Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 9, 2020

I always tell entrepreneurs that two heads are better than one, so the first task in many startups is finding a co-founder or two. Value factors include your related product breadth and depth, relationships with thought leaders, key vendors, and large potential customers. Textbook knowledge and academic degrees don’t count here.

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Cofounder Technical Cofounder Equity Intellectual Property 435

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 28, 2020

The rate of new entrepreneurs increased between 2013 and 2019, from 280 out of 100,000 to 310 out of 100,000 of the adult population. Of course, that’s both the good news and the bad news for aspiring entrepreneurs, since it means more competition, and the business landscape is changing faster than ever.

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Intellectual Property Startup Angel Groups Social Media 404

Hearpreneur

JANUARY 22, 2023

We asked entrepreneurs and business owners about the 2023 trends they see in their industry and here are the responses. #1- As a result, businesses in this field should leverage technology to provide interactive, easy-to-understand educational content that can help customers make health-related decisions and maintain healthy habits.

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Artificial Inteligence Technical Review Entrepreneur Social Media 122

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 1, 2023

I always tell entrepreneurs that two heads are better than one, so the first task in many startups is finding a cofounder or two. Value factors include your related product breadth and depth, relationships with thought leaders, key vendors, and large potential customers. Textbook knowledge and academic degrees don’t count here.

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Technical Cofounder Equity Distribution Cofounder 247

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 30, 2022

Every business owner and entrepreneur I meet in my consulting rounds dreams of finding that “ disruptive ” innovation that will supercharge their business and move it into the ranks of business unicorns (billion-dollar valuations), such as SpaceX and Apple. Before you act, shut up and listen to employees, customers, and futurists.

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Technical Review Silicon Valley Software Review Metrics 252

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 30, 2013

I hear a lot of entrepreneurs contemplating their great “idea” for several years with little discernable progress, and looking for money to start. For a business, you must define the absolute minimum features you need to satisfy the customer problem, and test it in the market. Get a real customer and real revenue.

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Intellectual Property Entrepreneur Sweat Equity CTO Hire 281

YoungUpstarts

MAY 2, 2018

shows recommended by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs. Shark Tank is a reality TV programme where budding entrepreneurs seek funding from a panel of six business moguls to start or grow a business or to save their existing business from failure. Shark Tank. Small Business Revolution.

Entrepreneur 176

Entrepreneur Silicon Valley New York City Incubator 176

YoungUpstarts

NOVEMBER 2, 2020

by Howard Tiersky, author of “ Wining Digital Customers: The Antidote to Irrelevance “. At one time these brands exceeded customers’ needs and stood for something they cared about. But today’s customers are different. Digital is no longer just a ‘need’ for customers. REASON 1: You Need to Remain Relevant to the Customer.

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Valuation Technical Review Revenue Operations 264

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 11, 2022

After many years of working with angel investors seriously trying to find new ventures worthy of their hard-earned money, I find their frustration often exceeds that of entrepreneurs sincerely looking for financial help. Here is my list of red flags that cause many investors to look elsewhere: No well-defined need or viable customer set.

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The Startup Magazine

JULY 25, 2021

In fact, the announcement of the share issue led to a decline in Galactic share prices and overall market valuation. Below are tips on how you can boost growth and increase your business’s market valuation. Spotting new trends ahead of your competitors is an excellent way to increase your market valuation.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 7, 2023

As an entrepreneur mentor and startup investor, I see with sadness the 50 to 90 percent that fail. Actually, great new customer solutions lead to great platforms, not the other way around. Extrapolating you as the target customer. Never mix up what you like with what your customers will buy. Fail fast and pivot.

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Intellectual Property Entrepreneur Bankruptcy Viral 314

YoungUpstarts

SEPTEMBER 20, 2019

by Alejandro Cremades , cofounder of Panthera Advisors and author of “ The Art of Startup Fundraising: Pitching Investors, Negotiating the Deal, and Everything Else Entrepreneurs Need to Know “ Why should entrepreneurs intentionally be generous when negotiating with investors? Generosity is nowhere on their radar.

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Technical Cofounder Entrepreneur Cofounder Post-Money Valuation 127

The Startup Magazine

AUGUST 11, 2023

Analysts perform a valuation of the company in question before the beginning of any round of funding. The management of a company, its established track record, the size of the market, and the level of risk all play a role in determining a company’s valuation. What is the Evaluation of the Funding?

