Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 22, 2023

The first thing to remember is that banks only do loans – they generally don’t do equity investments like angels and venture capitalists (and vice versa). Show focus and your understanding that your company is something more than just a good idea. What a banker is looking for is validation of your idea. Be comprehensive here.

Equity 121

Equity Technical Advisors Funding Ideas 121

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 9, 2020

In my years of advising startups and occasional investing, I’ve seen many great ideas start and fail, but the right team always seems to make good things happen, even without the ultimate idea. That’s why investors say they invest in people (bet on the jockey, not the horse), rather than the idea.

Technical Advisors 123

Technical Advisors Outsource Development Startup High Tech 123

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 10, 2023

I still see entrepreneurs who spend money and time for months on a new business idea without any separation of personal and business funds, and any formal accounting system for their new business. Typically some production and delivery is outsourced, requiring formal contracts and documentation. Preparation and management of funding.

Outsource Development 115

Outsource Development Startup Competition Ideas 115

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 28, 2016

I still see entrepreneurs who spend money and time for months on a new business idea without any separation of personal and business funds, and any formal accounting system for their new business. Typically some production and delivery is outsourced, requiring formal contracts and documentation. Preparation and management of funding.

Ideas 62

Ideas Outsource Development Startup Competition 62

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 17, 2021

You can now skip the mandatory office space rental, with secretary and bookkeeping staff, or outsourcing. Minimize investment in prototypes and tooling. Today, productivity is way up, you can do most anything yourself, and you can outsource to contractors with more skill and less cost.

Entrepreneur 162

Entrepreneur Startup Social Media Outsource Development 162

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 2, 2020

These days, everyone wants to be an entrepreneur, pitching their latest and greatest new idea, and looking for someone to give them money. Talk is cheap, but entrepreneurs who show you a working model of their idea know how to execute. In reality, it doesn’t take a huge investment of money and time to build a prototype today.

Outsource Development 124

Outsource Development Ideas Tool Outsource 124

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 27, 2020

The first thing to remember is that banks only do loans – they don’t do equity investments like angels and venture capitalists (and vice versa). Show focus and your understanding that your company is something more than just a good idea. What a banker is looking for is validation of your idea. Be concise as well as complete.

Technical Advisors 162

Technical Advisors Tips Startup Equity 162

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 20, 2020

Equity investing is very risky, but huge returns are possible if you pick the next Facebook, but failure means your entire investment is lost. Smart entrepreneurs often learn the most from their failures, using the feedback to pivot their solutions before squandering a large investment from friends, angels or VCs.

Entrepreneur 129

Entrepreneur Outsource Development Satisfaction Equity 129

InfoChachkie

JUNE 4, 2012

Attempt To License An Idea. Rationale: My idea is so mind-blowingly fantastic, I can sit back and collect licensing fees while someone else does all the work required to turn my idea into a successful business. Fallacy: Ideas are worthless, while skillful execution is priceless. Grant Exclusivity.

Entrepreneur 272

Entrepreneur Outsource Ideas Technical Review 272

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 7, 2020

I still see entrepreneurs who spend money and time for months on a new business idea without any separation of personal and business funds, and any formal accounting system for their new business. Typically some production and delivery is outsourced, requiring formal contracts and documentation. Preparation and management of funding.

Entrepreneur 131

Entrepreneur Outsource Development Startup Competition 131

socalTECH

AUGUST 7, 2014

I had worked a year in investment banking, and Jasper was out of USC. In 2008, we started to throw around ideas, and eventually settled on this one. With globalization, and the rise of technology, we believed that you were going to see more and more individuals looking to outsource tasks. What''s the story behind the company?

Startup 231

Startup Technology Outsource Santa Monica 231

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 13, 2015

In my years of advising startups and occasional investing, I’ve seen many great ideas start and fail, but the right team always seems to make good things happen, even without the ultimate idea. That’s why investors say they invest in people (bet on the jockey, not the horse), rather than the idea.

Technical Advisors 105

Technical Advisors Outsource Development Startup High Tech 105

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 11, 2015

Investors don’t invest in services startups. Here are some pragmatic tips on how to make your startup more scalable and investable: If you need investors, start with a scalable idea. Just because all your buddies think an idea is cool, that doesn’t mean it is scalable. These are more likely scalable and investable.

