Startup Professionals Musings

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Will Your Startup Get Venture Capital or IPO in 2013?

Startup Professionals Musings

Based on the final report for 2012 from Thomson Reuters and the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA), it may appear that IPOs are back as a viable startup exit strategy. For the full year 2012, venture-backed initial public offerings raised $21.5

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5 Crowdfunding Approaches To Tempt Every Entrepreneur

Startup Professionals Musings

Even if you ignore all the hype around crowdfunding, there can be no doubt that it is a real alternative for entrepreneurs to achieve visibility and funding today. are not for crowdfunding, but actually are matchmaking sites between entrepreneurs and professional investors or banks, or incubators.

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10 Keys To Surviving Startup Cash Flow Requirements

Startup Professionals Musings

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. In reality, the financing valley of death tests the commitment, determination, and problem solving ability of every entrepreneur.

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10 Entrepreneur Alternatives To Investor Funding

Startup Professionals Musings

According to a Gompers and Lerner study, the challenge is very real, with a majority of new ventures that don''t attract investors failing within the first three years. My first advice for new entrepreneurs is to pick a domain that doesn’t have the sky-high up-front development costs, like online web sites and smart phone apps.

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7 Startup Costs That You Assume With Outside Funding

Startup Professionals Musings

One of the myths I often hear as an advisor to many entrepreneurs is that their lifestyle would somehow be better if they could more easily find other people’s money to build their startup. Most entrepreneurs never forget for a moment that having investors means owing money, even if they can legally argue that equity is not debt.

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5 Steps To Finding The Best Investor For Your Startup

Startup Professionals Musings

Struggling entrepreneurs are often so happy to get a funding offer that they neglect the recommended reverse due diligence on the investors. Reverse due diligence on the investor is a comparable process whereby the entrepreneur seeks to validate the track record, operating style, and motivation of every potential partner.

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6 Guidelines For How And When To Use Non-Disclosures

Startup Professionals Musings

Most entrepreneurs I meet are reluctant to disclose anything about their idea to investors before getting a signed confidential disclosure agreement (CDA). Yet I can assure you that people who are paranoid, or want to avoid all risks, won’t be happy as entrepreneurs, so it’s all about balancing the risk-reward scale.