Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 12, 2018

The problem is that professional investors (angels and venture capital) want a proven business model before they invest, ready to scale, rather than early projections and product development. Nevertheless, it’s an option that doesn’t cost you equity. Solicit funds from friends and family. Use crowd funding to build reserves.

Intellectual Property 134

Intellectual Property Technical Review Startup Incubator 134

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 14, 2016

Of course, their answer is that the second intends to get to market faster, but every engine has limits regardless the fuel applied. Use social media for early marketing. That should equate to an adequate valuation for a $2 million follow-on Series-A round, without giving away all the equity.

Burn Rate 120

Burn Rate Hockey Stick Startup Salary 120

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. Engineering is critical but it is not everything. Without strong PMs you build crappy products that nobody needs or that real people can’t use.

Cofounder 388

Cofounder Early Stage Startup Silicon Valley 388

femgineer.com

JULY 18, 2010

HOME About the Femgineer Speaking Engagements Reading List Recruiting Startup Engineers With the startup market taking off, there is always a clamor to find good engineers, developers, and designers. Engineers love to build, solve tough problems, and make progress. Sweat equity or salary?

Engineer 41

Engineer Software Review Startup Technical Review 41

View from Seed

MARCH 24, 2021

” Below are our favorite pieces from the past few years, divided in to a few key categories: fundraising, company building, product development, industry trends, and the life of a VC. Entrepreneurs should know their audience, and most importantly, how savvy it is about the company’s particular market segment.”

Seed Stage 177

Seed Stage Hiring IPO Analytics 177

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 27, 2013

In this period (less than 2 years) he has brought on incredibly talented senior execs is sales, marketing, product management, client services, finance, vp engineering and more. You may have an opinion on your market-entry strategy for Europe. You may know how much to pay in cash or equity for your new VP Engineering.

Advisory Board 365

Advisory Board CTO Hire Fractional CTO Los Angeles 365

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 19, 2015

That’s why I recommend that they find a co-founder who loves business challenges, including marketing and finance. I usually envision a 50-50 ownership split for their efforts, but every engineer believes the technology side deserves the majority share. Most founders bootstrap product development.

Technical Review 120

Technical Review Intellectual Property Cofounder Bootstrapping 120

Feld Thoughts

NOVEMBER 18, 2013

Here’s the punchline: if you run your company as if you have closed a VC equity financing round even though you actually closed a convertible debt round, you’ll be in much better shape when it comes time to raise your Series A financing. So why would you treat your debt investors (somewhat) like equity investors?

Burn Rate 152

Burn Rate Equity Software Review Early Stage 152

Up and Running

FEBRUARY 6, 2017

One of the first things to go, in most budgets, is marketing. After all, sweat equity can make up for a trim marketing budget, but it would be hard to make up for cuts in product development and customer service without sacrificing customer experience. Resources for the first-time, do-it-yourself online marketer.

Sweat Equity 60

Sweat Equity Equity Sales PR 60

Austin Startup

AUGUST 20, 2017

They’re looking to be paid properly in the context of the overall salary structure, including cash, benefits, and equity, and to be paid commensurate with performance. Are they consistent with your founding team, are they competitive in the market, and will they not create precedents that you’ll regret in the next round of hiring?

Technical Review 48

Technical Review Software Review Cap Table Securities and Exchange Commission 48

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 28, 2010

Dave’s a great guy with a good sense of humor and a broad knowledge of the market, which is why I was excited that he could be on the show. It is a platform to help brands building viral marketing campaigns. They focus on trying to drive engagbranded social media marketing campaigns (e.g. Enter ShoeDazzle.

Venture Capital 270

Venture Capital Cofounder Spain San Diego 270

www.lanceglasser.com

MAY 13, 2012

A Model for Return on Engineering Expenses. Product development. Queuing theory and product development. A Model for Return on Engineering Expenses. The Essential Product Investigation Phase Gate. The Essential Product Investigation Phase Gate. So you want to ship the product early?

CTO 40

CTO CTO Hire Technical Review Architecture 40

The Startup Magazine

SEPTEMBER 12, 2019

Focus on Product Development First. Venture funding isn’t real validation – market traction and continued profitability and revenues are. We prioritized validation from our customers by listening carefully to what our customers wanted and focusing on early-stage product development.

