Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 9, 2020

He gives a wealth of practical advice on building a successful technical startup, including some specifics that I like on what constitutes a dream team of partners: The technical guru. Being the leader doesn’t mean more equity, nor does it mean the leader will necessarily be CEO. The industry veteran. The financial suit.

Technical Advisors 123

Technical Advisors Outsource Development Startup High Tech 123

socalTECH

JULY 9, 2019

in Pharmaceutical and Pharmacological Sciences from West Virginia University, and told us a bit about the fund, its investments, and his advice to entrepreneurs looking for investment from the company. On the medical device side, we're looking to be growth equity, like a company on a 510K pathway. Dr. Bostick obtained his Ph.D.

Venture Capital 113

Venture Capital Invest SaaS Entrepreneur 113

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 16, 2014

Or perhaps VCs like to carefully guard who has bankrolled them so as not to attract competition? So they will have allocations to US public equities, international public equities, emerging market public equities, real estate, mining, minerals and so forth. I don’t know. Nobody achieves anything like this alone.

Venture Capital 396

Venture Capital Funding Technical Review Startup 396

socalTECH

AUGUST 6, 2019

Ian Chen: In my previous life, I was working in private equity in LA. However, it's a very competitive market, and there are a lot of clubs and a lot of cities, and in every city we are in there are venues looking to drive more foot traffic through their doors. What's the biggest advice of advice you've give another entrepreneur?

Startup 113

Startup Equity Customer Custom 113

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 6, 2022

These considerations include the following: Are you looking for advice or a boss? Advisory Board members often serve for a nominal retainer, or one percent of the equity, whereas Directors for even a small company would expect at least a five-digit retainer, plus meeting expenses. How much are you willing to spend on your board?

Allegis 139

Allegis Startup Acquisition Entrepreneur 139

InfoChachkie

JULY 11, 2011

By combining our equity investment with a tranche of venture debt, the company has avoided a larger equity round, which would have significantly diluted the Founders’ ownership share. Dollar Blend – Many venture debt lenders require that their funds be accompanied by an equity investment, generally from legitimate venture capitalists.

Equity 235

Equity Startup Invest Funding 235

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 3, 2021

Demonstrate a balance between instincts versus advice. Postulate competitive reactions and your responses. Equity investors realize that they won’t see any real return until an exit occurs, such as a sale, merger, or IPO. I’m looking for all your initiatives, not your excuses.

Entrepreneur 162

Entrepreneur Social Media Examples Metrics 162

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 11, 2010

there may be major competitive changes in the market that makes your next funding round hard (e.g. Let’s assume that the $2 million buys 25% of your company, which is the norm in an equity financing. Tags: Entrepreneur Advice Raising Venture Capital Start-up Advice Startup Advice. Should you take it?

Startup 319

Startup Venture Capital Capital Competition 319

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 24, 2021

My best advice is to stick to the middle ground. A smart investor will take an independent final reading in the market on barriers to entry, active competition, demographics, and price sensitivity. Startup equity investments imply a long-term business relationship, lasting an average of five years. Traction in the marketplace.

Technical Review 151

Technical Review Startup Satisfaction Invest 151

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 23, 2010

a loan) that is later converted to equity at the time of the next financing. 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. It starts as a debt instrument (e.g. But piers are often counter productive.

Startup 290

Startup Funding Venture Capital Pricing 290

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 23, 2010

Have you looked at competition? How well financed is the competition? Convertible or equity? My advice: Do not mention the other VC firms, angels, seed funds, etc. Once you’ve asked it’s pretty tough for investors to want to disregard that advice. It’s called competition. Cap or warrants?

Pricing 292

Pricing Entrepreneur Technical Review Venture Capital 292

SoCal CTO

APRIL 8, 2010

If I Launched a Startup - The Startup Lawyer , March 17, 2010 Great advice on initial steps of setting up a Startup. Death By Competitive Analysis - Steve Blank , March 1, 2010 Trading emails with a startup CEO building an iPhone app, I asked him why potential customers would buy his product. There are MANY of them. And it made me sad.

