Reid Hoffman

DECEMBER 10, 2020

These are really good founders and I think this is an interesting space.” Further, when additional people kept mentioning Airbnb to me and praising the founders, I should have asked myself how a smart, capable person would refine the idea.). Those two minutes showed me that Airbnb’s founders wanted to play in the big leagues.

Hosting 69

Hosting Hockey Stick IPO Silicon Valley 69

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 10, 2019

Most entrepreneurs struggle with many startup founders quandaries in building their business, and these key dilemmas are probably the biggest source of pain and failure for the entrepreneur lifestyle. Should you start a company solo or find co-founders to help you? The co-founder relationship dilemma.

Hockey Stick 243

Hockey Stick Cofounder Liquidity Event Startup 243

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 23, 2015

Even when you do sign-up initial customers it’s still not clear that your company will be a success and you’re still likely paying yourself under market rates. The narrative of this discussion is something like this: I meet a 35-40-year-old founder with two kids and mortgage. Being a CEO begets the network to be a CEO.

Technical Review 150

Technical Review Liquidation Preference Silicon Valley IP 150

Austin Startup

NOVEMBER 29, 2017

This 4-part story, however, explores the Austin ecosystem based on the 4Cs framework —  culture , capital, customers , and competencies. Tim O’Reilly, Founder at O’Reilly Media and promoter of open source and Web 2.0 Let’s have a look at what early stage founders can expect in terms of oxygen.

Early Stage 48

Early Stage Austin Silicon Valley Texas 48

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 14, 2014

Most entrepreneurs struggle with many startup Founders dilemmas in building their business, and these key dilemmas are probably the biggest source of pain and failure for the entrepreneur lifestyle. Should you start a company solo or find co-Founders to help you? The co-Founder relationship dilemma.

Hockey Stick 268

Hockey Stick Cofounder Entrepreneur Liquidity Event 268

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 19, 2017

Most entrepreneurs struggle with many startup founders dilemmas in building their business, and these key dilemmas are probably the biggest source of pain and failure for the entrepreneur lifestyle. Should you start a company solo or find co-founders to help you? The co-founder relationship dilemma.

Hockey Stick 144

Hockey Stick Cofounder Entrepreneur Liquidity Event 144

Agile VC

JUNE 5, 2011

Even for those who don’t care to dive into the numbers, it’s worth a quick glance because co-founder/CEO Andrew Mason wrote a letter which forms the preamble of the full document. Cumulative customers (unique buyers of Groupons): 15.8M (Q1 2011), 9.0M (2010), 0.4M (2009). Financial Snapshot: 2010 Revenue: $713M.

North America 100

North America Chicago Boston Silicon Valley 100

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 17, 2009

These periods of time can leave a founder very vulnerable in the future. Assuming normal valuations at fund raising rounds you’ll be down to 6-12% after you’ve created a stock-option pool and raised capital. But these people seldom make retirement money from the stock options on these companies.

Founder Vesting 365

Founder Vesting Intellectual Property Stock Options IP 365

Austin Startup

SEPTEMBER 19, 2017

For startup founders, it’s never too early to start thinking about putting together a target market advisory board. This is useful for a number of reasons, the most obvious of which is to help you navigate the right channels in your vertical and open doors to potential customers. As for compensation, stock options in the range of 0.1%

Advisory Board 48

Advisory Board Sweat Equity Marketing Vertical 48

ithacaVC

DECEMBER 9, 2018

They are independent from the founders, independent from the management team and independent from investors. Often there is inherent tension between professional investors (VCs) and founders. I am talking about tension over particular issues (like salary adjustments, stock option grants, strategic direction, etc.).

Stock Options 40

Stock Options Salary Lead Investor Founder 40

VC Cafe

SEPTEMBER 6, 2011

But here it’s not enough to relay on secondary research – get out there and speak to potential customers, partners and even competitors – gather evidence and interest. A startup is a lot of work, and one person will have a hard time executing on all the different tasks ahead.

