Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 12, 2018

The problem is that professional investors (angels and venture capital) want a proven business model before they invest, ready to scale, rather than early projections and product development. Consider licensing your product or intellectual property, and “white labeling.” Apply for contests and business grants.

Intellectual Property 134

Intellectual Property Technical Review Startup Incubator 134

Women Entrepreneurs Can

NOVEMBER 19, 2022

A Venture Capital Firm is a firm that invests in startups and early-stage companies. However, not all firms are venture capital firms. One of the most common ways of investing in a startup is by leveraging the expertise of a venture capital firm. Early-Stage Investments vs. Mid-Stage Investments.

Venture Capital 52

Venture Capital Early Stage Liquidity Event SEC 52

View from Seed

MARCH 24, 2021

At NextView Ventures we have written many pieces about venture capital — how to raise it, build your business, engage with investors, iterate your product, navigate expanding industries, etc. Finance is about reporting on historical performance and future planning through the lens of financial metrics.”

Seed Stage 177

Seed Stage Hiring IPO Analytics 177

David Teten

AUGUST 19, 2019

I’ve been a traditional equity VC for 8 years, and I’m now researching new business models in venture capital. RBI normally requires founders to pay back their investors with a fixed percentage of revenue until they have finished providing the investor with a fixed return on capital, which they agree upon in advance.

Revenue 60

Revenue Technical Review Software Review Equity 60

SiliconHills

SEPTEMBER 6, 2013

RunTitle, an online title search marketplace geared to the oil and gas industry, has landed $4 million in Series A venture capital led by Austin Ventures. The Houston-based startup also relocated to Austin as a condition of the financing.

Venture Capital 81

Venture Capital Houston Austin Distribution 81

Up and Running

JULY 2, 2014

We were targeting to raise around $3 million in investment capital. We had personally invested $70,000 of our own money at this point, and we were hoping to raise at least another $250,000 to help us hire a team, launch our company, and begin to build our product. Can they create and advise on a Capitalization Table?

Technical Review 118

Technical Review Angel Investor Due Diligence Dilution 118

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 10, 2009

In future posts I’ll describe how Eric Ries and the Lean Startup concept provided the equivalent model for product development activities inside the building and neatly integrates customer and agile development. As a result, the standard product development model is not only useless, it is dangerous.

Customer Development 196

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 196

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 5, 2009

Unfortunately in early stage startups the drive for financing hijacks the corporate DNA and becomes the raison d’etre of the company. The Traditional VC Pitch Entrepreneurs who pursue the traditional product development model don’t have customer data to answer these questions. Is there a profitable business model?

Customer Development 262

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 262

The Startup Magazine

AUGUST 15, 2022

Whether they were critical to product development, marketing, or a successful exit, each of these individuals can have a significant impact on the amount of money the business is worth. These statements should outline your company’s budget, current and projected financing needs, market analysis, and marketing strategy.

Merger 130

Merger Acquisition Due Diligence Valuation 130

VC Cafe

FEBRUARY 27, 2024

While the answers are somewhat semantic, the pre-seed funding round is making a comeback in 2024 startup financing. Pre-seed tends to be about developing an MVP and generating early traction. Seed is about showing initial product market fit.

Valuation 186

Valuation Software Review Generative AI Technical Review 186

ReadWriteStart

JUNE 29, 2020

Wikipedia.com defines a “startup company (startup or startup) is an entrepreneurial venture which is typically a newly emerged, fast-growing business that aims to meet a marketplace need by developing a viable business model around an innovative product, service, process, or a platform.”. Seek help from a mentor or advisor.

Bootstrapping 85

Bootstrapping Global Startup Hungary 85

OnlyOnce

MAY 13, 2021

If you’re leading HR, or Finance, or Marketing, or any key function inside a startup, what resources are available to you? If you’re an aspiring executive, from entry-level to manager to director, what do you need to think about as you grow your career and develop your skills? What should you be thinking about?

Startup 62

Startup Cofounder Venture Capital Leadership 62

The Equity Kicker

MARCH 6, 2014

This is a quote from Leander Kahney’s recently published book on Apple design chief Jony Ive: “In the world according to Steve Jobs, the ANPP would rapidly evolve into a well-defined process for bringing new products to market by laying out in extreme detail every stage of product development.

