NZ Entrepreneur

FEBRUARY 27, 2020

While capital to large tech companies is increasing, smaller rounds for early-stage companies is drying up. This decline has also become evident in startup accelerator programs shifting their focus on later-stage scale-ups that provide higher returns. Each stage of tech company growth has unique challenges.

Developer 68

Developer Early Stage Later Stage Acquisition 68

Steve Blank

APRIL 23, 2014

A business model is all the parts of a strategy necessary to deliver a product to a customer and make money from it. These include the product itself, the customer, the distribution channel, revenue model, how to get, keep and grow customers, resources and activities needed to build the business and costs.).

Acquisition 332

Acquisition Intellectual Property Silicon Valley Startup 332

The Equity Kicker

OCTOBER 14, 2014

He was on the money when he said that for early stage investments having a great team is most important but for later stage investments the market matters more. Early stage investors like Forward Partners look for a minimum of a great entrepreneur and a great idea.

Early Stage 123

Early Stage Institutional Investors Venture Capital Startup 123

Steve Blank

MARCH 17, 2020

If you’re running a startup or small business, your first priority (after your family) is keeping your employees and customers safe. If you’re an early stage company, that number may be zero. All your assumptions about customers, sales cycle and most importantly, revenue, burn rate and runway are no longer true.

Burn Rate 436

Burn Rate Startup Valuation Sales Cycle 436

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 27, 2013

Partly out of the fact that in 1 week I depart for England to speak at LeWeb, attend our DataSift board meeting and generally make myself available to the DataSift team to meet their customers, partners and employees. The more they know your strategic objectives the more laterally they can act on your behalf in key situations.

Advisory Board 365

Advisory Board CTO Hire Fractional CTO Los Angeles 365

David Teten

SEPTEMBER 23, 2017

In venture capital in particular, early-stage companies are often operating in frontier industries, where the rules are unpredictable and conventional analytic frameworks may be misleading. A number of analysts have particular focus on serving the customers of technology companies, e.g., Gartner and 451 Research.

Private Equity 60

Private Equity Venture Capital Equity Technical Review 60

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 27, 2014

We both agree that the later-stage valuations are being driven up to a point that feels irrationally priced [he uses b-round SaaS valuations as an example and I am willing to be even more broad based]. He said that a16z prefers to invest earlier stage in these types of businesses. And we ended.

Valuation 309

Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Later Stage Non-Compete 309

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 21, 2010

They want to lock in future clients at an early stage. For a very small fee they can get your Delaware C corp registration, make sure that you have IP protection and ensure you didn’t make an early bumbling mistakes that you’ll pay for dearly in the next 7-10 years of hard work. Our lives are intertwined.

Southern California 318

Southern California Silicon Valley IP Stock Options 318

Steve Blank

JUNE 11, 2009

Passionate – is the company/product/customers the most important thing in your life? Yet for every founder there are 10-20 other employees who take the near-equivalent risks in joining an early-stage company. I believe that founder, early and later stage employees require different risk/personality profile.

Cofounder 219

Cofounder Founder Silicon Valley Technical Cofounder 219

Austin Startup

MAY 11, 2017

We invest in companies that sell to both enterprise/SMB customers as well as direct to consumers. Our unique approach to investing, coupled with a pioneering spirit, provides the vision to guide early stage growth companies beyond today and toward future success. We have a passion for product and out-of-the-box thinking.

Private Equity 48

Private Equity Venture Capital Technical Review Seed Stage 48

Gust

JANUARY 4, 2012

Later stage companies have some additional concerns: What favorable impact could IP have for PR, marketing and investor relations purposes, or as an attraction to potential acquirors? The amount of investment in IP in any direct sense is generally small for early stage startups. In practice, this leads many U.S.

Intellectual Property 143

Intellectual Property IP Startup United States 143

David Teten

JULY 25, 2017

We also have a better known brand than some of our early stage companies, so we can leverage that to help source talent. Most importantly, we have regular meetings with later-stage VCs and enterprise clients both in the US and internationally to discuss our companies which fit their investment mandates.