Startup 103

Startup Outsource Invest Ideas 103

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 6, 2013

I am fond of quoting that about 70% of my investment decision of an early-stage company is the team. So I naturally spend much time with the companies in which I invest helping them: recruit. Final startup grind from msuster. How you build out your team in the first few years can have a huge impact on the trajectory of your company.

Startup 388

Startup Slides Outsource Development Sales 388

Frank Addante

MAY 12, 2007

► August (1) Invest in Transparency & Active Communication ► July (1) The Fear of Success ► May (2) Optimized for Speed = 30% Waste Happy 1st Birthday Rubicon Project! Outsourcing ► April (1) GoogleClick - Who owns your cash register? I have been outsourcing to India since before it became popular.

Outsource Development 40

Outsource Development Outsource Software Review Startup 40

socalTECH

MARCH 1, 2018

Since the beginning, we've invested in a relationship management function within our organization, and we've always invested first in quality support. The second, was investing in relationship management and support. Lots of startups talk about trying to outsource all their customer support.

Custom 113

Custom Customer Services Conference 113

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 18, 2018

In my years of advising startups and occasional investing, I’ve seen many great ideas start and fail, but the right team always seems to make good things happen, even without the ultimate idea. That’s why investors say they invest in people (bet on the jockey, not the horse), rather than the idea.

Technical Advisors 57

Technical Advisors Startup Outsource Development High Tech 57

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 11, 2014

In my years of advising startups and occasional investing, I’ve seen many great ideas start and fail, but the right team always seems to make good things happen, even without the ultimate idea. That’s why investors say they invest in people (bet on the jockey, not the horse), rather than the idea.

Technical Advisors 98

Technical Advisors Startup Outsource Development High Tech 98

InfoChachkie

MAY 16, 2011

Rationale: My idea is so mind-blowingly fantastic that I must immediately spend a small fortune to protect it before I perform any market validation. 3) Attempt To License An Idea. Fallacy: As discussed in Spilling The Beans , ideas are worthless, while skillful execution is priceless. 8 ) Grant Exclusivity.

Startup 242

Startup Outsource Development Outsource Sales 242

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 7, 2013

Investors don’t invest in services startups. Here are some pragmatic tips on how to make your startup more scalable and investable: If you need investors, start with a scalable idea. Just because all your buddies think an idea is cool, that doesn’t mean it is scalable. These are more likely scalable and investable.

Tips 111

Tips Startup Outsource Ideas 111

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 14, 2016

Investors don’t invest in services startups. Here are some pragmatic tips on how to make your startup more scalable and investable: If you need investors, start with a scalable idea. Just because all your buddies think an idea is cool, that doesn’t mean it is scalable. These are more likely scalable and investable.

Funding 67

Funding Startup Outsource Ideas 67

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 16, 2014

These days, everyone wants to be an entrepreneur, pitching their latest and greatest new idea, and looking for someone to give them money. Talk is cheap, but entrepreneurs who show you a working model of their idea know how to execute. In reality, it doesn’t take a huge investment of money and time to build a prototype today.

Outsource Development 105

Outsource Development Startup Ideas Tool 105

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 21, 2015

Equity investing is very risky, but huge returns are possible if you pick the next Facebook, but failure means your entire investment is lost. Smart entrepreneurs often learn the most from their failures, using the feedback to pivot their solutions before squandering a large investment from friends, angels or VCs.

Venture Capital 108

Venture Capital Angel Satisfaction Equity 108

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 23, 2013

This new model (now only legal in the UK) will allow large numbers of “regular” people to invest small amounts each online to get an ownership position in early startups. People can invest (donate) money to a project which has good moral/ethical value. Ideas crowd sourcing. This is not a get-rich-quick vehicle for consumers.

Funding 99

Funding Satisfaction Sites Outsource Development 99

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 24, 2015

I still see entrepreneurs who spend money and time for months on a new business idea without any separation of personal and business funds, and any formal accounting system for their new business. Typically some production and delivery is outsourced, requiring formal contracts and documentation. Preparation and management of funding.

