Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 19, 2011

I see more and more entrepreneurs who seem to have everything going for them – vision, motivation, passion, even a good business plan, product, and money, and yet they can’t close customers. For example, when you think about distribution channels, revenue streams, or the relationship with the customer, ask customers what they expect.

Startup 286

Startup Angel Investor Technical Review Incubator 286

ConversionXL

FEBRUARY 3, 2022

Where Airbnb recognized the value in another platform, Dropbox doubled down on the strength of its product as a distribution channel. 500 Startups founder and entrepreneur Dave McClure created this model as a way for growth hackers to optimize the speed of their sales and marketing efforts in generating results. The result?

Retention 113

Retention Marketing Acquisition Channel 113

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 9, 2012

TLDR: Brant Cooper and Patrick Vlaskovits , authors of The Entrepreneur's Guide to Customer Development are back with a new book called The Lean Entrepreneur. They are launching their next book, a true field guide for entrepreneurs, called The Lean Entrepreneur: How to Create Products, Innovate with New Ventures, and Disrupt Markets.

Entrepreneur 167

Entrepreneur Lean Southern California San Diego 167

The Startup Magazine

MAY 4, 2023

It offers a credit of up to $10,000, which you can claim if your business revenue crosses $1 million. Select a Business Structure Wisely Every entrepreneur has to select a structure for the company. The company’s net revenue passes through the business owner’s tax liability.

Small Business 125

Small Business .Net Retention Employee 125

David Teten

NOVEMBER 26, 2019

Paul Bianco, CEO of Graphite Financial *, says, “Entrepreneurs are characteristically optimistic by nature, and often present their board best-case-scenario budgets and projections. I encourage entrepreneurs to correct course with a re-forecast early and often. Entrepreneur Jeff Magnusson provides a sample agile budgeting workbook.

Agile 60

Agile Management Forecast Silicon Valley 60

Agile VC

APRIL 17, 2011

How They Make Money: Majority of Kayak’s revenue actually comes from advertising on their site (55%), not lead generation or referral fees to travel suppliers as you might think (more on this below). Financial Snapshot: 2010 Revenue: $170 million. Revenue growth: 51% YoY (2010), 1% YoY (2009), 131% YoY (2008).

Pre-Money Valuation 113

Pre-Money Valuation Liquidation Preference Dividend Common Stock 113

Steve Blank

MARCH 31, 2014

I like the guy because he’s credited with coining the word entrepreneur. Companies horde cash and squeeze the most revenue and margin from the money they use. Metrics like Return on Net Assets, Return on Capital and Internal Rate of Return are the guiding stars of the board and CEO. I’m sure many of you have heard his name.

Private Equity 325

Private Equity Metrics China Intellectual Property 325

Up and Running

SEPTEMBER 19, 2018

Financial Summary: Explain your business model, startup costs, revenues, and liabilities to the company. Distribution. Some companies, such as TransCanna , are pioneering transportation and distribution methods from cannabis manufacturers to consumers. Target market: Who is your ideal buyer? Be specific.

Business Plan 154

Business Plan Technical Review Forecast Exit Strategy 154

BeyondVC

JANUARY 3, 2019

For the more advanced enterprises who have migrated to the cloud, this will be a year of net new technology and building applications. While developers can now spin up applications faster than ever before, one of the downsides is the complexity of managing these distributed applications and technologies.

Stealth 79

Stealth Advisory Board Cloud Virginia 79

Austin Startup

OCTOBER 15, 2017

What seems to be the best way to create customers and revenue may result in a business model that is out of vogue with the investment world and shortchanges you on enterprise valuation. If you bill for your technology services on a percentage of ad spend, you are guaranteed to look like an agency that deserves a revenue multiple of 1–2X.

Technical Review 48

Technical Review Software Review Nevada Silicon Valley 48

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 14, 2012

I expect that should seem intuitive to all entrepreneurs, but every investor I know has many stories about startup funding requests with major business model elements missing. Distribution. How do you distribute your product or service? Revenue model. What is the need you fill or problem you solve? Target market.

Business Model 242

Business Model Distribution Viral Green 242

abovethecrowd.com

NOVEMBER 13, 2012

Entrepreneurs accurately recognize that the connective tissue of the Internet provides an opportunity to link the players in a particular market, reducing friction in both the buying and selling experience. Wow” moments lead to word-of-mouth viral growth and high net promoter scores. Economic Advantages vs. the Status Quo.

Aggregator 101

Aggregator Marketing Software Review North America 101

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 29, 2011

I expect that should seem intuitive to all entrepreneurs, but every investor I know has many stories about startup funding requests with major business model elements missing. Distribution. How do you distribute your product or service? Revenue model. What is the need you fill or problem you solve? Target market.

