Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 13, 2017

By definition, second-stage ventures generally have 10 to 99 employees and/or $750,000 to $50 million in revenue, and see that as just the beginning. They need a large infusion from venture capitalists, private equity, bank loans, or mezzanine financing. Switch your attention from product development to sales.

Mezzanine 141

Mezzanine Private Equity Startup Bandwidth 141

www.lanceglasser.com

MAY 13, 2012

Definitions of common financial terms. Product development. Queuing theory and product development. The Essential Product Investigation Phase Gate. So you want to ship the product early? Customer Equity. Stock buybacks. The Year of the Black Swan. A Model for Return on Engineering Expenses.

CTO 40

CTO CTO Hire Technical Review Architecture 40

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 3, 2013

By definition, second-stage ventures generally have 10 to 99 employees and/or $750,000 to $50 million in revenue, and see that as just the beginning. They need a large infusion from venture capitalists, private equity, bank loans, or mezzanine financing. Switch your attention from product development to sales.

Mezzanine 240

Mezzanine Private Equity Bandwidth Metrics 240

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 28, 2010

It seems the focus on “virtual&# goods has been both the demo of the consumer as well as the fact that by definition virtual goods have almost no marginal costs to the seller so giving a huge slice to the carrier (and Zong) isn’t a problem since actual costs are ~ $0. 15mm in Series A.

Venture Capital 270

Venture Capital Cofounder Spain San Diego 270

VC Cafe

FEBRUARY 27, 2024

Defining the pre-seed round It’s futile to look for ‘one true’ definition. In smaller funds, ticket sizes tend to be lower, so pre-seed is the only stage where micro funds are able to secure their minimum equity targets. Data from Crunchbase shows a pretty consistent picture.

Valuation 186

Valuation Software Review Generative AI Technical Review 186

infochachkie.com

SEPTEMBER 24, 2011

Instead of hearing from your long lost third-cousin, you will be inundated with an avalanche of ‘congratulatory’ emails, calls and letters from people who want to relieve you of the burden of your hard-earned equity round. Such positions include: PR, Sales, Product Development, Lead Generation, Strategic Planning, Fund Raising, etc.

Equity 40

Equity Silicon Valley Cofounder Technical Review 40

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 4, 2015

By definition, second-stage ventures generally have 10 to 99 employees and/or $750,000 to $50 million in revenue, and see that as just the beginning. They need a large infusion from venture capitalists, private equity, bank loans, or mezzanine financing. Switch your attention from product development to sales.

Mezzanine 120

Mezzanine Private Equity Startup Bandwidth 120

femgineer.com

JULY 18, 2010

Sweat equity or salary? If they’re coming up to speed with the product, development cycle, and company dynamics is good to let them ramp up slowly. Yes, building software is cheap and fast unlike other products. Remember people only have two hands! Fortunately I have good mentors and a team that keeps me in check!

Engineer 41

Engineer Software Review Startup Technical Review 41

YoungUpstarts

OCTOBER 1, 2018

Though most founders would agree culture is important in an organization’s success, it often takes a back seat to product development and generating a profit in the early stages of an organization’s life. As a startup grows, the equity position offered to new employees goes down as the number of employees goes up.

Cofounder 113

Cofounder Hiring Leadership Employee 113

K9 Ventures

OCTOBER 10, 2017

So, I took it upon myself as a challenge to put together the definitive “ Pre-Seed FAQ.” Unless every aspect of product development is covered by founders who are only receiving equity, there are other parts of building a product that will require hiring highly qualified people. By definition, yes.

Seed Stage 82

Seed Stage Finance Later Stage Equity 82

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”. I would argue that expanding the definition of the marketing role could take success rates to whole new levels. It is shocking to me how prevalent this POV is. Always in this sequence.

Acquisition 87

Acquisition Marketing CPA PPC 87

Up and Running

MARCH 24, 2021

This requires you to take what you’ve learned during your market analysis to develop a market penetration strategy for your business. So, what exactly is a market penetration strategy and how do you develop one? Market penetration definition. Launch a new product or service. How to create a market penetration strategy.

Software Review 146

Software Review Marketing Campaign Forecast 146

blog.nahurst.com

JULY 19, 2010

This covers one of the most common situations I encounter: For a pre-funding web startup whose team includes only a non-technical cofounder, how much equity should an incoming technical cofounder get? This is an area that varies widely and can significantly impact how much equity a technical cofounder receives (if they take more salary).

