Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 22, 2011

In fact, most of the rich entrepreneurs you know actively turned away early equity proposals. Too many founders are convinced they “need” equity financing, for the wrong reasons, as outlined in the book and supplemented with a bit of my own experience: Need employees and professional services. Need expensive resources up front.

Sweat Equity 255

Sweat Equity Technical Review Entrepreneur Bootstrapping 255

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 13, 2012

In fact, most of the rich entrepreneurs you know actively turned away early equity proposals. Too many founders are convinced they “need” equity financing, for the wrong reasons, as outlined in the book and supplemented with a bit of my own experience: Need employees and professional services. Need expensive resources up front.

Sweat Equity 239

Sweat Equity Technical Review Bootstrapping Equity 239

Agile VC

DECEMBER 4, 2014

I like to say that “there are only co-founders” — it’s extraordinarily rare for a successful business to have just a sole founder. But not all co-founders are equal in terms of title, ownership, responsibilities, and so forth. Sometimes co-founders put off the equity split question for some time.

Cofounder 255

Cofounder Equity Founder Sweat Equity 255

Gust

DECEMBER 15, 2013

In fact, most of the rich entrepreneurs you know actively turned away early equity proposals. Too many founders are convinced they “need” equity financing, for the wrong reasons, as outlined in the book and supplemented with a bit of my own experience: Need employees and professional services. Need expensive resources up front.

Bootstrapping 183

Bootstrapping Sweat Equity Entrepreneur Technical Review 183

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 12, 2013

Most entrepreneurs who start a company alone soon come to the conclusion that two heads are better than one – someone to share the workload, the hard decisions, and the costs. In a moment of crisis, you may be tempted to take on the first person expressing interest as a co-founder. I’ll put in the money, if you put in the sweat equity.”

Cofounder 240

Cofounder Founder Sweat Equity Startup 240

Agile VC

DECEMBER 4, 2014

I like to say that “there are only co-founders” — it’s extraordinarily rare for a successful business to have just a sole founder. But not all co-founders are equal in terms of title, ownership, responsibilities, and so forth. Sometimes co-founders put off the equity split question for some time.

Cofounder 173

Cofounder Equity Founder Sweat Equity 173

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 8, 2012

Most entrepreneurs who start a company alone soon come to the conclusion that two heads are better than one – someone to share the workload, the hard decisions, and the costs. In a moment of crisis, you may be tempted to take on the first person expressing interest as a co-founder. I’ll put in the money, if you put in the sweat equity.”

Cofounder 244

Cofounder Founder Sweat Equity Partner 244

socialmatchbox.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

If you have a friend who is a recruiter then ask them to tell you what they recommend that will not cost anything. This means considering what the opportunity cost for working on a high risk venture is relative to other things they can spend their time on. If they own a Mac Book Pro that may cost around $1,800 bucks (new).

Part-Time VPE 41

Part-Time VPE Sweat Equity DC Washington 41

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 3, 2011

Most entrepreneurs who start a company alone soon come to the conclusion that two heads are better than one – someone to share the workload, the hard decisions, and the costs. This would be a mistake, and could easily cost you your startup. I’ll put in the money, if you put in the sweat equity.” It usually doesn’t work.

Cofounder 239

Cofounder Founder Sweat Equity Startup 239

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 10, 2019

Image via Pixabay Most entrepreneurs who start a company alone soon come to the conclusion that two heads are better than one – someone to share the workload, the hard decisions, and the costs. In a moment of crisis, you may be tempted to take on the first person expressing interest as a co-founder. It usually doesn’t work.

Partner 177

Partner Sweat Equity Cofounder Equity 177

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 4, 2010

Most entrepreneurs who start a company alone soon come to the conclusion that two heads are better than one – someone to share the workload, the hard decisions, and the costs. This would be a mistake, and could easily cost you your startup. I’ll put in the money, if you put in the sweat equity.” It usually doesn’t work.

Cofounder 207

Cofounder Founder Sweat Equity Startup 207

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 8, 2017

Most entrepreneurs who start a company alone soon come to the conclusion that two heads are better than one – someone to share the workload, the hard decisions, and the costs. In a moment of crisis, you may be tempted to take on the first person expressing interest as a co-founder. I’ll put in the money, if you put in the sweat equity.”

