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

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 4, 2013

What stage? Should I trust my instincts for founders and products or should I be more focused on the market size or business plan? ” As far as “terms” go I’m 100% aligned to have the most vanilla, founder-friendly terms I can. .” What kind of deals should I be doing? What price? I love complexity.

Deal Flow 347

Deal Flow Early Stage Investment Bankers Technical Review 347

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. They do the most to de-risk the early stages of a startup. I pointed out that there were.

Technical Cofounder 346

Technical Cofounder Intellectual Property Technical Review Incubator 346

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 16, 2022

In addition to being the startup entrepreneur, there are other key roles where Boomers can be a force in driving successful startups, in concert with leaders from Gen-X and Gen-Y: Early-stage angel investors. Supportive co-founder and executive positions. Member of the Advisory Board. Manage customer service.

Advisory Board 368

Advisory Board Dividend Angel Investor Cofounder 368

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 6, 2013

I am fond of quoting that about 70% of my investment decision of an early-stage company is the team. Quick summary: Be careful not to have too many co-founders. And you need to be careful about giving up control to cofounders as much as VCs. Final startup grind from msuster. For the wrong reasons.

Cofounder 388

Cofounder Early Stage Startup Silicon Valley 388

The Equity Kicker

SEPTEMBER 24, 2014

We see this all the time at Forward Partners where we invest right from the idea stage and most of the companies get a first version of their product live for less than £30k (that generally includes founder salaries and time spent doing customer research).

Early Stage 119

Early Stage Development Team Review Technical Review Software Review 119

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.

Technical Review 131

Technical Review Cofounder Founder Software Review 131

ReadWriteStart

OCTOBER 28, 2010

Do More Faster: TechStars Lessons to Accelerate Your Startup is the new book by David Cohen , founder and CEO of TechStars, and Brad Feld , managing director of Foundry Group. Below is his chapter, Avoid Co-Founder Conflict. A perennial favorite is to decide that each founder should own an equal share. For what reasons?

Cofounder 128

Cofounder Founder Equity Dilution 128

The Startup Magazine

AUGUST 11, 2023

I will tell you brief details about seed stage funding, and deal sourcing on this page, so read the conclusion until the end. The following is a condensed explanation of seed funding: Seed money is a form of early-stage financing that new businesses receive from investors in exchange for a share of ownership in the company.

Seed Stage 131

Seed Stage Technical Review Early Stage Due Diligence 131

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). Running a small business can come with a slew of challenges. Among the list: the loss of a major client.

Customer 347

Customer Development Team Review Advisory Board Private Equity 347

Austin Startup

NOVEMBER 29, 2017

It follows up on my posts discussing why early stage startups should — or should not — move to Silicon Valley. Should Early Stage Startups Move to Austin because of Capital? Tim O’Reilly, Founder at O’Reilly Media and promoter of open source and Web 2.0 Should Early Stage Startups Move to Austin because of Capital?

Early Stage 48

Early Stage Austin Silicon Valley Texas 48

The Startup Magazine

JUNE 1, 2023

By Daniel Sokolovksy, Co-Founder and CEO, WARP and Troy Lester, Co-Founder and CRO, WARP The dissolution of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) was more than just a bank collapse, it was a reality check for both startups and the VCs that fund them. As an early-stage company that just closed our seed round at $8.1

Early Stage 116

Early Stage Los Angeles Silicon Valley Cofounder 116

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 24, 2016

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 120

Equity Cofounder Technical Cofounder Intellectual Property 120

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 18, 2020

In addition to being the startup entrepreneur, there are other key roles where Boomers can be a force in driving successful startups, in concert with leaders from Gen-X and Gen-Y: Early-stage angel investors. Supportive co-founder and executive positions. Member of the Advisory Board. Manage customer service.

