YoungUpstarts

NOVEMBER 6, 2017

A lot of startups fail within the first few months due to some commonly acknowledged culprits – picking a bad time to scale, running out of operating capital, lack of a steady customer base, high customer acquisition cost, and low to nonexistent repeat business. Refine Your Sales Process. Be Value-Oriented. Simplify Checkout.

Sales 171

Sales Widget Sales Cycle Software Review 171

The Startup Magazine

MAY 3, 2024

For startups eager to establish an efficient operational framework from the start, the decision to hire Microsoft Dynamics experts becomes instrumental. As a versatile ERP system, Microsoft Dynamics caters to a variety of business needs, supporting everything from sales management to customer interactions.

Early Stage 149

Early Stage Technical Review Software Review Operations 149

YoungUpstarts

JANUARY 10, 2020

In the early stages, it isn’t uncommon for businesses to bank their earnings on a handful of customers (or sometimes, just one). This is especially true for startups, which operate on the basis of customer traction to solidify expectations with investors or lending institutions.

Customer 347

Customer Development Team Review Advisory Board Private Equity 347

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 2, 2015

What I love about my job is getting to see teams of super-early-stage companies develop ideas that while raw have potential to make an impact on the market. It freed up Ophir to grow out our sales organization, to work more closely with agencies, to innovate on product and to raise capital. Here’s the dilemma.

Operations 150

Operations Metrics Early Stage Non-Compete 150

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 31, 2010

This is part of my ongoing Sales & Marketing Series. In the first part of this post I talked about how sales in a startup is often evangelical , requires as consultative sale and needs constant adjustments based on customer feedback. We had 4 or 5 sales reps that had been around since the early days.

Sales 286

Sales PR Forecast Technical Review 286

The Startup Magazine

JUNE 1, 2023

As an early-stage company that just closed our seed round at $8.1 So what does an early-stage company do to avoid the doom and gloom plaguing the world of startups? Be honest with yourself VCs are now going to be looking closer at margins, cost structures and true sales, and product market fit. That includes us.

Early Stage 115

Early Stage Los Angeles Silicon Valley Cofounder 115

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 30, 2020

You alone will never find enough hours in a day to keep with all the challenges of sales, support, and scaling the business, in addition to developing and delivering your solution. Planning for the future must be a regular activity, not just an early-stage or once-a-year event. Survival requires regular updates.

Intellectual Property 432

Intellectual Property Entrepreneur Technical Review Angel Investor 432

ReadWriteStart

MARCH 3, 2021

Growing a business is always challenging, but it’s often the hardest in the earliest stages of development. You’ll be operating with limited resources, limited knowledge, and quite possibly, a business model poised to change in the immediate future. What are the best tactics to accomplish these goals? Limited capital.

Early Stage 125

Early Stage PPC Retention Churn Rate 125

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 6, 2014

The functions of an early-stage board are pretty obvious and well understood: Providing introductions to customers, biz dev partners, recruits, the press, other investors, etc. Reviewing financial & operational performance. how much energy to put into channel partners vs. direct sales. Mentorship.

Technical Review 325

Technical Review Early Stage Software Review Los Angeles 325

YoungUpstarts

JUNE 4, 2019

Most early stage startups tend to do well in this area because entrepreneurs generally launch their startups believing they have a great product idea. What does this mean for their early stage investors? Weak revenue architecture poses the greatest near-term risk of failure for most early stage startups.

Framework 127

Framework Architecture Cleveland Early Stage 127

Hunter Walker

MAY 13, 2023

Especially in the early days of mobile/iOS engineering, if you hired strong technical talent into your early stage company, you basically created an acquisition outcome floor. .” Yes, this was the ‘fallback plan’ for many team in the web2 era and they weren’t wrong.

Early Stage 117

Early Stage Cap Table Acquisition Sales 117

The Startup Magazine

JANUARY 26, 2022

Two primary concerns of regulation are the safety of the products to users and making sure the products you design do not interfere with other products currently operating in the market. Failure to meet regulations in advance of market sales can have serious business consequences including product recalls and border import shipment seizures.

