YoungUpstarts

NOVEMBER 20, 2019

Among these opportunities, the chance to pitch an investor and secure funding is perhaps the greatest of all — at least in the early stages of your startup career — as it can ultimately determine the long-term fate of your company. Have a reasonable attitude about your early-stage valuation, and don’t get too hung up on it.

Technical Review 140

Technical Review Due Diligence Early Stage Differentiation 140

The Startup Magazine

APRIL 14, 2022

While certain aspects of setting up a startup can be exhilarating, especially in the early stages of the business, there are also plenty of bumps along the road, big and small. If the name is already taken, add an adjective or verb to differentiate it from other similar names. Image Source.

Startup 143

Startup Early Stage Naming Public Relations 143

The Startup Magazine

SEPTEMBER 12, 2019

While the rewards may be a boon to their company in the short term, the consequences of accepting outside funding too early can be debilitating. There’s a reason why I refer to early-stage VC funding as vulture capital, and to be honest it’s pretty accurate. Money in Exchange for Control.

Early Stage 85

Early Stage Venture Capital Bootstrapping Pre-Money Valuation 85

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 10, 2018

If none of these five items is a clear differentiator in your case, a logical approach would be to assign each an equal weight of 20% of the total, and partition the total equity based on each co-founder’s correlation to each variable. A friend or family investor thus might get 20% of the equity, even with no business activity contribution.

Equity 238

Equity Cofounder Technical Cofounder Intellectual Property 238

Hearpreneur

OCTOBER 25, 2023

While platforms like Instagram offer a great starting point, the key to differentiation lies in the age-old strategy of Search Engine Optimization (SEO). 7- Differente from the competition Photo Credit: Chris Gerbig The key to success for a new e-commerce business owner would be to find something that differentiates from the competition.

eCommerce 126

eCommerce Omaha Entrepreneur SEO 126

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 26, 2013

Every early-stage startup should explore this new funding alternative. New “up-and-comer” VCs focus on early-stage companies. VCs are finding that they don’t need the “large” funds of $100M to $500M to support a portfolio, if they focus on early-stage startups.

Angel Investor 231

Angel Investor Entrepreneur Early Stage Silicon Valley 231

Duct Tape Marketing

JANUARY 19, 2024

Biggest Takeaway: While significant progress has been made in AI, we are still in the early stages of its development. The future of AI lies in developing models that can understand the context and differentiate between right and wrong answers.

Fractional CTO 77

Fractional CTO CTO Hire Technical Review Marketing 77

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 14, 2017

As an early-stage VC I love this phase. You start out with vision, you must adapt and have intellectual honesty once you stare at your data and know where your true sources of differentiation and value are. As a startup in this phase you often raise capital, get press, hire staff and everything feels possible.

Operations 286

Operations New York City Technical Review Startup 286

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 6, 2014

I think that mindset is useful to remind entrepreneurs that it is a shared journey and capital (whether active or passive) is a part of your success and your ability to access it when you need to and for the amounts you need is a very critical differentiator between successful companies and unsuccessful one.

Technical Review 325

Technical Review Early Stage Software Review Los Angeles 325

YoungUpstarts

AUGUST 24, 2020

Google crawlers can differentiate good links from bad ones and determine the relevancy. When you are already juggling several tasks at the early stages of web development, focusing on the content and content quality may not rank high in your list of priorities. Content Duplication or Spinning Helps in Short Term.

SEO 147

SEO Semantic Web Development Engineer 147

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 8, 2010

Very few of them are started, in my experience, by sales people and very few early stage companies really understand sales. a) they don’t tend to make great heads of sales departments and b) they aren’t the people you want early in your company. And in my experience Journeyman are not good in two scenarios.

Early Stage 350

Early Stage Startup Sales Campaign 350

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 4, 2014

If none of these five items is a clear differentiator in your case, a logical approach would be to assign each an equal weight of 20 percent of the total, and partition the total equity based on each co-founder’s correlation to each variable. Obviously it should be amended later, as roles are more clearly defined, and execution proceeds.

Cofounder 261

Cofounder Stock Founder Technical Cofounder 261

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 13, 2010

The things that always differentiated Accenture? There seem to be a lot of market entrants in every category where it becomes hard to differentiate them all from each other. It’s why as an investor I look for talented teams with long-term vision, a unique point-of-view, differentiated IP and a desire to build something enduring.

