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. If you’re an entrepreneur, all else equal you prefer convertible debt because the deal is priced at a later stage when you’re worth more. Don’t.

Venture Capital 210

Venture Capital Seed Funding Pricing Southern California 210

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.

Technical Review 151

Technical Review Startup Satisfaction Invest 151

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

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 11, 2010

We know prices of deals, compensation, who’s doing well / poorly, etc. You will be surrounded by loads of like-minded people all looking for work space at an affordable price and all, presumably, interested in meeting and interacting with other startups. Do tell … Tags: Start-up Advice Tech Market Analysis.

Startup 285

Startup Venture Capital Incubator Entrepreneur 285

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

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.

Startup 319

Startup Sales Course Competition 319

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

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

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 14, 2012

But if you raise the money at the big price (or any price) please go in with the expectation that you are going to build a large, long-term business. You are either bought for stock or for equity. Raising a large round at whatever price will almost certainly take many potential buyers off the table. Think about it.

Venture Capital 316

Venture Capital Pricing Social Network Acquisition 316

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

InfoChachkie

DECEMBER 5, 2011

Note: This is an installment in the Iconic Advice series. In 1998, the newly christened Broadcast.com went public and set the record (since broken) for the largest single-day price appreciation, rising nearly 250%. "Sweat equity is the most valuable equity there is. Mark and his team sold Broadcast.com, to Yahoo!

Tips 274

Tips Startup Entrepreneur Ideas 274

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

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 22, 2011

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. All of that might be true, but the 2006 price might still be over-valued. That’s fine.

Pricing 309

Pricing Marketing Startup Venture Capital 309

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. Ask them for a meeting to review your pricing strategy with you. Startup Advice' .” His argument is as follows. Always seek input.

Tips 365

Tips Email Venture Capital CTO Coach 365

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 21, 2010

You never got around to agreeing exact equity splits but you had many conversations about it. Forget to get around to setting up that Employee Stock Option Plan and want to be able to give the early guys their options at a low strike price? But make it competitive. Shame about that pesky FAS 157 ruling.

Startup 318

Startup IP Southern California Entrepreneur 318

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. Be careful how you price this. According to Shayne, only 1 out of 1000 business plans might get VC funding.

Startup 40

Startup Venture Capital Equity Funding 40

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

JANUARY 17, 2015

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.

Technical Review 108

Technical Review Startup Satisfaction Entrepreneur 108

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 14, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series Startup Advice. It’s just that many companies waste equity on advisory boards, pick the wrong advisers or set up advisory boards with the wrong expectations. These can be competitive threats, customer adoption problems, pricing strategies, senior hires, whatever. Is it just me?

Startup 215

Startup Venture Capital Entrepreneur Capital 215

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

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 16, 2013

My advice to founders out there is to not volunteer too much, but be open and honest in the face of direct questions like the following: What is your burn rate and runway today? Real customers are ones who have paid full price for the product, have it installed and in use, and are still satisfied.

Startup 101

Startup Invest Patents Entrepreneur 101

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 2, 2012

My advice to founders out there is to not volunteer too much, but be open and honest in the face of direct questions like the following: What is your burn rate and runway today? Real customers are ones who have paid full price for the product, have it installed and in use, and are still satisfied.

Startup 97

Startup Invest Patents Customer 97

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 15, 2016

Defy teaches them personal finance like how to keep a checking account, the difference between debt and equity, what cashflow is and so forth. Defy Ventures runs business plan competitions and has people like us who attend and give business advice and feedback. She was smart (she started her career in private equity!)

Writing 150

Writing Startup Design Training 150

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 19, 2011

People want to invest in people they trust – once you’ve made money for someone you can always go back, and even get better pricing. o Everything is for sale but it’s the price that moves the timing. o Put a timeframe/money – competition in the picture. . • It’s like building a relationship, under promise and over deliver.

Acquisition 304

Acquisition Startup Customer Custom 304

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2014

But the biggest thing to know is this: Companies who are scaling quickly in revenue and with a high gross margin often should invest as much capital in growth as they can manage responsibly because when you find a product / market fit and your company is growing at a very fast scale you want to capture market share before competition sets in.

Startup 383

Startup Company Companies .Net 383

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 5, 2011

My advice to founders out there is to not volunteer too much, but be open and honest in the face of direct questions like the following: What is your burn rate and runway today? Real customers are ones who have paid full price for the product, have it installed and in use, and are still satisfied.

Entrepreneur 95

Entrepreneur Startup Invest Patents 95

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 20, 2010

My advice to founders out there is to not volunteer too much, but be open and honest in the face of direct questions like the following: What is your burn rate and runway today? Real customers are ones who have paid full price for the product, have it installed and in use, and are still satisfied.

Startup 91

Startup Invest Patents Entrepreneur 91

SoCal CTO

SEPTEMBER 8, 2010

Pricing models, the freemium myth and why you may not be charging enough for your product - Seth Levine's VC Adventure , August 12, 2010 I’ve been pulled into a number of product and pricing meetings recently (for reasons unknown I’ve become the Foundry pricing and productization guy). equity debate. How it happens.

Startup 191

Startup Venture Capital Blogging CTO Hire 191

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 1, 2016

You don’t have unlimited equity to dole out. She can anticipate reactions to price increases or product changes by customers and she can sustain competitive challenges because she knows the customer will stick by her. They open up about what their challenges are and they seek advice and input.

Startup 150

Startup Coach Course Invest 150

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 5, 2011

I was meeting with a first-time CEO of a very promising young startup recently and offering my advice on what his priorities should be. He listed all of the product releases that were up coming, the customers that were in the pipeline and where he saw his competition moving. Imagine Apple without Steve Jobs. We know it can be done.

Venture Capital 317

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Press 317

Tech Zulu Event

AUGUST 13, 2010

After starting three companies, I've found that some widely accepted advice lead me to failure while. Bootstrapping advice, entrepreneur, startups. . Name Your Price: Influencing Customer's Purchasing Decisions. Understanding the effect of perceived discounts, multiple product levels, price anchoring, and other.

Guide 69

Guide Startup Venture Capital Entrepreneur 69

SoCal CTO

DECEMBER 1, 2010

Equity-Only CTO and Equity-Only Developers - SoCal CTO , November 1, 2010 I had a recent email dialog with the founder of a company looking for a CTO for their startup. have focused this as advice to entrepreneurs building enterprise software ventures today. It may be that all the doomsayers are right. But I don’t think so.

Technical Review 175

Technical Review Startup Product Technology 175