Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 8, 2015

Every startup founder loves to prompt for questions from investors and potential key team members about their vision, and the huge opportunity that can be had with their disruptive technology. Most founders like to talk about their many months or years of sweat-equity , but cash invested is a stronger commitment.

Technical Review 120

Technical Review Due Diligence Sweat Equity Burn Rate 120

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

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

David Teten

MARCH 9, 2021

We love founder(s) who can say any of the following: Mindset . Being a founder is not for the faint of heart. We hired a coach to help make us a world-class team.” . “We We hired a coach to help make us a world-class team.” . Even if it’s not in a business arena–e.g., Examples: _.” Note this applies in real time.

Sweat Equity 78

Sweat Equity Equity Metrics Demand 78

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 16, 2013

If you really want to impress a startup founder as a potential employee, or you want to be a smart investor, you need to know the right questions to ask. These are the questions that get past the hype of a founder “vision to change the world,” and into the realm of real business strengths, weaknesses, and current health.

Due Diligence 253

Due Diligence Sweat Equity Intellectual Property Burn Rate 253

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 2, 2012

If you really want to impress a startup founder as a potential employee, or you want to be a smart investor, you need to know the right questions to ask. These are the questions that get past the hype of a founder “vision to change the world,” and into the realm of real business strengths, weaknesses, and current health.

Due Diligence 244

Due Diligence Sweat Equity Burn Rate Intellectual Property 244

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 5, 2011

If you really want to impress a startup founder as a potential employee, or you want to be a smart investor, you need to know the right questions to ask. These are the questions that get past the hype of a founder “vision to change the world,” and into the realm of real business strengths, weaknesses, and current health.

Due Diligence 237

Due Diligence Sweat Equity Intellectual Property Entrepreneur 237

Gust

DECEMBER 8, 2013

If you really want to impress a startup founder as a potential employee, or you want to be a smart investor, you need to know the right questions to ask. These are the questions that get past the hype of a founder “vision to change the world,” and into the realm of real business strengths, weaknesses, and current health.

Due Diligence 174

Due Diligence Sweat Equity Intellectual Property Burn Rate 174

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 20, 2010

If you really want to impress a startup founder as a potential employee, or you want to be a smart investor, you need to know the right questions to ask. These are the questions that get past the hype of a founder "vision to change the world,” and into the realm of real business strengths, weaknesses, and current health.

Due Diligence 229

Due Diligence Sweat Equity Intellectual Property Startup 229

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. To do this, you will need to invest money in hiring programmers who can build and maintain the app.

Cofounder 100

Cofounder Sweat Equity Startup Seed Capital 100

The Equity Kicker

SEPTEMBER 2, 2015

. – The company also needs the hustle to get stuff done and find the first few customers. – Don’t compromise on quality for co-founders and other permanent decisions. And that includes the choice of co-founder. Yet founders want to move fast and there is an inevitable tension between speed and quality.

Sweat Equity 60

Sweat Equity Cofounder Angel Investor eCommerce 60

Up and Running

DECEMBER 23, 2019

Sweat Equity. “I Your first proof of concept can be done without a technical co-founder or a lot of money. Hire somebody on Upwork or a prototyping agency to create a super simple, stripped-down version ( minimal viable product ) that demonstrates your product. Inexpensive Freelance Labor. 0% APR Credit Cards.

Finance 92

Finance Sweat Equity Bootstrapping Entrepreneur 92

Austin Startup

SEPTEMBER 19, 2017

For startup founders, it’s never too early to start thinking about putting together a target market advisory board. This is useful for a number of reasons, the most obvious of which is to help you navigate the right channels in your vertical and open doors to potential customers. Never discount the power of a warm intro.

Advisory Board 48

Advisory Board Sweat Equity Marketing Vertical 48

ConversionXL

NOVEMBER 6, 2019

Then we ship it to customers way before it’s ready. Mike Arsenault and his two co-founders—all with technical backgrounds—built their MVP while working full time for other SaaS companies. “We We didn’t spend any real cash prior to getting our first paying customer,” recounts Arsenault. “I’ll spent $1k on their MVP.

Sweat Equity 78

Sweat Equity Software Review Vesting Cofounder 78

Scott Edward Walker

JUNE 23, 2011

Introduction I love working with startups – and trying to protect founders and watch their backs. Indeed, in a world of easy access to online documents, it is often this legal compliance which is overlooked by founders, as they attempt to stay “lean” and “scrappy” (and sometimes even handle the legal work themselves or through a web service).

Accredited Investor 82

Accredited Investor Sweat Equity Los Angeles Finder 82

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. And they hire very aggressive securities attorneys to represent their interests. 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

ConversionXL

NOVEMBER 6, 2019

Then we ship it to customers way before it’s ready. Mike Arsenault and his two co-founders—all with technical backgrounds—built their MVP while working full time for other SaaS companies. “We We didn’t spend any real cash prior to getting our first paying customer,” recounts Arsenault. “I’ll spent $1k on their MVP.

Sweat Equity 50

Sweat Equity Software Review Vesting Cofounder 50

infochachkie.com

SEPTEMBER 24, 2011

Tracking such revenue can be a challenge but is possible to approximate the revenue impact of PR activities via the use of unique URLs, customer surveys, etc. Any function within your startup that involves iterative learning, passion and/or close proximity to your customers should not be outsourced. Passion Cannot be Outsourced.

Equity 40

Equity Silicon Valley Cofounder PR 40

www.virtuosimedia.com

MARCH 8, 2012

Custom Programming. This article should also serve as a starting guide for programmers who are approached about becoming technical co-founders. Hire someone to do a working prototype/proof-of-concept. Businesses. Business Articles. Accounting. Copywriting Tips. General Business. Internet Security. Startup Advice. Social Media.

Technical Cofounder 41

Technical Cofounder Cofounder Technical Review NDA 41

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

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. By way of crude example, if your building innovative trading software for Wall Street, be where you customers are and where you can best network.

Cofounder 89

Cofounder Startup Technical Cofounder CTO Hire 89

Up and Running

JUNE 26, 2017

Our founders thought, “Why is it so hard to actually get ahold of someone at a business? So several months and a lot of mistakes later, we pivoted to helping small businesses get and keep more customers. Mark Cuban has famously said, “Sweat equity is the best startup capital.” Where will you find your first customers?

Sweat Equity 145

Sweat Equity Business Plan Naming eCommerce 145

www.chubbybrain.com

SEPTEMBER 28, 2011

Post-Mortem Title : My eHarmony for Hiring Failure. When a co-founder walks out of a company — as was the case for me — you’ve already been dealt a heavy blow. So, the best way of dealing with this issue is to take a long, long vesting period for all major sweat equity founders. Not close enough to the customer.

Software Review 79

Software Review Startup Technical Review Vesting 79

Women Entrepreneurs Can

MAY 9, 2019

As you acquire customers and your customer base grows, once you start to make a profit it’s only natural to start thinking about the next step forward. Funding has only become more difficult to pursue and isn’t always a viable option for early-on founders to pursue. This isn’t a decision that should be taken lightly.

Programming 40

Programming Sweat Equity Startup Private Equity 40

sivers.org

JUNE 25, 2010

Derek Sivers about me blog books email list contact How to hire a programmer to make your ideas happen 2010-06-19 Do you have an idea for a website, online business, or application, but need a programmer to turn that idea into reality? Say, “We are hiring a developer to create only the beginning of an application. Hire one from each.

CTO Hire 84

CTO Hire Hiring Software Review Technical Review 84