Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 20, 2011

Add an advisory board or experienced mentor to reality-check your financial projections, timeframes, and milestones before you publish them. Too many startups simply follow the standard distribution channels, use standard pricing, and count on their one extra feature to give them the market. Marketing is done in fits and starts.

Advisory Board 232

Advisory Board Startup Forecast Early Stage 232

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 22, 2010

Build qualified advisory board. If you can convince a couple of domain experts, or a couple of experienced executives to join your board and be your advocate, that’s traction. It doesn’t prove your business model of pricing, distribution, and support. Investors love to have smart and experienced people in the boat.

Intellectual Property 222

Intellectual Property Sweat Equity CTO Hire Fractional CTO 222

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 7, 2015

This is not just a product pitch, but must include all elements of your pricing, marketing, distribution and maintenance. A small advisory board of outside people with experience in your domain can give you the unbiased feedback you need, as well as connections for setting up distribution and sales channels.

Business Model 120

Business Model Technical Review Advisory Board Software Review 120

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 16, 2009

Even startups that are dominated by technical risk have the customer validation risk of finding positive ROI distribution in a large market. Let’s not let startups use this as an escape hatch to avoid customer development. Almost all Web startups are dominated by market risk. ““What’s the “Market Type” of your startup?&#

Customer Development 228

Customer Development Web Developer Customer 228

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 12, 2010

Add an advisory board or experienced mentor to reality-check your financial projections, timeframes, and milestones before you publish them. Too many startups simply follow the standard distribution channels, use standard pricing, and count on their one extra feature to give them the market. Marketing is done in fits and starts.

Advisory Board 125

Advisory Board Startup Forecast Early Stage 125

SoCal CTO

OCTOBER 5, 2010

Advisory Board. APIs provide a way to “federate&# web services from a single website to a distributed network of 3rd party sites. You Negotiate Commodities, But You Seize Opportunities - Steve Blank , September 16, 2010 It took losing something important to understand the difference between a commodity and an opportunity.

Technology 191

Technology Product San Francisco CTO Hire 191

BeyondVC

JANUARY 3, 2019

We are purpose-built to not only invest pre-product but also to help accelerate your path to product-market fit with our decades of entrepreneurial and investing experience along with our active CXO advisory board. In startup board rooms all across the United States, founders and investors are asking how do we keep scaling our teams?

Advisory Board 79

Advisory Board Stealth Cloud Virginia 79

BeyondVC

JANUARY 3, 2019

We are purpose-built to not only invest pre-product but also to help accelerate your path to product-market fit with our decades of entrepreneurial and investing experience along with our active CXO advisory board. In startup board rooms all across the United States, founders and investors are asking how do we keep scaling our teams?

Advisory Board 78

Advisory Board Stealth Cloud Virginia 78

thinkspace.com

SEPTEMBER 7, 2012

The part that I’d like to zero in on is when you’ve got a high growth company what are some of the best practices out there to distribute equity to the founders, advisors, and employees? Equity for Board of Directors and Advisory Board. Board Member 1. Equity for Founders. Responsibilities 6 0 0 6 36.

Equity 62

Equity Employee Founder CTO Hire 62

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 11, 2021

That means listening to investor expectations, communicating regularly and effectively, and assuming that all your efforts will now be monitored in the following ways: You now must have a Board of Directors. Investors will expect at least one seat on the board, and expect a board report from you each month on key items.

Term Sheet 433

Term Sheet Advisory Board Liquidation Preference Startup 433

BeyondVC

JANUARY 6, 2018

We built out our CXO advisory board and further cemented our Fortune 500 relationships to help our portfolio cos scale from founder-market fit to product market fit in an accelerated timeframe ( meet our advisors ). Our partners include IBM and one unannounced Fortune 50.

Cloud 78

Cloud Cofounder Portfolio Advisory Board 78

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 7, 2022

Even with advantages that independent startups can never hope to match, including brand recognition, customers, financial capital, and distribution, I don’t often see the entrepreneurial passion for innovation, agility, and team perseverance exhibited by new startups. Assemble an engaged new venture advisory board.

Advisory Board 359

Advisory Board Incubator Dilution Agile 359

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 9, 2013

Ineffecient Board Meeting. In my nearly 15 years of attending board meetings I can tell you that the distribution of time actually spent on these activities while you’re in person is more like: 1. Between Board Meetings. Communicating Between Board Meetings. The Agile Board. Meeting Dynamics.

