Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 18, 2013

Moore titled “ Crossing the Chasm ,” but most entrepreneurs have no idea how it relates to them. It takes focus to resist adding a long list of features that seem to make the opportunity larger, but dilute to focus of both you and potential customers. chasm early adopters entrepreneur Geoffrey Moore startup' Marty Zwilling.

Entrepreneur 252

Entrepreneur Marketing Technical Review Dilution 252

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 23, 2017

Moore titled “ Crossing the Chasm ,” but most entrepreneurs have no idea how it relates to them. It takes focus to resist adding a long list of features that seem to make the opportunity larger, but dilute to focus of both you and potential customers. Everyone in the business world has heard of the old bestseller by Geoffrey A.

Customer 191

Customer Entrepreneur Technical Review Dilution 191

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 27, 2023

Most aspiring entrepreneurs look to their alma mater, or any university, as a source of classes that can help them, but neglect to think outside the box or take advantage of all the other resources to be found there. Access to entrepreneurs-in-residence, business mentors. Access to intellectual property and current research.

Arizona 276

Arizona Intellectual Property Accredited Investor Entrepreneur 276

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 11, 2011

I often hear the qualms of business-smart but non-technical entrepreneurs, wondering if they really have a chance in this high-technology marketplace. If you are an entrepreneur, like Andrew Mason , CEO of Groupon, with a degree in music and no technical business partner to be found, your job is a bit harder. Marty Zwilling.

Technical Review 236

Technical Review Partner Entrepreneur Architecture 236

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 10, 2018

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. Of course, all co-founders need to remember that allocated percentages will be diluted as angel and VC investors are brought in. The CFO may have a major financial background, but might be a minority owner.

Equity 238

Equity Cofounder Technical Cofounder Intellectual Property 238

ReadWriteStart

JUNE 1, 2020

I have often been asked about Startup Funding by entrepreneurs. Here is Startup Funding, a Comprehensive Guide for Entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs are passionate as they want to change the world or solve a problem, but don’t expect the investors to be as passionate as you are about your business. Pre-Requisites of Funding.

Startup 150

Startup Entrepreneur Elevator Pitch Seed Stage 150

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 8, 2021

Being called a lifestyle entrepreneur should be a point of pride, not an insult. Of course, even lifestyle entrepreneurs want to be happy, and want their business to be “successful.” Of course, that doesn’t dilute the owner’s equity, but it may well limit you to organic growth, versus international rollouts and acquisition options.

Entrepreneur 371

Entrepreneur Equity Dilution LLC 371

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. For seed stage funding, entrepreneurs should be looking to friends and family, crowd funding, and relevant institutions.

Due Diligence 271

Due Diligence Intellectual Property Entrepreneur Preferred Stock 271

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 21, 2019

Thus it behooves every entrepreneur to start watching these things more carefully from the very start. This business phase is where every entrepreneur starts. A common practice is to hire local employees who know the geographic culture, even though this may well dilute the company culture. Consider MySpace and Webvan.

Dilution 224

Dilution Merger Flash Global 224

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 23, 2012

All partners should never forget that their allocated shares are only the beginning, and will be diluted proportionately when outside funding is later required from angels or venture capitalists. Of course, holding key assets and money always provide leverage to management rights as well as economic rights.

Intellectual Property 252

Intellectual Property Equity Cofounder CTO Hire 252

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 9, 2021

A popular myth these days is that finishing college only dilutes your entrepreneurial instincts, and the best of the best, including Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg, dropped out early to hasten their success. Some people even believe that entrepreneurs must be born with the right genes, and no element of education is relevant.

Entrepreneur 373

Entrepreneur Chad Incubator Dilution 373

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 5, 2015

Most of the technologists I know inherently believe that the terms inventor and entrepreneur mean the same thing, so they are frustrated and surprised when they build their products and no business evolves. The term entrepreneur has always been defined as a person who builds a new business, which may or may not involve inventing a product.

Entrepreneur 120

Entrepreneur Dilution Partner Distribution 120

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 13, 2011

Moore titled “ Crossing the Chasm ” (1991), but most entrepreneurs have no idea how it relates to them. It takes focus to resist adding a long list of features that seem to make the opportunity larger, but dilute to focus of both you and potential customers. Everyone in the business world has heard of the book by Geoffrey A.

