Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 18, 2020

With one of the many new tools , and a dose of sweat equity, you can create a website for almost nothing -- and you are on your way to success with ecommerce, your latest invention or personal services. With the unlimited access to “how-to” videos and detailed instructions on the Internet, you shouldn’t need to hire experts for most things.

Hockey Stick 423

Hockey Stick Bootstrapping Sweat Equity Intellectual Property 423

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 18, 2018

Thus I was happily surprised when I found the classic book, “ The Tech Entrepreneur’s Survival Guide ,” by Bernd Schoner, PhD, and cofounder of ThingMagic, which leans heavily on the people side of the equation. Being the leader doesn’t mean more equity, nor does it mean the leader will necessarily be CEO. The industry veteran.

Technical Cofounder 144

Technical Cofounder Cofounder Advisory Board Startup 144

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 11, 2014

Thus I was happy to see a new book, “ The Tech Entrepreneur’s Survival Guide ,” by Bernd Schoner, PhD, and cofounder of ThingMagic, which leans heavily on the people side of the equation. Being the leader doesn’t mean more equity, nor does it mean the leader will necessarily be CEO. The industry veteran.

Technical Cofounder 245

Technical Cofounder Cofounder Advisory Board Startup 245

genylabs.typepad.com

SEPTEMBER 24, 2011

Working for Equity Instead of Cash. has an article on service firms waiving their fees and instead taking equity in their clients. Interest in this waned when the Internet bust resulted in most tech start-up equity becoming worthless, but it seems to be coming back. Not all start-up stock is created equally.

Equity 40

Equity Technical Review San Jose Stock 40

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

Austin Startup

MAY 8, 2018

Background reading: Founder Compensation: Cash, Equity, Liquidity Fatal Errors in Early Startup Hiring Early Hires: Options or Stock Given how deeply involved we are with early-stage startups hiring their first key employees, I figured it would be helpful to outline a few key principles to help entrepreneurs navigate the topic.

Employee 48

Employee Seed Stage Startup Equity 48

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 14, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Thursday, May 14, 2009 The Lean Startup Workshop - now an OReilly Master Class My rate of posting has been much lower lately, and this is mostly due to preparations for the upcoming Lean Startup Workshop on May 29. I have a lot of good news to report on this front. You can click here to learn more.

Lean 60

Lean San Francisco Continuous Deployment Software Review 60

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 13, 2015

Thus I was happy to see a recent book, “ The Tech Entrepreneur’s Survival Guide ,” by Bernd Schoner, PhD, and cofounder of ThingMagic, which leans heavily on the people side of the equation. Being the leader doesn’t mean more equity, nor does it mean the leader will necessarily be CEO. The industry veteran.

Technical Cofounder 120

Technical Cofounder Cofounder Advisory Board Stock Options 120

www.mattbartus.com

SEPTEMBER 24, 2011

Equity for Consultants – Keep it Simple! posted Feb 3 in Equity , People issues. Sometimes the consultant has a reasonable basis to think this, since lean startups are programmed to get things for free and may call on the consultant from time to time for free advice. Blog blog archive. Quora Answers. About Matt.

Equity 40

Equity Vesting Silicon Valley Intellectual Property 40

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 19, 2019

We’ve spent a lot of time this past year running Lean Startup tests on our annual flagship conference to really nail down what you’re most interested in. Our goal—again, based on feedback—is to continue broadening the reach of Lean Startup and embracing the numerous ways people are using it.

Lean 68

Lean Programming San Francisco Silicon Valley 68

Up and Running

JULY 14, 2015

Now, if you only needed $2 million of new funding, the investor would receive 50 percent equity. If the new funding increases to $3 million, however, they would have a 60 percent equity stake on the same valuation. You hire more staff than you need, become inefficient with operations, or move to bigger offices. Assessing need.

Technical Review 60

Technical Review Valuation Due Diligence Finder 60

Up and Running

JULY 1, 2020

Quickly scratch out a business plan, even employing a lean planning model , for your expansion like it’s a new business. Lenders and equity investors are less emotionally involved in the plan as people within the company. You don’t create a new mission or vision statement when planning for new investments.

Business Plan 152

Business Plan Forecast Operations Dilution 152

Up and Running

NOVEMBER 15, 2017

Botanical Bounty needs to establish its reputation as a highly-efficient, high-potency medicinal herb grower, and one effective and inexpensive way to do that would be to lean on loyal customer testimonials in the company’s marketing strategy. Hire an intern. Hire for growth. Customer testimonials. Sales channel relationships.