Portfolio 60

Portfolio Technical Review Private Equity Database 60

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 15, 2016

I know it sounds obvious but just so you understand: There are more capital sources available for earlier-stage capital, the information on which they are evaluating the investment is less (it is almost certainly just team and product) and the risk of the investor getting things wrong is diminished. You are in a classic cap table pinch.

Burn Rate 150

Burn Rate Cap Table Valuation Software Review 150

View from Seed

JULY 26, 2022

RH: Who are your customers? RH: What’s your favorite thing about being an early-stage founder? I’m going to let our customers dictate what that looks like from a product perspective – but that may include migrating into earlier or later stages of the human development lifecycle. . And your least?

Silicon Valley 156

Silicon Valley Later Stage Early Stage Founder 156

Steve Blank

JUNE 15, 2010

What startup stage do they typically invest in? Do they “get&# Customer Development ? What Startup Stage Do they Invest In? Certain VC’s like the new class of Super-Angels and small VC funds specialize in the early stage of a startup where you are searching for a business model. Is Your VC Founder Friendly?

Founder 231

Founder Vesting Later Stage Early Stage 231

Hippoland

OCTOBER 9, 2016

If you’re still in the early stages of your entrepreneur-education/journey, you may even think you need to protect your idea and not share it with anyone. Demonstrate that you can pull the trigger on things quickly — whether it be getting customers, hiring / firing employees, or product development.

Seed Stage 48

Seed Stage CTO Hire Email Later Stage 48

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 20, 2014

I’ve written about this before, but I was reminded again a while back at a conference for startups when an entrepreneur started berating investors for not funding early-stage startups. Make sure they understand the sense of urgency to address customer satisfaction and market needs. “I

Later Stage 240

Later Stage Early Stage Equity Employee 240

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 31, 2012

Erin’s main points: “As a former tech sales executive, I agree with many of [Mark's] lessons — when applied to later-stage, post-traction point startups. However, I advocate a more nuanced approach for early-stage startup teams” 1. As you grow you need process-driven people. In Summary.

Startup 319

Startup Early Stage Sales Cofounder 319

OnlyOnce

MARCH 14, 2011

We all knew if the feature or function that the client was asking for was within the realm of the possible. • We were very, very focused on creating customers and revenue —We were a startup. You’ll build custom code for certain clients. You find that you have to support channel partners as well as direct customers (or vice versa).

Software Review 67

Software Review Development Team Review Later Stage Technical Review 67

Up and Running

AUGUST 17, 2015

This is particularly useful if you are catering to a millennial customer. During the early stages of the process, they launched a catering business and were able to cater several business school events, all the while refining their menu and getting firsthand experience test driving their concept.

Entrepreneur 60

Entrepreneur Cofounder Angel Investor eCommerce 60

www.ashmaurya.com

AUGUST 29, 2012

You can learn more about his approach to developing customer relationships in his new book Cold Calling Early Customers. There are many channels that can produce your first early customers and contacts, but the one I see most often is cold email. He is a Ph.D. dropout who spent time working for Google.

Email 52

Email Customer Tennessee Software Review 52

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 13, 2013

I’ve written about this before, but I was surprised again recently at a conference for startups when a couple of entrepreneurs started berating investors for their low rate of funding for early-stage startups. Make sure they understand the sense of urgency to address customer satisfaction and market needs. “I

Later Stage 246

Later Stage Early Stage Equity Employee 246

David Teten

SEPTEMBER 5, 2014

For example, if you’re an early stage company dealing with complex regulation (think Uber in transportation, Oscar in healthcare, LendingClub in finance), we have people who can help. We’re not mainly for B2B companies or later stage companies or anything like that. David Teten: How do startups sign up?

New York 114

New York Technical Review Networking Advisory Board 114

The Next Web

AUGUST 26, 2013

Before you start talking to large VCs, find some early stage investors. Stefan Tirtey, Partner at Doughty Hanson Ventures , created this document with Berlin early stage investors. Your first salesperson who brings in your first customer is not likely to be your VP Sales.

Management 120

Management Cofounder Startup Bootstrapping 120

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 28, 2010

Here’s why that is important: when users are on your website you want to convert them to become paying customers. It’s true that the carrier then gets their huge slice for being the billing and payment engine but the idea is that you as a website more than make up for this in terms of customer conversion. 4mm in Series A.