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Seed Stage Technical Review Early Stage Due Diligence 137

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 5, 2018

Reading the NY Times article “ Jeffrey Katzenberg Raises $1 Billion for Short-Form Video Venture, ” I realized it was time for a new startup heuristic: the amount of customer discovery and product-market fit you need to find is inversely proportional to the amount and availability of risk capital. ” Fire, Ready, Aim. And it may work.

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VC Cafe

SEPTEMBER 26, 2022

The past year was a wild ride for startups and founders, giving a whole new meaning to the ”rollercoaster” aspect of being an entrepreneur. Before product-market fit… just care about speed of iteration according to your customer feedback. Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.” Need for Speed, indeed.

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Founder Startup Valuation Pre-Money Valuation 187

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 5, 2009

Chasing funding versus chasing customers and a repeatable and scalable business model, is one reason startups fail. Chasing funding versus chasing customers and a repeatable and scalable business model, is one reason startups fail. The goal of their startup in this stage becomes “getting funded.”

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Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 267

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 10, 2021

A while back I received a discouraging note from an entrepreneur with a patent and a medical software application who couldn’t find a dime of investment, and was grousing that seed funding just wasn’t available anymore. Lack of clear objectives/goals.

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Software Review Due Diligence Elevator Pitch Early Stage 307

Growthink Blog

MAY 20, 2011

I received an email last week from an entrepreneur (let's call him Mike) Now to begin, I was pretty impressed with Mike since he used a nice technique to get his email in my inbox (due to the volume of emails I receive, they are screened by others before they get to me). Getting a $100 Million valuation is impossible for a startup.

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Venture Capital Valuation NDA Non-disclosure Agreement 109

YoungUpstarts

NOVEMBER 19, 2020

by Michelle Seiler Tucker , author of “ EXIT RICH: The 6 P Method to Sell Your Business for Huge Profit “ Successfully starting and growing a business can be a tough challenge for even the most adept entrepreneurs. You should always design with the customer experience in mind. Does it have a niche or intellectual property?

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Exit Strategy Intellectual Property Valuation Metrics 246

Hearpreneur

AUGUST 5, 2020

We asked entrepreneurs and business owners about the industries that are ripe for disruption and here are the response; #1- The hemp extraction. Products lack customization, and the pricing models behind the scenes don’t have the granularity you’d expect in a world of big data. Photo Credit: Dr. Jon Thompson. 16- Coffee.

Technical Review 156

Technical Review Software Review Entrepreneur China 156

YoungUpstarts

JANUARY 17, 2017

A number of entrepreneurs operate their business as freelancers or sole proprietors. An entrepreneur is known to start around 2.3 There are a number of digital products to do everything from capturing leads to marketing your business and providing support to customers. by Anand Srinivasan, founder of LeadJoint.com .

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The Startup Magazine

FEBRUARY 21, 2024

As the CEO of one of Canada’s largest private credit firms, can you describe the basics of private credit and its increasing importance to budding entrepreneurs? For entrepreneurs, this means not just securing capital, but also gaining a collaborator committed to their growth journey. The firm has made more than $4.5

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Technical Review Due Diligence Bankruptcy Intellectual Property 145

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 10, 2012

A while back I received a discouraging note from an entrepreneur with a patent and a medical software application who couldn’t find a dime of investment, and was grousing that seed funding just wasn’t available anymore. Lack of clear objectives/goals.

Software Review 250

Software Review Due Diligence Elevator Pitch Entrepreneur 250

ReadWriteStart

JULY 2, 2022

If you decide to become an entrepreneur and have the opportunity to invest, but there is no modern idea, you can take advantage of the options that someone is already successfully developing. An entrepreneur needs to learn new skills and knowledge about a niche for any successful startup. What Business is Popular in 2022.

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Cost Software Review Technical Review Cloud 140

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2014

In a world where the economy only heads in one direction (read: 2009-2014) most investors & entrepreneurs forget to pay attention to gross burn. You are particularly vulnerable if: You have revenue concentration (few customers each providing a large total of percentage of your revenue). Valuation. Growth vs. Profitability.

