Gust

AUGUST 17, 2014

Unfocused entrepreneurs boast that their new technology will generate multiple disruptive products for consumers as well as enterprises around the world. Simplify product scope. Your product will never have enough features to satisfy everyone, and it will never be perfect. Zappos logo via Flickr by Ben Spark.

Entrepreneur 182

Entrepreneur Technical Review Angel Investor China 182

Gust

NOVEMBER 14, 2011

After you have successfully attracted angels or venture capital with your business case, your million dollar product idea, and you have a signed term sheet, there is still one more hurdle to overcome before investors write the check. Product or service readiness. Investors are evaluating your process as well as your product.

Technical Review 152

Technical Review Due Diligence Intellectual Property Private Equity 152

Gust

JUNE 8, 2023

You should know EVERYTHING about your business, product, customers and competition. It sounds obvious, but the majority of entrepreneurs who pitch me have obviously never thought through many of the major issues surrounding their companies. You should know every metric regarding customer acquisition, conversion and retention.

Retention 202

Retention Acquisition Metrics Business Model 202

Gust

OCTOBER 16, 2012

The top industries stayed relatively unchanged from the previous month, with Internet/Web Services and Consumer Products and Services leading worldwide. This means almost 1 out of every 5 startups have a product in development, whereas less than 10% are product ready, and even less are in revenue stage, which make up only 3%.

South Dakota 155

South Dakota Colombia Kentucky Hawaii 155

Gust

JUNE 19, 2012

Both products were innovative leaders. We think it’s a matter of products, but history shows us it takes more than just products and technology to create the sweeping changes. You need to explore more common and more productive approaches for getting your startup moving forward. Both were discontinued years ago.

Startup 180

Startup Forecast Angel Investor Software 180

Gust

JUNE 17, 2012

You need to explore more common and more productive approaches for getting your startup moving forward. Use this approach before you have a real valuation, a real product, or any real customers. Find a customer who would benefit greatly from getting your product first, and be willing to advance you the cost of development.

Technical Review 164

Technical Review Bootstrapping Venture Capital Incubator 164

Gust

MAY 17, 2023

based investors are productive, you soon realize that they are unwilling to invest in your Brazilian startup as it is governed by laws they are not familiar with. Imagine that you are the founder of a Brazilian B2B SaaS startup that has landed a few enterprise clients and has some good traction. While your conversations with U.S.

Delaware 160

Delaware Silicon Valley B2B Startup 160

Gust

DECEMBER 6, 2011

An experienced software engineer, for example, can develop a new mobile app with his or her own resources and market the product on the web with very little capital. Most high-impact companies need substantial cash resources to sustain their rapid grow.

Angel Investor 179

Angel Investor Venture Capital Valuation Software Engineering 179

Gust

AUGUST 5, 2022

You donate money to a company or cause, and in return you get early access to the product/service, SWAG, or a combination of both. When you hear the word crowdfunding, the first image that jumps to mind is Kickstarter. We all know how this crowdfunding site works. With equity crowdfunding, individuals invest in startups and […].

Equity 185

Equity Startup Product 185

Gust

OCTOBER 5, 2014

I agree with the seven survival challenges from Michael Fertik, in an old Harvard Business Review article , for executives making the transition: Empire-building skills are counter-productive. Establishing and wielding influence may help you move resources in your direction in a large business.

Startup 165

Startup Early Stage Technical Review .Net 165

Gust

FEBRUARY 1, 2024

Startups are often at the forefront of innovation, developing new technologies, products, and services that disrupt traditional industries and bring fresh ideas and approaches that drive technological advancements.

Intellectual Property 91

Intellectual Property Startup Technology Developer 91

Gust

SEPTEMBER 6, 2022

The founding team is usually one or two individuals building and testing products as they try to validate a demand for them in the market. Before a technology startup becomes a company, it spends a period of time as simply a project. At some point, founders ask themselves: when is it time to turn this project into a company?

Startup 172

Startup Demand Founder Technology 172

Gust

DECEMBER 15, 2011

It bears mentioning that a startup’s corporate name doesn’t necessarily have to be identical or even similar to the product or domain name. It also has its downsides if the primary product or service is such a powerful brand that consumers wrongly associate the corporate name with only that product.

