Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 14, 2017

As a startup in this phase you often raise capital, get press, hire staff and everything feels possible. I always push companies to hire “an operationally focused CFO” during this phase because in order to systematize you need somebody who brings economic rigor to decision making. As an early-stage VC I love this phase.

Operations 286

Operations New York City Technical Review Startup 286

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 17, 2011

One great solution I see is to hire an outstanding CFO who runs both. 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. But they aren’t the COO. But it will not help your business grow faster.

Operations 292

Operations CTO Hire Startup Early Stage 292

YoungUpstarts

JANUARY 19, 2015

And that means you will end up losing money on a potential sale or ongoing business relationship! Don’t dilute your content. Many website owners make the mistake of diluting their content. Many people prefer to hire copywriters to take care of their blog and page content. Don’t worry; you can thank me later!

Dilution 100

Dilution Web Web Development Flash 100

Business Plan Blog

OCTOBER 4, 2013

Don’t hire people with skills and qualifications similar to yours. If you have a technical background and you are focused on product development, consider a co-founder with a sales and marketing background that can focus on selling your world class product. Hire based on functionality and avoid having too many C’s.

Part-Time VPE 79

Part-Time VPE Fractional VPE Cofounder CTO Hire 79

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 3, 2010

How much dilution should I take for it?&# My friend’s company was pre-revenue. Me: “Zero dilution. But to be clear the overwhelming majority of deals involve one company driving the cultural integration, establishment of uniform processes, hiring / firing decisions, etc. They often involve big hugs on stage.

Merger 276

Merger Technical Review Early Stage Dilution 276

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 22, 2010

You’ll need to hire and retain talen to grow your company. The VC’s $1 million still buys them 25% of your company – it’s you who has diluted to 60% ownership rather than 75%. This states how the proceeds from a sale or dissolution of the company will be distributed. That’s normal.

Valuation 405

Valuation Liquidation Preference Pre-Money Valuation Term Sheet 405

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 16, 2021

These are usually characterized as owner-operated, with five employees or less, and less than $250,000 in sales. According to the Voice of Microenterprise (AEO) website, if one in three micro-enterprises in the United States hired an additional employee, the US would soon be at full employment.

Entrepreneur 304

Entrepreneur United States Dilution .Net 304

Up and Running

JULY 1, 2020

You may grow to tap new markets or increase sales in your current markets. It starts with a high-level strategy and continues all the way to market analysis, sales plans, operations planning, and financial modeling. Will marketing for the expansion dilute marketing of your brand or other products?

Business Plan 152

Business Plan Forecast Operations Dilution 152

The Next Web

OCTOBER 10, 2013

Hire everyone you need as an employee. Too dilutive.”. Since we bootstrapped Backblaze, early on we would have months when the company did not have enough cash from sales to buy the additional servers it needed. Dilution – bringing on a co-founder likely means you’re splitting your share in half. Too many.”.

Cofounder 143

Cofounder Technical Cofounder Kenya Dilution 143

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 1, 2009

I know that people find safety in numbers (and there always seems to be 3 amigos) but imagine this for a moment – you go and raise venture capital and you’re fighting over whether to dilute with a VC by 25% or 30% as a company. Do you understand how to lead a sales process? Resist the temptation to hire clones of you.

Hiring 289

Hiring Cofounder Dilution Startup 289

YoungUpstarts

MAY 6, 2019

What market are you targeting and how are you going to get sales? If you are getting funded for the first time, which means that you have not diluted the shares of your company, you will be receiving Series A funding. Hiring more resources. So, hire more people or go for outsourcing to remote workers. More funding rounds.

Startup 113

Startup Technical Cofounder Merger Early Stage 113

The Next Web

JUNE 15, 2012

After all, cash may be in short supply, but there’s a virtually endless amount of work to be done, from coding and web development, to PR, sales, general operations, or sage advice from an industry veteran. Not to mention the fact that every time you compensate with equity, you dilute your own ownership of the business.

Equity 116

Equity Stock Options Vesting Stock 116

Hearpreneur

JANUARY 30, 2022

Face-to-face engagement is important, especially at vital points in the sales cycle or while creating relationships. 15- Study supply chains and hiring trends. 21- Make more money from sales. In 2022, every business that adapted and survived the pandemic will realize the importance of increasing revenue through online sales.

