Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 6, 2013

My rationale is simple: everything goes wrong and only great teams can respond to competitors, markets, funding environments, staff departures, PR disasters and the like. it’s the most expensive dilution you’ll ever face. Your first sales people should be consultative sellers who can fuel evangelical sales.

Cofounder 388

Cofounder Early Stage Startup Silicon Valley 388

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 27, 2023

Even though initial stock has no value or market, it is extremely valuable in dividing entity ownership between multiple co-founders, commensurate with their investment, contribution and role. Make sure the government waits for a stock sale to collect taxes. This is called stock dilution control. In the U.S.,

Stock 240

Stock .Net Vesting Founder Vesting 240

The Startup Magazine

JULY 25, 2021

Virgin Galactic shares are worth over $43, giving the spaceflight firm a market value of $11 billion. 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. Understand market share . Maintain relevance through innovation.

Valuation 162

Valuation Artificial Inteligence Dilution Marketing 162

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 23, 2017

There are other chasms out there just as deadly as the technology one, such as the ones below: Market requirements chasm. 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.

Customer 191

Customer Entrepreneur Technical Review Dilution 191

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. Instant global communication now makes it easy to reach new markets without rethinking your entire product strategy. Problems in any of these areas will stall growth.

Angel Investor 167

Angel Investor Dilution Software Review Distribution 167

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 21, 2013

So when I meet with GRP portfolio companies that do enterprise sales I try to emphasize the following: 1. Often your sales engineers can do the customizations without bugging the core eng team. Integrate PS Work Into Sales & Marketing Processes. Referenceability is the lifeblood of sales.

Software Review 321

Software Review Software IP Technical Review 321

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 13, 2018

I had joined MIPS Computers, my second semiconductor company , as the VP of marketing and also took on the role of the acting VP of Sales. I worked with engineering to try to find product/market fit ( big endian or little endian ?) The company was going to hire a VP of Marketing. And after a year there was good news.

Part-Time VPE 333

Part-Time VPE Employee Cofounder Hiring 333

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 15, 2021

Even though initial stock has no value or market, it is extremely valuable in dividing entity ownership between multiple co-founders, commensurate with their investment, contribution and role. Make sure the government waits for a stock sale to collect taxes. This is called stock dilution control. In the U.S.,

Vesting 298

Vesting Dilution Stock Founder Vesting 298

YoungUpstarts

SEPTEMBER 23, 2017

Also, determine the market demand to make sure what you’re doing is sustainable. Investing more money in stage one won’t really help, as spending twice as much on sales won’t produce twice the sales. Also, marketing things that might send out the wrong message, would simply confuse your customers.

Cofounder 124

Cofounder Sweat Equity Equity Dilution 124

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2014

by Michael Woolf that is worth any startup founder reading to get a sense of perspective on the reality warp that is startup world during a frothy market such as 1997-1999, 2005-2007 or 2012-2014. We’re going to start aggressively spend money on marketing our product. (it is also the title of a fabulous book from Internet 1.0

Burn Rate 383

Burn Rate Balance Sheet .Net Valuation 383

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 17, 2011

.&# 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.&#. Dilute your cash, equity or both. and my favorite].

Operations 292

Operations CTO Hire Startup Early Stage 292

Mike Michalowicz

APRIL 10, 2022

?. The key to successful marketing comes down to this: your call to action. And your sales suffer. . When your marketing is cluttered with information about what your offering is, and all the ways to get it, it’s human nature to just tune it out. Marketing is every step you take to get the customer to the buying decision.

Marketing 148

Marketing Dilution Sales Email 148

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

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 13, 2021

For example, a few years ago, the company Beepi had a vision to build a new market for buying and selling used cars, but became overly focused on fundraising to grow fast, and ignored many customer complaints. It’s easy to say “yes” to one more feature request after another, until the potential for real impact gets diluted.

Dilution 334

Dilution Metrics Acquisition Revenue 334

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 10, 2012

There are other chasms out there just as deadly as the technology one, such as the ones below: Market requirements chasm. 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.

