Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 1, 2017

The “valley of death” is a common term in the startup world, referring to the difficulty of covering the negative cash flow in the early stages of a startup, before their new product or service is bringing in revenue from real customers. It always reduces risk to plan your business first. Commit to a major customer.

Product Development 177

Product Development Cost Developer Product 177

YoungUpstarts

AUGUST 24, 2017

Subscription business models have been around for a pretty long time, but thanks to modern technology, this model has evolved from milk or newspapers delivery to a versatile eCommerce experience. Subscription business brings recurring revenue. It is a bootstrappable model. It is a bootstrappable model.

Churn Rate 149

Churn Rate eCommerce Business Model Bootstrapping 149

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

NOVEMBER 5, 2014

It’s often said that you shouldn’t talk about price during customer development interviews. Consider the consequences of these monthly pricing possibilities: $0/mo means your goal is to maximize growth (trust and usage) instead of revenue. Even bootstrapped businesses can make this work (e.g. Think: GoDaddy).

Bootstrapping 294

Bootstrapping Technical Review B2C Sales Cycle 294

David Teten

AUGUST 19, 2019

So you’re interested in raising capital from a Revenue-Based Investor VC. A new wave of Revenue-Based Investors (“RBI”) are emerging. I’ve been a traditional equity VC for 8 years, and I’m now researching new business models in venture capital. Our wheelhouse is bootstrapped (or lightly capitalized) SMB SaaS.

Revenue 60

Revenue Technical Review Software Review Equity 60

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 19, 2013

The “valley of death” is a common term in the startup world, referring to the difficulty of covering the negative cash flow in the early stages of a startup, before their new product or service is bringing in revenue from real customers. It always reduces risk to plan your business first. Commit to a major customer.

Intellectual Property 309

Intellectual Property Technical Review Venture Capital Startup 309

The Next Web

DECEMBER 30, 2012

How do you monetize a unique business model based on users rather than selling an actual product? We have a very simple business model. We create the best experience for creating personalized books, cards and calendars then our customers pay us for these products. Diversifying revenue streams at Wave.

Business Model 133

Business Model Technical Review Advertising B2C 133

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 12, 2018

The “valley of death” is a common term in the startup world, referring to the difficulty of covering the negative cash flow in the early stages of a startup, before their new product or service is bringing in revenue from real customers. It always reduces risk to plan your business first. Commit to a major customer.

Intellectual Property 134

Intellectual Property Technical Review Startup Incubator 134

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 22, 2021

How do you convince investors that your business model will really work, before you have a revenue stream that exceeds your expenses? Even if you are bootstrapping your business, and you are the only investor, you should be asking yourself the same question. Plan for a real revenue model.

Business Model 414

Business Model Angel Investor Bootstrapping Revenue 414

David Teten

AUGUST 19, 2019

A new wave of Revenue-Based Investors are emerging who are using creative investing structures with some of the upside of traditional VC, but some of the downside protection of debt. I’ve been a traditional equity VC for 8 years, and I’m now researching new business models in venture capital. So what is Revenue Based Investing?

Revenue 60

Revenue Term Sheet Founder Technical Review 60

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 5, 2009

Chasing funding versus chasing customers and a repeatable and scalable business model, is one reason startups fail. Chasing funding versus chasing customers and a repeatable and scalable business model, is one reason startups fail. Are there customers for what you are building? How many are there?

Customer Development 262

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 262

ReadWriteStart

JUNE 1, 2020

Funding might be a need in some cases — but it’s not an absolute necessity. ? The business should be self-sustainable. The primary source of your funds should be your paying customers, i.e., your business should generate enough revenues and profits to fund the growth and expansion. Bootstrapping.

Startup 150

Startup Entrepreneur Elevator Pitch Seed Stage 150

The Startup Magazine

MARCH 29, 2024

This isn’t just about having a eureka moment; it’s about understanding the problem you’re solving and why it matters to your potential customers. Designing Your Business Model Crafting a business model is like building a blueprint for your venture.

Intellectual Property 132

Intellectual Property Angel Investor Business Model Bootstrapping 132

YoungUpstarts

DECEMBER 2, 2019

In fact, remote work is on the rise – especially in the form of virtual assistants – and it’s one of the primary reasons why more small businesses are opting to outsource work. Inefficiencies can often cost businesses between 20-30% of their annual revenue. is the single biggest outsourcing country globally.

