The Next Web

OCTOBER 7, 2013

They were referring to non-founder engineers, most commonly the first hire for technology businesses. Every time a startup raises capital, all common shareholders are diluted. All of the estimates displayed above are figures prior to any dilution. So, if o = initial ownership and y = total dilution, x = o * (1 – y).

Engineer 129

Engineer Dilution Option Pool Vesting 129

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 17, 2011

One great solution I see is to hire an outstanding CFO who runs both. Still, I’ll bet that functionally you divide areas of competence like sales & marketing, product, engineering, biz dev, etc. I usually encourage people to think about titles like, “Founder & CTO&# or “Founder & VP Marketing.&#.

Operations 292

Operations CTO Hire Startup Early Stage 292

YoungUpstarts

JANUARY 19, 2015

Web design is a major part of any website or online marketing strategy; as is the content and structure of your site. And that means you will end up losing money on a potential sale or ongoing business relationship! There are scores of web designers and marketing agencies out there. Don’t dilute your content.

Dilution 100

Dilution Web Web Development Flash 100

Up and Running

JULY 1, 2020

You may grow to tap new markets or increase sales in your current markets. While it’s called a business plan, it can be written and utilized to successfully enter a new market, launch a product, or weigh the potential of adding an employee. A business plan for a new employee in a new market.

Business Plan 152

Business Plan Forecast Operations Dilution 152

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

FEBRUARY 26, 2019

They don’t know how to analyze a market or competition, so they make it up instead learning how to do it. The implication is that this was unknowable or bad luck, but the truth is, this was a predictable result of not understanding the market. Sometimes that’s airtight product/market it. Selling to the mid-market is hard.

Restful 202

Restful Founder Revenue Acquisition 202

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 3, 2010

How much dilution should I take for it?&# My friend’s company was pre-revenue. Me: “Zero dilution. It meant that the management teams hadn’t figured out a product / market fit for their own businesses. Want to cut prices and go for market share? They often involve big hugs on stage. Want to sell early?

Merger 276

Merger Technical Review Early Stage Dilution 276

Hearpreneur

JANUARY 30, 2022

Face-to-face engagement is important, especially at vital points in the sales cycle or while creating relationships. Social media is obviously one of the most powerful marketing tools we have at our disposal and it is becoming a non-optional part of a strong marketing strategy. 15- Study supply chains and hiring trends.

Entrepreneur 124

Entrepreneur Green Technical Review Social Media 124

Business Plan Blog

OCTOBER 4, 2013

Furthermore, when faced with adversity only great teams can respond to competitors, markets, funding environments, staff departures, PR disasters and the like. Don’t hire people with skills and qualifications similar to yours. Hire based on functionality and avoid having too many C’s. Early Stage.

Part-Time VPE 79

Part-Time VPE Fractional VPE Cofounder CTO Hire 79

YoungUpstarts

MAY 6, 2019

Market Research. In this stage, you will also search the market to check if your idea is viable. If there is a gap in the market, there will be demand. Now the question is: How to find gaps in the market? MVP is the product that you can bring to the market. Next is marketing. There is a simple rule of thumb.

Startup 113

Startup Technical Cofounder Merger Early Stage 113

The Next Web

OCTOBER 10, 2013

Hire everyone you need as an employee. 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. At that time, Mac computers made up a mere 6 percent of the market and I argued we needed to focus on other areas.

Cofounder 143

Cofounder Technical Cofounder Kenya Dilution 143

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 22, 2010

Due to competitive markets we ended up with a pretty good term sheet until we needed to raise money in April 2001 and then we got completely screwed. You’ll need to hire and retain talen to grow your company. This states how the proceeds from a sale or dissolution of the company will be distributed. That’s normal.

Valuation 405

Valuation Liquidation Preference Pre-Money Valuation Term Sheet 405

The Next Web

AUGUST 19, 2013

Sales are the bloodstream for most businesses, and tech startups are no exception. It’s always better to be earn money, not just raise it, as money you earn doesn’t dilute your ownership and reassures your investors. This post is about choosing the right sales strategy and channels for your startup from the start.

