Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 22, 2021

Unfortunately, most of us don’t have enough resources to bootstrap our own startups, so we are completely dependent on investors to help turn great ideas into great businesses. These show a focus on the business elements required for success, and metrics for ensuring accountability, management control, and feedback along the way.

Intellectual Property 352

Intellectual Property Equity Bootstrapping Valuation 352

Hearpreneur

JANUARY 25, 2023

In addition to providing customer care and assistance, a virtual assistant may also develop web pages or compose blog entries, administer email newsletters, carry out sales and marketing chores, generate sales leads, and conduct a variety of other jobs. This can be used to either skyrocket a company’s sales or identify market gaps.

Software Review 121

Software Review Technical Review Artificial Inteligence Entrepreneur 121

Hippoland

OCTOBER 18, 2018

Should you raise money or bootstrap? (By By bootstrap, I actually mean raise < $250k from individuals / angels). Having run a startup that raised money and now in running a VC, ironically, if I were starting a product company today, I would start out with the mentality of bootstrapping for as long as I could.

Bootstrapping 48

Bootstrapping Cap Table Salary .Net 48

Austin Startup

SEPTEMBER 29, 2018

We set up our initial pricing calculator for the sales team to make sure that we wouldn’t easily sell a client if the gross margin on the deal was projected to be lower than 70%, which was inline with publicly traded SaaS companies. He also assisted greatly in sales. I initially played the role of CEO and VP of Sales.

Bootstrapping 52

Bootstrapping IPO Business Model Software Review 52

crowdSPRING Blog

JUNE 20, 2014

Why Lead Velocity Rate (LVR) Is The Most Important Metric in SaaS | saastr – crowdspring.co/U3ZbaM. If SaaS Products Sell Themselves, Why Do We Need Sales? If SaaS Products Sell Themselves, Why Do We Need Sales? 50 Extensions and Plugins for Extending Bootstrap – crowdspring.co/1nj8dJm. 1q1SPpy.

Social Media 93

Social Media Small Business Design Media 93

ConversionXL

JANUARY 9, 2019

Often, little more than a form fill tells you about the potential for a five-figure sale months down the road. Google Analytics insights frequently end with raw counts of goal completions, leaving a yawning gap between on-site behavior and sales for companies with long sales cycles. Why bother? Analytics incentivize behavior.

Sales Cycle 127

Sales Cycle Bootstrapping Conversion Web 127

Up and Running

OCTOBER 1, 2014

Statdragon is a Saas platform that allows businesses to access and analyze metrics about their existing videos and optimize their video marketing strategy. What about bootstrapping? Yesware is a sales and tracking gmail extension. ” The post Dragons, Bootstrapping and Women in Tech appeared first on Bplans Blog.

Bootstrapping 107

Bootstrapping Cofounder Portland Burn Rate 107

ConversionXL

MARCH 31, 2021

Agencies looking to grow have traditionally relied on fostering strategic relationships to land deals and increase sales. The same goes for your sales conversations; why did new leads seek you out, and what objections do you hear during the sales process? Cash flow is a matter of life or death when bootstrapped and pre-funding.

Audience 127

Audience Non-Compete Distribution Channel 127

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 10, 2021

Our fund (Upfront Ventures) recently returned >1x an entire $200 million fund just selling small minatory in secondary sales while still holding most of our stock for an ultimate public market exits. If we wanted to we could have sold > 2x the fund easily in the secondary markets with significant upside remaining.

Pre-Money Valuation 471

Pre-Money Valuation Valuation Venture Capital Early Stage 471

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 29, 2013

For example, when your company adds ano ther blade to its disposal razors , the product’s technical development, marketing and sales will follow relatively predictable paths. Now, “lean” is often used to refer to a company’s financial situation, so it might make you think of a bootstrapped or under-funded organization. in ten years?

Lean 165

Lean Technical Review Startup Software Review 165

ReadWriteStart

JULY 18, 2011

The first stage is bootstrapping, where you raise between $50k and $100k and you try to make that money last as long as you can. key metrics or a dashboard showing how you've made progress in whatever the key metrics for your business are. VCs need to figure out the people side of the company and raising money is a sales job.

Investment Bankers 153

Investment Bankers Technical Review Cofounder Due Diligence 153

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 14, 2009

Every board meeting, the metrics of success change. For a startup, having great sales DNA is a wonderful asset. This is the magic of sales: by learning about each customer in-depth, they can convince each of them that this product would solve serious problems. But here’s where a truly great sales artist comes in.

