Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 9, 2020

Thus I was happily surprised when I found the classic book, “ The Tech Entrepreneur’s Survival Guide ,” by Bernd Schoner, PhD, and cofounder of ThingMagic, which leans heavily on the people side of the equation. It just means that the cofounders trust one of their own and are willing to follow. The industry veteran. The financial suit.

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The Next Web

SEPTEMBER 22, 2013

But have you ever had the opportunity to pick the brains of founders who created amazingly successful startups and companies like Envato , Backblaze , Simple , or Treehouse ? Few people like talking about their mistakes, but thankfully nine founders took some time to share some of their hard-earned knowledge with you. Find your niche.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 11, 2014

Thus I was happy to see a new book, “ The Tech Entrepreneur’s Survival Guide ,” by Bernd Schoner, PhD, and cofounder of ThingMagic, which leans heavily on the people side of the equation. It just means that the cofounders trust one of their own and are willing to follow. A sales fanatic on the founder team helps to contain that risk.

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Technical Cofounder Cofounder Advisory Board Startup 245

YoungUpstarts

AUGUST 11, 2011

by Oliver Wilkinson , founder of SSL247 and co-founder of jobiso.fr. Master the art of bootstrapping: aim to “bootstrap” first. As a big believer in young business talent, I’d like to share some tips – learned through experience – about honing your skills as an entrepreneur. So… go and start something!

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Entrepreneur Bootstrapping Cofounder SMS 221

YoungUpstarts

AUGUST 25, 2016

by Aytekin Tank, founder & CEO of JotForm. Determining if your product can be bootstrapped. Business decisions must be made carefully at a bootstrapped company. In order to scale while continuing to be a profitable bootstrapped company, we focus on tasks that will provide the most value first. Learning by doing.

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The Next Web

OCTOBER 3, 2012

Andrew is the co-founder and CTO of Parse.ly , a technology startup that provides big data insights to the web’s best publishers. He wrote: When startups die, the official cause of death is always either running out of money or a critical founder bailing. Editor’s note: This is a guest post by Andrew Montalenti.

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Cofounder Technical Cofounder Technical Review Software Review 155

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

OCTOBER 11, 2010

Ask a technical founder about his startup, and he'll proudly describe his stunning software — simple, compelling, useful, fun. Four uncomfortable seconds later, a smile breaks across the founder's face. This is Part 5 of the 5-part series: 5 lessons from 150 startup pitches. Infection built-in, not bolt-on. Frightening honesty.

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Software Review Technical Review Viral Software Development 261

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 7, 2020

Here is my perspective on the highest risk elements, from my years of working with investors and watching startups come and go: All the co-founders are first-time entrepreneurs. These are ones you need to bootstrap, crowdfund or pitch to friends and family. Marginal legality or poor public image.

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New York City Silicon Valley Startup Bootstrapping 315

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 9, 2023

That’s why investors acknowledge that two co-founders are often better than one -- with one focusing on the technical solution, and the other focusing on defining and building the business model. The founder had simply not done the work to validate a price and customer segment. These two jobs need to be done in parallel.

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Technical Review Advisory Board Software Review Business Model 220

VC Cafe

MARCH 16, 2025

Mention that you do “Consumer tech” as a startup founder and you’d be limiting your funding options to one third of the venture capital funds (in Israel that figure is probably closer to 10%). