Tech Coast Venture Network

APRIL 22, 2010

Virgina Lorimor There are several options for financing a start-up business that tend to follow a natural course in a business’ development: Personal Investment. This is where all entrepreneurs have to start. Often, this also involves a HELOC (Home Equity Line of Credit) if you’re a home owner with equity.

Startup 124

Startup Tech Coast Angels TCVN Incubator 124

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 21, 2021

When you see startups like SpaceX and Pinterest grow from a low valuation to a billion dollars in just a few years, it’s easy to assume that if you just keep doing what you are doing, you can get there as well. Of course, that means a mindset willing to give up much more equity, and taking on a whole new level of risk.

Startup 151

Startup Course Sales Entrepreneur 151

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 31, 2012

Jeff (also an HBS alum) co-teaches the LTV course with Professor Eisenmann about a student of theirs who had written a blog post about sales taking on some of my previous assertions. That student is Erin McCann who formerly worked in sales at Google, so she has some ground to stand on in her assertions. Specifically, 1.

Startup 319

Startup Sales Course Competition 319

socalTECH

NOVEMBER 10, 2020

Los Angeles-based Signal Automotive , a startup which develops software for managing buying, selling, and inventory allocation for automobile dealers, has raised $20M in a funding round. The funding was led by Kayne Partners Fund, the growth private equity arm of Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors LP.

Software 124

Software Sales Southern California Equity 124

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 1, 2022

Wouldn’t you like to be one of the lucky people who joined Google and Facebook when these were startups, and now be a multi-millionaire or better? So people ask me “How many shares should I ask for or expect when I join a startup today?” Thus, options don’t “pay the mortgage” today, so to speak. 7% Product Manager,2 -.3%

Startup 137

Startup Equity Pricing Marketing 137

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 14, 2022

Most entrepreneurs who start a company alone soon come to the conclusion that two heads are better than one – someone to share the workload, the hard decisions, costs, and tasks you don’t like. This would be a mistake, and could easily cost you your startup. Most startups can’t afford that. All decisions will be made jointly.”

Startup 140

Startup Satisfaction Writing Entrepreneur 140

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 16, 2023

Thus, financial projections for up to five years are a necessary element in every business plan. Per the words of an old country song, “if you don’t know where you’re going, you will probably end up somewhere else.” If you are losing money on every unit, it’s hard to make it up in volume. Forecast sales-volume expectations.

Startup 116

Startup Pricing Sales Statistics 116

socalTECH

MARCH 19, 2014

Sales tax compliance is not a typical sexy startup area. Mark Faggiano is the CEO and founder of the company, and spoke to us about what the big deal is about sales tax software compliance. Mark Faggiano is the CEO and founder of the company, and spoke to us about what the big deal is about sales tax software compliance.

Sales 149

Sales Software Startup Commerce 149

Berkonomics

JANUARY 6, 2022

First, the marginal exit event: Sometimes the end game or sale of the company is not a happy event for the early investors, including the entrepreneur or the founders. Most sophisticated investors will take either a promissory note or preferred stock, both of which come before founder or management stock in a sale or liquidation.

Venture Capital 156

Venture Capital Sales Pricing Equity 156

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 4, 2022

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. It always reduces risk to plan your business first. Use crowd funding.

Tips 104

Tips Startup Technical Review Equity 104

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 23, 2013

When someone asks me for the best way to fund a startup, I always say bootstrap it, meaning fund it yourself and grow organically. Bootstrapping avoids all the cost, pain, and distractions of finding angels or VCs, and allows you to keep control and all your hard-earned equity for yourself. Think minimum spending. Creative marketing.

Equity 96

Equity Startup Summary Tips 96

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. It always reduces risk to plan your business first. Use crowd funding.

Startup 87

Startup Technical Review Equity Incubator 87

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 6, 2013

Final startup grind from msuster. And the folks at Startup Grind have been kind enough to invite me to present this morning in Mountain View on the topic. And you need to be careful about giving up control to cofounders as much as VCs. PMs are a vital part of a tech startup. figure out roles. identify gaps. and so forth.

