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

Product Development 177

Product Development Cost Developer Product 177

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

ReadWriteStart

JUNE 1, 2020

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. Any custom manufactured IoT device would require software development as well as hardware customization. Forms of funding. ? Equity investment.

Startup 150

Startup Entrepreneur Elevator Pitch Seed Stage 150

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 18, 2020

It’s more possible to bootstrap today than a few years ago, as the cost of entry continues to go down. With one of the many new tools , and a dose of sweat equity, you can create a website for almost nothing -- and you are on your way to success with ecommerce, your latest invention or personal services.

Hockey Stick 423

Hockey Stick Bootstrapping Sweat Equity Intellectual Property 423

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

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.

Bootstrapping 276

Bootstrapping Entrepreneur Startup Burn Rate 276

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 6, 2016

It’s more possible to bootstrap today than a few years ago, as the cost of entry continues to go down. With one of the new free tools and a dose of sweat equity, you can create a website for almost nothing -- and you are on your way to success with ecommerce, your latest invention or personal services.

Bootstrapping 120

Bootstrapping Hockey Stick Sweat Equity Intellectual Property 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. 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

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 14, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Thursday, May 14, 2009 The Lean Startup Workshop - now an OReilly Master Class My rate of posting has been much lower lately, and this is mostly due to preparations for the upcoming Lean Startup Workshop on May 29. I have a lot of good news to report on this front. You can click here to learn more.

Lean 60

Lean San Francisco Continuous Deployment Software Review 60

The Next Web

OCTOBER 10, 2013

Shoulder – not to cry on, but to lean on. Since we bootstrapped Backblaze, early on we would have months when the company did not have enough cash from sales to buy the additional servers it needed. He convinced me to ship the Mac version and it has since become over 60 percent of our customer base.

Cofounder 143

Cofounder Technical Cofounder Kenya Dilution 143

Startup Lessons Learned

NOVEMBER 7, 2013

Guest post by Lisa Regan, writer for The Lean Startup Conference. We’re dedicated to making The Lean Startup Conference unlike other entrepreneurship conferences. As Lean Startup takes root around the world, we’d like to learn from and help people working in geographically diverse areas connect with each other.

Lean 165

Lean Nebraska San Francisco Silicon Valley 165

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

Up and Running

MAY 23, 2016

Step 1: Start with a lean plan. It’s the fastest way to get your idea onto paper, and it’s the very first step in the lean planning process, which is much easier and more iterative than traditional business planning methods. Also, make a bullet list of the marketing activities that will drive customers to your door.

Software Review 74

Software Review Software Delaware Forecast 74

OnlyOnce

JULY 9, 2013

The book has been described by a few CEOs who read it and commented early for me along the lines of “The Lean Startup movement is great, but this book starts where most of those books end and takes you through the ‘so you have a product that works in-market – now what?’ questions”. Part V: Managing Yourself So You Can Manage Others.

Startup 95

Startup Advisory Board Elevator Pitch Forecast 95

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 10, 2021

We can’t wait for customers to use the product for 12–18 months and do customer interviews or look at purchase cohorts. In 2001 companies IPO’d very quickly if they were working, by 2011 IPOs had slowed down to the point that in 2013 Aileen Lee of Cowboy Ventures astutely called billion-dollar outcomes “unicorns.”

Pre-Money Valuation 471

Pre-Money Valuation Valuation Venture Capital Early Stage 471

YoungUpstarts

JANUARY 20, 2020

Innovators can lean on both traditional and unexpected methods to secure seed funding ethically and legally. Beyond Bootstrapping and Begging. Anyone who’s watched “Shark Tank” recognizes the challenges inherent to negotiating equity terms. They’re trading shares for the ability to use others’ money.

Indiana 165

Indiana Startup Bootstrapping Finance 165

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

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

MARCH 11, 2014

Listen to this episode if you want to hear about a founder who has a product and users and paying customers … and is trying to figure out how to take his company to the next level and grow faster. Jason: So how many of those 20,000 people are paying customers? Edwin: Okay, I have different types of customers.

