Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 24, 2021

For the elite startups and entrepreneurs who manage to attract the investor they dream of, and survive the term sheet negotiation, there is still one more hurdle before the money is in the bank. That might start with the CEO giving the investor pitch to the whole organization, and distributing the current business plan document to everyone.

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Technical Review Due Diligence Term Sheet Bankruptcy 379

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 15, 2021

Startup founders are known for their passion for their startup idea, and for their passion to kill every competitor. As small companies, neither startup could afford to extend their product alone, but through creative leadership, we were able to negotiate a win-win strategic partnership for a joint product.

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Partner Non-disclosure Agreement Intellectual Property Non-Compete 434

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 15, 2023

Yet, every business expert tells me that finding good business partners is just as tricky as a good marriage, minus the sex. As with personal relationships, unbalanced deals don’t work, since the dominating entity finds it hard to adapt and appreciate the value of a partner. Some executives prefer to operate in solo mode.

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Partner B2B Matching Algorithm 252

ReadWriteStart

DECEMBER 16, 2020

Here is how remote startups are changing the game for everyone. To be fair, many businesses had distributed teams even before COVID-19 blindsided us. To be fair, many businesses had distributed teams even before COVID-19 blindsided us. To help them make the transition, a new breed of “remote startups” has emerged.

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Technical Review Startup Belgium Software Review 200

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 15, 2022

At our mid-year offsite our partnership at Upfront Ventures was discussing what the future of venture capital and the startup ecosystem looked like. Pitchbook estimates that there is about $290 billion of VC “overhang” (money waiting to be deployed into tech startups) in the US alone and that’s up more than 4x in just the past decade.

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Technical Review Pre-Money Valuation San Francisco Valuation 416

Steve Blank

JUNE 27, 2017

As more and more companies face disruption from globalization, new technology, and startups that have more capital than the incumbents, the continuing cry from Wall Street investors is, “Why can’t companies be as innovative as startups?”. Here’s one reason why: Startups can do anything. Startups can do anything.

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Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 23, 2012

One of the first tough decisions that startup founders have to make is how to allocate or split the equity among co-founders. The easy answer of splitting it equally among all co-founders, since there is minimal value at that point, is usually the worst possible answer, and often results in a later startup failure due to an obvious inequity.

Intellectual Property 252

Intellectual Property Equity Cofounder CTO Hire 252

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 4, 2022

Founders have to communicate their ideas and products to investors, business partners, and the rest of the team. Then, hopefully, come customers, distribution channels, and going public or merging with an attractive buy-out candidate. In startups, the best policy is transparent honest disclosure across all levels of the team.

Semantic 342

Semantic Technical Review Retention Distribution 342

ReadWriteStart

SEPTEMBER 8, 2020

Among its many implications, the digital office means that jobs don’t necessarily need to be done in-person, and today’s startup leaders are realizing that many projects can be done at a lower cost remotely, without any drop in quality. Still, COVID-19 helped tip the balance towards a globally distributed model.

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Distribution Global Agile Startup 145

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 19, 2010

Our guest this week on #TWiVC was Dana Settle , partner at Greycroft Partners , a venture capital firm with offices in New York and Los Angeles. Another topic we debated early in the program was “lean startup” vs. “ fat startup ” where we both took the obvious hedge and said “it depends.” OTHER DEALS: 1.

Partner 240

Partner New York City Cofounder Syndicate 240

Steve Blank

APRIL 23, 2014

For decades large companies have gone shopping in Silicon Valley for startups. What can companies learn from others’ failed efforts to integrate startups into large companies? The answer - there are two types of integration strategies, and they depend on where the startup is in its lifecycle. The Innovation Portfolio.

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Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 8, 2010

One of the first tough decisions that startup founders have to make is how to allocate or split the equity among co-founders. The easy answer of splitting it equally among all co-founders, since there is minimal value at that point, is usually the worst possible answer, and often results in a later startup failure due to an obvious inequity.

