Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 29, 2018

Things will cost more than you expect. This could equate to two technical founders (with a minimal salary), funding two developers for a year. That should equate to an adequate valuation for a $2 million follow-on Series-A round, without giving away all the equity. Buffer your projected resource requirements.

Burn Rate 223

Burn Rate Hockey Stick Startup Salary 223

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 5, 2018

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 if the company does go public, the valuations are at least 10x of the last bubble. The result?

Lean 335

Lean Burn Rate Startup IPO 335

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

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 27, 2019

The law firm has done its job of preparing the stock option requests, board meeting minutes, 409a valuations. This can include: Fund raising, product development choices, sales, marketing effectiveness, competition, business development, M&A … whatever. The meeting starts. The agenda should be purposeful.

Stock Options 226

Stock Options Metrics Stock Valuation 226

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 20, 2021

Thus entrepreneurs were able to build prototypes and design new products without the traditional huge prototyping cost. The movement has long since spread across the country and across the globe, spawning innovative products such as the MakerBot Digitizer and all the things you can access from Thingiverse.com.

Startup 397

Startup Cofounder Incubator Early Stage 397

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 5, 2014

Things will cost more than you expect. This could equate to two technical founders (with a minimal salary), funding two developers for a year. That should equate to an adequate valuation for a $2 million follow-on Series-A round, without giving away all the equity. Buffer your projected resource requirements.

Burn Rate 262

Burn Rate Hockey Stick Entrepreneur Salary 262

Hearpreneur

JANUARY 22, 2023

However, that doesn't mean you should ignore cost or quality. This trend is only set to increase in the coming years, and I expect to see more companies focusing on sustainability in their product development and business practices. corporations start to shift more dollars toward lower-cost developer hubs.

Artificial Inteligence 123

Artificial Inteligence Technical Review Entrepreneur Social Media 123

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 4, 2016

But for founders who do their homework, the cost of entry is lower and the opportunity is higher than ever. Who would not want to joint the unicorns (recent startups with a current valuation of over $1 billion)? Building a minimum viable product, with customer validation. The cost of social media done well is low.

Intellectual Property 120

Intellectual Property Startup Angel Groups Social Media 120

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 14, 2016

Things will cost more than you expect. This could equate to two technical founders (with a minimal salary), funding two developers for a year. That should equate to an adequate valuation for a $2 million follow-on Series-A round, without giving away all the equity. Buffer your projected resource requirements.

Burn Rate 120

Burn Rate Hockey Stick Startup Salary 120

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 19, 2015

Outside investors are most interested in scaling a proven business model, not research and development. Thus it’s a waste of time for most entrepreneurs to be looking for investors until they have a product and some customer revenue. Most founders bootstrap product development. Fabulous solutions require great technology.

Technical Review 120

Technical Review Intellectual Property Cofounder Bootstrapping 120

The Startup Magazine

FEBRUARY 21, 2022

With a present valuation of over $35 billion, the frozen food market is likely to increase in size by 1.3% That is a 40% increase in value from the market’s 2018 frozen food business valuation of $260 billion. Even though they sell other frozen items, they are mainly known for their breakfast products. Final Thoughts.

Valuation 179

Valuation Demand Business Plan Social Media 179

Berkonomics

NOVEMBER 27, 2019

Well, now we have a much larger group of products and services with and without the Internet discovering the same thing. As former buyers, our costs as users goes up, sometimes dramatically. Sometimes, products are designed to make all their profit upon the recurring revenues from supplies or support. A buyer’s bonus.

Revenue 62

Revenue Software Review Application Development Valuation 62

Steve Blank

MAY 9, 2017

The second thing that’s changed is that we’re now Compressing the Product Development Cycle. In the 20 th century startups I was part of, the time to build a first product release was measured in years as we turned out the founder’s vision of what customers wanted. The founders. China has simply become the factory.

Restful 238

Restful Silicon Valley Puerto Rico San Jose 238

YoungUpstarts

NOVEMBER 20, 2019

On the other hand, if you arrive at a VC pitch without a comprehensive understanding of the industry you’re hoping to compete in, or without a clear path to profitability or a thoughtful product-development road map, you’ll likely leave empty-handed. Investors want to feel confident that they’ll see a return on their investment.