Startup 388

Startup Slides Outsource Development Sales 388

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 8, 2022

Most entrepreneurs struggle with many startup founders quandaries in building their business, and these key dilemmas are probably the biggest source of pain and failure for the entrepreneur lifestyle. People may jump into the lifestyle to be their own boss, achieve great wealth, start a new trend, or all the above.

Startup 130

Startup USC Entrepreneur Statistics 130

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 11, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series Startup Advice. Many startup companies hire advisory boards. They are usually offered around 0.25% of the companies equity in exchange for their role and I’ve seen many companies hand out a total of 2% to advisers. If you plan to set one up – no problem. Not enough time.

Startup 306

Startup Venture Capital Equity Technical Review 306

Berkonomics

AUGUST 6, 2020

When we start a business, we are optimistic that we will succeed and dream of riches to follow when the company is sold or even getting all the way to an IPO. Some of us build our businesses to be lifestyle creations, destined to provide for our families but not necessarily as creators of great equity upon an eventual sale.

Resource 156

Resource Startup Sales Equity 156

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 21, 2010

This is part of my ongoing series on Startup Advice. 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. Large companies can be strange sometimes. Sometimes it actually does.

Startup 298

Startup Sales Slides Metrics 298

Berkonomics

FEBRUARY 3, 2022

If you have no intention of giving up ownership or even control over time, state that early and plan accordingly. I also recall vividly one of my first investments where the entrepreneur backed out of a sale to a well-known investment company at the last second, declaring his intention not to sell “his” company.

Equity 156

Equity Course Sales Invest 156

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 25, 2019

Wouldn’t you like to be one of the lucky people who joined Google and Facebook when these were startups, and now be a multi-millionaire or better? So people ask me “How many shares should I ask for or expect when I join a startup today?” Thus, options don’t “pay the mortgage” today, so to speak. 7% Product Manager,2 -.3%

Equity 94

Equity Startup Pricing Marketing 94

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 27, 2023

It’s disconcerting for most to realize that these shares are initially worth nothing, and the challenge is to get that value up as quickly as possible, without losing it just as quickly to investors, lazy partners, and taxation. Make sure the government waits for a stock sale to collect taxes. In the U.S.,

.Net 96

.Net Startup Entrepreneur Acquisition 96

SoCal CTO

MARCH 12, 2012

I've recently received several emails from people looking for a technical cofounder for their startup. Make sure you go through the 32 Questions Developers May Have Forgot to Ask a Startup Founder. You should definitely hit up the Startup Weekend events as well. Here's an example of that kind of email. Go to user groups.

CTO Hire 211

CTO Hire CTO Coach Startup Equity 211

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2014

I was reading Danielle Morrill’s blog post today on whether one’s “ Startup Burn Rate is Normal. I love how transparently Danielle lives her startup (& encourages other to join in) because it provides much needed transparency to other startups. Let’s set up a framework. Gross Burn vs. Net Burn.

Startup 383

Startup Company Companies .Net 383

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 6, 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. Nevertheless, it’s an option that doesn’t cost you equity. Join a startup incubator.

Startup 128

Startup Technical Review Equity Incubator 128

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 6, 2023

For the elite startups and entrepreneurs who manage to attract the investor they dream of, and survive the term sheet negotiation, there is still one more hurdle before the money is in the bank. That might start with the CEO giving the investor pitch to the whole organization, and distributing the current business plan document to everyone.

Technical Review 118

Technical Review Startup Satisfaction Invest 118

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 30, 2022

If you are one of the many entrepreneurs who aspire to get beyond the “art of the start,” there are some proven principles to follow. Very few startups are cash-rich enough to self-finance aggressive second-stage growth. They need a large infusion from venture capitalists, private equity, bank loans, or mezzanine financing.