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Equity Intellectual Property Cofounder CTO Hire 228

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 6, 2023

Even adding money won’t do it – you need to create a committed and engaged team and partners for marketing and sales, as well as production and distribution. Many startups I know fail by simply giving up too soon. Choose a business model that will win in the market.

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Technical Review Government Agile Differentiation 201

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 17, 2013

So why is online video such an attractive market to build a startup? These markets represent about $600 billion of total spend between them, leaving tons of opportunities for startups to disrupt and grow large. The number of channels grew with cable & satellite TV but we still have limitations that makes distributing content high.

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SoCal CTO

MARCH 3, 2011

I talk to roughly 2 or 3 new startups every week who need advice from an experienced CTO. But the reality is that I engage with about 5 new startups each year which means that I end up working with less than 5% of the startups where I provide these free consulting sessions. Do you have a Startup Founder Developer Gap ?

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Fractional CTO CTO Hire NDA Technical Review 264

SoCal CTO

MARCH 3, 2011

I talk to roughly 2 or 3 new startups every week who need advice from an experienced CTO. But the reality is that I engage with about 5 new startups each year which means that I end up working with less than 5% of the startups where I provide these free consulting sessions. Do you have a Startup Founder Developer Gap ?

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Fractional CTO CTO Hire NDA Technical Review 259

The Startup Magazine

JUNE 26, 2023

The enterprise focuses on bringing the best global medical partners to the U.S. SpA commented: “Partnering with International Medical Lasers resulted in a positive turnaround in our US presence in the laser surgical sector. market and partners with medical device dealers across the U.S.

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Leadership Technical Review Global Cofounder 124

View from Seed

DECEMBER 4, 2019

The top quartile has distributed 2.03x (vs. 1.68) and the median fund now has distributed 1.27X (vs. The longer the portfolio maintains the same value without distributing back cash, the worse the fund’s ultimate IRR. Based on that metric, the top quartile fund has now distributed 2.03X after 12 years. 2 years ago).

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Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 17, 2015

For the elite startups and entrepreneurs who manage to attract the investor they dream of, and survive the term sheet negotiation, there is still one more hurdle before the money is in the bank. That might start with the CEO giving the investor pitch to the whole organization, and distributing the current business plan document to everyone.

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Technical Review Due Diligence Startup Term Sheet 120

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 7, 2022

A common pain of startups after an exhilarating first surge of early adopters is a long and frustrating plateau of slow growth, where it seems like nothing you do will get your business to profitability. Continually add new marketing and distribution partners. Real growth always requires real marketing.

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Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 27, 2015

But for startups with limited resources and experience, I always recommend a soft launch or toe-in-the-water approach in a local market -- and scale up later. In fact, for startups, it usually makes sense to announce your solution on social media and blogs even before you have built the first one. Proceed with caution.

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Hockey Stick Startup Stealth Agile 120

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 31, 2012

Make sure your plan answers every relevant question that you could possibly imagine from your business partners, spouse, and potential investors. It doesn’t prove your business model of pricing, distribution, and support. Funding for pre-revenue startups used to be the domain of angel investors, but they have moved up-stage.

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Intellectual Property Sweat Equity CTO Hire Fractional CTO 260

View from Seed

JANUARY 6, 2021

When a company is pitching a VC, there is typically one partner who is the advocate for the deal and is shepherding the process. Part of what I like about working with my partners is that I really believe that our collective decision-making is better than our decision-making as individuals.

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Partner Distribution Founder Acquisition 180

ReadWriteStart

JANUARY 13, 2024

Startups in the cybersecurity sector are facing a daunting market environment , contending with decreased valuations and increasing pressure to sell while competing for vital funding and collaborations.

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Down Round Marketing Artificial Inteligence Startup 154

VC Cafe

APRIL 29, 2020

Source: NVCA , “Startup Ecosystem Faces Capital Crunch over Coming Months” USA – SBA Loans and PPP. The $349 billion aid package issued by the US Government and distributed in the form of SBA loans was quickly gobbled up by a large number of applications, many of which were from venture-backed or PE-backed startups.