Partner 149

Partner Cofounder Sweat Equity Startup 149

The Startup Toolkit

AUGUST 29, 2012

You need to find someone willing to put in sweat equity, or to at least join as a full-on part of the team with a bit of a salary and a bit of an equity stake. Buying your product doesn’t let you skip that step… it just front-loads your development cost[1]. [1]

Sweat Equity 45

Sweat Equity Bootstrapping Equity Salary 45

YoungUpstarts

APRIL 12, 2016

by Anand Srinivasan, founder of LeadJoint.com. Founders need to work on a ‘compartmentalization strategy’ that breaks down their business dream into small components that can be smaller business ideas by themselves. Find marketing opportunities that does not cost money. That does not have to be the case.

Cofounder 100

Cofounder Sweat Equity Startup Seed Capital 100

Up and Running

JUNE 23, 2015

Meg Wirth and Allyson Cote, founders of Maternova. Maternova is an online marketplace for low-cost but vital obstetric tools; you might think of it as something like Amazon for childbirth-related medical supplies. “It took an enormous investment of sweat equity on both our parts,” Allyson admits.

Cofounder 60

Cofounder Sweat Equity Social Media Business Model 60

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 13, 2016

The business model has to clearly define who is your customer, market penetration expected, how much customers pay versus total costs and the investment required to sustain cash flow. Quantify founder investments, both cash and sweat-equity. Who are your competitors, and how do you win? It’s really not that difficult.

Sweat Equity 120

Sweat Equity Advisory Board Liquidity Event Startup 120

YoungUpstarts

AUGUST 10, 2016

by Anand Srinivasan, founder of LeadJoint.com. Depending on what business you aspire to own, the capital costs can be anywhere between virtually nothing to as much as a million dollars or more. This is often a fantastic opportunity if you are already a skilled roofer or carpenter who can offer sweat equity.

Sweat Equity 100

Sweat Equity Lead Generation Demand SEO 100

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 2, 2011

By John Williams Fast Company magazine recently reported that PayPal founder Paul Thiel is giving away $100,000 to twenty-four young men and women to finance startup businesses. Starting small and nimble allows you to adjust and be flexible as you gain experience instead of being tied to a large concept by heavy investment in upfront costs.

Sweat Equity 231

Sweat Equity Startup Angel Investor Seed Money 231

Up and Running

DECEMBER 23, 2019

Sweat Equity. “I This way your biggest cost is just your personal time. Your first proof of concept can be done without a technical co-founder or a lot of money. I did this by budgeting for my expenses in order to cover the costs I needed. Inexpensive Freelance Labor. Smart Spending and Connections.

Finance 92

Finance Sweat Equity Bootstrapping Entrepreneur 92

ConversionXL

NOVEMBER 6, 2019

Mike Arsenault and his two co-founders—all with technical backgrounds—built their MVP while working full time for other SaaS companies. “We We also got lucky and qualified for some startup benefits with companies like Rackspace, who covered our infrastructure costs for the first year,” continues Arsenault. “We

Sweat Equity 78

Sweat Equity Software Review Vesting Cofounder 78

Berkonomics

OCTOBER 15, 2020

It extends the cash available for research and other necessary fixed costs and gives the fragile, young company more “runway” to get to breakeven. But when forecasting the ultimate viability of a business, many times an entrepreneurial founder uses a low, unsustainable salary rate for him or herself in order to show early breakeven.

Sweat Equity 62

Sweat Equity Equity Business Plan Balance Sheet 62

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. Technical progress and market traction are much slower and cost a lot more than anticipated. The typical wisdom regarding the appropriate financing course for a new company goes as follows: 1.

Angel Investor 112

Angel Investor Venture Capital Sweat Equity Cram Down 112

www.virtuosimedia.com

MARCH 8, 2012

This article should also serve as a starting guide for programmers who are approached about becoming technical co-founders. In addition to cost quotes, also ask for time quotes so you can get a feel for how long the project should take to implement. Research the cost of advertising your product.

Technical Cofounder 41

Technical Cofounder Cofounder Technical Review NDA 41

ConversionXL

NOVEMBER 6, 2019

Mike Arsenault and his two co-founders—all with technical backgrounds—built their MVP while working full time for other SaaS companies. “We We also got lucky and qualified for some startup benefits with companies like Rackspace, who covered our infrastructure costs for the first year,” continues Arsenault. “We

Sweat Equity 50

Sweat Equity Software Review Vesting Cofounder 50

infochachkie.com

SEPTEMBER 24, 2011

For instance, many a BDC CEO has initiated a consultant to study cost cutting issues before announcing a significant layoff. Unlike employee training costs, which can typically be spread over years of service, the relative return from training a consultant is modest and pricey. John is a CPA and holds an M.B.A. link] Luis Rivera.