Naming 141

Naming Delaware Tajikistan Database 141

Gust

AUGUST 23, 2012

The lead founder is likely to wear the hats of Founder, Chairman, CEO, President, CFO, CRO and CMO, while a co-founder may well be CTO, Chief Product Officer, and Programming Team Lead.

CTO Hire 118

CTO Hire Cofounder Startup Founder 118

Gust

DECEMBER 22, 2011

So you’ve chosen a name for your startup, product, or both. Trademarks , which we touched on last week, are brand and product names, graphic logos, slogans, taglines, and other indicators of origin of the goods or services in question. Hence this “Cliff’s Notes” refresher, to be followed by a discussion of why it matters.

Intellectual Property 149

Intellectual Property Technical Review Software Review IP 149

Gust

FEBRUARY 22, 2014

As such, creating a functional clone of Gust (including all the features under the hood, and ones that have not yet been released), using world-class engineers and state-of-the-art, 2012 project management in Ruby on Rails, would take roughly 20 person-years from soup to nuts (figure about 1/3 of that in product/UX/UI and 2/3 in actual coding.)

Belarus 107

Belarus Kazakhstan Portugal Accredited Investor 107

Gust

JULY 15, 2012

For example, if your startup is building a high-tech software product, a dream team of advisors would be a former CEO or high-level exec in another software company, a former software marketing executive, and a former financial executive.

Advisory Board 178

Advisory Board Technical Review Startup Software Review 178

Gust

AUGUST 15, 2017

So you’ve developed a game-changing product, formed a business with a killer team, quit your job, and are rolling the product out to market. Your business is the next unicorn, and all is good in the world. Now only one thing is inhibiting your company’s growth: you have no money.

Bootstrapping 178

Bootstrapping Founder Developer Startup 178

Gust

DECEMBER 15, 2013

If you are not able to keep up with demand due to lack of funds for production, and your company is too young for banks to be interested, you will find that investors love these odds, and are quick to go for a chunk of the action. On the other hand, there are clearly situations where your needs call for investors.

Bootstrapping 183

Bootstrapping Sweat Equity Entrepreneur Technical Review 183

Gust

MARCH 18, 2022

A number of years ago I worked in product for Gust Launch. As a disclaimer, I am a staunch believe in the mission of Gust Launch and—more generally—decreasing the barriers to entrepreneurialism and innovation. One of the things we did during my time at Gust Launch was form the Startup Legal Counsel network that is […].

Networking 91

Networking Startup Product 91

Gust

AUGUST 24, 2014

One of the toughest decisions for a startup is how to price their product or service. Obviously, it must be grounded by the characteristics of the market and customers you choose to serve, the pricing model of existing competitors, and a strategy you believe is consistent with your future products and direction. Product line pricing.

Revenue 184

Revenue Startup Retention Internet 184

Gust

NOVEMBER 30, 2014

Steve Jobs was one of those entrepreneurs who seemed universally either loved or hated, but not many will argue with his ability to innovate in the technology product arena over the years. Sell dreams, not products. To Jobs, people who bought Apple products were never “consumers.” Think differently about your customers.

Design 194

Design Entrepreneur Web Technology 194

Gust

NOVEMBER 23, 2013

The bottom line is that if no one shows up to buy or use your product, it doesn’t matter one whit how cool or great or innovative it is. Invested Interests Power Pitches business plan investors marketing pitching product startup' Marketing strategy actually is quite important to most investors.

Business Plan 135

Business Plan Marketing Product Startup 135

Gust

DECEMBER 1, 2011

In most cases, the answers are (1) an outstanding product or technology; (2) a successful growth business built around that product; and (3) a top-notch team to build and execute the business.

IP 114

IP Intellectual Property Equity Liquidity Event 114

Gust

SEPTEMBER 12, 2011

I’m talking about what Marc Andreeson calls product/market fit. I like products and websites that can scale up and reach very interesting volumes without being dependent on head count or manual labor or customization and lots of touches. Scalability.