Marketing 238

Marketing Entrepreneur Technical Review Dilution 238

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 4, 2014

Because these considerations can be quite complex, very emotional and have long-term implications, smart entrepreneurs don’t hesitate to get some legal advice at this early stage, in drawing up an agreement document to be signed by each of the co-founders. Keep your wits about you to make sure that dilution is done equitably and evenly.

Cofounder 261

Cofounder Stock Founder Technical Cofounder 261

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 16, 2021

Dal LaMagna, in his humorous classic “ Raising Eyebrows: A Failed Entrepreneur Finally Gets It Right ,” leads with the foundational principle of micro-businesses, which is to start small. If you can do one thing well, don't dilute your efforts until you have been turning a large profit over a consistent stretch of time.

Entrepreneur 304

Entrepreneur United States Dilution .Net 304

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 27, 2023

When an entrepreneur first incorporates a business, they may find themselves the proud owner of 10 million shares of common stock, commonly called founder’s shares. every entrepreneur should incorporate early and file an 83(b) election with the IRS within 30 days of founding the company. This is called stock dilution control.

Stock 240

Stock .Net Vesting Founder Vesting 240

Hearpreneur

JANUARY 30, 2022

So, that’s why we are excited about 2022 because there will be more and more entrepreneurs and businesses. Here are the pivots other entrepreneurs see businesses making this year: #1- More options for solo travelers. The post 30 Entrepreneurs Reveal the Pivots They See Businesses Making in 2022 appeared first on Hearpreneur.

Entrepreneur 122

Entrepreneur Green Technical Review Social Media 122

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 13, 2020

Too many entrepreneurs tell me they are looking for an investor, and can’t differentiate between venture capital (VC) investors versus accredited angel investors. Angels are more likely to fund new entrepreneurs, and early-stage or seed rounds, while VCs tend to focus on entrepreneurs with a successful track record, and later stage rounds.

Angel Investor 314

Angel Investor Entrepreneur IRR Valuation 314

David Teten

DECEMBER 2, 2019

I’m now researching non-dilutive funding for Action Tank , a startup I’m gestating to “Make America Functional Again”. I worked with outsourced research firm Wonder * to identify all of the institutions we could who support tech impact startups with cash and community, and in many cases without dilution. Aspen Tech Policy Hub.

Technical Review 60

Technical Review SBIR Dilution Silicon Valley 60

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 18, 2009

This is part of my new series on what makes an entrepreneur successful. I originally posted it on VentureHacks , one of my favorite websites for entrepreneurs. Resilience is one of the tell tale signs of an entrepreneur. And for all of this we had no dilution and paid no money. It’s a gritty existence.

Germany 298

Germany Entrepreneur Merger Los Angeles 298

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 9, 2018

This is a very common scenario when entrepreneurs pitch VCs and frankly is a very common scenario when VCs try to raise money from LPs. At night I had a group dinner where I met 6 new entrepreneurs and hung out with some old friends from law firms, banks and other VC funds. What do I do now? Some were interesting, some weren’t.

Software Review 381

Software Review Churn Rate Due Diligence New York 381

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 27, 2019

Moore titled “ Crossing the Chasm ,” but most entrepreneurs have no idea how it relates to them. It takes focus to resist adding a long list of features that seem to make the opportunity larger, but dilute to focus of both you and potential customers. Product development chasm. Another common chasm is never-ending product development.

Technical Review 255

Technical Review Dilution Early Stage Product Development 255

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 15, 2021

When an entrepreneur first incorporates a business, they may find themselves the proud owner of 10 million shares of common stock, commonly called founder’s shares. every entrepreneur should incorporate early and file an 83(b) election with the IRS within 30 days of founding the company. This is called stock dilution control.

Vesting 298

Vesting Dilution Stock Founder Vesting 298

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 28, 2018

One entrepreneur refrain I sometimes hear is “We want to raise some extra money for M&A activities.” Of course there are times where 15% dilution is more appropriate and other times it can be 33% but in a first meeting we’re just trying to establish general ranges for reasonableness. This is a red flag for VCs.

Burn Rate 247

Burn Rate Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Dilution 247

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 24, 2016

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. Of course, all co-founders need to remember that allocated percentages will be diluted as Angel and VC investors are brought in. The CFO may have a major financial background, but might be a minority owner.

