Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 10, 2012

There are other chasms out there just as deadly as the technology one, such as the ones below: Market requirements chasm. The first chasm is getting the customer requirements right, product or service, to satisfy a real need that a large number of customers will pay real money to satisfy. Product development chasm.

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Startup Technical Review Dilution Early Stage 254

YoungUpstarts

MAY 6, 2019

Market Research. In this stage, you will also search the market to check if your idea is viable. If there is a gap in the market, there will be demand. Now the question is: How to find gaps in the market? Product development. Initial product development usually consists of prototyping and MVP.

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Startup Technical Cofounder Merger Early Stage 113

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 27, 2010

There are other chasms out there just as deadly as the technology one, such as the ones below: Market requirements chasm. The first chasm is getting the customer requirements right, product or service, to satisfy a real need that a large number of customers will pay real money to satisfy. Product development chasm.

Startup 227

Startup Technical Review Dilution Early Stage 227

Up and Running

JULY 2, 2014

You can’t underestimate the importance of selecting an attorney who “gets” your business model, your market opportunity, and most importantly, your fundraising and exit strategy. of our company in exchange for the $300K, and my business partner and I each diluted from 50% ownership down to 33.3% ownership and never dilute.

Technical Review 118

Technical Review Angel Investor Due Diligence Dilution 118

Business Plan Blog

OCTOBER 4, 2013

Furthermore, when faced with adversity only great teams can respond to competitors, markets, funding environments, staff departures, PR disasters and the like. Rather, give titles such as VP of Engineering, Product/Technology, Sales, Marketing, Finance, etc. Having too many co-founders will only lead to your eventual dilution.

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Part-Time VPE Fractional VPE Cofounder CTO Hire 79

David Teten

AUGUST 19, 2019

In addition, I’ve noted a few multi-product lending firms, e.g., Kapitus and United Capital Source , which provide RBI as one of many structural options to companies seeking capital. . We have a special program if you are pre-seed and need product development. Alternative Capital. “ You qualify if you have $5k+ MRR.

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Revenue Technical Review Software Review Equity 60

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. I also advised Andrew to greatly tighten his product and go-to-market strategy. Note, I said, validated. Not just assumptions. Safarclick.

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Dilution Revenue Finance Entrepreneur 114

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 17, 2011

For many businesses you should keep your costs low & your capital raises low until you discover whether you are really on to a big idea where there is market demand. When you see evidence that there is this so called “product / market fit&# then you may be ready for larger amounts of capital. 25% dilution).

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Pre-Money Valuation Dilution Valuation PR 303

YoungUpstarts

DECEMBER 18, 2014

One of its primary goals was to galvanize product development by discovering often-unstated customer needs and creating solutions for them. They found the farmers didn’t know what price wholesalers would pay on any given day in any geographical market for their crops. million Indian farmers now use the successful program.

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Employee Operations Global Dilution 162

The Next Web

OCTOBER 3, 2012

I have heard many founders — even in the first few months of product development — expect to raise seed rounds, pay themselves salaries, etc. Your first three years you will get the startup off the ground, establish your core team culture, and fully validate your main product/market through rapid iteration.

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Cofounder Technical Cofounder Technical Review Software Review 155

Berkonomics

MAY 13, 2021

Expert help and good planning can reduce the time to market, saving cash in the process. There is a fine line between loading the company with too much debt and diluting the shareholders too early with additional equity investments. Getting to product release: process insights. Money is what entrepreneurs expect from us.

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Dilution Equity Channel Product Development 62

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 19, 2014

Typically they can be used to fund product development and commercialization that would otherwise require outside investors. To the investors, it means less dilution and lower overall risk. In the US, many entrepreneurs see grants as “free money,” since they are not loans and don’t have to be repaid.

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Seed Money SBIR Dilution Government 242

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 5, 2010

Brant and Patrick undertook a difficult challenge: to provide a generally accessible introduction to Customer Development, without diluting its impact or dumbing-down its principles. Customer Development will help you – force you – to make better decisions based on tested hypotheses, rather than untested assumptions.

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Customer Development Developer San Francisco Customer 166

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 13, 2013

Typically they can be used to fund product development and commercialization that would otherwise require outside investors. To the investors, it means less dilution and lower overall risk. In the US, many entrepreneurs see grants as “free money,” since they are not loans and don’t have to be repaid.

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Government Equity Cost SBIR 230

YoungUpstarts

AUGUST 8, 2013

Often chastised for their relentless desire for fame, the Kardashians can actually offer a lot of great lessons to marketers out there. The second a brand lets its management be outsourced to someone else, the brand is at risk of diluting itself. Lesson 1: Turn a negative into a positive. Remember how the Kardashians first got famous?

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Dilution Open Source .Net Web 203

Berkonomics

OCTOBER 30, 2014

Expert help and good planning can reduce the time to market, saving cash in the process. loading the company with too much debt, and diluting the shareholders too early with additional equity investments. If you don’t have a viable, relevant board, build one no matter what your size and stage of development.

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Dilution Equity Channel Product Development 94

Gust

MAY 11, 2014

Typically they can be used to fund product development and commercialization that would otherwise require outside investors. To the investors, it means less dilution and lower overall risk. In the US, many entrepreneurs see grants as “free money,” since they are not loans and don’t have to be repaid.

