Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 27, 2021

Most entrepreneurs have found by now one or more of the many popular crowdfunding sites , and have the name and contact information for at least one of the big venture capital firms. Each has met legal securities minimums for net worth and professionalism, to reduce the risk to entrepreneurs. Most share expertise as well as money.

Search 317

Search Accredited Investor Angel Investor Venture Capital 317

Agile VC

JUNE 5, 2012

Both companies generate direct revenue from their platform in the form of a revenue share / platform tax (typically 30%) on software and digital goods sold through the respective platforms. Facebook’s direct platform revenue accounted for about 15% of the company’s overall sales whereas Apple’s was less than 1%.

Java 170

Java Flash Software Azure 170

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 18, 2015

I rarely talk to any startup entrepreneur or VC who doesn’t feel it and somehow long for simpler times despite the benefits we all enjoy from increased enthusiasm for our sector. For entrepreneurs there’s too much money sloshing around. They’re doing how much in SaaS revenue? My general advice is to do less.

Software Review 150

Software Review Turkey Portfolio Syndicate 150

YoungUpstarts

MARCH 16, 2014

Apps are increasingly becoming a vital part of how businesses deliver services and goods to consumers, in fact Gartner predicts that by 2017 apps will generate more than $77 billion in revenue and be downloaded more than 268 billion times. Founder and CEO of Appsbar, Scott Hirsch, is a noted entrepreneur and expert in mobile marketing.

Developer 162

Developer Application Development Syndicate Syndication 162

David Teten

MARCH 14, 2018

– Build out low-cost force multipliers such as scouts , Advisors, Entrepreneurs in Residence, Venture Partners, and so on. Coinvestors need to figure out ways to prioritize themselves in a VC’s preference stack for syndicating opportunities. – Syndicate Special Purpose Vehicles (“SPVs”) for specific opportunities.

Private Equity 60

Private Equity Venture Capital Equity Cofounder 60

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 22, 2020

As a long-time advisor to entrepreneurs, and a former angel myself, I still find startups confused about the definition of an angel investor, and how and when to attract one. Typically, individual investments will be less than $100K, but a group of angels may syndicate multiples. Thus they don’t live or fly above the clouds.

Angel Investor 322

Angel Investor Valuation Syndicate Syndication 322

Feld Thoughts

AUGUST 25, 2015

Take a look at the founding syndicates of each: Masstor Sytems (5/1979). Quantum Corporation (6/1980). What is striking about these syndicates is that nobody had any meaningful capital, which forced syndication and cooperation. Some were Silicon Valley early stage companies, such as Apple, Quantum, and Masstor Systems.

Venture Capital 70

Venture Capital SBIC Technical Review Silicon Valley 70

Duct Tape Marketing

MAY 2, 2024

Dale has spoken at industry conferences, led corporate training events, and serves as an entrepreneur in residence at the Harvard Alumni Entrepreneurs Organization. You could choose our system to move from vendor to trusted advisor, attract only ideal clients, and confidently present your strategies to build monthly recurring revenue.

SEO 62

SEO Search Generative AI Engineer 62

View from Seed

NOVEMBER 18, 2014

Startups with large, lifecycle VCs included in the seed round syndicate did not reach Series A faster than those who did not. If a lifecycle VC was involved in the seed investor syndicate, the Series A was noticeably larger, at a $5.9M Generate Real Revenue. Another approach to raise Series A is to drive meaningful revenue.

Syndicate 333

Syndicate Syndication Seed Stage Startup 333

ReadWriteStart

DECEMBER 2, 2010

Well, 1M/1M is focused on helping businesses generate $1M in annual revenue, whatever be the nature of the business. But our goal is to make sure that these businesses are sustainable, have customers, revenues, and profits. Sramana Mitra is a technology entrepreneur and strategy consultant in Silicon Valley.

India 116

India Green Silicon Valley Massachusetts 116

Mike Michalowicz

DECEMBER 18, 2012

Most entrepreneurs are passionate about what they do, and they’re happy to work on their businesses morning, noon, and night, but there comes a point where it’s just too much! Never forget that everyone needs a personal life, even successful entrepreneurs! Thanks to Jeannette De Beauvoir of Customline Wordware.

LLC 166

LLC Non-Compete Revenue Hiring 166

Agile VC

APRIL 17, 2011

How They Make Money: Majority of Kayak’s revenue actually comes from advertising on their site (55%), not lead generation or referral fees to travel suppliers as you might think (more on this below). Financial Snapshot: 2010 Revenue: $170 million. Revenue growth: 51% YoY (2010), 1% YoY (2009), 131% YoY (2008).

