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. After bootstrapping, friends and family are the most common funding sources for early-stage startups.

Intellectual Property 309

Intellectual Property Technical Review Venture Capital Startup 309

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. Nevertheless, it’s an option that doesn’t cost you equity. Commit to a major customer.

Intellectual Property 134

Intellectual Property Technical Review Startup Incubator 134

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 25, 2012

For example, with any outside investment, you give up some ownership and control, and with bootstrapping your growth curve will likely be longer and more organic. Following is my prioritized larger list of sources, with some “rules of thumb” which may save you a lot of time and energy: Bootstrapping. Bartering services for equity.

Technical Review 257

Technical Review Bootstrapping Venture Capital Incubator 257

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. Nevertheless, it’s an option that doesn’t cost you equity. Commit to a major customer.

Entrepreneur 120

Entrepreneur Intellectual Property Technical Review Incubator 120

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 21, 2023

For example, professional investors put great priority on your previous experience in building a business, and they expect to own a portion of the business equity and control for the funds they do provide. Trade equity or services for startup help. Another common example is exchanging equity for legal and accounting support.

Equity 266

Equity Startup Small Business Administration SBA 266

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 16, 2011

For example, with any outside investment, you give up some ownership and control, and with bootstrapping your growth curve will likely be longer and more organic. Following is my prioritized larger list of sources, with some “rules of thumb” which may save you a lot of time and energy: Bootstrapping. Bartering services for equity.

Technical Review 233

Technical Review Bootstrapping Startup Venture Capital 233

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 17, 2023

On the other hand, if you are a new entrepreneur, still in the idea stage, professional investors will only tell you to come back later when you have traction (customers and revenue). If you want to avoid all these stage and investment considerations, you can always bootstrap the business (fund it yourself, and grow organically).

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. Even a small investor in the early days will take a large equity percentage, due to that pesky valuation challenge. Marty Zwilling.

Bootstrapping 276

Bootstrapping Entrepreneur Startup Burn Rate 276

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 29, 2020

For example, professional investors put great priority on your previous experience in building a business, and they expect to own a portion of the business equity and control for the funds they do provide. Trade equity or services for startup help. Another common example is exchanging equity for legal and accounting support.

Equity 436

Equity Small Business Administration SBA Syndicate 436

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 12, 2021

In my experience as a business advisor and occasional investor, many of you won’t make it that far, succumbing to the high costs of getting those first customers, funding an initial inventory, and building an operational support process. Actively seek out government and local incentives. Build your plan around resources you know.

Dilution 404

Dilution Incubator Bootstrapping Government 404

Gust

JUNE 17, 2012

For example, with any outside investment, you give up some ownership and control, and with bootstrapping your growth curve will likely be longer and more organic. Following is my prioritized larger list of sources, with some “rules of thumb” which may save you a lot of time and energy: Bootstrapping. Bartering services for equity.

Technical Review 164

Technical Review Bootstrapping Venture Capital Incubator 164

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 22, 2020

On the other hand, if you are a new entrepreneur, still in the idea stage, professional investors will only tell you to come back later when you have traction (customers and revenue). If you want to avoid all these stage and investment considerations, you can always bootstrap the business (fund it yourself, and grow organically).

Angel Investor 370

Angel Investor Intellectual Property Investment Bankers Private Equity 370

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 1, 2010

For example, with any outside investment, you give up some ownership and control, and with bootstrapping you growth curve will likely be longer and more organic. Following is my prioritized larger list of sources, with some “rules of thumb” which may save you a lot of time and energy: Bootstrapping. Bartering services for equity.

Technical Review 149

Technical Review Bootstrapping Startup Venture Capital 149

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. Even a small investor in the early days will take a large equity percentage, due to that pesky valuation challenge.

Bootstrapping 191

Bootstrapping Entrepreneur Startup Burn Rate 191

David Teten

AUGUST 19, 2019

This structure offers some of the benefits of traditional equity VC, without some of the negatives of equity VC. 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. Bigfoot Capital. ARR of $500K+.