Technical Review 140

Technical Review Due Diligence Early Stage Differentiation 140

The Startup Magazine

SEPTEMBER 10, 2019

Asset valuation. The concept of asset valuation may seem counterintuitive, but it is an important idea. Most financial valuation formulas value an asset by discounting the asset using the cost of capital (interest rate) to the present day. Compared to Accounting, Finance is ruthlessly forward looking.

Founder 148

Founder Valuation Dividend Startup 148

Berkonomics

JANUARY 3, 2013

Sometimes, products are designed to make all of their profit upon the recurring revenues from supplies or support. We immediately recall the razor and blade analogy to illustrate the point when planning product development and release.

Revenue 79

Revenue Software Review Vertical Valuation 79

David Teten

MAY 1, 2013

There are some automated valuation tools on the web like valuate.com and estibot.com that use search traffic, backlinks, and other data to appraise the value in the domain name. Still, deciding on the right price for a target domain name is almost entirely an exercise in negotiation, not valuation.

Naming 114

Naming Semantic Venture Capital Startup 114

Transformify

APRIL 12, 2020

It’s an extra cost for the employer and most companies stick to 2-3 overseas locations to simplify remote working arrangements. Some companies create remote jobs to save on employment costs and benefit from the much lower pay rate overseas. An asset, no cost in the P&L. USD 30 000 rent (cost). No revenue at all.

Bangladesh 98

Bangladesh Philippines Salary Cofounder 98

Up and Running

DECEMBER 22, 2015

Combine a wild guess on future growth for several years, add in a wilder guess about future valuation prices and exit opportunities, and then pretend that the combination means something. This is a very important concept: Scalable means a business can ramp up, increase its volume enormously, without increasing its fixed costs proportionately.

Angel Investor 60

Angel Investor IRR Software Review Startup 60

Cracking the Code

OCTOBER 1, 2020

Snyk was founded with the mission to help developers make their code secure, providing a platform to automatically assess and remediate open source vulnerabilities. The company’s success has been largely driven by its developer-led freemium model, going from Series A funding to a valuation of $2.6B in just 30 months.

Early Stage 62

Early Stage Open Source Development Team Review Security 62

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 21, 2014

Here are some key positives from an entrepreneur perspective: Shorten the time and cost from idea to prototype. In today’s fast moving market, the basic product development cost and time are critical to survival. Low-cost design and fabrication tools are extremely valuable. Diversity breeds success.

Entrepreneur 246

Entrepreneur Detroit California Cofounder 246

Austin Startup

AUGUST 20, 2017

Keep the valuations consistent with company progress. The bottom line is that the pedigree of your investors will have much to do with your ultimate valuation and with your enjoyment of the startup experience. Can you acquire them at a sustainable cost? Your Product Plan must fit into context of your overall business mission.

Technical Review 48

Technical Review Software Review Cap Table Securities and Exchange Commission 48

ConversionXL

JUNE 19, 2018

Look at your growth team score and ask yourself: are you working in a multi-disciplinary team where you focus on high tempo testing on the entire customer journey for bottom line and valuation impact? We all have product defects, we just don’t know where they are and how much they cost us. Why don’t we hear about these bugs?

Technical Review 103

Technical Review Agile Analytics Conversion 103

Up and Running

JUNE 14, 2017

Some believe in the all-in approach to product development: build an advanced app. Furthermore, as I was proving the viability of Recycler Spotter through the free version, I could have pre-sold the paid membership at a discount for another layer of validation that would have also helped finance product development.

Technical Review 96

Technical Review Distribution Redemption Demand 96

Feld Thoughts

NOVEMBER 18, 2013

Convertible debt financings have become an increasingly attractive approach for seed rounds because it delays the valuation discussion, costs less from a legal standpoint, and is an easier financial instrument to “keep raising more small amounts of money” on. It’s enough time to hang yourself if you are not careful.

