ReadWriteStart

JUNE 1, 2020

I have often been asked about Startup Funding by entrepreneurs. Here is Startup Funding, a Comprehensive Guide for Entrepreneurs. It is going to cost a lot of money just to get the initial batch of products to test the market and would definitely require external funding. Many myths surround the subject of startup funding.

Startup 150

Startup Entrepreneur Elevator Pitch Seed Stage 150

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 9, 2020

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. Investors may not be called co-founders, but they always get equity, commensurate with their share of the total costs anticipated, or share of the current valuation.

Cofounder 435

Cofounder Technical Cofounder Equity Intellectual Property 435

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 14, 2023

Desperate entrepreneurs lose their leverage and die young. As a mentor to many entrepreneurs and startups, here are my best recommendations for keeping the burn rate low, planning ahead and maintaining credibility with investors: Manage cash flow personally every day. Things will cost more than you expect.

Burn Rate 258

Burn Rate Hockey Stick Management Salary 258

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. Investors may not be called cofounders, but they always get equity, commensurate with their share of the total costs anticipated, or share of the current valuation. Amount of venture funding provided.

Technical Cofounder 247

Technical Cofounder Equity Distribution Cofounder 247

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 5, 2014

Desperate entrepreneurs lose their leverage and die young. As a mentor to many entrepreneurs and startups, here are my best recommendations for keeping the burn rate low, planning ahead and maintaining credibility with investors: Manage cashflow personally every day. Things will cost more than you expect.

Burn Rate 262

Burn Rate Hockey Stick Entrepreneur Salary 262

Hearpreneur

JANUARY 22, 2023

We asked entrepreneurs and business owners about the 2023 trends they see in their industry and here are the responses. #1- However, that doesn't mean you should ignore cost or quality. This expedited shift to remote teams has opened the door for new, global staffing opportunities at a substantially lower cost.

Artificial Inteligence 124

Artificial Inteligence Technical Review Entrepreneur Social Media 124

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 26, 2013

It’s higher risk, but higher return, to pick the big winners early, before Angels have set unreasonable valuations and restrictive terms. Technology costs are plummeting, meaning you can do more with less. Twenty years ago, it cost $5 million to really launch a high-tech startup, when the same thing can be done today for $500 thousand.

Angel Investor 231

Angel Investor Entrepreneur Early Stage Silicon Valley 231

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 30, 2022

Every business owner and entrepreneur I meet in my consulting rounds dreams of finding that “ disruptive ” innovation that will supercharge their business and move it into the ranks of business unicorns (billion-dollar valuations), such as SpaceX and Apple.

Technical Review 252

Technical Review Silicon Valley Software Review Metrics 252

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 11, 2021

At this point your entity may already have several million in valuation, so the IRS will tax your shares at that value immediately as income, just when your cash flow is at its lowest. Entrepreneurs often put off the hassle and the cost of filing a patent until first funding. Trouble with the IRS over Founders stock value.

Cost 363

Cost Non-Compete Accredited Investor Cofounder 363

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 19, 2020

Desperate entrepreneurs lose their leverage and die young. As a mentor to many entrepreneurs and startups, here are my best recommendations for keeping the burn rate low, planning ahead and maintaining credibility with investors: Manage cash flow personally every day. Things will cost more than you expect.

Burn Rate 310

Burn Rate Hockey Stick Salary Angel Investor 310

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 11, 2022

After many years of working with angel investors seriously trying to find new ventures worthy of their hard-earned money, I find their frustration often exceeds that of entrepreneurs sincerely looking for financial help. Non-credible funding request or unreasonable valuation. Future unproven projections don’t set today’s valuation.

Due Diligence 271

Due Diligence Intellectual Property Entrepreneur Preferred Stock 271

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 30, 2013

I hear a lot of entrepreneurs contemplating their great “idea” for several years with little discernable progress, and looking for money to start. These are things that can cost very little money, but go a long ways in convincing someone that you are making progress. milestones entrepreneur startup funding business'

Intellectual Property 281

Intellectual Property Entrepreneur Sweat Equity CTO Hire 281

The Startup Magazine

FEBRUARY 21, 2024

As the CEO of one of Canada’s largest private credit firms, can you describe the basics of private credit and its increasing importance to budding entrepreneurs? For entrepreneurs, this means not just securing capital, but also gaining a collaborator committed to their growth journey. The firm has made more than $4.5

Technical Review 137

Technical Review Due Diligence Bankruptcy Intellectual Property 137

YoungUpstarts

NOVEMBER 2, 2020

REASON 2: You Need to Gain the Efficiencies to Be Cost-Competitive. REASON 6: Digitally Driven Companies Have Higher Valuations. Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, digitally driven companies have consistently higher valuations. If your website is confusing and disorganized, that is the message people will take away.

