Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 5, 2014

Deferred payments start with stretching the payables period but, more importantly, include giving employee equity in lieu of a higher salaries and negotiating vendor deferred payments out of future revenues. Waiting until you have something to sell before bringing on a sales and operations staff. Social media is not rocket science.

Burn Rate 262

Burn Rate Hockey Stick Entrepreneur Salary 262

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 12, 2018

The “valley of death” is a common term in the startup world, referring to the difficulty of covering the negative cash flow in the early stages of a startup, before their new product or service is bringing in revenue from real customers. Consider licensing your product or intellectual property, and “white labeling.”

Intellectual Property 134

Intellectual Property Technical Review Startup Incubator 134

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 14, 2016

Deferred payments start with stretching the payables period but, more importantly, include giving employee equity in lieu of a higher salaries and negotiating vendor deferred payments out of future revenues. Waiting until you have something to sell before bringing on a sales and operations staff. Social media is not rocket science.

Burn Rate 120

Burn Rate Hockey Stick Startup Salary 120

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 27, 2013

In his tenure as CEO of DataSift we have never missed a monthly revenue figure. He has grown our US operations from 1 employee (him) to a global organization of 75 employees that will finish the year with 8-digit revenues (90+% recurring) and more than 350% year-over-year growth. In his spare time he raised nearly $30 million.

Advisory Board 365

Advisory Board CTO Hire Fractional CTO Los Angeles 365

Gust

APRIL 27, 2014

This will include the first version of many critical processes that can be split out later, including market opportunity, requirements, product definition, business model, sales process, and organization. Product development process. Billing and revenue collection. Funding process. Manage human resources.

Startup 187

Startup Institutional Investors Angel Investor Bootstrapping 187

The Startup Magazine

AUGUST 11, 2023

It is necessary to cover the early stages of product development, thorough market research, and other processes during the initial step. pexels A war chest is virtually always a competitive edge in all aspects that count, including employing key staff, public relations, marketing, and sales. Hence they will miss the finish line.

Seed Stage 123

Seed Stage Technical Review Early Stage Due Diligence 123

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 8, 2009

Your friends and advisers tell you that this means you need revenue because in this economy VC’s will only fund businesses with revenue. So if it’s not necessarily revenue that’s preventing an investment, then WTF is traction? Unfortunately your advisers are wrong. VC’s are the same.

Technical Review 309

Technical Review Term Sheet Venture Capital Revenue 309

Berkonomics

AUGUST 10, 2017

Since this number is budgeted and pre-authorized, managers tend to focus upon other things such as sales, marketing and product development issues. Ignoring cost of product for a moment to make a point, saving a month’s fixed overhead by making processes more efficient, could easily double profits for the year.

Silicon Valley 97

Silicon Valley Burn Rate Angel Investor Down Round 97

Steve Blank

MARCH 16, 2016

But startups require money upfront for product development and later to scale. Founders can now access the largest pool of risk capital that ever existed –in the form of Private Equity (Angel Investors, family offices , Venture Capitalists (VC’s) and Hedge Funds.). If so, how is the revenue measured? The Good News.

Liquidity Event 120

Liquidity Event Founder Liquidation Preference Venture Capital 120

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 4, 2014

This will include the first version of many critical processes that can be split out later, including market opportunity, requirements, product definition, business model, sales process, and organization. Product development process. Billing and revenue collection. Funding process. Manage human resources.

Startup 268

Startup Institutional Investors Angel Investor Bootstrapping 268

Berkonomics

MARCH 30, 2010

Since this number is budgeted and pre-authorized, managers tend to focus upon other things such as sales, marketing and product development issues. There is an art to efficient management of a process, whether that is the process of bringing a product to market from R&D to production or developing a new product’s launch program.

Silicon Valley 85

Silicon Valley Burn Rate Angel Investor Down Round 85

YoungUpstarts

JUNE 24, 2014

You can double that number if you add the amount of money put up by Angel Investors. Angel Investors, VCs and entrepreneurs agree that the success rate for startup companies is dismal. Scalable technology is often the only way that startups will be able to reach profitability and grow revenue.

Startup 252

Startup Angel Investor Early Stage LLC 252

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 31, 2013

This will include the first version of many critical processes that can be split out later, including market opportunity, requirements, product definition, business model, sales process, and organization. Product development process. Billing and revenue collection. Funding process. Manage human resources.

Institutional Investors 230

Institutional Investors Angel Investor Bootstrapping Database 230

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 12, 2013

Sites like KickStarter have for years offered rewards and pre-sales for crowd investments, but real equity won’t be legalized until sometime this year for people other than accredited investors. Super-angels. Minimum Viable Product (MVP). Gamification. Startup pivot.

Entrepreneur 274

Entrepreneur Accredited Investor Silicon Valley Angel Investor 274

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 7, 2011

This will include the first version of many critical processes that can be split out later, including market opportunity, requirements, product definition, business model, sales process, and organization. Product development process. Billing and revenue collection. Funding process. Manage human resources.

Startup 255

Startup Institutional Investors Angel Investor Bootstrapping 255

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 1, 2010

This will include the first version of many critical processes that can be split out later, including market opportunity, requirements, product definition, business model, sales process, and organization. Product development process. Billing and revenue collection. Funding process. Manage human resources.

Startup 239

Startup Institutional Investors Angel Investor Bootstrapping 239

ReadWriteStart

OCTOBER 14, 2010

But you have, perhaps, heard less specific discussions on what angel investors are looking for. Well, some angel investors are looking for exactly the same thing as what VCs are looking for. In other words, these are angels looking for billion dollar opportunities as well. process in detail.

