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. For example, a software development startup raising $250,000 from angel investors better be able to operate on $25,000 per month.

Burn Rate 310

Burn Rate Hockey Stick Salary Angel Investor 310

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 4, 2022

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. It always reduces risk to plan your business first. Commit to a major customer.

Intellectual Property 261

Intellectual Property Technical Review Incubator Bootstrapping 261

Steve Blank

JANUARY 22, 2014

Angels & Crowdfunding : Coincident with the capital efficient movement came the current wave of angel investors, this time armed with the ability to collectively fund startups to the point of meaningful value creation on modest amounts of capital. This is true whether the company is concept stage or ramping revenue.

Early Stage 295

Early Stage Silicon Valley Oregon Technical Review 295

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 14, 2022

For example, when you think about distribution channels, revenue streams, or the relationship with the customer, ask customers what they expect. Don’t attempt to scale it until you have a proven repeatable business model that predictably generates revenue. In my view, savvy “super angel” investors such as Mike Maples, Jr. ,

Angel Investor 359

Angel Investor Technical Review Incubator Business Model 359

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 18, 2020

In addition to being the startup entrepreneur, there are other key roles where Boomers can be a force in driving successful startups, in concert with leaders from Gen-X and Gen-Y: Early-stage angel investors. Often the Boomer is more willing to work for equity, and easily convinced to step aside when revenues reach that next threshold.

Advisory Board 312

Advisory Board Startup Dividend Angel Investor 312

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 30, 2013

Traction means that you have achieved one or more significant milestones, which will give you credibility with investors. Don’t expect them to believe your $100M revenue projection, if you are still waiting for the first revenue dollar. Get a real customer and real revenue. Only real results count.

Intellectual Property 281

Intellectual Property Entrepreneur Sweat Equity CTO Hire 281

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. For example, a software development startup raising $250,000 from angel investors better be able to operate on $25,000 per month.

Burn Rate 262

Burn Rate Hockey Stick Entrepreneur Salary 262

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 14, 2023

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. For example, a software development startup raising $250,000 from angel investors better be able to operate on $25,000 per month.

Burn Rate 258

Burn Rate Hockey Stick Management Salary 258

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 2, 2013

That means there are far more entrepreneurs looking for money than there are investors, and entrepreneur entitlement is not a realistic expectation. Angel investors look for prior domain and startup experience. This requires a visible focus on the company’s revenue model, the costs to get there, and cash on hand.

Angel Investor 269

Angel Investor Cram Down Intellectual Property Venture Capital 269

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 31, 2012

Traction means that you have achieved one or more significant milestones, which will give you credibility with investors. Don’t expect them to believe your $100M revenue projection, if you are still waiting for the first revenue dollar. Get a real customer and real revenue. Only real results count.

Intellectual Property 260

Intellectual Property Sweat Equity CTO Hire Fractional CTO 260

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. It always reduces risk to plan your business first. Commit to a major customer.

Intellectual Property 219

Intellectual Property Technical Review Startup Incubator 219

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 4, 2011

Every new startup I know dreams of being funded by an angel investor. A conundrum for many frustrated entrepreneurs is that they need money from investors to design and build a prototype product, yet most angel investors expect to see at least a prototype before they invest. Build a prototype product.

Intellectual Property 249

Intellectual Property Angel Investor Technical Review Elevator Pitch 249

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 17, 2011

Traction means that you have achieved one or more significant milestones, which will give you credibility with investors. Don’t expect them to believe your $100M revenue projection, if you are still waiting for the first revenue dollar. Get a real customer and real revenue. Only real results count.

Intellectual Property 253

Intellectual Property Sweat Equity CTO Hire Fractional CTO 253

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 20, 2012

For example, when you think about distribution channels, revenue streams, or the relationship with the customer, ask customers what they expect. Don’t attempt to scale it until you have a proven repeatable business model that predictably generates revenue. In my view, savvy “super angel” investors such as Mike Maples, Jr. ,

Startup 296

Startup Angel Investor Technical Review Incubator 296

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 1, 2014

In addition to being the startup entrepreneur, there are other key roles where Boomers can be a force in driving successful startups, in concert with leaders from Gen-X and Gen-Y: Early-stage Angel investors. Often the Boomer is more willing to work for equity, and easily convinced to step aside when revenues reach that next threshold.

Entrepreneur 266

Entrepreneur Advisory Board Dividend Angel Investor 266

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 19, 2011

For example, when you think about distribution channels, revenue streams, or the relationship with the customer, ask customers what they expect. Don’t attempt to scale it until you have a proven repeatable business model that predictably generates revenue. In my view, savvy “super angel” investors such as Mike Maples, Jr. ,

Startup 286

Startup Angel Investor Technical Review Incubator 286

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 18, 2014

For example, when you think about distribution channels, revenue streams, or the relationship with the customer, ask customers what they expect. Don’t attempt to scale it until you have a proven repeatable business model that predictably generates revenue. In my view, savvy “super angel” investors such as Mike Maples, Jr.,

Entrepreneur 283

Entrepreneur Startup Angel Investor Technical Review 283

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. For example, a software development startup raising $250,000 from angel investors better be able to operate on $25,000 per month.

Burn Rate 223

Burn Rate Hockey Stick Startup Salary 223

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 24, 2022

As a business consultant and angel investor, I often ask for your own assessment of marketing ROI , or customer acquisition cost (CAC). In addition, research shows that companies that fail to align their marketing and sales departments have less ROI, and lose 10% or more of their revenues per year.

Acquisition 250

Acquisition Cost Customer Sales Cycle 250

Steve Blank

JANUARY 17, 2023

The culmination of this bootcamp is a “demo day” where all startups in the cohort have a few minutes to pitch their companies to venture capitalists and angel investors. (In The most successful venture studios are founded by entrepreneurs that have previously built companies with $10+M in revenue and had 100+ employees.