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SBA Technical Review Startup 124

VC Cafe

APRIL 26, 2023

It’s a global phenomenon, but to be successful in AI, startup hubs require a density of AI engineers, access to data and compute power and access to capital. But it’s not only the AI startups that are active in the generative AI space. We published the first version of the landscape in February 2023 , which included 40 startups.

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Generative AI Artificial Inteligence ChatGPT 78

Feld Thoughts

JANUARY 3, 2020

My investments have always been geographically distributed across the US and I spent the majority of my time between Monday and Friday on the road. In the past few years, there have been several high profile examples of scaled companies that have a completely distributed workforce. For many years, this was a function of travel.

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Distribution Seattle Portfolio Video 99

Austin Startup

AUGUST 7, 2017

The time has come for the Texas startup community to band together to change the world once again. Texas has produced world-changing startups in the past such as Dell Software , National Instruments and Whole Foods Market but all of those were founded more than 30 years ago. We truly are an accelerator of the Austin startup ecosystem.

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Texas San Antonio Houston Dallas 97

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 17, 2011

Make sure your plan answers every relevant question that you could possibly imagine from your business partners, spouse, and potential investors. It doesn’t prove your business model of pricing, distribution, and support. Funding for pre-revenue startups used to be the domain of angel investors, but they have moved up-stage.

Intellectual Property 253

Intellectual Property Sweat Equity CTO Hire Fractional CTO 253

Steve Blank

JUNE 26, 2014

The Lean LaunchPad class uses the three “ Lean Startup ” principles: Alexander Osterwalders “ business model canvas ” to frame hypotheses. Finally we move to the left side of the canvas to teach the supporting elements of Resources, Partners, Activities and Costs. Your potential exit partners are also a customer.

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Intellectual Property Lean IP Open Source 281

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 16, 2014

How do you figure out what’s the right mix of skills for the co-founders of your startup? I was having breakfast with Radhika, an ex-grad student of mine who wanted to share her Customer Discovery progress for her consumer hardware startup. I told Radhika this is a perennial question for startups. ——-.

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VC Cafe

JUNE 30, 2022

Jonathan Lai, General Partner, A16Z Gaming fund. The Israeli startups building the Metaverse (Source: Remagine Ventures, via Calcalist ). To get a sense of the breadth of opportunities that can be attractive for gaming (content and infrastructure) entrepreneurs and metaverse startups, just take a look at the A16Z list below.

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Cloud Venture Capital Cofounder Non-Compete 200

VC Cafe

APRIL 13, 2023

The entertainment industry is perhaps the most susceptible to disruption among all industries In recent decades, the emergence of new tools and technologies has made it increasingly easier for users to generate and distribute content, such as blog posts, videos, and simple games, on platforms like Roblox or Minecraft.

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Generative AI Software Review Audio Technical Review 78

ReadWriteStart

AUGUST 19, 2019

Before we take a plunge into the Startup culture of India, let us first try understanding what exactly a startup is, and how does it function? Then we will tell the evolution of startups in India and the story until now. What is a Startup? How did India utilize its resources to become a startup generating machine?

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Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 17, 2022

As a startup, you need to use your limited resources to excel at a few core things for your best customers, in order to stand out and get the momentum going. Too many choices confuse all customers, and make your job in marketing, distribution, and support much more difficult. Less is more. But never take your eye off today’s customer.

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Startup Social Media India Acquisition 361

Up and Running

JUNE 29, 2015

You don’t have to do everything yourself—a partner can be an asset to your business. For this reason, you might consider working with a business partner. But, how can you find and cultivate a business partner relationship like that? Here are several places to find the perfect partner for your business.

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Partner Cofounder Networking Founder 60

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 5, 2019

Founders have to communicate their ideas and products to investors, business partners, and the rest of the team. Then, hopefully, come customers, distribution channels, and going public or merging with an attractive buy-out candidate. In startups, the best policy is transparent honest disclosure across all levels of the team.

Semantic 235

Semantic Technical Review Retention Distribution 235