Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 6, 2019

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.

Finance 320

Finance Intellectual Property Technical Review Incubator 320

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 8, 2013

Thus you should do the same or more due diligence on educational background, previous work, and references. No historical baggage. Partner decisions are more important than hiring decisions. Look impartially from all angles and do the follow-up.

Partner 258

Partner Software Review CTO Hire Equity 258

The Startup Magazine

JUNE 26, 2023

Maybe getting some references,” Walters says. We’ve had mixed bags with hiring people that were somewhat related to us, friends or family,” Walters adds. “When we started our company, we had an equity partner that was going to be our money. The equity partner] ended up going bankrupt. “We

Cofounder 138

Cofounder Developer United States Founder 138

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 11, 2020

Taking on equity investors to fund your company is much like getting married – it is a long-term relationship that has to work at all levels. Another approach is to ask the investor for references, where their involvement has made a real difference, leading to success. Personally visit another startup funded by this investor.

Technical Review 310

Technical Review Due Diligence Term Sheet Offshore 310

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 30, 2019

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. Use crowd funding.

Intellectual Property 219

Intellectual Property Technical Review Startup Incubator 219

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 14, 2014

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. Use crowd funding.

Entrepreneur 283

Entrepreneur Intellectual Property Technical Review Incubator 283

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 1, 2017

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. Use crowd funding.

Product Development 177

Product Development Cost Developer Product 177

The Startup Magazine

AUGUST 11, 2023

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. Seed venture capital firms can make more significant follow-on investments to keep or increase their equity stake in the company. How does the funding for the seed stage work?

Seed Stage 132

Seed Stage Technical Review Early Stage Due Diligence 132

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 19, 2013

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. Use crowd funding.

Intellectual Property 309

Intellectual Property Technical Review Venture Capital Startup 309

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

The Startup Magazine

AUGUST 28, 2020

Define your company’s brand through philosophy, capabilities, goals, and equity, then see how your consumer and brand relate to pinpoint the company’s overall purpose. Have a Reference . Before running wild with consumer relationships, accredit your business by maintaining an updated reference resource such as a website.

Small Business 130

Small Business Developer Management Marketing 130

Startup Company Lawyer

AUGUST 31, 2012

Quick answer: convertible equity (or a convertible security) is convertible debt without the repayment feature at maturity or interest. ” In response, Seth Levine wrote a very thoughtful post on convertible debt versus equity. Fred Wilson has been openly critical of convertible debt , and prefers priced equity rounds.

Convertible Security 73

Convertible Security Equity Security Preferred Stock 73

genylabs.typepad.com

SEPTEMBER 24, 2011

When we reference organizations that have provided us funding in the last year we will note it. Working for Equity Instead of Cash. has an article on service firms waiving their fees and instead taking equity in their clients. At the same time I had equity in a company that was in horrible shape with no hope of survival.

Equity 40

Equity Technical Review San Jose Stock 40

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 10, 2014

Taking on equity investors to fund your company is much like getting married – it is a long-term relationship that has to work at all levels. Another approach is to ask the investor for references, where their involvement has made a real difference, leading to success. Personally visit another startup funded by this investor.

Technical Review 257

Technical Review Due Diligence Term Sheet Offshore 257

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 16, 2016

This term refers to an initial venture-capital investment, often wrongly sought to seed early product development. These terms refer to a class of professional investors who invest their own money, like angels, but have the larger resources and scope of venture capitalists with other people’s money. Sweat equity.

Software Review 120

Software Review Sweat Equity Accredited Investor Angel Investor 120

YoungUpstarts

MAY 9, 2019

by Adam Coffey, author of “ The Private Equity Playbook ” . You speak to trusted friends and personal advisors about how you should go about doing this (perhaps your lawyer or accountant), and before you know it, you stumble upon an important player in the private equity game: the investment banker.

Private Equity 104

Private Equity Equity Investment Bankers Government 104

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 8, 2015

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.

Entrepreneur 120

Entrepreneur Intellectual Property Technical Review Incubator 120

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 7, 2018

through Grants.gov , an online directory of more than 1,000 federal grant programs that don’t look for equity or payback. Acquiring seed-stage funding is admittedly tough, but a source that I find often overlooked is government grant funding, accessible in the U.S.

Early Stage 225

Early Stage SBIR Technical Review Seed Stage 225

The Startup Magazine

JANUARY 24, 2020

From finding a qualified pool of applicants to interviewing, verifying references, and filing the hiring paperwork, just managing and recruiting employees is a full time job. Giving up too much investor equity. Hiring is one of the most challenging parts of running a business, no matter how large or small your operation is.

Software Review 146

Software Review Startup Technical Review Hiring 146

Up and Running

SEPTEMBER 9, 2014

Assets = Liabilities + Equity. As Investopedia defines it, “a company has to pay for all the things it has (assets) by either borrowing money (liabilities) or getting it from shareholders (shareholders’ equity).”. This can also be referred to on a balance sheet as a line item called current liabilities or short-term loans.

Balance Sheet 115

Balance Sheet Equity .Net Business Plan 115

ConversionXL

JANUARY 18, 2022

Brand marketing is concerned with objectives such as: Brand tracking , identity, and recognition; Improving brand awareness ; Building brand equity ; Understanding and influencing consumer perceptions about the brand. Market positioning refers to your brand or product’s ability to influence buyer perception relative to your competitors.

