Berkonomics

OCTOBER 10, 2013

Many CEOs have asked me if I felt an investment banker adds value if the buyer has already been identified. Investment bankers sometimes slow the process by requiring a “deal book” to be prepared containing considerable information about a company to help a buyer. Deal books are expensive to create. Then there is the question of fees.

Invest 207

Invest Competition Pricing Startup 207

Berkonomics

JANUARY 26, 2017

The rest of the purchase price was concocted from a brew of zero coupon bonds (where the face value is many times the invested amount until the reduced cost bonds mature thirty years later), and borrowing using the target company’s accounts receivable and other assets as collateral for a loan to purchase the company. What power!

Pricing 120

Pricing Sales Tool Equity 120

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 15, 2022

<== Our conclusion was that this isn’t a temporary blip that will swiftly trend-back up in a V-shaped recovery of valuations but rather represented a new normal on how the market will price these companies somewhat permanently. Across more than 10 years we have kept the size of our Seed investments between $2–3.5

Venture Capital 416

Venture Capital Marketing Technical Review Seed Funding 416

socalTECH

MAY 28, 2013

In real life, you can just about bargain a price for anything you want to buy--a car, a house, even that new stereo from your local electronics store. Joe Marrapodi: GreenToe is a name your own price marketplace for products. It''s very similar to the Priceline.com model, where you name your price for a flight or hotel.

Pricing 273

Pricing Product Help Sales 273

Berkonomics

AUGUST 3, 2023

Bootstrapping: This term describes your ability to start a business with little investment and grow it using internally generated funds. You will realize much more from the ultimate sale of your business even if at a considerably lower price than if splitting the proceeds with investors. There is a lot to say about retaining control.

Venture Capital 295

Venture Capital Startup Class Invest 295

Berkonomics

FEBRUARY 23, 2023

Companies sometime run out of cash in the midst of their increasing success, and often find that sources of loans or investment are not freely flowing at the moment of need. Competitors, seeing a successful development of a niche, flock into the competitive void with products or services built with a fresh view of the current environment.

Pricing 156

Pricing Invest Equity Entrepreneur 156

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 10, 2021

On the one hand, you’re over paying for every investment and valuations aren’t rational. On the other hand, the biggest winners will turn out to be much larger than the prices people paid for them and this will happen faster than at any time in human history. That used to be called A-round investing. of the fund.

Venture Capital 471

Venture Capital Writing Invest Pricing 471

Berkonomics

MARCH 25, 2012

For those of us who’ve invested in early stage companies, especially technology startups, we have confronted a universal problem. There are many ways to project the value of a company for purposes of pricing an investment, but all rely upon the revenue and profit projections of the entrepreneur as a starting point.

Invest 321

Invest Startup Email Competition 321

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 8, 2014

Most associates need some entrepreneurial experience before actually making investments. Ability to source information easily to help build a thesis around companies / industries / competition. Most firms hire associates straight out of MBA programs and usually it is a “2-3 years and out” type of job.

Help 365

Help Invest Venture Capital Technical Review 365

Berkonomics

JULY 6, 2017

Know your market and competition, or don’t spend a dime on anything else. In 1994, (I know a long time ago), I invested over a million dollars into a company whose entrepreneurs had a vision that I bought into for many reasons, not the least of which was that I had industry experience and understood the need. Back to 1996.

Competition 266

Competition Research Summary Pricing 266

SoCal CTO

MAY 19, 2010

Can you raise $750K - $1M with no future investments planned? I’m a regular reader/listener of the Frank Peters Show that talks about Angel Investing. In his recent post, Top 10 Ways to Win a Business Plan Competition , he says: #4 I wanted to push this further down the list, but I just bristle at this: the revenue forecast.

Invest 205

Invest Angel Tech Coast Angels Pasadena Angels 205

InfoChachkie

APRIL 13, 2015

Avoid a simple pricing mistake which could sink your startup. Vendors often respond by discounting their prices at the 11th hour, in the hopes a lower price will spur a purchase. However, if you never offer price discounts to anyone, you can resist all such requests by deferring to your company “policy.”

