ReadWriteStart

OCTOBER 21, 2010

At today's roundtable, we had some very interesting discussions on creative bootstrapping. I am always fascinated by how innovative entrepreneurs get when faced with resource crunches. Read EDA Entrepreneurs: Build To Enjoy. Read Creative Bootstrapping to a $350 Million Exit. Photo by wax115.

Bootstrapping 113

Bootstrapping IP India Silicon Valley 113

The Entrepreneurial Mind

SEPTEMBER 26, 2011

With the continued weak economy and little hope of recovery anytime soon, we can expect to see even more "accidental entrepreneurs" emerge. Ami Kassar is a typical accidental entrepreneur. When the recession hit in 2008, he suddenly found himself unemployed. Watch your cash flow. Multifunding is now growing and doing well.

Entrepreneur 75

Entrepreneur Philadelphia Bootstrapping Lean 75

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

OCTOBER 23, 2012

Witness, for example, this terrific Fast Company article on Bill Nguyen , serial entrepreneur who’s seventh startup “Color” famously raised $41m for a new mobile app before it even launched. Note that some of those companies were bootstrapped, some bootstrapped and took money later, and some had huge funding from the start.

IPO 240

IPO Flash Bootstrapping Private Equity 240

ReadWriteStart

APRIL 7, 2011

At today's session, therefore, all our entrepreneurs were pitching from Malaysia. It could be a good business to bootstrap the social/mobile edutainment business with. The entrepreneur seems obsessed with building his own brand and selling directly to end customers. ISA Innovation. A mistake, in my opinion. Techsailor.

Malaysia 114

Malaysia Incubator Silicon Valley Entrepreneur 114

ReadWriteStart

OCTOBER 28, 2010

And these pilots will pay for her early bootstrapping phase. All this, could, potentially, be done without external financing. And along the way, if necessary and appropriate, she can raise financing with a vastly more validated business. At this point, financing discussions are premature and are likely not to yield success.

Partner 117

Partner Belgium Portugal Bootstrapping 117

ReadWriteStart

SEPTEMBER 3, 2010

As a result, the expectation is that you have to figure out a way to get to some level of momentum on your own (by bootstrapping) or with small doses of angel money - "drip financing" so to speak. I started doing my free Online Strategy Roundtables for entrepreneurs in the fall of 2008. Gnosis India. Photo by wax115.

Channel 115

Channel India Bootstrapping Silicon Valley 115

Professor VC

APRIL 7, 2011

This will also serve as a good pointer for all the entrepreneurs who ask why I am not interested in their company led convertible note financing round. Ive seen a number of entrepreneurs, angels and VCs fall into the trap of providing debt in small pieces. In cases where it is truly a bridge financing (i.e.

San Jose 36

San Jose Technical Review Angel Investor Valuation 36

ReadWriteStart

OCTOBER 14, 2010

At today's roundtable we had some intensive discussions around market sizing and its impact on financing. By definition, the capital investment needs to be relatively low such that the investors and the entrepreneurs all make a healthy return on investment. Raymond is wondering why he cannot attract financing.

Bootstrapping 114

Bootstrapping Marketing Angel Investor Silicon Valley 114

ReadWriteStart

NOVEMBER 4, 2010

To get started, I suggest you take a look at three videos messages: To Entrepreneurs , To Investors , and To The Media. Benson's business needs $500,000 to get off the ground, buy a machine, and meet the operating expenses, and he primarily came to discuss his financing options. Qualitas Technologies.

Startup 113

Startup India Silicon Valley Incubator 113

Professor VC

JANUARY 27, 2008

Sunday, January 27, 2008. The spring semester of my Entrepreneurial Finance class starts tomorrow. We will also look at a variety of financing methods including venture capital, angel investing, licensing, franchising, roll-up, venture debt and my old favorite, bootstrapping. Bootstrapping 101. ▼ 2008. (14).

San Jose 28

San Jose Technical Review Angel Investor Venture Capital 28

Professor VC

SEPTEMBER 26, 2011

However, I have seen some blog posts posing the question about whether the same principles of valuing baseball players could be applied to entrepreneurs. I encourage entrepreneurs to give it a shot and let me know what you think. Bootstrapping 101. ► 2008. (14). September 27, 2011 5:09 PM. Steve Bennet.

Technical Review 38

Technical Review Early Stage San Jose Angel Investor 38

Professor VC

APRIL 1, 2010

was part of a Dow Jones VentureWire webinar last week titled Negotiating An Angel Deal: What Angels, Entrepreneurs & VCs Need to Know. One comment made by Jason was that angels tend to be less sensitive than VCs on valuation and can potentially make it difficult to get a venture financing done at acceptable valuation. Steve Bennet.

Term Sheet 32

Term Sheet Angel Investor San Jose Venture Capital 32

Professor VC

FEBRUARY 12, 2008

Tuesday, February 12, 2008. While spending time with the entrepreneurs and championing the deal through the group, you tend to become emotionally attached. In most cases, the entrepreneur hasnt hidden anything, it is just buyers remorse kicking in and the realization that the hard work is beginning. February 14, 2008 7:46 PM.

