article thumbnail

How to Make Sure Professional Services Don’t Take Over Your Software Company

Both Sides of the Table

deliver profitable revenue that while on gross margins of 50% vs. software at 85-95% it is still profits to help you cover fixed costs. You don’t want to run the risk that having a PS business that takes your eye of off the ball of growing a large software business. That is the software business. rollout support.

article thumbnail

Angel Funding Advice

Both Sides of the Table

I recently wrote a post on angel financing covering the topic of convertible notes but I realized I was thinking about the issue more from investor perspective and a very narrow topic of how to price the round. This post is for those who want to raise angel money. At an angel round you can get away with no market validation.

Angel 291
Insiders

Sign Up for our Newsletter

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

article thumbnail

7 Key Factors Obscure Your Customer Acquisition Costs

Startup Professionals Musings

As a business consultant and angel investor, I often ask for your own assessment of marketing ROI , or customer acquisition cost (CAC). Leaders and investors need to know if you have and are tapping into your key sources of relevant data, including web analytics, sales management data, and customer relationship management (CRM) software.

Customer 100
article thumbnail

16 Great Startup Posts from March

SoCal CTO

9 Reasons Why Many Smart People Go Nowhere - Life Beyond Code , March 29, 2010 You would have met many smart people who live a mediocre life. The Exit Disconnect - Ask the Angels , March 25, 2010 I’ll admit to having a bias towards exits and focus my review of a potential investment on the exit potential. There are MANY of them.

Startup 150
article thumbnail

5 Keys to Moving From Entrepreneur Thinking To Action

Startup Professionals Musings

Starting something new is risky, no matter how many experts have reviewed it, or how much money you have. As an angel investor, you can bet I wasn’t convinced he would ever start his next proposal. Most people don’t remember that Bill Gates first software venture, called Traf-O-Data , was a dismal failure.

article thumbnail

How to Decrease the Odds That Your Startup Fails

Both Sides of the Table

It says that selling an airplane ticket for $500 and getting paid a $5 fees by the airlines (1% gross margin) is not the same thing as selling $500 of software that you built (>90% gross margin). Sam did all this analysis before even deciding to build V1 of his software and before we put serious money behind him launching.

Startup 150
article thumbnail

Brad Feld Drops Knowledge. Here’s What He Said …

Both Sides of the Table

A deep dive into the Foundry Group investment philosophy including an interesting discussion of their investing Themes. “… our lens is: Internet Software Companies anywhere in the U.S. If you are outside internet software we are not going to invest. So I was an Angel investor from 1994 to 1996. Some Angel groups endorse it.