Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 26, 2022

For an inventor , the product is everything, and managing cash flow in a business may be the least satisfying part. Working for a well-funded existing company, or pursuing your dream as a hobby, may be more satisfying and productive. Temper your passion with feedback on a minimum viable product before committing.

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Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 3, 2014

I was driving home from the BIO conference in San Diego last month and had lots of time for a phone call with Dave, an ex student and now a founder who wanted to update me on his Customer Discovery progress. But I’m having a hard time getting to my next minimal viable product. This was a great call. Dave was doing everything right.

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Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 4, 2014

Two heads are better than one, so the first task in many startups is finding a co-founder or two. Giving a co-founder a salary won’t get you the “fire in the belly” you want. The next default of waiting until later is equally bad, since partners who bow out early will still expect an equal share of that first billion you make later.

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The Startup Magazine

JANUARY 4, 2023

Today we present Olga Camargo as part of The Startup Magazine’s Female Founder Interview series. Olga has a great story as CEO and Founder of SHENIX , a Chicago-based fintech app company focused on financial education and advisory services for Latinas. Instead, he solely pitched his product to me, a 14-year-old high school student.

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Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 16, 2014

How do you figure out what’s the right mix of skills for the co-founders of your startup? “After reading your post on Why Founders Should Know How to Code it looks like web/mobile startups have it easy. Trying to figure out what the right set of co-founders isn’t so clear. Are We Missing A Founder?

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Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 9, 2020

I always tell entrepreneurs that two heads are better than one, so the first task in many startups is finding a co-founder or two. Giving a co-founder a salary won’t get you the “fire in the belly” you want. Each co-founder should get equity for value, based on these key variables: Lived a key role in a previous startup.

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Steve Blank

JANUARY 17, 2023

Three types of organizations – Incubators, Accelerators and Venture Studios – have emerged to reduce the risk of early-stage startup failure by helping teams find product/market fit and raise initial capital. He had a track record of taking small teams and growing them into successful product lines.

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Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 4, 2014

I think as a tech industry we have bred a culture that places more emphasis on product excellence than managing human behavior. Of course it makes no sense to have great people management and a crappy product. ” Of course we all go into businesses expecting to be aligned with our co-founders but over time life changes.

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Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 15, 2014

Much has been written about when it is time to hire a “professional CEO” to run a startup company and of course that has long been a norm in Silicon Valley when founders find that their inexperience may be a limiting factor in company growth ( know as the Peter Principle ). I like technical founders so this wasn’t an issue.

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TechEmpower

JULY 31, 2023

When talking to startup founders or other innovators, we always ask questions to better understand their business as a core. Start by building just enough of your product to get early CAC and CLV signals (they won’t be perfect). Finally, review the numbers with your partners. What does the business do?

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Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 16, 2023

But for founders who do their homework, the cost of entry is lower and the opportunity is higher than ever. Excellent detailed resources are everywhere, including a classic book, “ The Startup Checklist ,” by serial entrepreneur and founder of the New York Angels, David S. Building a minimum viable product, with customer validation.

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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. One of the advisory areas Hillcrest Merchant Partners works in is electric metals.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 1, 2013

Product development is stuck at that 90% mark, a key person leaves, and customers are talking but not buying. I challenge any startup to show me they have avoided all of these: One of the founders isn’t delivering. Besides, he is now more interested in designing the next product. The product is behind schedule.

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Women Entrepreneurs Can

JUNE 3, 2021

Business success requires a range of skills and talents and it often makes sense to have a business partner rather than going solo. Iconic companies that have achieved phenomenal success include Microsoft, Apple, Google and Intel — every one of these companies had a couple of founders. Integrity & Trustworthiness.

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Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 10, 2022

In my experience, some of the best businesses have multiple partners, with complementary strengths. For example, I’m an introverted product guy who doesn’t care so much about building the personnel relationships needed to keep a motivated team. No matter how strong your passion, a business requires results to succeed.

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Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 15, 2021

Startup founders are known for their passion for their startup idea, and for their passion to kill every competitor. As small companies, neither startup could afford to extend their product alone, but through creative leadership, we were able to negotiate a win-win strategic partnership for a joint product. You can do the same.

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View from Seed

MAY 11, 2016

Investors love the idea of backing second-time founders, especially if they have had success in their last company. etc… In addition, first-time founders I speak to often talk about how much they have learned and how they resolve to do things differently and better the next time. Is there a sophomore slump to avoid?

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Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 26, 2021

As an entrepreneur mentor, my mission is to foster the attributes in you as a startup founder that I believe will lead to success. Idea people must surround themselves with people who build momentum and get things done, including production, marketing, finance, and sales. You set goals and targets, and build a plan from these.

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Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 14, 2022

For startups, the entrepreneur and founder is almost always the face of the company. Investors, partners, team members, and customers implicitly value or devalue a startup based on the leader’s physical presence, emotional identity, social skills, intellectual agility, moral values, and past performance in the domain.

