Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 27, 2018

Unfortunately, customers look for value in solving their problem, and new technologies alone scare them, so these solutions don’t get bought by customers, or funded. In reality, there isn’t much overlap between the business pitch I expect, versus a product pitch. Customized marketing strategy and realistic sales plans. “If

Product 58

Product Slides Entrepreneur Invest 58

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 7, 2015

When pitching to investors, entrepreneurs always seem to start with a customer pitch, then add a slide or two about the business. In every case, the relevant pitch needs to start by highlighting a real customer problem, then outlining a new solution, with all the features and disruptive technology.

Product 103

Product Slides Custom Customer 103

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 8, 2013

If one of your core values is exceeding your customer expectations for quality and service, and your potential partner ascribes to the low cost, high profit mantra, a successful partnership is highly unlikely over the long-term. Look at the big picture first of development, finance, and marketing/sales. Similar values and goals.

Software Review 103

Software Review Equity CTO Hire Outsource Development 103

InfoChachkie

JULY 11, 2011

Startup blogger and venture capitalist extraordinaire Fred Wilson recently published a great article on Venture Debt, which I strongly suggest you review HERE. The nature of the company’s business model requires it to fund certain costs before it is paid by its customers. Go ahead, I will wait…. welcome back. Enter venture debt.

Equity 235

Equity Startup Invest Funding 235

Berkonomics

JUNE 8, 2017

Some businesses require very little capital and the founder can self-finance the enterprise and retain 100% of its ownership and control from ignition through liquidity event (startup through sale). Do not expect grand valuations of your enterprise from these professional angels. For you who fit that description, nice work.

Venture Capital 266

Venture Capital Class Invest Equity 266

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 19, 2018

Your historical trading information including financials and a “customer file” which shows the history of your transactions so that investors can run “cohort” analyses Customer reference, personal references, key team members, compensation, cap table, stock option plan, etc. and then asking to take a brochure home with you.

Funding 336

Funding Venture Capital Startup Email 336

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 30, 2019

The “valley of death” is a common term in the startup world, referring to the difficulty of covering the negative cash flow in the early stages of a startup, before their new product or service is bringing in revenue from real customers. Set expectations accordingly. Nevertheless, it’s an option that doesn’t cost you equity.

Startup 87

Startup Technical Review Equity Incubator 87

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 11, 2013

The link for the video is here and if you want a short firsthand view on our changes it’s a great resource. I often advise startup companies not to try and pin all of your brand equity into an announcement. A brand is a marathon, not a sprint. It’s something you must earn over time by living up to the name you define.

Venture Capital 324

Venture Capital Startup Blogging Platform 324

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 10, 2019

People may jump into the lifestyle to be their own boss, achieve great wealth, start a new trend, or all the above. Your great idea for the next Facebook may make you wealthy, but it probably won’t help the hungry. You have very little money, and you don’t want to give away your equity. The founder’s title and role dilemma.

Startup 97

Startup USC Entrepreneur Statistics 97

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 23, 2010

This is part of my ongoing series on startup advice but also filed under my sales & marketing posts. The only problem is that you can’t afford all of these expensive direct sales reps to go and sell it. Sort of amortizing the costs of their sales reps over more products. You decide to go out and hire a sales rep.

Startup 293

Startup Sales Marketing Product 293

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 25, 2011

A great recent example of this was a successful group of entrepreneurs who had created a company that will do $10-12 million in revenue at their system integration business (read: services business) in 2011 after having done $5 million or so in 2010 and $2-3 million in 2009. This team is talented. They wanted advice. And probably some money.

Services 332

Services Venture Capital IP Startup 332

InfoChachkie

JANUARY 16, 2018

Greathouse: Great products and companies that came out (of) Santa Barbara. The problem is that stakeholders, like marketing and sales, don’t know what the latest version of the roadmap is. I chalk up our success to doing a great job validating the opportunity before we started to build the business. Semick: They are.

Venture Capital 115

Venture Capital Entrepreneur Santa Barbara SaaS 115

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 8, 2015

The “valley of death” is a common term in the startup world, referring to the difficulty of covering the negative cash flow in the early stages of a startup, before their new product or service is bringing in revenue from real customers. Set expectations accordingly. Nevertheless, it’s an option that doesn’t cost you equity.