Advisory Board 337

Advisory Board Valuation Stock Options Seed Money 337

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 28, 2012

Your startup is now part of someone’s portfolio, and here are a few of the ways in which you should expect to be monitored by your investors: One or more seats on the Board. Maybe you had an informal Advisory Board before, but now you have a formal Board of Directors. Personal visits from key investors.

Advisory Board 241

Advisory Board Entrepreneur Venture Capital Angel Investor 241

BeyondVC

JANUARY 6, 2018

We built out our CXO advisory board and further cemented our Fortune 500 relationships to help our portfolio cos scale from “founder-market” fit to product market fit in an accelerated timeframe ( meet our advisors ). Our partners include IBM and one unannounced Fortune 50.

Cloud 60

Cloud Cofounder Portfolio Advisory Board 60

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 31, 2010

Your startup is now part of someone’s portfolio, and here are a few of the ways in which you should expect to be monitored by your investors: One or more seats on the Board. Maybe you had an informal Advisory Board before, but now you have a formal Board of Directors. Personal visits from key investors.

Advisory Board 231

Advisory Board Entrepreneur Venture Capital Angel Investor 231

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 3, 2014

That means listening to investor expectations, communicating regularly and effectively, and assuming that all your efforts will now be monitored in the following ways: You now must have a Board of Directors. Investors will expect at least one seat on the board, and expect a board report from you each month on key items.

Term Sheet 237

Term Sheet Advisory Board Liquidation Preference Startup 237

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 5, 2014

Mentoring and shared advisory board opportunities. Your business team may be small but distributed. Equally important to your growth will be new strategic partner relationships with resellers or white label opportunities. Face-to-face time is key. We all need help from time to time, and some fresh inspiration.

Small Business 251

Small Business Advisory Board Silicon Valley Boston 251

Small Business Force

SEPTEMBER 9, 2011

In fact, if you can, set up an advisory board of three or four folks, who you respect, who've been to the same dance you're at right now. So let Yoda help. First things first. Get an advisor or mentor, somebody you can bounce ideas off of, or to whom you can bring problems to help you solve. Folks who've had to make payrolls.

Early Stage 32

Early Stage Advisory Board Technical Review Web Development 32

David Teten

JANUARY 19, 2021

Flexible VC creates early liquidity which can be either reinvested or distributed to LPs. Disclosures: Blue Future Partners is a member of the Advisory Board of ff Venture Capital , where David Teten was formerly a Partner. Early liquidity. Equity VC is a “get rich slow” business.

Cofounder 78

Cofounder Technical Review Equity Dividend 78

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 8, 2024

Set up committees and advisory boards to “study” the problem. Lock-up critical resources , like materials, components, people, law firms, distribution channels, partners and make them unavailable to innovation groups/startups. Appoint well respected members of the status quo. Poison funding for internal initiatives.

Government 296

Government Advisory Board Leadership Programming 296

Feld Thoughts

APRIL 19, 2012

We have a straightforward meeting – a dinner for our advisory board the night before, drinks after for all LPs, our advisory board meeting first thing in the morning, and then the full meeting until lunch time. I enjoy our annual meetings – we get to spent a focused chunk of time with our investors.

Advisory Board 135

Advisory Board Vertical New York Community 135

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 5, 2018

This is not just a product pitch, but must include all elements of your pricing, marketing, distribution and support. An advisory board of outside people with experience in your domain can give you the unbiased feedback you need, as well as connections for setting up distribution and sales channels.

Product 137

Product Advisory Board Business Model Cofounder 137

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 3, 2018

That means listening to investor expectations, communicating regularly and effectively, and assuming that all your efforts will now be monitored in the following ways: You now must have a Board of Directors. Investors will expect at least one seat on the board, and expect a board report from you each month on key items.

Term Sheet 140

Term Sheet Advisory Board Liquidation Preference Portfolio 140

Small Business Force

SEPTEMBER 9, 2011

In fact, if you can, set up an advisory board of three or four folks, who you respect, who've been to the same dance you're at right now. So let Yoda help. First things first. Get an advisor or mentor, somebody you can bounce ideas off of, or to whom you can bring problems to help you solve.

