreneurs use bootstrapping, since other people’s money always comes with strings, most of them negative. Very few entrepreneurs I know have the patience and time to communicate to the satisfaction of all investors.

Funding 57
article thumbnail

10 Tough Quandaries That Lead Entrepreneurs Astray

Startup Professionals Musings

That’s not an attractive statistic if you crave control and power. You don’t want to take money from friends and family, but it’s too early for Angel investors and VCs. Bootstrap if you can, otherwise climb the pyramid of family, friends, Angels, and VCs. The right motivated employees dilemma. Marty Zwilling.