Early Stage 85

Early Stage Venture Capital Bootstrapping Pre-Money Valuation 85

Austin Startup

JULY 23, 2010

You see, in addition to being a fine example of a veteran software engineering leader, my neighbor Dave Thomas is also one of the top trainers in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (or BJJ) that you will find anywhere. It’s among the highest trafficked sites in its category, providing training videos, tips and techniques.

Sweat Equity 60

Sweat Equity Technical Review Software Review Austin 60

ReadWriteStart

OCTOBER 14, 2010

At today's roundtable we had some intensive discussions around market sizing and its impact on financing. You have heard, I am sure, that venture capitalists only invest in very large market opportunities - $500 million to $1 billion. I asked him several times what exactly is his TAM (Total Available Market). 30 million market?

Bootstrapping 114

Bootstrapping Marketing Angel Investor Silicon Valley 114

Up and Running

JANUARY 30, 2014

My partner is a full-time developer and math teacher, and I’m an engineer. Marketing the site and creating a business behind the product proved much more challenging. At the halfway point of the program, we feel that the returns on our participation are much greater in value than the equity that we gave up.

Incubator 105

Incubator New York City Venture Capital Startup 105

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 14, 2009

Take a look: This full-day Master Class focuses on how to build a startup from the ground up to focus on customers, markets, and speed of iteration. Unlike other incubator-led programs, this workshop is open to anyone who wants to learn, and it does not require companies take investment or give out equity. It was a disaster.

Lean 60

Lean San Francisco Continuous Deployment Software Review 60

David Teten

OCTOBER 1, 2015

Not surprisingly, the list above also is ranked from least to most equity stake in an investment for the investor, relative to the cash they invest. How would one set up such a startup to eventually raise capital from outside VCs, who will be wary of ‘dead equity’ (i.e., equity that belongs to departed cofounders)? The cliffs?

Software Developers 60

Software Developers Software Development Software Review Technical Cofounder 60

blog.nahurst.com

JULY 19, 2010

This covers one of the most common situations I encounter: For a pre-funding web startup whose team includes only a non-technical cofounder, how much equity should an incoming technical cofounder get? This is an area that varies widely and can significantly impact how much equity a technical cofounder receives (if they take more salary).

Technical Cofounder 43

Technical Cofounder Cofounder Equity Salary 43

ReadWriteStart

JANUARY 27, 2011

And, oh by the way, we also really like the idea of the 1M/1M entrepreneurs building valuation and negotiating leverage through these business development efforts, instead of signing off large chunks of their company in form of equity early on. I also advised Andrew to greatly tighten his product and go-to-market strategy.

Dilution 114

Dilution Revenue Finance Entrepreneur 114

The Equity Kicker

MARCH 6, 2014

This is a quote from Leander Kahney’s recently published book on Apple design chief Jony Ive: “In the world according to Steve Jobs, the ANPP would rapidly evolve into a well-defined process for bringing new products to market by laying out in extreme detail every stage of product development.

Product 84

Product Venture Capital Lean Finance 84

www.readwriteweb.com

OCTOBER 18, 2010

You have heard, I am sure, that venture capitalists only invest in very large market opportunities - $500 million to $1 billion. But there are others - many others - who are looking for smaller opportunities, playing in the sweet spot of $50-$100 million market opportunities. Is that a $20 million market? $30 30 million market?

Marketing 52

Marketing Bootstrapping Incubator Angel Investor 52

www.readwriteweb.com

OCTOBER 18, 2010

You have heard, I am sure, that venture capitalists only invest in very large market opportunities - $500 million to $1 billion. But there are others - many others - who are looking for smaller opportunities, playing in the sweet spot of $50-$100 million market opportunities. Is that a $20 million market? $30 30 million market?

Marketing 52

Marketing Bootstrapping Incubator Angel Investor 52

K9 Ventures

OCTOBER 10, 2017

Unless every aspect of product development is covered by founders who are only receiving equity, there are other parts of building a product that will require hiring highly qualified people. Seed is the new Series A. (~$2M used get for building product, establishing product-market fit and early revenue).

Seed Stage 82

Seed Stage Finance Later Stage Equity 82

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 5, 2010

It is the ultimate product development get-started guide to Lean Startup. Also included is the incredible Venture Hacks Bible, which is worth the price of admission on its own, and The Entrepreneurs Guide to Customer Development (which I previously reviewed here). And theres so much more. And theres so much more.