Pricing 100

Pricing Startup Sales SaaS 100

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 16, 2023

Projecting financials is a natural extension of the homework every entrepreneur needs to do on customer opportunity size, product costs, pricing, competition and customer value. Calculate investment amounts and timing. Project your cash burn rate to keep at least 18 months between venture capital or angel investments.

Startup 116

Startup Pricing Sales Statistics 116

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 30, 2018

VC firms see thousands of deals and have a refined sense of how the market is valuing deals because they get price signals across all of these deals. As an entrepreneur it can feel as intimidating as going to buy a car where the dealer knows the price of every make & model of a car and you’re guessing at how much to pay.

Venture Capital 324

Venture Capital Pricing Startup Invest 324

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 29, 2010

Competitiveness - One attribute that I believe most VCs look for in entrepreneurs is competitiveness. If you stumble on to a really good idea believe me it will get competitive really quickly. I know that people who aren’t competitive always find competitive people slightly distasteful. I had to say it.

Competition 296

Competition Entrepreneur Startup GRP Partners 296

Tech.Co

MAY 31, 2023

But while competition remains fierce, the advancement and accessibility of smart solutions are making it easy than ever for startups to find their feet. Lenido Startup tool: Accounting software Price: Free Accounting software doesn't need to come at a premium. VPN Startup tool: VPN Price: Free Hide.me

Tool 131

Tool Startup Software Review Technical Review 131

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 14, 2014

This raises a big red flag with potential investors, who conclude that no competitors means no market, or you haven’t looked, and the new startup is likely not investable. Competition for your new hydrogen fuel auto engine is not limited to other hydrogen auto engine offerings, or even other autos. Investors check connections.

Competition 93

Competition Startup Patents Slides 93

TechCrunch LA

AUGUST 19, 2019

The startup has raised $1 million in seed funding from RXBAR founders Peter Rahal and Jared Smith, CXT Investments, and Lean Luxe founder M. ” And in his view, Huron will be set apart with its “ability to create a brand with a tone of voice that resonates, with products that work, at a price point that makes sense for this guy.”

Startup 217

Startup Seed Funding Los Angeles Competition 217

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 3, 2011

For today's Insights and Opinions section, we have an article from Megan Lisa Jones , an investment banker, on the Fifteen things investment bankers won't tell you. nothing kills a deal faster than a sky high and unrealistic price. Get some competition going for your deal and then you'll see more pricing flexibility.

Invest 113

Invest Guide Competition Pricing 113

InfoChachkie

JANUARY 5, 2015

In his premier film appearance in the blaxploitation send-up “I’m Gonna Git You Sucka,” Chris Rock inadvertently addresses a key pricing challenge faced by most entrepreneurs. Watch this 93-second clip and see if you can identify the pricing pitfall addressed in this humorous snippet. Price = Value. How Much For A Rib?

Pricing 100

Pricing Product Startup Customer 100

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 9, 2023

Businesses require an equally elegant business model, with the right price, messaging and delivery channel to the right target customers to keep the dream alive and growing. The founder had simply not done the work to validate a price and customer segment. In the investment community, this work is called proving the business model.

Technical Review 88

Technical Review Pricing Software Review Startup 88

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 23, 2013

One of the toughest decisions for a startup is how to price their product or service. The alternatives range from giving it away for free, to pricing based on costs, to charging what the market will bear (premium pricing). In this more traditional product pricing model, the price is set at two to five times the product cost.

Pricing 116

Pricing Product Customer Custom 116

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 20, 2014

Last year at this time I spoke at VidCon and gave this presentation in which I said YouTube was “the Walmart of Online Video” but I also commented that I felt YouTube was vulnerable to competition because their rev share to MCNs wasn’t high enough to allow MCNs to build a profitable business inside of YouTube.

Invest 291

Invest Content Media Networking 291

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 13, 2016

Either of these qualms can ultimately sidetrack your startup as not worthy of investment, so it pays to do your homework on what you say and how to communicate effectively. This is also the place to first mention patents and any other differentiators that put you ahead of competition. Investors invest in people more than the idea.

