YoungUpstarts

MAY 21, 2020

by Nick Frandsen, co-founder and managing partner at Dovetail. Before rushing to build your concept to push out to consumers, it’s important to first undertake product discovery. Product discovery is the purpose of identifying the smallest amount of software needed to determine market value. It’s genius! How is it done?

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Product Cofounder Audience Product Development 264

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 1, 2023

I always tell entrepreneurs that two heads are better than one, so the first task in many startups is finding a cofounder or two. Giving a cofounder a salary won’t get you the “fire in the belly” you want. Each cofounder should get equity for value, based on these key variables: Lived a key role in a previous startup.

Technical Cofounder 247

Technical Cofounder Equity Distribution Cofounder 247

YoungUpstarts

JANUARY 10, 2020

by Zain Jaffer, serial entrepreneur and the Founder and CEO of Zain Ventures. In the early stages, it isn’t uncommon for businesses to bank their earnings on a handful of customers (or sometimes, just one). The loss of these major customers can have a dramatic impact on both internal (employees) and external contributors (investors).

Customer 347

Customer Development Team Review Advisory Board Private Equity 347

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 10, 2018

I always tell entrepreneurs that two heads are better than one, so the first task in many startups is finding a co-founder or two. Giving a co-founder a salary won’t get you the “fire in the belly” you want. Each co-founder should get equity for value, based on these key variables: Lived a key role in a previous startup.

Equity 238

Equity Cofounder Technical Cofounder Intellectual Property 238

The Next Web

OCTOBER 10, 2013

Two more entrepreneurial ventures later, Gleb cofounded online backup provider Backblaze to help consumers affordably, automatically, and safely back up their data. What are the pros and cons of starting a business alone versus with cofounders? How many founders are too many? One” – You have to have a cofounder.

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Cofounder Technical Cofounder Kenya Dilution 143

NZ Entrepreneur

MAY 27, 2019

Wondering how to find the right cofounder but don’t know where to start? If you are a solo founder, you may be able to do it all on your own initially but you’re making it very difficult for yourself. In my opinion, founders or early stage companies should only have a team of two or three people. This will never work.

Technical Cofounder 64

Technical Cofounder Cofounder Technical Review Software Review 64

VC Cafe

SEPTEMBER 26, 2022

The past year was a wild ride for startups and founders, giving a whole new meaning to the ”rollercoaster” aspect of being an entrepreneur. Before product-market fit… just care about speed of iteration according to your customer feedback. Patrick Collison , self-made billionaire founder of Stripe. Team, product, market.

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Founder Startup Valuation Pre-Money Valuation 187

VC Cafe

FEBRUARY 26, 2023

” – Marc Andreessen In the book “ Super Founders “, author Ali Tamaseb, studied 200 Unicorns, aka startups valued at over $1 billion, started between 2005 to 2018. The 7 Traits of “Super Founders” 1. They are able to articulate this vision in a way that inspires others and generates excitement.

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Founder Cofounder Seed Stage Valuation 88

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 19, 2023

Entrepreneurs need to be effective team leaders, since no one can transform an idea into a product and a business without some help. Unfortunately many founders I work with as a mentor are experts on the technical side, but have no insight into leading a team. If your team has trouble finding you, you won’t make productive connections.

Leadership 318

Leadership Technical Review Technical Cofounder Development Team Review 318

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 26, 2020

For the rest of us, we need a business plan, as well as a product plan. Some of you may be convinced that your product specification communicates the product message even better than a business plan, so why be redundant? Use non-fuzzy terms to quantify customer value. Provide specifics on the customer business model.

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Business Plan Product Intellectual Property Elevator Pitch 423

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 9, 2023

Most technical entrepreneurs focus hard on building an innovative product, but forget that an elegant solution doesn’t automatically translate into a successful business. Businesses require an equally elegant business model, with the right price, messaging and delivery channel to the right target customers to keep the dream alive and growing.

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Technical Review Advisory Board Software Review Business Model 220

ReadWriteStart

AUGUST 28, 2012

But when it comes to core technical skills, more and more entrepreneurs are opting to partner with technical co-founders rather than hiring someone for an in-house position. I really believe that what’s most important for a founder is the ability to have a vision for the company, make sales and hire well. Laura Roeder , LKR.