Technical Cofounder 368

Technical Cofounder Intellectual Property Technical Review Incubator 368

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

JULY 19, 2010

About twenty people on Answers OnStartups have asked this question in one form or another: When I meet an angel investor, he may ask: "What if a big company copies your idea and develops the same website as yours after your website goes public?". But how does authority convert to revenue? How can I answer this question?

Software Review 325

Software Review Technical Review Development Team Review Bolivia 325

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 21, 2020

If you are not in that rare category of known and proven entrepreneurs, you should avoid the following list of my top ten turnoffs that I have personally experienced as an angel investor. We all know how to get friends and peers to pump up our story online, but investors want to see feedback from paying customers.

Technical Review 310

Technical Review Angel Investor Business Plan Social Media 310

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. It always reduces risk to plan your business first. Commit to a major customer.

Product Development 177

Product Development Cost Developer Product 177

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 16, 2010

This is the fourth article in a series on what it takes to be a great angel investor (and why this should matter to entrepreneurs). Markets like these are very kind to angel investors because you get taken out early and see a nice pop on your investment. Part 1 – Access to Great Deal Flow – is here.

Cap Table 283

Cap Table Angel Investor Liquidation Preference Dilution 283

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 15, 2019

For example, when you think about distribution channels, revenue streams, or the relationship with the customer, ask customers what they expect. Don’t attempt to scale it until you have a proven repeatable business model that predictably generates revenue. In my view, savvy “super angel” investors such as Mike Maples, Jr. ,

Startup 245

Startup Angel Investor Technical Review Incubator 245

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 25, 2012

Just don’t quit your day job before your new company is producing revenue. Angel investors. If you are looking for $25,000 to $1 million, the next step is to tap into a local angel network. Friends and family. After bootstrapping, friends and family are the most common funding sources for early-stage startups.

Technical Review 257

Technical Review Bootstrapping Venture Capital Incubator 257

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 24, 2014

If you are not in that rare category of known and proven entrepreneurs, you should avoid the following list of my top ten turnoffs that I have personally experienced as an Angel investor. We all know how to get friends and peers to pump up our story online, but investors want to see feedback from paying customers.

Entrepreneur 299

Entrepreneur Technical Review Business Plan Angel Investor 299

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 27, 2013

Investors hear this as trying to do too many things with limited resources, meaning the startup will not shine at anything, and will not survive the competition. Keep these balanced and aligned between people (customers, employees) and process (quality, service, revenue), and keep the scope realistic (eliminating world hunger is too broad).

Startup 257

Startup Technical Review Angel Investor China 257

Gust

APRIL 27, 2014

Unless you are bootstrapping everything, you need to have a clear plan on what networking and documents are required to get to friends and family, Angel investors, and institutional investors. Billing and revenue collection. Funding process. Manage human resources. It all has to be written down and maintained.

Startup 187

Startup Institutional Investors Angel Investor Bootstrapping 187

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 24, 2014

Investors hear this as trying to do too many things with limited resources, meaning the startup will not shine at anything, and will not survive the competition. Keep these balanced and aligned between people (customers, employees) and process (quality, service, revenue), and keep the scope realistic (eliminating world hunger is too broad).

Entrepreneur 257

Entrepreneur Technical Review Angel Investor China 257

VC Cafe

FEBRUARY 27, 2024

especially if the startup already has a product and revenue? What’s the difference between an angel round and pre-seed round and why do I believe we’ll see more pre-seed rounds taking place in 2024? A founder asked me what makes a $2M round “pre-seed”?

Valuation 186

Valuation Software Review Generative AI Technical Review 186

YoungUpstarts

JANUARY 11, 2021

In my 15+ years as a startup founder, investor, and advisor — and now in my role as CEO of a bookkeeping and accounting startup — I’ve come across countless businesses whose accounts aren’t accurate or GAAP-compliant because they’re making the same four mistakes: Relying on spreadsheets to track their revenue and expenses.

Small Business 208

Small Business Startup Cofounder Vertical 208

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 18, 2022

If you are not in that rare category of known and proven entrepreneurs, you should avoid the following list of my top ten turnoffs that I have personally experienced as an angel investor. We all know how to get friends and peers to pump up our story online, but investors want to see feedback from paying customers.

Business Plan 273

Business Plan Technical Review Angel Investor Social Media 273

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 22, 2020

As a long-time advisor to entrepreneurs, and a former angel myself, I still find startups confused about the definition of an angel investor, and how and when to attract one. Here are some key points to consider in finding one for you: Look for accredited angels and groups rather than individuals.

Angel Investor 322

Angel Investor Valuation Syndicate Syndication 322

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 2, 2014

Too many entrepreneurs tell me they are looking for an investor, and can’t differentiate between venture capital (VC) investors versus accredited Angel investors. Angel investors wish for the same return, but may accept a 5X deal. How good are your connections in the investor community?

Angel Investor 266

Angel Investor Entrepreneur Venture Capital IRR 266

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 11, 2012

I’ll try to offer some guidelines to address these issues, but I generally recommend you keep the day job until your new company is producing real revenue. While others are enjoying coffee or lunch, use the time to update yourself on your technology, your competitors, angel investors, or how to incorporate a new business.

Entrepreneur 239

Entrepreneur Cofounder Angel Investor Partner 239

The Startup Magazine

JUNE 13, 2024

Create a detailed business plan where you must outline your financial goals, expenses, and revenue projections. You can take loans, seek funds from angel investors, or raise money through crowdfunding—collecting donations from friends, family, or strangers. Next, evaluate your funding options. It can contribute to your success.

United States 141

United States Bootstrapping Social Media Angel Investor 141