A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

OCTOBER 23, 2012

After I sold Smart Bear, that division has increased revenue and profit every year, for five years, even through the 2008/2009 economic disaster. GroupOn’s engine that turned capital into revenue growth was a form of force-feeding rather than building a product). But really, are all those acquirers so stupid? Surely not.

IPO 240

IPO Flash Bootstrapping Private Equity 240

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 14, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Tuesday, April 14, 2009 Validated learning about customers Would you rather have $30,000 or $1 million in revenues for your startup? All things being equal, of course, you’d rather have more revenue rather than less. And yet revenue alone is not a sufficient goal. More on that in a moment.

Customer 167

Customer San Francisco Lean Hockey Stick 167

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. Such OEM deals may cost him 50% of his product revenue, but would be the fastest way to reach a large number of customers, nonetheless.

Channel 115

Channel India Bootstrapping Silicon Valley 115

ReadWriteStart

OCTOBER 14, 2010

At today's roundtable we had some intensive discussions around market sizing and its impact on financing. These are areas that may be gaps in the portfolio of large companies, and are perfect for M&A deals in three to five years after building enough validation and $10-$20 million in revenue.

Bootstrapping 114

Bootstrapping Marketing Angel Investor Silicon Valley 114

ReadWriteStart

NOVEMBER 4, 2010

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. My assessment is that this is not a traditional venture financing type deal. I started doing my free Online Strategy Roundtables for entrepreneurs in the fall of 2008.

Startup 113

Startup India Silicon Valley Incubator 113

ReadWriteStart

APRIL 7, 2011

Also, the business is primarily on CD-ROMs right now, but the good news is that the CD-ROM product is selling and generating revenue. It could be a good business to bootstrap the social/mobile edutainment business with. The good news, again, is that this business is generating revenues.

Malaysia 114

Malaysia Incubator Silicon Valley Entrepreneur 114

Professor VC

JULY 31, 2008

Thursday, July 31, 2008. I actually enjoy the process of pulling together a selection of materials to create a complete course on Entrepreneurial Finance. The artists received very little of album sales, but kept concert and merchandise revenue. The artists had very few sales of albums, but gave a concert and commodity revenue.

San Jose 28

San Jose Software Review Angel Investor Silicon Valley 28

ReadWriteStart

SEPTEMBER 30, 2010

He is looking to raise money now, but I must say, his financing strategy made me cringe. I started doing my free Online Strategy Roundtables for entrepreneurs in the fall of 2008. We have to work on that! Financial Consulting Service.

India 115

India Silicon Valley Incubator Bootstrapping 115

www.readwriteweb.com

OCTOBER 18, 2010

These are areas that may be gaps in the portfolio of large companies, and are perfect for M&A deals in three to five years after building enough validation and $10-$20 million in revenue. So, please note the TAM Analysis is a vitally important aspect of building any financing strategy.

Marketing 52

Marketing Bootstrapping Incubator Angel Investor 52

www.readwriteweb.com

OCTOBER 18, 2010

These are areas that may be gaps in the portfolio of large companies, and are perfect for M&A deals in three to five years after building enough validation and $10-$20 million in revenue. So, please note the TAM Analysis is a vitally important aspect of building any financing strategy.

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

Austin Startup

MARCH 31, 2010

The current business model for expert consultants is a brick and mortar industry with revenues of about 1/2 a Billion dollars per year. In 2008, I decided to take this concept and implement it as a web site, so Molecular Thinking was born. Q: How has the company been financed? Are you looking for additional capital?

Elevator Pitch 63

Elevator Pitch Curation Vertical Bootstrapping 63

Up and Running

APRIL 1, 2015

From 2005 to 2008, I was one of the top five poker players in the world, so if you have an asset like that, and there happens to be a poker tournament half an hour away, and you happen to need the money, it’s like all the stars kind of align, right?” The three decided to pool their finances and take a risk. says David.

Venture Capital 60

Venture Capital Startup Cofounder Chicago 60

Professor VC

AUGUST 26, 2011

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. Does a complicated sales build model make sense for a pre-revenue SaaS company? Bootstrapping 101.