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Technical Review Cofounder Founder Software Review 131

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 11, 2019

In my experience as an advisor to entrepreneurs, business startup founders most often point to a shortage of funds as the primary cause of their startup failure. In fact, this problem is so common among business startups, that is has been tagged with the name “ founder’s syndrome ” or “ founderitis.”

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Founder Technical Review Cofounder Demand 223

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 11, 2021

Photo by Vanna Phon on Unsplash Customer acquisition is the lifeblood of many startups from e-commerce to gaming to marketplace companies, among others. that’s where the customers are. But if you ask anyone in the ecosystem of customer acquisition?—?founders, founders, marketers, investors?—?and no surprise?—?that’s

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Founder Product Cofounder Acquisition 424

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 8, 2023

Customer-facing services, like call centers, should rarely be outsourced. You can’t isolate your customers from language idiosyncrasies and culture issues, per reduced customer engagement highlighted a while back by the The Globe and Mail. But customers are not looking yet another homogeneous product or service, so be careful.

Software Review 285

Software Review Technical Review Due Diligence Intellectual Property 285

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 24, 2017

Why do these founders get to stay around? Because the balance of power has dramatically shifted from investors to founders. VCs competing for unicorn investments have given founders control of the board. Twenty-five years ago, to go public you had to sell stuff – not just acquire users or have freemium products.

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Founder Technical Review CTO Hire IPO 245

ReadWriteStart

APRIL 15, 2011

It's also challenging to attract and retain a loyal community of customers and users. This is one of the reasons that it's so important to have a good co-founder. In this post, I'll focus on a few keys to helping co-founders work together to build a better product. Clarify What You're Building Up Front.

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Cofounder SCRUM Founder Widget 121

This is going to be BIG.

OCTOBER 10, 2010

Every business person with a dollar and a dream these days thinks they’re a technical co-founder away from interweb stardom. A CTO will also want to ensure that the businesspeople on their team will understand important product and technical decisions. This is where product and design leads come into play.

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Cofounder CTO Hire Design Founder 123

VC Cafe

MAY 17, 2023

But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains” Steve Jobs (from Chapter 8) I got to meet Uri Levine, the founder of Waze and Moovit, through his involvement in the Zell Entrepreneurship program at Reichman University. It starts from how founders pitch their startups.

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Founder Cofounder Technical Review Angel Investor 103

ConversionXL

APRIL 28, 2021

My co-founder and I consider his sister to be a trusted confidant. Wondering how to encourage users to engage with your product again and again, without constantly popping in their inboxes? To give you some context, my co-founder and I operate a website called Solitaired , which ties classic card games to brain training.

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Email Product Marketing Cofounder 151

venturehacks.com

FEBRUARY 24, 2010

SUPPORTED BY Products Archives @venturehacks Books AngelList About RSS How to pick a co-founder by Naval Ravikant on November 12th, 2009 Update : Also see our 40-minute interview on this topic. Picking a co-founder is your most important decision. It’s more important than your product, market, and investors.

Cofounder 101

Cofounder Founder Technical Cofounder Technical Review 101

The Startup Magazine

MARCH 1, 2021

As part of The Startup Magazine Founder Interview Series , we interviewed Maha and David Harper, wife and husband co-founders of Atlas Group London, a construction-tech startup that has digitized the building of healthcare facilities. We feel that it’s important to ask questions, instead of just pitching to customers.

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Technical Review Founder Saudi Arabia Cofounder 110

YoungUpstarts

JANUARY 29, 2020

This start-up is headed by industry-leading professionals including its CEO and co-founder, Ido Susan, and Hillel Kobrinsky the CSO and co-founder. The company is headed by Shimon Hason, the CEO, and Erez Fliess , Omer Raviv and Alon Fliess all of whom are cofounders of the startup. oz-code.com.

Cofounder 147

Cofounder Software Review Technical Cofounder 147

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 18, 2023

It still requires solution delivery, a team working together, and customers with money to spend. Make sure you are building what customers want, rather than what you can build. Crisis survival decisions can easily be counter-strategic and lead to product and people credibility gaps.

Silicon Valley 239

Silicon Valley Entrepreneur Dividend Cofounder 239

Steve Blank

JANUARY 17, 2023

Three types of organizations – Incubators, Accelerators and Venture Studios – have emerged to reduce the risk of early-stage startup failure by helping teams find product/market fit and raise initial capital. He had a track record of taking small teams and growing them into successful product lines.