Technical Cofounder 220

Technical Cofounder Cofounder Software Review Management 220

www.vccafe.com

MARCH 11, 2013

Lean Methodology Sources. Steve Blank on Lean Customer Development. Part 3- Lean Cust. Customer service. Design/Front End: Twitter Bootstrap : Include this in your website, and you are half finished. Google Custom Search Engine. Customer Relationship Management. Lean Startup Circle â??

Software Review 53

Software Review Technical Review Startup 53

Up and Running

FEBRUARY 6, 2017

So, if you’re anything like me, your first startup will need to be self-funded and operated with a very lean budget. After all, sweat equity can make up for a trim marketing budget, but it would be hard to make up for cuts in product development and customer service without sacrificing customer experience.

Sweat Equity 60

Sweat Equity Equity Sales PR 60

The Next Web

AUGUST 14, 2013

Without further ado, here’s my ultimate guide to raising money as a first-time founder – leaning heavily on the experience and advice I’ve learned from other smart people who understand raising money much better than me. The best way to survive is to have customers paying you. How to Convince Investors.

Founder 142

Founder Incubator Cofounder Accredited Investor 142

VC Cafe

OCTOBER 16, 2010

Tender – customer support. uservoice – customer feedback. link] – proactive customer chat. You can then give your most passionate advocates an informal role, or ask them to join a non-exec board, or if they can really open doors give them equity. How do bootstrapped companies hire talent?

Option Pool 88

Option Pool Analytics LLC Startup 88

The Entrepreneurial Mind

JUNE 14, 2010

After all, you need equity in your home to be able to lend against it. And bootstrap every chance you get! They bootstrapped and focused on getting cash flowing as soon as possible. Revenues are the best source of financing we can ever hope for during lean times. So in the end my advice to our alum was simple.

Kentucky 56

Kentucky Washington Nashville Bootstrapping 56

viniciusvacanti.com

SEPTEMBER 7, 2010

I currently just started a tech blog to cover under the radar, bootstrapped startups and this is great advice for the startups I cover and my readers. I plan on bootstrapping my upcoming startup. Big Picture Overview of All the Components of a Web Service [To Come] More to Come… Cliff Dailey This is a great post. Thanks again.

Cofounder 43

Cofounder Technical Cofounder Founder Ruby 43

www.readwriteweb.com

OCTOBER 18, 2010

I want to know how many customers exist out there who would be likely buyers of the O-Port products, at what price-point, and what does that add up to? He is willing to give up 33% of equity for this $1 million investment. I feel that it is not at all necessary to give this much equity up at this stage of the game.

Marketing 52

Marketing Bootstrapping Incubator Angel Investor 52

www.readwriteweb.com

OCTOBER 18, 2010

I want to know how many customers exist out there who would be likely buyers of the O-Port products, at what price-point, and what does that add up to? He is willing to give up 33% of equity for this $1 million investment. I feel that it is not at all necessary to give this much equity up at this stage of the game.

Marketing 52

Marketing Bootstrapping Incubator Angel Investor 52

www.quora.com

JANUARY 16, 2011

Find Questions, Topics and People Add Question Add Question Team Configuration 500 Startups Guerilla Marketing Organizations Entrepreneurship Startup Founders & Entrepreneurs Startups Startup Incubators and Seed Programs Seedcamp Y Combinator TechStars Lean Startups What is the perfect startup team?

Technical Review 51

Technical Review Startup CTO Hire Cofounder 51

techcrunch.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

Also if one has a portal that is massive in ideas such as Yahoo, Facebook, Google, Twitter, and YouTube combined like my own without third party back ends it cost a pretty penny to build a custom one if one did not know about clones etc. Thus engineers who have the know how would be an asset. All what you said is so true. How To Get There. [.]

Technical Review 84

Technical Review Cofounder Technical Cofounder Software Review 84

Duct Tape Marketing

MARCH 1, 2018

So you’re essentially going live with it, and then you see what happens, and by doing it in this lean way hopefully you’re not spending exorbitant amounts of money or time or energy because what you want to do is you just want to put it out there and see what happens and test it out and see maybe what the business model can be.

Lean 63

Lean Social Media Bootstrapping Business Model 63