Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 15, 2019

In fact, I would broaden the definition of partner from co-founder to “business partner.” The reason is that good attributes apply equally well to “external” partners, as they do to internal partners, like a co-founder or CTO. Look impartially from all angles and do the follow-up on all relevant previous roles.

Cofounder 221

Cofounder Founder Startup Angel Investor 221

The Startup Magazine

AUGUST 9, 2022

As part of our Founder interview series , The Startup Magazine caught up with Salo Sterental, Co-Founder of the SoStereo, a marketing firm that enables brands and artists alike to unlock the marketing power of music. Salo: Zumba Fitness approached Beto (my co-founder) and I with a unique problem.

Cofounder 148

Cofounder Founder Marketing Entrepreneur 148

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. The value in a startup is all about tangible results, so I see no equity value in the idea alone.

Equity 256

Equity Cofounder Distribution Dilution 256

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 4, 2014

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. The value in a startup is all about tangible results, so there is no equity value in the idea alone. Now comes the reality check.

Cofounder 268

Cofounder Founder Stock Equity 268

SoCal CTO

MARCH 12, 2012

I've recently received several emails from people looking for a technical cofounder for their startup. "I'm looking for a partner / cofounder who can not only head the technical aspects and build a working model of the site, but someone with the connections to put a great development team together when we need it.

Cofounder 211

Cofounder Startup Los Angeles CTO 211

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 18, 2023

It seems like every entrepreneur I meet these days is quick to proclaim themselves a visionary, expecting that will give more credibility to their startup idea, and improve their odds with investors. In reality, I’m one of the majority of investors who believe that startup success is more about the execution than the idea.

Startup 213

Startup Partner Cofounder Entrepreneur 213

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 20, 2021

I believe the Maker Movement and hardware startups with limited resources are made for each other. They come at the early stage while a startup has no revenue or valuation, so professional investors are hard to find. Network with potential cofounders and strategic partners. Accelerate the trend to higher purpose startups.

Startup 408

Startup Entrepreneur Cofounder Incubator 408

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 12, 2013

In a moment of crisis, you may be tempted to take on the first person expressing interest as a co-founder. This would be a mistake, and could easily cost you your startup. In reality, the pressures of a relationship break up more startups, or vice versa, than running out of money. Most startups can’t afford that.

Cofounder 243

Cofounder Founder Startup Sweat Equity 243

YoungUpstarts

NOVEMBER 21, 2018

by Saeju Jeong, CEO and Co-founder of Noom Coach. Over the years, we’ve been able to understand some of the reasons that co-founderships fail — and more importantly, why a few, like ours, succeed. Here, I outline five principles all co-founders must agree on before working together. Bottom line.

Cofounder 173

Cofounder Startup Founder Partner 173

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 23, 2021

Thus, in my role as mentor to young entrepreneurs, I always recommend that you first take a hard look at your own values and priorities, before jumping into any new startup, as the founder, or even as a side hustle. Timing is critical for every startup. Of course, if you wait for the perfect time, you may never start.

Startup 395

Startup Entrepreneur Cofounder Exit Strategy 395

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 16, 2014

How do you figure out what’s the right mix of skills for the co-founders of your startup? I was having breakfast with Radhika, an ex-grad student of mine who wanted to share her Customer Discovery progress for her consumer hardware startup. Trying to figure out what the right set of co-founders isn’t so clear.

Cofounder 335

Cofounder Founder Intellectual Property Business Model 335

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 24, 2020

Many experts will tell you that you can’t succeed as a part-time entrepreneur, as any good startup will require a 100 percent commitment of your time and energy. But not many of us have enough savings to live for a year or more without a salary, fund the startup, and still feed the family. Get better at saying ‘no’ to your friends.

Startup 388

Startup Cofounder Entrepreneur Intellectual Property 388

YoungUpstarts

MARCH 4, 2021

Want to be your own boss and found a startup? You’ll need to learn and practice certain entrepreneurial skills, says Jeff Solomon, co-founder of Markup Hero. The post Top 10 Characteristics Of Successful Startup Entrepreneurs appeared first on Young Upstarts.

Entrepreneur 262

Entrepreneur Startup Cofounder Founder 262

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 5, 2022

Yet if you wait for an economy bubble before starting your new business, you will be making a comparable mistake to the people who thought during the dot-com bubble "all I have to do is a startup, and I'll be rich." The economy has some effect, but as a predictor of success it’s a rounding error compared to the founders.

Startup 263

Startup Cofounder Founder Advertising 263

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 Startup 393

The Startup Magazine

MAY 13, 2022

Equity distribution among co-founders may be a complex procedure while starting any business. How you split founder startup equity can be even harder for a tech startup due to different roles and contributions from the founders. What is the equity structure of a startup?

Startup 141

Startup Equity Founder Cofounder 141

YoungUpstarts

JANUARY 9, 2020

by Ryan McInnis, CEO and founder of PicnicTax. For new startups, organizing as a partnership can be a great way for multiple founders to be involved from the beginning. When you are planning to file your taxes as a partnership, it is important to get on the same page with your business partners and co-founders.

Cofounder 131

Cofounder Startup Founder Partner 131

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 23, 2022

If you as the founder, or other members your executive team are chronic complainers, the disease will spread rapidly through the rest of the organization. Too many startups give short shrift to the hiring process, because they are too busy, don’t want to pay market prices, or have no experience. Use the hiring process effectively.