Startup 133

Startup Cofounder Warrant Stock Options 133

thestartuplawyer.com

FEBRUARY 24, 2010

Contact The Startup Lawyer: Home Page About Contact FAQs Glossary Ryan Roberts Law: Home Page Social Networks: Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Flickr Delicious Digg Last.FM He obviously never launched a startup and got shafted by a co-founder. He obviously never launched a startup and got shafted by a co-founder.

Cofounder 40

Cofounder Founder Preferred Stock Startup 40

Tim Keane

JANUARY 12, 2010

.   (“If we can close 35% of all opportunities, and can get an opportunity by making x contacts, and there are 300 opportunities per month, then we should be able to sell 100 customers per month if we have the capital ($35 per contact) to cover the market every month.”   This results in a five-year projection of XYZ.).

Term Sheet 68

Term Sheet Valuation Dividend Liquidation Preference 68

infochachkie.com

SEPTEMBER 24, 2011

Tracking such revenue can be a challenge but is possible to approximate the revenue impact of PR activities via the use of unique URLs, customer surveys, etc. Any function within your startup that involves iterative learning, passion and/or close proximity to your customers should not be outsourced. Networking (20). Sales (12).

Equity 40

Equity Silicon Valley Cofounder PR 40

The Next Web

OCTOBER 25, 2013

Aside from needing to be conveniently located for your employees to get to (and potential clients to visit for meetings), Ori Goshen, co-founder and vice president of research and development at Tawkon , says staying close to good bars and restaurant options also give employees a sense of life outside the work space.

San Francisco 167

San Francisco Design Product Startup 167

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

MARCH 11, 2014

Listen to this episode if you want to hear about a founder who has a product and users and paying customers … and is trying to figure out how to take his company to the next level and grow faster. Jason: So how many of those 20,000 people are paying customers? Edwin: Okay, I have different types of customers.

Technical Cofounder 220

Technical Cofounder Cofounder Software Review Management 220

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 10, 2015

I often speak about co-founder fighting and how this ends in lawsuits but this has become much more prevalent. I’d encourage you to watch this quick 3-minute video with some views on what I call “ The Co-Founder Mythology ” that is perpetuated in Silicon Valley. Lawsuits are particularly common amongst co-founders.

Vesting 150

Vesting Cofounder IP Stock Options 150

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 8, 2009

I started my last company with 100% off-shore resources because I could never have completed Customer Development at a reasonable cost of money or regulatory burden had I employed US Citizens. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? September 9, 2009 12:36 AM Richard Tibbetts said.

DC 90

DC Washington San Francisco SBIR 90

techcrunch.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

One of the things I do as a founder of a later stage startup is to meet with early stage entrepreneurs to help them get their companies going. In later posts I’m going to get into more detail on specific topics like hiring, raising money, what types of ideas have the potential to get big, finding your founders, and the like.

Technical Review 84

Technical Review Cofounder Technical Cofounder Software Review 84

Hunter Walker

MAY 1, 2016

That wasn’t the case when I met with Greg Hong and Joe Marchese, the co-founders of Reserve. Also, it was clear that working side-by-side with Greg wouldn’t require me to battle a nasty case of Founder’s Ego — Greg is brilliant but humble, and he presented me with an opportunity to join him in shaping the company, the product, and the team.

New York City 48

New York City New York Los Angeles Startup 48

Hunter Walker

MAY 1, 2016

That wasn’t the case when I met with Greg Hong and Joe Marchese, the co-founders of Reserve. Also, it was clear that working side-by-side with Greg wouldn’t require me to battle a nasty case of Founder’s Ego — Greg is brilliant but humble, and he presented me with an opportunity to join him in shaping the company, the product, and the team.

New York City 48

New York City New York Los Angeles Startup 48

The Next Web

AUGUST 14, 2013

This is a guest post by Wade Foster , co-founder and CEO of Zapier, which originally appeared on his blog. But since I’m relatively fresh off of the experience I get asked by first-time founders how they should go about raising money for their startup. Usually those aren’t first-time founders though. It certainly did me.

Founder 142

Founder Incubator Cofounder Accredited Investor 142