Gust

AUGUST 16, 2023

Think of insurance as an investment in your business designed to cover the financial cost of unforeseen liabilities and business losses. In the fast-paced world of startups with ever-growing risk, having insurance in place can mean the difference.

Startup 70

Startup Design Cost Customer 70

Gust

DECEMBER 22, 2011

At a startup, the concept of IP should be viewed expansively: The business is new, the team is small, branding/UI/UX is in flux, and as a matter of practicality, anyone can have input on nearly anything, from business and marketing plans to product design decisions.As

Intellectual Property 149

Intellectual Property Technical Review Software Review IP 149

Gust

AUGUST 23, 2012

As the company grows and brings on more people, even in cases where everyone wants to keep the organization ‘flat’, it simply becomes too unwieldy for the CEO to have more than six or so direct reports, or for the CTO to both code everything personally AND design/plan the product line AND be involved at the larger, strategic level.

CTO Hire 118

CTO Hire Cofounder Startup Founder 118

Gust

JANUARY 31, 2013

When it goes public, a company must adopt a raft of policies and measures designed to comply with insider trading rules and tightly control disclosure of financial and other material non-public information that, if disclosed, could significantly alter the total mix of information available to those making investment decisions.

SEC 158

SEC Prospectus United States Technical Review 158

Gust

NOVEMBER 30, 2014

Think differently about design. From the designs of the iPod to the iPhone, from the packaging of the Apple’s products to the functionality of the Apple Web site, innovation means eliminating the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak. They were people with dreams, hopes, and ambitions. Say no to 1,000 things.

Design 194

Design Entrepreneur Web Technology 194

Gust

DECEMBER 6, 2012

When a web designer is the advisor I wonder what that means down the road as the startup grows. Free web design forever? Why is the web designer not a regular team member. So the advisee companies get the last quarter hour of the last day. And having a vendor own shares means fewer shares for the investors and management team.

Startup 165

Startup Equity Capitalization Table Naming 165

Gust

SEPTEMBER 12, 2011

By defensibility I mean expertise, design, differentiation, technology, trade secrets, and so on. I’m not likely to invest in something I know little about when it’s also far away. Defensibility. Whoops, the sixth item in a list of five? Yes, I couldn’t resist. Which finishes my honest list of my top five factors.

Technical Review 70

Technical Review Software Review Angel Investor Exit Strategy 70

Gust

MARCH 22, 2014

(Of course, this may not be quite a similar case to yours, as Alan happens to be one of the patriarchs of the venture capital industry, who in 1969 founded the firm that would become Apax Partners (which has raised only $35 billion so far) and was the one of the VCs behind AOL, Apple, Office Depot, and Cadence Design Systems.

Venture Capital 146

Venture Capital Partner Design Founder 146

Gust

FEBRUARY 25, 2014

Designing an outreach plan to potential investors. Ilana Grossman, Gust’s VP of Marketing, will reveal expert fundraising tips alongside a panel of investors and successful entrepreneurs. You’ll learn the nuts and bolts of obtaining startup funding, including: Timing your raise. Qualities investors look for in startups.

Entrepreneur 148

Entrepreneur New York Design Startup 148

Gust

JANUARY 30, 2014

Proven team (tech/product/design/mark eting/sales/domain/etc.). Platform/partnership/bizd ev/API strategy. External validation (ideally traction and/or passionate customers). Viable business structure and cap table. Reasonable valuation. But most important of all , it must have an entrepreneur on whom I’m willing to bet.

Cap Table 119

Cap Table API Valuation Startup 119

Gust

AUGUST 9, 2014

The reason for this is none of the established companies designed their business to obtain a truly loyal customer base. We believe we will obtain a loyal customer base that will allow us to establish a strong position as the preferred customer portal.

Startup 131

Startup Database Open Source Equity 131

Gust

OCTOBER 31, 2011

Many writers have outlined the critical success factors for product companies, like sell every unit at a profit, patent the design, and continuous product improvement. Define and document the service process you sell. You can’t measure, scale, or patent a service process that is not clearly documented.