Venture Capital 270

Venture Capital Cofounder Spain San Diego 270

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 18, 2016

Investors know that valuations at startup early stages are negotiable, but they do expect that smart entrepreneurs understand the top three elements of a startup valuation would include the following. First priority is real revenue, customers and contracts. You look like a chump, and probably won’t like their low-ball response.

Intellectual Property 120

Intellectual Property Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Startup 120

The Equity Kicker

NOVEMBER 28, 2016

Different investors place different weights on the three elements but as a rule earlier stage investors place more emphasis on the team and later stage investors place more emphasis on the market. Some very early stage investors go as far as to say that for them team is everything.

Seed Stage 60

Seed Stage Later Stage Early Stage Partner 60

Berkonomics

AUGUST 3, 2023

Whether the partner is a supplier looking to gain a lock on your business as it grows or a customer looking to create a competitive barrier through use of your product, such an investment typically carries fewer restrictions than from a professional investor and less oversight.

Private Equity 118

Private Equity Valuation Cap Table Accredited Investor 118

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 23, 2012

I’ve written about this before, but I was surprised again recently at a conference for startups when a couple of entrepreneurs started berating investors for their low rate of funding for early-stage startups. Make sure they understand the sense of urgency to address customer satisfaction and market needs. “I

Later Stage 232

Later Stage Early Stage Employee Equity 232

YoungUpstarts

JANUARY 22, 2017

Early-stage companies need to define their niche in the market they serve and iterate, iterate, iterate until they’ve got a solution that delights their customer and can scale. Later-stage companies are in operating mode. It’s not magic, but it can be magical when it all comes together.

Private Equity 113

Private Equity Later Stage IPO Early Stage 113

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 5, 2012

If your startup is at the wrong stage for the investor you are approaching, fishing for money is a waste of time for both of you. For instance, if your company is only a few weeks old and you have zero customers and your product offering is still in design, don’t expect someone to hand over $10 million to fund your efforts.

Investment Bankers 241

Investment Bankers Venture Capital Startup Initial Public Offering 241

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 8, 2011

I’ve written about this before, but I was surprised again recently at a conference for startups when a couple of entrepreneurs started berating investors for their low rate of funding for early-stage startups. Make sure they understand the sense of urgency to address customer satisfaction and market needs. “I

Later Stage 241

Later Stage Early Stage Government Equity 241

Gust

JULY 13, 2014

I’ve written about this before, but I was reminded again a while back at a conference for startups when an entrepreneur started berating investors for not funding early-stage startups. “I did my job, so don’t expect me to jump when customers complain.”

Later Stage 153

Later Stage Early Stage Equity Employee 153

The Equity Kicker

NOVEMBER 22, 2013

Having an up close view of Ross sell, hustle, hire and obsess over his product and customers has been a joy and a privilege. Every company will be different, but the Appear Here journey is a rough a template for how we would like to work with other very early stage companies going forward. Forward Portfolio'

Strategic Investors 94

Strategic Investors Later Stage Portfolio Early Stage 94

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 12, 2013

He shared tons of information about how how they were using marketing to quantitatively make marketing decisions at HauteLook and acquire customers for prices that were far cheaper than similar companies. I instantly hit it off with Greg because we was a fountain of knowledge. On each subsequent meeting I’d learn a little bit more.

Partner 360

Partner Las Vegas Los Angeles San Francisco 360

Steve Blank

JUNE 15, 2011

Today, the signs of the new bubble are the Linked-In initial public offering (IPO), Facebook’s stratospheric valuation and the rapid rise of early-stage startup valuation. The awareness phase is where other later-stage investors start to notice the momentum, bringing additional money in and pushing prices higher.

Silicon Valley 327

Silicon Valley Stealth Valuation Mississippi 327

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 13, 2010

If your startup is at the wrong stage for the investor you are approaching, the courting is a waste of time for both of you. For instance, if your company is only a few weeks old and you have zero customers and your product offering is still in design, don’t expect someone to hand over $10 million to fund your efforts. Growth stage.

Investment Bankers 231

Investment Bankers Venture Capital Startup Initial Public Offering 231