San Jose 31

San Jose Technical Review Venture Capital Angel Investor 31

Professor VC

DECEMBER 18, 2008

Thursday, December 18, 2008. The NIF (in its 5th year), is essentially a science fair for entrepreneurs. Here are a few of the budding entrepreneurs that I chatted with at the event: Jeff Gibboney, a graduate mechanical engineering student, developed a battery operated skateboard for cruising to school or work. ▼ 2008. (14).

San Jose 28

San Jose Silicon Valley Technical Review Angel Investor 28

Tim Keane

SEPTEMBER 15, 2008

Being The Best You Can Be » September 15, 2008. The Whitehorse Daily Star - good advice for entrepreneurs. Steve Belkin , owner of the Atlanta Hawks, couldn't get his first deal financed and wound up cobbling together a friends and family round to start his travel company in the 70s. Bootstrapping. October 2010.

Wisconsin 60

Wisconsin Atlanta Entrepreneur Angel Investor 60

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 14, 2009

I have counseled innumerable entrepreneurs to change their focus to revenue, and many companies who refuse this advice get themselves into trouble by running out of iterations. People talk about funding funding funding, bootstrapping, etc., but few step back and really examine the underlying assumptions of startup finance.

Customer 167

Customer San Francisco Lean Hockey Stick 167

Professor VC

MAY 29, 2008

Thursday, May 29, 2008. An entrepreneur will pitch their business plan to what they think is a group of angel investors and will get a number of follow-up calls afterwards, but they are pitches for services not investment interest. Bootstrapping 101. ▼ 2008. (14). ProfessorVC. The last blogger in Silicon Valley.

Angel Investor 28

Angel Investor Angel Groups Accredited Investor San Jose 28

ReadWriteStart

SEPTEMBER 30, 2010

One of the entrepreneurs presented a business idea that sounded like a business-to-consumer concept, but as I peeled the onion, it turned out that the business was really a business-to-business concept. Here I had an entrepreneur telling me with a straight face that he was leaving the most basic business decisions for the investors to make.

India 115

India Silicon Valley Incubator Bootstrapping 115

Professor VC

JANUARY 17, 2008

Thursday, January 17, 2008. I think the title of this post is a TV show, but fitting as there has been much debate in the venture community as to the whether angel investors are good or bad for entrepreneurs and VCs. The theme of the event was angel investment trends for 2008. ProfessorVC. The last blogger in Silicon Valley.

Pre-Money Valuation 28

Pre-Money Valuation Angel Investor Angel Groups Valuation 28

Professor VC

FEBRUARY 26, 2008

Tuesday, February 26, 2008. As I mentioned in the previous post, Jeff Fluhr (founder of StubHub) recently stopped by my Entrepreneurial Finance class to share his 4 Lessons of Entrepreneurship with the students. Do you have the right make-up to be an entrepreneur? Bootstrapping 101. ▼ 2008. (14).

Technical Review 28

Technical Review San Jose Angel Investor Silicon Valley 28

Professor VC

NOVEMBER 19, 2009

At a high level, I definitely agree that being an entrepreneur and being in school dont necessarily mix. Most of us know of Exhibits 1 ( Bill Gates ) and 2 ( Mark Zuckerberg ) from Harvard, but I have met dozens of other successful entrepreneurs who felt a greater need to get going on an opportunity than to wait around to complete a degree.

San Jose 43

San Jose Silicon Valley Las Vegas Venture Capital 43

www.readwriteweb.com

OCTOBER 18, 2010

By definition, the capital investment needs to be relatively low such that the investors and the entrepreneurs all make a healthy return on investment. So, please note the TAM Analysis is a vitally important aspect of building any financing strategy. Raymond is wondering why he cannot attract financing.

Marketing 52

Marketing Bootstrapping Incubator Angel Investor 52

www.readwriteweb.com

OCTOBER 18, 2010

By definition, the capital investment needs to be relatively low such that the investors and the entrepreneurs all make a healthy return on investment. So, please note the TAM Analysis is a vitally important aspect of building any financing strategy. Raymond is wondering why he cannot attract financing.

Marketing 52

Marketing Bootstrapping Incubator Angel Investor 52

Professor VC

JUNE 20, 2011

Financing, that is.I One truth of start-up financing is that it generally takes twice as long and twice as much money to accomplish your milestones. But of course, the model had us requiring only $10M equity to breakeven and to achieve $185M in revenues in 2008 (the magic Year 5 in all business plans). ProfessorVC.

San Jose 28

San Jose Angel Investor Term Sheet Venture Capital 28

blog.captainrecruiter.com

MARCH 8, 2012

An Internet entrepreneur needs a website. If a software geek really wants to try building something for no pay, theyre going to work for themself instead of following another cashless entrepreneur. These professionals can help with anything from finance to marketing, but you wont find any software engineers volunteering their services.