Sales 147

Sales Metrics Guide Startup 147

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 23, 2010

Often when startups who have raised venture capital need another round of financing they will turn to their existing investors to give them money before raising from outsiders. It starts as a debt instrument (e.g. a loan) that is later converted to equity at the time of the next financing.

Startup 290

Startup Funding Venture Capital Pricing 290

SoCal CTO

MAY 13, 2014

A large part of this conversation is what kinds of advisors startups should be looking for. A little while ago, I suggested that Every Web/Mobile Startup Should Have a Technical Advisor. We both felt that most startups are not taking a very systematic approach to defining with they need in terms of advisors. Connected Advisors?

CTO Coach 241

CTO Coach Startup CTO Hire Template 241

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 21, 2010

Los Angeles-based MySpace has been among the most visible of Southern California's Internet era success stories, although the site--now owned by News Corporation--has had its own share of ups-and-downs, as well as questions about its future. Here are four startups of them, and what they're doing: Demand Media. www.demandmedia.com).

Startup 178

Startup Tech Coast Angels Demand News 178

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 1, 2019

If you are one of the many entrepreneurs who aspire to get beyond the “art of the start,” there are some proven principles to follow. Very few startups are cash-rich enough to self-finance aggressive second-stage growth. They need a large infusion from venture capitalists, private equity, bank loans, or mezzanine financing.

Startup 97

Startup Sales Metrics Guide 97

socalTECH

DECEMBER 18, 2018

San Diego-based Seismic , a developer of sales and marketing software, has raised $100M more in a funding round, which values the company at $1 billion, the company said on Tuesday. Rowe Price, plus General Atlantic, JMI Equity, and Jackson Square Ventures. The funding round came from Lightspeed Venture Partners, T. READ MORE>>.

San Diego 113

San Diego Sales Equity Pricing 113

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 18, 2020

One of the biggest myths in the business world is that startups are no place for Baby Boomers, that aging generation born between 1945 and 1964. Today people over 55 are almost twice as likely to create successful startups as Gen-Y, age 20 to 34. Marketing and sales to Gen-Y customers. Member of the Advisory Board.

Startup 124

Startup Technical Review Software Review Entrepreneur 124

Berkonomics

FEBRUARY 11, 2021

Most entrepreneurs and managers, when modeling their business operations using a spreadsheet, start with expected revenue by month. Then they calculate cost of sales, and then project their expenses, to find the bottom-line profit or loss each projected month. How planning is done today. One way to think for tomorrow.

.Net 156

.Net Sales Startup Equity 156

Berkonomics

JUNE 12, 2014

It is rare when one person starts a company, supplies all the funding, and shares no management tasks or equity with others, and still grows the company to any significant size, worthy of a multi-million dollar opportunity to cash out at exit. Starting up Raising money Surrounding yourself with talent'

Startup 214

Startup Equity Invest Class 214

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 17, 2011

I recently wrote a post about why I didn’t think early-stage startups should have COOs. In bringing up the issue I wasn’t “hating on COOs&# – I’m just challenging you to think about whether your CEO + COO structure really provides the right amount of clarity in your organization. I find them strange.

Startup 292

Startup CTO Hire Sales Email 292

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 21, 2010

If you’re a startup and you don’t have a close relationship with a few law firms you’re really missing one of the most important relationships that any entrepreneur can have. Many people start companies arse backwards. I write about some of the lessons in my post on Startup Mistakes.

Startup 318

Startup IP Southern California Entrepreneur 318

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 26, 2015

Most entrepreneurs looking for an investor can tell you how much money they need, but few have given much thought to what they are willing to give up for it. Investors, on the other hand, look at the money figure, and even the equity, as the easy part. This is a loan with an option to convert to equity at a later date.

Demand 105

Demand Startup Equity Invest 105

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. It always reduces risk to plan your business first. Use crowd funding.

Startup 123

Startup Technical Review Equity Incubator 123