Gust

AUGUST 8, 2012

One class of clear business opportunity, which wouldn’t exist in an ideal world, is created by the service that seemingly makes it as difficult as possible for potential paying customers to make it take their money. When it comes to inefficient outcomes and customer dissatisfaction, it’s hard to beat the U.S. Hallelujah!

Customer 143

Customer Southern California San Jose Marketing 143

Gust

MARCH 23, 2014

There are several free and paid services, such as LinkedIn and Naymz , that allow you to manage your professional profile and measure your social reputation. This is especially useful in providing links to other positive and neutral content. Profile sites. Other user-created content sites.

Reputation 178

Reputation Affiliate Technical Review Social Network 178

Gust

OCTOBER 5, 2014

Large companies move slowly because they are usually in reasonable financial condition, with less urgency, have a lot to lose from making bad decisions, and have built layers of management sign-off over the years. These conditions don’t apply in a small business. Speed gives you the greatest chance of success.

Startup 165

Startup Early Stage Technical Review .Net 165

Gust

JANUARY 15, 2014

Boy, do I wish there was a magical Gmail extension to let me manage my startup deals! Gust (the company I founded) is the online platform used by over 45,000 accredited angel investors and VCs, from over 1,000 angel groups and venture funds, in 74 countries, to manage their startup deals.

Angel Investor 70

Angel Investor Belarus Portugal Accredited Investor 70

Gust

NOVEMBER 14, 2011

For no good reason, this process seems shrouded in mystery, when in fact it is nothing more than a final integrity check on all aspects of your business model, team, product, customers, and plan. Investors are looking for your depth of talent, loyalty and commitment, strengths and weaknesses, teamwork, and management style.

Technical Review 152

Technical Review Due Diligence Intellectual Property Private Equity 152

Gust

JUNE 17, 2012

Use this approach before you have a real valuation, a real product, or any real customers. An example would be getting free office space by agreeing to be the property manager for the owner. Commit to a major customer. After bootstrapping, friends and family are the most common funding sources for early-stage startups.

Technical Review 164

Technical Review Bootstrapping Venture Capital Incubator 164

Gust

SEPTEMBER 16, 2012

In today’s world of distributed data, global reach, and powerful incursion technologies, how do I protect my data and my customers’ data? Customers are bombarded from all angles today for information to improve their user experience, yet they need to protect highly personal things. User privacy. Risk reduction. Return on investment.

Technology 162

Technology Agile Architecture Distribution 162

Gust

NOVEMBER 7, 2011

Don’t start podcasting, blogging, tweeting, “friending” on Facebook, and posting YouTube videos until you know what your messages are, who will manage them, who your audience is, and how they and you are going to benefit from the content and relationship. Social media is about maintaining a dynamic conversation between you and your customers.

Social Media 125

Social Media Media Startup Curation 125

Gust

DECEMBER 15, 2013

Some entrepreneurs are quick with creative ideas, and even excellent at managing the chaos of initial implementation. When you have invented a new technology, you need expensive models and testing, including samples for potential customers. You need a prototype.

Bootstrapping 183

Bootstrapping Sweat Equity Entrepreneur Technical Review 183

Gust

FEBRUARY 22, 2014

As such, creating a functional clone of Gust (including all the features under the hood, and ones that have not yet been released), using world-class engineers and state-of-the-art, 2012 project management in Ruby on Rails, would take roughly 20 person-years from soup to nuts (figure about 1/3 of that in product/UX/UI and 2/3 in actual coding.)

Belarus 107

Belarus Kazakhstan Portugal Accredited Investor 107

Gust

DECEMBER 6, 2011

Depending on the company, important milestones may include being granted a patent, receiving a 510k FDA approval, completing a prototype, receiving positive customer feedback on a beta test, achieving first revenues, hitting the goal in annual revenues of $1 million , etc.

Angel Investor 179

Angel Investor Venture Capital Valuation Software Engineering 179

Gust

SEPTEMBER 27, 2014

Make your public profile as sexy, comprehensive and enticing as possible, adding a short, well done, elevator pitch video (think “the kind of video you see on great Kickstarter campaigns”) and listing your full management team. And don’t forget the ability to customize your profile’s background.

