Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 30, 2022

Early-stage entrepreneurs rightly keep their focus on creating an innovative product or service. After celebrating success at that level, they often find themselves ill-prepared to move to the next stage, for scaling their business into a high-performing enterprise. Switch your attention from product development to sales.

Mezzanine 368

Mezzanine Private Equity Bandwidth Metrics 368

View from Seed

MAY 11, 2016

The reasons are fairly obvious: It’s easy to reference them and understand their track record; they’ve made a ton of mistakes already that they have hopefully learned from and are unlikely to make again; they are probably more adept at raising and managing capital, which reduces financing risk down the road, etc.

Founder 159

Founder Cofounder CTO Hire Early Stage 159

David Teten

APRIL 1, 2021

As an agenda for each meeting, I suggest: – How can we most add value, in addition to helping with financing? Nick Kim , Crosscut’s Head of Platform, in his presentation at the 4th Annual VC Platform Summit, shared their Platform development methodology, which he viewed as an exercise in product development.

Private Equity 78

Private Equity Venture Capital Portfolio Equity 78

View from Seed

AUGUST 10, 2021

And early-stage VC investors have increasingly ventured beyond their backyards of SF, NYC, and Boston to more actively invest in (and in some cases relocate to) places like Miami, Austin, Chicago, Seattle, and other cities.

Chicago 177

Chicago Miami Cofounder B2B 177

Feld Thoughts

NOVEMBER 18, 2013

Following is his advice to early stage entrepreneurs for creating structure in their company. Here’s the punchline: if you run your company as if you have closed a VC equity financing round even though you actually closed a convertible debt round, you’ll be in much better shape when it comes time to raise your Series A financing.

Burn Rate 152

Burn Rate Equity Software Review Early Stage 152

View from Seed

AUGUST 10, 2021

And early-stage VC investors have increasingly ventured beyond their backyards of SF, NYC, and Boston to more actively invest in (and in some cases relocate to) places like Miami, Austin, Chicago, Seattle, and other cities.

Chicago 156

Chicago Cofounder Miami Early Stage 156

View from Seed

AUGUST 10, 2021

And early-stage VC investors have increasingly ventured beyond their backyards of SF, NYC, and Boston to more actively invest in (and in some cases relocate to) places like Miami, Austin, Chicago, Seattle, and other cities.

Chicago 136

Chicago Cofounder Miami Early Stage 136

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 27, 2013

In this period (less than 2 years) he has brought on incredibly talented senior execs is sales, marketing, product management, client services, finance, vp engineering and more. I would say the norm for many early-stage companies is somewhere between 6-10 in-person meetings per year. Ask for short conference calls.

Advisory Board 365

Advisory Board CTO Hire Fractional CTO Los Angeles 365

Mucker Lab

MAY 28, 2020

These lost startups land higher valuations, have larger teams, outsource more product development and spend more money on customer acquisition than their peers. Before you indulge in marketing, sales and blinged-out offices, find product-market fit. How do you know you have it?

Startup 78

Startup Cofounder Burn Rate Technical Review 78

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.

Revenue 60

Revenue Technical Review Software Review Equity 60

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 1, 2019

Early-stage entrepreneurs rightly keep their focus on creating an innovative product or service. After celebrating success at that level, they often find themselves ill-prepared to move to the next stage, for scaling their business into a high-performing enterprise. Switch your attention from product development to sales.

Mezzanine 244

Mezzanine Private Equity Startup Bandwidth 244

This is going to be BIG.

AUGUST 22, 2012

Let’s start out with the basic functions of a tech company: 1) Engineering 2) Marketing 3) Sales 4) Business development 5) PR 6) Design 7) Product Management 8) HR 9) Operations 10) Finance Ok, that's just overwhelming. In a way, you can think of BD as “sales when you don’t know what the product is yet.”

PR 144

PR Technical Review Seed Stage Design 144

ithacaVC

MARCH 14, 2011

At the early stages of a startup, the founding team is probably the most important variable of success. Focusing on the early stage, the founding team typically will have a tech oriented founder and a business oriented founder. In essence, at this stage, product development defines the company.

Early Stage 45

Early Stage Founder Burn Rate Cofounder 45

Women Entrepreneurs Can

NOVEMBER 19, 2022

A Venture Capital Firm is a firm that invests in startups and early-stage companies. Early-Stage Investments vs. Mid-Stage Investments. Investing in a startup company carries a high degree of risk, particularly at the early stage. They can also help you develop your product and sales channels.

Venture Capital 52

Venture Capital Early Stage Liquidity Event SEC 52

Early Growth Financial Services

SEPTEMBER 5, 2013

Rapidly growing companies have a lot to deal with—product development, customer acquisition, raising financing, user scaling issues—just to name a few. HR and finance can seem like daunting tasks that you know are important, but just never have time for.

Finance 57

Finance Early Stage Startup Acquisition 57

VC Cafe

FEBRUARY 27, 2024

While the answers are somewhat semantic, the pre-seed funding round is making a comeback in 2024 startup financing. Pre-seed rounds accounted for 14% of all seed stage deals in 2023, up from just 5% in 2020 according to Pitchbook data and I predict it will be even higher in 2024. Seed is about showing initial product market fit.

Valuation 186

Valuation Software Review Generative AI Seed Stage 186

Up and Running

JUNE 14, 2017

Some believe in the all-in approach to product development: build an advanced app. Early stage idea validation can be accomplished without building an application. Almost on a weekly basis, I meet new aspiring entrepreneurs looking to execute on their ideas.

Technical Review 96

Technical Review Distribution Redemption Demand 96

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 14, 2009

In an early-stage startup especially, revenue is not an important goal in and of itself. This may sound crazy, coming as it does from an advocate of c harging customers for your product from day one. Let’s start with a simple question: why do early-stage startups want revenue? But all things are never equal.

Customer 167

Customer San Francisco Lean Hockey Stick 167

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 13, 2017

Early-stage entrepreneurs rightly keep their focus on creating an innovative product or service. After celebrating success at that level, they often find themselves ill-prepared to move to the next stage, for scaling their business into a high-performing enterprise. Switch your attention from product development to sales.

Mezzanine 141

Mezzanine Private Equity Startup Bandwidth 141

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 3, 2013

Early-stage entrepreneurs rightly keep their focus on creating an innovative product or service. After celebrating success at that level, they often find themselves ill-prepared to move to the next stage, for scaling their business into a high-performing enterprise. Switch your attention from product development to sales.

Mezzanine 240

Mezzanine Private Equity Bandwidth Metrics 240

Hearpreneur

FEBRUARY 14, 2018

2- Business and Finance. I run an early stage-startup called Smarthome NX that helps consumers discover Smart home technologies through content, collaborative partnerships and commerce. Adding bling to everything is a really fun process, but growing my side hustle is especially rewarding. Photo Credit: Elizabeth Urenda.

Entrepreneur 71

Entrepreneur Technical Review SEO New York City 71

Steve Blank

MAY 28, 2009

Market Risk vs. Invention Risk - Click to Enlarge For companies building web-based products, product development may be difficult, but with enough time and iteration engineering will eventually converge on a solution and ship a functional product - i t’s engineering, not invention.

Vertical 144

Vertical Silicon Valley Marketing Customer 144

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 28, 2010

VC Financings: 1. The investment will be used for product development initiatives. I knew that OATV had invested in the company and I typically like to look harder at stuff that they do since I consider them to be very savvy with early stage trends. I keep meaning to get him drunk to spill the stories.

Venture Capital 270

Venture Capital Cofounder Spain San Diego 270

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 4, 2015

Early-stage entrepreneurs rightly keep their focus on creating an innovative product or service. After celebrating success at that level, they often find themselves ill-prepared to move to the next stage, for scaling their business into a high-performing enterprise. Switch your attention from product development to sales.

Mezzanine 120

Mezzanine Private Equity Startup Bandwidth 120

Austin Startup

AUGUST 20, 2017

Early stage startups have to survive one day at a time and are often presented with limited choices of the moment that enable them to continue. At early stages you probably don’t have an assembly line and can’t clearly define any particular job. Your Product Plan must fit into context of your overall business mission.

