crowdSPRING Blog

NOVEMBER 1, 2013

Hire for potential, says Jason Fried of 37signals - crowdspring.co/1aHHrTp. Hire for potential - crowdspring.co/1aHHrTp. But a nearly $4 billion valuation? Qualities Of Truly Great Employees | Business Insider by Dharmesh Shah - crowdspring.co/1h0QmFY. Perfect employees don’t exist. Perfect employees don’t exist.

Social Media 94

Social Media Small Business Design Media 94

crowdSPRING Blog

FEBRUARY 7, 2013

Help the Next Generation of Entrepreneurs: Hire One | Small Biz Daily – [link]. Don’t Hire Entrepreneurs; Hire Entrepreneurial Spirit | HBR – [link]. Hire the Right Type of VP Marketing — Or You’ll Just End Up With a Bunch of Blue Pens with Your Logo – [link]. What is Product Management?

Social Media 106

Social Media Small Business Technical Review Design 106

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 17, 2011

When times are really good for fund raising many teams delay to maximize their valuation. 5 million raised at a $9 million pre-money valuation or 35.7% How do you push valuation? they have a hiring advantage, both in terms of perception they’re going somewhere and in terms of dollars to allocate to people.

Pre-Money Valuation 303

Pre-Money Valuation Dilution Valuation PR 303

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 22, 2008

The law of large numbers (of customers) says you cant help but make at least some money - your valuation is determined by how well you monetize the tidal wave of growth. In this model, you take some fraction of the lifetime value of each customer and plow that back into paid acquisition through SEM, banner ads, PR, affiliates, etc.

San Francisco 167

San Francisco CPA SEM CTO Hire 167

www.entrepreneur.com

SEPTEMBER 22, 2011

Answers Ask Entrepreneur Home Business Operations Business Opportunities Sales & Marketing Advertising & PR Finance & Accounting Franchises Home Business Human Resources Internet/E-Commerce Legal Issues Starting Up Technology Most Recent Answers How Can I Streamline My E-Commerce Operation? Young Entrepreneurs How I Did It: The TOMS Story.

Sweat Equity 55

Sweat Equity Equity Fractional CTO CTO 55

Genuine VC

SEPTEMBER 5, 2012

Other than starting to build, hire, and take over the world, there are a bunch of mundane things to do right away. Funding Announcement Figure out your PR strategy for announcing the round to get your plan in order. But a full time CFO and even a CFO-for-hire may overkill at this point.

Founder 156

Founder Cap Table Stock Options PR 156

Steve Blank

MARCH 18, 2011

The signals are loud and clear : seed and late stage valuations are getting frothy and wacky, and hiring talent in Silicon Valley is the toughest it has been since the dot.com bubble. Underwriters realized that as long as the public was happy snapping up shares, they could make huge profits from the inflated valuations.

Internet 334

Internet IPO Silicon Valley Agile 334

David Teten

SEPTEMBER 23, 2017

Close to 80% responded that manual processes, such as tracking down support, preparing reports and pulling data from different sources, are the biggest pain points they face in the valuation process. Over the past few years, ff Venture Capital hired two full-time engineers to build out its internal technology stack, called Totem.

Private Equity 60

Private Equity Venture Capital Equity Technical Review 60

500hats.com

AUGUST 2, 2012

but the food was awesome, & the PR wasn’t bad either). However after Sequoia and Ron Conway announced their investment in YC in 2009 , and after YC alumni DropBox and AirBnb raised capital on billion-dollar valuations in 2010-11, the program quickly became the gold standard among early-stage startup incubators.

Silicon Valley 74

Silicon Valley Early Stage Venture Capital Valuation 74

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2013

In the startup journey if you have success in your early product launches, fund raising and PR you’re likely to get “inbound interest” from likely acquirers. Dilution / valuation. There are times when you need to “hire above” somebody not rising to the expectations you’d have of their role.

Startup 417

Startup Dilution San Diego Stock Options 417

Hearpreneur

JANUARY 20, 2021

Ideally, I’d like to hire two more attorneys. While we’ll still focus on customer service, online content and creating new products, we’ll be setting time aside for additional digital PR, searching for opportunities for guest posts, and building backlinks. I am not pushy enough and don’t always create a sense of urgency.

Entrepreneur 118

Entrepreneur Mobile Valuation Global 118

Transformify

AUGUST 27, 2017

Your team is directly correlated with the valuation of your startup. All of the above is true, but it is also true that many startups have failed because they hired too early, too fast, or fired too late. Many of the points below can be found among the best hiring practices for startups and there is nothing wrong with them in general.

Hiring 64

Hiring Software Review Burn Rate Startup 64

Cracking the Code

NOVEMBER 13, 2008

The fact that SaaS valuations are being more affected by the downturn than the Nasdaq can be surprising given the supposed resiliency of the SaaS model (recurring revenues) but it translates the public investors belief that SMB software spend is going to be hit very hard by this recession. SaaS 13 Index Valuation. My Investments.

