A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

AUGUST 16, 2010

All this is explained in clear detail in Paul Graham's his piece on the future of tech investing — a must-read for anyone interested in financing. Tags: Essays exit-strategy finance investment starting. Of course the VCs aren't happy about this. Is my argument healthy or too far the other way?

Exit Strategy 246

Exit Strategy Angel Investor Finance Incubator 246

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

DECEMBER 21, 2009

Need to have your arms around company finances but hate bookkeeping? Which of your business operations do you hate? Do you like creating new features but hate tech support? Enjoy product demos but hate cold-calls? Love writing ads but hate dealing with ad sales agents?

Startup 315

Startup Revenue Cofounder Sales 315

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

JULY 11, 2011

In that spirit, and because I’ve gotten requests for more articles about issues that arise after your startup is going strong, I wanted to follow Dharmesh’s lead and talk about of the questions from Rand’s post: Should Rand take out a few million dollars for himself as part of this financing?

.Net 230

.Net Cofounder Dilution Finance 230

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

JULY 23, 2013

Plus, there’s all the other costs — R&D to build the stuff, office space, executive salaries, billing, legal, finance, HR, tech support, account managers. office space, finance, HR, execs) Say the average customer represents R dollars in annual revenue. To actually be profitable, you need to cover those costs too.

Business Model 335

Business Model .Net Revenue IPO 335

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

OCTOBER 14, 2014

TO EVERYONE AT WP ENGINE: My hope is that being an essential part of this unique journey is your dream too, not just mine, and that you’ll point up to that sign five years from now and explain to the children in your back seat that it’s there because of you , not because you were “there for the ride,” but because you actually (..)

RSS 309

RSS Engineer Metrics Government 309

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

APRIL 24, 2012

So here’s the answer to your question: If you believe this company has a good shot, you must invest your $95k , because it’s the only logical way to make the finances work! In short, your $95k investment buys you far more equity than your time does, whereas your time is much more valuable to you than your money.

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Salary Stock Startup Valuation 229

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

FEBRUARY 7, 2012

What’s the secret to manufacturing this combination of foresight, timing, and financing? It’s Twitter connecting the world with real-time mass mini-chat before everyone realized how tiny and fragmented our attention spans could become. For the institutional investor, it’s a set of bets.

Institutional Investors 240

Institutional Investors India China Viral 240

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

SEPTEMBER 10, 2013

Or a mid-stage company (like WP Engine) might have higher G&A spend (office space, finance, legal, HR) as a percentage of revenue, until it grows into those services. For example, an earlier-stage high-tech SaaS company will be spending much more in R&D as a percentage of revenue than a later-stage company.

Metrics 238

Metrics Revenue Flash Later Stage 238

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

DECEMBER 14, 2009

Tags: Essays finance planning strategy.

Business Plan 312

Business Plan Salary Finance Web 312

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

OCTOBER 23, 2012

It’s not about the financing path, it’s about what you’ve decided to build. Note that some of those companies were bootstrapped, some bootstrapped and took money later, and some had huge funding from the start. It’s my goal to join the ranks of those excellent companies at WP Engine.

IPO 240

IPO Flash Bootstrapping Private Equity 240

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

APRIL 19, 2010

Tags: How-To accounting finance.

Revenue 232

Revenue Startup Forecast Finance 232

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

APRIL 9, 2012

Or James Altucher , who has lunches with people like Stephen Dubner (Freakonomics), writes like Penelope Trunk , appears on CNBC to talk finance, and manages to be funny and poignant and inspirational even while writing daily. Of course they all do deserve to be alive, and deserve their success.

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New York Ruby Social Media RSS 248

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

MARCH 21, 2017

Revenue multiples, profit multiples, premium over the previous financing — these are metrics used by sellers to help determine a minimum acceptable price. Large companies don’t acquire small companies for their financials.

Balance Sheet 242

Balance Sheet Vertical Acquisition Revenue 242

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

OCTOBER 31, 2011

You’re not seeking the One True Path, but rather any path that isn’t so circuitous that your finances or resolve runs dry before you reach the end. Also there’s more than one “correct” next step. Lots of steps will do just fine. Some techniques you might indeed be able to copy outright.