Pre-Money Valuation 113

Pre-Money Valuation Liquidation Preference Dividend Common Stock 113

View from Seed

APRIL 30, 2015

From a company milestones perspective, entrepreneurs who take on venture debt are almost always thinking about raising that next round of capital from other institutions. GM: The model is more about the relationship with the entrepreneurs, the investors, and us as the bank, as opposed to cash flow or fixed assets to lend on.

Term Sheet 120

Term Sheet Equity Startup Seed Stage 120

Pascal's View

JULY 9, 2017

Andrew Krowne and I recently co-wrote an article in Tech Crunch , Why SAFE Notes Are Not Safe for Entrepreneurs. At its core, this issue points to the lack of understanding about the importance of post-money valuation by both entrepreneurs and investors. Many entrepreneurs lose track of what they have been cooking up in the cap table.

Post-Money Valuation 49

Post-Money Valuation Valuation Cap Table Covenant 49

Genuine VC

MAY 29, 2014

Yet even today, whether or not to take a (relatively) small check in a seed round syndicate from a multi-hundred million or even billion dollar fund is still a decision which takes quite a bit of consideration and sometimes consternation. So there is an element of (positive) selection bias in the larger VC syndicate cohort companies.

Syndicate 166

Syndicate Syndication Seed Stage Valuation 166

YoungUpstarts

JUNE 22, 2019

Search engines like Google are the biggest conduit for discovery on the web; if you can get higher rankings for queries relevant to your target audience, you’ll get more traffic, and therefore generate more revenue. Every startup entrepreneur should consider investing at least some time and money into the strategy.

SEO 186

SEO Marketing Startup Syndicate 186

Rob Go

SEPTEMBER 4, 2018

We are also seeing more investors try to be a part of syndicated A rounds for companies that are raising $5M or more and are really not what most would consider “seed” stage. As the venture capital industry has evolved, more and more seed investors are passing on traditionally “seed stage” startups because there isn’t enough traction.

North America 36

North America Seed Stage Early Stage Lead Investor 36

Agile VC

JUNE 5, 2011

They’ve grown from nothing to >$2B in revenue in 30 months time, making the company among the fastest growing businesses in the histroy of the world. How They Make Money: Groupon keeps a share of the coupon value (typically 40-50%) as its net revenue (1). Financial Snapshot: 2010 Revenue: $713M. to the merchant.

North America 100

North America Chicago Boston Silicon Valley 100

ConversionXL

APRIL 7, 2020

Once objectives are identified and prioritized, your podcasting plan should outline strategies and tactics, which include format, frequency, duration, host/s, point of view, guests, research, syndication, and marketing. podcast directories) pick up and syndicate your podcasts for free via RSS feeds. Take some time to comparison shop.

Syndicate 85

Syndicate Syndication Hosting Audio 85

K9 Ventures

APRIL 27, 2011

I helped introduce the company to various angels and lead the effort to form a syndicate for their fund-raising round. Modista had only had modest revenue to date (~5K) and had by no means gotten to the point where it was having an impact on the revenues of Like.com. The Valley thrives on innovation and creativity.

Software Review 134

Software Review Technical Review IP Finance 134

This is going to be BIG.

MARCH 3, 2014

Are they making real revenue? Will the entrepreneur count that investor among their most helpful? Would the entrepreneur enthusiastically include them in the syndicate of their next venture? At what valuation? Are the exit prospects for the company any good? Did they lead it? There''s really no substitute for research.

Syndicate 124

Syndicate Syndication Venture Capital Valuation 124

View from Seed

JUNE 16, 2015

I was recently asked to sit on panel with my fellow VC peers and some top entrepreneurs from the Boston tech community. Generally, my advice to entrepreneurs is to avoid these situations. For ecommerce: >$500K revenue/month. These are all worth asking … and therefore worth answering. . For SaaS: At least $100K in MRR.

Boston 120

Boston Syndicate Syndication eCommerce 120

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 24, 2015

In this age of relationships, you, the entrepreneur, are a very important element of your new brand, and it’s never too early to start marketing the value of your expertise, insights and ideas. Every entrepreneur should count on at least a couple of adjustments or pivots before they get it right.

Startup 120

Startup Social Media Syndicate Syndication 120

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 5, 2015

I challenge any entrepreneur, for example, to define the difference between "seed-stage" and "early-stage" financing. Asking for early-stage money before you have customers and revenue will likely kill your credibility with real investors. Most investors won’t touch a first-time entrepreneur at this stage.

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage Finance Early Stage Startup 120

Agile VC

MAY 26, 2011

I also joke with Reid Hoffman that this was back in the days before he was “Reid” Reid’s an incredible entrepreneur, startup investor, and human being. Im a former Silicon Valley entrepreneur turned East Coast VC. It’ll be nearly two years before the concept of “Web 2.0″ link] leehower.