Botswana 148

Botswana Business Plan Oregon Distribution 148

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 5, 2010

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Tuesday, October 5, 2010 The Lean Startup Bundle People often ask me if they can buy "Lean Startup in a box" from me. People want to get started with Lean Startup but arent exactly how. Its called the " The Lean Startup Bundle " and it is available this week only. Dont panic.

Lean 153

Lean San Francisco Startup Continuous Deployment 153

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 22, 2011

But this mania to not miss out on the next big thing is driving some investors to pay growth-equity prices for traditional market risk (as in, they’re paying up before it is clear there is product / market fit). If you are interested the Vimeo is here. And well they should be. And so on down then line. You feel it, too.

Saudi Arabia 309

Saudi Arabia Valuation IPO Technical Review 309

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 19, 2011

o Early on they hired 3 people from ACT software at once (more team hiring) on staff and supplement it with Agency (in LA worked with First Communications – good). Lean startup: o It’s situational so some businesses are operationally/people intensive, high LTV (lifetime value) means you can spend more upfront.

Acquisition 304

Acquisition Warrant Customer Term Sheet 304

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 6, 2011

The Lean Startup Book is done. If you've been waiting for a comprehensive account of the Lean Startup and how it can help you achieve dramatically better business results, this is it. The Lean Startup is a new approach being adopted across the globe, changing the way companies are built and new products are launched.

Lean 167

Lean Startup Metrics Private Equity 167

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 16, 2010

So even within the “alternative class&# our LPs are looking at other asset investment choices such as distressed buyout funds, private equity or hedge funds. You don’t have to hire as many sales people because much can be sold online. Staying “lean&# is not an option. VC will shrink. Oh yes it will.

Technical Review 311

Technical Review LP Early Stage Silicon Valley 311

The Equity Kicker

MAY 8, 2013

There is a good post up today on Segment.io describing how they used Kickstarter as a lean startup tool to validate demand. I hired a virtual assistant from Zirtual named Shea, and she was amazing. First the background: Kickstarter is the perfect way to validate an idea. She literally doubled my marketing reach!

Demand 156

Demand Campaign Web Development Lean 156

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 11, 2016

Guest post by by Jennifer Maerz, contributing editor of Lean Startup Co. A big part of adopting Lean Startup in an established company involves fundamentally shifting the way organizations manage people and ideas. It translates to our documents but also to our salaries and our equity models. in shaping the company’s POV?

Agile 60

Agile Lean San Francisco Technical Review 60

OnlyOnce

OCTOBER 17, 2013

Lean In, Part II. My post about Sheryl Sandberg’s Lean In a couple months ago created some great dialog internally at Return Path. The other is that while we do a good job on compensation equity for the same position, it takes a lot of deliberate back and forth to get to that place. So women skew to more junior roles.

Lean 63

Lean Leadership Salary Equity 63

OnlyOnce

JULY 9, 2013

The book has been described by a few CEOs who read it and commented early for me along the lines of “The Lean Startup movement is great, but this book starts where most of those books end and takes you through the ‘so you have a product that works in-market – now what?’ questions”. Part V: Managing Yourself So You Can Manage Others.

Startup 95

Startup Advisory Board Elevator Pitch Forecast 95

Up and Running

AUGUST 28, 2018

A Lean Business Plan might be a better fit if you simply need to think through all the different aspects of your business. A Lean Plan will be shorter, and it lends itself to quick revisions, but both types follow the same general outline. They tend to be lengthier and more detailed. Company overview.

Business Plan 72

Business Plan Technical Review Exit Strategy Oregon 72

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 25, 2019

For example, one of the first decisions that most of you entrepreneurs face is how much equity to give to early investors, co-founders, and key new hires. As a business owner, you survive by lean operations, and value your independent spirit. The results are lost opportunity, poor contracts, or a failed business.

Entrepreneur 241

Entrepreneur Cofounder Lean Equity 241

Hunter Walker

MAY 7, 2014

Whether it’s adding capacity to an existing function (#MawrEngineers) or bringing new talents onboard (“we intend to make our first marketing hire”), glossing over these bullet points towards the back of the pitch deck would be a mistake. I’m interested in not just what these people will be doing but how and when they’ll be hired.

