Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 15, 2020

For early-stage startups, the goodwill component can easily exceed the size of all the financial elements together, or can just as easily mark a company with good financials as not investable. Organizations are assigned value by how well they take advantage of the best technology, and turn information into action.

Valuation 311

Valuation Technical Review Due Diligence Leadership 311

David Teten

DECEMBER 3, 2019

When I met my now-wife, I realized that any technology that can find me a spouse is a killer app. I’d argue that the same type of technologies that have revolutionized dating can revolutionize our industry. . I walk through below how progressive investors are using technology and analytics throughout all of their operations.

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Software Review Analytics Private Equity 78

View from Seed

MARCH 29, 2016

This desperate need for employees often leads to an equally desperate, ad-hoc approach to recruiting without any relevant recruiting metrics being tracked. The resume-to-interview metric is simply a measurement of how many resumes startups review for each person interviewed. Applicant source quality: Resumes-to-interviews.

Metrics 120

Metrics Founder CTO Hire Technical Review 120

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 26, 2016

There has been a lot of public debate over the past several weeks about whether it’s a good thing to be “gross margin positive” or not and commentary always reminds me that some people at startups don’t quite understand financial metrics or even how to think about which ones are healthy. I’m guessing much of this was 101 to many readers.

Metrics 150

Metrics Cost Acquisition Startup 150

VC Cafe

JANUARY 14, 2022

In this posts I review the potential risks for the Israeli tech ecosystem and the mitigating factors that counter some of them. According to the 2021 Tech Review report by IVC , Israeli tech startups attracted a record of $25.6 Israeli tech investments 2015-2021 (source: IVC ). What comes next? China: $104.4

Technical Review 159

Technical Review Lock-up Period South Korea 159

Duct Tape Marketing

NOVEMBER 2, 2023

Unlocking the Power of Data: Transforming Metrics into Actionable Insights written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing The Duct Tape Marketing Podcast with John Janstch In this episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast , I interviewed Peter Caputa, CEO of Databox, an innovative player in the realm of marketing analytics.

Metrics 75

Metrics Analytics Forecast Software Review 75

VC Cafe

NOVEMBER 2, 2019

When you start with an honest and diligent effort to determine the truth of your situation, the right decisions often become self-evident.” — Jim Collins , author of Good to Great. In this post I’ll focus on benchmarking resources for seed and series A in the following three categories: SaaS B2C / Consumer apps Deep tech.

B2C 141

B2C Technical Review Startup Retention 141

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 4, 2011

Having a set of metrics that you watch & that you feel are the key drivers of your success helps keep clarity. And the more public you can make your goals for these key metrics the better. Only one guy in the room knew – their tech lead. In our next meeting I asked them how often it crashed. lowering $1.50 per customer!

Metrics 346

Metrics Startup Acquisition SEM 346

NZ Entrepreneur

MAY 31, 2021

The Angel Association of New Zealand ( AANZ ) is co-hosting with New Zealand Growth Capital Partners ( NZGCP ) a series of workshops on early-stage investment. Jason Graham from Movac provided an early-stage venture capital fund perspective, detailing 35 investments made across 5 funds and 22 years.

Portfolio 81

Portfolio New Zealand Management Technical Review 81

NZ Entrepreneur

SEPTEMBER 29, 2021

If we want to maintain and support sustainable economic growth while meeting the broader needs of society, we will need an economy underpinned by innovation and new technologies. Remuneration will reflect the stage of the startup but it’s generally at a rate of about $500-1000 a meeting or directors might be paid in equity at about 0.5-0.75%

Technical Review 88

Technical Review Software Review New Zealand Due Diligence 88

SoCal CTO

JANUARY 26, 2010

I’ve been having discussions with several people recently about the role of the CTO (Chief Technology Officer) in very early stage companies. However, I’ve now begun questioning how and what an early-stage / startup CTO should be. What are the biggest areas of technical risk? What technologies will we use?

CTO 225

CTO Fractional CTO CTO Hire Technical Review 225

YoungUpstarts

NOVEMBER 20, 2019

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. In the startup world, opportunities are fleeting, and obstacles are ubiquitous.

Technical Review 140

Technical Review Due Diligence Early Stage Differentiation 140

NZ Entrepreneur

AUGUST 4, 2021

Capital raising can be challenging and time-consuming, but it forces you to evaluate the real metrics and areas of your business that are often overlooked.” – Bex Rempel, ZeroJet. Again, use this as an opportunity to pique their interest – and ultimately, land follow-up meetings or enter due diligence.

