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. Join a startup incubator. Use crowd funding to build reserves.

Intellectual Property 134

Intellectual Property Technical Review Startup Incubator 134

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. Join a startup incubator. Solicit funds from friends and family. Use crowd funding.

Intellectual Property 309

Intellectual Property Technical Review Venture Capital Startup 309

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 8, 2019

For a nonprofit, bootstrapping is self-funding from donations and fund-raising. Government grants. What options do they have available to them, since they can’t sell a share of the company (no equity investment)? Individual and institutional philanthropy. As in any company, they can lead to employee problems, or messy legal issues.

Equity 235

Equity Angel Investor Technical Review Exit Strategy 235

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 11, 2022

For a nonprofit, bootstrapping is self-funding from donations and fund-raising. Government grants. What options do they have available to them, since they can’t sell a share of the company (no equity investment)? Individual and institutional philanthropy. As in any company, they can lead to employee problems, or messy legal issues.

Angel Investor 327

Angel Investor Equity Technical Review Exit Strategy 327

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 5, 2023

It’s helpful to think of startups as proceeding through several stages, which I have defined a long time ago from a funding perspective. Their real value is your access to senior advisors with experience, and other startups in the same stage. The challenge is finding and using qualified affordable support organizations for each stage.

Incubator 305

Incubator Startup Exit Strategy Institutional Investors 305

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 14, 2014

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. Join a startup incubator. Solicit funds from friends and family. Use crowd funding.

Entrepreneur 283

Entrepreneur Intellectual Property Technical Review Incubator 283

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 15, 2014

In my experience, that’s actually the worst way to start, for reasons I will outline here, and also the least common way, according to an authoritative survey of new startups. Fundraising and investor governance are never-ending tasks, which will take real focus away from building the right product and finding real customers.

Bootstrapping 276

Bootstrapping Entrepreneur Startup Burn Rate 276

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 12, 2020

It’s helpful to think of startups as proceeding through several stages, which I have defined a long time ago from a funding perspective. Their real value is your access to senior advisors with experience, and other startups in the same stage. The challenge is finding and using qualified affordable support organizations for each stage.

Incubator 429

Incubator Startup Exit Strategy Institutional Investors 429

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. Join a startup incubator. Solicit funds from friends and family. Use crowd funding.

Product Development 177

Product Development Cost Developer Product 177

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 16, 2011

Money to build the business is the number one challenge for most startups. A large percentage of startups never apply to either. You need to explore more common and more productive approaches for getting your startup moving forward. Self-funding is the preferred source of cash for your startup – if you can do it.

Technical Review 233

Technical Review Bootstrapping Startup Venture Capital 233

Gust

APRIL 27, 2014

Even when your startup is a one-man show and lots of fun, a “business” needs some discipline and controls to keep it from being defined as a hobby by investors, and assure some financial return. Here are eight key business tasks that relate to almost every startup, generally prioritized by criticality. Funding process.

Startup 187

Startup Institutional Investors Angel Investor Bootstrapping 187

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 21, 2023

In general, this won’t happen for a new startup unless you have a good credit history, or existing assets that you are willing to put at-risk for collateral. Trade equity or services for startup help. Join a startup incubator or accelerator. This is the primary source of non-personal funds for very early-stage startups.

Equity 266

Equity Startup Small Business Administration SBA 266

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 9, 2016

Yet everyone has limits, and every investor implicitly has similar limits on what makes a startup investable, or one to avoid at all costs. Here is my perspective on the highest risk elements, from my years of working with investors and watching startups come and go: All the co-founders are first-time entrepreneurs.

New York City 120

New York City Silicon Valley Startup Bootstrapping 120

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 22, 2018

Yet everyone has limits, and every investor implicitly has similar limits on what makes a startup investable, or one to avoid at all costs. Here is my perspective on the highest risk elements, from my years of working with investors and watching startups come and go: All the co-founders are first-time entrepreneurs.

