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How to Decrease the Odds That Your Startup Fails

Both Sides of the Table

It says that selling an airplane ticket for $500 and getting paid a $5 fees by the airlines (1% gross margin) is not the same thing as selling $500 of software that you built (>90% gross margin). Most of this advice boils down to an argument in favor of basic planning before starting a company or raising money.

Startup 150
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How to Start a Startup

www.paulgraham.com

I wanted to work in the pure, intellectual world of software, not deal with customers mundane problems. Some believe only businesspeople can do this-- that hackers can implement software, but not design it. But it turned outthey didnt like us, because our software was easy to use and we hostedthe site. Thats nonsense.

Startup 105
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Tiered Valuation Caps

Austin Startup

However, there are circumstances in which founders know there are potential serious milestones on the short-term horizon that would dramatically influence valuation, but they need to close their seed money now. The PR story behind that trend — the way it gets sold — is that it’s about saving companies money. Sounds legit.

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From Nothing To Something. How To Get There.

techcrunch.com

There’s an uglier side to all this business that is making it hard for a lot of folks to get psyched by articles like this anymore, even though its right on the money… Joe Johnson Is software the only kind of startup that is interesting to anyone anymore? I can’t code, and that’s a major disadvantage.