Up and Running

JULY 10, 2017

To determine whether freemium is right for you, do the simple math: Figure out how many paying customers you need to run the company. If you charge every user $50 and spend $10K to pay the business bills, you need at least 200 customers to break even. In our example, it’s 20K non-paying customers.

Startup 110

Startup Non-Compete Viral Software Review 110

View from Seed

MARCH 22, 2016

Even if you’re in the pre-revenue, pre-seed or seed stage, there are still ways to get on a reporter’s radar. A business publication may care less about the technical nuances, but you can bet they’ll want to hear about your numbers and your strategy for raising revenue. This one is tricker in the pre-revenue stage. As with No.

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage San Francisco Startup CTO Hire 120

ConversionXL

NOVEMBER 25, 2020

Typically, people who are going to watch these videos are already customers or at the very bottom of the funnel. It’s a great way to bring value to your customers, but you’re missing out on the leverage that YouTube provides. We’re a bootstrapped company that started with more time than money.

Channel 129

Channel Metrics Algorithm Video 129

ReadWriteStart

JUNE 29, 2020

There has never been a viral outbreak of such magnitude before. In other words, you must start bootstrapping an online startup , because the future of the global business world is online. Before we look at ways to bootstrap a startup, let’s consider a comprehensive definition of what a startup is. Ways to bootstrap a startup.

Bootstrapping 85

Bootstrapping Global Startup Hungary 85

Austin Startup

AUGUST 3, 2017

I want to understand who the customer is, what problem you solve, and how you do it. If your answers starts with, “We have multiple revenue streams…” that’s a bad thing. What I really hear is, “ We have no idea what the most significant revenue driver will be. “ Is it something I can use to make my own life better?

Technical Review 69

Technical Review Startup Texas Email 69

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 26, 2018

The intent is to indicate that founder passion is not a substitute for real customers buying the product. The challenge is to convince investors that your business will attract real customers, before you have a revenue stream that exceeds your expenses. Build a realistic revenue model and price, based on cost.

Angel Investor 147

Angel Investor Distribution Bootstrapping Viral 147

YoungUpstarts

MAY 24, 2017

The best startups, of course, are those who help the world become a better place, but unless your revenue exceeds your expenses and your work results in profit, you are doing charity, not running a business. In a free trial you offer customers the full version of the product for a limited period of time – usually from 7 to 30 days.

Startup 173

Startup Viral Silicon Valley B2C 173

Up and Running

MAY 23, 2016

In fact, SaaS industry revenue is projected to grow from $49 billion in 2015 to $67 billion in 2018, a compound annual growth rate of approximately eight percent. A description of the problem you’re solving for your customers, and your solution to the problem, which is usually your product or service. Solve a problem you can relate to.

Software Review 74

Software Review Software Delaware Forecast 74

ReadWriteStart

JANUARY 27, 2011

This partnership speaks to a core philosophy of the program where we encourage entrepreneurs to get as much customer validation as possible before raising too much money, use other people's channels if you can get to them, don't burn too much cash, and all that good fiscal conservative stuff. million in revenue. SOCO Games. Brainscape.

Dilution 114

Dilution Revenue Finance Entrepreneur 114

Hippoland

FEBRUARY 12, 2018

I’ll give you an example with my own startup LaunchBit and how our understanding of the problem and the customer became more refined over time: V1: Helping online marketers get customers profitably. V2: Helping online marketers who have previously bought ads in email lists get customers profitably. But the execution is hard.

Seed Stage 48

Seed Stage Business Model B2B Email 48

Hippoland

FEBRUARY 12, 2018

I’ll give you an example with my own startup LaunchBit and how our understanding of the problem and the customer became more refined over time: V1: Helping online marketers get customers profitably. V2: Helping online marketers who have previously bought ads in email lists get customers profitably. But the execution is hard.

Seed Stage 48

Seed Stage Business Model B2B Email 48

Spencer Fry

FEBRUARY 28, 2013

Clearly define how our product benefits the customer (our unique value proposition): If the visitor to your service doesn't understand exactly what the value is to them and why they should use you then they'll hit the back button. In one sentence, you should clearly define your unique value proposition for the type of customer you want.

Startup 78

Startup Ruby XML Email 78

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 10, 2016

You have to be 1000% dedicated to the mission and the problem you’re trying to solve and always be customer focused, because it is a long ride. — She explains why they turned to Kickstarter and what happened with their campaign: We kept hearing from investors, “Who are your customers? Who’s invested?”

Entrepreneur 260

Entrepreneur Cofounder San Francisco Campaign 260

Software By Rob

SEPTEMBER 30, 2010

Where they don’t belong is with a bootstrapped founder trying to figure out how many customers she can expect to reach next month on her shoestring marketing budget. It then crunches those numbers together with an expected conversion rate and expected price to give you an idea of expected monthly revenue.