Invest 108

Invest Startup Slides Equity 108

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 30, 2021

Businesses require an equally elegant business model, with the right price, messaging and delivery channel to the right target customers to keep the dream alive and growing. The founder had simply not done the work to validate a price and customer segment. In the investment community, this work is called proving the business model.

Product 159

Product Technical Review Pricing Software Review 159

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 26, 2010

One of the toughest decisions for a startup is how to price their product or service. The alternatives range from giving it away for free (like Twitter), to pricing based on costs, to charging what the market will bear (premium pricing). Portfolio pricing. Tiered or volume pricing. Competitive positioning.

Pricing 98

Pricing Product Startup Competition 98

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 14, 2021

This raises a big red flag with potential investors, who conclude that no competitors means no market, or you haven’t looked, and the new startup is likely not investable. Competition for your new hydrogen fuel auto engine is not limited to other hydrogen auto engine offerings, or even other autos. Investors check connections.

Competition 166

Competition Funding Startup Patents 166

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 26, 2023

Target audience may be limited or new due to price. You will find that customers discount advertising, and look for user testimonials, online influencer reviews, and return-on-investment examples from industry experts. To win in this environment, you may need to expand your leadership in industry conferences and community activities.

Product 141

Product Services Technical Review Artificial Inteligence 141

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 5, 2021

If you don’t have a destination, don’t waste your money trying to get there, and don’t expect anyone to support you along the way Projecting financials is a natural extension of the homework every entrepreneur needs to do on customer opportunity size, product costs, pricing, competition and customer value.

Startup 147

Startup Pricing Sales Statistics 147

TechCrunch LA

MARCH 31, 2021

The sweeping infrastructure package put forward today by President Joe Biden comes with a price tag of roughly $2 trillion (and hefty tax hikes) but gives startups and the broader tech industry about $1 trillion worth of reasons to support it. ” Climate resiliency . Given the steady drumbeat of climate disasters that hit the U.S.

Startup 229

Startup Technical Review Invest Research 229

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 29, 2010

One of the most important questions you will be asked by potential investors is how your solutions beats the competition, not just today, but over the three to five year life of their investment. The concept is called “sustainable competitive advantage.” That implies competitive now, and the potential to stay in the lead.

Competition 89

Competition Patents IBM IBM 89

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 30, 2010

In my own effort to keep up with the times, I just finished a new book by Landy Chase, titled “ Competitive Selling: Out-Plan, Out-Think, Out-Sell to Win Every Time.” Show them you are the highest value alternative, not the lowest price. Show them a return on investment (ROI) in their own terms. Selling around tough competition.

Competition 92

Competition Entrepreneur Startup Customer 92

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 20, 2022

Now these principles are complicated by the worldwide instant access to many competitive alternatives, indirect social and environment impacts, and the velocity of change enabled by the pervasive market move to digital. These principles include the following: Free and ultra-low cost may no longer be competitive.

Customer 103

Customer Custom Competition Netflix 103

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 30, 2023

Incidentally, if you never thought of yourself as being an A-Player employee, you probably will struggle even more in the competitive entrepreneur world. Understand the need for an investment well before results. Quantify the return on investment before taking action. Quantify the return on investment before taking action.

Entrepreneur 85

Entrepreneur Customer Custom Competition 85

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 5, 2011

2 preamble issues having read the comments on TC today: 1: I know that the prices of startup companies is much great in Silicon Valley than in smaller towns / less tech focused areas in the US and the US prices higher than many foreign markets. You can be pissed off, but I don’t set prices. That’s stupid.

Startup 336

Startup Pricing Technical Review Marketing 336

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 6, 2023

If there are conflicts within the team, or differing views of the strategy, or evidence of missing processes and tools, the investment process will likely be terminated. Make yourself available to answer any questions, show your enthusiasm, and explain both the positives and negatives of the external investment process.

Technical Review 118

Technical Review Startup Satisfaction Invest 118

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 2, 2010

Some objections are real and they end up becoming changes to your product, your service plan or your pricing / bundling. As a founder, when you’ve been dealing with these kinds of objections for a couple of years it becomes natural and you easily handle objections on price, product & competition without much thought.

Sales 289

Sales Startup Training Pricing 289