Entrepreneur 119

Entrepreneur Green Technical Review Social Media 119

David Teten

JANUARY 21, 2021

Jonathan Bragdon , CEO, describes Capacity as “a team of founders-turned-funders making non-dilutive, founder-aligned investments of $50-$300k in post-startup, post-revenue businesses planning to 2X revenues in 12-24 months. By ‘structured exit’ we mean that investors can achieve liquidity without necessitating the sale of a company.

Equity 78

Equity Revenue Cofounder Colorado 78

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

FEBRUARY 26, 2019

Find and focus on one reliable distribution mechanism before diluting your time diversifying. Or you can start selling to enterprise — nothing wrong with that — but then your high cost-basis of marketing, sales, and service will not scale downward. Sales” is not a dirty word. Your values are defined by what you tolerate.

Restful 202

Restful Founder Revenue Acquisition 202

The Startup Magazine

SEPTEMBER 11, 2023

Rather than dedicating time and resources to an extensive hiring process or training, tapping into this pool of external specialists accelerates progress. By delegating specific tasks—like outsourced sales for startups—to third-party experts, internal teams can focus on core competencies.

Cost 146

Cost Startup Non-Compete Dilution 146

The Next Web

AUGUST 19, 2013

Sales are the bloodstream for most businesses, and tech startups are no exception. It’s always better to be earn money, not just raise it, as money you earn doesn’t dilute your ownership and reassures your investors. This post is about choosing the right sales strategy and channels for your startup from the start.

Belarus 137

Belarus Viral Channel Startup 137

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 17, 2017

The most obvious way to explain this is with sales people. If you hire 6 senior sales reps in January at $120,000 / year salary then you’ve taken on an extra $60,000 per month in costs yet these sales people might not close new business 6 months. COGS” represents the amount that each sale costs you.

Stock Options 227

Stock Options Startup Dilution Venture Capital 227

David Teten

AUGUST 19, 2019

Benefits: Non-dilutive, flexible credit offerings that fit SMB or enterprise SaaS. The mode purpose for funding is (in order of frequency) Sales, Marketing, Market Expansion, Product Development, and Hiring Employees. At least 12 months of customer history, generally 20+ enterprise customers or 200+ SMB customers.

Revenue 60

Revenue Technical Review Software Review Equity 60

Duct Tape Marketing

OCTOBER 11, 2023

But what the dilution, if you bring it down to it that even creator entertainers and educators have in common is it's this human element. Christie Horsman (05:43): Yeah, I think the only pitfalls I see when looking for, I think hiring creator influencers to represent your brand is great. Is there a better way?

B2B 80

B2B Marketing B2C Community 80

YoungUpstarts

OCTOBER 16, 2016

But entrepreneurs face other concerns that compete with this growth focus, including hiring, maintaining current revenue sources and distinguishing themselves from the competition. You’ll be inundated with sales pitches, lame template emails, unsolicited voicemails and more. Know when to say “no.”.

Cofounder 100

Cofounder Balance Sheet Small Business Administration Technical Review 100

www.avc.com

SEPTEMBER 22, 2011

The most common comment in this long and complicated MBA Mondays series on Employee Equity is the question of how much equity should you grant when you make a hire. For your first key hires, three, five, maybe as much as ten, you will probably not be able to use any kind of formula. First, a caveat. x $125k which is equal to $31.25k.

Equity 64

Equity Employee CTO Hire Fractional CTO 64

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 12, 2018

These are usually characterized as owner-operated, with five employees or less, and less than $250,000 in sales. According to the Voice of Microenterprise (AEO) website, if one in three micro-enterprises in the United States hired an additional employee, the US would soon be at full employment.

United States 244

United States Dilution .Net Small Business 244

The Startup Magazine

JULY 1, 2022

The three main components of a company are production or service, marketing and sales, and finance. Marketing and sales are how you reach and sell to your target market. Equity financing can give you a lot of cash upfront, but it can also dilute your ownership stake in your company. How To Manage And Grow Your Company.

Technology 141

Technology Venture Capital Finance Startup 141

View from Seed

APRIL 30, 2015

In many instances, you raise an institutional round to either fulfill a product strategy or go-to-market strategy or you’re increasing sales and marketing hires, so you have better visibility into what needs to happen in the next six, 12, 18 months. NVV: Is there any dilution? Any equity the venture debt lender gets?