Outsource Development 99

Outsource Development Startup Competition Ideas 99

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 27, 2014

You can now skip the mandatory office space rental, with secretary and bookkeeping staff, or outsourcing. Minimize investment in prototypes and tooling. Today, productivity is way up, you can do most anything yourself, and you can outsource to contractors with more skill and less cost.

Entrepreneur 104

Entrepreneur Startup Social Media Commerce 104

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 25, 2012

This new model will allow large numbers of “regular” people to invest small amounts each online to fund early startups. As a current Angel investor, I can attest that any investments in startups are more risky than the commodity markets, and you shouldn’t expect to see any return for five years. Ideas crowd sourcing.

Funding 96

Funding Satisfaction Sites Outsource Development 96

socalTECH

JANUARY 3, 2011

Will had this idea about unsubscriptions, and formulating an idea around creating a way to unsubscribe people from newsletters, and he started talking to me about it. I had been doing some angel investing, and incubating several projects. Fred Wilson has a pretty good track record on investments he's done in the web space.

Newsletter 216

Newsletter Startup CTO Hire Blogging 216

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 30, 2011

Nobody really knows whether or not the idea is yet going to be big, so I believe in not over capitalizing too early. It’s the whole basis of my investment philosophy, which I call “ The Entrepreneur Thesis.&#. The former was outsourced, the latter was our own team. Rinse & repeat. It drives perverse incentives.

Development Team Review 374

Development Team Review Technical Review Startup Resource 374

InfoChachkie

JULY 23, 2012

Rejecting the paint-by-numbers approach to corporate communications deployed by most marketing executives, Brad has embraced unconventional guerilla marketing tactics to help establish his venture capital firm, Foundry Group, as a thought leader in early-stage tech investing. companies should… focus on building amazing products.

Marketing 233

Marketing Blogging Startup Venture Capital 233

socalTECH

MARCH 26, 2014

We also have a cloud-baesd, billing and practice management solutions, which enables them to manage all of their internal financial processes, and we also have solutions for billing and cloud-based outsourcing of back office tasks. They are an LP, which is 75 percent of their fund, but they make direct investments for 25 percent.

Startup 160

Startup El Segundo CTO Hire Outsource Development 160

socalTECH

OCTOBER 20, 2011

The idea was they were going to create their own interactive voice response (IVR) technology, which we would keep in house and allow us to open up a nationwide call center to handle taxi calls. Back in 2003 and 2004, we were focused on the international market, and started outsourcing to India and the Philippines for call center services.

Outsource Development 190

Outsource Development Startup Outsource Altadena 190

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 27, 2013

The first thing to remember is that banks only do loans – they don’t do equity investments like angels and venture capitalists (and vice versa). Show focus and your understanding that your company is something more than just a good idea. What a banker is looking for is validation of your idea. Be concise as well as complete.

Technical Advisors 75

Technical Advisors Entrepreneur Equity Ideas 75

socalTECH

DECEMBER 12, 2014

We provide a turnkey, back end, managed service offering for brands and retailers on an outsourced basis. We are an option for brands who don''t want to build it themselves in-house, from soup to nuts, or don''t want to outsource to a single vendor. But, the real investment focus for us in the technology and service capabilities.

Commerce 203

Commerce Venture Capital Internet Brands Startup 203

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 23, 2014

I’m sure you can think of better examples, but here are some comments that we have all heard from people who are trying to avoid accountability before the fact, who are setting themselves up for failure: “I’d love to start a new company, but nobody will invest in me.” I’ll do the best I can, but the economy is totally unpredictable right now.”

Entrepreneur 99

Entrepreneur Startup Outsource Satisfaction 99

Tech Zulu Event

DECEMBER 26, 2013

Just as I don’t recommend you outsourcing the writing of your business plan, I wouldn’t pass on this task. It’s your job to show that your investor will win on this investment. Business Culture Entrepreneurship Finance Funding Investment Marketing Startups Executive Summary finance funding investment value proposition'

Summary 76

Summary Tips Startup Writing 76

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 29, 2013

I’m sure you can think of better examples, but here are some comments that we have all heard from people who are trying to avoid accountability before the fact, who are setting themselves up for failure: “I’d love to start a new company, but nobody will invest in me.” I’ll do the best I can, but the economy is totally unpredictable right now.”

Startup 100

Startup Entrepreneur Outsource Satisfaction 100