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. Marketing and sales chasm. Product development chasm.

Marketing 238

Marketing Entrepreneur Technical Review Dilution 238

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. Make sure the government waits for a stock sale to collect taxes. This is called stock dilution control. At that time the original split makes all the difference.

Stock 240

Stock .Net Vesting Founder Vesting 240

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. Marketing and sales chasm. Product development chasm.

Technical Review 255

Technical Review Dilution Early Stage Product Development 255

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 16, 2021

These are usually characterized as owner-operated, with five employees or less, and less than $250,000 in sales. 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.

Entrepreneur 304

Entrepreneur United States Dilution .Net 304

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. I always tell people that fund raising is a sales process.

Software Review 381

Software Review Churn Rate Due Diligence New York 381

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. Make sure the government waits for a stock sale to collect taxes. This is called stock dilution control. At that time the original split makes all the difference.

Vesting 298

Vesting Dilution Stock Founder Vesting 298

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 19, 2013

The era of VCs investing in successful consumer Internet startups such as eBay led to a belief system that seemed to permeate many enterprise software startups that hiring sales or implementation people was a bad thing. But the “no sales people” mantra isn’t what I’m here to take on. I believe it’s flawed.

Technical Review 403

Technical Review Software Review Startup API 403

YoungUpstarts

SEPTEMBER 23, 2017

While starting out as an entrepreneur, you won’t have enough cash or experience to start and run a start up on your own, so you may believe it’d be best to include others with more experience to guide you in the direction you’re heading. If truth be told, it’s easier to raise funds when you don’t really need it, like just after a big sale.

Cofounder 124

Cofounder Sweat Equity Equity Dilution 124

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 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. Obsessive sales – must meet revenue goals.

Dilution 334

Dilution Metrics Acquisition Revenue 334

Gust

NOVEMBER 1, 2011

in the case of one investment round, no subsequent investment and therefore no dilution). The selling price can be estimated by establishing a reasonable expectation for revenues in the year of the sale and, based on those revenues, estimating earnings in the year of the sale from industry-specific statistics. million ÷ 20X.

Venture Capital 161

Venture Capital Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Post-Money Valuation 161

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 17, 2011

I’d say about 80% of the experienced entrepreneurs & VCs I know privately agreed with me. Still, I’ll bet that functionally you divide areas of competence like sales & marketing, product, engineering, biz dev, etc. Dilute your cash, equity or both. Naturally some didn’t. But they aren’t the COO.

Operations 292

Operations CTO Hire Startup Early Stage 292

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

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 10, 2012

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. Marketing and sales chasm. Product development chasm.

Startup 254

Startup Technical Review Dilution Early Stage 254

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 31, 2018

This experience includes browsing your website, social media interactions, the sales process, as well as your support and follow-up. Totally new and risky products will dilute your focus, and may confuse existing customers. These days, customers remember the total experience with a company longer than they remember the price they paid.

Angel Investor 167

Angel Investor Dilution Software Review Distribution 167

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 3, 2010

There is a telltale sign of an inexperienced startup entrepreneur. How much dilution should I take for it?&# My friend’s company was pre-revenue. Me: “Zero dilution. I’m doing due diligence on a company of another entrepreneur in LA whose company was apparently doing very well. I understand this.

Merger 276

Merger Technical Review Early Stage Dilution 276

YoungUpstarts

JANUARY 19, 2015

And that means you will end up losing money on a potential sale or ongoing business relationship! If you’re a busy entrepreneur, the last thing you want to do is spend the little spare time you have building your website! Don’t dilute your content. Many website owners make the mistake of diluting their content.

Dilution 100

Dilution Web Web Development Flash 100

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

MARCH 1, 2010

What would a sales call look like, starting with your 30-second pitch, then dealing with skeptical questions, trying to earn this potential customer's interest, respect, and eventually money, all with only one advantage? You should go through this exercise because this skill is valuable in every sales call. Don't dilute your message.

Open Source 239

Open Source Dilution Software Developers Software Development 239

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 8, 2022

Most entrepreneurs struggle with many startup founders quandaries in building their business, and these key dilemmas are probably the biggest source of pain and failure for the entrepreneur lifestyle. The downside is loss of control and financial dilution. The dilemma is that these goals are usually mutually exclusive.

Founder 325

Founder Hockey Stick Cofounder Liquidity Event 325

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 8, 2010

Expertise can be marketing, technical, financial, or sales. 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. Tags: splitting equity entrepreneur startup co-founders business.

Equity 228

Equity Intellectual Property Cofounder CTO Hire 228

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 9, 2016

Technical entrepreneurs love to compare the number of features in their product to competitors, and they love to keep adding features -- just because they can. Avoid adding features for a single customer to close a sale. Unfortunately, this approach often turns off mainstream customers, who find the result hard to use.

Product 120

Product Coder Dilution Agile 120

The Next Web

OCTOBER 10, 2013

You are the founder, the visionary, the uber-entrepreneur. Too dilutive.”. Since we bootstrapped Backblaze, early on we would have months when the company did not have enough cash from sales to buy the additional servers it needed. Dilution – bringing on a co-founder likely means you’re splitting your share in half.