Technical Review 147

Technical Review Due Diligence Technical Support Bootstrapping 147

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 8, 2015

The “valley of death” is a common term in the startup world, referring to the difficulty of covering the negative cash flow in the early stages of a startup, before their new product or service is bringing in revenue from real customers. It always reduces risk to plan your business first. Commit to a major customer.

Entrepreneur 120

Entrepreneur Intellectual Property Technical Review Incubator 120

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 17, 2023

For example, if you have a proven product, real revenue, a big potential market, and are ready to scale up the business, every investor will be interested. For investors, this is the idea stage , where you may have a great idea, but no plan, product, or customers, and probably no success record in this business domain.

Angel Investor 313

Angel Investor Intellectual Property Investment Bankers Private Equity 313

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 15, 2014

Based on the Startup Environment Index from the Kauffman Foundation and LegalZoom a while back, personal money, or bootstrapping, continues to be the primary startup funding source. At least wait until later, when you ready to scale, and have some “leverage” based on a proven business model, some real customers, and real revenue.

Bootstrapping 276

Bootstrapping Entrepreneur Startup Burn Rate 276

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 19, 2021

Other entrepreneurs skip just a couple of the elements outlined in my original article, “ These 10 Key Elements Make a Business Plan Fundable. Investors know that first-time entrepreneurs who start a business without a good written plan almost always fail. Investors bet on the team, more than the business plan.

Intellectual Property 429

Intellectual Property Bootstrapping Venture Capital Revenue 429

YoungUpstarts

MARCH 14, 2016

Once the most heavily funded startup in New York City, according to then-CEO Jason Goldberg, Fab blew through $200 million of its $336 million in VC cash without settling on a business model. It made risky bets in untested markets and tried to grow bigger than its customers were ready for. Assuming you’re one of the 99.95

Venture Capital 100

Venture Capital Securities and Exchange Commission New York City Cofounder 100

Gust

APRIL 27, 2014

Write down the key elements of your business plan very early, and keep it current as things evolve. This will include the first version of many critical processes that can be split out later, including market opportunity, requirements, product definition, business model, sales process, and organization. Funding process.

Startup 187

Startup Institutional Investors Angel Investor Bootstrapping 187

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 20, 2015

How do you convince investors that your business model will really work, before you have a revenue stream that exceeds your expenses? Even if you are bootstrapping your business, and you are the only investor, you should be asking yourself the same question. Plan for a real revenue model.

Business Model 120

Business Model Angel Investor Startup Bootstrapping 120

YoungUpstarts

MAY 28, 2014

In other words, you have done wonders while “bootstrapping.” ” Getting some revenue from at least 3 clients (proving that there’s value to what you’re doing) would be fantastic, but other types of traction and validation would help too. Show Capital Efficiency. Kickstarter.

Security 200

Security Incubator Technical Review Bootstrapping 200

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 7, 2022

Angel investors will perk up if you have a prototype or a few real customers, while venture capitalists will likely choose to wait until you have achieved several million in revenue or customer count. Be prepared to explain your business model. How much do you really need for the next 12 to 18 months?

Preferred Stock 304

Preferred Stock Exit Strategy Equity Angel Investor 304

ReadWriteStart

JUNE 16, 2011

Freshdesk First, Girish Mathrubootham from Chennai, India, pitched Freshdesk , a SaaS company that provides small and medium businesses with on-demand customer support software that offers multi-channel social support. Freshdesk introduces itself as a kind of Salesforce.com for customer support so to speak.

India 123

India Bootstrapping Non-Compete Entrepreneur 123

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 22, 2020

For example, if you have a proven product, real revenue, a big potential market, and are ready to scale up the business, every investor will be interested. For investors, this is the idea stage , where you may have a great idea, but no plan, product, or customers, and probably no success record in this business domain.

Angel Investor 370

Angel Investor Intellectual Property Investment Bankers Private Equity 370

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 14, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Tuesday, April 14, 2009 Validated learning about customers Would you rather have $30,000 or $1 million in revenues for your startup? All things being equal, of course, you’d rather have more revenue rather than less. And yet revenue alone is not a sufficient goal.