Advisory Board 312

Advisory Board Startup Dividend Angel Investor 312

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

NZ Entrepreneur

JUNE 19, 2023

Commenting on their support for the initiative, Callaghan Innovation Startup and Founder spokeswoman, Dr Jenny Douché, said that the partnership with Startup NZ was a natural fit within the organisation. ” Richard Liew, Startup NZ. ” Richard Liew, Startup NZ.

New Zealand 98

New Zealand Technical Cofounder Early Stage Entrepreneur 98

Hunter Walker

FEBRUARY 9, 2023

Or those special little bombs of a phrase like “enjoys playing founder more than being one” and “tells a good story but no follow-through.” If you combine this with self-awareness, you get a powerful combination for an early stage CEO. Do they have a cofounder who can balance them out? Sketchy would be one.

Technical Cofounder 101

Technical Cofounder Founder Cofounder .Net 101

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 9, 2011

I covered what I call “the co-founder mythology.&# Either you’re not technical and you think you need a technical co-founder or vice-versa. It is increasingly popular to have “founder dating&# or “startup weekend hackathons&# of some variety or the other. Hire your co-founder.

Cofounder 393

Cofounder Founder Vesting Founder Vesting 393

YoungUpstarts

AUGUST 31, 2020

by Roland Polzin , MBA and Co-founder of Wing AI. While we are in the early stages of technological development in the virtual assistant space, a Jarvis-like computer that does all the busy work for small businesses is not too far away. Computers are not yet actually smart.

Artificial Inteligence 214

Artificial Inteligence Mali Management Technical Review 214

View from Seed

APRIL 27, 2020

Founders do not have this luxury. Most founders are going through hell right now, and that is not going away any time soon. For investors and founders, the next several years are going to be very different. Pre-seeds will be tougher as investors gravitate more towards proven founders or folks within their existing networks.

Cofounder 194

Cofounder Software Review Portfolio Technical Review 194

View from Seed

FEBRUARY 9, 2022

You have 5-10 years of professional experience as a technology operator, founder, and/or investor. You have an edge in the highly competitive world of early stage investing that comes from some combination of your experience, industry knowledge, and personal network. You act as an “ invited guest.”. You are hungry.

Technical Review 156

Technical Review North America Seed Stage Bandwidth 156

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 21, 2012

I often get asked about finding cofounders and I usually give the standard list of characteristics of what I look for in a founder. And I emphasize the value of a founding team with complementary skills sets – i.e. the hacker/hustler/designer cofounder archetype for web/mobile apps. So I asked her to write a guest post.

Cofounder 329

Cofounder IPO Early Stage Green 329

techcrunch.com

AUGUST 12, 2012

Zachary Bogue And Matt Ocko Launch Data Collective, An Early Stage Fund For Big Data Startups. Alexia Tsotsis is the co-editor of TechCrunch. Founder Stories) Aereos Chet Kanojia Urges Entrepreneurs To "Go For The Difficult Problems" [TCTV]. Disrupt SF. Alexia Tsotsis. Thursday, August 9th, 2012. View Staff Page.

Early Stage 70

Early Stage San Francisco Los Angeles Southern California 70

Up and Running

APRIL 8, 2015

Do you have an early-stage startup? A business in its early stages can often use a leg up, whether in the form of wise words from a mentor or an introduction to a strategic partner. Q&A with Joe Maruschak, co-founder of Fertilab Thinkubator . These are very, very, very early-stage companies.

Incubator 60

Incubator Cofounder Founder Early Stage 60

YoungUpstarts

JULY 31, 2019

by Anish Sebastian and Juan Pablo Segura, co-founders of Babyscripts. Founders need seed capital to get their operations up and running, and to begin generating revenue. Ten years ago, Ward Cunningham published a Youtube video that introduced the concept of “technical debt” to the world.

Cofounder 127

Cofounder Burn Rate Technical Cofounder Seed Capital 127

YoungUpstarts

MAY 21, 2020

by Nick Frandsen, co-founder and managing partner at Dovetail. In doing so, it then ensures you will deliver an MVP that not only captures your market but saves you time and money in the long run by not building features that don’t appeal to your target customer or are not necessary for early-stage launch. It’s genius!