Startup 150

Startup Software Review Competition SoCal 150

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 15, 2010

Convertible debt is a loan to the company that doesn’t typically get paid back but rather “converts&# into equity when you raise a larger round at a later date. What advice do you have for people who want to get into venture capital? If you watch the video I go into greater detail.

Venture Capital 210

Venture Capital Seed Funding Pricing Southern California 210

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 4, 2014

But I would posit that in order to sustainably build great products in an intensely competitive industry with skills shortages – people management is one of the most critical soft skills organizations need. Equity for the future? Startup Advice' What should the financial settlement be for the founder leaves be? Nurture it.

Startup 340

Startup Technical Review Course Press 340

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 14, 2011

And, the equity markets are certainly a more challenging environment. Investors are very focused on diligence, on business models that make sense, and those companies that have a definite competitive advantage and defensibility to what they're doing. Mike Napoli: Obviously, it's still tough. The environment has gotten more constrained.

Tech Coast Angels 231

Tech Coast Angels Technical Review Angel Southern California 231

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 11, 2010

These are not to be confused with incubators like YCombinator or IdeaLab which look to invest in your company and take equity positions. I don’t think having a few facilities in a city is competitive – hopefully we’ll find a way to make it collaborative. Do tell … Tags: Start-up Advice Tech Market Analysis.

Startup 285

Startup Venture Capital Incubator Entrepreneur 285

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 3, 2016

Costs, returns in equity and funding access. A few incubators and most accelerators provide some seed funding for startup entrants, ranging from $10,000 to $150,000 and expect a chunk of your equity in return. The process is often competitive and very difficult. No surprises in this advice.

Incubator 58

Incubator Startup Seed Funding Equity 58

socalTECH

JUNE 20, 2012

For two years, it was a mentorship program, that worked with twenty three different companies, but did not have a fund, did not have an office, and didn't take any equity. Where should companies be who are interested in working with you, and what advice would you give them? That's my first piece of advice. That's very important.

Class 261

Class Mentor Startup Santa Monica 261

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 13, 2015

He gives a wealth of practical advice on building a successful technical startup, including some specifics that I like on what constitutes a dream team of cofounders: The technical guru. Being the leader doesn’t mean more equity, nor does it mean the leader will necessarily be CEO. The industry veteran. The financial suit.

Technical Advisors 105

Technical Advisors Outsource Development Startup High Tech 105

InfoChachkie

DECEMBER 5, 2011

Note: This is an installment in the Iconic Advice series. "Sweat equity is the most valuable equity there is. Wily entrepreneurs constantly seek ways to improve their value proposition because the more value they can deliver to their end-users, the more their sweat equity will be worth. ."

Tips 274

Tips Startup Entrepreneur Ideas 274

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 31, 2012

My list of excuses includes: product, pricing, competition and lack of sales support. Sales people aren’t always motivated only by cash – especially in early-stage business you need to focus on equity because cash won’t be plentiful. This includes presentations, ROI calculators, competitive analyses and so forth.

Startup 319

Startup Sales Course Competition 319

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 18, 2018

He gives a wealth of practical advice on building a successful technical startup, including some specifics that I like on what constitutes a dream team of partners: The technical guru. Being the leader doesn’t mean more equity, nor does it mean the leader will necessarily be CEO. The industry veteran. The financial suit.

Technical Advisors 57

Technical Advisors Startup Outsource Development High Tech 57

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 11, 2014

He gives a wealth of practical advice on building a successful technical startup, including some specifics that I like on what constitutes a dream team of cofounders: The technical guru. Being the leader doesn’t mean more equity, nor does it mean the leader will necessarily be CEO. The industry veteran. The financial suit.

Technical Advisors 98

Technical Advisors Startup Outsource Development High Tech 98

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 27, 2012

Even if you have an hour booked, the advice is the same. Competition and sustainable advantage. List and position your competition, or alternatives available to the customer. Highlight your sustainable competitive advantages, and barriers to entry. What equity is the company willing to give in return for the investment?

Slides 99

Slides Competition Sample Sales 99

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 24, 2018

You company is the product and you’re selling an equity ownership in your company but much more broadly you’re selling trust & confidence that you’re going to build something enormously valuable and that you’re going to be enjoyable to work hand-in-hand with over the coming decade of each other’s lives.

