Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 19, 2016

In my role as an advisory board member for several startups, I’m always excited to see that initial surge of revenue from a great rollout campaign. An initial revenue surge, or a major cash advance from investors often leads to a mentality of building a large customer base at any cost.

Advisory Board 120

Advisory Board Startup Revenue Finance 120

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 22, 2016

Almost every entrepreneur looking for outside investors has heard the annoying rejection, “You are just too early – come back when you have more traction.” These need to go beyond the traditional revenue, cost, and volume metrics which may not yet have data, and can mislead you about real customer acceptance.

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Metrics Advisory Board Startup Lean 143

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 22, 2016

In reality, that’s the definition of a successful startup these days, so every aspiring entrepreneur should take note, as well as every existing corporate executive. I like their seven step approach, which I have paraphrased here for entrepreneurs as follows: Pull together a great multi-functional team. A dream is not enough.

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Intellectual Property Advisory Board Metrics Leadership 120

YoungUpstarts

JUNE 7, 2017

Many entrepreneurs start with their product, their solution, without deeply understanding the customer problem, from the customer perspective. I have found that the best ideas come from entrepreneurs with this magic combination of specialized knowledge, passion, and customer need. First, build an advisory board.

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Advisory Board Revenue Vertical Business Model 138

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 13, 2016

Entrepreneurs who are looking to attract investors need to develop and pitch a plan -- preferably written -- that answers every potential investor question about your startup before it is asked. Include advisory board member qualifications and key industry connections. What are your forecasts for revenue, expenses and cash flow?

Sweat Equity 120

Sweat Equity Advisory Board Liquidity Event Startup 120

Hearpreneur

MARCH 15, 2016

Entrepreneurs are continuously discovering that if you find a place, you can create a company. Your company produces solid revenue – what advice do you have for companies struggling to keep things even revenue-wise? Sometimes a great advisory board can be just as useful. We were in the black already after 2 years!

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Advisory Board Michigan SBIR Revenue 48

Hunter Walker

MAY 2, 2016

I’ve written before about our LP meetings – if you want to check those out before hearing about 2016’s version, here you go: Homebrew Annual Meeting 2014. Advisory Board lunch w our largest investors followed by a State of Homebrew, State of the Market, State of our Portfolio presentation. So what do we know?

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Advisory Board LP Institutional Investors Portfolio 48