Revenue 60

Revenue Technical Review Software Review Equity 60

Professor VC

MARCH 10, 2009

Bootstrapping 101. I moderated a panel discussion last night on one of my favorite topics, bootstrapping, as part of our Silicon Valley Center for Entrepreneurship Eminent Speaker Series at San Jose State. They have a standard presentation on bootstrapping, which they present around the country. ProfessorVC.

Bootstrapping 28

Bootstrapping San Jose Silicon Valley Software Review 28

Up and Running

NOVEMBER 26, 2018

Normally you have to have a team in place, have made progress toward idea validation , or—better still—traction (paying customers). Some government agencies, business development centers, business incubators, and similar organizations will be tied into the investment communities in your area. Nobody invests in ideas or plans.

SBA 161

SBA Venture Capital Angel Investor Technical Review 161

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 10, 2018

For example, professional investors put great priority on your previous experience in building a business, and they expect to own a portion of the business equity and control for the funds they do provide. Trade equity or services for startup help. Another common example is exchanging equity for legal and accounting support.

Entrepreneur 240

Entrepreneur Equity Small Business Administration SBA 240

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 10, 2021

And there is so much money around being thrown at so many entrepreneurs that many firms don’t even care about board seats, governance rights or heaven forbid doing work with the company because that would eat into the VCs time needed to chase 5 more deals. A seed round these days is $3–5 million or more!

Pre-Money Valuation 471

Pre-Money Valuation Valuation Venture Capital Early Stage 471

ReadWriteStart

DECEMBER 9, 2010

First, there are two primary aspects that have to be managed: inventory financing and customer acquisition costs. At the same time, we also have seen several examples of entrepreneurs who have successfully bootstrapped their e-commerce companies without any external financing until much later in the game. Or, bootstrap longer.

Silicon Valley 117

Silicon Valley Malaysia India China 117

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 19, 2018

On the other hand, if you are a new entrepreneur, still in the idea stage, professional investors will only tell you to come back later when you have traction (customers and revenue). If you want to avoid all these stage and investment considerations, you can always bootstrap the business (fund it yourself, and grow organically).

Angel Investor 184

Angel Investor Intellectual Property Investment Bankers Private Equity 184

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 12, 2014

For example, professional investors put great priority on your previous experience in building a business, and they expect to own a portion of the business equity and control for the funds they do provide. Trade equity or services for startup help. Another common example is exchanging equity for legal and accounting support.

Entrepreneur 283

Entrepreneur Startup Equity Small Business Administration 283

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 4, 2014

On the other hand, if you are a new entrepreneur, still in the idea stage, professional investors will only tell you to come back later when you have traction (customers and revenue). If you want to avoid all these stage and investment considerations, you can always bootstrap the business (fund it yourself, and grow organically).

Angel Investor 232

Angel Investor Intellectual Property Investment Bankers Private Equity 232

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 25, 2016

For example, professional investors put great priority on your previous experience in building a business, and they expect to own a portion of the business equity and control for the funds they do provide. Trade equity or services for startup help. Another common example is exchanging equity for legal and accounting support.

Equity 120

Equity Small Business Administration SBA Syndicate 120

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 28, 2013

Based on the latest Startup Environment Index from the Kauffman Foundation and LegalZoom, personal money, or bootstrapping, continued to be the primary startup funding in 2012. Even a small investor in the early days will take a large equity percentage, due to that pesky valuation challenge. You will be happier and under less pressure.

Startup 264

Startup Burn Rate Bootstrapping Valuation 264

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 13, 2016

On the other hand, if you are a new entrepreneur, still in the idea stage, professional investors will only tell you to come back later when you have traction (customers and revenue). If you want to avoid all these stage and investment considerations, you can always bootstrap the business (fund it yourself, and grow organically).

Matching 120

Matching Angel Investor Intellectual Property Investment Bankers 120

Up and Running

APRIL 24, 2018

Not only that, but global equity funding to digital health companies reached $3.67 You and your team must know how to think about problems from new angles and adapt to changing market and customer demands. Once you understand when and how customers will buy from your business, you can then scale your startup accordingly.