Angel Groups 159

Angel Groups Elevator Pitch Software Review Deal Flow 159

Gust

DECEMBER 7, 2014

At least wait until later, when you ready to scale, and have some “leverage” based on a proven business model, some real customers, and real revenue. Managing investors is a distraction from your core business. Even a small investor in the early days will take a large equity percentage, due to that pesky valuation challenge.

Bootstrapping 191

Bootstrapping Entrepreneur Startup Burn Rate 191

Gust

AUGUST 24, 2014

Obviously, it must be grounded by the characteristics of the market and customers you choose to serve, the pricing model of existing competitors, and a strategy you believe is consistent with your future products and direction. It’s great for customers, but not for startups, unless you have deep pockets. Freemium model. Value model.

Revenue 184

Revenue Startup Retention Internet 184

Gust

NOVEMBER 11, 2011

They’ve heard multiple pitches, poured over business plans, talked to customers, and looked at the legal work. Or the in-kind winning includes legal work or management consulting, but the startup that wins has its own providers. It’s not just a one-time pitch or plan contest. Decisions are made before the actual event.

Software Review 79

Software Review Term Sheet Due Diligence Angel Investor 79

Gust

DECEMBER 14, 2014

These authors argue effectively that the hard part of executing most strategies is changing human behavior – first the people on your team, then partners, vendors, and most importantly, customers. For example, more customer leads are predictive of more sales revenue later. Changing yourself is tough enough.

Entrepreneur 189

Entrepreneur Founder Revenue Startup 189

Gust

NOVEMBER 2, 2011

Quality Management Team. For example, some investors would not fund a company without at least a minimum of customer feedback or intellectual property. It has been used by angels since, however Dave updated the model for 2009 ACA Leaders Workshop in Richardson, TX. Here is his latest version. Characteristic. Zero to $0.5 Sound Idea.

Valuation 79

Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Intellectual Property Southern California 79

Gust

JANUARY 20, 2013

Too many businesses haven’t noticed that we have come full-circle, where mass customization is required now to win. Customers have come to expect immediate and tailor-made responses to their needs, and the businesses that fail to deliver quickly fall behind. Leverage the game changers to gain the speed you need.

Startup 180

Startup Social Media Cloud Customer 180

Gust

DECEMBER 22, 2011

It’s possible to have a company with literally millions of customers (users) that employs only a handful of people, working in a small rented office, with hardware and software costing in the tens of thousands rather than millions of dollars. Instagram is a textbook example.)

Intellectual Property 149

Intellectual Property Technical Review Software Review IP 149

Gust

AUGUST 9, 2014

To this date, no company has been able to take control of the internet as a whole because no company has been able to develop a customer base that is loyal enough to pursue the majority of their internet needs through one company. These companies do not have a loyal customer base, leaving an opportunity for our company. Contestant B.

Startup 131

Startup Database Open Source Equity 131

Gust

SEPTEMBER 7, 2014

It’s a key skill for success in every business role, from accountant to customer support. Whether it’s a frustrated employee, or a dissatisfied customer, what you first hear is usually someone yelling with emotion or talking so fast that you don’t know what they are talking about. Promise action but manage expectations.

Startup 161

Startup Entrepreneur Customer Operations 161

Gust

NOVEMBER 18, 2012

The founders now need a $1M Angel investment to do the marketing for a national NewCo rollout, build a team to manage the rollout, and maybe even pay themselves a salary. Early customers and contracts in progress add value. Every customer contract and relationship needs to be monetized, even ones still in negotiation.

Valuation 187

Valuation Pre-Money Valuation NPV Intellectual Property 187

Gust

AUGUST 22, 2012

” There is no law, other than the word of the manager on duty — who decrees that we could get in with the camera if we paid some ludicrous amount of money to procure a permit on the spot.

Technical Review 172

Technical Review Egypt Morocco Russia 172

Gust

JUNE 15, 2014

Customer expectations these days can be unreasonable.”. Exceeding customer expectations is my competitive advantage.”. “I I select vendors carefully, and manage them well, to keep my costs down.”. “I’ll do the best I can, but the economy is totally unpredictable right now.”.

Entrepreneur 174

Entrepreneur Bootstrapping Employee Restful 174

Gust

DECEMBER 8, 2013

Who is a real customer that I can talk to? Real customers are ones who have paid full price for the product, have it installed and in use, and are still satisfied. If there are no customers yet, when will the product ship, and how many times has the date been set?

