YoungUpstarts

SEPTEMBER 23, 2017

I raised money and traded equity, but with my venture, I had to make one of the toughest decisions, to build it with some assistance of co-founders. Find the right co-founders. Having co-founders provides a strategy to avoid funding your start-up, with the help of investor’s money. Often, this is considered as a mistake.

Cofounder 124

Cofounder Sweat Equity Equity Dilution 124

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 19, 2013

Most entrepreneurs struggle with many startup Founders dilemmas in building their business, and these key dilemmas are probably the biggest source of pain and failure for the entrepreneur lifestyle. Should you start a company solo or find co-Founders to help you? The downside is loss of control and financial dilution.

Founder 245

Founder Hockey Stick Cofounder Liquidity Event 245

VC Cafe

SEPTEMBER 28, 2023

The Carta data showed the following trends: About half of the companies that closed had not raised any venture capital, relying solely on bootstrapping, angel investors, or other sources. For those that did tap VCs, 90% were either Seed or Series A stage companies. It comes with the territory.

Valuation 103

Valuation Startup Angel Investor Dilution 103

David Teten

AUGUST 19, 2019

RBI normally requires founders to pay back their investors with a fixed percentage of revenue until they have finished providing the investor with a fixed return on capital, which they agree upon in advance. For background, see Revenue-Based Investing: A New Option for Founders who Care About Control. Capital need of up to $1.5M

Revenue 60

Revenue Technical Review Software Review Equity 60

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 10, 2019

Most entrepreneurs struggle with many startup founders quandaries in building their business, and these key dilemmas are probably the biggest source of pain and failure for the entrepreneur lifestyle. Should you start a company solo or find co-founders to help you? The downside is loss of control and financial dilution.

Hockey Stick 243

Hockey Stick Cofounder Liquidity Event Startup 243

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 10, 2021

They might be ideas they hatch internally (via a Foundry) or a founder who just left SpaceX and raises money to search for an idea. two founders in a garage?—?(HP The most connected and high-potential founders start with wads of cash. The legends of Silicon Valley?—?two HP Style) are dead. So in a way it’s self selecting.

Pre-Money Valuation 471

Pre-Money Valuation Valuation Venture Capital Early Stage 471

Austin Startup

FEBRUARY 13, 2019

The first one relates to the most important investor…you, the founder(s)! Bootstrap if you can, for as long as you can As a startup you’ll likely fail. Either way, if you know you’re going to fail, it’s much better to do so with your own money on the line than money that also costs you in dilution, perpetuity or more.

Strategic Investors 49

Strategic Investors Austin Angel Investor Bootstrapping 49

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 14, 2014

Most entrepreneurs struggle with many startup Founders dilemmas in building their business, and these key dilemmas are probably the biggest source of pain and failure for the entrepreneur lifestyle. Should you start a company solo or find co-Founders to help you? The downside is loss of control and financial dilution.

Hockey Stick 268

Hockey Stick Cofounder Entrepreneur Liquidity Event 268

ReadWriteStart

JULY 18, 2011

Clavier began his presentation at the beginning of a company's lifecycle, asking how many co-founders a startup ought to have. If you like this kind of advice, check out my coverage of a talk by Paul Palmieri, Co-Founder and CEO of mobile advertising service Millennial Media, titled " Investing in Your Influencers. ".

Investment Bankers 153

Investment Bankers Technical Review Cofounder Due Diligence 153

ReadWriteStart

JANUARY 27, 2011

I have discussed at length why revenue sharing channel deals may serve as perfectly fine alternatives to raising equity (or even complements) because of their non-dilutive nature. It certainly will be a better way to bootstrap the company. SOCO Games. The game has started getting some traction already, and has a good virality index.

Dilution 114

Dilution Revenue Finance Entrepreneur 114

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 19, 2017

Most entrepreneurs struggle with many startup founders dilemmas in building their business, and these key dilemmas are probably the biggest source of pain and failure for the entrepreneur lifestyle. Should you start a company solo or find co-founders to help you? The downside is loss of control and financial dilution.

Hockey Stick 144

Hockey Stick Cofounder Entrepreneur Liquidity Event 144

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 9, 2018

Bootstrapping allows you to maintain full control of your startup strategy, retain maximum equity, and avoid the time delay and energy spent to attract outside investors. I find that most good founders proceed faster on their own, with less drain on their time from peers and programs, and no equity dilution.

Incubator 180

Incubator Angel Investor Dilution Equity 180

Early Growth Financial Services

MARCH 1, 2013

That’s the big question that many founders ask themselves as they try to get their product and service to market. You can find successful entrepreneurs on both sides of the bootstrap debate: there are definitely advantages—and disadvantages—to both bootstrapping and raising venture capital. Helps you to focus.

Bootstrapping 55

Bootstrapping Venture Capital Startup Product Development 55

ReadWriteStart

SEPTEMBER 9, 2019

Although some founders take venture capital in exchange for equity, that’s not the only way to do it. To learn more about the pros and cons of venture capital — and founders’ funding alternatives — I caught up with Mark McKee. Mark McKee : Most first-time founders I’ve met don’t, frankly. Why or why not? Oftentimes, it is.

Venture Capital 105

Venture Capital Equity SBA Finance 105

Board Effect

MAY 13, 2019

Cap Table Management While Bootstrapping. Managing cap tables presents much less of a challenge to founders in their “garage days”; offering up their blood, sweat, and tears in sacrifice to the startup gods. Anticipating this, founders can prepare waterfalls and what-if scenarios to model dilution in advance of investor negotiations.

