Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 19, 2013

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. It always reduces risk to plan your business first. Commit to a major customer.

Intellectual Property 309

Intellectual Property Technical Review Venture Capital Startup 309

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. It always reduces risk to plan your business first. Commit to a major customer.

Intellectual Property 134

Intellectual Property Technical Review Startup Incubator 134

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 5, 2009

Unfortunately in early stage startups the drive for financing hijacks the corporate DNA and becomes the raison d’etre of the company. Chasing funding versus chasing customers and a repeatable and scalable business model, is one reason startups fail. What are Early Stage VC’s Really Asking?

Customer Development 262

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 262

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 8, 2015

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. It always reduces risk to plan your business first. Commit to a major customer.

Entrepreneur 120

Entrepreneur Intellectual Property Technical Review Incubator 120

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 17, 2023

For example, if you have a proven product, real revenue, a big potential market, and are ready to scale up the business, every investor will be interested. On the other hand, if you are a new entrepreneur, still in the idea stage, professional investors will only tell you to come back later when you have traction (customers and revenue).

Angel Investor 313

Angel Investor Intellectual Property Investment Bankers Private Equity 313

ReadWriteStart

FEBRUARY 18, 2020

While funding is necessary for almost all businesses, seeking it out yourself isn’t necessarily the right path for everyone. Instead, knowing how to bootstrap your startup might be a better option. How to Bootstrap Your Startup. When you bootstrap your startup, you retain full control of the new business.

Bootstrapping 145

Bootstrapping Startup Cofounder Angel Investor 145

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 22, 2020

For example, if you have a proven product, real revenue, a big potential market, and are ready to scale up the business, every investor will be interested. On the other hand, if you are a new entrepreneur, still in the idea stage, professional investors will only tell you to come back later when you have traction (customers and revenue).

Angel Investor 370

Angel Investor Intellectual Property Investment Bankers Private Equity 370

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 12, 2021

In my experience as a business advisor and occasional investor, many of you won’t make it that far, succumbing to the high costs of getting those first customers, funding an initial inventory, and building an operational support process. Use “white label” or custom contract for extra income.

Dilution 404

Dilution Incubator Bootstrapping Government 404

David Teten

JANUARY 21, 2021

VI: Revenue-based financing: The next step for private equity and early-stage investment. VII: Flexible VC, a New Model for Companies Targeting Profitability. With a portfolio that includes food, tech, and services, the fund is industry-agnostic and focused on the overlooked and underrepresented with high-margin business models.

Equity 78

Equity Revenue Cofounder Colorado 78

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 21, 2023

Negotiate an advance from a strategic partner or customer. Find a major customer, or a complimentary business, who sees such value in your idea that they are willing to give you an advance on royalty payments to complete your development. Variations on this theme include early licensing or white-labeling agreements.

Equity 266

Equity Startup Small Business Administration SBA 266

YoungUpstarts

MARCH 14, 2016

Once the most heavily funded startup in New York City, according to then-CEO Jason Goldberg, Fab blew through $200 million of its $336 million in VC cash without settling on a business model. It made risky bets in untested markets and tried to grow bigger than its customers were ready for. Assuming you’re one of the 99.95

Venture Capital 100

Venture Capital Securities and Exchange Commission New York City Cofounder 100

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 9, 2019

If your target customer is a business, rather than a consumer, I recommend you skip crowdfunding as poorly applicable. They don’t get excited by early stage research, development, or marketing hype. Most startups need more money than they anticipated, to grow and expand their business, after development and rollout.

Non-disclosure Agreement 299

Non-disclosure Agreement Angel Investor Bootstrapping SEC 299

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 29, 2020

Negotiate an advance from a strategic partner or customer. Find a major customer, or a complimentary business, who sees such value in your idea that they are willing to give you an advance on royalty payments to complete your development. Variations on this theme include early licensing or white-labeling agreements.

Equity 436

Equity Small Business Administration SBA Syndicate 436

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? In an early-stage startup especially, revenue is not an important goal in and of itself. The problem stems from selling each customer a custom one-time product.

