Startup Professionals Musings

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8 Entrepreneur Mistakes That Turn Off Real Investors

Startup Professionals Musings

Non-credible funding request or unreasonable valuation. Future unproven projections don’t set today’s valuation. Marketing programs and distribution channels are required for even the best solutions, with an appropriate and viable rollout and growth strategy. Investors are looking to buy a chunk of the business, not the product.

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8 Keys To Starting A Venture With Minimal Equity Loss

Startup Professionals Musings

Use multiple social-media channels, blogging, email and voicemail to build the same image and responsiveness as larger competitors. Adding free users or customers to increase valuation makes sense for a venture-backed startup looking to go public, but will kill bootstrapping. Operate small, but show a big-company image.

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7 Keys To Scaling Your Startup To Be The Next Unicorn

Startup Professionals Musings

When you see startups like SpaceX and Pinterest grow from a low valuation to a billion dollars in just a few years, it’s easy to assume that if you just keep doing what you are doing, you can get there as well. Working with the media is required, both social as well as the press, through public relations and internal channels.

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8 Funding Proposal Red Flags Every Startup Can Avoid

Startup Professionals Musings

Non-credible funding request or unreasonable valuation. Future unproven projections don’t set today’s valuation. Marketing programs and distribution channels are required for even the best solutions, with an appropriate and viable rollout and growth strategy. Investors are looking to buy a chunk of the business, not the product.

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8 Ways To Get Your Business Going Without Investors

Startup Professionals Musings

Use multiple social-media channels, blogging, email and voicemail to build the same image and responsiveness as larger competitors. Adding free users or customers to increase valuation makes sense for a venture-backed startup looking to go public, but will kill bootstrapping. Operate small, but show a big-company image.

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A Five-Minute Tutorial On How To Value Your Startup

Startup Professionals Musings

As an entrepreneur looking for professional investors, one of the quickest ways to lose credibility and get rejected is to start with a ridiculously high pre-money valuation. Equally bad is professing no valuation estimate at all, asking investors to “make me an offer.” First priority is real revenue, customers and contracts.

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Why Pitching Your Product Is Not Enough For Investors

Startup Professionals Musings

I would expect to see specific plans for distribution, partnerships, and sales channels, as well as the use of social media and conventional marketing, with budgets for the major elements. “If we build it, they will come” and “word of mouth” are not credible marketing strategies these days.

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