Software Review 48

Software Review Technical Review Valuation Portfolio 48

View from Seed

MARCH 8, 2016

Jesse Derris is the founder and CEO of Derris & Company , a PR, branding, and communications firm based in New York. And try to listen to the people you’re hiring as experts. I think it’s important you do some sort of PR activation around launch across the board, because you can only launch once.

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage Conversion Startup PR 120

Lightspeed Venture Partners

NOVEMBER 19, 2012

The company launched six months ago and so far has grown to 110 subscribers, with all customer acquisition coming from PR and referrals. Interestingly, this new deal actually lowered the pre money valuation for the company. 75,000 for 10% implies a $675,000 pre money valuation. Most of their ties retail at the $80-90 range.

Pre-Money Valuation 161

Pre-Money Valuation Alabama Valuation Churn Rate 161

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 1, 2015

Startup companies continue to grow at unprecedented rates, raise enormous amounts of venture capital and achieve valuations that imply that they will continue to grow rapidly for the foreseeable future. I’m not saying don’t hire sales staff or market your products aggressively. We live in heady times.

Balance Sheet 150

Balance Sheet eCommerce Venture Capital Acquisition 150

www.inc.com

SEPTEMBER 24, 2011

Back in 1997, Randy Parker was staring at a blank whiteboard, wondering where hed find the money to hire the employees and consultants he needed to build his new product. "We As you think about how much equity to offer, have a reasonable valuation in mind thats been determined using professional advice. Consult your lawyer for details.

Fractional CTO 40

Fractional CTO Equity Iowa Technical Cofounder 40

Eric Friedman

JUNE 11, 2019

Whether a fundraising event, hiring, or sales/partnership opportunity- these can be especially useful to make all parties move faster. Here are a few I have seen work: PR Opportunity – for the LargeCo. Candidate Forcing Functions – are hard because you want to hire the best people, hire them fast, and keep your OpEx low.

Term Sheet 68

Term Sheet Stock Options Early Stage Agile 68

Steve Blank

APRIL 5, 2017

Founders ask me all the time whether they should hire a PR agency. information chain”), but once you’ve done a first pass of the audience > message > media > messenger, a competent PR firm can add tremendous value. Hiring a PR agency too early is a sign that the CEO is treating this as someone else’s problem.

Marketing 310

Marketing Audience Technical Review PR 310

VC Cafe

SEPTEMBER 26, 2010

The newly formed teams then work for the entire weekend, with the help of some experienced mentors from the industry, who volunteer their time to share advice on product, technology, legal, PR and other issues. A good rule of thumb is to raise money when you need to start hiring, but this really depends on the context of your startup.

Elevator Pitch 102

Elevator Pitch Incubator Technical Review Startup 102

Austin Startup

SEPTEMBER 19, 2017

A strong advisor can walk you in the door to the same number of companies as 2–3 new sales hires. You might consider starting with an offer to invest at a low valuation before discussing sweat equity. certain number of customer intros, quotes for PR) and meetings on a pre-specified, regular basis.

Advisory Board 48

Advisory Board Sweat Equity Marketing Vertical 48

Hearpreneur

JANUARY 13, 2021

Ideally, I’d like to hire two more attorneys. While we’ll still focus on customer service, online content and creating new products, we’ll be setting time aside for additional digital PR, searching for opportunities for guest posts, and building backlinks. I am not pushy enough and don’t always create a sense of urgency.

Entrepreneur 62

Entrepreneur Mobile Valuation Global 62

The Equity Kicker

JULY 8, 2019

The other most common focus areas for platform teams are to employ talent and PR/marketing experts who give advice to portfolio companies on strategy in these areas and have relationships and discounts with pre-vetted agencies who can deliver the work. Value add strategies make partners at VC firms more personally effective.

Portfolio 84

Portfolio LP Venture Capital Partner 84

Hearpreneur

JANUARY 29, 2017

Sometimes the client hires you, sometimes they don’t. Thanks to Bryanne Lawless, BLND PR ! #17 Thanks to Dan Eyman, Meld Valuation ! #24 However, all employees may not share the same passion and when you hire or if your employees have already been there for some time, they can tend to lose track of that end goal.

Entrepreneur 48

Entrepreneur LLC Cofounder Montana 48

trada.com

APRIL 7, 2010

As we’ve headed towards our public launch, we actually hired two awesome Social Media Managers, Elaine and Anna , because we understood the level of engagement we’d need to have in the conversation. You have to get involved and involvement takes time. Time that may not be worth it versus everything else you have going on.