Technical Review 61

Technical Review Software Review Founder Due Diligence 61

SoCal CTO

DECEMBER 19, 2012

I was talking with an early-stage founder who has a product vision and wants to get it built. He is not a technical person, but is somewhat web savvy. It's the same as when I've created financial models and then have it reviewed by a hard-core CFO, sophisticated investor or similar kind of expert. Founder : Umm.

Developer 354

Developer Technical Review Fractional CTO Software Review 354

Reid Hoffman

AUGUST 6, 2020

The term “early-stage” covers a lot of territory in venture investing, from incubating a brand-new idea, to investing in a Series A. WHAT METRICS SHOULD A FOUNDER SHOW TO RAISE A SERIES A FROM A VC FIRM LIKE GREYLOCK? Reid and I have both done Series A investments in companies that have no metrics to speak of.

Technical Review 69

Technical Review Seed Stage Software Review Early Stage 69

ReadWriteStart

JUNE 14, 2012

So many tech startups begin the same way: One founder, one dream and a plan to make it happen. Rachel Blankstein has launched two tech startups, including her current business Comparz , a website where independent users review web-based software. She sold her first tech startup econfidant.com to a larger technology company.

Technical Review 159

Technical Review CTO Hire Software Review Startup 159

SoCal CTO

DECEMBER 1, 2007

Most often I'm being brought in the early stage, Start-up or Expansion (as the company looks at new product lines). My focus in this post is on the Early and Start-up stages - expansion is more of a consulting, focused project role and it acts different. Roger Smith ) This helps explain where I normally play.

Fractional CTO 231

Fractional CTO CTO Hire Technical Review Early Stage 231

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 14, 2017

Nearly every successful tech startup I’ve observed over the past 20 years has gone through a similar growth pattern: Innovate, systematize then scale operations. As an early-stage VC I love this phase. As a startup in this phase you often raise capital, get press, hire staff and everything feels possible.

Operations 286

Operations New York City Technical Review Startup 286

Austin Startup

APRIL 4, 2017

I really enjoyed a recent post I read on First Round Review about vanity metrics, which touches on what I love about my startup vs. others with more funding, more engineers and more mentions on TechCrunch. Vanity metrics aren’t useless. Tracking clarity metrics builds great businesses.” “In Don’t focus on them internally.

Metrics 48

Metrics Silicon Valley Angel Investor Technical Review 48

YoungUpstarts

OCTOBER 25, 2018

Today, Mark Attanasio gets to flex his full range of expertise and interests as co-founder and Managing Partner of Hillcrest Merchant Partners, a Toronto-based merchant bank focused on early stage and mid market growth companies. Even better, Attanasio says, is if they have done extensive due diligence first.

Partner 113

Partner Technical Review Management Due Diligence 113

David Teten

SEPTEMBER 23, 2017

VCs tout themselves as frontier technology investors, but most are using the same infrastructure tools they have used for the past 20+ years: Excel and recent college grads searching Google. According to Knowledge.VC , under 5% of US VCs have a full-time team member focused on technology. . But we’re doing it slowly.

Private Equity 60

Private Equity Venture Capital Equity Technical Review 60

David Teten

JANUARY 19, 2021

Our categorization is not a technical one. Additionally, Flexible VC can accommodate all types of companies, not just asset-lite, tech-enabled companies.”. This structure allows for alignment on the front end, and real-time flexibility for performance metrics,” says Samira Salman , a family office investor and advisor. .

Cofounder 78

Cofounder Technical Review Equity Dividend 78

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 4, 2015

For early-stage startups, the goodwill component can easily exceed the size of all the financial elements together, or can just as easily mark a company with good financials as not investable. Organizations are assigned value by how well they take advantage of the best technology, and turn information into action.

Leadership 120

Leadership Technical Review Due Diligence Valuation 120

Hearpreneur

OCTOBER 25, 2023

High-quality product images, detailed descriptions, and customer reviews can also enhance the user experience. 14- Blend technology and marketing Photo Credit: James Emery Building an e-commerce business like The Neighbours Cellar involves a blend of technology, marketing, and customer-centricity.

eCommerce 133

eCommerce Omaha Entrepreneur SEO 133

YoungUpstarts

JUNE 1, 2019

The best way to explain the “gap” in the Traction Gap Framework is to review the three phases that every startup must pass through in order to succeed. And given the paucity of business metrics at this point in a startup’s lifecycle, spreadsheet analysis is of little help. Mind the Traction Gap? Go-to-Product. Go-to-Market.

