Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 19, 2020

Deferred payments start with stretching the payables period but, more importantly, include giving employee equity in lieu of a higher salaries and negotiating vendor deferred payments out of future revenues. That should equate to an adequate valuation for a $2 million follow-on Series-A round, without giving away all the equity.

Burn Rate 310

Burn Rate Hockey Stick Salary Angel Investor 310

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 13, 2015

Angel investors and venture capitalists are looking for startups with real products and a proven business model, ready to scale. Yet I still get too many business plans that clearly are looking for money to do research and development (R&D) on a new and unproven technology. Commercial product prototypes.

Product Development 120

Product Development Developer Product Angel Investor 120

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 29, 2018

Deferred payments start with stretching the payables period but, more importantly, include giving employee equity in lieu of a higher salaries and negotiating vendor deferred payments out of future revenues. That should equate to an adequate valuation for a $2 million follow-on Series-A round, without giving away all the equity.

Burn Rate 223

Burn Rate Hockey Stick Startup Salary 223

YoungUpstarts

OCTOBER 30, 2019

New product development is an essential part of the entrepreneurial landscape. For companies of all sizes, from big corporations to small businesses, new product development is crucial. New products help companies continue to grow, thrive and generate revenue. Why would a company want to introduce a new product?

Product Development 113

Product Development Developer Product Demand 113

The Startup Magazine

AUGUST 11, 2023

It is necessary to cover the early stages of product development, thorough market research, and other processes during the initial step. This could be a proportion of the company’s equity or investment; in other instances, it could be a portion of its later-stage profits. How does the funding for the seed stage work?

Seed Stage 126

Seed Stage Technical Review Early Stage Due Diligence 126

YoungUpstarts

JANUARY 10, 2020

sales to product development), the problems will continue to exist. In cases where customer feedback is provided to the development team, it is crucial that communication be a two-way street. Clients should be made aware of product improvements or new solutions that are in the works.

Customer 347

Customer Development Team Review Advisory Board Private Equity 347

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 12, 2018

The “valley of death” is a common term in the startup world, referring to the difficulty of covering the negative cash flow in the early stages of a startup, before their new product or service is bringing in revenue from real customers. Nevertheless, it’s an option that doesn’t cost you equity. Solicit funds from friends and family.

Intellectual Property 134

Intellectual Property Technical Review Startup Incubator 134

Feld Thoughts

OCTOBER 20, 2020

Instead, we are being intentional about how to support an increasing number of Black board members, founders, CEOs, teams, suppliers, and anti-racist products. Please join us for the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion Solutions (DEIS) Practicum. It is not a performative event. No hashtags here.

Equity 123

Equity Cofounder Venture Capital .Net 123

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 5, 2014

Deferred payments start with stretching the payables period but, more importantly, include giving employee equity in lieu of a higher salaries and negotiating vendor deferred payments out of future revenues. That should equate to an adequate valuation for a $2 million follow-on Series-A round, without giving away all the equity.

Burn Rate 262

Burn Rate Hockey Stick Entrepreneur Salary 262

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 2, 2023

Angel investors and venture capitalists are looking for startups with real products and a proven business model, ready to scale. Yet I still get too many business plans that clearly are looking for money to do research and development (R&D) on a new and unproven technology. Commercial product prototypes.

Angel Investor 256

Angel Investor Early Stage Incubator Government 256

Hippoland

AUGUST 17, 2016

A reader named Turner Dean recently asked me whether it’s better to raise seed money on convertible notes or straight-up equity. In contrast, if you do an equity round, you as the founder will often have to pay $20k-$50k in legal bills. Flexibility With an equity round, there’s a specific amount of money you are raising.

Equity 48

Equity Convertible Security Silicon Valley Technical Review 48

View from Seed

MARCH 24, 2021

At NextView Ventures we have written many pieces about venture capital — how to raise it, build your business, engage with investors, iterate your product, navigate expanding industries, etc. Rethinking the Standard Fundraising Deck “I’d make it crystal clear what your product actually does. VCs sure do love writing.

Seed Stage 177

Seed Stage Hiring IPO Analytics 177

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 18, 2021

Angel investors and venture capitalists are looking for startups with real products and a proven business model, ready to scale. Yet I still get too many business plans that clearly are looking for money to do research and development (R&D) on a new and unproven technology. Commercial product prototypes.

