Remove Bootstrapping Remove Business Model Remove Founder Remove Sales Cycle
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Strategy Roundtable For Entrepreneurs: Exciting Companies Lined Up For Microsoft Startup Grant Finals

ReadWriteStart

They charge $9, $29 and $59 per agent per month and I am eager to see bootstrapped, scrappy Freshdesk morph their pricing structure to aggressively compete with them. The company already has paying customers and a validated business model. Zendesk is heavily financed by Benchmark and Charles River and has 10,000 customers.

India 123
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The #1 thing successful founders think about for their next startups

Hippoland

At Hustle Fund, we back both first time founders as well as repeat founders. One thing I’ve noticed is that almost every repeat, previously-successful-founder focuses on the same thing for their respective startups: customer acquisition. Sales cycles matter though. Marketing first. Product second.

Founder 48
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The #1 thing successful founders think about for their next startups

Hippoland

At Hustle Fund, we back both first time founders as well as repeat founders. One thing I’ve noticed is that almost every repeat, previously-successful-founder focuses on the same thing for their respective startups: customer acquisition. Sales cycles matter though. Marketing first. Product second.

Founder 48
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Why an investor rejection isn't a knock on you

Hippoland

A business like that will just have a really hard time raising money at the early stages, and if that’s feedback you are getting from at least 2 people, you may want to consider adjusting your plan and raise from angels and/or bootstrap for a long time. It just means VCs will shy away from it. We are currently a small fund.

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Why an investor rejection isn't a knock on you

Hippoland

A business like that will just have a really hard time raising money at the early stages, and if that’s feedback you are getting from at least 2 people, you may want to consider adjusting your plan and raise from angels and/or bootstrap for a long time. It just means VCs will shy away from it. We are currently a small fund.

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Lessons Learned: Validated learning about customers

Startup Lessons Learned

What matters is proving the viability of the company’s business model, what investors call “traction.&# It should be even more important to the founders themselves, because it demonstrates that their business hypothesis is grounded in reality. They are busy too, but they are not creating value for the company.

Customer 167
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Spolsky on Software on Both Sides of The Table

Both Sides of the Table

Blogs weren’t popularized yet so it was an oddity for me to read the founder of a software company spewing out advice. It helps with sales cycles because customers know that they can switch away if they so choose. Joel met his co-founder for Fog Creek software and learned a valuable management lesson.