Customer 167

Customer San Francisco Lean Hockey Stick 167

Austin Startup

FEBRUARY 24, 2018

Perhaps we can start with the phases of growth and compare with the Blitzscaling versions… OS1: The Family Stage As you might expect, this phase doesn’t subjectively feel that different between a bootstrapped tortoise and a blitzscale-intent startup. Neither is blitzscaling at this point. one customer at a time, one team member at a time.

Warrant 48

Warrant Bootstrapping Framework Hiring 48

YoungUpstarts

AUGUST 10, 2020

Identifying and fixing the problem elements can substantially increase your sales and therefore your ROI. . So lucrative is upselling and cross-selling that many ecommerce stores make most of their revenue from these two sales strategies. Remember to keep tabs on key metrics that will show the impact of each technique.

eCommerce 147

eCommerce SMS Email Video 147

Up and Running

JULY 10, 2017

It’s critical to understand the metrics in terms of dollars per additional user, as you’ll have to spend this amount to serve thousands of your non-paying customers. If you are a bootstrapped DIY solopreneur, you should estimate your chances and think twice before choosing your VC-funded, 200-employees-strong competitor’s pricing strategy.

Startup 110

Startup Non-Compete Viral Software Review 110

YoungUpstarts

JULY 22, 2011

You’ll find content categorized into different topics such as Marketing , Sales , Design , Revenue , Hiring , Social Media , Business Models , Metrics , PR , Venture Capital , Angel Investors , Bootstrapping , Incubators , Agile and many others.

Aggregator 170

Aggregator Curation Widget Angel Investor 170

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 4, 2014

This will include the first version of many critical processes that can be split out later, including market opportunity, requirements, product definition, business model, sales process, and organization. Even if you are doing the work yourself, you need to document requirements, features, metrics, and milestones. Funding process.

Startup 268

Startup Institutional Investors Angel Investor Bootstrapping 268

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 26, 2018

Even if you are funding the project yourself (bootstrapping), you should be asking yourself the same question before you have burned all your resources. It takes real money to sustain a business, with a margin in the 50 percent range, and some realistic milestones and metrics. Traction is marketing and sales results.

Angel Investor 147

Angel Investor Distribution Bootstrapping Viral 147

OnlyOnce

JULY 9, 2013

The book is part of the Startup Revolution series that Brad has been working on for a couple years now, including Do More (Even) Faster , Venture Deals , Startup Communities , and Startup Life (with two more to come, Startup Boards and Startup Metrics). What About Sales & Marketing?, Writing a book is a LOT harder than I expected!

Startup 95

Startup Advisory Board Elevator Pitch Forecast 95

SoCal CTO

JULY 13, 2011

This site aggregates and filters content from thought leaders who talk about topics such as Marketing , Sales , Design , Revenue , Hiring , Social Media , Business Models , Metrics , PR , Venture Capital , Angel Investors , Bootstrapping , Incubators , Agile and many others.

Intellectual Property 175

Intellectual Property Aggregator Startup IP 175

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 20, 2015

Even if you are bootstrapping your business, and you are the only investor, you should be asking yourself the same question. Decide early where and when money will come from, set some milestones and metrics, and work to a plan, or be caught short. Word of mouth is not adequate for marketing and sales.

Business Model 120

Business Model Angel Investor Startup Bootstrapping 120

Up and Running

MAY 28, 2015

We’re looking at our lean business planning is about strategy, tactics, concrete specifics including milestones, metrics, tasks and schedule, and essential numbers to run a business, all of which lead to managing cash flow. That’s the sales forecast, the spending forecast and the cash flow. That’s a sales forecast.

Lean 60

Lean Business Plan Video Software Review 60

Version One Ventures

DECEMBER 11, 2013

First, there’s the aggressive one who spends money very quickly, building a large team, buying early growth through aggressive marketing and sales, and hoping for a large upround in the next financing round. It can be particularly tricky as investors are usually looking for growth and evaluating start-ups as defined by growth.

Early Stage 162

Early Stage Venture Capital Acquisition Bootstrapping 162

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 31, 2013

This will include the first version of many critical processes that can be split out later, including market opportunity, requirements, product definition, business model, sales process, and organization. Even if you are doing the work yourself, you need to document requirements, features, metrics, and milestones. Funding process.

Institutional Investors 230

Institutional Investors Angel Investor Bootstrapping Database 230

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

JANUARY 13, 2015

Often your best estimate of any metric or market behavior or business model component is at best accurate within a power of ten, for example “expected conversion rate between 0.5% Maybe between higher MRR, more targeted marketing, and stronger sales, you can whittle down the required number of customers and impressions by 10x.