Due Diligence 174

Due Diligence Sweat Equity Intellectual Property Burn Rate 174

Gust

DECEMBER 29, 2013

Let your accountants manage the expenses. Too many founders think it’s more important to work on products and customers. That means managing a bottoms-up budget process, and living within the budget. In business, “most important” means time to market, customer service, low cost, and beating your competitors.

Startup 183

Startup Intellectual Property LLC Burn Rate 183

Gust

OCTOBER 31, 2011

Obviously we can find many critical success factors, like finding and retaining high-value customers, which apply to companies that are product centric or services centric. If your business offers a service, like marketing or management consulting, you are the product. Create and maintain the highest level of customer satisfaction.

Angel Investor 143

Angel Investor Venture Capital Partner Networking 143

Gust

JANUARY 4, 2012

In general, IP protection will do nothing to prevent others from independently developing something similar, copying the overall business model, targeting similar customers or end users, and perhaps even mimicking the product’s look and feel. If you do manage to threaten them, they’re more likely to buy you than sue you.

Intellectual Property 143

Intellectual Property IP Startup United States 143

Gust

JUNE 19, 2012

Second best are letters from future customers promising future business. . Managing Partner , Tangent Capital. What have you actually done in the recent past? Write about achievements. . By far the best validation of a plan is actual sales made already. People have written checks. Angel Investor , Frontier Angel Fund. Antone Johnson.

Startup 180

Startup Forecast Angel Investor Software 180

Gust

OCTOBER 6, 2011

I can’t count the times I heard people saying that “product development defines the product, and marketing gets the customers”. Second – timely, cost-effective customer acquisition is a matter of life-or-death to most startups. It is shocking to me how prevalent this POV is. Always in this sequence.

Acquisition 87

Acquisition Marketing CPA PPC 87

Gust

NOVEMBER 11, 2012

My first thought is that if you are more annoyed than energized by expert advice, team suggestions, and customer input, then you should probably avoid this line of work. How strongly do you really want to manage a startup? Actually, it’s more complicated than that, but that’s a good start.

Entrepreneur 189

Entrepreneur Restful Startup Business Plan 189

Gust

FEBRUARY 23, 2014

Startups such as Chirpify have managed to flourish and raise millions with endorsements from folks like Lil Wayne and Snoop Lion. Customers are a fickle bunch. Marketing momentum fades fast in the face of disgruntled potential customers and long waits in line. Justin Timberlake and Andrew Garfield via Wikipedia.

Matching 151

Matching Campaign Stock Distribution 151

Gust

JUNE 1, 2014

Every startup requires building and maintaining effective relationships with people, including partners, team members, customers, and investors. Inversely, feedback to newer employees should be given by their direct manager, or even peers, rather than a top executive. Image via Wikipedia.

Startup 162

Startup Entrepreneur Partner Employee 162

Gust

DECEMBER 23, 2011

Randall Munroe has managed to slowly create a real enterprise out of a free webcomic. Similarly, start calling VCs if your customer acquisition costs can only be recaptured over a substantial period of time. Let’s start at one extreme end of the spectrum, with my favorite startup: XKCD.

Intellectual Property 127

Intellectual Property Balance Sheet Dilution Bootstrapping 127

Gust

NOVEMBER 28, 2011

Often I find that experienced investors flip to the management page of a business plan, even before they read the product description. To be respected at the top of the pyramid, a CEO must be able to clearly communicate the vision of the company to inspire investors, the team, and customers. That’s how important the people are.

Startup 147

Startup Bootstrapping Social Network Internet 147

Gust

FEBRUARY 1, 2014

could do (referring customers, tweeting out news, suggesting ideas, checking out competitive sites, pointing out relevant news articles, providing moral support, etc.) The ideal angel investor would spend a great deal of his/her time working on behalf of the company in support of the CEO, in every way other than being a full-time employee.

Angel Investor 148

Angel Investor Startup IPO Early Stage 148

Gust

NOVEMBER 3, 2013

You may have the solution to the world hunger problem, but if your customers have no money, your business won’t last long. Having too much cash, not managed wisely, can be just as devastating as too little cash. Even a non-profit has to generate revenue (or donations) to offset operating costs. Idea has limited business opportunity.

Intellectual Property 183

Intellectual Property Startup Viral Early Stage 183