New York City 202

New York City Silicon Valley Bootstrapping Technical Review 202

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 25, 2012

Money to build the business is the number one challenge for most startups. A large percentage of startups never apply to either. You need to explore more common and more productive approaches for getting your startup moving forward. Self-funding is the preferred source of cash for your startup – if you can do it.

Technical Review 257

Technical Review Bootstrapping Venture Capital Incubator 257

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 30, 2017

One of the most common complaints I hear from new business owners and startups is about the pain and difficulty raising capital. Based on my experience with startups, I’m a strong believer that there are far better alternatives available, if you think outside the box. Complete and heed fund-raising legal compliance requirements.

Technical Review 220

Technical Review Accredited Investor Due Diligence Equity 220

Hearpreneur

JANUARY 25, 2023

Try creating a food delivery service if you've been considering a startup but don't have the capital to do so. If you have a basic understanding of CSS, HTML, and JS and want to create a WordPress theme, you can do it with Bootstrap and then share it on GetBootstrap, even if you don't know much about WordPress.

Software Review 117

Software Review Technical Review Artificial Inteligence Entrepreneur 117

YoungUpstarts

MAY 6, 2019

by Arsalan Sajid, startup community manager at Cloudways. Life is not a box of chocolates and startups are not always easy to start. There is a complete process that governs the startup lifecycle including inception to exit. This startup stage starts from the day you decide to work on a startup idea.

Startup 113

Startup Technical Cofounder Merger Early Stage 113

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 22, 2020

Luckily, not all investors are looking for the same thing, so it pays to know what type of investors are most interested in what your startup brings to the table. The key is understanding how potential investors see you, and especially how they view the maturity stage of your startup. Don’t sign up for one, expecting the other.

Angel Investor 370

Angel Investor Intellectual Property Investment Bankers Private Equity 370

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 15, 2015

For a non-profit, bootstrapping is self-funding from donations and fund-raising. Government grants. donation equity grant investment non-profit philantropy startup' What options do they have available to them, since they can’t sell a share of the company (no equity investment)? Individual and institutional philanthropy.

Angel Investor 120

Angel Investor Equity Technical Review Exit Strategy 120

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. Join a startup incubator. Use crowd funding to build reserves.

Entrepreneur 120

Entrepreneur Intellectual Property Technical Review Incubator 120

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 1, 2010

Money to build the business is the number one challenge for most startups. In reality, there are multiple more productive approaches you should explore in getting your startup moving forward. Yet, I find that startup founders often fixate on one or two sources, often to the detriment of their business. Startup incubators.

Technical Review 149

Technical Review Bootstrapping Startup Venture Capital 149

ReadWriteStart

JUNE 29, 2020

One of the many challenges facing the world’s governments is the fact that no one really knows how this virus behaves. Thus, the world’s scientists, medical experts, and governments are in new territory, determining what works and what doesn’t work as each country moves through the peaks and troughs of this pandemic. What is a startup?

Bootstrapping 85

Bootstrapping Global Startup Hungary 85

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 8, 2014

Yet everyone has limits, and every investor implicitly has similar limits on what makes a startup investable, or one to avoid at all costs. Here is my perspective on the highest risk elements, from my years of working with investors and watching startups come and go: All the co-founders are first-time entrepreneurs.

New York City 254

New York City Silicon Valley Bootstrapping Technical Review 254

Gust

DECEMBER 7, 2014

In my experience, that’s actually the worst way to start, for reasons I will outline here, and also the least common way, according to an authoritative survey of new startups. Fundraising and investor governance are never-ending tasks, which will take real focus away from building the right product and finding real customers.

Bootstrapping 191

Bootstrapping Entrepreneur Startup Burn Rate 191

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 17, 2023

Luckily, not all investors are looking for the same thing, so it pays to know what type of investors are most interested in what your startup brings to the table. The key is understanding how potential investors see you, and especially how they view the maturity stage of your startup. Don’t sign up for one, expecting the other.

