Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 24, 2011

The hot term these days is “viral marketing”, meaning we won’t do any marketing, but our product is so great that everyone will know about us anyway by word of mouth and through Internet social networks. Investors expect the founder and other principals to have “skin in the game,” over and above “sweat equity.”

Sweat Equity 246

Sweat Equity Intellectual Property Viral Social Network 246

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 23, 2010

The corporate entity lends itself best to the concept of “sharing” equity required by investors, and unincorporated entities don’t get funding. Reserve the company name on social networks to protect it. Define some intellectual property. File a patent and trademarks to show real intellectual property.

Angel Investor 224

Angel Investor Intellectual Property Technical Review Elevator Pitch 224

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 22, 2010

Register some intellectual property. Intellectual property is a large element of most early-stage company valuations, and this value determines what percent of the company an investor will expect to get for his money. Without revenue, your investors are largely limited to friends, family and fools.

Intellectual Property 222

Intellectual Property Sweat Equity CTO Hire Fractional CTO 222

Gust

DECEMBER 1, 2011

Notice what is missing from this list of priorities: The company itself – that is, a business entity, most often a corporation , that will own the entire business (however defined), issue equity to founders, take investment capital , enter into contracts, make sales, pay employees and contractors, and so forth.

IP 114

IP Intellectual Property Equity Liquidity Event 114

Steve Blank

APRIL 14, 2013

For the last 10 years China essentially closed its search, media and social network software market to foreign companies with the result that Google, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Dropbox, and 30,000 other websites were not accessible from China. Intellectual property protection is great on paper and “limited” in practice.

China 323

China Silicon Valley Non-Compete Intellectual Property 323

David Teten

DECEMBER 3, 2019

Private equity and venture capital investors are copying our sisters in the hedge fund world: we’re trying to automate more of our job. . In the private equity universe, most Partners have primary training as deal-makers, not as managers. – angel investor networks ( AngelList , FundersClub , OurCrowd , Republic *, SeedInvest ).

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Software Review Analytics Private Equity 78

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 24, 2010

The hot term these days is “viral marketing”, meaning we won’t do any marketing, but our product is so great that everyone will know about us anyway by word of mouth and through Internet social networks. Investors expect the founder and other principals to have “skin in the game,” over and above “sweat equity.”

Sweat Equity 130

Sweat Equity Intellectual Property Startup Viral 130

Steve Blank

APRIL 14, 2013

For the last 10 years China essentially closed its search, media and social network software market to foreign companies with the result that Google, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Dropbox, and 30,000 other websites were not accessible from China. Intellectual property protection is great on paper and “limited” in practice.

China 215

China Silicon Valley Non-Compete Intellectual Property 215

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 24, 2012

The corporate entity lends itself best to the concept of “sharing” equity required by investors, and unincorporated entities don’t get funding. Reserve the company name on social networks to protect it. Define some intellectual property. File a patent and trademarks to show real intellectual property.

Angel Investor 260

Angel Investor Intellectual Property Elevator Pitch Angel Groups 260

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 18, 2013

Those at the other extreme don’t look up from the grindstone long enough to notice whether all their work is producing sweat equity or just sweat. Of course, never forget those ongoing perspiration items that seem to haunt you every day: Create intellectual property. Starting a business may be fun, but it’s not easy.

Sweat Equity 251

Sweat Equity Intellectual Property Startup Viral 251

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 29, 2012

Those at the other extreme don’t look up from the grindstone long enough to notice whether all their work is producing sweat equity or just sweat. Of course, never forget those ongoing perspiration items that seem to haunt you every day: Create intellectual property. Starting a business may be fun, but it’s not easy.

Sweat Equity 256

Sweat Equity Intellectual Property Entrepreneur Viral 256

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 22, 2012

Barter services and use equity to get things done for minimum cash. Create intellectual property. Reserve the same names on the leading social networks and blogs. Make every effort to do things “in house”, rather than rely on outside services, accountants, and law firms.

Intellectual Property 247

Intellectual Property Entrepreneur Social Network Naming 247

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 12, 2013

Barter services and use equity to get things done for minimum cash. Create intellectual property. Reserve the same names on the leading social networks and blogs. Make every effort to do things “in house”, rather than rely on outside services, accountants, and law firms.

Intellectual Property 257

Intellectual Property Startup Social Network Naming 257

venturebeat.com

JULY 12, 2012

Social media. Social networking. Social games. Dylan’s Desk: New security threats target intellectual property, infrastructure. The Bing Fund will invest $50,000-$100,000 in early-stage startups, through standard convertible notes (loans that convert to equity at Microsoft’s option).

Detroit 69

Detroit Incubator Technical Review Venture Capital 69

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 17, 2011

Barter services and use equity to get things done for minimum cash. Create intellectual property. Reserve the same names on the leading social networks and blogs. Make every effort to do things “in house”, rather than rely on outside services, accountants, and law firms.

