Tim Keane

MARCH 9, 2011

Can you bootstrap your way to positive cash flow?   If the answer is relatively soon, then bootstrapping is a very serious consideration.    Even if it isn’t soon, early bootstrapping can reduce risk and increase chances for success, resulting in more aligned interests for entrepreneurs and investors.

Finance 83

Finance Bootstrapping Startup Equity 83

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 5, 2015

Seed-stage, meanwhil e, is technically that critical period when you need funding to do solution- and business-model development, to prove that your new product or service works, before you try to sell it to customers. Many municipalities offer these to facilitate local new business development.

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage Finance Early Stage Startup 120

Hippoland

FEBRUARY 12, 2018

2) What is the business model and the potential unit economics? Certain investors tend to gravitate towards certain business models. When you’re talking with an investor, I’d say in general, he/she has biases towards the customer acquisition methods that has made him/her money before. Or in between?

Seed Stage 48

Seed Stage Business Model B2B Email 48

Hippoland

FEBRUARY 12, 2018

2) What is the business model and the potential unit economics? Certain investors tend to gravitate towards certain business models. When you’re talking with an investor, I’d say in general, he/she has biases towards the customer acquisition methods that has made him/her money before. Or in between?

Seed Stage 48

Seed Stage Business Model B2B Email 48

Hearpreneur

DECEMBER 8, 2019

Thanks to Allison R Lancaster, Online Business Solutions by Allison R. 2- Transformative development. 2019 was full of transformative development for Intellifluence. What makes me really proud though is we’ve been 100% bootstrapped for our 3.5 I can’t wait to see what 2020 brings! Lancaster ! #2-

Entrepreneur 117

Entrepreneur Technical Review Vertical Las Vegas 117

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

MARCH 11, 2014

We started with the product about three years ago, development, a year later we released it. They have many, many man-years of development and customer development in them. You have your general management meeting and in your general management meeting you talk about product development, about marketing and about finance.

Technical Cofounder 220

Technical Cofounder Cofounder Software Review Management 220

David Teten

AUGUST 19, 2019

I’ve been a traditional equity VC for 8 years, and I’m now researching new business models in venture capital. We have a special program if you are pre-seed and need product development. According to Brian Parks, “Bigfoot provides RBI, term loans, and lines of credit to SaaS businesses with $500k+ ARR. Bigfoot Capital.

Revenue 60

Revenue Technical Review Software Review Equity 60

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

MAY 1, 2012

Why the obsession with raising money, what if you don’t want a huge company, what if you want to bootstrap, don’t you know raising money isn’t a measure of correctness or success, … I agree! For example, the average cost of customer acquisition diminishes. You spend less on marketing/advertising/acquisition.

Customer 320

Customer Revenue Acquisition Cofounder 320

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 14, 2009

What matters is proving the viability of the company’s business model, what investors call “traction.&# Of course this is not at all true of many profitable small businesses, but they are not what I mean by startups.) And what of the product development team? Every board meeting, the metrics of success change.

Customer 167

Customer San Francisco Lean Hockey Stick 167

Hippoland

AUGUST 8, 2018

One thing I’ve noticed is that almost every repeat, previously-successful-founder focuses on the same thing for their respective startups: customer acquisition. In other words, if you can get 1000 people to come to your website consistently for under $5, then this business model works for you.

Founder 48

Founder Sales Cycle Affiliate Retention 48

Hippoland

AUGUST 8, 2018

One thing I’ve noticed is that almost every repeat, previously-successful-founder focuses on the same thing for their respective startups: customer acquisition. In other words, if you can get 1000 people to come to your website consistently for under $5, then this business model works for you.

Founder 48

Founder Sales Cycle Affiliate Retention 48

ReadWriteStart

JANUARY 27, 2011

And, oh by the way, we also really like the idea of the 1M/1M entrepreneurs building valuation and negotiating leverage through these business development efforts, instead of signing off large chunks of their company in form of equity early on. It certainly will be a better way to bootstrap the company. SOCO Games. Brainscape.

Dilution 114

Dilution Revenue Finance Entrepreneur 114

Professor VC

SEPTEMBER 26, 2011

In the trailer below, Brad Pitt in describing the new player acquisition philosophy, says "we are card counters at the blackjack table were going to turn the odds at the casino" I look forward to checking out the movie and seeing if RSCM can exploit the odds on early stage investing. ► September. (1). Bootstrapping 101.

Technical Review 38

Technical Review Early Stage San Jose Angel Investor 38

Tim Keane

JUNE 21, 2011

How to prepare a sales forecast for a business plan. First develop a business model. your ability to scale your sales efforts, future costs in acquisition, product, etc., Listed below are links to weblogs that reference How to prepare a sales forecast for a business plan : Comments. Bootstrapping.