Technical Cofounder 346

Technical Cofounder Intellectual Property Technical Review Incubator 346

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 28, 2020

It still requires solution delivery, a team working together, and customers with money to spend. Make sure you are building what customers want, rather than what you can build. Crisis survival decisions can easily be counter-strategic and lead to product and people credibility gaps.

Silicon Valley 430

Silicon Valley Dividend Cofounder Technology 430

ReadWriteStart

AUGUST 28, 2012

But when it comes to core technical skills, more and more entrepreneurs are opting to partner with technical co-founders rather than hiring someone for an in-house position. You Need To Know Tech Basics I really believe that what’s most important for a founder is the ability to have a vision for the company, make sales and hire well.

Technical Review 79

Technical Review Cofounder Founder Software Review 79

The Next Web

SEPTEMBER 22, 2013

But have you ever had the opportunity to pick the brains of founders who created amazingly successful startups and companies like Envato , Backblaze , Simple , or Treehouse ? Few people like talking about their mistakes, but thankfully nine founders took some time to share some of their hard-earned knowledge with you. Find your niche.

Cofounder 164

Cofounder Founder Startup Bootstrapping 164

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 8, 2021

Unfortunately, I see too many new entrepreneurs who let their passion for a new idea or invention blind them to the stark realities of customer need, opportunity size, or pricing and cost implications. The sooner you face these issues, the more success you will garner from investors and customers.

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Advisory Board Bandwidth Cofounder Technical Review 356

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 13, 2020

Customer-facing services, like call centers, should rarely be outsourced. You can’t isolate your customers from language idiosyncrasies and culture issues, per reduced customer engagement highlighted a while back by the The Globe and Mail. But customers are not looking yet another homogeneous product or service, so be careful.

Intellectual Property 306

Intellectual Property Non-disclosure Agreement Software Review Technical Review 306

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 20, 2020

Entrepreneurs need to be effective team leaders, since no one can transform an idea into a product and a business without some help. Unfortunately many founders I work with as a mentor are experts on the technical side, but have no insight into leading a team. If your team has trouble finding you, you won’t make productive connections.

Leadership 326

Leadership Technical Review Development Team Review Startup 326

The Startup Magazine

MARCH 7, 2024

Guest Author: Danish Ahmed, Founder of startuptools.ai. Companies are turning to AI to streamline their operations, notably in areas like customer service, cybersecurity, and fraud prevention. AI tools help analyze vast amounts of data to provide insights into market trends and customer preferences.

Artificial Inteligence 119

Artificial Inteligence Entrepreneur Algorithm Cofounder 119

The Startup Magazine

MAY 31, 2022

As part of our Female Founder series , The Startup Magazine caught up with Claudia Freed, CEO of the Wheaton Illinois-based nonprofit EALgreen. Through the 5 R’s of the circular economy—Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Repurpose and Recycle—EAL converts donations of customer returns and other excess inventory into operational savings for colleges.

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Founder Argentina Chicago Switzerland 118

YoungUpstarts

MAY 30, 2014

by Sam Bahreini, co-founder and COO of VoloForce. Google is notorious for this, releasing many of its products in beta form — and sometimes even leaving them in that phase for years. When a product is ready for beta testing, that doesn’t necessarily mean it came right out of alpha testing. Bridges between gaps.

Customer 231

Customer Development Team Review Cofounder Agile 231

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 26, 2020

Today we’re announcing that my partner Kara Nortman is becoming Co-Managing Partner at Upfront Ventures and I can’t tell you how thrilled I am to welcome her to her new role. and of course a relentless pursuit of helping founders succeed. So mostly we just had to listen to customer feedback from founders, VCs and LPs.

Partner 361

Partner Management Cofounder San Francisco 361

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 16, 2022

Yet I find, as a mentor and outside consultant, that many of you focus only on working conditions and compensation as the key factors determining team engagement , health, and productivity. by Donna Cutting, who is a globally-recognized guru on employee culture and optimizing customer service. Emotional stability. Environmental safety.

Technical Review 353

Technical Review Cofounder Employee Global 353

www.kernelmag.com

MARCH 8, 2012

The Scene Developers Nailing that elusive technical co-founder. Just last week, start-up supremo Naval Ravikant of AngelList wrote how the “oversupply” of founders starting companies is making it harder to hire for the average startup. Are there any ‘Founders Dating’ events coming up?”. Thursday, 8 March 2012.

Cofounder 43

Cofounder Technical Cofounder Founder Coder 43