Venture Capital 314

Venture Capital Technical Review Invest Slides 314

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 8, 2019

These considerations include the following: Are you looking for advice or a boss? Advisory Board members often serve for a nominal retainer, or one percent of the equity, whereas Directors for even a small company would expect at least a five-digit retainer, plus meeting expenses. How much are you willing to spend on your board?

Startup 98

Startup Allegis Entrepreneur Acquisition 98

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 27, 2013

By spending more time educating your board on your business you get more valuable advice from them. You may know how much to pay in cash or equity for your new VP Engineering. In Rob’s spare time he always seems to be going to a boxing class or some other competitive, physical activity. Startup Advice'

Tips 365

Tips Email Venture Capital CTO Coach 365

InfoChachkie

AUGUST 8, 2011

Amarillo’s advice is consistent with my comments in the Startup Competition ; get to know your competitors on a personal basis, while appearing as innocuous as possible. Be vigilant and keep your eyes on your competition, especially when they are dealt their hands. Amarillo Slim, Poker Professional. The same is true with poker.

Startup 207

Startup Entrepreneur Competition Guide 207

socalTECH

NOVEMBER 14, 2019

So, we decided that if we wanted to try to tackle this as an end-to-end solution, we needed to maintain our competitive edge, and we needed to raise capital to hire staff. Someone gave me the piece of advice, which said, essentially, 100 percent of zero is zero; and a portion of something greater than zero is greater thatn zero.

Startup 113

Startup Platform Commerce San Diego 113

Tech Zulu Event

MARCH 16, 2015

There’s plenty of capital out there, but there’s also a lot of competition for startup funding. His best advice: take capital where you can get it. Expect to be diluted by 20-25% with each equity round. They’re typically issued at a 10-20% discount to equity depending on the timeframe; higher range is for longer timeframes.

Startup 40

Startup Venture Capital Equity Funding 40

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 1, 2016

Every startup needs to start their funding search looking for grants, with no equity dilution, as well as contests and foundations. Their value to you is great industry connections, free legal advice, shared learning, and credibility for you with investors. Get help with grant funding and incubator resources.

Entrepreneur 55

Entrepreneur Capital Class Startup 55

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. When I was considering doing something, I reached out to Greg for advice. What advice you can offer entrepreneurs validating their new products?

Venture Capital 115

Venture Capital Entrepreneur Santa Barbara SaaS 115

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 10, 2011

Even if you have an hour booked, the advice is the same. Competition and sustainable advantage. List and position your competition, or alternatives available to the customer. Highlight your sustainable competitive advantages, and barriers to entry. What equity is the company willing to give in return for the investment?

Slides 93

Slides Competition Sample Sales 93

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 21, 2010

You never got around to agreeing exact equity splits but you had many conversations about it. Like anything in life, if you want a fair deal on the deferred fee and warrant percentage you need to talk to a few lawyers to make it competitive. But make it competitive. And I ask them to tell me in advance if it bubbles up.

Startup 318

Startup IP Southern California Entrepreneur 318

socalTECH

APRIL 12, 2017

Unlike Hollywood, which is all about sharp elbows, about "my script", "my talent", "my private equity", "my deal", venture is all about community. People welcomed us with open arms, and always wanted us to co-invest, because they didn't see us as competitive. Finally, what advice would you give to new entrepreneurs?

Invest 157

Invest Startup Hollywood Echo Park 157

socalTECH

DECEMBER 7, 2016

We worked on Beatshare at Chapman, where there was a business plan competition, which we won. From there, we went on to a national competition, California Dreamin, which had over 200 entrants from multiple universities, with undergrad, graduate, and postgraduates from all around the country for three days, and we got second place.

Tech Coast Angels 100

Tech Coast Angels CTO Coach Startup Pasadena Angels 100

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 13, 2018

This is part of a series of advice for founders who need to raise money from venture capitalists. 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. I think there’s some truth in this.

Venture Capital 332

Venture Capital Funding Startup Sales 332