Cofounder 143

Cofounder Technical Cofounder Kenya Dilution 143

YoungUpstarts

SEPTEMBER 16, 2015

I love it when entrepreneurs start a pitch with a “Big Vision” and end it with their how their idea will achieve “World Domination.” However, equally important is the ability for entrepreneurs to break down that path to world domination into realistic milestones that line up with funding rounds. Think baby steps.

Valuation 100

Valuation Dilution Chicago Technical Review 100

Business Plan Blog

JANUARY 9, 2014

Steve recently spoke to a group of entrepreneurs about the top 10 reasons why startups fail. Fear of Dilution. Understand the difference between dilution and economic dilution, which occurs when the value of the business doesn’t change but the number of shares increases. Top 10 Reasons Why Startups Fail.

San Diego 74

San Diego Dilution Technical Review Forecast 74

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 14, 2014

Most entrepreneurs struggle with many startup Founders dilemmas in building their business, and these key dilemmas are probably the biggest source of pain and failure for the entrepreneur lifestyle. The downside is loss of control and financial dilution. business dilemma entrepreneur founder Noam Wasserman'

Hockey Stick 268

Hockey Stick Cofounder Entrepreneur Liquidity Event 268

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 27, 2010

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. Marketing and sales chasm. Product development chasm. Marty Zwilling.

Startup 227

Startup Technical Review Dilution Early Stage 227

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2014

In a world where the economy only heads in one direction (read: 2009-2014) most investors & entrepreneurs forget to pay attention to gross burn. Gross margin (GM) is the amount of profit you make per sale of your product or service taking into account your total costs of selling that product or service.

Burn Rate 383

Burn Rate Balance Sheet .Net Valuation 383

David Teten

JANUARY 21, 2021

Jonathan Bragdon , CEO, describes Capacity as “a team of founders-turned-funders making non-dilutive, founder-aligned investments of $50-$300k in post-startup, post-revenue businesses planning to 2X revenues in 12-24 months. By ‘structured exit’ we mean that investors can achieve liquidity without necessitating the sale of a company.

Equity 78

Equity Revenue Cofounder Colorado 78

ReadWriteStart

JANUARY 27, 2011

This partnership speaks to a core philosophy of the program where we encourage entrepreneurs to get as much customer validation as possible before raising too much money, use other people's channels if you can get to them, don't burn too much cash, and all that good fiscal conservative stuff. LetsGiftIt.

Dilution 114

Dilution Revenue Finance Entrepreneur 114

The Startup Magazine

JULY 25, 2021

But existing shareholders are not happy with the company’s proposed plan to issue $500 million in new shares as it would only dilute its current float. You should focus on making your startup irresistible to investors without opting for a dilutive capital raise. Understand market share .

Valuation 162

Valuation Artificial Inteligence Dilution Marketing 162

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 4, 2014

– while the other might want a quick sale and pocket some bucks while the tech market is hot. It either needed to get more aggressive in pricing, pivot to a new business or business model or raise more capital (and take the dilution) in order to have more time to figure things out. Those are the easy cases.

Founder 340

Founder Sacramento Cofounder Technical Review 340

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 27, 2017

Every new business or product owner wants to attract the broadest possible audience, so they are prone to adding more features, multiple sales channels, and appealing to every demographic. Thus one of my key messages to entrepreneurs, as a business advisor and angel investor, is “focus.” Pick a business model that you can best support.

Entrepreneur 159

Entrepreneur Channel Angel Investor Dilution 159

David Teten

AUGUST 19, 2019

Benefits: Non-dilutive, flexible credit offerings that fit SMB or enterprise SaaS. The mode purpose for funding is (in order of frequency) Sales, Marketing, Market Expansion, Product Development, and Hiring Employees. Each year, Founders First Capital Partners works with hundreds of entrepreneurs. Capital need of up to $1.5M

Revenue 60

Revenue Technical Review Software Review Equity 60

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 19, 2017

Most entrepreneurs struggle with many startup founders dilemmas in building their business, and these key dilemmas are probably the biggest source of pain and failure for the entrepreneur lifestyle. The downside is loss of control and financial dilution. The dilemma is that these goals are usually mutually exclusive.

Hockey Stick 144

Hockey Stick Cofounder Entrepreneur Liquidity Event 144

Business Plan Blog

OCTOBER 4, 2013

If you have a technical background and you are focused on product development, consider a co-founder with a sales and marketing background that can focus on selling your world class product. Rather, give titles such as VP of Engineering, Product/Technology, Sales, Marketing, Finance, etc. Hire a diversified base of sales reps.

Part-Time VPE 79

Part-Time VPE Fractional VPE Cofounder CTO Hire 79

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 21, 2013

How much could the new generation of entrepreneurs learn from that? While still owning the business he now does $60 million in annual sales built from nothing. Given the brand dilution going on with the name Sriracha how can he still grow his business? But his goal wasn’t to make a billion dollars. That crazy rooster.

Vietnam 415

Vietnam Los Angeles Entrepreneur Thailand 415

View from Seed

APRIL 30, 2015

From a company milestones perspective, entrepreneurs who take on venture debt are almost always thinking about raising that next round of capital from other institutions. GM: The model is more about the relationship with the entrepreneurs, the investors, and us as the bank, as opposed to cash flow or fixed assets to lend on.

Term Sheet 120

Term Sheet Equity Startup Seed Stage 120