Startup 254

Startup Technical Review Dilution Early Stage 254

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 1, 2022

Plus you have to remember that these 200,000 shares could still be worth nothing in four years, depending on the “strike price” today, compared to the market price four years from now. CEO brought in to replace the founder, 5 - 10% CTO, CFO, VP of Marketing or Sales, 1.5 - 3% Chief Engineer or Architect, 1 - 1.5%

Stock Options 343

Stock Options Advisory Board Stock Startup 343

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? BUT … it’s your company. Want to sell early?

Merger 276

Merger Technical Review Early Stage Dilution 276

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 14, 2017

This is similar to the role that public markets play in helping shape publicly traded companies. Boards are not appointed to be founder-friendly lapdogs for the 1–3 founders who start companies and usually own the largest equity positions in the company.

Cofounder 217

Cofounder Stock Options Equity Technical Review 217

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. The more senior members you have (say you already have a CEO, CTO, VP marketing, VP Biz Dev, VP Products) then the less options you’ll need and vice versa.

Valuation 405

Valuation Liquidation Preference Pre-Money Valuation Term Sheet 405

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

NOVEMBER 14, 2017

What sized team can I afford in order to sell, market & provide service to these customers? But expanding beyond our core customers was going to take more effort than simply launching in new markets. We realized that operating a business in distributed markets presented multi-city coordination efforts that we weren’t prepared for.

Operations 286

Operations New York City Technical Review Startup 286

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. 17- Embrace digital marketing.

Entrepreneur 124

Entrepreneur Green Technical Review Social Media 124

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 27, 2010

There are other chasms out there just as deadly as the technology one, such as the ones below: Market requirements chasm. 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.

Startup 227

Startup Technical Review Dilution Early Stage 227

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 8, 2022

The right time to jump is a function of favorable career, personal, and market circumstances. The downside is loss of control and financial dilution. If you take investor money, expect a push for hockey-stick growth and a liquidity event, like going public (IPO) or sale (M&A), to get the payback.

Founder 325

Founder Hockey Stick Cofounder Liquidity Event 325

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

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

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

The Startup Magazine

SEPTEMBER 11, 2023

By delegating specific tasks—like outsourced sales for startups—to third-party experts, internal teams can focus on core competencies. Startups need to pose crucial questions: Which tasks are absolutely vital to our brand ethos, and which ones can be safely outsourced without diluting our unique value proposition?

Cost 141

Cost Startup Non-Compete Dilution 141

ReadWriteStart

JUNE 1, 2020

The next reason is to establish a competitive advantage over your competition and quickly acquire a substantial market share. Let’s take an example – In the case of an internet or app business, the user traction and market penetration is a must. Establish a competitive advantage. Both of which are expensive and time-consuming.

Startup 150

Startup Entrepreneur Elevator Pitch Seed Stage 150

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

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 138

Technology Venture Capital Finance Startup 138

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

YoungUpstarts

OCTOBER 16, 2016

As your business thrives, the providers who support you with banking, marketing and other services should change as your demands change. You’ll be inundated with sales pitches, lame template emails, unsolicited voicemails and more. But take it from what a good friend and advisor once said to me: “Ego is dilutive to net worth.”.

Cofounder 100

Cofounder Balance Sheet Small Business Administration Technical Review 100

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

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 25, 2019

Plus you have to remember that these 200,000 shares could still be worth nothing in four years, depending on the “strike price” today, compared to the market price four years from now. CEO brought in to replace the founder, 5 - 10% CTO, CFO, VP of Marketing or Sales, 1.5 - 3% Chief Engineer or Architect, 1 - 1.5%

Equity 237

Equity Stock Options Advisory Board Stock 237

The Startup Magazine

FEBRUARY 21, 2023

This can cost you sales and your reputation. Even if the other business does not have a registered trademark, they may still be able to sue you for unfair competition or dilution of their brand. First, if your business name is too similar to another business, customers may get confused and mistake your business for the other one.

Naming 139

Naming Cleveland Social Media Dilution 139