Intellectual Property 251

Intellectual Property Startup Social Network Naming 251

Gust

DECEMBER 16, 2012

The corporate entity lends itself best to the concept of “sharing” equity required by investors, and unincorporated entities don’t get funding. Reserve the company name on social networks to protect it. Define some intellectual property. File a patent and trademarks to show real intellectual property.

Angel Investor 179

Angel Investor Intellectual Property Elevator Pitch Angel Groups 179

www.vccafe.com

MARCH 11, 2013

Social networking. Social/Sharing. Create your own social network. free enterprise social network. YCombinator Series AA Equity Financing Documents. Founder Equity Issues. Venture Hacks equity section. Legal, Equity, etc. Intellectual Property Law For Startups Blog.

Software Review 53

Software Review Technical Review Startup 53

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 12, 2010

Those at the other extreme don’t look up from the grindstone long enough to notice whether all their work is producing sweat equity or just sweat. Of course, never forget those ongoing perspiration items that seem to haunt you every day: Create intellectual property. Starting a business may be fun, but it’s not easy.

Sweat Equity 222

Sweat Equity Intellectual Property Viral Salary 222

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 29, 2010

Barter services and use equity to get things done for minimum cash. Create intellectual property. Reserve the same names on the leading social networks and blogs. Make every effort to do things “in house”, rather than rely on outside services, accountants, and law firms.

Intellectual Property 230

Intellectual Property Startup Social Network Naming 230

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 13, 2012

Do describe your intellectual property and “secret sauce”. Many people seem to use the social network advertising model for revenue, but forget it assumes at least 100M users and $50M investment. Quantify existing skin-in-the-game, by insiders and outsiders, including sweat equity and capital.

Business Plan 283

Business Plan Sweat Equity Exit Strategy Intellectual Property 283

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 13, 2011

Do describe your intellectual property and “secret sauce”. Many people seem to use the social network advertising model for revenue, but forget it assumes at least 100M users and $50M investment. Quantify existing skin-in-the-game, by insiders and outsiders, including sweat equity and capital.

Business Plan 290

Business Plan Sweat Equity Exit Strategy Intellectual Property 290

rapidrollout.wordpress.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

How can I go about looking for a (very) good programmer willing to do this as sweat equity? You can find a technologist to join you as a partner, for half of the company’s equity. It’s common for a college student to do a sweat equity partnership with another college student. So you see my dilemma.

Technical Review 40

Technical Review Fractional CTO Partner CTO Hire 40

VC Cafe

NOVEMBER 3, 2010

The company, which originally focused on the development of VoIP solutions for mobile telephones, develops software to aggregate social network input into a single cellular application without taxing the phone’s battery. ERNST & YOUNG SEES RISE IN ISRAELI ACQUISITIONS FOR 2010. LONELY PLANET RANKS TEL AVIV 3RD HOTTEST CITY.

Bandwidth 79

Bandwidth Framework Forecast 79

rapidrollout.wordpress.com

JANUARY 15, 2011

And finally, you may be able to avoid diluting your equity. Preserve your equity by using a consulting CTO to ramp up your company before securing early-stage financing and hiring a permanent technology partner. Increasingly, people who were only available as full-time, equity-position founders or [.]

Fractional CTO 40

Fractional CTO CTO CTO Hire Fractional VPE 40

steveblank.com

JULY 8, 2011

Google Apps – Email, Chat, Docs Skype - free voice and video communication tool Campfire – team collaboration Slideshare – share Powerpoints and docs with customers Ning – Create your own social network Yammer – free enterprise social network Doodle – online group scheduling Freeconferencecall.com – Free conference (..)

Software Review 110

Software Review Startup Silicon Valley Analytics 110

Gust

AUGUST 5, 2012

Do describe your intellectual property and “secret sauce”. Many people seem to use the social network advertising model for revenue, but forget it assumes at least 100M users and $50M investment. Quantify existing skin-in-the-game, by insiders and outsiders, including sweat equity and capital.

Business Plan 182

Business Plan Sweat Equity Exit Strategy Intellectual Property 182

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 22, 2010

Do describe your intellectual property and “secret sauce”. Many people seem to use the social network advertising model for revenue, but forget it requires at least 100M users and $50M investment. Quantify existing skin-in-the-game, by insiders and outsiders, including sweat equity and capital.

Business Plan 186

Business Plan Exit Strategy Sweat Equity Intellectual Property 186

techcrunch.com

FEBRUARY 19, 2010

Researchers polled experts in lending, mezzanine capital, private equity, venture capital and private businesses themselves. First it makes it prohibitively risky to develop software intellectual property as a means to build equity — because your competitor could just give it away! Printed from: [.] Share and [.]

Venture Capital 62

Venture Capital Technical Review Sweat Equity Valuation 62