Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 14, 2021

Competition for your new hydrogen fuel auto engine is not limited to other hydrogen auto engine offerings, or even other autos. The focus is diluted, it’s hard to keep up with individual product changes, and you will always be on the defensive. A narrow scope doesn’t help your case either.

Intellectual Property 417

Intellectual Property Angel Investor Dilution Differentiation 417

YoungUpstarts

SEPTEMBER 16, 2015

Raise too much capital at any given stage and suffer more dilution than is necessary – obviously not ideal. The goal was to set quantifiable metrics to hit in each category and to reverse engineer how many people and dollars would be required to get there. It’s part art, part science. Set Quantifiable Goals.

Valuation 100

Valuation Dilution Chicago Technical Review 100

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 17, 2011

Still, I’ll bet that functionally you divide areas of competence like sales & marketing, product, engineering, biz dev, etc. Dilute your cash, equity or both. . “We’re all equal co-founders and we don’t care about titles.&# Functional roles provide more clarity around roles and responsibilities.

Operations 292

Operations CTO Hire Startup Early Stage 292

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 21, 2013

Often your sales engineers can do the customizations without bugging the core eng team. The closest analogy I have for a PS person is a “sales engineer” who is normally a technical staff member who assists in sales campaigns. By year 2 I’d like to see PS at 50% maximum, which is still high.

Software Review 321

Software Review Software IP Technical Review 321

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 14, 2017

what your product & engineering thought they cared about and you adapt your offering. While early-stage companies have all of their engineers working on product innovation, companies that want to scale realize that you also have to build systems to help with organizational scaling.

Operations 286

Operations New York City Technical Review Startup 286

The Startup Magazine

JANUARY 12, 2024

After all, your team is the engine of your business machine. The Brand Identity Balancing Act While chasing growth, there’s a risk of diluting what made your brand special in the first place. Bringing on board a team that doesn’t gel well or lacks the necessary skills. Staying true to your core values and brand identity is vital.

Intellectual Property 117

Intellectual Property Dilution Security Government 117

The Startup Magazine

AUGUST 9, 2022

Salo built on his background as a music producer and engineer to see the power of music in advertising. One of the most underrated jobs of a leader in a scaling organization is making sure the culture doesn’t get diluted. I would also put culture in the top 3.

Cofounder 147

Cofounder Founder Miami Marketing 147

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 4, 2014

It either needed to get more aggressive in pricing, pivot to a new business or business model or raise more capital (and take the dilution) in order to have more time to figure things out. He wanted more ability to push the product & engineering teams harder – he was, after all, the CEO. We sat down the three of us.

Founder 340

Founder Sacramento Cofounder Technical Review 340

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 25, 2019

CEO brought in to replace the founder, 5 - 10% CTO, CFO, VP of Marketing or Sales, 1.5 - 3% Chief Engineer or Architect, 1 - 1.5% Advisory Board Member, 1% Senior Engineer,3 -.7% 7% Product Manager,2 -.3% 3% If you are not on this list, just worry about getting whatever your peers are getting.

Equity 237

Equity Stock Options Advisory Board Stock 237

ReadWriteStart

JANUARY 27, 2011

I have discussed at length why revenue sharing channel deals may serve as perfectly fine alternatives to raising equity (or even complements) because of their non-dilutive nature. She has a master's degree in electrical engineering and computer science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Photo by nosheep. Discuss.

Dilution 114

Dilution Revenue Finance Entrepreneur 114

The Startup Magazine

JANUARY 22, 2023

Even if the other business does not have a registered trademark, they may still be able to sue you for unfair competition or dilution of their brand. Don’t forget that in the age of social media and the internet, many customers search for businesses by typing names into a search engine.

Naming 123

Naming Cleveland Social Media Dilution 123

Up and Running

JUNE 14, 2012

It could be an engineer and a business person, or it may need two different sets of engineering skills and a business person. A good engineer can design something fancy but that doesn’t mean there’s a market for it or that it will sell. For every company there are critical skill sets that are needed to get it going.

Cofounder 90

Cofounder Technical Cofounder Accredited Investor Equity 90

The Startup Magazine

FEBRUARY 21, 2023

Even if the other business does not have a registered trademark, they may still be able to sue you for unfair competition or dilution of their brand. Don’t forget that in the age of social media and the internet, many customers search for businesses by typing names into a search engine.