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Burn Rate Balance Sheet .Net Valuation 383

Hearpreneur

SEPTEMBER 27, 2020

We sought to hear from entrepreneurs and business owners and here’s what they had to say about business success. #1- 1- For real entrepreneurs, business success is the MOST important. When you’re an entrepreneur, that’s the most important thing in your life, it’s who you are. Photo Credit: Hosea Chang. Your success defines you.

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Entrepreneur .Net Metrics Revenue 131

ReadWriteStart

OCTOBER 7, 2010

Before I do, however, I want to talk about a thumb rule that I'd like to propose to entrepreneurs about raising money. As a thumb rule, try to get enough validation so that you can get to at least a $2 million pre-money valuation before raising equity capital. Rajan, however, needs to negotiate his early customers better.

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Valuation Silicon Valley Pre-Money Valuation Bootstrapping 119

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 28, 2018

My friend Michael Broukhim, founder & co-CEO of FabFitFun and I recently had a catch-up meeting for 3-miles on the Santa Monica “Bird Trail” No company has ever elicited so many questions by friends, colleagues, entrepreneurs, fellow VCs and journalists as has Bird, the company that pioneered the electronic scooter as a service market.

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San Francisco Valuation Technical Review Los Angeles 256

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 22, 2012

After all, growth equals high valuations and loads of venture capital! And so do entrepreneurs who are quick to pivot to new businesses or to sell in an acquihire. Instant growth = huge valuation from follow-on investors = big VC mark-up on our quarterly reports = LP interest. And headlines. And approbation. Grow or die.

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Silicon Valley Venture Capital Startup Technical Review 390

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 31, 2020

As an angel investor in startups, I’m a believer that smart investors invest more in you as the entrepreneur than the next billion dollar solution you are pitching. Even if you are still in school, and never started a company before, strong entrepreneur candidates can point to projects they initiated, led, that produced significant results.

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Entrepreneur Angel Investor Valuation Leadership 312

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 26, 2012

Once you have a potential investor excited about your team, your product, and your company, the investor will inevitably ask “What is your company’s valuation?” Many entrepreneurs stumble at this point, losing the deal or most of their ownership, by having no answer, saying “make me an offer,” or quoting an exorbitant number.

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Valuation Pre-Money Valuation NPV Intellectual Property 270

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 18, 2023

Once an entrepreneur, always an entrepreneur. Although many won’t admit it, true entrepreneurs can’t wait to exit their current startup, and build a new and better one with their next great idea. Mature your business processes and customer base. Anticipate customer and valued-supplier reaction to any change.

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Exit Strategy Valuation Acquisition Metrics 248

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 14, 2016

What every entrepreneur is asking me these days, is “How do I get to be a unicorn?” The fact is that valuations are largely set by top venture capital investors and financial firms, and they all have their own proprietary formulas for assigning value. But, I’m not suggesting that you take the focus off of valuation.

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Intellectual Property Valuation Merger Exit Strategy 120

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 4, 2015

In a new book, “ The Leadership Capital Index ,” Dave Ulrich, a best-selling author, business consultant, and business school professor, provides some real insights and metrics on what makes up the elements of goodwill in the minds of top valuation experts. For startups, the entrepreneur and founder is almost always the face of the company.

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Leadership Technical Review Due Diligence Valuation 120

VC Cafe

FEBRUARY 26, 2023

In addition to these data points Ali identifies seven key traits that these “super founders” possess, and I believe that these traits are essential for any entrepreneur who wants to build a successful startup. “extreme resilience” – Successful entrepreneurs are able to persevere through challenges and setbacks.

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Founder Cofounder Seed Stage Valuation 88

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 25, 2018

Now is the time to be an entrepreneur and create a business from your passion. Those that do it right also have the unprecedented opportunity to join the elite ranks of 250 unicorns (relatively new companies with a current valuation of over $1 billion). Validate your solution with a prototype and real customers.

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Technical Cofounder Intellectual Property Silicon Valley LLC 184

YoungUpstarts

OCTOBER 24, 2013

One of the challenges for investing in startups has always been the lack of an established way for founders and investors to actually measure and decide on the valuation of the startup concerned. ” Ideaspotting investment pre-money valuation valuation Worthworm'

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