Silicon Valley 35

Silicon Valley San Jose Hockey Stick Venture Capital 35

Professor VC

JULY 2, 2010

job existed for every $37,702 of venture capital invested from 1970-2008 Lets assume these statistics are true (of course that may be a leap, as my wise father-in-law used to say, "Figures Lie and Liars figure"). Bootstrapping 101. ► 2008. (14). I also teach Entrepreneurial Finance at San Jose State. ► July.

San Jose 28

San Jose Silicon Valley Venture Capital Angel Investor 28

Software By Rob

SEPTEMBER 1, 2011

Who says a bootstrapped startup can’t succeed? Here are 10 bootstrapped companies that did it on their own with no outside funding. Looking back on their previous experiences working at startup companies, the founders decided to bootstrap their business in lieu of seeking outside funding. Startup #1: Goldstar. How’d they do it?

Bootstrapping 78

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

dondodge.typepad.com

JANUARY 15, 2011

It isnt always possible to have a competitive bidding situation at each financing round so here are some guidelines for funding sources and percentages. Friends & Family can usually raise between $30K and $300K and usually take an interest bearing note that is convertible into stock at the next financing. 5% Managers -.25%

Equity 40

Equity Employee Dilution Valuation 40

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? From 2008 to 2010, Mitra was a columnist for Forbes.

Bootstrapping 124

Bootstrapping San Jose Entrepreneur Silicon Valley 124

rapidrollout.wordpress.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

You’re asking someone to take a chance that with the code they deliver you can get funding or gain some revenue traction. If you can do it for $5000 to $15,000, you’re likely to be able to finance it with a deferred payment or a loan from friends and family. That may be attractive to some people. But let me put it this way.

Technical Review 40

Technical Review Fractional CTO Partner CTO Hire 40

ReadWriteStart

AUGUST 11, 2011

The challenges of bootstrapping a venture that is dependent on ad-revenue is, however, also quite significant. You have to finance the period of traffic building that is pretty much red-ink financing. Spencer needs to think through a strategy for bootstrapping that phase. could be your companion.

Silicon Valley 105

Silicon Valley Columbus Ohio Incubator 105

mashable.com

SEPTEMBER 22, 2008

endeve – Issue invoices, manage clients and check revenues all in one place. Bootstrap – Online bookkeeping software that lets you track sales and expenses, organize your records for tax time, and more. 4 email share Last August we featured a post with more than 230 online apps for running your business.

Software Review 78

Software Review Social Media Social Network Software 78

ReadWriteStart

SEPTEMBER 8, 2011

I advised him to get a couple of banks to finance the development of his solution as service projects, with the understanding that he will build a product out of them. This will achieve both customer intimacy and bootstrap funding from customers. From 2008 to 2010, Mitra was a columnist for Forbes.

Entrepreneur 124

Entrepreneur India Intellectual Property 124

Life Beyond Code

SEPTEMBER 27, 2011

One Million by One Million is a global initiative that aims to nurture a million entrepreneurs reach a million dollars each in annual revenue and beyond by 2020, thereby creating a trillion dollars in global GDP and ten million jobs. SM: In September 2008, when the first Entrepreneur Journeys book was released, D.D.

Programming 116

Programming Silicon Valley Bootstrapping Technical Review 116

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 7, 2011

In 2008, he founded StackOverflow , and it has become the foundation for a question and answer platform called StackExchange. As an example, Joel says that there is a chief revenue officer who is solely responsible for bringing in revenue to StackExchange. Stackoverflow was created in 2008. His Tenure at Microsoft.

Software Review 285

Software Review Software St. Louis API 285

ReadWriteStart

OCTOBER 6, 2011

Sramana Mitra is the founder of the One Million by One Million (1M/1M) initiative, an educational, business development and incubation program that aims to help one million entrepreneurs globally to reach $1 million in revenue and beyond. From 2008 to 2010, Mitra was a columnist for Forbes. This is where numerous ventures fail.

Silicon Valley 118

Silicon Valley India San Francisco Entrepreneur 118