Technical Cofounder 43

Technical Cofounder Cofounder Equity Salary 43

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 14, 2009

Unlike other incubator-led programs, this workshop is open to anyone who wants to learn, and it does not require companies take investment or give out equity. I would definitely be interested any scholarship opportunities that might be made available. Cash is tight.

Lean 60

Lean San Francisco Continuous Deployment Software Review 60

ReadWriteStart

OCTOBER 14, 2010

By definition, the capital investment needs to be relatively low such that the investors and the entrepreneurs all make a healthy return on investment. He is willing to give up 33% of equity for this $1 million investment. I feel that it is not at all necessary to give this much equity up at this stage of the game.

Bootstrapping 114

Bootstrapping Marketing Angel Investor Silicon Valley 114

viniciusvacanti.com

SEPTEMBER 7, 2010

I do believe the only reason the developers were willing to work for some equity is because they became friends with us at Hackers and Founders, so that part worked. As a technical person, I’d definitely prefer a business person who has a little more technical experience. San Kim Definitely. We were even a top 3 finalist.

Cofounder 43

Cofounder Technical Cofounder Founder Ruby 43

The Equity Kicker

NOVEMBER 28, 2016

Completing product development and hiring team members definitely helps, but it’s dangerous to assume that will be valued by new investors. In the sectors in which we invest that nearly always means building momentum with customers.

Seed Stage 60

Seed Stage Later Stage Early Stage Partner 60

Up and Running

AUGUST 11, 2016

Reynolds Wrap didn’t spend money on advertisements, better shelf placement, new slogans, or new product development. Brand loyalty relies on total brand equity—the brand represents a promise to customers and employees. See Also: The Definitive Guide to Building a Brand.

United Arab Emirates 60

United Arab Emirates Social Media Redemption United Kingdom 60

Early Growth Financial Services

MARCH 1, 2013

That’s the big question that many founders ask themselves as they try to get their product and service to market. You can find successful entrepreneurs on both sides of the bootstrap debate: there are definitely advantages—and disadvantages—to both bootstrapping and raising venture capital.

Bootstrapping 55

Bootstrapping Venture Capital Startup Product Development 55

Software By Rob

NOVEMBER 16, 2009

This morning Seth Godin published a post titled Debt, equity and a third thing that might work better. That’s when you find one or more (future) customers that help fund your product development in exchange for input into the process and free or highly discounted use of the software.

Equity 42

Equity Software Review RSS Widget 42

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

MARCH 11, 2014

How many employees would a medium-sized business have in your definition? Some people have different definitions of that. I mean they have these definitions. Meetings are definitely one of those places, but email is another primary way that that comes in. Jason: Okay. I’m just clarifying. Edwin: Yes.

Technical Cofounder 220

Technical Cofounder Cofounder Software Review Management 220

The Equity Kicker

JULY 16, 2015

Items 3-6 are more specialised and can be done by founders if they have the necessary product, development and marketing experience, otherwise they need outside help. The development requirement might be full time, or approaching full time, but the product, design and marketing requirements are part time.

eCommerce 60

eCommerce Burn Rate Early Stage Hiring 60

Duct Tape Marketing

NOVEMBER 13, 2019

But they can definitely inform that accountability and driving this and keeping it top of mind. Jennifer Brown: And I can say I have daughters, of course I get gender equity, but that’s not enough actually. And, and it’s very difficult these days to come back from an embarrassing release.

Hiring 39

Hiring Community Audience Bandwidth 39

The Equity Kicker

AUGUST 20, 2014

THANK YOU SO MUCH MATT, I WILL DEFINITELY BE USING YOU AGAIN AND WILL RECOMMEND TO MY FRIENDS. Whereas as hires come on board and the product develops our involvement has scaled down to more of a mentoring role and for tactical projects. When Dan joined as co-founder the dynamic definitely changed for the better.

Cofounder 95

Cofounder Founder Technical Cofounder Technical Review 95

www.readwriteweb.com

OCTOBER 18, 2010

By definition, the capital investment needs to be relatively low such that the investors and the entrepreneurs all make a healthy return on investment. He is willing to give up 33% of equity for this $1 million investment. I feel that it is not at all necessary to give this much equity up at this stage of the game.