Equity 120

Equity Cofounder Technical Cofounder Intellectual Property 120

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 16, 2017

Entrepreneurs who require funding for their startup have long counted on self-accredited high net worth individuals (“angels”) to fill their needs, after friends and family, and before they qualify for institutional investments (“VCs”). Here again, the entrepreneur will be the one hurt most, by having fewer funding sources to access.

Angel Investor 190

Angel Investor Accredited Investor IRR Angel Groups 190

Gust

APRIL 11, 2014

Let’s get right down to business: Dilution of founders’ and other early shareholders’ equity in startups is frequently a subject of intense interest and debate. That’s the concept of what some call mathematical dilution. That is not economic dilution, but rather its opposite ( accretion ).

Dilution 162

Dilution Equity Pre-Money Valuation Prospectus 162

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 2, 2017

Thus it behooves every entrepreneur to start watching these things more carefully from the very start. This business phase is where every entrepreneur starts. A common practice is to hire local employees who know the geographic culture, even though this may well dilute the company culture. Consider MySpace and Webvan.

Dilution 134

Dilution Merger Flash Global 134

The Next Web

OCTOBER 7, 2013

Every time a startup raises capital, all common shareholders are diluted. All of the estimates displayed above are figures prior to any dilution. As stated earlier, investors will dilute ownership upon nearly every round of financing. So, if o = initial ownership and y = total dilution, x = o * (1 – y). N: exit size.

Engineer 129

Engineer Dilution Option Pool Vesting 129

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 14, 2013

Thus it behooves every entrepreneur to start watching these things more carefully from the very start. This business phase is where every entrepreneur starts. A common practice is to hire local employees who know the geographic culture, even though this may well dilute the company culture. Consider MySpace and Webvan.

Dilution 187

Dilution Merger Flash Global 187

The Startup Magazine

MARCH 14, 2022

India has always been renowned as the land of entrepreneurs. The equity dilution at this nascent stage is on desirable terms; such investing can lead to profitable returns. After England, it was India which was described by many as the “nation of shopkeepers”. And this has been the way of life here in India. 2) Seed funding.

Technical Review 145

Technical Review Due Diligence India Startup 145

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 9, 2014

Entrepreneurs who require funding for their startup have long counted on self-accredited high net worth individuals (“angels”) to fill their needs, after friends and family, and before they qualify for institutional investments (“VCs”). Here again, the entrepreneur will be the one hurt most, by having fewer funding sources to access.

Angel Investor 278

Angel Investor Angel Groups Accredited Investor IRR 278

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 5, 2012

My initial reaction to Adeo when we spoke was that while it may have solved some issues (debt versus equity) it didn’t solve the ones that I’ve been warning entrepreneurs about most loudly. A standard entrepreneur retort I heard back then (2008-09) was “I don’t know what my company is worth now.

Ratchet 354

Ratchet Liquidation Preference Equity Stock 354

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 8, 2016

We entrepreneurs have been spinning that line for decades in every boom cycle. Optimize for a W more than % dilution in these circumstances. Founders hate them because they’re dilutive. This prudence is smart and welcomed. It’s simply not true. Pragmatic cost cuts are always possible and often productive.

Burn Rate 150

Burn Rate Cap Table Balance Sheet Dilution 150

YoungUpstarts

APRIL 19, 2012

When not approached carefully, growth can destroy value as it outstrips a company’s managerial capacity, processes, quality, and financial controls, or substantially dilutes customer value propositions. Growth requires the entrepreneur to install more processes, procedures, controls, and measurement systems. Growth overwhelmed them.

Dilution 209

Dilution Virginia Management Washington 209

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 13, 2021

As a long-time business consultant and investor, especially to entrepreneurs, I recognize your sparkle of vision , to build the ultimate world-changing product. I found these maladies summarized well in a new book, “ Radical Product Thinking ,” by entrepreneur Radhika Dutt. While the idea was great, they failed on execution.

Dilution 334

Dilution Metrics Acquisition Revenue 334

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 22, 2010

And for some strange reason entrepreneurs didn’t share this information. I’ve started from day one trying to build total transparency into my process with entrepreneurs. This starts with understanding how VCs and entrepreneurs often see valuation differently. Back then VentureHacks didn’t exist.

Valuation 405

Valuation Liquidation Preference Pre-Money Valuation Term Sheet 405