Entrepreneur 105

Entrepreneur Startup Technical Review Equity 105

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 21, 2016

They expect to hear about founders and team member’s prior experience in building a startup, and knowledge in the relevant solution domain. Lead with your intent to offer the solution free to customers. Of course, customers love free, but investors hate it. Sales projections are less than one percent market penetration.

Funding 98

Funding Startup Innocal Entrepreneur 98

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 14, 2014

The “valley of death” is a common term in the startup world, referring to the difficulty of covering the negative cash flow in the early stages of a startup, before their new product or service is bringing in revenue from real customers. Set expectations accordingly. Nevertheless, it’s an option that doesn’t cost you equity.

Entrepreneur 113

Entrepreneur Funding Startup Technical Review 113

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 1, 2017

The “valley of death” is a common term in the startup world, referring to the difficulty of covering the negative cash flow in the early stages of a startup, before their new product or service is bringing in revenue from real customers. Set expectations accordingly. Nevertheless, it’s an option that doesn’t cost you equity.

Develop 70

Develop Development Product Startup 70

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 11, 2017

As an angel investor and business advisor on new ventures, I expect to see five-year financial projections from every entrepreneur. Founders point to the great number of financial unknowns in any new business, and are reluctant to “commit” to any numbers which may come back to haunt them later. Project unit-volume and price levels.

Pricing 57

Pricing Startup Entrepreneur Invest 57

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 27, 2016

As an angel investor, I’ve learned to believe in this approach, since I have seen great ideas go astray, due to poor execution and I have seen apparently marginal ideas make millions, managed by a savvy entrepreneur. Focus on customer needs. Giving the wrong people money doesn’t help at the idea level.

Ideas 53

Ideas Technical Review Entrepreneur Advertising 53

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 21, 2010

As startup entrepreneurs we all want to work with them because having their name as reference clients makes it so much easier for marketing, PR, selling to other customers, fund raising and even recruiting. I’ve already made clear that I think raising equity from “strategic money&# is an oxymoron. million in sales.

Startup 298

Startup Sales Slides Metrics 298

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 19, 2013

The “valley of death” is a common term in the startup world, referring to the difficulty of covering the negative cash flow in the early stages of a startup, before their new product or service is bringing in revenue from real customers. Set expectations accordingly. Nevertheless, it’s an option that doesn’t cost you equity.

Startup 123

Startup Technical Review Equity Incubator 123

InfoChachkie

MAY 16, 2011

1) Expect Independent Channel Sales Reps To Perform Missionary Sales. Rationale: I cannot afford to hire a direct sales force. Fallacy: Third-party, OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturing) representatives succeed once the sales process is defined, proven and documented. 3) Attempt To License An Idea.

Startup 242

Startup Outsource Development Outsource Sales 242

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 12, 2018

The “valley of death” is a common term in the startup world, referring to the difficulty of covering the negative cash flow in the early stages of a startup, before their new product or service is bringing in revenue from real customers. Set expectations accordingly. Nevertheless, it’s an option that doesn’t cost you equity.

Startup 53

Startup Technical Review Equity Incubator 53

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 14, 2014

People may jump into the lifestyle to be their own boss, achieve great wealth, start a new trend, or all the above. Your great idea for the next Facebook may make you wealthy, but it probably won’t help the hungry. You have very little money, and you don’t want to give away your equity. The Founder’s title and role dilemma.

Entrepreneur 107

Entrepreneur Statistics Equity Satisfaction 107

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 6, 2014

You should expect to get glowing references unless the candidate has told you in advance something like, “Look, I’m listing Susan as a reference. We had some great moments working together and some tough ones. You expected no less. CFOs often know the other CFOs and same for heads of sales, marketing, tech, etc.

Startup 302

Startup Technical Review Entrepreneur Report 302

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 25, 2012

Use this approach before you have a real valuation, a real product, or any real customers. A startup incubator is a company, university, or other organization which provides resources for equity to nurture young companies, helping them to survive and grow during the startup period when they are most vulnerable. Startup incubators.