Burn Rate 152

Burn Rate Equity Software Review Early Stage 152

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 17, 2011

When times are really good for fund raising many teams delay to maximize their valuation. For many businesses you should keep your costs low & your capital raises low until you discover whether you are really on to a big idea where there is market demand. 5 million raised at a $9 million pre-money valuation or 35.7%

Pre-Money Valuation 303

Pre-Money Valuation Dilution Valuation PR 303

Berkonomics

MARCH 21, 2019

If the business is not a startup, expect to supply income statements for the past several years as well, to emphasize trends in revenue and costs. Here’s a valuation example for you based on amount to be raised. When multiplied by 10x, the target valuation at exit would be the $40,000,000 quoted above.

Hockey Stick 63

Hockey Stick Liquidity Event Valuation Balance Sheet 63

The Startup Toolkit

AUGUST 30, 2012

The valley only has about 4x more VC deals than London (although average valuations are admittedly 2x higher): The valley is not 1000x better. 25% during product development. 60% are for revenue generating companies with a sellable product. You may be able to make the trip, but it has a cost. But check it.

Silicon Valley 52

Silicon Valley San Francisco New Jersey India 52

YoungUpstarts

NOVEMBER 27, 2017

In under a year, I went from having just $12,000 in savings to a business valuated at $1.4 After showing them my crude prototype, I brokered a deal to pay them enough to cover their costs, in exchange for a return on a crowdfunding endeavor. The costs associated with running the Indiegogo campaign added up quickly.

Canada 133

Canada Security PR Valuation 133

View from Seed

OCTOBER 15, 2014

Examples of housekeeping include the following list, though not every item will appear every time: Finance: Cash out date, burn rate, 409A valuation, cap table, common/preferred stock dashboard. Even if there’s some kind of product in the market during the first round of financing, it’s probably to be unproven.

Seed Stage 331

Seed Stage Cap Table Metrics Burn Rate 331

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 12, 2010

Products: You obviously can’t create value without a viable product (or service) to sell. This section of your Venture Value Scorecard should summarize the important advances you have made recently in research and product development. Tags: scorecard venture value Akira Hirai business valuation.

Intellectual Property 223

Intellectual Property .Net Valuation Distribution 223

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. Product development. Additionally, startup costs for technology companies are extremely low. You’ll get a low valuation.

Early Stage 60

Early Stage Startup Forecast Channel 60

steveblank.com

JULY 8, 2011

AgileZen – project management visually see and interact with your work Kanbanery – Simple online team or personal kanban board LeanKit Kanban – Great for visualizing work of product development Kanban Pad – “Nice and lean” and free online Kanban tool Banana Scrum – A tool simple as Scrum itself.

Software Review 110

Software Review Startup Silicon Valley Analytics 110

Austin Startup

JANUARY 25, 2020

So after the prototype, I took my rideshare & delivery earnings (I had taken up driving on the side before and after my after-school job to fill the money blanks) and threw it into product development to get something truly functional, a test version. After that, we had something much better?—?it it was now clickable!

Delaware 62

Delaware SEC New York City New York 62

Growthink Blog

JANUARY 24, 2018

Elon Musk’s electric car maker saw its valuation grow to more than $60 billion last year, greater than that of General Motors in spite of selling 90% less cars! One Wisdom: In so many market spaces, speed of product development, deployment, and marketing is the key success factor. We all certainly might, but U.S.

Artificial Inteligence 48

Artificial Inteligence San Francisco Valuation Reputation 48

The Equity Kicker

JANUARY 10, 2020

Maybe they’ll pivot to something great eventually, but in the interim period, the valuation goes sideways – and that’s not a good place for a VC to be. Plus, step one of the pivot is to get your costs really low in order to preserve the runway to give yourself a chance of succeeding – so the team has to go. Your first idea has failed.

Partner 68

Partner Early Stage Portfolio Metrics 68

Business Plan Blog

DECEMBER 10, 2013

You may have self-financed the initial startup costs and/or raised FFF capital without a business plan , but in order to attract seed investment from Angel investors you will need a comprehensive plan complete with extensive market research and a detailed financial model. Product Development. Intellectual Property.

Angel Investor 55

Angel Investor Intellectual Property Seed Capital Advisory Board 55