YoungUpstarts

NOVEMBER 20, 2019

by Lu Zhang, founder and managing partner of Fusion Fund. Competition from other startups and established incumbents, constraints on time and capital, and limited access to talent and technology resources are just a few of the hurdles nearly every first-time founder faces while trying to build a business.

Technical Review 140

Technical Review Due Diligence Early Stage Differentiation 140

The Startup Magazine

SEPTEMBER 12, 2019

Tempted by large sums of money and the perceived validation that comes along with being funded, founders turn to venture capitalists to accelerate their company’s growth. While the rewards may be a boon to their company in the short term, the consequences of accepting outside funding too early can be debilitating.

Early Stage 98

Early Stage Venture Capital Bootstrapping Pre-Money Valuation 98

Version One Ventures

MAY 3, 2023

Noah Smith recently wrote about why everyone should get excited about India’s prospects. I shared his optimism going into this trip and came back even more bullish about the potential of India’s tech ecosystem. And I had more than 20 1:1 meetings with founders, angels, emerging fund managers and institutional VC funds.

India 86

India LP Silicon Valley Vertical 86

YoungUpstarts

MAY 30, 2019

While each side has its priorities, both work toward a positive and user-focused product experience. Keeping this philosophy top of mind during the product management phase is crucial for early stage CTOs, especially when working through backlogs and other barriers that can undermine the user experience.

Management 138

Management Product SCRUM Early Stage 138

Duct Tape Marketing

APRIL 29, 2024

Paul is also a senior lecturer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the MIT Sloan School of Management and the co-founder of Oceanworks. 18:52] Talk about the easter eggs laid across the book for reader to discover? [22:53] Entrepreneurship is about more than just startups. 14:39] Do you have a favorite tactic? [18:52]

Entrepreneur 52

Entrepreneur Cofounder Early Stage Artificial Inteligence 52

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 5, 2023

In the early stages of a startup your hypotheses about all the parts of your business model are your profound beliefs. You can’t be an effective founder or in the C-suite of a startup if you don’t hold any. Here’s how I learned why they were critical to successful customer development. What do you think?”

Business Model 339

Business Model Product Development Early Stage Customer Development 339

Steve Blank

MARCH 16, 2016

To most founders a startup is not a job, but a calling. But startups require money upfront for product development and later to scale. Founders can now access the largest pool of risk capital that ever existed –in the form of Private Equity (Angel Investors, family offices , Venture Capitalists (VC’s) and Hedge Funds.).

Liquidity Event 120

Liquidity Event Founder Liquidation Preference Private Equity 120

Steve Blank

MAY 18, 2009

I couldn’t figure out if I was more perturbed about how casual the comment was or how insightful it was. What makes an individual a great startup founder (versus an employee) has been something I had been thinking about since I retired. I remember stopping at one station a little confused about its purpose.

Founder 308

Founder Silicon Valley RSS China 308

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. Don’t make everyone a founder.

Part-Time VPE 79

Part-Time VPE Fractional VPE Cofounder CTO Hire 79

Mucker Lab

MAY 28, 2020

This post originally appeared in TechCrunch back in 2015, written by our co-founder and managing partner Erik Rannala. Like a teenager with a million-dollar allowance and an identity crisis, a startup with too much capital and no product-market fit will become capable of making larger mistakes. Be trigger shy about hiring.

Startup 78

Startup Cofounder Burn Rate Technical Review 78

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 14, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Tuesday, April 14, 2009 Validated learning about customers Would you rather have $30,000 or $1 million in revenues for your startup? In an early-stage startup especially, revenue is not an important goal in and of itself. In fact, this company hasn’t shipped any new products in months.

Customer 167

Customer San Francisco Lean Hockey Stick 167

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 12, 2010

One of the biggest mistakes I see early-stage startups making is hiring “seasoned&# sales professionals or hiring people too senior, too early. OK, I’m still self conscious about whether a comma goes there but you get the point. This is probably because many founders are product or technology people.