Customer 167

Customer San Francisco Lean Hockey Stick 167

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

JANUARY 13, 2015

Often your best estimate of any metric or market behavior or business model component is at best accurate within a power of ten, for example “expected conversion rate between 0.5% and 5%” or “cost to acquire a customer between $50 and $500″ or “average monthly revenue per customer between $20 and $200.”

Business Model 120

Business Model Affiliate Startup Bootstrapping 120

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 19, 2015

Outside investors are most interested in scaling a proven business model, not research and development. Thus it’s a waste of time for most entrepreneurs to be looking for investors until they have a product and some customer revenue. Most founders bootstrap product development.

Technical Review 120

Technical Review Intellectual Property Cofounder Bootstrapping 120

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 4, 2016

Starting a new business on a limited budget without investor involvement is called bootstrapping, and it’s the only way to go if you don’t want to spend months on the investment pitch preparation and delivery circuit. Defer your urge to find office space until you have customers. I’m convinced this also reduces risk.

Bootstrapping 120

Bootstrapping Social Media Equity eCommerce 120

Gust

DECEMBER 7, 2014

Based on the Startup Environment Index from the Kauffman Foundation and LegalZoom a while back, personal money, or bootstrapping, continues to be the primary startup funding source. At least wait until later, when you ready to scale, and have some “leverage” based on a proven business model, some real customers, and real revenue.

Bootstrapping 191

Bootstrapping Entrepreneur Startup Burn Rate 191

The Next Web

SEPTEMBER 22, 2013

From a narrow niche of IT professionals who were our early target market, we now have a wide variety of customers.”. Bootstrapping can be fun, you get to iterate quickly, turn on dimes, invent new features on the fly. I think we’ve done a good job at this and it shines through in Simple’s product and customer experience.

Cofounder 164

Cofounder Founder Startup Bootstrapping 164

ReadWriteStart

JUNE 29, 2020

In other words, you must start bootstrapping an online startup , because the future of the global business world is online. The companies that have the greatest chance of surviving the global economic shutdown are the ones that have pivoted their business processes from the brick-and-mortar model to an online model.

Bootstrapping 85

Bootstrapping Global Startup Hungary 85

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 4, 2020

Angel investors will perk up if you have a prototype or a few real customers, while venture capitalists will likely choose to wait until you have achieved several million in revenue or customer count. Be prepared to explain your business model. How much do you really need for the next 12 to 18 months?

Startup 337

Startup Preferred Stock Exit Strategy Equity 337

ReadWriteStart

SEPTEMBER 23, 2010

First up was Brad Barrett presenting GrillGrate , a grill accessory with which Brad has built a year-to-date revenue of $400,000. Next, Umakant Soni discussed Vimagino.com , a software for Web-based Q&A support to engage customers better on sites that are trying to draw people in and convert them into customers. GrillGrate.

India 114

India Silicon Valley Incubator Bootstrapping 114

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

JULY 19, 2010

No wait, I forgot, actually the question is: What happens when employee #2 makes off with your code and roadmap and marketing data and customer list, moves to Bolivia, and starts selling your stuff world-wide at one-tenth the price? But how does authority convert to revenue? The good news: There are good answers to these questions!

Software Review 325

Software Review Technical Review Development Team Review Bolivia 325

ReadWriteStart

SEPTEMBER 10, 2010

This company provides a crowdsourced customer service solution to enterprises. Gio pitched it to me as a crowdsourced BPO, but I think he will have more success if he simply focuses on customer service as his core value proposition. They already have several customers including some telcos, and are at about $350,000 in revenues.

Cloud 115

Cloud Silicon Valley Incubator Finance 115

Spencer Fry

MAY 2, 2014

We started in July 2013 with the intention of getting something testable in the hands of a few customers by September and releasing it to everyone else by Thanksgiving. As a bootstrapped company, we cannot afford to have so much time between releases. Why Bootstrapping is Good and Bad. Why Bootstrapping is Good and Bad.

Bootstrapping 57

Bootstrapping Revenue Forecast Product Development 57

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 7, 2011

Lesson: You dn’t want your customers to feel locked into using your software. It helps with sales cycles because customers know that they can switch away if they so choose. While customers will be willing to try your product, they think two steps ahead. A product manager is responsible for: Talking to customers.

Software Review 285

Software Review Software St. Louis API 285