Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 22, 2010

Here are some tips which will signal traction to investors, as well as your team: Document your business plan. Build qualified advisory board. If you can convince a couple of domain experts, or a couple of experienced executives to join your board and be your advocate, that’s traction. Letters of intent or endorsement.

Intellectual Property 222

Intellectual Property Sweat Equity CTO Hire Fractional CTO 222

ConversionXL

AUGUST 11, 2021

To uncover audience problems and motivations, call on your brand market research or customer service data. The more you know about your audience, the better you can customize your offer to appeal to the right kind of sponsors. Your sponsor proposal document or webpage is a deal-maker or a deal-breaker. Asset valuation.

Audience 139

Audience Social Media Email Ruby 139

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 6, 2021

Every new business I know dreams of building momentum in their business, where growth continues to increase, customers become your best advocates, and employee motivation is high. Unfortunately, with limited resources, this isn’t possible, and it frustrates customers and the team. Focus first on finding more of the right customers.

Technical Review 400

Technical Review Technical Cofounder Advisory Board Cofounder 400

Board Effect

JULY 14, 2021

Outlining term limits – Boards should have a clear policy for board terms and the number of allowable consecutive terms. Reviewing governing documents and the mission on a regular basis – The needs of stakeholders change periodically, and it’s the board’s responsibility to ensure the mission and governing documents are relevant.

Government 98

Government Advisory Board Community Programming 98

Up and Running

AUGUST 30, 2017

What are the details of your ownership structure, board of directors, investor list, partners, and so on? List an advisory board if you have one, list all employee salaries, incentives, referral bonuses for recruiting, and all such details. Legal documents. Reach your target market. Reference letters. Building permits.

Business Plan 93

Business Plan SBA Software Review Advisory Board 93

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 28, 2017

This shortcut to avoid hard discussions and signed documents leads to more dysfunctional businesses and broken relationships than you could imagine. Focus on products and customers, and trust your accountant. Too many business owners are convinced that listening to an advisory board or Board of Directors is a waste of time and money.

Cost 180

Cost Advisory Board Entrepreneur Angel Investor 180

Growthink Blog

MAY 20, 2011

you have customers). So, what really peeved me about this, was his law firm probably charging him hundreds of dollars for this totally useless document. Like getting customer traction. Like building an advisory board. Maybe you have your first customer. I mean nobody worth talking to would sign it.

Venture Capital 109

Venture Capital Valuation NDA Non-disclosure Agreement 109

Board Effect

SEPTEMBER 8, 2021

As a major player in society and the economy, nonprofit boards need to be diligent about reviewing and maintaining their organization’s bylaws to ensure they remain relevant to the mission. Your bylaws are a legal document that outlines the rules and procedures for your nonprofit. Changing the board’s voting rules.

Tennessee 105

Tennessee Advisory Board Government Leadership 105

crowdSPRING Blog

FEBRUARY 14, 2019

Make sure you build your business to meet the needs of a specific niche to avoid overspending and underwhelming all of your potential customers. That passion will come through in everything you do, and your customers will appreciate and embrace the authenticity of your brand. NOT SATISFIED WITH THE GROWTH OF YOUR BUSINESS?

Angel Investor 85

Angel Investor Small Business Business Plan Intellectual Property 85

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 19, 2016

In my role as an advisory board member for several startups, I’m always excited to see that initial surge of revenue from a great rollout campaign. An initial revenue surge, or a major cash advance from investors often leads to a mentality of building a large customer base at any cost.

Advisory Board 120

Advisory Board Startup Revenue Finance 120

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 13, 2012

Terms like “every customer needs this” and “next generation platform” are far too soft, and should be avoided. This is not the place for a detailed product specification, but an explanation of how and why it works, including a customer-centric quantification of the benefits. Solution and benefits. Focus is the keyword here.

Business Plan 283

Business Plan Sweat Equity Exit Strategy Intellectual Property 283

crowdSPRING Blog

FEBRUARY 28, 2019

Make sure you build your business to meet the needs of a specific niche to avoid overspending and underwhelming all of your potential customers. That passion will come through in everything you do, and your customers will appreciate and embrace the authenticity of your brand. How to identfy your brand's audience, and more! Real Estate.

Business Plan 64

Business Plan Small Business Administration Hiring Social Media 64

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 13, 2011

Terms like “every customer needs this” and “next generation platform” are far too soft, and should be avoided. This is not the place for a detailed product specification, but an explanation of how and why it works, including a customer-centric quantification of the benefits. Solution and benefits. Focus is the keyword here.