Technical Review 103

Technical Review Equity Incubator Venture Capital 103

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2014

You are particularly vulnerable if: You have revenue concentration (few customers each providing a large total of percentage of your revenue). You have a large number of startup customers (because when markets crash they have a funny way of going bankrupt quickly or cutting burn precipitously). Availability of Capital.

Startup 383

Startup Company Companies .Net 383

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 19, 2017

People may jump into the lifestyle to be their own boss, achieve great wealth, start a new trend, or all the above. Your great idea for the next Facebook may make you wealthy, but it probably won’t help the hungry. You have very little money, and you don’t want to give away your equity. The founder’s title and role dilemma.

Entrepreneur 57

Entrepreneur USC Statistics Equity 57

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 4, 2016

Starting a new business in an area where you have no experience, just because it appears to have great potential, is a recipe for failure. Find team members to work for equity rather than cash. People working with you need to understand their failure means startup failure, rather than expect money up front.

Startup 61

Startup Social Media Entrepreneur Equity 61

Tech Zulu Event

MARCH 16, 2015

Make sure you understand what those expectations are before you close a round of VC funding. This can be a great way to test your product and get customer feedback. Set your fundraising expectations: Fundraising is a full-time job. Expect to be diluted by 20-25% with each equity round. Crowdfunding.

Startup 40

Startup Venture Capital Equity Funding 40

socalTECH

AUGUST 13, 2010

We managed to double the company in eight quarters, and added companies like Dell, Intel, Adobe, Expedia, TripAdvisor, Siemens, and Rockwell and lots of other great global brand names as customers. We prepared a presentation to go out to the private equity community, to investigate opportunities to put money into Language Weaver.

Equity 168

Equity Startup Acquisition Funding 168

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 19, 2013

People may jump into the lifestyle to be their own boss, achieve great wealth, start a new trend, or all the above. Your great idea for the next Facebook may make you wealthy, but it probably won’t help the hungry. You have very little money, and you don’t want to give away your equity. The Founder’s title and role dilemma.

Startup 98

Startup Entrepreneur Statistics Equity 98

Berkonomics

JANUARY 20, 2010

This post will be perhaps a bit longer than usual, but certainly of great interest for those with interest in or have need for more capital… This stage is critical to many businesses and a passing option to others, depending upon the capital efficiency of the enterprise. For you who fit that description, nice work.

Venture Capital 174

Venture Capital Invest Class Entrepreneur 174

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 16, 2011

Use this approach before you have a real valuation, a real product, or any real customers. A startup incubator is a company, university, or other organization which provides resources for equity to nurture young companies, helping them to survive and grow during the startup period when they are most vulnerable. Startup incubators.

Startup 93

Startup Technical Review Equity Incubator 93

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 13, 2012

Terms like “every customer needs this” and “next generation platform” are far too soft, and should be avoided. This is not the place for a detailed product specification, but an explanation of how and why it works, including a customer-centric quantification of the benefits. Marketing, sales, and partners. Solution and benefits.

Competition 113

Competition Metrics Startup Invest 113

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 25, 2016

If you expect an equity investment from reputable investors for your new startup, you need to know the boundaries that often limit their interest. If you have a great social cause, perhaps you should be looking for philanthropists instead of investors. Business is a good cause, but has limited returns.

Funding 57

Funding Social Media Startup Patents 57

SoCal CTO

MARCH 4, 2010

Background This post partly really came about as a result of a great conversation yesterday with David Croslin a former CTO at HP who recently conducted an interesting experiment. Labels and Structure One of the more interesting questions is what this ends up being called and how it gets structured. However, I’m always doing this part-time.

Technical Review 170

Technical Review Technical Advisors CTO Coach Startup 170

InfoChachkie

FEBRUARY 24, 2011

We have built SocialStay for scale so I think the ‘chasm’ is both a function of time and sales. Without their buy in, we don’t get the opportunity to interact with end customers. Great design/ user experience carries more and more weight these days and I have been lucky to touch some of the world’s most visible brands.

Startup 233

Startup Design Mobile Social Network 233