Cleveland 150

Cleveland Framework Marketing Early Stage 150

ConversionXL

JANUARY 28, 2021

Instead, we’ll be covering the core use cases that customer data platforms address and explore whether Segment or Mparticle ultimately deserves a spot in your tech stack. The average business already has 17 unique technology applications housing customer data. G2 Reviewer. The Rise of CDPs. Use cases for CDP’s.

Technical Review 86

Technical Review Software Review Analytics Technical Cofounder 86

Up and Running

DECEMBER 17, 2020

And one question that many startups overlook at the early stages of formulating their business plans: do you have a well-reasoned, effective, and budget-savvy marketing plan? You should also have a little background in the technology behind the tactics that make up a sound digital marketing plan. Do-it-yourself SEO tactics.

Marketing 142

Marketing Technical Review SEO Hosting 142

YoungUpstarts

JUNE 4, 2019

In this final post, I’ll review the foundational building blocks that all companies must continuously measure, refine and optimize if they are to avoid hitting the rocks where so many other startups meet their ruin. What does this mean for their early stage investors? Product Architecture. Team Architecture.

Framework 127

Framework Architecture Cleveland Early Stage 127

YoungUpstarts

MAY 24, 2019

In this final post, I’ll review the foundational building blocks that all companies must continuously measure, refine and optimize if they are to avoid hitting the rocks where so many other startups meet their ruin. What does this mean for their early stage investors? Product Architecture. Team Architecture.

Framework 113

Framework Architecture Cleveland Early Stage 113

David Teten

APRIL 1, 2021

I recommend building a strong internal tech stack, to handle the deluge of requests for help you’ll get from companies as you scale. For instance, tracking ‘months-of-runway’ combined with the month-over-month change to that metric allows us to rapidly identify companies that may be distressed.

Private Equity 78

Private Equity Venture Capital Portfolio Equity 78

Up and Running

AUGUST 20, 2018

In all cases, the most important element of business planning is the review schedule —set specific times to review your progress toward your goals. Specifically, it’s the time to review your progress on milestones and to compare your actuals against your financial projections. How often should you revise your business plan?

Business Plan 119

Business Plan Technical Review Lean Forecast 119

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 16, 2014

I reviewed a deal for a friend of mine tonight. He wanted to know what I thought of his technology deal. For all the things he’s likely known for, he probably hasn’t yet built a strong relationship as an early stage venture investor (he invests often in later-stage deals where he is very respected).

Silicon Valley 333

Silicon Valley Early Stage Later Stage Technical Review 333

ConversionXL

FEBRUARY 3, 2022

Companies can acquire competitors’ products or technology to enhance their offering within the market they already serve. A common framework for defining your growth model is Dave McClure’s Pirate Metrics for startups : the AARRR framework. Think about the touchpoints at each stage of the AARRR framework. Acquisitions.

Marketing 115

Marketing Framework Metrics Channel 115

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? Reply Week 2 – Customer Discovery & Listening « Iain’s Chips & Tech , on November 6, 2009 at 9:44 am Said: [.]

Customer Development 264

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 264

Austin Startup

AUGUST 10, 2017

Although we were studying finance, we were always more interested in tech. We were infatuated with tech. But we got serious in early 2016 when we developed deep conviction around the immense technical vision of Ethereum. We dive deep into white papers, review technology, economics, game theory, etc.

Technical Review 48

Technical Review Cofounder Technical Cofounder Austin 48

YoungUpstarts

FEBRUARY 7, 2019

The first stage in creating your sales strategy is to put into words exactly what your current sales objectives are, and will be for the next twelve months at least. You should review your existing strategy, if you have one, to ensure that the goals you already have are clear and can be measured accurately. Research the Market.

Sales 113

Sales Argentina Technical Review B2B 113

Hunter Walker

JANUARY 21, 2014

This is an unusual VC post – we’re asking for help around a new metric we’re tracking but it’s in an area where we’re not experts: underrepresented founders. Satya recently posted data from 2013 around our investment process and we hope it helped provide additional insights into how early stage investors think about opportunities.

Technical Review 94

Technical Review Software Review Metrics Incubator 94