Seed Money 164

Seed Money SBIR Dilution Government 164

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 2, 2011

Typically they can be used to fund product development and commercialization that would otherwise require outside investors. To the investors, it means less dilution and lower overall risk. In the US, many entrepreneurs see grants as “free money,” since they are not loans and don’t have to be repaid.

Government 221

Government SBIR Dilution Database 221

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 26, 2009

Anyone who has worked in a real-world product development team can tell you how utopian that sounds. Every time you listen to customers, you fear diluting your vision. Anyone who has worked in a real-world product development team can tell you how utopian that sounds. That’s natural. That’s natural.

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Advisory Board Customer San Francisco Lean 151

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 24, 2009

Now, helping potential customers discover new things they might like is the job of the discipline of marketing. But that job is changing dramatically, and this brings us to the next major problem facing traditional media organizations: Media companies are failing at marketing. There are too many products clamoring for attention.

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San Francisco Lean Technical Review Distribution 113

YoungUpstarts

JULY 23, 2012

Serial entrepreneur and billionaire Lynda Resnick’s book “ Rubies in the Orchard: How to Uncover the Hidden Gems in Your Business ” provides a fascinating glimpse into the marketing strategies behind brands like POM Wonderful, FIJI Water, Teleflora and the Franklin Mint.

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Ruby Fiji America Dilution 159

David Teten

OCTOBER 1, 2015

They’re well aware of the conventional VC bias against funding companies which externally develop their technology, but they do have relevant skills. If the dev shop puts in $100 of (market-value) labor, they should be compensated for that amount in equity — just like an investor gets their share for $100 in cash. The discounts?

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Software Developers Software Development Software Review Technical Cofounder 60

blog.nahurst.com

JULY 19, 2010

Even if the technical cofounder doesnt prototype something first, they can still contribute more to the business and receive more equity (ex: someone who did marketing for 2 years out of undergrad manages to recruit a top 10th percentile programmer with a successful app in the iPhone app store). You dont need funding to be successful.

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Technical Cofounder Cofounder Equity Salary 43

betashop.com

OCTOBER 8, 2012

A huge untapped market opportunity.?. I firmly believe that in this age where the product development life-cycle is so short and user feedback comes so quickly, you will know within a year whether you are focusing on a worthwhile one thing. Don’t skimp on fundraising because of dilution fears.?. Only do your One Thing.

Technical Review 108

Technical Review Technology Software Review Valuation 108

The Equity Kicker

MARCH 17, 2015

In the 1990s when companies needed £2-5m to get a product to market they had money to hire a team of people to help them. Big picture this increased capital efficiency is great for entrepreneurs because they suffer less dilution, but it does mean they have to do things they aren’t skilled at.

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Early Stage Venture Capital San Francisco Silicon Valley 60

ConversionXL

AUGUST 30, 2018

It slows product development. At Samsung, user research led the company to redesign its televisions in 2005, doubling their market share in just two years. A non-scientific approach that bases product decisions on the opinions of one or two users is useless. Your product is not ready. It costs money.

Design 111

Design Framework Product Development Technical Review 111

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 15, 2009

One is used by engineers to refer to the process of getting code fully integrated into production. Another is used by marketing to refer to what customers see. In traditional batch-and-queue development, these two concepts are linked. Under continuous deployment, as soon as code is written, it’s on its way to production.

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Continuous Deployment Software Review San Francisco Lean 167

K9 Ventures

OCTOBER 10, 2017

Unless every aspect of product development is covered by founders who are only receiving equity, there are other parts of building a product that will require hiring highly qualified people. As explained in The New Venture Landscape post: Pre-Seed is the new Seed. (~$500K used for building team and initial product/prototype).

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Seed Stage Finance Later Stage Equity 82

Seeing Both Sides

NOVEMBER 26, 2012

Whether you are raising a $250K seed round or navigating a $100M IPO, the capital markets - in all of its various forms - are a fundamental constituent in the business-building journey. Developing expertise in raising capital is more than a necessary evil, it's a competitive weapon. But that's not entirely true.

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Balance Sheet Entrepreneur Dilution Portfolio 42

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 14, 2013

It would be a blanket approach and, ultimately as you suggested, dilute the messaging and demonstrate a lack of focus. How does lean content integrate into the rest of the lean product development cycle? If we just sent all our ideas to everyone, whenever we had that idea, it wouldn''t leave room for iteration.

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Lean Conversion Audience Design 167

maplebutter.com

JANUARY 8, 2013

Written By Dan Martell on February 2nd, 2012 | Category: Hiring LeanStartup Marketing Metrics Startup Life | 6 Comments. Take the market and break it down into smaller chunks. Near shoring development with your team (ex: your team is based in Canada / India) is cool, but not outsourcing. Product, product, product!

Technical Review 44

Technical Review Startup Cofounder Software Review 44

Early Growth Financial Services

MARCH 1, 2013

That’s the big question that many founders ask themselves as they try to get their product and service to market. Admittedly, bootstrapping has its downside: the biggest drawback being the limit to how quickly you can get your product/service to market and how fast you can execute at a larger scale.

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Bootstrapping Venture Capital Startup Product Development 55

Seeing Both Sides

JANUARY 13, 2015

My boss and mentor from Open Market, Gary Eichhorn , made the entire management team read it in the 1990s to hammer home its important lessons as we stumbled through the chasm on our way to scaling from zero to nearly $100 million in revenue in a few years. The first version of the go to market team is hired (i.e., It is a classic.

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Mezzanine IPO Finance Business Model 20