Equity 40

Equity Silicon Valley Cofounder Technical Review 40

grasshopperherder.com

SEPTEMBER 24, 2011

Piercing the Corporate Veil – Sweat Equity Consulting. « Thanks but No Thanks – Things to Avoid When Recruiting Co-founders Why is Cyber Squatter a Bad Word? But much like becoming a co-founder, getting paid sweat equity is essentially becoming an investor in the company. Jan 20 -->.

Sweat Equity 41

Sweat Equity Equity Cofounder Non-Compete 41

grasshopperherder.com

FEBRUARY 19, 2011

If you’re waiting for a technical co-founder to put up a landing page with signup form, you’re lazy. Show Metrics If you ask me to be a co-founder or even just a consultant, you’re essentially asking me to invest in your company with my time. I just need a co-founder to web enable it!" Names redacted.)

Cofounder 47

Cofounder NDA Founder Sweat Equity 47

www.thestartup.eu

OCTOBER 23, 2010

Let’s break down their costs: Logo design: a simple contest on 99designs with a $300 prize. Total cost: $5000. Total cost: $100. Sweat Equity: Juliette and Marco put in a bit of work during weekends as project managers, designers, developers, sysadmins, etc. Developers are in Argentina, Ukraine and Russia.

Bootstrapping 49

Bootstrapping Italy Sweat Equity Europe 49

Austin Startup

JUNE 26, 2019

Many people have reached out sharing knowing and kind words about our journey and choice to wind down our venture, as well as their appreciation for my choice to pull back the curtain on what is statistically a common road for many founders. It details a landscape founders like me are excited to sink their teeth into? Of course not!

Silicon Valley 54

Silicon Valley Startup B2C Sweat Equity 54

Duct Tape Marketing

APRIL 24, 2019

She is the co-founder and CEO of the Grommet and author of How We Make Stuff Now. But assuming without a big budget it’s going to be more about sweat equity and putting in the time to create great content. Check it out at semrush.com/partner/ducttapemarketing , and we’ll have that in the show notes.

Product 61

Product Sweat Equity Naming SEO 61

www.chubbybrain.com

SEPTEMBER 28, 2011

After a thorough analysis of those 32 start-up post-mortems, we have determined the common reasons founders gave to compile this list of the top 20 ways to have your startup fail. Work life balance is not something that startup founders often get and so the risk of burning out is high. 13 – Disharmony with Investors/Co-founders.

Cofounder 89

Cofounder Startup Technical Cofounder CTO Hire 89

Gust

AUGUST 7, 2012

Problems with the founders. For example, I saw a founder tell investors, during a pitch session, that some investors screwed him and his previous partners were dishonest. Sweat equity can be a problem. And of course founders making more than market-justified salaries is a problem too. The next [whatever].

Business Plan 172

Business Plan Sweat Equity Salary Founder 172

www.chubbybrain.com

SEPTEMBER 28, 2011

created a vastly higher cost structure; I had 80 people mostly on base salaries under $100,000 and was bringing in revenue at the rate of $20 million annually. Contributing to the high cost structure was the new culture of working 9-5 Monday through Friday. Furthermore, founders become highly emotional about their companies.

Software Review 79

Software Review Startup Technical Review Vesting 79

rapidrollout.wordpress.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

How can I go about looking for a (very) good programmer willing to do this as sweat equity? It’s common for a college student to do a sweat equity partnership with another college student. Ultimately, the project can founder on the “core incompetencies&# you both bring to the partnership. 10-15/hour.

Technical Review 40

Technical Review Fractional CTO Partner CTO Hire 40

Up and Running

JUNE 26, 2017

Our founders thought, “Why is it so hard to actually get ahold of someone at a business? Mark Cuban has famously said, “Sweat equity is the best startup capital.” They made a mistake that cost them a lot of time and money, but they brushed it off, learned from it, and adapted. Here’s an example from Text Request.

Sweat Equity 145

Sweat Equity Business Plan Naming eCommerce 145

Women Entrepreneurs Can

MAY 9, 2019

Funding has only become more difficult to pursue and isn’t always a viable option for early-on founders to pursue. Solid choices in co-founders can make or break a company’s success. During the early days, these are your key contributors and they must be willing to put as much sweat equity into the organization as you are.

Programming 40

Programming Sweat Equity Startup Private Equity 40

techcrunch.com

FEBRUARY 19, 2010

Been there Done that This is very depressing for all future founders, or even currently early stage founders. A little piece of advice for future founders: find something that turns revenue quick, profitable and cash flow positive quick and forget about fantasy businesses that take a decade to turn profitable like twitter!

Venture Capital 62

Venture Capital Technical Review Sweat Equity Valuation 62