Business Model 120

Business Model Affiliate Startup Bootstrapping 120

ConversionXL

MAY 27, 2022

Bootstrapped startup Omnisend carved out a $19 million niche in an already saturated vertical. Typically, they use gated content to capture the prospect’s contact information so the sales team can nurture and convert them. Qualified leads pass to the sales team to encourage through the sales process.

Lead Generation 107

Lead Generation Demand Audience eCommerce 107

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 7, 2011

This will include the first version of many critical processes that can be split out later, including market opportunity, requirements, product definition, business model, sales process, and organization. Even if you are doing the work yourself, you need to document requirements, features, metrics, and milestones. Funding process.

Startup 255

Startup Institutional Investors Angel Investor Bootstrapping 255

YoungUpstarts

JULY 20, 2015

For example, the KPI (Key performance indicator) for your business may be to achieve sales of $10,000 in the first 12 months of operations. It is important for the business to have systems and processes in place that will track and manage their expenses, as well as to have a system in place that will fuel the growth of new business sales.

Angel Investor 100

Angel Investor Channel Bootstrapping Operations 100

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 1, 2010

This will include the first version of many critical processes that can be split out later, including market opportunity, requirements, product definition, business model, sales process, and organization. Even if you are doing the work yourself, you need to document requirements, features, metrics, and milestones. Funding process.

Startup 239

Startup Institutional Investors Angel Investor Bootstrapping 239

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

MAY 1, 2012

Why the obsession with raising money, what if you don’t want a huge company, what if you want to bootstrap, don’t you know raising money isn’t a measure of correctness or success, … I agree! Let’s focus on just one question: For which company would be easier to raise money? That’s shitty!

Customer 320

Customer Revenue Acquisition Cofounder 320

Mucker Lab

MARCH 8, 2016

Four years after founding and bootstrapping Mucker Capital , we are pleased to announce the close of a new $45 million fund, Mucker III. The ones who would rather hire a sales guy than spend money on flavored morning lattes. This is our third fund, which might make us seem like grumpy, rich, old VCs. We understand. The underdogs.

Burn Rate 60

Burn Rate Limited Partner Bootstrapping Portfolio 60

Up and Running

MAY 23, 2016

In the tactics section, list your sales channels and describe how you will be selling your products. While it’s useful to be able to have a sales forecast and expense budget early on, it’s not something you need until you’ve validated your idea. A few resources you may want to check out include: How to Forecast Your Sales.

Software Review 74

Software Review Software Delaware Forecast 74

The Next Web

FEBRUARY 27, 2014

Freshman are a piece of paper to beta site (bootstrap financed—raise $50K to $500K). If there are no earnings yet, with your business plowing profits into long term growth, then revenue multiples or some other metric would be used. Forecasted earnings growth is typically the #1 driver of your valuation (e.g.,

Valuation 167

Valuation Forecast Seed Stage .Net 167

www.subelsky.com

FEBRUARY 25, 2010

Because it has an RSS feed, one could also use "Unresolved Hoptoad Errors" as a metric influencing the continuous deployment system. This isnt Rails-specific, but we use SimpleDB for dumping a lot of important metrics data, like performance measurements, which we then turn into metrics. It's quite interesting.I

Lean 41

Lean Baltimore Ruby Maryland 41

Tim Keane

FEBRUARY 3, 2010

  Using (example) sales as a proxy (such as copier sales) we think that our average sales rep can make 10 cold calls per day and develop 3 solid leads per week.    Do sales rep organizations have this kind of data?    Do sales rep organizations have this kind of data? 

Marketing 116

Marketing Wisconsin Startup Angel Investor 116

Hearpreneur

OCTOBER 20, 2017

During 2017, my major focus was to increase my amount of outbound sales efforts. I have hired staff to continuously perform outreach for my SEO business, which has led to sales nearly tripling this year. We’re a small bootstrapped startup but we’re trying to innovate in how a website is being built.

Forecast 61

Forecast Artificial Inteligence Entrepreneur SEO 61

Growthink Blog

MAY 23, 2011

An entrepreneur starts a company in classic " bootstrap " fashion - with a combination of sweat equity and their own financial resources. With this capital, the company propels itself to $50 million+ in revenues, and to either a sale to a strategic acquirer or to an initial public offering.

Angel Investor 112

Angel Investor Venture Capital Sweat Equity Cram Down 112