Hiring 346

Hiring Sales Startup Early Stage 346

Early Growth Financial Services

DECEMBER 11, 2012

by Tony Karrer Originally published on SoCal CTO Almost every day I’m talking to early stage startup founders (see Free Startup CTO Consulting Sessions) about what they plan to do. Many of these founders have talked with several developers or development firms about their plans.

Fractional CTO 44

Fractional CTO Developer Product Development Founder 44

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

AUGUST 10, 2021

We first invested in co-founders Ben Forgan & Pat Wilbur in early 2015, when NextView led a $1.3M 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 Cofounder Miami B2B 177

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 27, 2013

But the thing I am most proud of about Rob is that he has taken a company with a uniquely talented founder & CTO – Nick Halstead – and managed to build a very tight working relationship with Nick where we drive world-class product development without having the usual founder / CEO conflicts.

Advisory Board 365

Advisory Board CTO Hire Fractional CTO Los Angeles 365

View from Seed

AUGUST 10, 2021

We first invested in co-founders Ben Forgan & Pat Wilbur in early 2015, when NextView led a $1.3M 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 B2B 156

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 23, 2009

This product development diagram had become part of the DNA of Silicon Valley. This product development diagram had become part of the DNA of Silicon Valley. And even more importantly, was there any way to reduce risk in early stage ventures? familiar with Customer Development you should be.

Product Development 155

Product Development Developer Silicon Valley Product 155

Steve Blank

AUGUST 27, 2012

I got to spend time inside his company while I was using their software to analyze early-stage ventures. What I saw reminded me of some of the best and worst things I did as a founder. We’re building the wrong product!” I cringed when I saw this – it sounded like me early in my career. A Pivot a Week.

Founder 320

Founder Cofounder Advisory Board Burn Rate 320

techcrunch.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

The number one question you all asked after reading my last blog post about starting a business from scratch was “how do I find my co-founders?&# Now, think specifically about how tall (or short) they all are. And therein lies the problem in finding co-founders for that startup you’re dying to launch.

Cofounder 66

Cofounder Founder Silicon Valley Technical Cofounder 66

View from Seed

AUGUST 10, 2021

We first invested in co-founders Ben Forgan & Pat Wilbur in early 2015, when NextView led a $1.3M 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 B2B 136

Cracking the Code

OCTOBER 1, 2020

Earlier this year, I was on a panel with Guy Podjarny, Snyk’s founder, at SaaStock Remote to discuss how the team’s community-driven freemium approach led to the company’s stellar growth. million developers using our product. Developers have no barrier to getting started with Snyk. Today, we have around 1.5

Early Stage 62

Early Stage Open Source Development Team Review Security 62

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? The Traditional VC Pitch Entrepreneurs who pursue the traditional product development model don’t have customer data to answer these questions.

Customer Development 266

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 266

Feld Thoughts

NOVEMBER 18, 2013

Following is his advice to early stage entrepreneurs for creating structure in their company. Specifically, I am talking about putting a board in place, running formal board meetings, and making sure you have people at the table who act as the voice of reason and sanity. It’s too early for that s**t.

Burn Rate 152

Burn Rate Equity Software Review Early Stage 152

ithacaVC

MARCH 14, 2011

At the early stages of a startup, the founding team is probably the most important variable of success. As a company matures, the concept of “founding team” is replaced by “management team”, which may and hopefully includes the founders. Company XT has a tech founder and business founder.

Early Stage 45

Early Stage Founder Burn Rate Cofounder 45

The Equity Kicker

MARCH 17, 2015

I’m on a panel at an investor conference tomorrow discussing the merits of active investing, which will be a debate about how much investors should do above and beyond the provision of cash. The gaps that we most often fill are product, development, design, marketing, recruitment and fundraising.