Belarus 137

Belarus Viral Channel Startup 137

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 1, 2009

I know that people find safety in numbers (and there always seems to be 3 amigos) but imagine this for a moment – you go and raise venture capital and you’re fighting over whether to dilute with a VC by 25% or 30% as a company. Do you understand how to lead a sales process? Resist the temptation to hire clones of you.

Hiring 289

Hiring Cofounder Dilution Startup 289

The Startup Magazine

SEPTEMBER 11, 2023

Rather than dedicating time and resources to an extensive hiring process or training, tapping into this pool of external specialists accelerates progress. By delegating specific tasks—like outsourced sales for startups—to third-party experts, internal teams can focus on core competencies. This goes beyond mere financial metrics.

Cost 138

Cost Startup Non-Compete Dilution 138

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 17, 2017

The most obvious way to explain this is with sales people. If you hire 6 senior sales reps in January at $120,000 / year salary then you’ve taken on an extra $60,000 per month in costs yet these sales people might not close new business 6 months. COGS” represents the amount that each sale costs you.

Stock Options 227

Stock Options Startup Dilution Venture Capital 227

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. At least 12 months of customer history, generally 20+ enterprise customers or 200+ SMB customers.

Revenue 60

Revenue Technical Review Software Review Equity 60

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

Duct Tape Marketing

APRIL 7, 2022

Optimizing Your Agency For Profitability written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing. Marketing Podcast with Marcel Petitpas. In this episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast , I interview Marcel Petitpas. More About The Duct Tape Marketing Consultant Network: Learn more here.

Cofounder 77

Cofounder Hosting Networking Software Review 77

View from Seed

APRIL 30, 2015

In many instances, you raise an institutional round to either fulfill a product strategy or go-to-market strategy or you’re increasing sales and marketing hires, so you have better visibility into what needs to happen in the next six, 12, 18 months. We also consider the market opportunity.

Term Sheet 120

Term Sheet Equity Startup Seed Stage 120

YoungUpstarts

OCTOBER 16, 2016

But entrepreneurs face other concerns that compete with this growth focus, including hiring, maintaining current revenue sources and distinguishing themselves from the competition. As your business thrives, the providers who support you with banking, marketing and other services should change as your demands change.

Cofounder 100

Cofounder Balance Sheet Small Business Administration Technical Review 100

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 5, 2011

2 preamble issues having read the comments on TC today: 1: I know that the prices of startup companies is much great in Silicon Valley than in smaller towns / less tech focused areas in the US and the US prices higher than many foreign markets. I can’t control the market. Private markets for stocks are the opposite.

Pre-Money Valuation 336

Pre-Money Valuation Valuation Silicon Valley Stock 336

The Startup Magazine

JULY 1, 2022

The three main components of a company are production or service, marketing and sales, and finance. Marketing and sales are how you reach and sell to your target market. How To Create A Business Model And Identify Your Target Market. A business is an organization that produces goods or services for profit.

Technology 135

Technology Venture Capital Finance Startup 135

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 10, 2021

With the enormous changes to our economies and financial markets?—?how how on Earth could the venture capital market stand still? One of the most common questions I’m asked by people intrigued by but also scared by venture capital and technology markets is some variant of, “Aren’t technology markets way overvalued?

Pre-Money Valuation 471

Pre-Money Valuation Valuation Venture Capital Early Stage 471

www.avc.com

SEPTEMBER 22, 2011

The most common comment in this long and complicated MBA Mondays series on Employee Equity is the question of how much equity should you grant when you make a hire. For your first key hires, three, five, maybe as much as ten, you will probably not be able to use any kind of formula. Or it can be a public market comp analysis.

Equity 64

Equity Employee CTO Hire Fractional CTO 64

Austin Startup

MARCH 26, 2019

Do you plan to regularly refresh your marketing collateral? You’ll usually get assigned a contact in the ad sales organization at Facebook or Google once you start spending big bucks. When is the right time to diversify your paid marketing mix? When is the right time to diversify your sales channel mix?