Bootstrapping 114

Bootstrapping Marketing Angel Investor Silicon Valley 114

Growthink Blog

MAY 10, 2012

As Steven Covey said, you'll want to "begin with the end in mind" and not make arrangements with your angel and/or early investors that will complicate later stages of funding. Nevertheless, this is when you get the startup money to kickstart your business with the bare essentials needed to begin making and fulfilling your first sales.

Equity 88

Equity Mezzanine Later Stage Venture Capital 88

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 14, 2015

As an angel investor, I certainly see continuing evidence that this phenomenon hasn’t changed much in the past couple of decades. Investors want proof of a business model and real customer revenue, as well as a product. Business work should start only after the product is done."

Technical Review 120

Technical Review Startup Angel Investor Social Media 120

Up and Running

MAY 23, 2016

In fact, SaaS industry revenue is projected to grow from $49 billion in 2015 to $67 billion in 2018, a compound annual growth rate of approximately eight percent. In the tactics section, list your sales channels and describe how you will be selling your products. The Recommended Sales Forecasting Method.

Software Review 74

Software Review Software Delaware Forecast 74

Tim Keane

SEPTEMBER 18, 2006

Startups and angels: Along the way to success. By Tim Keane, Angel Investor, Golden Angels Investors, LLC. In a lot of startups (especially good ones) the founder/CEO/leader is a customer-oriented sales person. After the idea/product/service is built, and the market mapped, the company begins to grow.

Harvest 60

Harvest LBO Investment Bankers Wisconsin 60

www.readwriteweb.com

OCTOBER 18, 2010

But you have, perhaps, heard less specific discussions on what angel investors are looking for. Well, some angel investors are looking for exactly the same thing as what VCs are looking for. In other words, these are angels looking for billion dollar opportunities as well. process in detail.

Marketing 52

Marketing Bootstrapping Incubator Angel Investor 52

www.readwriteweb.com

OCTOBER 18, 2010

But you have, perhaps, heard less specific discussions on what angel investors are looking for. Well, some angel investors are looking for exactly the same thing as what VCs are looking for. In other words, these are angels looking for billion dollar opportunities as well. process in detail.

Marketing 52

Marketing Bootstrapping Incubator Angel Investor 52

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 5, 2009

It should go without saying that this post is not advice, nor is it recommendation of what you should do, it’s simply my observation of how companies using Customer Development positioned themselves to successfully raise money from venture investors. Is there a profitable business model? Can it scale?” Great post!

Customer Development 264

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 264

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

JULY 19, 2010

About twenty people on Answers OnStartups have asked this question in one form or another: When I meet an angel investor, he may ask: "What if a big company copies your idea and develops the same website as yours after your website goes public?". But how does authority convert to revenue? How can I answer this question?

Software Review 325

Software Review Technical Review Development Team Review Bolivia 325

Hippoland

FEBRUARY 12, 2018

At a high level, business is simple! :) You bring revenue in and your costs send money out the door. You want your revenue to be higher than your costs. The reason I like deer-hunting businesses is that from my own experiences, I can see a clear path to bring in sales profitably. But the execution is hard.

Seed Stage 48

Seed Stage Business Model B2B Email 48

Hippoland

FEBRUARY 12, 2018

At a high level, business is simple! :) You bring revenue in and your costs send money out the door. You want your revenue to be higher than your costs. The reason I like deer-hunting businesses is that from my own experiences, I can see a clear path to bring in sales profitably. But the execution is hard.

Seed Stage 48

Seed Stage Business Model B2B Email 48

Tim Keane

JUNE 13, 2006

Startups and angels: Along the way to success. By Tim Keane, Angel Investor, Golden Angels Investors, LLC. « How do you present your venture to an investor? When you get to the point in the discussion where projections are relevant, there is a drill-down method here used by virtually every investor.

Wisconsin 60

Wisconsin Entrepreneur Startup Angel Investor 60

Transformify

JULY 13, 2019

Some people naturally have superb communication skills and are good at sales and marketing, others are inspired by numbers and good at managing budgets and convincing investors in what the potential ROI might be, others are great engineers. Lilia Stoyanov is CEO and angel investor at Transformify. About the author.

Hiring 66

Hiring Entrepreneur Startup Angel Investor 66

Tim Keane

APRIL 24, 2006

Startups and angels: Along the way to success. By Tim Keane, Angel Investor, Golden Angels Investors, LLC. The product development cycle was excellent. The period of flat revenues in between has killed many companies waiting for the early adopters to begin buying. If it does not work, get out.

Wisconsin 60

Wisconsin Angel Investor Bootstrapping Venture Capital 60

maplebutter.com

JANUARY 8, 2013

Or should I launch products and a startup for each of them, focusing on only 1 product at a time? I would focus on one product and set a goal to generate $1M in yearly revenue from it. Do that – nothing else but one product / company / focus and get to $1M in sales with atleast $15% net profit.

Technical Review 44

Technical Review Startup Cofounder Software Review 44

techcrunch.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

Programmers feel exploited when they build out a product that is successful but are reluctant to admit they wouldn’t have been able to design the product themselves. Take the top 10 largest tech innovators (take your pick of largest by revenue or largest by idea) of the last 20 years in Silicon Valley.

Technical Review 84

Technical Review Cofounder Technical Cofounder Software Review 84

www.quora.com

JANUARY 16, 2011

I have come to believe during my time as an operator, entrepreneur and investor that the balance of these skills is so important to the long-term health of a business that if balance is not achieved early then the impact later can be profound - sometimes terminal. No startup will ever succeed without a persuasive and visionary sales leader.

Technical Review 51

Technical Review Startup CTO Hire Cofounder 51