Product 84

Product Venture Capital Lean Finance 84

Steve Blank

MAY 28, 2009

Market Risk vs. Invention Risk - Click to Enlarge For companies building web-based products, product development may be difficult, but with enough time and iteration engineering will eventually converge on a solution and ship a functional product - i t’s engineering, not invention.

Vertical 144

Vertical Silicon Valley Marketing Customer 144

Growthink Blog

SEPTEMBER 13, 2017

And because the executives running these companies think they know what their companies at their current point of development are worth they.do And as they do, sometimes even unknowingly that beautiful dream of a business exit and financial windfall recedes depressingly into the sunset.

Harvest 48

Harvest IP Software Review Forecast 48

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 1, 2010

He’s personally led more than 50 financing rounds. Money to be used for hiring and additional product development. Current round: $20.0mm Series-B led by Andreesen Horowitz, with USV and O’Reilly AlphaTech Ventures. Incubated by Clearstone Ventures in 2008. It’s part of what makes him so likable.

San Francisco 248

San Francisco Venture Capital Analytics Government 248

Growthink Blog

MAY 10, 2012

Mezzanine Financing Most companies that raise equity capital and are eventually acquired or go public receive multiple rounds of financing first. No right or wrong answer here, but if this is your vision then it's important to consider when negotiating deal terms on earlier stage financing rounds. Seed Funding 3.

Equity 88

Equity Mezzanine Later Stage Venture Capital 88

K9 Ventures

OCTOBER 10, 2017

You see, Dan knows more about venture than most people; and if Dan isn’t aware that “pre-seed is a thing,” then I haven’t done a good enough job of explaining to the world what I and K9 do! Q: What amount of financing is considered Pre-Seed? Typically, Pre-Seed rounds are less than $1M in aggregate capital raised.

Seed Stage 82

Seed Stage Finance Later Stage Equity 82

Up and Running

JANUARY 30, 2014

My partner is a full-time developer and math teacher, and I’m an engineer. Marketing the site and creating a business behind the product proved much more challenging. To thrust our venture forward, gain business skills quickly, and increase our chances of raising capital, we searched for an accelerator program.

Incubator 105

Incubator New York City Venture Capital Startup 105

www.informationarbitrage.com

FEBRUARY 24, 2010

This is not only sad but incredibly frustrating, because it is so easy to see how a great technology can be developed and commercialized if only - if only the CTO hadn't been impulsive and insecure and brought on a business partner too early in the game. I am a business person, not a technologist. So my advice to CTO / Founders?

CTO Hire 40

CTO Hire Founder Cap Table Vesting 40

Steve Blank

JUNE 8, 2009

In the last three posts, we drew the relationship of market risk and invention risk with vertical markets and pointed out verticals where customer development would be useful. In contrast to simply executing your business plan, the Customer Development process is built on low-cost and continuous learning and iterating. M&A, IPO?

Vertical 122

Vertical Silicon Valley RSS Marketing 122

Hearpreneur

FEBRUARY 8, 2023

3- Finance Club Photo Credit: Jonathan Tian I am enrolled with the Finance Club on LinkedIn to enhance my business operation beyond boundaries. In this LinkedIn group, I can meet like-minded people interested in finance, loan, banking, accounting, and insurance. The group also provides counseling for couples and families.

Community 96

Community Architecture Entrepreneur Networking 96

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 27, 2019

Very few people turn up with a strong sense of “what we should be doing” or ready to lean into a productive conversation The financials were prepared by the VP of Finance / CFO. This can include: Fund raising, product development choices, sales, marketing effectiveness, competition, business development, M&A … whatever.

Stock Options 226

Stock Options Metrics Stock Valuation 226

Growthink Blog

FEBRUARY 21, 2018

This is well shown by Norway - with a population less than that of Colorado but with arguably the world’s best Athletes Development and Coaching Program, leading the Olympics Medals Count while the US is 5th and Russia 7th. Business is no different.

Norway 48

Norway Russia Colorado Finance 48

Growthink Blog

AUGUST 31, 2016

Here are four critical business domains - financing, sales, organization design and goal setting where the high-flyers get it right: Financing. Speed of product development, of brand-building, of customer acquisition, of team-building and talent aggregation. Financing, Sales, Organization Design, Planning.

