Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 1, 2017

My first advice for new entrepreneurs is to pick a domain that doesn’t have the sky-high up-front development costs, like online web sites and smart phone apps. Self-funding or bootstrapping is still the most common and safest approach for startups Keep your day job until revenue starts to flow. Join a startup incubator.

Product Development 177

Product Development Cost Developer Product 177

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 19, 2013

My first advice for new entrepreneurs is to pick a domain that doesn’t have the sky-high up-front development costs, like online web sites and smart phone apps. Self-funding or bootstrapping is still the most common and safest approach for startups Keep your day job until revenue starts to flow. Join a startup incubator.

Intellectual Property 309

Intellectual Property Technical Review Venture Capital Startup 309

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 12, 2018

My first advice for new entrepreneurs is to pick a domain, such as online web sites and smart phone apps, that doesn’t have the sky-high up-front development costs. Self-funding or bootstrapping is still the most common and safest approach for startups Keep your day job until real revenue flows. Join a startup incubator.

Intellectual Property 134

Intellectual Property Technical Review Startup Incubator 134

YoungUpstarts

MAY 28, 2014

Fundraising is arguably the most important issue for any entrepreneur. Unless you’re a serial entrepreneur who has started and sold companies in the past. In other words, you have done wonders while “bootstrapping.” Enter Competitions and Incubators. by Asif Khan, CEO of Caremerge.

Security 200

Security Incubator Technical Review Bootstrapping 200

ReadWriteStart

JUNE 16, 2011

Zendesk is heavily financed by Benchmark and Charles River and has 10,000 customers. 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. You can read more about Freshdesk on the 1M/1M Incubation Radar today.

India 123

India Bootstrapping Non-Compete Entrepreneur 123

ReadWriteStart

SEPTEMBER 16, 2010

An entrepreneur should pick this one up ASAP. This is an open opportunity for an entrepreneur to build a custom solution. Sequoia has financed them. 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.

Cloud 117

Cloud Fractional CTO Entrepreneur Bandwidth 117

Version One Ventures

JULY 22, 2014

AngelList makes it easier for founders to reach angels and there are hundreds of accelerators and incubators to choose from. Any entrepreneur trying to navigate the financing landscape should be aware of the over-abundance of angel money compared with subsequent rounds. Is your opportunity at least $100M?

Finance 167

Finance Seed Money Bootstrapping Angel Investor 167

ReadWriteStart

NOVEMBER 3, 2011

I know that many, many entrepreneurs are feeling dejected because of investor rejections. Having turned down all overtures for investment, Zoho continues merrily on in its bootstrapping path. Parallel6 is already clocking over $1 million in revenue and is looking to enhance its customer acquisition and also raise some financing.

North Carolina 116

North Carolina San Diego Entrepreneur Balance Sheet 116

YoungUpstarts

SEPTEMBER 23, 2017

While starting out as an entrepreneur, you won’t have enough cash or experience to start and run a start up on your own, so you may believe it’d be best to include others with more experience to guide you in the direction you’re heading. We all decided right away that we’d put in our own money and sweat as equity. Plan, Plan and Plan.

Cofounder 124

Cofounder Sweat Equity Equity Dilution 124

Up and Running

NOVEMBER 26, 2018

Most healthy businesses need business financing at some point. Startups have to deal with starting costs and ongoing businesses have to finance growth and working capital. Financing options depend on what kind of business you have. Don’t waste your time looking for the wrong kind of financing. You should.

SBA 161

SBA Venture Capital Angel Investor Technical Review 161

ReadWriteStart

SEPTEMBER 10, 2010

During this week's roundtable we discussed an area that deserves a serious look from entrepreneurs: Rural BPO. Today, I invited entrepreneurs to come up with ideas, apply the 1M/1M methodology to it, and come discuss with me at these roundtables. I call it drip-financing. In 1M/1M, our preferred financing strategy is customers.

Cloud 115

Cloud Silicon Valley Incubator Finance 115

ReadWriteStart

OCTOBER 7, 2010

Before I do, however, I want to talk about a thumb rule that I'd like to propose to entrepreneurs about raising money. Sub-$2 million pre-money, it is better to bootstrap. That is debt financing that converts into equity at the Series A valuation once the price for that is set. (I I encouraged Todd to keep building.

Valuation 119

Valuation Silicon Valley Pre-Money Valuation Bootstrapping 119

ReadWriteStart

SEPTEMBER 23, 2010

At today's roundtable, we had three niche e-commerce entrepreneurs and two e-commerce infrastructure entrepreneurs. I will work with him on his inventory financing strategy. Good news: Indrajit is a solo entrepreneur, so he doesn't have a large overhead to support. I will describe their businesses briefly, below.