Product 264

Product Cofounder Audience Product Development 264

VC Cafe

SEPTEMBER 2, 2022

I touched on this in my post “ Founder Investor Fit “ Passing the initial filtering process. Most of these can sound like common sense, but you’d be surprised how many founders skip this initial research. Stake – can the fund secure it’s minimum stake in the business?

Technical Review 166

Technical Review Early Stage Cofounder Portfolio 166

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 4, 2018

It occurred to me that although we mentioned our new thematic approach when we raised our last fund in 2017, we haven’t really shared a broader manifesto about how we are approaching the early stage market. It’s been an interesting several years in the early stage venture eco-system, and the sands have shifted considerably.

North America 120

North America Seed Stage Early Stage Lead Investor 120

Up and Running

JULY 28, 2022

Develop a founders agreement. A founders’ agreement is a legal contract defining and governing the relationship between cofounders. Its importance is to outline founders’ rights, responsibilities, ownership, and roles. The whole point is to avoid business disputes that may come up between the founders.

Small Business 167

Small Business Intellectual Property Cofounder Software Review 167

David Teten

JANUARY 19, 2021

(co-written with Jamie Finney, Founding Partner at Greater Colorado Venture Fund. From RBI, Flexible VCs borrow the ability to reap meaningful returns without demanding founders build for an exit. By tying payments to actual revenues, founders and investors remain aligned around the company’s real-time performance, good or bad.

Cofounder 78

Cofounder Technical Review Equity Dividend 78

Jeff Hilimire

OCTOBER 8, 2014

My name is Richard Simms and, I am a Cofounder of Tech Talent South. My Cofounder, Betsy Idilbi , and I started working on TTS about a year and a half ago and have been going a million miles an hour since then. And here’s my Google Docs chat with him: Richard (at the bottom) and some of his students at Tech Talent South.

Cofounder 68

Cofounder Charlotte Raleigh Atlanta 68

YoungUpstarts

JUNE 4, 2019

Most early stage startups tend to do well in this area because entrepreneurs generally launch their startups believing they have a great product idea. What does this mean for their early stage investors? Weak revenue architecture poses the greatest near-term risk of failure for most early stage startups.

Framework 127

Framework Architecture Cleveland Early Stage 127

Duct Tape Marketing

JANUARY 19, 2024

Despite not going to university, Ash became a serial tech founder and the first marketing director of a unicorn startup – Just Eat). Biggest Takeaway: While significant progress has been made in AI, we are still in the early stages of its development. He’s the Founder of theCLIKK, an email newsletter about digital marketing.

Fractional CTO 77

Fractional CTO CTO Hire Technical Review Marketing 77

nikcub.appspot.com

MARCH 8, 2012

Finding a Technical Co-Founder. In the recent weeks, I have also had no less than three people email me and ask about finding a technical co-founder, which has also been a very frequent topic on the Hacker News forums. Ask former co-workers. New Web Order. 5th November 2010. #. Ideas alone are not worth a lot.

Cofounder 40

Cofounder Web Founder South Korea 40

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.

Founder 103

Founder Cofounder Technical Review Angel Investor 103

YoungUpstarts

MAY 27, 2019

by Christopher Grey, co-founder and COO of CapLinked. Often young founders don’t think about basic concepts like unit economics, which is selling something for more than what it costs to make. Inexperienced founders often overestimate their own importance and don’t appreciate the importance of the team they build around them.

Cofounder 170

Cofounder Private Equity Software Review Equity 170

Austin Startup

MARCH 8, 2021

Pictured left to right: three Sputnik-backed female founders?—?Jennifer Jennifer McEwen (founder of Datum), April Dominguez and Nikki Dominguez (co-founders of Handsome) As a female-led and majority female-run VC, today and every day we celebrate women.

Early Stage 63

Early Stage Cofounder Washington Startup 63