Business Model 246

Business Model Distribution Viral Green 246

Austin Startup

NOVEMBER 6, 2017

The main drivers, from our viewpoint, are: Many tech entrepreneurs no longer view venture capital as an inevitability in their growth path, and have grown skeptical of the traditional “growth at all costs” mindset found in many startup circles; and An increasing number of VCs are growing comfortable with LLCs. But not all VCs think that way.

Delaware 48

Delaware LLC Startup Silicon Valley 48

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 17, 2017

70–80% of the costs of most startups are employee costs so what you’re really talking about when a company is unprofitable is that they are growing their staff ahead of their revenue. I often ask entrepreneurs to consider, “What’s your objective? Revenue When I look at an income statement I start by focusing on the revenue line.

Stock Options 227

Stock Options Startup Dilution Venture Capital 227

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 12, 2010

That’s because a company’s value is a composite of all of the quantitative and qualitative factors that comprise a company: revenues, expenses, risks, growth prospects, quality of the management team, competitive advantages, strength of the intellectual property, and so forth. In business, one important measure is the value of the company.

Intellectual Property 223

Intellectual Property .Net Valuation Distribution 223

ReadWriteStart

JUNE 26, 2020

…suddenly, nearly all technical jobs are remote-jobs, all dev-teams are distributed teams, and virtually all hiring is remote hiring. Fully remote distributed companies used to be a rarity. Companies Must Build a Process for Managing Distributed Engineering Teams. Here is remote work in the time of COVID-19.

Silicon Valley 198

Silicon Valley Distribution Engineer Technical Review 198

SoCal CTO

MARCH 22, 2007

It seems that four different models of "discussion creation" have occurred: Organice Discussion - someone posts something interesting, lots of bloggers post on the topic, distributed discussion ensues. I have to say that it has netted far more than I would have thought. See Five Things Meme as an example.

Technical Cofounder 150

Technical Cofounder Southern California Los Angeles CTO Hire 150

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 4, 2010

It was especially fun for me because we got the chance to talk about the VC industry and how entrepreneurs should think about the VC industry in addition to discussing deals. We discussed whether investing in the second largest player in a category makes sense given that Groupon is 10x the revenue, 3.5x the funding and market coverage.

IPO 236

IPO .Net Venture Capital Strategic Investors 236

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 22, 2010

Yet most entrepreneurs and their VC’s make startups use financial models and spreadsheets that actually hinder their success. I had been confused for years why I had to update an income statement each board meeting that said zero for 18 months before we had any revenue. What’s the distribution channel? Cost Per Acquisition Net.

Balance Sheet 298

Balance Sheet Startup Burn Rate Metrics 298

NZ Entrepreneur

JUNE 11, 2019

In the entrepreneur world we hear a lot of talk about entrepreneurs and businesses needing to be “global from day one” Investors and business commentators lament our lack of large global businesses and say the “three-B” (bach, ‘Beemer’ and boat) mentality of Kiwi business owners is holding us back.

New Zealand 75

New Zealand Small Business Global Dividend 75

Reid Hoffman

MARCH 19, 2019

Tim O’Reilly’s recent article, “ The fundamental problem with Silicon Valley’s favorite growth strategy ,” makes an impassioned argument that the ideas in our book, Blitzscaling , encourage entrepreneurs to behave in ways that are irresponsible or even dangerous in the pursuit of what he characterizes as “runaway growth.”

Cofounder 28

Cofounder Business Model IPO Non-Compete 28

Agile VC

JANUARY 13, 2016

Potential for instant global distribution (mobile app stores, Facebook, etc). It used to take 5-10 years for a great startup to go from $0 to $75-100M+ in annual revenue. Revenue is revenue, right? Both of these companies grew revenue at what was then unprecedented rates.

Technical Review 157

Technical Review .Net Revenue Software Review 157

ReadWriteStart

APRIL 2, 2012

For any entrepreneur, finding the perfect investor is like a match made in Heaven. To make sure that doesn't happen - and help startups avoid costly lawsuits (another instance where the only people who get rich are the lawyers) I asked Anton Rosandic , a California-based attorney and an entrepreneur himself, for some free advice.

Exit Strategy 118

Exit Strategy Matching California Salary 118

Small Business Force

FEBRUARY 21, 2014

In early stage companies (and even some later stage or mature ones), there is no one area where most entrepreneurs and small business owners are lacking in just basic fundamentals, than in dealing with their company's finances and financial management. And this is especially true, if the entrepreneur is not a financial person by training.

