Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 13, 2016

How does your business model make money? Good causes such as feeding the world’s hungry may help your marketing but may not sustain a business. The business model has to clearly define who is your customer, market penetration expected, how much customers pay versus total costs and the investment required to sustain cash flow.

Sweat Equity 120

Sweat Equity Advisory Board Liquidity Event Startup 120

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 8, 2016

Validate your business model on real customers. Giving free beta copies of your solution to customers to elicit testimonials does not validate a business model. The best business models benefit social needs as well as business needs. Every business requires spending money to make money.

Intellectual Property 120

Intellectual Property Entrepreneur Elevator Pitch Exit Strategy 120

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 7, 2015

How the solution and business model work to fund the business. Investors will impatiently expect a winning business model, customer segment definitions and volume projections. Investors will impatiently expect a winning business model, customer segment definitions and volume projections.

Product 120

Product Intellectual Property Liquidity Event Burn Rate 120

Steve Blank

APRIL 1, 2020

Out of business? Forecasted recovery date. Check if the the Paycheck Protection Program , ( here and here ) which provides 100% federally guaranteed loans to small businesses, can apply to your company. Sales pipeline/forecast. Others are cutting their valuations. Shelter in place yes/no? Actively buying?

South Korea 333

South Korea Salary Business Model China 333

Ben's Blog

AUGUST 17, 2020

When speaking with founders and private growth investors, we hear countless references to “multiples paid” on current or near-term revenue; both obsess over this because a higher multiple translates to a higher valuation. How valuation multiples work Why did multiples become a shortcut-heuristic for estimating valuations in the first place?

Valuation 36

Valuation Balance Sheet Cofounder Forecast 36

genylabs.typepad.com

SEPTEMBER 24, 2011

Small Business Labs. Tracking and Forecasting the Trends Impacting the Future of Small Business. Welcome to Small Business Labs. Small Business Labs, from Emergent Research , covers the key social, technology and business trends impacting small business. The Millionaires Tax and Small Business Jobs.

Equity 40

Equity Technical Review San Jose Stock 40

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 13, 2012

Explain the business model. Many people seem to use the social network advertising model for revenue, but forget it assumes at least 100M users and $50M investment. Include a current valuation estimate. Financial forecast and metrics. This is how you will make money, who pays you, and gross margins.

Business Plan 283

Business Plan Sweat Equity Exit Strategy Intellectual Property 283

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 13, 2011

Explain the business model. Many people seem to use the social network advertising model for revenue, but forget it assumes at least 100M users and $50M investment. Include a current valuation estimate. Financial forecast and metrics. This is how you will make money, who pays you, and gross margins.

Business Plan 290

Business Plan Sweat Equity Exit Strategy Intellectual Property 290

Austin Startup

SEPTEMBER 17, 2017

A business model must be created out of whole cloth, and generally it’s a compilation of assumptions piled on top of other assumptions. Every model has a happy outcome when a founder is trying to convince himself or herself, a team, an investor, or even a spouse that the venture ahead is a good idea.

Valuation 48

Valuation Forecast Seed Money Business Model 48

Tim Keane

MARCH 9, 2011

How to prepare a sales forecast for a business plan » March 09, 2011. 2] One of the huge mistakes entrepreneurs make at this stage is accepting friends and family money and assigning huge valuations to the company to reduce the size of future payments required.  Startups and angels: Along the way to success.

Finance 83

Finance Bootstrapping Startup Equity 83

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 2, 2018

At the other extreme, I don’t condone greedy and unethical business practices to unjustly shake down customers and employees alike. As an investor myself, I look for a balanced story focused on the major elements that drive profitability, including the following: A 5-year financial forecast achieving a positive cash flow early.

Intellectual Property 48

Intellectual Property Initial Public Offering Merger Acquisition 48

Gust

AUGUST 5, 2012

Explain the business model. Many people seem to use the social network advertising model for revenue, but forget it assumes at least 100M users and $50M investment. Include a current valuation estimate. Financial forecast and metrics. This is how you will make money, who pays you, and gross margins.

Business Plan 182

Business Plan Sweat Equity Exit Strategy Intellectual Property 182

Seeing Both Sides

JULY 21, 2014

But many years later, I began to appreciate that one of our core flaws was our business model. million in one year, the year we went public at a billion dollar valuation (ok, it was 1996; everyone went public in 1996 with a billion dollar valuation), and then $61 million the following year. million to $22.5

Revenue 54

Revenue Valuation Churn Rate Portfolio 54

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 22, 2010

Explain the business model. Many people seem to use the social network advertising model for revenue, but forget it requires at least 100M users and $50M investment. Include a current valuation estimate. Financial forecast and metrics. This is how you will make money, who pays you, and gross margins.