Early Stage 412

Early Stage Angel Investor Incubator Government 412

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 14, 2016

Deferred payments start with stretching the payables period but, more importantly, include giving employee equity in lieu of a higher salaries and negotiating vendor deferred payments out of future revenues. That should equate to an adequate valuation for a $2 million follow-on Series-A round, without giving away all the equity.

Burn Rate 120

Burn Rate Hockey Stick Startup Salary 120

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 6, 2013

But not anal if one founder who shares equity graciously with early employees who are treated as “co-founders” My idea startup team is heaving on tech personnel but also has strong product management. Without strong PMs you build crappy products that nobody needs or that real people can’t use.

Cofounder 388

Cofounder Early Stage Startup Silicon Valley 388

Up and Running

MARCH 24, 2021

So, what exactly is a market penetration strategy and how do you develop one? Market penetration is the amount that your business is able to sell a product or service to customers compared to the estimated total available market (TAM). By using your research to develop a market penetration strategy. Price adjustments.

Software Review 146

Software Review Marketing Campaign Forecast 146

David Teten

AUGUST 19, 2019

This structure offers some of the benefits of traditional equity VC, without some of the negatives of equity VC. I’ve been a traditional equity VC for 8 years, and I’m now researching new business models in venture capital. We have a special program if you are pre-seed and need product development.

Revenue 60

Revenue Technical Review Software Review Equity 60

blog.nahurst.com

JULY 19, 2010

This covers one of the most common situations I encounter: For a pre-funding web startup whose team includes only a non-technical cofounder, how much equity should an incoming technical cofounder get? This is an area that varies widely and can significantly impact how much equity a technical cofounder receives (if they take more salary).

Technical Cofounder 43

Technical Cofounder Cofounder Equity Salary 43

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 16, 2016

This term refers to an initial venture-capital investment, often wrongly sought to seed early product development. In fact, most often, it is limited to seeding a startup business rollout or scale-up after development is completed from friends and family. Sweat equity. Equity crowdfunding. Seed-round investment.

Software Review 120

Software Review Sweat Equity Accredited Investor Angel Investor 120

Feld Thoughts

NOVEMBER 18, 2013

Here’s the punchline: if you run your company as if you have closed a VC equity financing round even though you actually closed a convertible debt round, you’ll be in much better shape when it comes time to raise your Series A financing. So why would you treat your debt investors (somewhat) like equity investors?

Burn Rate 152

Burn Rate Equity Software Review Early Stage 152

YoungUpstarts

OCTOBER 24, 2012

Instead, buyers are checking out product and service information in their own way, often through the Internet, their social network, or just plain word-of-mouth or customer reviews. Nearly four in five CEOs complained that CMOs can’t explain how brand equity can be linked to recognized financial measures such as firm equity.

Marketing 234

Marketing Software Review Technical Review Social Network 234

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 30, 2022

Early-stage entrepreneurs rightly keep their focus on creating an innovative product or service. They need a large infusion from venture capitalists, private equity, bank loans, or mezzanine financing. Growth is more than simply repackaging existing products, and adding bells and whistles or slick incentives.

Mezzanine 368

Mezzanine Private Equity Bandwidth Metrics 368

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 21, 2021

Many entrepreneurs never get past their first-stage focus on their innovative product, to scaling the business globally, organizing a structure to handle thousands of employees, and concentrating their focus “on the business” rather than working “in the business.” Switch your focus from product development to sales.

Merger 379

Merger Due Diligence SEC IPO 379

David Teten

OCTOBER 1, 2015

Not surprisingly, the list above also is ranked from least to most equity stake in an investment for the investor, relative to the cash they invest. Design, development, and digital media shops, sometimes just a few years old, are doing bigger and bigger projects and come bearing cash flow and that scarcest resource, talent.

Software Developers 60

Software Developers Software Development Software Review Technical Cofounder 60

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 13, 2013

A grant is not an equity investment, so the entrepreneur doesn’t have to give up a stake in the company either. Typically they can be used to fund product development and commercialization that would otherwise require outside investors. For university professors, grants are their lifeblood, and they know the process well.