Lean 153

Lean San Francisco Startup Continuous Deployment 153

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. Rather, give titles such as VP of Engineering, Product/Technology, Sales, Marketing, Finance, etc. Be sure to leave plenty of equity for investors.

Part-Time VPE 79

Part-Time VPE Fractional VPE Cofounder CTO Hire 79

viniciusvacanti.com

SEPTEMBER 7, 2010

It’s actually pretty hard to find a good start-up job if you have no real engineering or user acquisition / product management skills. My company and product involve HW/SW/RF/embedded system integration, and I am NO kind of engineer. Why You Shouldn’t: You’re postponing your dream for at least two years.

Cofounder 43

Cofounder Technical Cofounder Founder Ruby 43

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

MARCH 11, 2014

On the other hand, it’s a whole universe and you’d need an interesting perspective on why you should go attack that market and face all that competition and noise and everything that’s in the market. So when you’re thinking about marketing positioning to me, that side of it is the interesting side of it.

Technical Cofounder 220

Technical Cofounder Cofounder Software Review Management 220

Hearpreneur

JANUARY 7, 2022

By establishing a company dedicated to inventive and speedy product development, I am able to use cutting-edge technologies and consistently innovate faster than competitors. So, I started a sales and marketing company and haven't looked back since. Historically, lighting equipment advanced at a glacial pace.

Entrepreneur 114

Entrepreneur Technical Review Software Review Non-Compete 114

The Next Web

OCTOBER 3, 2012

I have heard many founders — even in the first few months of product development — expect to raise seed rounds, pay themselves salaries, etc. Your first three years you will get the startup off the ground, establish your core team culture, and fully validate your main product/market through rapid iteration.

Cofounder 155

Cofounder Technical Cofounder Technical Review Software Review 155

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 30, 2008

Everyone from the receptionist to engineers is selling. Offer equity instead of cash. Lean startups vs lean companies The engineering manager's lament Three decisions to make on virtual goods The App Store after the gold rush When NOT to listen to your users; when NOT to rely. Everything is negotiable in this climate.

Lean 121

Lean San Francisco Continuous Deployment DC 121

ConversionXL

FEBRUARY 9, 2016

Many marketers became more concerned with 10x growth hacks they read about online than strategy and growth process. Is the way it’s commonly talked about useless? ” April, 2012 – Andrew Chen writes Growth Hacker is the new VP Marketing , which goes viral (2.4K They need products that are really working in the market.

Retention 48

Retention Metrics Acquisition Conversion 48

SoCal CTO

DECEMBER 1, 2010

Equity-Only CTO and Equity-Only Developers - SoCal CTO , November 1, 2010 I had a recent email dialog with the founder of a company looking for a CTO for their startup. Who better to answer than the company's engineering lead. " 34; To which I say "we don't think we can time markets." call to arms.

Technical Review 175

Technical Review Technology Product CTO Hire 175

Austin Startup

APRIL 25, 2018

by focusing on products and platforms, it has forgotten about people. Advocates for diversity and inclusion (D&I) want to see a greater commitment to inclusion in product development and diversity in global employment and hiring practices. What’s the third largest market segment in the U.S.?

Technical Review 61

Technical Review Technology LLC Texas 61

Up and Running

MAY 23, 2016

A description of the problem you’re solving for your customers, and your solution to the problem, which is usually your product or service. A description of your target market or the different market segments you’re targeting. Also, make a bullet list of the marketing activities that will drive customers to your door.

Software Review 74

Software Review Software Delaware Forecast 74

maplebutter.com

JANUARY 8, 2013

Written By Dan Martell on February 2nd, 2012 | Category: Hiring LeanStartup Marketing Metrics Startup Life | 6 Comments. Take the market and break it down into smaller chunks. Near shoring development with your team (ex: your team is based in Canada / India) is cool, but not outsourcing. Product, product, product!

Technical Review 44

Technical Review Startup Cofounder Software Review 44

Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 22, 2010

There’s been a lot of hand-wringing about gender equity in the high-tech and entrepreneurship worlds lately. Engineers are offenders in this category too, but so is any gender-segregated activity, like an all-female PR or marketing team. This is a good thing. (I We have a lot of introspection to do. This is a good thing.

San Francisco 167

San Francisco Lean Sweden Continuous Deployment 167