article thumbnail

10 Entrepreneur Milestones That Make Funding Easy

Startup Professionals Musings

It doesn’t prove your business model of pricing, distribution, and support. Investors like to see that you have committed personal funds as well as “sweat equity,” and they like to see real progress at this level. Real customers give you real feedback, rather than just tell you what you want to hear. Show personal investment.

article thumbnail

10 Keys to Startup Traction That Investors Look For

Startup Professionals Musings

It doesn’t prove your business model of pricing, distribution, and support. Investors like to see that you have committed personal funds as well as “sweat equity,” and they like to see real progress at this level. Real customers give you real feedback, rather than just tell you what you want to hear. Show personal investment.

Insiders

Sign Up for our Newsletter

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

article thumbnail

These 10 Steps Will Make Your Startup Fundable

Startup Professionals Musings

It doesn’t prove your business model of pricing, distribution, and support. Investors like to see that you have committed personal funds as well as “sweat equity,” and they like to see real progress at this level. Real customers give you real feedback, rather than just tell you what you want to hear. Show personal investment.

article thumbnail

Ten Tips for Business Traction to Attract Investors

Startup Professionals Musings

It doesn’t prove your business model of pricing, distribution, and support. Investors like to see that you have committed personal funds as well as “sweat equity,” and they like to see real progress at this level. Real customers give you real feedback, rather than just tell you what you want to hear. Show personal investment.

article thumbnail

Mathematical vs. Economic Dilution of Startup Equity: Thinner Slices of an Extra-Large Pizza

Gust

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. The themes of equity ownership and Board control will converge in my next post, where we’ll discuss clashes at the Board and shareholder level.

Dilution 162
article thumbnail

Snowflakes in the Valley: What Happens When 40 Nordic Entrepreneurs Visit Silicon Valley

ReadWriteStart

Unsurprisingly, this seems to weed out the less passionate people, while encouraging others to put in sweat equity in their own ideas. The last thing you want when you launch is to tailor to several languages, cultural differences, distribution channels and small blogs and other media.

article thumbnail

Top Startup Mistake 8: Misunderstanding Equity

Up and Running

Unlike stock that is acquired as the business grows, founder stock is primarily granted for sweat equity–so it’s difficult to distribute fairly if there are multiple founders with different roles and levels of commitment. Make your equity count. Be careful. It’s not a casual favor.

Equity 60