Cap Table 40

Cap Table Management Liquidity Event Dilution 40

David Teten

JANUARY 21, 2021

This essay is part of a series on alternative VC: I: Revenue-Based Investing: a new option for founders who care about control. III: Why are Revenue-Based VCs investing in so many women and underrepresented founders? II: Who are the major Revenue-Based Investing VCs? IV: Should your new VC fund use Revenue-Based Investing?

Equity 78

Equity Revenue Cofounder Colorado 78

Bryce Dot VC

FEBRUARY 6, 2017

Call it Bootstrap+, Fundstrapping or Series 1 and done, there seems to be a move towards simplifying the various funding schemes and getting down to the business of building a real business. Founders can trade the fundraising treadmill for the freedom, control and ownership that comes with managing your cap table closely.

Cap Table 40

Cap Table Burn Rate Dilution Bootstrapping 40

Tim Keane

JANUARY 12, 2010

These include: ·       Vesting of Founder Stock. Especially in situations where the founders have a large position and are key employees, it is not uncommon for investors to request that they agree to have some portion of their holdings vest on a schedule.

Term Sheet 68

Term Sheet Valuation Dividend Liquidation Preference 68

Rob Go

SEPTEMBER 2, 2014

Some founders are able to skip an institutional seed round and go straight to a multi-million dollar A-round where a larger VC puts in the lion’s share of the capital. As I’ve blogged about in the past, there are positives and negatives to this strategy, but it is a viable option to some founders. Skipping Straight to A.

Cram Down 66

Cram Down Institutional Investors Dilution Seed Stage 66

The Next Web

FEBRUARY 27, 2014

Freshman are a piece of paper to beta site (bootstrap financed—raise $50K to $500K). While at the same time, M&A transactions can come at a 25 percent to 35 percent premium to financing valuations, as the founders are taking all their upside off the table. Make sure you adjust for these when comparing to any public market data.

Valuation 167

Valuation Forecast Seed Stage .Net 167

Scott Edward Walker

OCTOBER 28, 2014

This week, we present legendary angel investor Ron Conway (commonly referred to as the “ Godfather of Silicon Valley ”) and Marc Andreessen , a brilliant entrepreneur and co-founder and general partner of the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. Bootstrap as long as you possibly can.” –Ron Ron Conway (at 1:37).

Cap Table 67

Cap Table Cofounder Silicon Valley Venture Capital 67

The Next Web

OCTOBER 10, 2013

How many founders are too many? You are the founder, the visionary, the uber-entrepreneur. VCs don’t fund sole founders and, if you are alone, you’ve either got too much ego or you can’t convince someone to join you. Two” – You have to have three founders. Too dilutive.”. Hire everyone you need as an employee.

Cofounder 143

Cofounder Technical Cofounder Kenya Dilution 143

The Next Web

OCTOBER 3, 2012

Andrew is the co-founder and CTO of Parse.ly , a technology startup that provides big data insights to the web’s best publishers. He wrote: When startups die, the official cause of death is always either running out of money or a critical founder bailing. Editor’s note: This is a guest post by Andrew Montalenti.

Cofounder 155

Cofounder Technical Cofounder Technical Review Software Review 155

Professor VC

JANUARY 17, 2008

There needs to be enough equity to go around for founders, early investors, later investors, and employees. At a $1 million, pre-money, with an investment of $500K, that would leave 67% of the company for the founders and initial option pool. Bootstrapping 101. Survey says VC's invest on Gut Instinct. ► July. (1).

Pre-Money Valuation 28

Pre-Money Valuation Angel Investor Angel Groups Valuation 28

dondodge.typepad.com

JANUARY 15, 2011

The second and third rounds of funding take additional shares of equity and dilute existing investors and founders. Founders usually end up with 10% to 20%, all the other employees end up with about 15%, and the VCs end up with about 60% to 75%. Founders and VPs usually have about 10% and employees have about 15%.

Equity 40

Equity Employee Dilution Valuation 40

YoungUpstarts

JANUARY 20, 2020

Most young founders lack at least a few of those C’s, making debt financing only feasible under limited conditions (and with plenty of upfront legwork and planning). Beyond Bootstrapping and Begging. The beauty of a crowdfunding site like Kickstarter is that founders enjoy limited risk. Secure terms from suppliers.

Indiana 165

Indiana Startup Bootstrapping Finance 165

Professor VC

JUNE 20, 2011

Since the iControl system chronicles all meetings, I was able to find the automatic picture snapped from my first meeting with the founders, Reza Raji and Chris Stevens on April 22, 2004. While bootstrapping, there are multiple options from doing as a side project, changing the business, raising angel or venture, etc. ► July. (1).

San Jose 28

San Jose Angel Investor Term Sheet Venture Capital 28

Version One Ventures

JANUARY 10, 2013

Raise too much and you’re diluting your ownership; raise too little and your company will have trouble gaining traction or making it to the next month. Target between 15-25% dilution per round I typically recommend that founders put more emphasis on the quality of investors (i.e.

Dilution 154

Dilution Valuation Bootstrapping Channel 154

Transformify

FEBRUARY 1, 2019

Bootstrapping. Most startup founders are familiar with this form of funding. Sometimes, the performance indicators ( KPIs) are too aggressive and not meeting them results in further dilution or accepting subsequent funding at a lower valuation. Similar opportunities are available in other countries as well. Equity Funding.

Affiliate 49

Affiliate Equity Valuation SEO 49

Life Beyond Code

SEPTEMBER 27, 2011

Our community has successfully established a culture of bootstrapping as a counterforce to the compulsive rush to financing that entrepreneurs mistakenly often engage in, only to be rejected over and again by investors. Team building strategies – what is appropriate for a bootstrapped stage versus what is needed for funding.

Programming 116

Programming Silicon Valley Bootstrapping Technical Review 116