Startup 363

Startup Cofounder Employee Hiring 363

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 8, 2021

In my experience as an angel investor for new startups, I’m always surprised by how many entrepreneurs are looking for funding without outside advisors. Unless you have a co-founder or two with the business skills to complement your technical ones, you need a friendly Advisory Board.

Advisory Board 366

Advisory Board Startup Cofounder Bandwidth 366

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 20, 2023

Many experts will tell you that you can’t succeed as a part-time entrepreneur, as any good startup will require a 100 percent commitment of your time and energy. But not many of us have enough savings to live for a year or more without a salary, fund the startup, and still feed the family. Get better at saying ‘no’ to your friends.

Startup 241

Startup Cofounder Intellectual Property Entrepreneur 241

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 25, 2022

Business partners can be co-founders in a startup, multiple owners of an existing business, or a joint venture. As a former startup investor, I was often involved with due diligence on founders, and I felt that founders should do the same on co-founders, as well as investors.

Due Diligence 317

Due Diligence Partner Cofounder Founder 317

Agile VC

DECEMBER 4, 2014

I like to say that “there are only co-founders” — it’s extraordinarily rare for a successful business to have just a sole founder. But not all co-founders are equal in terms of title, ownership, responsibilities, and so forth. Sometimes co-founders put off the equity split question for some time.

Cofounder 255

Cofounder Equity Founder Sweat Equity 255

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 6, 2015

A common challenge faced by every entrepreneur is that they don’t have the bandwidth, interest or skills to do everything that is required to build their startup. The right answer is to find a co-founder with complementary skills. Two heads are always better than one in a startup.

Cofounder 120

Cofounder Founder Startup Entrepreneur 120

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 13, 2021

I’m convinced that this “me too” or incremental thinking is one of the key reasons that ninety percent of new startups fail, and most of the investors I know won’t sign non-disclosure forms, since they claim to hear the same startup ideas over and over again. Collaborate with experts and people with experience.

Startup 416

Startup Entrepreneur Stealth Cofounder 416

YoungUpstarts

SEPTEMBER 15, 2021

Richard Mabey, CEO and co-founder of Juro shares his experience - and three important lessons - of founding his own startup. The post 3 Things I Learned Founding My Own Legal Tech Startup appeared first on Young Upstarts.

Startup 200

Startup Cofounder Founder Entrepreneur 200

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 18, 2016

It seems like every entrepreneur I meet these days is quick to proclaim themselves a visionary, expecting that will give more credibility to their startup idea, and improve their odds with investors. In reality, I’m one of the majority of investors who believe that startup success is more about the execution than the idea.

Cofounder 120

Cofounder Entrepreneur Startup Founder 120

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 2, 2020

You don’t have to have previous startup problems to show resilience – everyone should have a story of tackling a tough challenge with minimal success, but using the failure to move on and achieve an objective. Evan Williams , for example, before cofounding Twitter, started a podcasting platform named Odeo.

Startup 435

Startup Entrepreneur Cofounder Metrics 435

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 327

Cofounder Startup Founder Early Stage 327

Eric Friedman

FEBRUARY 3, 2021

To help teams answer this question I have collaborated with Steve Schlafman to create a product – an exercise, to be completed by those founders building a company. Today we are launching a way for co-founders and founding teams to understand themselves and each other better. Tapestry.so Tapestry is one of those answers.

Cofounder 78

Cofounder Founder Early Stage Startup 78

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 20, 2020

Unfortunately many founders I work with as a mentor are experts on the technical side, but have no insight into leading a team. The only real alternative is to find a co-founder who can build and lead the team, while you focus on the product. Otherwise, in my experience, the startup will fail.

Startup 332

Startup Leadership Cofounder Entrepreneur 332

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. A combination of competition for top talent and an effort to bring employees back to the office drove startups in Israel to throw extravagant parties and all-inclusive retreats abroad.

Founder 186

Founder Startup Valuation Cofounder 186

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.

Cofounder 143

Cofounder Startup Dilution Founder 143

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 3, 2011

This would be a mistake, and could easily cost you your startup. First you have to be clear on who you are, and who you can co-exist with, what complementary skills and resources you need, and what decisions in the business you are willing to relegate. Most startups can’t afford that. We both have the same vision.”

Cofounder 242

Cofounder Founder Startup Sweat Equity 242

ReadWriteStart

APRIL 4, 2023

From paying attention to fees to balancing what works for you, here are 13 answers to the question, “Is crowdfunding for startups a good idea? While these fees may seem reasonable at first glance, they can add up quickly and significantly impact the amount of capital that the startup receives from the crowdfunding campaign.

Startup 128

Startup Cofounder Campaign Venture Capital 128

YoungUpstarts

MAY 10, 2018

by Bernard Sury, cofounder of GuruWalk. How about joining a small company or better yet: a startup! For this reason, I want to share with you today my experience on how I discovered the entrepreneurship world and how, starting as an intern, I eventually became the co-founder of a startup. Working with startups.

Cofounder 102

Cofounder Startup Spain Founder 102

YFS Magazine

MARCH 13, 2017

Like any great relationship, a co-founders should evolve as they face new challenges and opportunities. Look for these 6 qualities in a startup co-founder.

Cofounder 102

Cofounder Founder Startup Partner 102

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 30, 2020

Billionaire entrepreneur and "Shark Tank" co-host Mark Cuban is an outspoken proponent of the all-in early approach in a video interview, and made it clear that he gives no credibility and low odds to founders seeking funding who have not fully committed their time and efforts to their cause.

Entrepreneur 326

Entrepreneur Startup Private Equity Salary 326