The Startup Magazine

SEPTEMBER 11, 2023

Startups need to pose crucial questions: Which tasks are absolutely vital to our brand ethos, and which ones can be safely outsourced without diluting our unique value proposition? Identifying Value Providers – A crucial step in the outsourcing process is distinguishing between mere service providers and genuine value-driven partners.

Cost 167

Cost Startup Non-Compete Dilution 167

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 23, 2019

Do the same for partners and co-founders that will buttress your strengths. Set target date milestones and metrics to gauge progress. Dilution of focus kills too many small businesses, as they try to attract more customers and counter more competitors. Consult with business peers to learn what you need.

Intellectual Property 248

Intellectual Property Dilution Cofounder Social Media 248

View from Seed

OCTOBER 28, 2019

But this financing contour description is just a proxy for underlying business metrics. The amount raised in a round and the goals associated with it during a seed just don’t always fit into a neat bucket. ( Here’s a more detailed blog post about how my partners and I approach pre-seed rounds with conviction. ).

Seed Stage 247

Seed Stage Finance Dilution Early Stage 247

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 2, 2019

Many busy new venture owners believe they have heard it all before, so they tune out of conversations, or revert to multi-tasking, thus diluting their leadership. Your words are important in garnering the trust and loyalty of your team, your peers, and partners. Practice active listening and full attention to those present.

Leadership 244

Leadership Dilution Metrics Demand 244

The Next Web

SEPTEMBER 13, 2013

In India, the leading firms are slightly more concentrated with Sequoia India , Accel Partners , and Nexus Venture Partners being a cut above the rest. Valuations are based more on typical later-stage type of metrics. Finding the right partner is a much bigger win than the extra cash or minimizing dilution.

Asia 132

Asia Silicon Valley India Term Sheet 132

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). each with partners as the lead. So in a way it’s self selecting. Where are Things Headed for VC in 2031?

Pre-Money Valuation 471

Pre-Money Valuation Valuation Venture Capital Early Stage 471

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 6, 2021

In reality, too many choices actually dilutes customer interest in your existing market, and makes your job of production, marketing, and support much more complex. It’s important to define your growth strategy, document it, communicate it to your team, and align metrics and employee rewards to target goals.

Technical Review 400

Technical Review Technical Cofounder Advisory Board Cofounder 400

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 21, 2010

Let’s say you give a warrant to a channel partner to sell your product. In the above example you might say that the channel partner earns 25,000 shares for every $100,000 of your product that they sell in the next 12 months with up to a cap of 250,000 shares. Example: you allocate 4% in warrants to channel partner ABC.

Warrant 298

Warrant Dilution Startup Stock Options 298

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. But be philosophically consistent: periodically take the time to question your own expertise and that of your friends, partners and investors.

Customer Development 166

Customer Development Developer San Francisco Customer 166

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 17, 2018

A firm like ours has almost 100 different investments across all the various partners so we get to see some businesses very intimately. " Revenue doesn't pay your bills, GM does  —  @msuster 2/ Founders obsess with revenue as a vanity metric. Some even grow "bad" revenue just to show growth.

Founder 242

Founder Dilution Software Review Later Stage 242

The Next Web

FEBRUARY 27, 2014

George Deeb is the Managing Partner at Chicago-based Red Rocket Ventures , a startup consulting and financial advisory firm based in Chicago. If there are no earnings yet, with your business plowing profits into long term growth, then revenue multiples or some other metric would be used.

Valuation 167

Valuation Forecast Seed Stage .Net 167

Ben's Blog

APRIL 1, 2011

Organizational design, process design, metrics, hiring and firing were all relatively straightforward skills to master compared to keeping my mind in check. Raise money in a highly dilutive way. —The Geto Boys, Mind Playing Tricks on Me. By far the most difficult skill for me to learn as CEO was the ability to manage my own psychology.

Management 78

Management Cap Table Balance Sheet Bankruptcy 78

Up and Running

FEBRUARY 23, 2010

Any new idea should preferably add value to existing initiatives, and if not, it should show a significant enough return on investment to justify the dilutive effect of not keeping the main thing the main thing. Whether the new idea is intended for your organization, vendors, suppliers, partners or customers it must easy to use.

Dilution 60

Dilution Framework Metrics Engineer 60

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 9, 2014

So when founders lose focus, they dilute their power and effectiveness, which diffuses the force of their impact. Do you need highly skilled functional managers or do you need a true partner? someone to be that true partner). This is why I encourage almost every startup founder to find a partner or a cofounder.

Hiring 336

Hiring Cofounder Startup Technical Cofounder 336

Ben's Blog

AUGUST 17, 2020

A multiple is a company value divided by a metric. Ignoring dilution and balance sheet changes, Company Awesome would have made investors ~13x, while Company Good would only have returned ~2x. Ignoring dilution and balance sheet changes, Company Awesome would have made investors ~8x while Company Good would only return ~2x.

Valuation 36

Valuation Balance Sheet Cofounder Forecast 36

Pascal's View

DECEMBER 19, 2012

The trends absolutely support that buyers are looking for non-dilutive acquisitions. Earn-outs: usage of financial metrics (revenue and earnings) and multi-metric achievement tests is declining, accompanied by a shift toward longer earn-out periods. That’s for sure!