Angel Investor 143

Angel Investor Venture Capital Partner Networking 143

Gust

NOVEMBER 23, 2014

If you are looking for someone to fill an operational gap, or to do product design, it’s usually more productive to look for a partner, employee, or consultant. Members can provide a mirror so that you can see your company as experts see it, as long as you look in that mirror with eyes wide open.

Advisory Board 185

Advisory Board Startup Stock Options Stock 185

Gust

AUGUST 3, 2014

You have to give the creator some resources, time, and throw in some food once in a while, and a “completed design” will appear in due time. Good inventors love to diagram out all the details, algorithms, and get their reward from finding new ways of getting things done. Creative and artistic. Then they are done. Realistic if not pessimistic.

Entrepreneur 165

Entrepreneur Algorithm Business Plan Design 165

Gust

FEBRUARY 10, 2013

Features you designed for average users, like wizards for configuration, and simple buttons to eliminate complex processes, will get no feedback, or removal recommendations. Early adopters like to see tricky and elegant details, rather than general usability.

Marketing 178

Marketing Engineer Technology Product 178

Gust

JANUARY 12, 2014

Cashflow is the element of momentum that allows you to hand over jobs to other people and do more of your core passion jobs, like creating content or designing new products. Watch yourself for wasted motion during this stage. This creates more value in your business and increasing cashflow – more momentum.

Entrepreneur 171

Entrepreneur Hiring Employee Operations 171

Gust

NOVEMBER 2, 2014

When pitching to consumers, online or offline, the feedback will likely be on features and design. But from my perspective in really helping entrepreneurs, both fall short on several counts: Focus too much on the product, not enough on the business model. Amount of funding provided is usually not enough.

Non-disclosure Agreement 160

Non-disclosure Agreement Intellectual Property Accredited Investor Equity 160

Gust

DECEMBER 20, 2011

In reality, a startup is a temporary organization designed to search for a repeatable and scalable business model. We now know that this ‘build it and they will come” is a prayer rather than a business strategy.

Angel Investor 93

Angel Investor Oregon Business Model Search 93

Gust

JANUARY 26, 2014

I have used this approach with high-tech roles, like software design, as well as business development roles. If you are a problem solver by nature, like Richard Branson, this requires you to change your mindset from giving the “answer,” to helping someone else understand the process, and come to an even better solution.

Partner 161

Partner Leadership Software Design 161

Gust

MAY 28, 2012

Many successful business people hailed as visionary leaders are individuals who hold firmly to a simple set of principles, usually grounded in beliefs such as “elegant designs”, or the “highest possible customer service” The strength of these religiously followed commitments led to their business success.

Entrepreneur 182

Entrepreneur Business Model Startup Design 182

Gust

AUGUST 24, 2014

It can be a very competitive approach, but the product must be designed and built to provide good utility at many levels. This approach works if your product can be sold “bare-bones” for a low price, and price increments added for additional features. This is a very costly development, testing, documentation, and support challenge.

Revenue 184

Revenue Startup Retention Internet 184

Gust

AUGUST 12, 2012

A simple differentiation is that a product plan is designed for internal use, to get the product out. A business plan is a detailed description of your business, with a bit of product description thrown in near the front. Don’t get me wrong. It’s definitely positive to have a product plan.

Product 150

Product Business Plan Differentiation Business Model 150

Gust

SEPTEMBER 27, 2014

Choose one from our large library of thematic and designer backgrounds or, even better, upload your own. And don’t forget the ability to customize your profile’s background. Your private profile is where investors will look with a critical eye on everything that makes you a business rather than just a product or a sexy idea.

Angel Groups 159

Angel Groups Elevator Pitch Software Review Deal Flow 159

Gust

DECEMBER 16, 2012

A conundrum for many frustrated entrepreneurs is that they need money from investors to design and build a prototype product, yet most Angel investors expect to see at least a prototype before they invest. Start early on this one, or you will lose the opportunity. Build a prototype product.