Government 230

Government Equity Cost SBIR 230

David Teten

OCTOBER 1, 2015

But, you need to build that first product right. On the other side of the equation, there are a growing number of design, development, and digital media shops who are hungry to expand, or swap focus, to building a company that’s more than just a service shop. Can a shop work for just equity? A blend of cash and equity?

Software Developers 60

Software Developers Software Development Software Developer 60

ConversionXL

OCTOBER 7, 2021

The classic lifespan of successful products is a story in four parts: Introduction Growth Maturity Decline. How this story plays out has a lot to do with the type of product and how it’s improved over time, if at all. In this article, we’ll look at the different stages of the product lifecycle through the lens of marketing.

Product 142

Product Marketing Software Review Social Media 142

Business Plan Blog

OCTOBER 4, 2013

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. Rather, give titles such as VP of Engineering, Product/Technology, Sales, Marketing, Finance, etc.

Part-Time VPE 79

Part-Time VPE Fractional VPE Cofounder CTO Hire 79

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 19, 2015

In fact, an entrepreneur friend of mine, who made millions on her marketing expertise, asserted recently that most inventors fail in business because they refuse to believe that any business expertise or experience is worth more than 5 percent in partner equity. Most founders bootstrap product development.

Technical Review 120

Technical Review Intellectual Property Cofounder Bootstrapping 120

Steve Blank

MARCH 16, 2016

But startups require money upfront for product development and later to scale. Risk capital takes equity (stock ownership) in your company instead of debt (loans) in exchange for cash. At its core Venture Capital is nothing more than a small portion of the Private Equity financial asset class.

Liquidity Event 120

Liquidity Event Founder Liquidation Preference Venture Capital 120

Up and Running

MAY 15, 2014

At the end of the month, we’d evaluate the partnership and discuss equity. Though my potential partner was performing well by the numbers, my own productivity was dwindling as I spent more and more time on managing our relationship. I wasn’t just going to boss around the product guy and make demands. I could hustle.

Partner 113

Partner Cofounder Equity Metrics 113

Software By Rob

NOVEMBER 16, 2009

This morning Seth Godin published a post titled Debt, equity and a third thing that might work better. That’s when you find one or more (future) customers that help fund your product development in exchange for input into the process and free or highly discounted use of the software. But who needs revenue?)

Equity 42

Equity Software Review RSS Widget 42

Business Plan Blog

AUGUST 20, 2013

This is generally achieved in one of the following ways: CTO Level Co-Founder (Equity). CTO Level Board Member or dedicated Adviser (Free or Equity). Web Development Firm hired to do “Conceptualization Phase” – This usually includes thorough wire-framing (Paid per project). Product Development Team.

CTO Hire 55

CTO Hire Fractional CTO Architecture Cofounder 55

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 27, 2013

In this period (less than 2 years) he has brought on incredibly talented senior execs is sales, marketing, product management, client services, finance, vp engineering and more. You may know how much to pay in cash or equity for your new VP Engineering. Growth like this, this early in a company’s lifecycle rarely happens.

Advisory Board 365

Advisory Board CTO Hire Fractional CTO Los Angeles 365

Hearpreneur

JANUARY 7, 2022

By establishing a company dedicated to inventive and speedy product development, I am able to use cutting-edge technologies and consistently innovate faster than competitors. 11- Enjoy software products. I started Pi Tech because I enjoy launching and iterating software products. Thanks to David Wurst, Webcitz ! #3-

Entrepreneur 114

Entrepreneur Technical Review Software Review Non-Compete 114

This is going to be BIG.

JULY 25, 2022

Typically, investors don’t take a board seat until you raise your first equity round—which means that it could be *years* before you have a real board meeting: A year of nights/weekends work researching, prototyping, and fundraising. You raise your pre-seed round and if you're lucky and good, you can get to an equity round in 12-18 months.

Equity 118

Equity Metrics Widget Bandwidth 118

Growthink Blog

MAY 10, 2012

When seeking equity investments, the source of capital is, for the most part, tied to the stage of capital being raised. You see, equity capital is raised in stages or rounds. Mezzanine Financing Most companies that raise equity capital and are eventually acquired or go public receive multiple rounds of financing first.

Equity 88

Equity Mezzanine Later Stage Venture Capital 88