Customer 167

Customer San Francisco Lean Hockey Stick 167

Professor VC

MARCH 10, 2009

Bootstrapping 101. I moderated a panel discussion last night on one of my favorite topics, bootstrapping, as part of our Silicon Valley Center for Entrepreneurship Eminent Speaker Series at San Jose State. They have a standard presentation on bootstrapping, which they present around the country. ProfessorVC. Steve Bennet.

Bootstrapping 28

Bootstrapping San Jose Silicon Valley Software Review 28

ReadWriteStart

SEPTEMBER 16, 2010

This is an open opportunity for an entrepreneur to build a custom solution. Today, the telecom industry charges customers based on fixed price business models for data services. SurgeForth has since graduated to paying customers, and is making good progress. Cion has 18 customers and is considering funding.

Cloud 117

Cloud Fractional CTO Entrepreneur Bandwidth 117

ReadWriteStart

SEPTEMBER 23, 2010

Next, Umakant Soni discussed Vimagino.com , a software for Web-based Q&A support to engage customers better on sites that are trying to draw people in and convert them into customers. Her upcoming campaign of reaching out to 100,000 moms will be one of the first concerted efforts to actually test her business model.

India 114

India Silicon Valley Incubator Bootstrapping 114

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. Though RBI will displace some traditional equity VC, its much bigger impact will be to expand the pool of capital available for early-stage entrepreneurs. . So what is Revenue Based Investing?

Revenue 60

Revenue Term Sheet Founder Technical Review 60

ReadWriteStart

NOVEMBER 19, 2010

Well, I have coached early stage entrepreneurs for a couple of years now - diligently, patiently - and have learned a few things. First up today was Yogesh Sharma presenting Rangrut.com , a business that connects employers with learning institutions and on-campus students to fill job openings. On to the roundtable recap.

Silicon Valley 114

Silicon Valley Technical Review Startup Early Stage 114

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 5, 2015

I challenge any entrepreneur, for example, to define the difference between "seed-stage" and "early-stage" financing. Asking for early-stage money before you have customers and revenue will likely kill your credibility with real investors. Yet, knowing this distinction is important.

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage Finance Early Stage Startup 120

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 19, 2018

For example, if you have a proven product, real revenue, a big potential market, and are ready to scale up the business, every investor will be interested. On the other hand, if you are a new entrepreneur, still in the idea stage, professional investors will only tell you to come back later when you have traction (customers and revenue).

Angel Investor 184

Angel Investor Intellectual Property Investment Bankers Private Equity 184

ReadWriteStart

SEPTEMBER 10, 2010

This company provides a crowdsourced customer service solution to enterprises. Gio pitched it to me as a crowdsourced BPO, but I think he will have more success if he simply focuses on customer service as his core value proposition. They already have several customers including some telcos, and are at about $350,000 in revenues.

Cloud 115

Cloud Silicon Valley Incubator Finance 115

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 10, 2018

Negotiate an advance from a strategic partner or customer. Find a major customer, or a complimentary business, who sees such value in your idea that they are willing to give you an advance on royalty payments to complete your development. Variations on this theme include early licensing or white-labeling agreements.

Entrepreneur 240

Entrepreneur Equity Small Business Administration SBA 240

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 5, 2016

The media tends to highlight experienced entrepreneurs who succeed with early new venture funding, like Uber’s Garrett Camp , but fail to point out the more common bootstrapping successes. Keep your focus on customers rather than investors. Don’t let early funding increase risk and dilute your potential.

Bootstrapping 120

Bootstrapping Entrepreneur Startup Exit Strategy 120

Hippoland

FEBRUARY 12, 2018

I’ll give you an example with my own startup LaunchBit and how our understanding of the problem and the customer became more refined over time: V1: Helping online marketers get customers profitably. V2: Helping online marketers who have previously bought ads in email lists get customers profitably. Or in between?

Seed Stage 48

Seed Stage Business Model B2B Email 48

Hippoland

FEBRUARY 12, 2018

I’ll give you an example with my own startup LaunchBit and how our understanding of the problem and the customer became more refined over time: V1: Helping online marketers get customers profitably. V2: Helping online marketers who have previously bought ads in email lists get customers profitably. Or in between?