Naming 139

Naming Cleveland Social Media Dilution 139

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2014

Your goal is to invest in engineering (to maintain your product lead), new offices / locations (to capture markets before others), marketing (to capture consumer attention before others do) … all of these activities consume cash often in advance of the revenue they generate. Think DropBox, Airbnb, Uber, Maker Studios.

Burn Rate 383

Burn Rate Balance Sheet .Net Valuation 383

The Next Web

SEPTEMBER 15, 2013

Daniel Jacobson ( Twitter | LinkedIn ), is currently director of engineering for the Netflix API. Today, Netflix can be watched on more than 1,000 different device types, the vast majority of which are developed by Netflix-employed UI Engineers. He is also the co-author of APIs: A Strategy Guide.

API 135

API Audience Dividend Programming 135

www.avc.com

SEPTEMBER 22, 2011

The other important data point is the number of fully diluted shares. The second bracket is Director level managers and key people (engineering and design superstars for sure). The third bracket are employees who are in the key functions like engineering, product, marketing, etc. Let's say the number is $25mm.

Equity 64

Equity Employee CTO Hire Fractional CTO 64

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 5, 2015

When you do, my 20% becomes 15% and thus my true price for your round is actually higher than it appears when I invested because I already know I’m going to face more dilution for options. If you’re a solo founder and haven’t built out your team or engineers I’m likely to want 15+%. Those are the big three.

Pre-Money Valuation 150

Pre-Money Valuation Option Pool Post-Money Valuation Dilution 150

This is going to be BIG.

FEBRUARY 27, 2011

Despite advances in cloud infrastructure, many businesses still have fleshy parts—soft underbellies where a human hand is required to keep quality control, stuff something into a box, order inventory, hire enough engineers to keep the site going or manage cash. Scale brings complexity.

Dilution 104

Dilution Equity Hiring Partner 104

The Next Web

OCTOBER 7, 2013

“It kinda sucks to be engineer #1.”. That’s what a couple of my friends – engineers at Google and Bloomberg who have been following the rise of startup culture with intrigue – told me recently. They were referring to non-founder engineers, most commonly the first hire for technology businesses. Engineer #1?

Engineer 129

Engineer Dilution Option Pool Vesting 129

ReadWriteStart

JULY 18, 2011

Jeff Clavier was the first tech investor I ever met; he was introduced to me years ago by some hip engineers in a bar as "one of the few cool VCs." At this stage, the founders pay for the dilution of the shares and the funders will take 20 to 25% of the company. The next stage is seed funding, and you should raise $500k-$1.5m

Investment Bankers 153

Investment Bankers Technical Review Cofounder Due Diligence 153

Duct Tape Marketing

JANUARY 23, 2015

2) Don’t write content for the search engines. However, when you do this, you sacrifice your credibility and dilute your link authority. Google My Business” is a platform that enables your small business customers to verify their online visibility and local business information through the search engines.

SEO 28

SEO Technical Review Illinois Reputation 28

YoungUpstarts

MAY 9, 2017

individuals dilute their focus and slow their productivity. It’s unsurprising that most teams struggle to meet productivity goals in environments where. team members are encouraged to take on more than their capacity allows. With each task, project, email, drive-by conversation, meeting, etc.,

Lean 124

Lean Agile Technical Review Dilution 124

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 21, 2017

CEO brought in to replace the founder, 5 - 10% CTO, CFO, VP of Marketing or Sales, 1.5 - 3% Chief Engineer or Architect, 1 - 1.5% Advisory Board Member, 1% Senior Engineer,3 -.7% 7% Product Manager,2 -.3% 3% If you are not on this list, just worry about getting whatever your peers are getting.

Stock 140

Stock Stock Options Advisory Board Startup 140

ReadWriteStart

SEPTEMBER 10, 2010

You can get cash without diluting your ownership in the company. As far as customer acquisition is concerned, we discussed, again the power of organic search engine optimization. She has a master's degree in electrical engineering and computer science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Cloud 115

Cloud Silicon Valley Incubator Finance 115

Hunter Walker

AUGUST 7, 2017

Employee options pools, typically created at the point of financings, shouldn’t be treated as haggling over dilution, but rather a strategic resource that will help founders build the best team and, by extension, a more valuable company.