Customer 279

Customer Software Review SEM Technical Review 279

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

OCTOBER 4, 2017

But also things like founders splitting up, not getting enough traction to self-fund or to secure the next round of financing, having to go back to a day job, and so on. Usually it’s starvation — can’t get enough customers (distribution) to pay enough money for long enough (product/market fit).

Government 223

Government Startup Cofounder Technical Support 223

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

OCTOBER 24, 2011

So it’s not necessarily true, but if you are like another popular group in Chexts is younger people who don’t have a lot of money to manage, but they don’t need financing and all of that stuff. Try to get those good customers who are going to pay for it. Jason: I agree.

Cofounder 208

Cofounder Technical Review Software Review Differentiation 208

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

AUGUST 30, 2010

Tags: How-To finance productivity tools.

Software Review 284

Software Review Startup Technical Review Hosting 284

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

JANUARY 10, 2012

Almost no startup founder values her time properly. Consultants know exactly what their time is worth: their hourly rate. As they say, it’s how much “the market will bear.”

Founder 291

Founder CPA Startup Early Stage 291

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

MARCH 21, 2011

Some problems in business can be solved with money; many cannot. When you’re pitching to an investor, one of the best things you can do is to show how the important problems facing your business are those that can be solved with money, because money is what they’re providing.

Startup 283

Startup Social Media Salary Lean 283

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

FEBRUARY 21, 2011

It’s among the most-asked questions on startup forums, and an issue we’re dealing with right now at WPEngine as we bring on new employees: How do you decide how much equity (shares) to give a new employee or partner?

Equity 276

Equity Salary Hiring Institutional Investors 276

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

NOVEMBER 1, 2010

Tags: How-To exit-strategy finance inspiration investment planning.

Exit Strategy 247

Exit Strategy Startup Bandwidth Revenue 247

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

APRIL 25, 2011

Everyone says small startups require focus. Say “no&# to anything that distracts from your goal, your vision, your strategy, tempting though it is to explore all opportunities, hoping each time that this is the one that will catapult you from Mixergy listener to Mixergy interviewee.

Java 311

Java Software Review Technical Review Salary 311

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

FEBRUARY 28, 2012

James is the same, but writes about business, finance, relationships, sex, hobnobbing with other famous people, and other enviously awesome stuff, all with the same punch and frightening honesty that Penelope has. Plus, the talented bastard even employs literate construction to his pieces.

Texas 239

Texas Framework America Finance 239

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

DECEMBER 28, 2011

If you win you win more than eight hours of free consultation with nine business experts, so everybody from finance to social media to productivity to marketing to pricing. The details are actually on our blog which is www.ingoodcompany.com.

Cofounder 223

Cofounder New York Conversion Entrepreneur 223

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

FEBRUARY 7, 2011

Consulting is a great way to earn a living and a smart way to self-finance a startup. And if you do, you’ve just self-financed a startup, made a nice living, mitigated much of the risk of product-only startups, and built a great team in the process. Is consulting really that bad? The trick is to avoid all these traps.

America 330

America Employee Hiring HTML 330

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

AUGUST 8, 2012

Jason: In commercial real estate it’s almost a given that you sort of ask for a couple of months off, and they always say yes because it works, and it works with their financing on their side and all that stuff. It’s very easy for them to do it. Here’s what you could do.

API 220

API Software Review Hosting Technical Review 220

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

MARCH 11, 2014

You have your general management meeting and in your general management meeting you talk about product development, about marketing and about finance. It’s bundled in different groups. Jason: All right, but you can’t talk for five minutes then say. Edwin: I know. I know, that’s.

Technical Cofounder 220

Technical Cofounder Cofounder Software Review Management 220

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

JUNE 27, 2011

In Part 1 I explained how it’s senseless for small companies to compute “one correct value&# for the company, but rather that buyers and sellers must be considered separately. I covered the buyer side there; now let’s tackle the seller. Are you willing to sell your baby? At what price?

Sales 235

Sales Term Sheet Stock Deal Structure 235

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

JUNE 20, 2011

I recently helped a friend broker the sale of his small, bootstrapped company. This is a smart guy with experience and a logical approach to such things, but the way he was initially trying to value his company was not only wrong, but the wrong way to think about the entire sale.

Sales 260

Sales Channel Cofounder Valuation 260