Hiring 108

Hiring Option Pool Early Stage Term Sheet 108

Hunter Walker

MAY 13, 2023

Especially in the early days of mobile/iOS engineering, if you hired strong technical talent into your early stage company, you basically created an acquisition outcome floor. Sometimes you’d even get lucky and receive stock in the acquirer, which was how I gained pre-IPO equity in high growth stars like Pinterest and Facebook.

Early Stage 117

Early Stage Cap Table Acquisition Sales 117

The Startup Toolkit

AUGUST 29, 2012

But they also need to see a product team , and hiring someone to build your version 1 does not bring you any closer to finding a team. So is there ever a time when it’s wise to hire out your prototype? For example, if you are a service business that has a website, hiring out version 1 makes perfect sense.

Sweat Equity 45

Sweat Equity Equity Bootstrapping Salary 45

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 10, 2021

Other than that we’ve adopted a “barbell strategy” where we may choose to avoid the high-priced, less-proven A & B rounds but we have raised 3 Growth Funds that then can lean in when there is more quantitative evidence of growth and market leadership and we can underwrite a $10–20 million round from a separate vehicle. Seksom Suriyapa ?

Pre-Money Valuation 471

Pre-Money Valuation Valuation Venture Capital Early Stage 471

crowdSPRING Blog

FEBRUARY 15, 2013

Lean vs. Mean – Small Business and Responsibility – [link]. Why Humility is Essential for Every New Startup Hire – [link]. How Much Equity Do Your Employees Deserve? There’s a tremendous wealth of insight in his answers and the way he engaged the Reddit audience. The link is in the Other section below.

Social Media 107

Social Media Small Business Design Media 107

keen.io

FEBRUARY 5, 2013

For example: Don’t accept equity compensation (stock shares) without knowing the percentage of the company you’ll own. From there, I began googling things like “first employee startup equity” and “startup offer negotiation.” These were the best resources I found: Equity for Early Employees in Early Stage Startups.

Salary 50

Salary Equity Startup San Francisco 50

Hearpreneur

JUNE 4, 2021

And that’s how I started my private equity business where I acquire both online and offline assets such as lead generation websites and physical real estate. But I also leaned that is actually ok. I got my start when I was young—as an eBay Powerseller—and I eventually moved on to building a thriving marketing agency.

Entrepreneur 133

Entrepreneur B2B Database Technical Review 133

Eric Friedman

JANUARY 23, 2022

Lean on these people and make sure they know their role in your world – people appreciate it. What equity you give early stage advisors matters. The net/net is that early advisors who can 10X your business should formally be involved, usually with equity and sometimes with investment. Hiring takes longer than you think.

Early Stage 78

Early Stage Equity .Net Vesting 78

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 6, 2016

With one of the new free tools and a dose of sweat equity, you can create a website for almost nothing -- and you are on your way to success with ecommerce, your latest invention or personal services. With the unlimited access to “how-to” videos and detailed instructions on the Internet, you shouldn’t need to hire experts for most things.

Bootstrapping 120

Bootstrapping Hockey Stick Sweat Equity Intellectual Property 120

crowdSPRING Blog

APRIL 5, 2013

Being Kind To Your Prospective Customers Is Good Business – (Lean Business: Do Unto Others) – [link]. Being Kind To Your Prospective Customers Is Good Business – (Lean Business: Do Unto Others) – [link]. Why I No Longer Advise Startups to Hire M.B.A.s | The Accelerators-WSJ – [link].

Social Media 92

Social Media Small Business Design Media 92

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 30, 2008

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Thursday, October 30, 2008 John Doerrs 10 lean startup tips I just saw video of John Doerrs talk yesterday at VentureBeat’s “How to manage your start-up in the downturn&# roundtable event. Offer equity instead of cash. The Lean Startup Intensive is tomorrow at Web 2.0. Dont sugar coat.

Lean 121

Lean San Francisco Continuous Deployment DC 121

The Equity Kicker

MARCH 26, 2018

The core idea of the JTBD framework is that customers use products or services to do a job for them (in the US many people say they “hire” the product or service to do the job, but that doesn’t translate too well into UK English so I prefer “use”).

Customer 75

Customer Framework Differentiation Customer Development 75

The Equity Kicker

SEPTEMBER 24, 2016

Since Eric Ries wrote The Lean Startup in 2011 smart founders have understood that the best way to progress is to get onto the ‘build-measure-learn’ loop and iterate to success. That’s doing rather than planning.

Startup 60

Startup Incubator Technical Review Lean 60