Business Plan 290

Business Plan Sweat Equity Exit Strategy Intellectual Property 290

David Teten

JANUARY 23, 2021

The next best move is to build your core team, e.g., recruit an Advisory Board, Venture Partners, and EIRs. Keep these documents constantly up to date, so all team members are aligned on key numbers, e.g., total dollars raised so far. For ideas, see How Executives Can Work from Home with Private Equity and Venture Capital Funds.

Private Equity 78

Private Equity Venture Capital Technical Review Software Review 78

Gust

AUGUST 5, 2012

Terms like “every customer needs this” and “next generation platform” are far too soft, and should be avoided. This is not the place for a detailed product specification, but an explanation of how and why it works, including a customer-centric quantification of the benefits. Solution and benefits. Focus is the keyword here.

Business Plan 182

Business Plan Sweat Equity Exit Strategy Intellectual Property 182

Board Effect

FEBRUARY 27, 2024

If they’re vastly different, and your survey results indicate that your members and others in the community don’t recognize a diverse board. In that case, there’s always a chance to make changes as board vacancies open. Do they reflect the type of diversity that you want to attract in new board members?

Technical Review 52

Technical Review Technology Advisory Board Leadership 52

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 22, 2010

Terms like “every customer needs this” and “next generation platform” are far too soft, and should be avoided. This is not the place for a detailed product specification, but an explanation of how and why it works, including a customer-centric quantification of the benefits. Solution and benefits. Focus is the keyword here.

Business Plan 186

Business Plan Exit Strategy Sweat Equity Intellectual Property 186

Small Business Force

JANUARY 1, 2012

You live and breathe the business, day in and day out, dealing with customers, employees and suppliers. Or, it could be something more formal like an advisory board made up of individuals who bring to your business both small business experience and/or functional expertise that you lack.

Advisory Board 33

Advisory Board Stock Options Small Business Stock 33

crowdSPRING Blog

MARCH 14, 2019

Make sure you set up your real estate business to meet the needs of a specific niche to avoid overspending and underwhelming all of your potential customers. That passion will come through in everything you do, and your customers will appreciate and embrace the authenticity of your brand. NOT SATISFIED WITH THE GROWTH OF YOUR BUSINESS?

Business Plan 79

Business Plan Limited Liability Company Small Business Sales 79

thestartuplawyer.com

FEBRUARY 24, 2010

After you have discussed everything that needs to be discussed, DOCUMENT-DOCUMENT-DOCUMENT. Make sure your startup company documents reflect all of your discussions. Establishing and documenting the co-founder relationship is one of the most important aspects of a having a successful startup company.

Cofounder 40

Cofounder Founder Preferred Stock Startup 40

BeyondVC

FEBRUARY 18, 2005

Then there were a few companies selling enterprise applications like document management platforms and antivirus and antispam software on Linux-not terribly exciting. According to Reflective and NIST (full disclosure I am an advisory board member) it costs less than $0.10

Boston 60

Boston Advisory Board Arizona IP 60

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 5, 2018

For example, I was on the Advisory Board of a small company whose founder was killing his health through overwork, even though he felt high focused. Document required systems for repeatability without you. Focus on satisfying your ideal and best customers.

Advisory Board 152

Advisory Board Non-Compete Dilution .Net 152

ReadWriteStart

JUNE 20, 2012

In this excerpt, authors Steve Blank and Bob Dorf continue to explain the Customer Discovery Philosophy (see Part One, " Is Your Startup a Valid Vision or Just a Hallucination? "). Customer discovery turns founders’ initial hypotheses about their market and customers into facts. We call these early adopters earlyvangelists.

Customer 119

Customer Advisory Board Engineer Cofounder 119

YoungUpstarts

OCTOBER 17, 2013

In using such a scattershot approach to social media, these organizations are missing out on major opportunities to engage with potential and current customers, manage their reputations, and more — and they may be alienating social media users in the process. Listening: Interact meaningfully with customers.

Social Media 198

Social Media Media Curation Social Network 198

steveblank.com

JULY 8, 2011

signup, upgrade, trial pricing Zuora – online subscription management FeeFighters – find the cheapest credit card processors HealPay – Collections made easy Customer Support Tender – support, knowledgebase tool for your site GetSatisfaction - conversations between companies / customers.

Software Review 110

Software Review Startup Silicon Valley Analytics 110

www.vccafe.com

MARCH 11, 2013

For modifications, please edit the original document here. Steve Blank on Lean Customer Development. Customer service. Google Custom Search Engine. Customer Relationship Management. Scanning / Document Management. An additional list of business resources for startups is available here. Codeacademy.

Software Review 53

Software Review Technical Review Startup 53