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View from Seed

APRIL 6, 2021

You have 4-6 years of professional experience as a technology operator, founder, or investor in New York. You have unbounded curiosity for emerging trends, a love for experimentation, and you’re always eager to dive into new products and technologies before others do. You act as an “ invited guest.”. You are hungry. About NextView.

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YoungUpstarts

SEPTEMBER 3, 2013

by Kenneth Coats, founder of eKnowID. If you don’t perform a background check on your potential partner before doing business with him, you’re setting yourself up to get duped. Just like launching a new product, hiring a partner requires protecting your business against potential risk and failure. Leveraging Your Risks.

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Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 28, 2020

But for founders who do their homework, the cost of entry is lower and the opportunity is higher than ever. Excellent detailed resources are everywhere, including a classic book, “ The Startup Checklist ,” by serial entrepreneur and founder of the New York Angels, David S. Building a minimum viable product, with customer validation.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 20, 2015

As an advisor to startups, I often get asked what to look for in an ideal co-founder or business partner. After some reflection, I now realize these attributes are necessary but not sufficient to be an ideal business partner. This means every entrepreneur needs partners who are smarter than they are in complementary domains.

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Up and Running

MAY 15, 2014

When I was going through the co-founder “dating” process, I’d found a potential partner through my network who seemed to be perfect. 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.

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Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 1, 2023

The next default of waiting until later is equally bad, since partners who bow out early will still expect an equal share of that first billion you make later. Value factors include your related product breadth and depth, relationships with thought leaders, key vendors, and large potential customers. Now comes the reality check.

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ConversionXL

JANUARY 18, 2022

To succeed in today’s crowded market, you need to harmonize product marketing and brand marketing. In this article, you’ll learn the difference between brand marketing and product marketing, and how to balance both to stand out above the crowd. Brand vs product marketing: Friends or foe? They rely on each other for success.

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Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 22, 2020

Every startup founder loves to prompt for questions from investors and potential key team members about their vision, and the huge opportunity that can be had with their disruptive technology. Most founders like to talk about their many months or years of sweat-equity , but cash invested is a stronger commitment.

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Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 21, 2021

For entrepreneurs, effective networking is required to find investors, partners, and customers. Serious investors expect founders to have their homework done before the first interaction – documented executive summary, business plan, and financial model. Product development. Investor negotiations. Time management.

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View from Seed

OCTOBER 11, 2022

The first is that we are welcoming Stephanie Palmeri as the newest Partner at the firm. Through all of this, what has been obvious is her hunger to serve founders and desire to work with entrepreneurs to bring about the kind of world changing impact we seek to be a part of at NextView.

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Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 6, 2023

The Founder needs to remember that meetings up to this point have been primarily off-site, with staged demos, and managed personally by the CEO or a small team. Visit reference customers, partners, and vendors. Here investors are looking for feature problems or quality issues on the current product. Status of the solution.

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Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 4, 2022

He gives a wealth of practical advice on building a successful technical startup, including some specifics that I like on what constitutes a dream team of partners: The technical guru. You need to have a technical genius on the team to get your startup product off the ground. Outsourcing your core competency does not work.

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Duct Tape Marketing

JUNE 1, 2023

Strategies For Successful Product Launches written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing Marketing Podcast with Mary Sheehan In this episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast , I interview Mary Sheehan. She is an accomplished product marketing leader who has held marketing leadership roles at Adobe, Google, and many startups.

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Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 18, 2023

Every startup founder loves to prompt for questions from investors and potential key team members about their vision, and the huge opportunity that can be had with their disruptive technology. Most founders like to talk about their many months or years of sweat-equity , but cash invested is a stronger commitment.

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This is going to be BIG.

OCTOBER 10, 2010

Every business person with a dollar and a dream these days thinks they’re a technical co-founder away from interweb stardom. A CTO will also want to ensure that the businesspeople on their team will understand important product and technical decisions. This is where product and design leads come into play. It just works.

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Up and Running

NOVEMBER 27, 2013

Adi Bittan, co-founder of a startup that failed due to a bad partnership. With her business savvy and the scientific minds of her three other partners, the team planned to take Wall Street by storm. “We were excited about the product and thought we had a real winner, but I slowly started to see some red flags.”

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Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 8, 2022

Most entrepreneurs struggle with many startup founders quandaries in building their business, and these key dilemmas are probably the biggest source of pain and failure for the entrepreneur lifestyle. Should you start a company solo or find co-founders to help you? The co-founder relationship dilemma.

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Feld Thoughts

JANUARY 21, 2016

Fortunately, I’ve got amazing partners. But in 100% of the cases, we all know what is going on, have relationships with the founders and CEO, and can quickly engage and help wherever and whenever we bring something to the mix. The post Load Balancing Between VC Partners appeared first on Feld Thoughts.

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