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. Set expectations accordingly.

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. Solicit funds from friends and family.

Intellectual Property 134

Intellectual Property Technical Review Startup Incubator 134

The Startup Magazine

SEPTEMBER 12, 2019

While the rewards may be a boon to their company in the short term, the consequences of accepting outside funding too early can be debilitating. There’s a reason why I refer to early-stage VC funding as vulture capital, and to be honest it’s pretty accurate. This is why I made the decision to bootstrap HighRadius.

Early Stage 85

Early Stage Venture Capital Bootstrapping Pre-Money Valuation 85

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. Solicit funds from friends and family.

Entrepreneur 120

Entrepreneur Intellectual Property Technical Review Incubator 120

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 25, 2012

For example, with any outside investment, you give up some ownership and control, and with bootstrapping your growth curve will likely be longer and more organic. Following is my prioritized larger list of sources, with some “rules of thumb” which may save you a lot of time and energy: Bootstrapping. Friends and family.

Technical Review 257

Technical Review Bootstrapping Venture Capital Incubator 257

Genuine VC

SEPTEMBER 18, 2014

Chad is the CEO of thoughtbot, a consulting firm that makes web + mobile apps for early-stage startups. The stats behind what Bryan and the team had accomplished while bootstrapping the business were incredible, including signing up over 1,000 paying accounts and analyzing over 30,000 code repositories EVERY DAY.

Software Review 191

Software Review Chad Ruby PHP 191

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 16, 2011

For example, with any outside investment, you give up some ownership and control, and with bootstrapping your growth curve will likely be longer and more organic. Following is my prioritized larger list of sources, with some “rules of thumb” which may save you a lot of time and energy: Bootstrapping. Friends and family.

Technical Review 233

Technical Review Bootstrapping Startup Venture Capital 233

Gust

JUNE 17, 2012

For example, with any outside investment, you give up some ownership and control, and with bootstrapping your growth curve will likely be longer and more organic. Following is my prioritized larger list of sources, with some “rules of thumb” which may save you a lot of time and energy: Bootstrapping. Friends and family.

Technical Review 164

Technical Review Bootstrapping Venture Capital Incubator 164

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

OCTOBER 7, 2010

Bottom line, early stage equity is very, very expensive. So at any point, if you are trying to raise money, and you are hearing from investors that you are too early and have too little validation, it may be a good thing. Sub-$2 million pre-money, it is better to bootstrap. We will work on that with her. Trendy Loot.

Valuation 119

Valuation Silicon Valley Pre-Money Valuation Bootstrapping 119

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 1, 2010

For example, with any outside investment, you give up some ownership and control, and with bootstrapping you growth curve will likely be longer and more organic. Following is my prioritized larger list of sources, with some “rules of thumb” which may save you a lot of time and energy: Bootstrapping. Friends and family.

Technical Review 149

Technical Review Bootstrapping Startup Venture Capital 149

ReadWriteStart

SEPTEMBER 16, 2010

I pointed Zubair to a couple of case studies of bootstrapping using services to get more of his core product built; in parallel, I will help him pursue institutional funding. Bolpur is home to the Viswabharati university, as well as several other small engineering and professional colleges.

Cloud 117

Cloud Fractional CTO Entrepreneur Bandwidth 117

Spencer Fry

APRIL 17, 2017

Days before the conference started, I was asked (and felt honored) to lead two workshops on bootstrapping vs. raising money. Having started and sold 3 successful bootstrapped businesses, and am now running 1 venture capital backed business ( Coach ), this is a topic I know a thing or two about. What's “good” about bootstrapping.

Bootstrapping 63

Bootstrapping Cap Table Liquidation Preference Cofounder 63

www.readwriteweb.com

OCTOBER 7, 2007

This is typically called “bootstrapping&# and it is fraught with potential pitfalls and dangers. What is bootstrapping? So, what does it mean to bootstrap a company? Bootstrapping involves launching a business on a low budget. Why bootstrap? Either way, bootstrapping is a viable model.