Technical Review 49

Technical Review Software Review China Acquisition 49

YoungUpstarts

MAY 31, 2016

Hire smart, ambitious, get-it-done employees and lead them with emotionally intelligent innovation leadership skills. The single biggest reason that the average company struggles or even fails is due to their lack of focus and dilution of their greatest resource, which are people. Is a marketing plan important?

Technical Review 100

Technical Review Leadership Early Stage Initial Public Offering 100

JANUARY 9, 2014

By trying to appeal to everyone and adding features left, right and centre, you will actually dilute your message and could end up with a complex, bloated product. I see design as a direct route to free marketing through the positive word of mouth it helps to generate. Ben Chestnut’s reverse marketing funnel 9.

Early Stage 102

Early Stage Startup Cofounder Design 102

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 17, 2011

A year ago I blogged about one of my most common mantras that applies to sales, biz dev & fund raising alike: “ Time is the Enemy of all Deals.&#. For many businesses you should keep your costs low & your capital raises low until you discover whether you are really on to a big idea where there is market demand.

Pre-Money Valuation 303

Pre-Money Valuation Dilution Valuation PR 303

The Startup Magazine

JULY 15, 2023

Most firms hire staff prepared to deal with the challenges of two years ago, but fewer have individuals who can respond to those occurring in real-time, let alone ones coming down the pike. Make it so that they don’t need to combine services – something that could dilute your brand and offering. Security needs are constantly evolving.

Security 135

Security Artificial Inteligence Differentiation Dilution 135

ReadWriteStart

OCTOBER 28, 2010

Or, you could try to come up with some formula that uses a bunch of different factors such as experience, market value, contribution to date, and expected contributions in the future. Common areas to address are decisions around capitalization, executive hiring and firing, share issuance (dilution), and acquisitions.

Cofounder 128

Cofounder Founder Equity Dilution 128

betashop.com

OCTOBER 8, 2012

million registered users, 7500 supplier partners, 600 team members, and a run-rate of more than $150M in sales in just 15 months. A huge untapped market opportunity.?. The most important hiring criteria for your executives is cultural fit. As CEO, you are responsible for every hire. So, here goes. Only do your One Thing.

Technical Review 108

Technical Review Technology Software Review Valuation 108

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. With limited resources, you can sell via ecommerce, but it’s much tougher to support retail as well, or hire a direct sales team.

Entrepreneur 159

Entrepreneur Channel Angel Investor Dilution 159

www.inc.com

SEPTEMBER 24, 2011

Sales & Marketing | Wednesdays. SALES & MARKETING. Online Marketing. Bringing Innovation to Market. Back in 1997, Randy Parker was staring at a blank whiteboard, wondering where hed find the money to hire the employees and consultants he needed to build his new product. "We Finance | Tuesdays.

Fractional CTO 40

Fractional CTO Equity Iowa Technical Cofounder 40

Austin Startup

NOVEMBER 12, 2017

If you have a sales model that involves relationship selling to high-level decision makers, you can be sure they would prefer a detailed proposal from you with a request to “sign here.” There’s no baby step analogy to the pilots discussed above for a sales situation. Decide to think big and ask big. You’ve taken the baby steps.

Term Sheet 48

Term Sheet Technical Review Due Diligence Merger 48

ReadWriteStart

OCTOBER 7, 2020

A startup may have an excellent product or service that will bring infinite value to a market in need. Still, we live in an era of noise, and any nascent business leader will need a clear marketing strategy to cut through the static and grow their business. Invest in Content Marketing. Let’s look at the stats.

B2C 78

B2C B2B Architecture Dilution 78

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 25, 2011

Early in a services business there is usually no profits as the company reinvests in hiring people to grow, but by $20 million in sales the company should at least be pulling in 10% profits (if not more) depending on how much is reinvested. But it might not. Why Build a Services Business in the First Place? It’s pure irony.

Silicon Valley 332

Silicon Valley IP Dividend Finance 332

Rob Go

JUNE 10, 2013

A great team and a great market are both critically important—you have to have both. Write code, talk to users, and build the company (hire the best people you can find, get the culture right, fundraise, close sales, etc.) Hire slow; fire fast. Hire smart and effective people that are committed to what you’re doing.

Startup 49

Startup Technical Cofounder Hiring Cofounder 49