SBIR 73

SBIR Startup Artificial Inteligence Intellectual Property 73

ReadWriteStart

DECEMBER 16, 2010

The trends include Cloud computing, outsourcing, social Web, vertical and local Web, smartphones and tablets, online advertising, online video, online gaming, e-books, and bootstrapped entrepreneurship. Bhupendra has built a product and has started engaging a few customers. You can find details in the blog post on [link].

Senegal 117

Senegal Nevada Bootstrapping Silicon Valley 117

Duct Tape Marketing

APRIL 6, 2022

Well, Steve Hoffman (02:34): First of all, I did three venture funded startups in Silicon valley and two bootstrap startups. Even when you have no money or very little money, get them committed to you, get investors committed, get customers committed. So I know what it's like. That is the role of the CEO in an early stage company.

San Francisco 95

San Francisco Technical Review Incubator Silicon Valley 95

Up and Running

OCTOBER 24, 2017

This can easily be accomplished by surveying current and potential business customers, testing focus groups, conducting one-on-one interviews, utilizing social media polls, and observing data through platforms like Google Analytics. This is one of the tradeoffs of getting outside funding. So how do you attract investors?

Entrepreneur 135

Entrepreneur Venture Capital Angel Investor Campaign 135

Bryce Dot VC

APRIL 20, 2015

Independent businesses should provide equity or equity-like profit sharing to all employees that should be reported in percentage of company/profits vs. number of shares. No governing body, no membership fees, no expensive audits required. A few thoughts: Independent businesses are majority owned by their Founders.

Equity 40

Equity Capital Gains Bootstrapping Distribution 40

Babbling VC

APRIL 3, 2011

Here's the next question/request which came up in regards to blog topics: From a purely selfish standpoint, I'd like to hear about your views on bootstrapping vs. VC. It injects a layer of beauracry into your business that only government intervention could match. Bootstrapping is always the best way to build a business.

Venture Capital 81

Venture Capital Bootstrapping Global Valuation 81

VC Cafe

JANUARY 22, 2021

AWS Marketplace Startup Program – the ‘app store’ for B2B startups who are interested to sell their product to AWS customers. AWS Connections – A program that facilitates relationships between AWS enterprise customers and startups to solve enterprises’ needs and, in turn, help to grow startups. Support Programs.

Technical Review 174

Technical Review Startup Venture Capital Incubator 174

SoCal CTO

SEPTEMBER 8, 2010

equity debate. Start-Up Chile: $40k to Live There and Start a Company - Ben Casnocha: The Blog , August 14, 2010 Governments round the world are trying to stimulate entrepreneurship. The Chilean government recently announced a bold initiative that stands apart from the usual innovation and start-up handwaving. We declined.

Startup 191

Startup CTO Hire Cofounder Venture Capital 191

www.mint.com

MARCH 9, 2010

Go there now » Sign up or log in to mint.com Updates Drop Your Debt to Win 2 comments How To The Top 5 Customer Complaint Letters — And What You Can Learn From Them 5 comments Investing In Graphics: What Is a Stock? Are you going after the same customers? No customers no sales, no startup. Live your life.

Software Review 68

Software Review Startup Post-Money Valuation Technical Review 68

Up and Running

FEBRUARY 9, 2015

I’m also going to walk you through developing your marketing plan because I see too many people, they focus on their logo, they focus on their location, they focus on their invitation to their grand opening event and if their life depended on it could not tell you who their niche target customer is. What do I mean by that?

Social Media 60

Social Media Small Business Software Review Technical Review 60

Austin Startup

JUNE 26, 2019

The Whole Enchilada For those of you interested in more than The Skinny, keep reading… Countless conversations have been had with key users, customers, advisors, mentors, family and friends. and * on a bootstrapped budget* : We first engaged in customer surveys and validated a huge problem?—?several What did our customers think?

Silicon Valley 54

Silicon Valley Startup B2C Sweat Equity 54