Early Stage 60

Early Stage Venture Capital San Francisco Silicon Valley 60

Jeff Hilimire

OCTOBER 8, 2014

I realized that I enjoy interviewing startup friends about their business, but sending them a bunch of questions and having them reply didn’t allow for me to react to their answers, and honestly, if I actually interviewed them over Skype or something I think about eight people would actually watch the video. It was good fun.

Cofounder 68

Cofounder Charlotte Raleigh Atlanta 68

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 7, 2009

This post describes how following the traditional product development can lead to a “startup death spiral.&# In the next posts that follow, I’ll describe how this model’s failures led to the Customer Development Model – offering a new way to approach startup sales and marketing activities.

Customer Development 232

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 232

Duct Tape Marketing

APRIL 6, 2022

Steve is the CEO of Founders Space, one of the world’s leading startup accelerators with over 50 partners in 22 countries. Founders Space was ranked the #1 incubator for overseas startups by Forbes and Entrepreneur Magazines. 18:05] How does the Founder Space operate? [20:21] More About Steve Hoffman: FounderSpace.com.

San Francisco 97

San Francisco Technical Review Incubator Silicon Valley 97

ReadWriteStart

MARCH 17, 2011

Founded by three Silicon Valley veterans - Tim Brady, Alan Louie, and Geoff Ralston - Imagine K12 will support early stage ed-tech startups through a funding and mentorship program. Working with Students, Teachers, Schools for Product Development. It's about attracting bright engineering talent to the space.

Incubator 116

Incubator Technical Review Silicon Valley Cofounder 116

The Equity Kicker

JANUARY 10, 2020

Nic Brisbourne is Managing Partner at Forward Partners, the UK’s leading early-stage VC, currently supporting the UK’s next generation of AI, e-commerce and marketplace businesses. I think we differ a little from the rest of the industry, though, particularly with our focus on early stage companies.

Partner 68

Partner Early Stage Portfolio Metrics 68

Hippoland

AUGUST 17, 2016

In general, I’m a big fan of convertible notes or convertible securities for seed stage founders. In contrast, if you do an equity round, you as the founder will often have to pay $20k-$50k in legal bills. So early stage investors tend to be more wary of convertible notes / convertible securities. And that’s ok.

Equity 48

Equity Convertible Security Silicon Valley Technical Review 48

The Next Web

OCTOBER 3, 2012

Andrew is the co-founder and CTO of Parse.ly , a technology startup that provides big data insights to the web’s best publishers. He wrote: When startups die, the official cause of death is always either running out of money or a critical founder bailing. You have to think about your company as a ten year project.

Cofounder 155

Cofounder Technical Cofounder Technical Review Software Review 155

View from Seed

JULY 26, 2022

Founder: Alexandria DeVito. Alexandria has unparalleled founder/market fit, and the kind of deep experience and passion for her market that we love to see in all of the founders we work with.” RH: And last but not least, why should the world care about this problem and how you’re solving it? Company: Poplin.

Silicon Valley 156

Silicon Valley Later Stage Early Stage Founder 156

David Teten

AUGUST 19, 2019

RBI normally requires founders to pay back their investors with a fixed percentage of revenue until they have finished providing the investor with a fixed return on capital, which they agree upon in advance. For background, see Revenue-Based Investing: A New Option for Founders who Care About Control. Alternative Capital. “

Revenue 60

Revenue Technical Review Software Review Equity 60

Austin Startup

JANUARY 25, 2020

My coworker in the next cubicle told a potential investor on the phone about an investment he was recommending. After I sat down, he made a point about noticing that maybe this was not for me. He went on about the need to instead find something that I can really put all of my heart into?—?how, I hated it. that was my job.

Delaware 62

Delaware SEC New York City New York 62

mashable.com

JUNE 11, 2013

Company About Us Licensing & Reprints Archive. Perhaps the team is working on a product that really isnt that great or useful. Or maybe the co-founders have a poisonous relationship that will hinder the companys growth. Maybe they never thought about product-market fit. Entertainment. US & World.

Cofounder 111

Cofounder Technical Review Startup Software Review 111