Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 25, 2016

Lately I’ve been having to say things I thought I’d never have to remind people, like, “getting to positive gross margin in several territories is a very low bar to claim success” or “profitable excluding marketing costs” is not actually a real thing. But not doing basic research makes no sense.

Startup 150

Startup Seed Money DC Software Review 150

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 27, 2011

If you hire 6 sales reps in January at $120,000 / year salary then you’ve taken on an extra $60,000 per month in costs yet these sales people might not close new business for 4-6 months. ” If you’re not profitable you’re purely a cost center to them. Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) =. Operating Costs.

Startup 418

Startup Revenue Technical Review Flash 418

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 25, 2009

For example, a recent phone call I had with a young entrepreneur straight out of one of the most prestigious engineering schools in America he asked, “I have an offer for $400,000 in seed money but the VC wants me to agree now to bring in a new CEO.&# This company is doing its SEED round and they already want to bring someone new in.

Pakistan 297

Pakistan India Technical Review Software Review 297

Up and Running

MAY 12, 2015

You want to vet your metrics with experts in your industry, see if there are any holes in your presentation, and make sure it reads well before you pitch your investors. They ended up with a nice pitch, and approximately $300K in seed money.”. All of this comes together in the form of a polished, well-thought out pitch.

Angel Investor 60

Angel Investor Software Review Technical Cofounder Due Diligence 60

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 6, 2015

I was out to raise my first seed money in my second startup of $500,000. If you want to understand the software trend that drove the creation of the seed-stage VC phenomenon I wrote about it that linked blog post but in short: cloud computing drove down the cost to create startups enabling a new category of investor.

Seed Stage 150

Seed Stage Silicon Valley Syndicate Syndication 150

Austin Startup

SEPTEMBER 17, 2017

The goal of model building is to prove that if you take all the baby steps in the right order, and you test out pricing and cost assumptions as best you can along the way, and you keep listening to potential customers as you progress, then you develop reasonable confidence that success is mathematically possible.

Valuation 48

Valuation Forecast Seed Money Business Model 48