SCRUM 48

SCRUM Finance Aggregator Acquisition 48

Up and Running

JULY 24, 2015

Product development. If you need a little help with your product development and getting it on store shelves, you can check out Edison Nation. They can help with development and licensing, too. Is your product ready for the big time? Business USA Finance Wizard. Edison Nation.

Entrepreneur 60

Entrepreneur Small Business Administration SBA Pennsylvania 60

SoCal CTO

DECEMBER 1, 2010

Equity-Only CTO and Equity-Only Developers - SoCal CTO , November 1, 2010 I had a recent email dialog with the founder of a company looking for a CTO for their startup. Was it a Startup Founder Developer Gap ? Finance, IT, Legal). We had several emails back and forth where he provided basic details on the concept. So what gives?

Technical Review 175

Technical Review Technology Product CTO Hire 175

Up and Running

MAY 23, 2016

Another great way to test your idea is to create a minimum viable product, or MVP. This is the simplest version of your product minus the frills and frosting. It’s a particularly popular strategy in the world of product development and is used to quickly and quantitatively test a product or a product feature.

Software Review 74

Software Review Software Delaware Forecast 74

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 6, 2013

Every startup needs access to capital, whether for funding product development, for initial rollout efforts, acquiring inventory, or paying that first employee. Thus “creative” really means maximizing non-bank financing. Here are ten top sources from Karlene, and my own experience: Personal financing.

Finance 243

Finance Startup Equity Early Stage 243

Business Plan Blog

OCTOBER 4, 2013

Aligning the Startup Team Strategy with the Capitalization Strategy. The single most important factor to raising capital for any tech startup is the management team. This is true for early stage funding as well as venture capital funding. Typically, these hires fall into 2 buckets: product development and sales.

Part-Time VPE 79

Part-Time VPE Fractional VPE Cofounder CTO Hire 79

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 1, 2009

Sloan kept the corporate staff small and focused on policymaking, corporate finance and planning. Durant Versus Sloan – Part 1 « Steve Blank steveblank.com/2009/10/01/durant-versus-sloan-part-1 – view page – cached + Customer Development Manifesto: The Path of Warriors and Winners (part 5) + Can You Trust Any VC’s Under 40?

Silicon Valley 156

Silicon Valley United States RSS Customer Development 156

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 6, 2011

Inspired by lessons from lean manufacturing, it relies on “validated learning,” rapid scientific experimentation, as well as a number of counter-intuitive practices that shorten product development cycles, measure actual progress without resorting to vanity metrics, and learn what customers really want.

Lean 167

Lean Startup Metrics Private Equity 167

www.readwriteweb.com

OCTOBER 18, 2010

You have heard, I am sure, that venture capitalists only invest in very large market opportunities - $500 million to $1 billion. So, please note the TAM Analysis is a vitally important aspect of building any financing strategy. Raymond is wondering why he cannot attract financing.

Marketing 52

Marketing Bootstrapping Incubator Angel Investor 52

www.readwriteweb.com

OCTOBER 18, 2010

You have heard, I am sure, that venture capitalists only invest in very large market opportunities - $500 million to $1 billion. So, please note the TAM Analysis is a vitally important aspect of building any financing strategy. Raymond is wondering why he cannot attract financing.

Marketing 52

Marketing Bootstrapping Incubator Angel Investor 52

Growthink Blog

NOVEMBER 2, 2016

And more excitedly, through the development of a new product with a market potential many times greater than the company’s current core offering.

Conversion 48

Conversion Los Angeles Europe Acquisition 48

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 26, 2014

Every startup needs access to capital, whether for funding product development, for initial rollout efforts, acquiring inventory, or paying that first employee. Thus “creative” really means maximizing non-bank financing. Here are ten top sources from Karlene, and my own experience: Personal financing.

Entrepreneur 254

Entrepreneur Finance Equity Early Stage 254

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

MARCH 11, 2014

We started with the product about three years ago, development, a year later we released it. So let’s say about a year and a half, the product has been out for real. They have many, many man-years of development and customer development in them. So that is a little bit of the philosophy behind MeetingKing.

Technical Cofounder 220

Technical Cofounder Cofounder Software Review Management 220