Marketing 64

Marketing Software Review Matching Bootstrapping 64

Software By Rob

NOVEMBER 15, 2011

I received the following question from a reader: I was wondering if you had any thoughts on cost of customer acquisition for freemium businesses. Our lifetime value of a customer is only around $1 when you factor in a high initial churn and all the free users. And I hate basing a business on luck and outlier-class talent.

Acquisition 56

Acquisition Customer Bootstrapping Viral 56

Duct Tape Marketing

JANUARY 19, 2023

And it's the same thing for individuals because at that early stage of a business, when you don't yet have a product, even sometimes when you don't yet have, um, customers, you don't yet have traction in sales, how are you gonna judge it? Should you bootstrap? Well, you're gonna judge it by the team, by the co-founders. 10:56): Right?

Audio 87

Audio Cofounder Framework Early Stage 87

Hippoland

AUGUST 8, 2018

One thing I’ve noticed is that almost every repeat, previously-successful-founder focuses on the same thing for their respective startups: customer acquisition. Very simply, your cost to acquire a customer needs to be lower than the value of that customer (lifetime value). This is obvious. Marketing first. Product second.

Founder 48

Founder Sales Cycle Affiliate Retention 48

Hippoland

AUGUST 8, 2018

One thing I’ve noticed is that almost every repeat, previously-successful-founder focuses on the same thing for their respective startups: customer acquisition. Very simply, your cost to acquire a customer needs to be lower than the value of that customer (lifetime value). This is obvious. Marketing first. Product second.

Founder 48

Founder Sales Cycle Affiliate Retention 48

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 10, 2016

You have to be 1000% dedicated to the mission and the problem you’re trying to solve and always be customer focused, because it is a long ride. — She explains why they turned to Kickstarter and what happened with their campaign: We kept hearing from investors, “Who are your customers? Who’s invested?”

Entrepreneur 120

Entrepreneur Cofounder San Francisco Campaign 120

Duct Tape Marketing

DECEMBER 14, 2017

John Jantsch: Now, obviously nobody’s buying or if people are buying and saying it doesn’t work, that gives you the feedback you need, but do you have any ways that you intentionally stay close enough to customers to understand that? Matt Watson: I love talking to customers, and solving their problems, and getting their feedback.

Kansas City 40

Kansas City CTO Hire Las Vegas Software Developers 40

ReadWriteStart

NOVEMBER 16, 2010

The big enterprise software companies almost all bootstrapped their way to profitability before they got their first external investors (typically via an IPO). In simple terms the customer's risk of doing nothing has to be higher than the risk of buying software from an unknown startup. Learn the rule of 3.

Software 127

Software Startup Architecture Bootstrapping 127

Duct Tape Marketing

JANUARY 29, 2019

A lot of investors were interested, but many required some tracks, some results, some revenue before they could invest. But for me at that time, and the way I was thinking about it is how am I going to be able to create traction, how am I going to be able to generate revenue if I don’t have this product. Abdo Riani: Exactly.

Community 55

Community Bootstrapping Entrepreneur Distribution 55

ConversionXL

NOVEMBER 6, 2019

Then we ship it to customers way before it’s ready. For this article, we asked 14 SaaS CEOs a simple question: “How much did you spend on your MVP before you had your first dollar of revenue?”. We didn’t spend any real cash prior to getting our first paying customer,” recounts Arsenault. “I’ll Image source).

Sweat Equity 78

Sweat Equity Software Review Vesting Cofounder 78

mashable.com

SEPTEMBER 22, 2008

Accounting, Billing, Invoicing, Estimating & Contracts LiteAccounting – Invoice and track payment from your customers without a bunch of extra, useless features. endeve – Issue invoices, manage clients and check revenues all in one place. Invoice Journal – Free invoicing program.

Software Review 78

Software Review Social Media Social Network Software 78

Hippoland

OCTOBER 16, 2016

As a result, for these kinds of businesses, investors often don’t expect that companies can earn revenue right out of the gate, because they may not legally be able to. Do you have virality built into the product? In the beginning, this may not be a problem — you can bootstrap. I mean REALLY HARD.

Startup 48

Startup Vertical Early Stage Bootstrapping 48

Reid Hoffman

MARCH 19, 2019

But in today’s world, speed-to-scale entrepreneurship is what we need to improve society, transform industries, and create massive value for customers, employees, and investors. Customers value and benefit from the convenience, price, and selection of Amazon, which is why the company is, by a wide margin, America’s largest bookseller.

Cofounder 28

Cofounder Business Model IPO Non-Compete 28

ConversionXL

NOVEMBER 6, 2019

Then we ship it to customers way before it’s ready. For this article, we asked 14 SaaS CEOs a simple question: “How much did you spend on your MVP before you had your first dollar of revenue?”. We didn’t spend any real cash prior to getting our first paying customer,” recounts Arsenault. “I’ll Image source).

Sweat Equity 50

Sweat Equity Software Review Vesting Cofounder 50