Stealth 40

Stealth PPC Advertising Conversion 40

The Next Web

JUNE 15, 2012

After all, cash may be in short supply, but there’s a virtually endless amount of work to be done, from coding and web development, to PR, sales, general operations, or sage advice from an industry veteran. It’s a logical solution. Many young tech startups reserve 15%-20% for employee stock options.

Equity 116

Equity Stock Options Vesting Stock 116

www.forentrepreneurs.com

FEBRUARY 2, 2010

Far more common is a need to acquire customers through a series of steps like SEO, SEM, PR, Social Marketing, direct sales, channel sales, etc. And this is before you factor in the failure rate (the percentage of sales people hired that don’t become productive). that will cost the company significant amounts of money.

Acquisition 103

Acquisition Cost Customer Entrepreneur 103

betashop.com

OCTOBER 8, 2012

The most important hiring criteria for your executives is cultural fit. As CEO, you are responsible for every hire. Until Fab reached 150 people, Bradford and I interviewed every single person we hired. If we make a hiring mistake - and we do from time to time - I put that blame on me, not on anyone else.?.

Technical Review 108

Technical Review Technology Software Review Valuation 108

crowdSPRING Blog

JUNE 5, 2015

How Ever-Higher Valuations Lead Unicorns Into A Cycle Of Private Capital Dependency – buff.ly/1AIGTjE. 13 Questions to Screen Potential Hires for Culture Fit – buff.ly/1QtJEae. Improve The Productivity Of Your Remote Teams With Complementary Work Cycles – buff.ly/1FZX1NZ. 5 Exploding Niches Within Tech crowdspring.co/1FcTFFO.

Small Business 48

Small Business Design Social Media Nepal 48

David Teten

MARCH 24, 2014

Teten : No one ever got fired for hiring Och-Ziff, or any other of the massive hedge funds. Teten : As a thought experiment, imagine a quant pure black box hedge fund, “UltraQuant,” which hires a lot of impressive PhDs. However, it was the right thing to do from a valuation perspective. In fact, Melchisedec is a placebo.

Software Review 114

Software Review Due Diligence Venture Capital Portfolio 114

www.paulgraham.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

One of the best tricks I learned during our startup was a rule for deciding who to hire. And when businesspeople try to hire hackers, they cant tell which ones are good.Even other hackers have a hard time doing that. When we got real funding nearthe end of 1996, we hired a great CFO, who fixed everything retroactively.

Startup 105

Startup Cofounder Software Stock 105

crowdSPRING Blog

DECEMBER 21, 2012

What Job Are Your Customers Hiring Your Products To Perform? What Job Are Your Customers Hiring Your Products To Perform? Hire For Cultural Fit Over Competence - [link]. This is a very useful valuation tool from AngelList (browse startup valuations) - [link]. crowdSPRING Blog - [link]. part 1) – [link].

Social Media 100

Social Media Small Business Design Media 100

www.readwriteweb.com

OCTOBER 18, 2010

Through SEO and mommy blog PR, Lee can tap into this market. I asked her not to spray and pray, and focus on her core, differentiated products - stretch mark and c-section mark removal creams for new mothers. There are 110,000 monthly search queries looking for "stretch mark(s) removal." This is her core market. Now is not the time to expand.

Marketing 52

Marketing Bootstrapping Incubator Angel Investor 52

www.readwriteweb.com

OCTOBER 18, 2010

Through SEO and mommy blog PR, Lee can tap into this market. I asked her not to spray and pray, and focus on her core, differentiated products - stretch mark and c-section mark removal creams for new mothers. There are 110,000 monthly search queries looking for "stretch mark(s) removal." This is her core market. Now is not the time to expand.

Marketing 52

Marketing Bootstrapping Incubator Angel Investor 52

crowdSPRING Blog

APRIL 26, 2013

5 Hiring Mistakes That Can Crush Your Company’s Culture – [link]. Q1 Venture Capital Spending & Number Of Deals Down, M&A Activity Drops 44 Percent And Pre-Money Valuations Plummet – [link]. Five Branding Mistakes That Will Cripple Your Small Business (and how to avoid making them) – [link].

Social Media 90

Social Media Small Business Design Media 90

Cracking the Code

MAY 25, 2010

out 25 company going public is bought in the process,the likelihood is fairly low" Bob Goodman, Bessemer on the same panel: " Bankers are good negotiators, thats why you hire them: the only way to get something out of them is to adopt a take it or leave it stance! "."having Detailed SaaS Spreadsheet (Valuation and CAC benchmark).

Software Review 74

Software Review Cloud IPO Jordan 74

This is going to be BIG.

SEPTEMBER 7, 2012

In the late 90's, it wasn't surprising that companies with no revenue that were funded at 100 million dollar valuations didn't survive. I think I'm terrific at helping early stage teams by rolling up my sleeves and doing what's necessary--getting them hires, PR, product strategy help to find that market fit. Down from what?

Later Stage 99

Later Stage Down Round Pre-Money Valuation Early Stage 99