Valuation 264

Valuation Technical Review Revenue Operations 264

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2014

So if your costs are $500,000 per month and you have $350,000 per month in revenue then your net burn (500-350) is equal to $150,000. In a world where the economy only heads in one direction (read: 2009-2014) most investors & entrepreneurs forget to pay attention to gross burn. Valuation.

Burn Rate 383

Burn Rate Balance Sheet .Net Valuation 383

The Startup Magazine

JANUARY 14, 2020

According to the World Green Building Council (WGBC), the following findings support a case for green building: Lower operating cost – the construction of green buildings can help building owners and occupiers save money thanks to efficient energy and water usage. Introduction of smart metering. Upgrading of the HVAC system.

Green 141

Green California Government Valuation 141

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 27, 2014

I always advise software startups to file patents to protect their “secret sauce” from competitors, and to increase their valuation. The good news is that a patent can scare off or at least delay competitors, and as a “rule of thumb” patents can add up to $1M to your startup valuation for investors or M&A exits (merger and acquisition).

Software Review 250

Software Review Software Technical Review Intellectual Property 250

View from Seed

OCTOBER 21, 2014

In short, more and more entrepreneurs are signaling their price expectations earlier in their seed fundraise process. Or, in the case of a convertible note, they’ll explicitly state a valuation cap. In theory, there are three levels of pricing for an entrepreneur to potentially signal to a prospective investor: 1.

Valuation 336

Valuation Founder Seed Stage Angel Investor 336

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 22, 2012

He also nails the reason why venture capital is still necessary to grow large businesses quickly in a world where the costs of running startups have fallen dramatically. After all, growth equals high valuations and loads of venture capital! And so do entrepreneurs who are quick to pivot to new businesses or to sell in an acquihire.

Silicon Valley 390

Silicon Valley Venture Capital Startup Technical Review 390

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 29, 2018

Desperate entrepreneurs lose their leverage and die young. As a mentor to many entrepreneurs and startups, here are my best recommendations for keeping the burn rate low, planning ahead and maintaining credibility with investors: Manage cash flow personally every day. Things will cost more than you expect.

Burn Rate 223

Burn Rate Hockey Stick Startup Salary 223

www.forentrepreneurs.com

FEBRUARY 2, 2010

Blog About Log in Register Startup Killer: the Cost of Customer Acquisition In the many thousands of articles advising entrepreneurs on what they have to focus on to build successful startups, much has been written about three key factors: team, product and market, with particular focus on the importance of product/market fit.

Acquisition 103

Acquisition Cost Customer Entrepreneur 103

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 5, 2018

Most entrepreneurs today don’t remember the Dot-Com bubble of 1995 or the Dot-Com crash that followed in 2000. And if their initial guesses were wrong, they needed a process that would permit them to change early on in the product development process when the cost of changes was small – the famed “pivot”. And it may work. The result?

Lean 335

Lean Burn Rate Startup IPO 335

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 26, 2012

Once you have a potential investor excited about your team, your product, and your company, the investor will inevitably ask “What is your company’s valuation?” Many entrepreneurs stumble at this point, losing the deal or most of their ownership, by having no answer, saying “make me an offer,” or quoting an exorbitant number.

Valuation 270

Valuation Pre-Money Valuation NPV Intellectual Property 270

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 25, 2018

Now is the time to be an entrepreneur and create a business from your passion. The cost of rolling out a business has never been lower – it only takes a few hundred dollars to incorporate a Limited Liability Corp (LLC) online, create your own website, use social media to get attention, and you are in business.

Technical Cofounder 184

Technical Cofounder Intellectual Property Silicon Valley LLC 184

ReadWriteStart

OCTOBER 7, 2010

Before I do, however, I want to talk about a thumb rule that I'd like to propose to entrepreneurs about raising money. As a thumb rule, try to get enough validation so that you can get to at least a $2 million pre-money valuation before raising equity capital. Bottom line, early stage equity is very, very expensive. Well, I don't.