Angel Investor 313

Angel Investor Intellectual Property Investment Bankers Private Equity 313

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 4, 2021

Funding such an enterprise is more likely philanthropists, government grants, or bootstrapping. Not about entrepreneurship in the government sector. So far, the largest source of services and funding for social enterprises and social entrepreneurs has been federal, state, and local governments.

Entrepreneur 345

Entrepreneur Angel Investor Government Bootstrapping 345

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 12, 2021

There is a reason that ninety percent of startups are still self-funded, and most of the rest have major contributions from friends and family. Even if you intend to bootstrap the business, or have an anticipated funding source, it pays to start early in lining up an alternative. Join a startup accelerator or structured peer group.

Dilution 404

Dilution Incubator Bootstrapping Government 404

Gust

JUNE 17, 2012

Money to build the business is the number one challenge for most startups. A large percentage of startups never apply to either. You need to explore more common and more productive approaches for getting your startup moving forward. Self-funding is the preferred source of cash for your startup – if you can do it.

Technical Review 164

Technical Review Bootstrapping Venture Capital Incubator 164

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 29, 2020

In general, this won’t happen for a new startup unless you have a good credit history, or existing assets that you are willing to put at-risk for collateral. Trade equity or services for startup help. Join a startup incubator or accelerator. This is the primary source of non-personal funds for very early-stage startups.

Equity 436

Equity Small Business Administration SBA Syndicate 436

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 29, 2013

This post was written by Sarah Milstein, co-host of The Lean Startup Conference. We’re looking for speakers for the 2013 Lean Startup Conference. If you’re a Lean Startup veteran, feel free to skim the beginning, as this is mostly stuff you already know. Last week, we announced that our short application form was live.

Lean 165

Lean Technical Review Startup Software Review 165

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 20, 2017

For a nonprofit, bootstrapping is self-funding from donations and fund-raising. Government grants. What options do they have available to them, since they can’t sell a share of the company (no equity investment)? Individual and institutional philanthropy. As in any company, they can lead to employee problems, or messy legal issues.

Angel Investor 132

Angel Investor Equity Technical Review Exit Strategy 132

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 13, 2013

For a non-profit, bootstrapping is self-funding from donations and fund-raising. Government grants. What options do they have available to them, since they can’t sell a share of the company (no equity investment)? Individual and institutional donations. As in any company, they can lead to employee problems, or messy legal issues.

Equity 207

Equity Angel Investor Technical Review Exit Strategy 207

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 15, 2012

For a non-profit, bootstrapping is self-funding from donations and fund-raising. Government grants. What options do they have available to them, since they can’t sell a share of the company (no equity investment)? Individual and institutional donations. As in any company, they can lead to employee problems, or messy legal issues.

Angel Investor 218

Angel Investor Technical Review Exit Strategy Equity 218

Up and Running

NOVEMBER 26, 2018

Startups have to deal with starting costs and ongoing businesses have to finance growth and working capital. Are you a startup or ongoing business? For example, many ongoing businesses have access to standard business loans from a traditional bank that would not be available to startups. I’ll have more on that later, too.

SBA 161

SBA Venture Capital Angel Investor Technical Review 161

Austin Startup

FEBRUARY 13, 2019

A pivotal startup milestone? Bootstrap if you can, for as long as you can As a startup you’ll likely fail. At this point, we had already developed the first phase of the platform by bootstrapping. The “Seed Round” is critical because it’s in this round that you establish your board and corporate governance.

Strategic Investors 49

Strategic Investors Austin Angel Investor Bootstrapping 49

ReadWriteStart

DECEMBER 9, 2010

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. Some examples include Flipkart and Redbus in India, and Freshdiet in the US. Google Adwords advertising.

Silicon Valley 117

Silicon Valley Malaysia India China 117