Seed Stage 48

Seed Stage Business Model B2B Email 48

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 4, 2014

For example, if you have a proven product, real revenue, a big potential market, and are ready to scale up the business, every investor will be interested. On the other hand, if you are a new entrepreneur, still in the idea stage, professional investors will only tell you to come back later when you have traction (customers and revenue).

Angel Investor 232

Angel Investor Intellectual Property Investment Bankers Private Equity 232

The Next Web

AUGUST 26, 2013

Raise your first round of money, or bootstrap. There are two ways to start a tech business. You either do it on your own, taking all risks and responsibility yourself (“bootstrapping”), or you find investors that believe in your company. Before you start talking to large VCs, find some early stage investors.

Management 120

Management Cofounder Startup Bootstrapping 120

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

MAY 1, 2012

To clarify the discussion, let’s use a simpler model: Companies A and B both sell products with recurring monthly revenue, and both brought in $10,000 in revenue last month. Company A has 1,000 customers each paying $10/mo. Company B has 10 customers each paying $1,000/mo. Which is better? Oops, bad question.

Customer 320

Customer Revenue Acquisition Cofounder 320

Up and Running

DECEMBER 23, 2019

One of the most important decisions a new business owner can make is how they’re going to finance their venture. . Bootstrapping, saving funds over years, borrowing from friends and family, taking out a bank loan and pitching investors are all viable options, but some will work better than others for your specific business. .

Finance 92

Finance Sweat Equity Bootstrapping Entrepreneur 92

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 12, 2014

Negotiate an advance from a strategic partner or customer. Find a major customer, or a complimentary business, who sees such value in your idea that they are willing to give you an advance on royalty payments to complete your development. Variations on this theme include early licensing or white-labeling agreements.

Entrepreneur 283

Entrepreneur Startup Equity Small Business Administration 283

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 13, 2016

For example, if you have a proven product, real revenue, a big potential market, and are ready to scale up the business, every investor will be interested. On the other hand, if you are a new entrepreneur, still in the idea stage, professional investors will only tell you to come back later when you have traction (customers and revenue).

Matching 120

Matching Angel Investor Intellectual Property Investment Bankers 120

Steve Blank

MAY 26, 2009

Intellectual Property At the next class I said, “You all ought to get out and start talking to customers on day one, and get early feedback on your idea. Don’t share the details of your manufacturing process with customers until you’ve locked up your intellectual property.” Bootstrap for years! Yeah, I said.

Vertical 149

Vertical Silicon Valley Intellectual Property RSS 149

Duct Tape Marketing

APRIL 6, 2022

John Jantsch (02:29): So I'm curious, how did you get into the business of advising startups? Well, Steve Hoffman (02:34): First of all, I did three venture funded startups in Silicon valley and two bootstrap startups. You know, could you look at my business plan? See if the business model works, all these questions.

San Francisco 97

San Francisco Technical Review Incubator Silicon Valley 97

Up and Running

MAY 23, 2016

The one-page pitch format is also more suitable for SaaS businesses that are constantly testing new ideas. Your pitch is going to cover your strategy (what you’re going to do), your tactics (how you’re going to do it), your business model (how you will make money), and your schedule (who is doing what and when).

Software Review 74

Software Review Software Delaware Forecast 74

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. According to Brian Parks, “Bigfoot provides RBI, term loans, and lines of credit to SaaS businesses with $500k+ ARR. Our wheelhouse is bootstrapped (or lightly capitalized) SMB SaaS. Bigfoot Capital.

Revenue 60

Revenue Technical Review Software Review Equity 60

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 25, 2016

Negotiate an advance from a strategic partner or customer. Find a major customer, or a complimentary business, who sees such value in your idea that they are willing to give you an advance on royalty payments to complete your development. Variations on this theme include early licensing or white-labeling agreements.

Equity 120

Equity Small Business Administration SBA Syndicate 120