Equity 94

Equity Pre-Money Valuation Option Pool Founder 94

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 14, 2014

Competition for your new hydrogen fuel auto engine is not limited to other hydrogen auto engine offerings, or even other autos. The focus is diluted, it’s hard to keep up with individual product changes, and you will always be on the defensive. A narrow scope doesn’t help your case either.

Intellectual Property 234

Intellectual Property Angel Investor Dilution Differentiation 234

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 9, 2018

In today’s world, more successful entrepreneurs have built on degrees in engineering rather than business. I find that most good founders proceed faster on their own, with less drain on their time from peers and programs, and no equity dilution. Business strategies are best learned from experience.

Incubator 180

Incubator Angel Investor Dilution Equity 180

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 17, 2013

CEO brought in to replace the founder, 5 - 10% CTO, CFO, VP of Marketing or Sales, 1.5 - 3% Chief Engineer or Architect, 1 - 1.5% Advisory Board Member, 1% Senior Engineer,3 -.7% 7% Product Manager,2 -.3% 3% If you are not on this list, just worry about getting whatever your peers are getting.

Stock Options 224

Stock Options Stock Advisory Board Startup 224

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 23, 2013

Google did it with search engines, Apple did it with a personal computer, and even Wal-Mart did it through low prices. Success requires market leadership in your product area, and it’s easy to see that pushing more products and services dilutes your focus and attention. Innovate to market leadership. Maintaining quality is key.

Bandwidth 256

Bandwidth Startup Dilution Leadership 256

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 22, 2012

CEO brought in to replace the founder, 5 - 10% CTO, CFO, VP of Marketing or Sales, 1.5 - 3% Chief Engineer or Architect, 1 - 1.5% Advisory Board Member, 1% Senior Engineer,3 -.7% 7% Product Manager,2 -.3% 3% If you are not on this list, just worry about getting whatever your peers are getting.

Stock Options 230

Stock Options Stock Advisory Board Startup 230

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

JUNE 12, 2012

(from his blog post ) …some civil engineers think the world of project management in their field is ripe for revolution, but do I know enough of them? I talked to 30 people before I realized that a certain idea of mine was a crappy idea, and about 40 people before starting WP Engine. How many should I talk to?

Customer 252

Customer Customer Development Dilution Engineer 252

ConversionXL

JULY 22, 2021

Identifying and merging content targeting the same or similar keywords; Removing duplicate content that dilutes importance, and; Improving metadata so that users see what they’re looking for in search engine results pages (SERPs). The pages on your website can only be indexed if search engines can crawl them.

Technical Review 162

Technical Review SEO Software Review XML 162

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 24, 2011

CEO brought in to replace the founder, 5 - 10% CTO, CFO, VP of Marketing or Sales, 1.5 - 3% Chief Engineer or Architect, 1 - 1.5% Advisory Board Member, 1% Senior Engineer,3 -.7% 7% Product Manager,2 -.3% 3% If you are not on this list, just worry about getting whatever your peers are getting.

Equity 234

Equity Advisory Board Stock Options Stock 234

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 17, 2012

Google did it with search engines, Apple did it with a personal computer, and even Wal-Mart did it through low prices. Success requires market leadership in your product area, and it’s easy to see that pushing more products and services dilutes your focus and attention. Innovate to market leadership. Maintaining quality is key.

Bandwidth 235

Bandwidth Dilution Leadership Social Network 235

www.instigatorblog.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

This is especially true when you think of a tech startup, where the first few hires are typically engineers/programmers. I get that the numbers are post Series A, but even if you assume 50% dilution, you're giving your first hire developer between 1-2%. 1% is even less after you factor in dilution. 1% is just not a lot.

Equity 41

Equity Employee Startup Vesting 41

David Teten

JANUARY 19, 2021

That said, Jonathan Bragdon, General Partner, Capacity Capital , points out that Flexible VC terms “twin” well with equity: providing less dilution while still providing investor assistance. . Early-stage: Cofounder with engineering/ product background from top-tier university or major technology company. Cash collateral.

Cofounder 78

Cofounder Technical Review Equity Dividend 78

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 29, 2015

CEO brought in to replace the founder, 5 - 10% CTO, CFO, VP of Marketing or Sales, 1.5 - 3% Chief Engineer or Architect, 1 - 1.5% Advisory Board Member, 1% Senior Engineer,3 -.7% 7% Product Manager,2 -.3% 3% If you are not on this list, just worry about getting whatever your peers are getting.

Stock Options 120

Stock Options Stock Advisory Board Startup 120