Technical Review 48

Technical Review Software Review Cap Table Securities and Exchange Commission 48

Growthink Blog

MAY 10, 2012

The five main stages include the following: 1. Early Stage Investment (Series A & B) 4. Later Stage Investment (Series C, D, and so on) 5. Mezzanine Financing Most companies that raise equity capital and are eventually acquired or go public receive multiple rounds of financing first. Pre-Seed Funding 2.

Equity 88

Equity Mezzanine Later Stage Venture Capital 88

Early Growth Financial Services

FEBRUARY 13, 2014

I’ve met so many founders and early-stage teams who spend too much time worrying about the wrong things. These misguided concerns are a time-suck and not productive. You don’t need to have financing to build a strong company, at least not in the early stages. Startups worry about funding.

Early Stage 53

Early Stage Startup Finance Business Plan 53

Duct Tape Marketing

DECEMBER 5, 2014

When you’re a small business owner, it’s imperative to take on a lot of the tasks yourself, especially in the early stages of running a business. How many of us have found ourselves needing to do a little bit of finance, customer service, marketing or product development at any given point?

Small Business 76

Small Business Early Stage Hiring Stock 76

YoungUpstarts

JUNE 17, 2014

For a few months, a team of mentors with expertise in sales, financing, business planning, marketing, product development, website design and many other fields will coach an entrepreneur to help create a successful launch and structured plan for future growth.

Cofounder 162

Cofounder Incubator Programming IPO 162

Up and Running

JANUARY 30, 2014

Accelerators focus on early-stage startups, while incubators are geared toward later-stage startups. Some accelerators have themes or focus on certain business sectors such as education, healthcare, or finance. Accelerators are short entrepreneur training programs designed to jump-start new businesses. Accelators.

Incubator 105

Incubator New York City Venture Capital Startup 105

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 5, 2009

Unfortunately in early stage startups the drive for financing hijacks the corporate DNA and becomes the raison d’etre of the company. What are Early Stage VC’s Really Asking? Chasing funding versus chasing customers and a repeatable and scalable business model, is one reason startups fail. Can it scale?”

Customer Development 262

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 262

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 6, 2013

Every startup needs access to capital, whether for funding product development, for initial rollout efforts, acquiring inventory, or paying that first employee. Thus “creative” really means maximizing non-bank financing. They have to sell themselves, more than their product, to close on every alternative source of funding.

Finance 243

Finance Startup Equity Early Stage 243

BeyondVC

DECEMBER 10, 2009

Financial models for startups are important from a big picture perspective, but I never like to get mired in the full details as things always change in the early stages.

Churn Rate 112

Churn Rate Burn Rate Startup Metrics 112

Business Plan Blog

OCTOBER 4, 2013

This is true for early stage funding as well as venture capital funding. 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. Early Stage. Seed to Series A.

Part-Time VPE 79

Part-Time VPE Fractional VPE Cofounder CTO Hire 79

ReadWriteStart

OCTOBER 14, 2010

At today's roundtable we had some intensive discussions around market sizing and its impact on financing. So, please note the TAM Analysis is a vitally important aspect of building any financing strategy. Raymond is wondering why he cannot attract financing.

Bootstrapping 114

Bootstrapping Marketing Angel Investor Silicon Valley 114

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 26, 2014

Every startup needs access to capital, whether for funding product development, for initial rollout efforts, acquiring inventory, or paying that first employee. Thus “creative” really means maximizing non-bank financing. They have to sell themselves, more than their product, to close on every alternative source of funding.

Entrepreneur 254

Entrepreneur Finance Equity Early Stage 254

www.readwriteweb.com

OCTOBER 18, 2010

So, please note the TAM Analysis is a vitally important aspect of building any financing strategy. He needs to generate enough profit so that he can grow organically and build his business systematically, and without expecting a lot of outside financing. Raymond is wondering why he cannot attract financing.

Marketing 52

Marketing Bootstrapping Incubator Angel Investor 52