Technical Review 70

Technical Review Software Review Angel Investor Exit Strategy 70

Gust

DECEMBER 5, 2011

Too many entrepreneurs develop a new product without regard for market demand , then build an entire strategy based on creating a need, rather than acting on an existing market need. Temper your product with actual market and customer feedback. Investors characterize this approach as a “solution looking for a problem.”

Technology 167

Technology Angel Investor Early Stage Viral 167

Gust

JANUARY 5, 2014

We all know the products they give away, and the ones purchased by family and friends don’t count. The real milestone, proving the business model, is that first product sold for full price to a total stranger, leaving him happy. On the other hand, if your price is over the moon, even the best product features probably won’t sell it.

Business Model 171

Business Model Sales Customer Distribution 171

Gust

SEPTEMBER 16, 2012

Implicit in agility is increased productivity on change initiatives. For the business leaders I know, these priorities almost always include the following: Business agility. How can my company keep up with the ever increasing rate of change in technology, core business strategies, and culture trends? Data security.

Technology 162

Technology Agile Architecture Distribution 162

Gust

SEPTEMBER 27, 2014

In order to be competitive, a company needs to have just about everything in place, from its product to its team to market traction, before it is ready to seek funding. Your private profile is where investors will look with a critical eye on everything that makes you a business rather than just a product or a sexy idea.

Angel Groups 159

Angel Groups Elevator Pitch Software Review Deal Flow 159

Gust

FEBRUARY 10, 2013

For most new high-tech products, the first customers are always “early adopters.” The conventional wisdom is that early adopters are the ideal target for new products, to get business rolling. The term “early adopters” relates to the people who are eager to try almost any new technology products, and originates from Everett M.

Marketing 178

Marketing Engineer Technology Product 178

Gust

NOVEMBER 10, 2013

Entrepreneurs forget that investors are looking for commercial products to make money, rather than R&D sunk costs, so investment hopes are sunk as well. Real products are only speculation at this stage, and mentioning a large list of them won’t help get outside investors. It may entail a number of false starts, but no products.

Developer 148

Developer Warrant Angel Investor Early Stage 148

Gust

MAY 18, 2014

The days are gone when a techie or a genius could build things in his garage and customers would find and buy the product, based purely on the “wow factor” of the technology. They want a personable brand, before they will consider the product. Try branding yourself, not selling a product. New technologies are everywhere today.

Customer 166

Customer Audience Advertising Social Media 166

Gust

JANUARY 4, 2012

In general, IP protection will do nothing to prevent others from independently developing something similar, copying the overall business model, targeting similar customers or end users, and perhaps even mimicking the product’s look and feel. Creating product mock-ups , wireframes, etc. Easier said than done!) trade secret).

Intellectual Property 143

Intellectual Property IP Startup United States 143

Gust

DECEMBER 24, 2012

New product startups rightfully begin with a heads-down focus on creating the ultimate product – whether it’s a new technology, a new look and ease of use, or a new low-cost delivery approach. Image via Facebook.

Customer 166

Customer Startup Retention Differentiation 166

Gust

JUNE 3, 2012

Then there are the more pragmatic questions of how to make concurrent startup efforts productive. Otherwise, I suggest that founders be up-front with their employers, with an honest commitment that the “side” work on the potential startup will not jeopardize committed results.

Entrepreneur 152

Entrepreneur Cofounder Angel Investor Salary 152

Gust

NOVEMBER 30, 2014

Steve Jobs was one of those entrepreneurs who seemed universally either loved or hated, but not many will argue with his ability to innovate in the technology product arena over the years. He was instrumental in creating Apple, which has pioneered a dazzling array of new products, and even surpassed Microsoft, to become the Read more >.

Technology 130

Technology Entrepreneur Product Startup 130

Gust

JULY 18, 2012

The recipient of the Gust-DEMO Scholarship will have a chance to launch their product to some of the most innovative people in the world. You and seventy of the world’s most carefully scrutinized emerging companies will debut your product in Santa Clara, among the best and the brightest in Silicon Valley.

Silicon Valley 142

Silicon Valley Differentiation Lead Investor Distribution 142