India 114

India Silicon Valley Incubator Bootstrapping 114

ReadWriteStart

SEPTEMBER 3, 2010

It's now been about three years since I joined the fray as an entrepreneur and tech blogger. While foreign entrepreneurs wait for the Startup Visa to become a reality so they can go launch their startups in the US, France has quietly had a similar program in place for some time. Incubators, Accelerators, Competitions.

France 163

France Technical Review Incubator Early Stage 163

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 5, 2015

I challenge any entrepreneur, for example, to define the difference between "seed-stage" and "early-stage" financing. Most investors won’t touch a first-time entrepreneur at this stage. Startup incubator seed funding. Yet, knowing this distinction is important. Here they are: A crowdfunding campaign.

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage Finance Early Stage Startup 120

VC Cafe

JULY 4, 2011

Startup incubators have grown in double digits in the last couple of years. Following the success of Ycombinator and TechStars, in recent years we have seen literally hundreds of regional incubators set up in the rest of the US and Europe , across campuses and within vertical industries, such as mobile or finance.

Incubator 97

Incubator Entrepreneur Startup Vertical 97

Up and Running

JULY 28, 2020

Simply put, alternative funding is gaining financing for your company outside of traditional bank loans to gain capital. To help you find the best funding to fit your needs, read on for the top 8 alternative financing options. These loans and funds are set aside specifically for small businesses and entrepreneurs. Bootstrapping.

Small Business 118

Small Business SBA Bootstrapping Venture Capital 118

ReadWriteStart

APRIL 7, 2011

At this week's One Million by One Million roundtable, we announced a very important partnership with MAD Incubator, Malaysia for entrepreneurship development in the region. This is our first major partnership with an incubator whereby MAD will adopt the 1M/1M methodology to foster Silicon Valley-style technopreneurship in Malaysia.

Malaysia 114

Malaysia Incubator Silicon Valley Entrepreneur 114

ReadWriteStart

FEBRUARY 24, 2011

I recently wrote a blog post that I believe is worth pointing out in the context of the strategy roundtables: VCs, Angels, Incubators, Accelerators - What Are You Doing With Your Rejects? That means that less than 1% of the entrepreneurs who apply succeed in getting financed. His firm invests in four.

Incubator 116

Incubator Silicon Valley Idaho Entrepreneur 116

ReadWriteStart

JANUARY 27, 2011

This partnership speaks to a core philosophy of the program where we encourage entrepreneurs to get as much customer validation as possible before raising too much money, use other people's channels if you can get to them, don't burn too much cash, and all that good fiscal conservative stuff. LetsGiftIt. SOCO Games. million in revenue.

Dilution 114

Dilution Revenue Finance Entrepreneur 114

ReadWriteStart

OCTOBER 21, 2010

At today's roundtable, we had some very interesting discussions on creative bootstrapping. I am always fascinated by how innovative entrepreneurs get when faced with resource crunches. Read EDA Entrepreneurs: Build To Enjoy. Read Creative Bootstrapping to a $350 Million Exit. You can register for the next roundtable here.

Bootstrapping 113

Bootstrapping IP India Silicon Valley 113

Campus Entrepreneurship

DECEMBER 26, 2011

This then led me to an old post of hers asking whether bootstrapping is taught in bschools. And b-schools seem to be spreading the IEM virus by encouraging entrepreneurs to raise VC money as an essential success factor. This led me to write the recent Forbes column, Why B-Schools Set Up Entrepreneurs To Fail? Louis University.

Bootstrapping 37

Bootstrapping St. Louis Incubator Business Plan 37

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

AUGUST 16, 2010

Let's get the self-aggrandizing plea for attention out of the way: Please vote for my SxSW panel entitled "A Bootstrapped Geek Sifts Through the Bullshit.". Michael Arrington wrote an interesting piece today at TechCrunch about how VCs are pissed that great entrepreneurs are taking under $500k of angel money instead of $2m their money.

Exit Strategy 246

Exit Strategy Angel Investor Finance Incubator 246

ReadWriteStart

OCTOBER 28, 2010

And these pilots will pay for her early bootstrapping phase. All this, could, potentially, be done without external financing. And along the way, if necessary and appropriate, she can raise financing with a vastly more validated business. At this point, financing discussions are premature and are likely not to yield success.