Early Stage 20

Early Stage Advisory Board Technical Review Employee 20

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 16, 2015

That means listening to investor expectations, communicating regularly and effectively, and assuming that all your efforts will now be monitored in the following ways: You now must have a Board of Directors. Investors will expect at least one seat on the board, and expect a board report from you each month on key items.

Term Sheet 120

Term Sheet Advisory Board Liquidation Preference Angel Investor 120

Gust

DECEMBER 8, 2011

Advisory board agreements. Strategic partnership or distribution agreements. Independent contractor or consulting agreements. Small-dollar-amount, routine commercial agreements. Confidentiality or non-disclosure agreements (NDAs). Employment handbooks and policies. Website terms of use and privacy policies.

Intellectual Property 139

Intellectual Property Non-disclosure Agreement Delaware Stock 139

pandodaily.com

JULY 18, 2012

It’s started by Marc Ruxin , a former A&R man for EMI Records who has been on a million advisory boards in the Valley and had several jobs in and around pop culture. . “Kids wouldn’t have had the connections to sell prints from Milton Glaser on day one.” Semil Shah. I have a totally different point of view.

Entrepreneur 45

Entrepreneur San Francisco Silicon Valley Technical Review 45

The Startup Toolkit

AUGUST 29, 2012

Those numbers get completely thrown out when the advisor is your distribution channel. Don’t rush to “fill” your advisory board. 2% seems to be normal, trending toward the high end if you’re pre-funding and the low end if you’ve already raised a decent round[1]. 2] Don’t quote me on this!

Equity 46

Equity Vesting Advisory Board Merger 46

Lightspeed Venture Partners

MAY 5, 2016

Meredith Kendall was Head of Communications at Hulu where she led external communications for the company across key areas including corporate, content, product, advertising and distribution. Meredith is an angel investor in Color Genomics and Munchery and sits on the advisory board for zkipster.

Silicon Valley 60

Silicon Valley Flash Advisory Board Pennsylvania 60

Occam's Razor

JANUARY 20, 2010

Does the distribution match your goals? Identifying what are the top referring keywords for any site that I am interested in: Above data for www.clickequations.com (the paid search analytics company I am on the advisory board of). Now look down at the table under the graph that shows traffic sources. Ready for the next step?

Analytics 90

Analytics Search SEO Metrics 90

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 14, 2008

Establish a customer advisory board. How to get distribution advantage on the iPhone How to Usability Test your Site for Free The one line split-test, or how to A/B all the tim. Create a members-only forum where only qualified customers (perhaps, paying customers) can post. Let them connect with each other, but also with you.

San Francisco 131

San Francisco Customer Lean Continuous Deployment 131

www.vccafe.com

MARCH 11, 2013

free, distributed source code control management system. Executive / Advisory Board Compensation. VentureHacks on Startup Advisory Boards â?? Github -Â Free public repositories, collaborator management, issue tracking, wikis, downloads, code review, graphs. Pivotal Tracker â?? Mercurial â?? Preceden â??

Software Review 53

Software Review Technical Review Israel Startup 53

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 23, 2009

Why vanity metrics are dangerous ► November (1) ▼ October (7) A real Customer Advisory Board Case Study: Using an LOI to get customer feedback. We walked them through what we thought would be the major application of our product. Most people were quite receptive and encouraging.

San Francisco 144

San Francisco Customer Wiki Lean 144

Duct Tape Marketing

JANUARY 7, 2020

He invited me within a couple of days to join to be the first member of the HubSpot advisory board, and I’ve been with them ever since. We knew we were both fans of the Grateful Dead, and that’s what this idea of fandom, or as I call it, fanocracy is, is you are part of a group of like minded people. David M.

Southern California 76

Southern California Social Media Social Network California 76

Board Effect

DECEMBER 4, 2024

In environments with highly complex issues, forming advisory boards with specialized experience can be an asset for trustees who are facing a high degree of change or dealing with numerous major issues at once. Why does a university need an advisory board? Not all universities necessarily need an advisory board.

Advisory Board 94

Advisory Board Government Programming Demand 94

Hearpreneur

OCTOBER 20, 2019

Setting up a publishing company to internationally distribute the book, initially in 3-4 languages. In the course of writing the paper, I concluded I needed to write a book to be a major anatomical source for the lymphatic system. The book is almost done, and there are two more BHAG’s on my hit list… 1.

Papua New Guinea 82

Papua New Guinea Hawaii Churn Rate Advisory Board 82