Angel Investor 179

Angel Investor Intellectual Property Elevator Pitch Angel Groups 179

Gust

DECEMBER 23, 2011

But this just illustrates the point that all sorts of businesses built on personal expertise – design skills, niche knowledge, industry relationships, etc. Randall Munroe has managed to slowly create a real enterprise out of a free webcomic. Of course, his defense was pretty simple: no one else was Randall Munroe.

Intellectual Property 127

Intellectual Property Balance Sheet Dilution Bootstrapping 127

Gust

DECEMBER 28, 2011

Design your milestones around the capital sources available. These changes suggest three messages for entrepreneurs: Don’t try to raise $3 million (in the gap between angels and VCs). There are simply very few investors doing gap funding. Raising venture capital may lead to a huge exit. But, it will take much longer than in the past.

IPO 153

IPO Venture Capital Entrepreneur Angel Investor 153

Gust

NOVEMBER 22, 2011

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. 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.

Venture Capital 171

Venture Capital Investment Bankers Angel Investor Initial Public Offering 171

Gust

JANUARY 26, 2014

I have used this approach with high-tech roles, like software design, as well as business development roles. If you are a problem solver by nature, like Richard Branson, this requires you to change your mindset from giving the “answer,” to helping someone else understand the process, and come to an even better solution.

Partner 116

Partner Leadership Software Design 116

Gust

JULY 3, 2012

This visual design accounts for much of the enthusiasm that drives Pinterest’s massive growth, but to some — notably professional photographers — it’s an example of rampant copyright infringement for which the site should be liable.

Intellectual Property 163

Intellectual Property Social Bookmarking IP Term Sheet 163

Gust

JANUARY 12, 2014

Cashflow is the element of momentum that allows you to hand over jobs to other people and do more of your core passion jobs, like creating content or designing new products. Watch yourself for wasted motion during this stage. This creates more value in your business and increasing cashflow – more momentum.

Entrepreneur 70

Entrepreneur Hiring Employee Operations 70

Gust

DECEMBER 29, 2013

Working in isolation and handling all the issues is fine during the creative phase of the startup, where the founder is often the designer and architect, as well as the builder. Personal discipline is the key word here. Now this same individual has to graduate from short-term thinking to long-term thinking. Ignore the mistakes of others.

Startup 183

Startup Intellectual Property LLC Burn Rate 183

Gust

NOVEMBER 18, 2012

Back in the “heyday of the dot.com startups,” it was not uncommon to see a valuation incremented by $1M or every paid full-time professional programmer, engineer, or designer. Assign value to all paid professionals, as their skills, training, and knowledge of your business technology is very valuable. NewCo doesn’t have any of these yet.

Valuation 187

Valuation Pre-Money Valuation NPV Intellectual Property 187

Gust

AUGUST 8, 2012

I’m no UI/UX designer or product manager, but I do work with entrepreneurs daily. As it turns out, the decision to charge for onboard WiFi at all cascades in ways that pile the infuriating on top of the frustrating on top of the absurd. All of the above isn’t mere venting.

Customer 143

Customer Southern California San Jose Marketing 143

Gust

OCTOBER 25, 2012

The question should be “used for what?”

Bankruptcy 121

Bankruptcy Valuation Equity Finance 121

Gust

NOVEMBER 29, 2011

Recently, entrepreneurs in many countries have been soliciting investment through “crowd funding” websites designed specifically for fundraising purposes. In the sum, substantial amounts of money (as much as a million dollars) can be raised for each startup company.

Securities and Exchange Commission 154

Securities and Exchange Commission Accredited Investor Angel Investor Due Diligence 154

Gust

MAY 24, 2012

Management control is further entrenched by other provisions including a “controlled company” designation , exempting the company from the customary stock exchange-imposed corporate governance rules that apply to the vast majority of public companies in the post-Sarbanes-Oxley era.

IPO 159

IPO Equity Common Stock Stock 159

Gust

APRIL 8, 2022

They are visionaries, product designers, bookkeepers, and tech support representatives. Startup founders need to be Jacks or Jills of All Trades. But the single most important role of the founder is to be an effective communicator. And in the context of a startup, that means “storyteller”.

Founder 91

Founder Startup Design Product 91