Valuation 119

Valuation Silicon Valley Pre-Money Valuation Bootstrapping 119

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 6, 2023

With the advent and growth of crowdfunding over the past few years, many entrepreneurs have predicted the demise of angel investment groups and venture capital organizations. That’s not as high as the failure rate with professional investors, but it should convince entrepreneurs that crowdfunding is still no panacea for funding.

Angel Groups 201

Angel Groups Accredited Investor Due Diligence Equity 201

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 25, 2017

In case you haven’t noticed it, the rapid evolution of do-it-yourself (DIY) facilities for developers, including 3-D printers, SketchUp and makerspaces such as TechShop , have scaled down the cost of prototypes and hardware design by an order of magnitude. Quick low-cost design and fabrication alternatives are extremely valuable.

Technical Cofounder 153

Technical Cofounder Intellectual Property Wiki Cofounder 153

YoungUpstarts

OCTOBER 24, 2013

One of the challenges for investing in startups has always been the lack of an established way for founders and investors to actually measure and decide on the valuation of the startup concerned. ” Ideaspotting investment pre-money valuation valuation Worthworm'

Pre-Money Valuation 150

Pre-Money Valuation Web Technical Review Angel Investor 150

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 25, 2020

With the advent and growth of crowdfunding over the past few years, many entrepreneurs have predicted the demise of those demanding angel investment groups and venture capital organizations. I would summarize the qualms and feedback from professional investors as the following: Crowdfunding platform costs trickle down to angel groups.

Equity 411

Equity Angel Groups Accredited Investor Due Diligence 411

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. Investors may not be called co-founders, but they always get equity, commensurate with their share of the total costs anticipated, or share of the current valuation.

Equity 238

Equity Cofounder Technical Cofounder Intellectual Property 238

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 27, 2016

I still generally advise software startups to file a patent as a barrier to entry from competitors and to increase their valuation by investors, but every entrepreneur needs to understand the tradeoffs. All patents require public disclosure. Unlike hardware, software is already covered by copyright.

Software Review 120

Software Review Intellectual Property Software Technical Review 120

ReadWriteStart

JULY 15, 2020

New talk of capital efficiency is gratifying, but there was another lesson from pre-COVID-19 valuation struggles. Venture capitalists and early-stage investors have told all of us, founders are critical to a startup’s valuation. Remember Morality Impacts Valuation appeared first on ReadWrite. Morality matters. Bank on it.

Valuation 91

Valuation South Carolina San Jose Balance Sheet 91

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 20, 2021

Thus entrepreneurs were able to build prototypes and design new products without the traditional huge prototyping cost. They have also become great networking events for meeting other like-minded entrepreneurs. Here are some key positives from an entrepreneur perspective: Shorten the time and cost from idea to prototype.

Startup 397

Startup Cofounder Incubator Early Stage 397

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 15, 2016

There is much talk these days that startup valuations have decreased and may continue to do so and that the amount of time it takes to fund raise may take longer. The earlier the round, the less capital you need and the more reasonable your valuation the less time that is needed generally to raise capital.

Burn Rate 150

Burn Rate Cap Table Valuation Software Review 150

Duct Tape Marketing

FEBRUARY 3, 2022

Helping Entrepreneurs Buy And Sell Their Agencies written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing. In this episode, she’s sharing how she’s helped many entrepreneurs buy and sell businesses. And we're gonna talk today about helping entrepreneurs buy and sell their agencies. So Amanda, welcome to the show.

Entrepreneur 76

Entrepreneur Technical Review Cofounder Valuation 76

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 23, 2014

We are in a bubble (with so many private $1bn+ valuations). Lower costs to start a business (95% reduction), many more companies created & funded by angels / seed. pre-money valuation you certainly would want to exercise your right to continue investing if you had prorata rights. Where are we today?

Technical Review 398

Technical Review Venture Capital Valuation Pre-Money Valuation 398

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 22, 2011

This was an audience of mostly first-time entrepreneurs. It is great for entrepreneurs and great for VCs. So here is what I have been telling entrepreneurs privately for the past 6 months. They have seen one side of a market where many of us have seen the ebb and flow multiple times. I believe that. Why does all this matter?

Saudi Arabia 309

Saudi Arabia Valuation IPO Technical Review 309