Cofounder 40

Cofounder Technical Cofounder Founder Software Engineering 40

Up and Running

APRIL 1, 2015

With a starting story this incredible, I was sure that the founders would have excellent advice for aspiring entrepreneurs, and I was not disappointed. I had the pleasure of speaking with founder David Daneshgar, who shared his advice for entrepreneurs, and the story of BloomNation’s unorthodox beginnings. says David.

Venture Capital 60

Venture Capital Startup Cofounder Chicago 60

Professor VC

JANUARY 20, 2009

The latest statistics from VentureSource show 554 financings in Q4, down from 620 in Q3 and 718 in Q4 2007. Of course, the most important funding statistic to an entrepreneur relates to one specific company, and whether there is sufficient capital available to build and scale his business. Bootstrapping 101. ► 2008. (14).

Venture Capital 28

Venture Capital Silicon Valley San Jose Bootstrapping 28

Professor VC

AUGUST 26, 2011

I get asked this question a lot by entrepreneurs (and students). To that last one, there is certainly some truth as the standard time vs. revenue chart in most business plans looks like this: Im not teaching Entrepreneurial Finance this semester for the first time since Fall 2007. Bootstrapping 101. ► 2008. (14).

Silicon Valley 35

Silicon Valley San Jose Hockey Stick Venture Capital 35

Software By Rob

SEPTEMBER 1, 2011

Who says a bootstrapped startup can’t succeed? A lot of entrepreneurs think they need piles of money to make their startup a success, but that’s not always the case. Here are 10 bootstrapped companies that did it on their own with no outside funding. In January 2009 they won a Crunchie for best bootstrapped startup.

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Bootstrapping Startup Cofounder Salary 78

www.paulgraham.com

APRIL 28, 2010

August 2008 Raising money is the second hardest part of starting a startup.The hardest part is making something people want: most startupsthat die, die because they didnt do that. Bootstrapping (= Consulting) Some would-be founders may by now be thinking, why deal with investorsat all? Want to start a startup?

Bootstrapping 77

Bootstrapping Term Sheet Founder Startup 77

Professor VC

SEPTEMBER 2, 2010

The fall semester at SJSU started this week and had the first class meeting of my Entrepreneurial Finance class, which was overflowing with students standing, sitting on the floor and begging to get in. Entrepreneurs struggle to find investors and investors struggle to find the best start-ups. Steve Bennet. at 11:54 AM. Newer Post.

Angel Investor 28

Angel Investor Angel Groups San Jose Venture Capital 28

Professor VC

FEBRUARY 26, 2010

For firms that dont have access to the most successful entrepreneurs, trying to predict an individual or individual teams success rate based on experience, personal attributes, intellect, etc. might very well be a good way to find some promising first time entrepreneurs. The darts seem to be doing quite well over the past few years.

San Jose 28

San Jose Silicon Valley Venture Capital Angel Investor 28

Professor VC

SEPTEMBER 26, 2008

Friday, September 26, 2008. I spent most of the time with the reporter talking about Sand Hill Angels and how we add value to the start-ups and entrepreneurs that we partner with, which is why I just have a small mention in the article. How passionate are the entrepreneurs about their business? Bootstrapping 101.

Angel Groups 28

Angel Groups San Jose Early Stage Angel Investor 28

ReadWriteStart

AUGUST 4, 2011

One of the discussions that ensued was about how to bootstrap a freemium venture. However, how do you get to critical mass, and how do you finance the period during which this business runs on red ink? How much time do you budget for red ink financing? Please note, that I work exclusively with 1M/1M entrepreneurs.

Bootstrapping 124

Bootstrapping San Jose Entrepreneur Silicon Valley 124

Professor VC

MAY 30, 2009

In addition to the first prize, he was also given office space at the Plug and Play incubator for the summer and get to spend his days with other entrepreneurs and investors. Labels: bootstrapping , business plans , entrepreneurship. We have invested a combination of ~$20K in founder financing and ~$200k in vendor financing.

San Jose 28

San Jose Angel Investor Silicon Valley Bootstrapping 28

Professor VC

JANUARY 17, 2008

Thursday, January 17, 2008. I thought about the name some more and I do spend much of my time teaching entrepreneurship and coaching entrepreneurs. Bootstrapping 101. ▼ 2008. (14). I also teach Entrepreneurial Finance at San Jose State. ProfessorVC. The last blogger in Silicon Valley. ► July. (1).

Silicon Valley 31

Silicon Valley San Jose Angel Investor Venture Capital 31

dondodge.typepad.com

JANUARY 15, 2011

Entrepreneurs face some pretty tough questions at a very early stage. Both the entrepreneur and the investor have much higher expectations than just "even money" on their bet. The entrepreneur expects the company to be worth many times this valuation and so does the investor. Should I take Angel or VC money?

Equity 40

Equity Employee Dilution Valuation 40