Marketing 110

Marketing Product Audience Equity 110

View from Seed

AUGUST 6, 2015

When someone goes to work for an early startup, the compensation package general includes an annual salary, health insurance, and, instead of fixed-cost performance upside, a percentage of unvested options to purchase equity in the company. It falls on the hiring company to thoroughly explain equity options to their new employees.

Equity 120

Equity Employee Cap Table Stock Options 120

View from Seed

AUGUST 6, 2015

When someone goes to work for an early startup, the compensation package general includes an annual salary, health insurance, and, instead of fixed-cost performance upside, a percentage of unvested options to purchase equity in the company. It falls on the hiring company to thoroughly explain equity options to their new employees.

Equity 120

Equity Employee Cap Table Stock Options 120

The Startup Magazine

APRIL 22, 2019

Bootstrapping your startup often means you scrape together your cash, and often tapping your home equity value. It’s the location, height, view, lights and various other factors that go in to determine the home equity value of any private place. Photo by Jacky Chiu on Unsplash. Height of the floors.

Equity 90

Equity New York City New York Startup 90

SoCal CTO

APRIL 27, 2011

Several people have recently come to me to help them source and/or hire full-time CTOs for their startup having found me through my post that looks at: Startup CTO Salary and Equity Data. Make sure you do reference checks. Most often I ignore the list of references they provide. They are bright, eager, a good fit.

CTO Hire 282

CTO Hire Los Angeles Hiring Technical Review 282

VC Cafe

SEPTEMBER 10, 2021

These new social, virtual experiences, are often referred to as the “Metaverse” and is quickly becoming the trendiest buzzword of the year. Toya represents a new type of digital ,branded, social experiences that are already creating brand equity. Don’t believe me?

Technical Review 178

Technical Review South Korea Due Diligence IP 178

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 17, 2015

Make sure everyone accurately posts their role with your startup on social media profiles, resumes, and references. Visit reference customers, partners, and vendors. For reference, here is a quick summary of key elements which most investors include in their due diligence process: Key personnel review.

Technical Review 120

Technical Review Due Diligence Startup Term Sheet 120

Feld Thoughts

MARCH 30, 2017

I’m on the receiving end of a lot of reference calls. Over time, I’ve developed an approach to doing reference checks, and they actively avoid asking any of the following questions. My answer to the last question is “Do you ever get tired of doing reference checks this way?”

Hiring 70

Hiring Private Equity Term Sheet Equity 70

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 5, 2023

Sometimes these will ask for 5%-15% of your equity for their support services. Once you have some traction, you can approach venture capital organizations , with funding amounts of $1-10 million for the real rollout, often referred to as the “A-round,” or first institutional funding.

Incubator 305

Incubator Startup Exit Strategy Institutional Investors 305

www.mattbartus.com

SEPTEMBER 24, 2011

Client references. Equity for Consultants – Keep it Simple! posted Feb 3 in Equity , People issues. for every hour works, consultant accrues [hourly wage]in debt that will convert to equity in the next round). Is it atypical for founders to vest more than 25% of their equity after one year? Blog blog archive.

Equity 40

Equity Vesting Silicon Valley Intellectual Property 40

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 22, 2020

Loans are a safer option than equity. Offering debt is better than offering direct equity, especially in early stages when you have no valuation for setting equity percentages. These realities are part of the reason that this first tier of very early investors are often referred to as “friends, family, and fools.”

Management 308

Management Cram Down Angel Investor Equity 308

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 27, 2016

Taking on equity investors to fund your company is much like getting married – it is a long-term relationship that has to work at all levels. Another approach is to ask the investor for references, where their involvement has made a real difference, leading to success. Personally visit another startup funded by this investor.

Technical Review 120

Technical Review Due Diligence Term Sheet Offshore 120

SoCal CTO

APRIL 27, 2011

Several people have recently come to me to help them source and/or hire full-time CTOs for their startup having found me through my post that looks at: Startup CTO Salary and Equity Data. Make sure you do reference checks. Most often I ignore the list of references they provide. They are bright, eager, a good fit.

CTO Hire 225

CTO Hire Los Angeles Hiring Technical Review 225

The Startup Magazine

JUNE 14, 2019

Ensure that the amount you have given or invested in your business is clearly recorded in your accounting books too for future reference. You, consequently, need to ensure that the money you have put into your trading pursuit is recorded either as a loan to the startup or as equity. 4. Plan ahead. What’s the difference?

Balance Sheet 132

Balance Sheet Limited Liability Company Bootstrapping Startup 132

The Startup Magazine

MAY 19, 2020

A stock, which can also be referred to as a share or equity, is a proof of ownership of a fraction or part of a business entity. Stockbroking is the process of buying and selling financial securities like shares, stocks, and bonds via the stock market through a dealer who is generally referred to as a stockbroker.

Stock 90

Stock Securities and Exchange Commission United Kingdom Technical Review 90

This is going to be BIG.

JANUARY 18, 2024

I’m talking about what someone I know recently referred to as “dentists”. On the other hand, they could be the opposite—much more focused on near-term cash distributions than long-term equity appreciation. I’m not talking about active angels. These are people that didn’t make their money through a tech startup or startup investing.

.Net 88

.Net Cap Table Startup Technical Review 88

Gust

OCTOBER 15, 2012

An impromptu Twitter debate arose among Fred Wilson, Dave McClure, Mark Suster, Chris Dixon and others about convertible debt, priced equity rounds, and the nuances of early stage financing. I’ve done that here and expanded it with some additional references, background info and light commentary.

Equity 140

Equity Early Stage Finance Due Diligence 140