Term Sheet 120

Term Sheet Equity Startup Seed Stage 120

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 11, 2009

Many startup companies hire advisory boards. You can go as high as 1% because they’re going to get diluted when you bring in VC. So one of your sales pitches to them to join is the other people you have on board (or are approaching). This is part of my ongoing series Startup Advice. It’s very tempting.

Advisory Board 306

Advisory Board Startup Equity Valuation 306

YoungUpstarts

MAY 31, 2016

Hire smart, ambitious, get-it-done employees and lead them with emotionally intelligent innovation leadership skills. The single biggest reason that the average company struggles or even fails is due to their lack of focus and dilution of their greatest resource, which are people. Is a marketing plan important? Is high yield important?

Technical Review 100

Technical Review Leadership Early Stage Initial Public Offering 100

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 5, 2011

Then you can do a little bit of research and find out that very few companies ever achieve this valuation in a trade sale so you’re clearly gunning for an IPO. They did an inside round, spent a bunch of money and then went through a fire sale of the business less than 2 years later. The risk wouldn’t be appropriate.

Pre-Money Valuation 336

Pre-Money Valuation Valuation Silicon Valley Stock 336

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 17, 2011

A year ago I blogged about one of my most common mantras that applies to sales, biz dev & fund raising alike: “ Time is the Enemy of all Deals.&#. If you are able to raise money from credible sources at a reasonable dilution percentage then I personally favor getting the round done now and building your business.

Pre-Money Valuation 303

Pre-Money Valuation Dilution Valuation PR 303

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 9, 2016

These are usually characterized as owner-operated, with five employees or less, and less than $250,000 in sales. According to the Voice of Microenterprise (AEO) website, if one in three micro-enterprises in the United States hired an additional employee, the US would soon be at full employment.

United States 242

United States Dilution .Net Small Business 242

Austin Startup

MARCH 26, 2019

You’ll usually get assigned a contact in the ad sales organization at Facebook or Google once you start spending big bucks. When is the right time to diversify your sales channel mix? Discounts too early can also have the adverse effect of diluting a brand when targeting a more affluent customer segment.

Technical Review 49

Technical Review Software Review China Acquisition 49

betashop.com

OCTOBER 8, 2012

million registered users, 7500 supplier partners, 600 team members, and a run-rate of more than $150M in sales in just 15 months. The most important hiring criteria for your executives is cultural fit. As CEO, you are responsible for every hire. So, here goes. Your One Thing falls at the intersection of 3 truths:? Keep at it.

Technical Review 108

Technical Review Technology Software Review Valuation 108

The Startup Magazine

JULY 15, 2023

Most firms hire staff prepared to deal with the challenges of two years ago, but fewer have individuals who can respond to those occurring in real-time, let alone ones coming down the pike. Make it so that they don’t need to combine services – something that could dilute your brand and offering. Security needs are constantly evolving.

Security 141

Security Artificial Inteligence Differentiation Dilution 141

JANUARY 9, 2014

By trying to appeal to everyone and adding features left, right and centre, you will actually dilute your message and could end up with a complex, bloated product. Too much talking, not enough listening Perhaps it’s because funding is so important to early-stage startups that they soon get good at perfecting their sales pitch.

Early Stage 102

Early Stage Startup Cofounder Design 102

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 10, 2021

A-Rounds used to be $3–7 million with the best companies able to skip this smaller amount and raise $10 million on a $40 million pre-money valuation (20% dilution). In fact, we just announced that we hired a new head of our Growth Platform, (follow him on Twitter here ? So in a way it’s self selecting. Seksom Suriyapa ?—?he

Pre-Money Valuation 471

Pre-Money Valuation Valuation Venture Capital Early Stage 471

ReadWriteStart

OCTOBER 28, 2010

Common areas to address are decisions around capitalization, executive hiring and firing, share issuance (dilution), and acquisitions. You'll need to decide what kinds of decisions the board makes, and which ones it won't. What happens if one of us leaves the company? Will this be the primary activity for each of us?

Cofounder 128

Cofounder Founder Equity Dilution 128

Austin Startup

NOVEMBER 12, 2017

If you have a sales model that involves relationship selling to high-level decision makers, you can be sure they would prefer a detailed proposal from you with a request to “sign here.” There’s no baby step analogy to the pilots discussed above for a sales situation. Decide to think big and ask big. You’ve taken the baby steps.

Term Sheet 48

Term Sheet Technical Review Due Diligence Merger 48