Business Plan 186

Business Plan Exit Strategy Sweat Equity Intellectual Property 186

Tim Keane

FEBRUARY 3, 2010

« Term-sheets and Valuations: Thinking about Negotiations | Main. | OVP Venture Partners) My own take on this is that a business plan with a bottom up forecast demonstrates an understanding of the potential market that investors love.  John Mullins: Getting to Plan B: Breaking Through to a Better Business Model.

Marketing 116

Marketing Wisconsin Startup Angel Investor 116

Hunter Walker

JULY 18, 2022

Multiples dropped in public and private markets, growth expectations were cut, and business models with high spend for promise of future ROI became quite unfavorable. The ‘valuation multiples’ reset also came with an increase in slope of the curve. A drop in growth rate turns into a drop in valuation multiple.

Valuation 116

Valuation Cap Table Startup Later Stage 116

YoungUpstarts

FEBRUARY 14, 2017

Managing your cash position when forecasted sales aren’t being achieved is tough, and if you are spending more than you are generating and cash piles are dwindling, now is the time to address your financial position. It now has a multi-billion dollar valuation. The Different Ways Your Business Can Pivot.

Technical Review 157

Technical Review Architecture Revenue Channel 157

Seeing Both Sides

AUGUST 3, 2012

Facebook and Google would be obvious choices for this, but so much has been written about each of them and they represent such special business models, I worried that it would be both hard for entrepreneurs to relate and hard for me to develop new insights. In 2012, analysts forecast the company will achieve nearly $1.5

Distribution 49

Distribution Lean Massachusetts Cofounder 49

Up and Running

OCTOBER 3, 2018

Whichever type of plan you choose, remember that a business plan is a living document. Set a specific time each month to review it , comparing forecasts to actuals and revising as necessary. Assumptions change based on experience, and your business plan should change along with these assumptions. Be specific.

El Paso 61

El Paso Business Plan Technical Review Forecast 61

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 14, 2016

Valuing any company can be difficult because it requires a degree of forecasting future growth & competition and ultimately the profits of the organization. Most venture capitalists who have been in this business for a long time foresaw this correction and have been talking about it privately for the better part of the last year or two.

Valuation 150

Valuation Down Round Startup Later Stage 150

Up and Running

MAY 15, 2019

There’s no one model—or one business plan—for breweries. Each brewery will have its own unique business model and business plan. Before opening a brewery, prospective brewers have to figure out the right business model for their plans, location, interests, startup resources, and long-term vision.

Oregon 24

Oregon Jordan Software Review Distribution 24

Up and Running

SEPTEMBER 20, 2016

enabling you to expand on an already working business model), and if you’re in the extremely early stages of building your company, you still need to develop your product. This is going to be a much more valuable investment of your time than fundraising, and can help you determine early on if you have a viable business model.

Early Stage 60

Early Stage Startup Forecast Channel 60

A Crowded Space

JANUARY 13, 2016

And “on-demand” startups need to wise up and provide “almost on-demand” solutions that meet the needs of the consumer while enabling a profitable business model. Then, lastly, there is an option to change the business model. Several companies will have to change their business model to survive.

Demand 60

Demand San Francisco Atlanta Business Model 60

Cracking the Code

SEPTEMBER 2, 2008

If that were the case, most of the Cable and Wireless companies who have been using a similar business model would have gone bankrupt a long time ago and Saleforce would not have 20% FCF margins today. It is true that understanding this new business model is hard for a traditional software incumbent, as this interview demonstrates.

Software Review 48

Software Review Software Technical Review Cloud 48

Small Business Force

OCTOBER 14, 2016

Then, you need to describe what your business model is, i.e., why, how and how much that customer set will pay you to solve the identified problem or the unmet need. However you define it, be it eyeballs, customers, revenue, cash flow, what have you accomplished to date with your business? How scalable is your business model?

Sweat Equity 20

Sweat Equity Private Equity Valuation Equity 20

Up and Running

DECEMBER 9, 2014

What I did is I learned the art of a pro forma and the value of a pro forma which basically is a forecast. If you don’t know what your cash flow forecast is, you don’t really understand your capital needs. Most of the time the small business owners aren’t business experts and definitely not financial experts.

Small Business 95

Small Business Finance Forecast Metrics 95