Bootstrapping 41

Bootstrapping Offshore Startup EC2 41

ReadWriteStart

DECEMBER 9, 2010

Jacqueline asked an important question: how do you mitigate your working capital challenges in an e-commerce company at the very early stages without raising financing? money for an early-stage venture catering to a foreign market is abysmally low. Or, bootstrap longer.

Silicon Valley 117

Silicon Valley Malaysia India China 117

ReadWriteStart

SEPTEMBER 3, 2010

There's a thriving geek culture in Paris, and no lack of software development expertise, thanks to superior universities that produce superior engineers. OSEO validation in turn makes early-stage startups eligible for a variety of support services and funding options. All those struggling, bootstrapping, Ramen-eating founders?

France 163

France Technical Review Incubator Early Stage 163

View from Seed

NOVEMBER 4, 2019

Increasingly, seed rounds occur after some sort of pre-seed or at least some period of bootstrapping. And the ultimate uncertainties for a seed stage company are around talent and customer demand.

Seed Stage 180

Seed Stage Bootstrapping Demand Early Stage 180

ReadWriteStart

SEPTEMBER 23, 2010

In 1M/1M, I teach the EJ Methodology which is based on my Entrepreneur Journeys research, and emphasize bootstrapping, idea validation, and crisp positioning as some of the core principles of building strong fundamentals in early stage ventures.

India 114

India Silicon Valley Incubator Bootstrapping 114

The Next Web

AUGUST 26, 2013

Raise your first round of money, or bootstrap. 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. There are two ways to start a tech business.

Management 120

Management Cofounder Startup Bootstrapping 120

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

NOVEMBER 14, 2011

Search Engine Marketing and online ads on the other hand can be set up in minutes. Those higher costs make learning to write ads, manage campaigns, A/B test, and design landing pages a very expensive activity for an early stage, bootstrapping startup. SEO is extremely powerful, but it takes time.

Campaign 272

Campaign Software Review Brazil Conversion 272

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. The first step is to develop some reference customers, something all early-stage startups should do. Telesales simply don't work without reference customers.

Silicon Valley 114

Silicon Valley Technical Review Startup Early Stage 114

ConversionXL

MARCH 31, 2021

For example, if organic traffic is a priority for you, include a statement like this: From an SEO perspective, our primary goal in the early stages of this content strategy is to focus on low-volume, high-buyer intent keywords and queries related to specific pain points. This sets the intention for your early-stage priorities.

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Audience Non-Compete Distribution Channel 127

ReadWriteStart

SEPTEMBER 10, 2010

As far as customer acquisition is concerned, we discussed, again the power of organic search engine optimization. She has a master's degree in electrical engineering and computer science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Her main questions were around customer acquisition and financing.

Cloud 115

Cloud Silicon Valley Incubator Finance 115

www.entrepreneur.com

SEPTEMBER 22, 2011

Human Resources Play Video Shark Tanks Barbara Corcoran on Bootstrapping a Growing a Business (Video). When you're getting started, sweat equity is often a critical component of your negotiating leverage with co-founders, early stage employees and others who aren't paid market wages to help you grow your business.

Sweat Equity 55

Sweat Equity Equity Fractional CTO CTO 55

Up and Running

JULY 1, 2015

Bootstrapping. There are other alternative ways to jumpstart your business engine. Many entrepreneurs use bootstrapping, which means financing your company by scraping together funds in unconventional ways. Here are some popular ways of bootstrapping your business. Check out Kickstarter or Indiegogo to get started.

Bootstrapping 60

Bootstrapping Angel Investor Venture Capital Finder 60

ReadWriteStart

OCTOBER 21, 2010

At today's roundtable, we had some very interesting discussions on creative bootstrapping. I recently wrote an article on this topic, calling all EDA entrepreneurs to build $5 million to $10 million to $20 million cash businesses that are self-financed, bootstrapped, and built organically. Read EDA Entrepreneurs: Build To Enjoy.