Marketing 52

Marketing Bootstrapping Incubator Angel Investor 52

www.readwriteweb.com

OCTOBER 18, 2010

By definition, the capital investment needs to be relatively low such that the investors and the entrepreneurs all make a healthy return on investment. He is willing to give up 33% of equity for this $1 million investment. I feel that it is not at all necessary to give this much equity up at this stage of the game.

Marketing 52

Marketing Bootstrapping Incubator Angel Investor 52

BeyondVC

JANUARY 2, 2006

All too often we are enamored with how cool or sexy a technology is, invest lots of dollars to create that killer product, and sometimes forget that it is all about the people. From a philosophical point of view, I view compensation as the combination of salary, bonus (if any), and equity.

Management 60

Management Equity Forecast Salary 60

The Next Web

OCTOBER 3, 2012

I have heard many founders — even in the first few months of product development — expect to raise seed rounds, pay themselves salaries, etc. Here’s the problem: this opportunity doesn’t exist for early-stage startups, because, by definition, they have no users or customers.

Cofounder 155

Cofounder Technical Cofounder Technical Review Software Review 155

ConversionXL

FEBRUARY 9, 2016

Startups don’t have access to the same resources or brand equity. September 2013 – Ryan Holiday publishes Growth Hacker Marketing and urges people to build growth into the product itself so that it’s a self-sustaining, scalable growth machine. Growth hacking is done best when it begins at the start of product development.

Retention 48

Retention Metrics Acquisition Conversion 48

bhargreaves.com

MARCH 7, 2010

In brief, startups succeed because there is strong alignment of interests among all parties, especially with the people who are actually building the product. Development shops who work for $100+/hour and take no equity are poor partners in a startup. 5 Points: You have a development shop that will work for equity.

Hiring 40

Hiring Technical Review Agile Software Review 40

Up and Running

MAY 23, 2016

Another great way to test your idea is to create a minimum viable product, or MVP. This is the simplest version of your product minus the frills and frosting. It’s a particularly popular strategy in the world of product development and is used to quickly and quantitatively test a product or a product feature.

Software Review 74

Software Review Software Delaware Forecast 74

maplebutter.com

JANUARY 8, 2013

what are the most crucial steps to be taken by a new tech startup when outsourcing major part of the tech to IT firms or outsourcing “product development” eg new social media website project? Near shoring development with your team (ex: your team is based in Canada / India) is cool, but not outsourcing.

Technical Review 44

Technical Review Startup Cofounder Software Review 44

www.quora.com

JANUARY 16, 2011

Someone who is egotistical enough to call themselves a rockstar, yet humble enough not to want 99% of the equity? " No "rockstar" developer will even entertain your idea unless you can at least show them some proof that your idea has merit. If they don't ask for any proof, the are certainly not a rockstar developer.

Developer 42

Developer Technical Review Cofounder Technical Cofounder 42

techcrunch.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

These are the geniuses clogging up Craigslist’s “Computer Gigs&# with ads saying stuff like “Need iPhone Developer: Compensation: 30% of profits (when we get them)&# or “Ruby on Rails ROCKSTAR needed: $20/hr&# [link] Nils Noack Definitely a good read! Definitely looking forward to your next post.

Technical Review 84

Technical Review Cofounder Technical Cofounder Software Review 84

Occam's Razor

APRIL 23, 2012

As you saw above, the definition of Economic Value includes Revenue. You can build a better connection (social equity? :)) and you can deliver value (by sharing valuable tips, answering questions, linking to good deeds by your competitors, creating special unique content, etc., And as in the first case above, by delivering delight.

Metrics 152

Metrics Analytics Search Channel 152

steveblank.com

JULY 8, 2011

AgileZen – project management visually see and interact with your work Kanbanery – Simple online team or personal kanban board LeanKit Kanban – Great for visualizing work of product development Kanban Pad – “Nice and lean” and free online Kanban tool Banana Scrum – A tool simple as Scrum itself.

Software Review 110

Software Review Startup Silicon Valley Analytics 110

www.vccafe.com

MARCH 11, 2013

Great for visualizing work of product development. YCombinator Series AA Equity Financing Documents. Founder Equity Issues. Venture Hacks equity section. Legal, Equity, etc. Argonaut Private Equity. project management visually see and interact with your work. Kanbanery â?? LeanKit Kanban â??

Software Review 53

Software Review Technical Review Startup 53