Finance 37

Finance Management Forecast Entrepreneur 37

ReadWriteStart

AUGUST 26, 2022

So first, we were much more sort of with a high growth rate, and we did not even care about how we got the revenue when we got it. And now we are much more careful about revenue quality revenues. So the quality of growth has implications on the revenue stream’s sustainability. Would you say that? . David Zhang.

Partner 132

Partner Cofounder Retention Acquisition 132

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 23, 2013

In the Udemy course, Alistair and Ben expand these basics into a description of how to create empathy, stickiness, virality, revenue, and scale. We decided to find out, and talked with around 130 founders, entrepreneurs, investors and analysts. Data-driven business is here today; it''s just not evenly distributed.

Analytics 167

Analytics Lean Widget Metrics 167

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 17, 2020

They found ways to support longterm care facilities, homeless shelters, and other locations serving those most at risk, all while schools, their main source of revenue, were closed. So we are now very well-versed in being parents and entrepreneurs. So you might as well be tired both as a mom and as an entrepreneur."

Cofounder 60

Cofounder Security Founder Entrepreneur 60

Up and Running

OCTOBER 23, 2018

Parsons is not unique; many other eminent and successful entrepreneurs kept their day job while starting a business. According to an Academy of Management study , people who start their businesses while they are still employed are 1/3 less likely to fail compared to people who jump in without having the safety net of employment.

Non-disclosure Agreement 61

Non-disclosure Agreement Cofounder Non-Compete Audience 61

This is going to be BIG.

JULY 8, 2013

I know what it''s like being an entrepreneur trying to get people to care about what I cared about--you feel so desperate and as if you were just one big break or random intro away from success. The best entrepreneurs pick from among who they believe will help them build their business, but it isn''t always easy to tell.

Venture Capital 167

Venture Capital Early Stage Portfolio Private Equity 167

Up and Running

MAY 1, 2014

The vast majority of business owners and entrepreneurs aren’t business experts. One of the biggest mistakes entrepreneurs make in their business plans is stating that they don’t have any competition. Distribution. For product companies, a distribution plan is an important part of the complete business plan.

Business Plan 163

Business Plan Forecast Balance Sheet Distribution 163

ReadWriteStart

APRIL 30, 2014

Techstars has become a power player in places like Boston, Boulder and Seattle: The program, known as a startup accelerator, takes entrepreneurs and offers them office space, funding and advice, taking a stake in the companies in exchange. ” —FCC chairman Tom Wheeler on net neutrality regulation. Not all will make it.

Technology 60

Technology Boston Cloud Silicon Valley 60

Eric Friedman

AUGUST 18, 2021

It is the entrepreneurs that are singing their heart out, playing the instruments, et cetera. In my mind, that’s a lot of my role in the boardroom or with entrepreneurs, On Dan being the “Curmudgeon of Fintech”. Personally, I love Brian Armstrong ; he’s an incredible entrepreneur. But, it makes no sense to me.

Silicon Valley 88

Silicon Valley Venture Capital Cofounder Africa 88

abovethecrowd.com

APRIL 17, 2013

With each hand, a small percentage of the pot is scraped off by the dealer, which in essence becomes the “revenue” for the casino. While casinos use the term “rake,” a plethora of interesting word choices exist which all describe the same thing – keeping a little bit of the revenue for the company that is running the service.

Europe 101

Europe Social Network Technical Review IPO 101

Cracking the Code

DECEMBER 11, 2015

The best entrepreneurs are often those who can articulate their vision and roadmap in a simple, elegant and purposeful manner. 6 Passion While everyone wants to make money, good VCs look for more in an entrepreneur than the desire to cash out. They invest in entrepreneurs who want to change the world.

San Francisco 48

San Francisco Churn Rate Silicon Valley Engineer 48

The Next Web

NOVEMBER 21, 2013

“They are a big traffic driver for us: Just in November thus far, emails have driven almost 1/3 of all of our site traffic; during November last year, emails drove 40 percent+ of all of our revenues.”. Distribute regularly. Entrepreneur Insider Social Media Analysis and Opinion' Make it visually engaging.

Email 135

Email Social Media Marketing Audience 135

news.ycombinator.com

SEPTEMBER 16, 2011

Investors are looking for proven entrepreneurs to enter this emerging market and they will get well funded too. What we do on a daily basis is a thousand times more secret than your "stealth" startup and we can still talk about it in more general terms than most "stealth" entrepreneurs talk about their project. This is utter bullshit.

Stealth 41

Stealth Technical Review Startup Software Review 41