Acquisition 31

Acquisition Merger Dilution Aggregator 31

Duct Tape Marketing

APRIL 7, 2022

20:05] Why wouldn’t you use a resource plan with your white label partners to some degree? [20:52] Sometimes you might be using white label or outsource partners. And so it requires you to have very good partners. If it's done intentionally, you apply enough margin to what those white label partners are charging.

Cofounder 75

Cofounder Hosting Networking Software Review 75

Austin Startup

MARCH 26, 2019

Discounts too early can also have the adverse effect of diluting a brand when targeting a more affluent customer segment. Important metrics to track include customer count, average order value (AOV), retention or repeat purchase rate, ad spend, paid CAC, weighted average CAC, rolling LTV estimates, and more. These add up very quickly.

Technical Review 49

Technical Review Software Review China Acquisition 49

BeyondVC

JUNE 11, 2007

Granted it is not that bad as your lenders are your partners and will negotiate with you, but at the end of the day, if they see their ability to get paid in significant jeopardy, they will do what they have to do to recoup as much value as possible.

Intellectual Property 60

Intellectual Property Covenant Warrant Equity 60

crowdSPRING Blog

DECEMBER 13, 2018

There are three parts to a good competitive analysis: (1) defining the metrics and identifying the competitors you’re comparing, (2) gathering the data, and (3) the analysis. If your brand tries to be too many things at once, the message becomes scattered and the brand grows diluted. Start by defining what metrics are important.

Marketing 162

Marketing Charlotte Naming Design 162

maplebutter.com

JANUARY 8, 2013

Written By Dan Martell on February 2nd, 2012 | Category: Hiring LeanStartup Marketing Metrics Startup Life | 6 Comments. What is the best advice you can give for finding a business partner? Don’t quickly choose any business partner. Building Metrics / Usage Reports / KPI 3. Those are the only 2 metrics you need initially.

Technical Review 44

Technical Review Startup Cofounder Software Review 44

Board Effect

MAY 10, 2019

Cap tables list a company’s authorized and outstanding shares, the parties to which those shares have been assigned, and the various metrics relevant to managing them. Such metrics can include an investor’s liquidation preference, option exercise windows and expiry dates, and shareholders’ fully diluted ownership percentages.

Cap Table 40

Cap Table Liquidation Preference Dilution Liquidity Event 40

ConversionXL

SEPTEMBER 17, 2021

Your brand promise talks to your employees, investors, partners, and customers. Use your marketing strategy to ensure campaigns never dilute your brand perception. Measure brand awareness metrics and KPIs success by analyzing: Coverage Share of voice Mentions Shares Traffic Links Conversations.

Campaign 109

Campaign Social Media Audience Channel 109

betashop.com

OCTOBER 8, 2012

This past week while I was in Tokyo for meetings with potential partners for Fab, I was invited to participate in a panel discussion on startups. million registered users, 7500 supplier partners, 600 team members, and a run-rate of more than $150M in sales in just 15 months. Don’t skimp on fundraising because of dilution fears.?.

Technical Review 108

Technical Review Technology Software Review Valuation 108

Reid Hoffman

JUNE 8, 2021

Greylock Partners · Brian Chesky | People-First Capitalism. So we have to think of ourselves as partners. The burden [should] just be that we care; that if we learn something, we improve it, and that we don’t only use single output metrics and its growth at all costs. And most companies have a partner, group and then society.

Silicon Valley 69

Silicon Valley Hosting Rhode Island Design 69

NZ Entrepreneur

JULY 8, 2019

If a valuation is too low, the founders become over-diluted over time and will struggle to do a later series A or B raise if they’re sitting at single digits – global venture capitalists (VCs) won’t touch this scenario. This often carries the double whammy of dilution. Valuations. Taking the smartest possible money. The Rolodex.

New Zealand 42

New Zealand Entrepreneur Valuation Dilution 42

abovethecrowd.com

APRIL 20, 2016

All Unicorn participants — founders, company employees, venture investors and their limited partners (LPs) — are seeing their fortunes put at risk from the very nature of the Unicorn phenomenon itself. Anything that hints of a down round brings questions about the success metrics that have already been “booked.” LIMITED PARTNERS (LPS).

IPO 40

IPO Term Sheet Silicon Valley Valuation 40

Reid Hoffman

JUNE 8, 2021

Greylock Partners · Brian Chesky | People-First Capitalism. So we have to think of ourselves as partners. The burden [should] just be that we care; that if we learn something, we improve it, and that we don’t only use single output metrics and its growth at all costs. And most companies have a partner, group and then society.

Silicon Valley 36

Silicon Valley Hosting Rhode Island Design 36

ConversionXL

NOVEMBER 15, 2022

Your customers, followers, shareholders, and partners want to be impressed. This example from a presentation by Brent Dykes shows how unnecessary noise dilutes data and how much more effective its when stripped back: Image Filename: example-from-a-presentation-by-brent-dykes.jpg. Focus on the data that matters.

Marketing 100

Marketing Analytics Audience Design 100

Seeing Both Sides

JANUARY 13, 2015

Always testing and trying to run fast tests to put up some strong metrics before running out of money (did I mention we''re running out of money?). The founders are getting restless because they have been diluted, have less responsibility and realize that the company isn''t going to reach $1 billion in 3 years. Anyone up for a rewrite?

Mezzanine 20

Mezzanine IPO Finance Business Model 20