Forecast 68

Forecast Business Plan Sales Wisconsin 68

Hippoland

OCTOBER 16, 2016

How does a social app such as Snapchat get funded vs say a developer tools company like New Relic? Open source libraries (such as TensorFlow) make technology more accessible for less skilled or self-taught developers such as myself to use. In the beginning, this may not be a problem — you can bootstrap. I mean REALLY HARD.

Startup 48

Startup Vertical Early Stage Bootstrapping 48

Austin Startup

MAY 3, 2017

Buyout companies  — In a low interest rate and the slow-growth environments of recent years, companies like Apple, Facebook, and Google focus on acquisitions instead of focusing on capital expenditures and development of internal investment projects. Marketing is the distinguishing, unique function of the business.” too obvious?)

Texas 48

Texas Startup Silicon Valley Bootstrapping 48

online.wsj.com

SEPTEMBER 23, 2012

When youve bootstrapped a business where youre not drawing a salary and depleting whatever savings you have, thats one of the very difficult things to do," says Toby Stuart, a professor at the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley. In early 2011 an acquisition by a Fortune 500 company fell apart.

Venture Capital 107

Venture Capital Software Review Rhode Island North Dakota 107

techcrunch.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

I don’t know any developers. When I point out that they’re all business people, and wonder who’s going to build the product, they almost always fall back on “we’ll get a couple of undergrads to do it,” or, “we’ll outsource it.” How do you know which designer/developer to choose? I need money for the servers.

Technical Review 84

Technical Review Cofounder Technical Cofounder Software Review 84

www.vccafe.com

MARCH 11, 2013

Steve Blank on Lean Customer Development. Design/Front End: Twitter Bootstrap : Include this in your website, and you are half finished. s helpful to find an developer tool that allows you to write html/css and renders the view in real time, so you donâ??t Firebase : Are all your developers front-end engineers?

Software Review 53

Software Review Technical Review Startup 53

Professor VC

FEBRUARY 26, 2008

Besides the natural fit with eBay, he wanted the buyer to feel good following the acquisition and certainly the investors in StubHub were happy. Bootstrapping 101. I take CFO roles in early stage companies and participate on the management team during the early financings and business model development phases.

Technical Review 28

Technical Review San Jose Angel Investor Silicon Valley 28

Hearpreneur

OCTOBER 23, 2019

Also my business’s growth gives me the opportunity to pull other flailing business people in my industry a leg up through acquisitions. Even though it expands my territory in terms of business, other members of the community of businesspeople benefit and their families prosper as well. Photo Credit: Tanya Neufeld.

Entrepreneur 68

Entrepreneur Employee Community LLC 68

Professor VC

JUNE 20, 2011

I took a look back at our original financial model we presented to VCs in 2004. The business model (OEM through broadband and home security companies for mass distribution) if not specific product functionality has remained largely the same. Bootstrapping 101. Survey says VC's invest on Gut Instinct. ► July. (1).

San Jose 28

San Jose Angel Investor Term Sheet Venture Capital 28

Professor VC

FEBRUARY 18, 2011

The LinkedIn acquisition of CardMunch a few weeks ago caught my attention. Techcrunch called it one of the " most like-minded and forward-thinking acquisitions I’ve ever seen " I met with the founders of CardMunch several months ago when they were out raising their Series Seed round. Bootstrapping 101. ► July. (1).

Acquisition 31

Acquisition San Jose Angel Investor IPO 31

Tim Keane

JUNE 13, 2006

Then, on the expense side, I’d like to begin to understand how the growth in the business will drive costs as complexity increases. Growth involves, in many businesses, more customer service, product development, support, marketing and so forth – in addition to more R&D. This takes a lot of risk out of the business process.

Wisconsin 60

Wisconsin Entrepreneur Startup Angel Investor 60

Professor VC

SEPTEMBER 24, 2009

always focus on the business model and assumptions, but there are too many unknowns to put much faith in the future cash flow projections. Blink starts with the anecdote of the Getty Museums $10 million acquisition of a rare Greek statue dating from the 6th century BC. Bootstrapping 101. ► July. (1). ► May. (1).

San Jose 33

San Jose Angel Investor Venture Capital Mezzanine 33

Professor VC

JULY 22, 2009

When he receives a lowball acquisition offer, he must decide between protecting his hide and leaving his team hanging or rejecting the offer and rolling the dice on a better outcome. Bootstrapping 101. Survey says VC's invest on Gut Instinct. ▼ July. (1). ► May. (1). Can you start a company on $10K? ► March. (1).

Burn Rate 28

Burn Rate San Jose Silicon Valley Angel Investor 28