Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 14, 2009

It should be even more important to the founders themselves, because it demonstrates that their business hypothesis is grounded in reality. These founders have not managed, to borrow a phrase from Steve Blank , to create a scalable and repeatable sales process. More on that in a moment. They are close to breakeven.

Customer 167

Customer San Francisco Lean Hockey Stick 167

Reid Hoffman

MARCH 19, 2019

The founder of early internet startup Freeloader (acquired for $38 million in 1996) and anti-spam company Brightmail (acquired for $370 million in 2004), Paul went on to pioneer the ride-hailing space. I [Reid] remember when Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky told me about the offer.). The third is high gross margins.

Cofounder 28

Cofounder Business Model IPO Non-Compete 28

ConversionXL

NOVEMBER 6, 2019

Mike Arsenault and his two co-founders—all with technical backgrounds—built their MVP while working full time for other SaaS companies. “We An engineer by training, Founder and CEO Larry Gadea built the MVP of Envoy’s first product, Visitors, by himself using only free versions of software. “I

Sweat Equity 78

Sweat Equity Software Review Vesting Cofounder 78

ReadWriteStart

NOVEMBER 16, 2010

But you don't have any lords and masters to answer to and the pay out goes entirely to the founders and management team. The big enterprise software companies almost all bootstrapped their way to profitability before they got their first external investors (typically via an IPO). Photo by LotusHead. So VCs will need to invest.

Software 127

Software Startup Architecture Bootstrapping 127

Duct Tape Marketing

DECEMBER 28, 2023

And despite not going to University, Ash became a serial tech founder and the first marketing director of the Unicorn Startup Just Eat. Well, you're going to judge it by the team, by the co-founders. Should you bootstrap? It's the founders themselves. Can you find the right co-founder?

Framework 68

Framework Cofounder Early Stage IPO 68

Duct Tape Marketing

JANUARY 19, 2023

Despite not going to university, Ash became a serial tech founder and the first marketing director of a unicorn startup – Just Eat). Well, you're gonna judge it by the team, by the co-founders. And when you're judging it by the co-founders, that's when you have to try and decide, okay, what have they got going for themselves?

Audio 84

Audio Cofounder Framework Early Stage 84

ConversionXL

NOVEMBER 6, 2019

Mike Arsenault and his two co-founders—all with technical backgrounds—built their MVP while working full time for other SaaS companies. “We An engineer by training, Founder and CEO Larry Gadea built the MVP of Envoy’s first product, Visitors, by himself using only free versions of software. “I

Sweat Equity 50

Sweat Equity Software Review Vesting Cofounder 50