Partner 117

Partner Belgium Portugal Bootstrapping 117

ReadWriteStart

DECEMBER 1, 2011

The team is led by Girish Mathrubootham and Shanmugam Krishnasamy, who have their roots in Zoho, a SaaS company that has revolutionized the category by drastically undercutting the CRM price-point by leveraging India to build a $100M+ 100% bootstrapped business. See: 1M/1M Incubation Radar: Freshdesk ]. Tatyana, my dear, rein in.

Partner 113

Partner Tennessee Nashville India 113

ReadWriteStart

JANUARY 6, 2011

6, 2011 we hosted our 64th free One Million by One Million (1M/1M) strategy roundtable for entrepreneurs, and the first for this year. As usual, then, I worked with three entrepreneurs working on specific businesses. He is looking for financing for the show. Mava Consulting. And that is what I advised J.J.

Vertical 115

Vertical Web San Francisco Entrepreneur 115

ReadWriteStart

OCTOBER 14, 2010

At today's roundtable we had some intensive discussions around market sizing and its impact on financing. By definition, the capital investment needs to be relatively low such that the investors and the entrepreneurs all make a healthy return on investment. Raymond is wondering why he cannot attract financing.

Bootstrapping 114

Bootstrapping Marketing Angel Investor Silicon Valley 114

ReadWriteStart

NOVEMBER 4, 2010

To get started, I suggest you take a look at three videos messages: To Entrepreneurs , To Investors , and To The Media. Benson's business needs $500,000 to get off the ground, buy a machine, and meet the operating expenses, and he primarily came to discuss his financing options. Qualitas Technologies.

Startup 113

Startup India Silicon Valley Incubator 113

Professor VC

APRIL 7, 2011

My partner in Menlo Incubator , Gary Kremen , and I had a recent debate on which one of us hates convertible debt more. This will also serve as a good pointer for all the entrepreneurs who ask why I am not interested in their company led convertible note financing round. In cases where it is truly a bridge financing (i.e.

San Jose 36

San Jose Technical Review Angel Investor Valuation 36

Rob Go

MARCH 20, 2013

Find good financing partners. You want to find financing partners who help you in the situations described above, don’t become yet another impediment. We want to bootstrap as much as possible and believe we can because we should be profitable by summer (not a lot of profit, but some).

Bootstrapping 46

Bootstrapping Finance Dividend Vesting 46

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. I started doing my free Online Strategy Roundtables for entrepreneurs in the fall of 2008. Gnosis India. Photo by wax115.

Channel 115

Channel India Bootstrapping Silicon Valley 115

ReadWriteStart

SEPTEMBER 30, 2010

One of the entrepreneurs presented a business idea that sounded like a business-to-consumer concept, but as I peeled the onion, it turned out that the business was really a business-to-business concept. Here I had an entrepreneur telling me with a straight face that he was leaving the most basic business decisions for the investors to make.

India 115

India Silicon Valley Incubator Bootstrapping 115

ReadWriteStart

MAY 8, 2012

So we asked a panel of eight successful young entrepreneurs from the Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) about their startup funding successes (and failures) and the lessons they learned. Most entrepreneurs approach fundraising as a transaction. For over a year, we bootstrapped because we couldn’t raise funding.

Cofounder 140

Cofounder Startup San Francisco Silicon Valley 140

www.readwriteweb.com

OCTOBER 18, 2010

By definition, the capital investment needs to be relatively low such that the investors and the entrepreneurs all make a healthy return on investment. So, please note the TAM Analysis is a vitally important aspect of building any financing strategy. Raymond is wondering why he cannot attract financing.

Marketing 52

Marketing Bootstrapping Incubator Angel Investor 52

www.readwriteweb.com

OCTOBER 18, 2010

By definition, the capital investment needs to be relatively low such that the investors and the entrepreneurs all make a healthy return on investment. So, please note the TAM Analysis is a vitally important aspect of building any financing strategy. Raymond is wondering why he cannot attract financing.

Marketing 52

Marketing Bootstrapping Incubator Angel Investor 52

Professor VC

NOVEMBER 19, 2009

At a high level, I definitely agree that being an entrepreneur and being in school dont necessarily mix. Most of us know of Exhibits 1 ( Bill Gates ) and 2 ( Mark Zuckerberg ) from Harvard, but I have met dozens of other successful entrepreneurs who felt a greater need to get going on an opportunity than to wait around to complete a degree.

San Jose 43

San Jose Silicon Valley Las Vegas Venture Capital 43

ReadWriteStart

NOVEMBER 16, 2010

I have focused this as advice to entrepreneurs building enterprise software ventures today. The big enterprise software companies almost all bootstrapped their way to profitability before they got their first external investors (typically via an IPO). This post is my reflection on what is different and what remains the same.

Software 127

Software Startup Architecture Bootstrapping 127