Design 137

Design Development Team Review Product Technical Review 137

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 6, 2013

I am fond of quoting that about 70% of my investment decision of an early-stage company is the team. Your first sales people should be consultative sellers who can fuel evangelical sales. Don’t hire “relationship management” sales people too early. Final startup grind from msuster.

Cofounder 388

Cofounder Early Stage Startup Silicon Valley 388

YoungUpstarts

MAY 24, 2019

Most early stage startups tend to do well in this area because entrepreneurs generally launch their startups believing they have a great product idea. What does this mean for their early stage investors? Weak revenue architecture poses the greatest near-term risk of failure for most early stage startups.

Framework 113

Framework Architecture Cleveland Early Stage 113

View from Seed

JULY 5, 2022

RH: What’s your favorite thing about being an early-stage founder? One hour I’m deep into product development, the next I’m thinking about our hiring needs and recruiting, to the next on a sales call. As a first-time founder, the comfort in knowing that I can bounce ideas off of experienced operators and investors is huge.

DC 156

DC Software Review Government Boston 156

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 1, 2011

Running a company is distinctly different from simply having operating experience – (working in bus dev, sales or marketing.) Every potential early-stage Venture Capitalist should take a year and do it before he or she makes partner. Board skills (Startup coaching, mentoring, strategy, operational/growth).

Venture Capital 333

Venture Capital Early Stage Technical Review Startup 333

ReadWriteStart

JUNE 1, 2020

Reasons for funding. ? Scale up your operations. One of the most prominent reasons for funding is to scale up your operations, for expansion and achieve economies of scale. Now you may want to scale up your operations or expand your presence. The third reason is to fund your short term operational expenses or working capital.

Startup 150

Startup Entrepreneur Elevator Pitch Seed Stage 150

YoungUpstarts

MARCH 4, 2020

They aren’t operating on big bankrolls of venture capital (at least initially), and they don’t have trust funds to fall back on if the business fails. For example, do you fly out to a big indus­try conference to close some sales, or do you stay home to attend your daughter’s high school graduation? If they don’t come through, who will?

Entrepreneur 205

Entrepreneur Venture Capital Silicon Valley Bandwidth 205

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 12, 2019

As there was no venture capital, these early startups were funded by early sales to weapon systems prime contractors and subcontractors. At times this means startups operate at speeds so fast they appear to be a blur to government agencies. Startups dream in years, plan in months, evaluate in weeks, and ship in days.

Government 313

Government Artificial Inteligence Silicon Valley North Korea 313

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 23, 2021

Relevancy for an early-stage company is the discovery and understanding of the real addressable market for a product or service. Selling too early triggers customer defenses and drives them away. This is not just sales traction, but a proper balance between resources, product, and customers.

Early Stage 379

Early Stage Vertical Sales Global 379

The Startup Magazine

DECEMBER 13, 2018

Get a company ready for sale: per due diligence work and support during the sale process. Our clients have more efficient operations, higher profits/value and streamlined processes after they work with us. The ever-changing reality is that companies operate internationally even if they do not think they do.

Technical Review 84

Technical Review Founder Due Diligence Early Stage 84

YoungUpstarts

MAY 19, 2016

Whether it’s burn rates, balance sheets, or P&L and cash flow statements, financial documents say a lot about your operations — and you need to be able to speak the language. Obtain a Confidential Information and Invention Assignment Agreement as early as possible to make sure the IP is clearly (and legally) assigned.

Technical Review 124

Technical Review Burn Rate IP Intellectual Property 124

Steve Blank

JUNE 27, 2017

In addition, some cities put an artificial limit on the number of taxi operators by requiring them to buy medallions and agree to a set of local regulations. To protect auto dealerships in the 1920s, direct sales by an automobile manufacturer were made illegal in most states in the U.S.

Startup 301

Startup New York City Valuation Distribution 301

ConversionXL

MARCH 17, 2021

From long sales cycles to trying to stand out from the sea of sameness, B2B companies face an uphill battle from the start. I recently surveyed and interviewed over 200+ B2B executives, marketing & sales leaders to find out exactly what challenges they currently face and what they are doing to overcome them. So what does it take?

B2B 150

B2B Sales Cycle Belgium IP 150

The Startup Magazine

DECEMBER 13, 2018

Get a company ready for sale: per due diligence work and support during the sale process. Our clients have more efficient operations, higher profits/value and streamlined processes after they work with us. The ever-changing reality is that companies operate internationally even if they do not think they do.

Technical Review 68

Technical Review Founder Due Diligence Early Stage 68

Hearpreneur

OCTOBER 25, 2023

As soon as you have 2-3 months' worth of sales data to work with, use a formula to calculate stock reorder levels to ensure you always have stock ready to go, especially if you're promoting your products on platforms known for viral content, like TikTok. Every element on the page needs to be tuned to help convert visits into sales.

eCommerce 133

eCommerce Omaha Entrepreneur SEO 133

Up and Running

DECEMBER 23, 2020

When you’re starting or growing a business , a major trade-off you’ll ultimately have to consider is the efficiency of your operations versus finding, winning, and keeping customers (revenue versus expenses). Technology tools such as a CRM system can also help you get a strong understanding of your sales cycle and pipeline.

Entrepreneur 149

Entrepreneur Sales Cycle Early Stage Texas 149

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 22, 2021

In recent years, cannabis has emerged as a legal industry, and thus, companies operating in this new market have often had to find or build new software stacks in order to operate their businesses. Dispense is a B2B software company, focused on transaction software specifically designed for the cannabis industry.

Cofounder 234

Cofounder B2B Early Stage Software 234

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 26, 2016

= profitable and companies like Amazon who chose to focus on growth > profitability were not losing money on each book sale (ie they were gross margin positive). But often this doesn’t tell the whole story because often companies are also spending money on PR and other marketing activities in order to support the sales process.

Metrics 150

Metrics Cost Acquisition Startup 150

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

Steve Blank

MAY 29, 2011

Max and his partners interviewed and analyzed over 650 early-stage Internet startups. Today they released the first Startup Genome Report — a 67 page in-depth analysis on what makes early-stage Internet startups successful. longer to reach scale stage compared to a founding team of 2 and they are 2.3x

Technical Cofounder 334

Technical Cofounder Early Stage Startup Silicon Valley 334

YoungUpstarts

JUNE 1, 2019

More than just sales, repeatability also means demonstrating product release repeatability, implementation success repeatability, and some marketing and lead generation repeatability. Minimum Viable Repeatability (MVR). Minimum Viable Traction (MVT).

Cleveland 150

Cleveland Framework Marketing Early Stage 150

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 9, 2013

This is final part of a series that describes a sales methodology for technology companies or frankly many other types of companies, too. Well think of it this way – you have your sales process. And with scarce resources it’s your job to decide which door this lead must go through – sales or marketing.

Customer 324

Customer PR Marketing Technical Review 324

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

Version One Ventures

FEBRUARY 15, 2017

And selling to institutions requires a long sales cycle. As such, Top Hat can provide key lessons for early-stage companies: 1. Top Hat adopted a bottoms-up approach to distribution, as covered in the Globe and Mail article: Sales took off after Top Hat ignored advice and flipped its sales strategy. They hustle.

Vertical 131

Vertical Technical Review Cofounder Sales Cycle 131

Hunter Walker

MAY 17, 2024

It’s also not an accident that, upon stepping back from being Textio’s CEO, I’ve built a sizable exec coaching practice working largely with early stage founders. By the time the pandemic started, we had brought on a couple of sales people in New York and San Francisco, but we were still 95% colocated in Seattle.

Cofounder 102

Cofounder Founder Technical Review Seattle 102

YoungUpstarts

DECEMBER 7, 2017

These five strategies are proven to work for early-stage companies in a variety of industries — including, perhaps, yours. Array your development operation in pursuit of a simple proposition: efficiently bringing a minimum viable product to market. They quite literally can’t afford to wait. Focus on Your Minimum Viable Product.

Cost 100

Cost Developer Small Business Administration Marketing 100