Turkey 302

Turkey Differentiation IP Technical Review 302

SoCal CTO

JANUARY 28, 2010

Yesterday, I met with someone at the early stage of a startup. In fact, my belief is that most startups should either be looking for a marketer or a web developer as they likely need to be differentiated in terms of marketing or should have complexity in their development. Especially for an early-stage startup?

Los Angeles 167

Los Angeles Web Development Web Developer 167

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 24, 2014

It turns out it actually takes time to build a high-growth business with differentiated intellectual property and roll out large, enterprise-class marketing solutions. Working with early-stage teams : coaching, mentoring, setting strategy, rolling up sleeves: 9/10. 5 years ago. Sourcing high-quality leads : 9/10.

Los Angeles 387

Los Angeles Intellectual Property LP Venture Capital 387

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 1, 2014

We pride ourselves on being early-stage (thus the name, Upfront) but in this case it’s as early as it gets. The journey just under 18 months ago with a coffee meeting with my friend Sam Rosen in NYC just after Hurricane Sandy.

Technical Review 380

Technical Review Software Review Cofounder CTO Hire 380

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 9, 2010

Every early-stage startup should explore this new funding alternative. New “up-and-comer” VCs focus on early-stage companies. VCs are finding that they don’t need the “large” funds of $100M to $500M to support a portfolio, if they focus on early-stage startups.

Technical Review 215

Technical Review Early Stage Venture Capital Startup 215

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 4, 2015

For early-stage startups, the goodwill component can easily exceed the size of all the financial elements together, or can just as easily mark a company with good financials as not investable. In the investment community, these leadership elements are often called “goodwill.” Performance accountability processes.

Leadership 120

Leadership Technical Review Due Diligence Valuation 120

ReadWriteStart

MARCH 8, 2021

A catchy name goes a long way to cement your brand in people’s minds, but you’ll also need the help of brand differentiation to distinguish your company from others. . In the early stages of your business’s development, you’re going to notice dead weight. Or is it? . Dead Weight.

Startup 127

Startup Retention Acquisition Agile 127

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 24, 2016

If none of these five items is a clear differentiator in your case, a logical approach would be to assign each an equal weight of 20% of the total, and partition the total equity based on each co-founder’s correlation to each variable. A friend or family investor thus might get 20% of the equity, even with no business activity contribution.

Equity 120

Equity Cofounder Technical Cofounder Intellectual Property 120

Reid Hoffman

AUGUST 6, 2020

The term “early-stage” covers a lot of territory in venture investing, from incubating a brand-new idea, to investing in a Series A. WHAT’S DIFFERENT ABOUT EARLY-STAGE INVESTING IN THIS MOMENT? We actually have this amazing opportunity as mostly early stage investors (or for our listeners, early stage entrepreneurs).

Technical Review 69

Technical Review Seed Stage Software Review Early Stage 69

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 11, 2016

In the end I know the only true differentiator in venture capital is the company you keep. It’s the executives who trust you to join the early-stage startups you’ve funded. I can try to be as smart as possible on market trends, industry dynamics and so forth. It’s the people who want to work with you.

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital Fractional CTO Cofounder Early Stage 150

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 12, 2023

Too many entrepreneurs tell me they are looking for an investor, and can’t differentiate between venture capital (VC) investors versus accredited angel investors. Angels are more likely to fund new entrepreneurs, and early-stage or seed rounds, while VCs tend to focus on entrepreneurs with a successful track record, and later stage rounds.

Angel Investor 246

Angel Investor IRR Venture Capital Valuation 246

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

NOVEMBER 25, 2016

Instead, let’s separate the upside and downside of “building feature X,” and clarify the outcome of those two aspects: UPSIDE: Unique position in the market, leading to new deals won through differentiation. If we do feature X, we earn more deals (through differentiation). Decide with upside, veto with weakness.

Differentiation 120

Differentiation Framework Restful Software Review 120

David Teten

JANUARY 9, 2018

He looked at his resume, and asked just one question: “ What’s your edge? ” My friend got the job because his answer was differentiated, credible, and backed up by a history of investing success. It is unexciting and hard to prove, but in fact “We execute better” is a critical differentiator. This model certainly makes sense.