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Bootstrapping IP India Silicon Valley 113

Austin Startup

MARCH 3, 2018

Salon C Register: SXSW badge required The Texas Startup Manifesto SXSW Report on Trust: Gov’t, Tech & Media with WP Engine CEO Heather Brunner Join the legendary Dan Rather, Heather Brunner (WP Engine), Jess Clifton (Edelman Digital), moderator Richard Edelman and host Hugh Forrest (SXSW). 3:00PM Location: Hilton?—?Salon

Technical Review 58

Technical Review Silicon Valley Texas Austin 58

Up and Running

AUGUST 27, 2020

Canny is 100% bootstrapped —we haven’t taken any outside funding. Here’s how we got started, and our lessons learned from growing a bootstrapped company. We also knew, as an engineer and designer pairing, we could build a software product without hiring for a while. Be scrappy in the beginning—especially if you’re bootstrapped.

Founder 120

Founder Cofounder Bootstrapping Startup 120

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 14, 2009

In an early-stage startup especially, revenue is not an important goal in and of itself. Let’s start with a simple question: why do early-stage startups want revenue? This is an incredible skill, one that most engineers overlook. People talk about funding funding funding, bootstrapping, etc.,

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Customer San Francisco Lean Hockey Stick 167

YoungUpstarts

JANUARY 5, 2012

Chinosorn, a prolific “hobby collector”, and Leung, an engineer, became friends at the University of Illinois and both worked on several startups prior to starting MentorMob. MentorMob is bootstrapped and has 12 employees. Which means you’ll be learning continually, as well. Learning From Others.

Illinois 165

Illinois Aggregator Chicago Widget 165

The Startup Magazine

JUNE 19, 2018

Earlier this year at the FUND Conference in Austin, Texas, over 100 startups presented their early-stage companies in front of hundreds of investors and industry leaders. FUND is a national connector of entrepreneurs, VCs, angel investors, and industry experts with a focus on deal flow and making connections. What is your secret sauce?

Texas 74

Texas Advisory Board Startup Angel Investor 74

ReadWriteStart

SEPTEMBER 3, 2010

As a result, the expectation is that you have to figure out a way to get to some level of momentum on your own (by bootstrapping) or with small doses of angel money - "drip financing" so to speak. In today's India, people with high-end engineering skills are in high demand. Gnosis India.

Channel 115

Channel India Bootstrapping Silicon Valley 115

ReadWriteStart

OCTOBER 28, 2010

Cristina currently has a couple of large customers in pilot mode, and is starting to show metrics on how much improvement IDES can deliver over existing analytics engines. And these pilots will pay for her early bootstrapping phase.

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Partner Belgium Portugal Bootstrapping 117

YoungUpstarts

JANUARY 31, 2017

Admittedly, many Omaha investors are still wary of early stage investments. That’s the approach we’re taking at The Startup Collaborative, where companies that are still bootstrapping can share space with companies that have already been validated by the market and are ready to raise capital. Area for Improvement: Sales Skills.

Omaha 100

Omaha Nebraska Chicago Incubator 100

ReadWriteStart

NOVEMBER 4, 2010

The premium lounge includes an online curriculum addressing the common topics specific to very early stage entrepreneurship; private roundtables that many of you have requested; customer, channel partners, and investor introductions; media and analyst access; and a variety of other value-added services to make our entrepreneurs successful.

Startup 113

Startup India Silicon Valley Incubator 113

David Teten

JANUARY 21, 2021

VI: Revenue-based financing: The next step for private equity and early-stage investment. David Teten , Versatile’s founder, was previously a Partner with HOF Capital and ff Venture Capital, two early-stage New York VC firms. in idea-stage and side-hustle founders using a Convertible Income Share Agreement, or CISA.

Equity 78

Equity Revenue Cofounder Colorado 78

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 5, 2009

I think this idea is particularly appealing to those of us from an engineering background. One way to conceive of our goal in an early-stage venture is to incrementally “fill in the blanks&# for the business model that we think will one day power our startup. The solution is to change our focus from outputs to inputs.

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San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment Startup 102