Term Sheet 178

Term Sheet Silicon Valley Technical Review Social Network 178

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 16, 2015

Most entrepreneurs have found by now one or more of the many popular crowdfunding sites , and have the name and contact information for at least one of the big venture capital firms. Each has met legal securities minimums for net worth and professionalism, to reduce the risk to entrepreneurs. Most share expertise as well as money.

Angel Investor 120

Angel Investor Accredited Investor Venture Capital Startup 120

Hearpreneur

JUNE 12, 2019

We asked entrepreneurs and business owners their inspirational leaders and here’s what they had to say; #1-Joel Gascoigne. Joel has build Buffer from a small side-project into a successful international business with more than 80 staff and over $19m in annual revenue, pretty inspirational! Photo Credit: Matt Benn.

Entrepreneur 85

Entrepreneur Cofounder Los Angeles Leadership 85

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 3, 2010

There are many additional variables that the inexperienced marketer may not even think to consider: competition and positioning strategies, budgeting, match types, search and content syndication, and ad copy testing, as well developing the best ad wording and layouts. Tags: entrepreneurs startups. Tracking and performance reporting.

Search 225

Search Engineer SEM Widget 225

Gust

OCTOBER 12, 2011

During the summer of 2010, I developed a workshop, A New ACEF Valuation Workshop for Angels and Entrepreneurs. To provide some reference points, I surveyed thirteen angels groups in North American to determine their recent experience in negotiating the pre-money valuation of pre-revenue companies. 2011 Angel Group Valuation Survey.

Angel Groups 125

Angel Groups Valuation Pre-Money Valuation St. Louis 125

ReadWriteStart

APRIL 13, 2012

What entrepreneur hasn't dreamed that our startup will experience the same magical beginnings as Google ? Will you be generating enough revenues to keep growing? • Angel investors want to know the true size of the market, revenue potential, barriers to entry and competitive landscape. How realistic are your projections?

Angel Investor 128

Angel Investor Syndicate Syndication Exit Strategy 128

Entrepreneurs-Journey.com by Yaro Starak

MAY 5, 2011

I want to discuss what I have learned being a 29 year old entrepreneur and what is necessary for the aspiring business owner to become familiarized with. How I Started As An Entrepreneur I didn’t grow up and sit through my college classes thinking that if I didn’t open a business, I’d be cheating myself. Being successful is stressful.

New York City 85

New York City Entrepreneur New York Syndicate 85

Growthink Blog

JULY 12, 2012

Also, many times the press releases you submit on PRWeb get automatically syndicated (meaning posted along with links to your website) on other sites like Yahoo News and the websites of major newspapers. This syndication gets your release read by many more reporters and/or prospective customers. read more.

Syndicate 101

Syndicate Syndication Distribution Warrant 101

crowdSPRING Blog

AUGUST 6, 2018

Try using an RSS (Really Simple Syndication) tool to stay in touch with important thought leaders speaking to your audience. Check out some of these: Entrepreneur , Forbes , Virgin – Entrepreneur , Small Business Trends , Feedly , Google Small Business Blog , and. Duct Tape Marketing. Just ask Amazon.

Mobile 48

Mobile Design Technical Review RSS 48

Agile VC

AUGUST 22, 2011

I have the great privilege of meeting lots of entrepreneurs every day and hearing about the startups they’re building. Even Amazon isn’t a platform… yes they have AWS but it accounts for <3% of their revenue and isn’t terribly profitable given the capex & opex currently going into growing it. Not Groupon.

Silicon Valley 113

Silicon Valley Seed Stage Startup Syndicate 113

David Teten

SEPTEMBER 23, 2017

Chris Dixon, Partner, A16Z, observes , “ Success in VC is probably 10% about picking, and 90% about sourcing the right deals and having entrepreneurs choose your firm as a partner”. Signal is a fundraising tool for founders run by NFX Guild, which identifies the most relevant VCs for you. . 3) Originate investments.

Private Equity 60

Private Equity Venture Capital Equity Technical Review 60

Agile VC

JANUARY 12, 2012

Even the best entrepreneurs often hear “no” from potential investors. As a result, we frequently spend time with entrepreneurs before they’ve started fundraising or while they’re still contemplating various pathways for funding their businesses. Im a former Silicon Valley entrepreneur turned East Coast VC.

Seed Stage 100

Seed Stage Silicon Valley Syndicate Syndication 100

Agile VC

FEBRUARY 7, 2012

A company that in time can generate $100M+ in revenue and have an enterprise value measured in the hundreds of millions or more (what some VCs refer to as a “venture scale” outcome). Im a former Silicon Valley entrepreneur turned East Coast VC. Simply put… startups that have golazo potential. Read More ».

South Korea 124

South Korea Seed Stage Silicon Valley Syndicate 124