Up and Running

MARCH 14, 2018

I’ve raised close to $1 million from angel investors for my previous technology startups. Sometimes you only get 10 minutes to pitch your business opportunity to the investors (or less in some cases). Below is a format I’ve successfully used for my own ventures, and to help many other first-time startup CEOs raise investment capital.

Hockey Stick 164

Hockey Stick Exit Strategy Technical Review Angel Investor 164

David Teten

JANUARY 19, 2021

More and more startups are pursuing Revenue-Based VCs , but “RBI” doesn’t fit everyone. Flexible VC 101: Equity Meets Revenue Share. By tying payments to actual revenues, founders and investors remain aligned around the company’s real-time performance, good or bad. Flexible VC: Revenue -based. Of the Inc.

Cofounder 78

Cofounder Technical Review Equity Dividend 78

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 7, 2013

Investors will tell you that they love to put money into startups that are scalable, and ready to scale. Simply stated, it means that your business has the potential to multiply revenue with minimal incremental cost. Investors don’t invest in services startups. Use a minimum viable product (MVP) to validate the model.

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Hockey Stick Intellectual Property Startup Non-Compete 278

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 26, 2013

Almost every early-stage startup who has approached investors for funding has heard the innocuous sounding rejection “I love your idea, but come back when you have more traction.” A graph that shows a hockey-stick “up and to the right” curve with at least three data points per key indicator is a great visual assist.

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Hockey Stick Early Stage Metrics Acquisition 266

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 26, 2014

Every entrepreneur thinks he can relax a bit after his business model is proven, funding is in place, and revenues are scaling as projected up that hockey-stick curve. Unfortunately, the market is changing so fast these days that any upward climb can level off quickly, as the core business growth begins to stall.

Hockey Stick 263

Hockey Stick Guerilla Acquisition Revenue 263

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 1, 2015

Every entrepreneur thinks he can relax a bit after his business model is proven, funding is in place, and revenues are scaling as projected up that hockey-stick curve. Unfortunately, the market is changing so fast these days that any upward climb can level off quickly, as the core business growth begins to stall.

Hockey Stick 120

Hockey Stick Guerilla Startup Acquisition 120

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 3, 2018

Every entrepreneur thinks he can relax a bit after his business model is proven, funding is in place, and revenues are scaling as projected up that hockey-stick curve. Unfortunately, the market is changing so fast these days that any upward climb can level off quickly, as the core business growth begins to stall.

Hockey Stick 130

Hockey Stick Guerilla Acquisition Revenue 130

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 14, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Tuesday, April 14, 2009 Validated learning about customers Would you rather have $30,000 or $1 million in revenues for your startup? All things being equal, of course, you’d rather have more revenue rather than less. And yet revenue alone is not a sufficient goal.

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Customer San Francisco Lean Hockey Stick 167

Steve Blank

JANUARY 4, 2010

A lot of entrepreneurs think that their startup is the next big thing when in reality they’re just building a small business. How can you tell if your startup has the potential to be the next Google, Intel or Facebook? A first order filter is whether the founders are aiming for a scalable startup. The Scalable Startup.

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Hockey Stick Venture Capital Startup Cofounder 284

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 14, 2016

Investors will tell you that they love to put money into startups that are scalable, and ready to scale. Simply stated, it means that your business has the potential to multiply revenue with minimal incremental cost. Investors don’t invest in services startups. Use a minimum viable product (MVP) to validate the model.

Hockey Stick 120

Hockey Stick Intellectual Property Non-Compete Business Model 120

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 11, 2015

Investors will tell you that they love to put money into startups that are scalable, and ready to scale. Simply stated, it means that your business has the potential to multiply revenue with minimal incremental cost. Investors don’t invest in services startups. Use a minimum viable product (MVP) to validate the model.

Hockey Stick 120

Hockey Stick Intellectual Property Non-Compete Business Model 120

Hippoland

AUGUST 8, 2018

One thing I’ve noticed is that almost every repeat, previously-successful-founder focuses on the same thing for their respective startups: customer acquisition. Forget about traction and hockey stick growth. Or, there are some hardware companies, for example, that make money based on affiliate revenue.

Founder 48

Founder Sales Cycle Affiliate Retention 48

Hippoland

AUGUST 8, 2018

One thing I’ve noticed is that almost every repeat, previously-successful-founder focuses on the same thing for their respective startups: customer acquisition. Forget about traction and hockey stick growth. Or, there are some hardware companies, for example, that make money based on affiliate revenue.

Founder 48

Founder Sales Cycle Affiliate Retention 48

Up and Running

APRIL 28, 2015

Your business model has to truly be similar to the company you are referencing. If you aren’t solving some problem in the world, you are going to have a long uphill climb with your business. Slide 5: Revenue model. Some businesses have key strategic partnerships that are critical to their success.

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Forecast Hockey Stick Exit Strategy Intellectual Property 60

Up and Running

MARCH 11, 2015

Now you’re going to move into your revenue model. Okay, so now your revenue model, so this is—. There’s another presentation I deliver on the top ten reasons startups fail, and the number one reason startups fail is because of the wrong team, and in my first company, we were not necessarily the right team.

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Technical Review Software Review Due Diligence Exit Strategy 60