Venture Capital 60

Venture Capital Private Equity Silicon Valley Differentiation 60

David Teten

JANUARY 9, 2018

He looked at his resume, and asked just one question: “ What’s your edge? ” My friend got the job because his answer was differentiated, credible, and backed up by a history of investing success. It is unexciting and hard to prove, but in fact “We execute better” is a critical differentiator. This model certainly makes sense.

Venture Capital 60

Venture Capital Private Equity Silicon Valley Differentiation 60

Version One Ventures

FEBRUARY 20, 2024

At Version One, we are strong believers that early-stage investing is best done by small teams that are aligned around a differentiated investment thesis and are investing with high conviction. Candidates that rely on a playbook (there isn’t one in early-stage investing!)

Partner 60

Partner Early Stage Angel Investor Differentiation 60

SoCal CTO

AUGUST 4, 2011

Almost every day I'm talking to early stage startup founders (see Free Startup CTO Consulting Sessions ) about what they plan to do. How will you differentiate from these? I tend to ask a lot of questions, challenge aspects, make suggestions. But I've often been very surprised by one aspect of these conversations.

Developer 396

Developer Founder Viral Oauth 396

SoCal CTO

AUGUST 4, 2011

Almost every day I'm talking to early stage startup founders (see Free Startup CTO Consulting Sessions ) about what they plan to do. How will you differentiate from these? I tend to ask a lot of questions, challenge aspects, make suggestions. But I've often been very surprised by one aspect of these conversations.

Developer 384

Developer Founder Viral Oauth 384

The Equity Kicker

AUGUST 8, 2017

Suitable for early stage investment. The major concern we had is that AI more generally has been a popular investment theme with other investors for some time and we wanted to make sure that Applied AI is sufficiently differentiated to be a viable investment focus for Forward Partners. We can articulate use cases.

Artificial Inteligence 78

Artificial Inteligence eCommerce Early Stage Algorithm 78

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 1, 2016

And while there is a narrative that most LPs only want to invest in the long-standing Silicon Valley brands that have existed for the past 40 years, there is evidence that many LPs understand that it is possible for new entrants in our industry to stake out grounds of differentiation.

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital LP Silicon Valley Marketing 150

VC Cafe

MAY 29, 2022

Building on my post on ‘ Advice for startups in a downturn (May 2022 edition) ‘, this week I continued to follow with interest the impact of the current correction on startups and venture capital, particularly in early stage. The key messages: “This is not a time to panic. Who is actually pulling back from investing?

Venture Capital 183

Venture Capital Early Stage Valuation Startup 183

David Teten

APRIL 1, 2021

Real Ventures , an early-stage, Canadian-based fund, runs a two-day Founder Camp every six months. A true industry luminary will help in deal flow & differentiation . Here are a few other examples of services which do meet these two tests: Bootcamp. In-house, brand-name guru. In-house functional specialists.

Private Equity 78

Private Equity Venture Capital Portfolio Equity 78

View from Seed

MAY 24, 2019

But I find that the way one talks about differentiation tends to reflect their approach to their product. Probably the weakest strategy as an early stage company is to try to be a “swiss army knife”. I find that the most successful early stage products tend to win by doing a narrow set of things really really well.

Early Stage 215

Early Stage Differentiation Product Founder 215

The Equity Kicker

MARCH 17, 2015

In summary, early stage investors are becoming more active to differentiate themselves from the competition and win the best deals, and because their investments need more help. The gaps that we most often fill are product, development, design, marketing, recruitment and fundraising.

Early Stage 60

Early Stage Venture Capital San Francisco Silicon Valley 60

YoungUpstarts

MAY 11, 2016

Complementary domains” simply means differentiating the url through the top-level domain (TLD), while keeping the domain name itself static. Complementary domains give businesses the ability to maintain more control over their brands and create a better experience for their customers.

SEM 100

SEM Los Angeles Software Review Naming 100

Austin Startup

MAY 11, 2017

645 Ventures 645 Ventures makes deeply-researched investments in institutional Seed to Series A rounds for exceptional companies who demonstrate stellar early results in the areas of market validation, product differentiation, team strength, and brand narrative.

Private Equity 48

Private Equity Venture Capital Technical Review Seed Stage 48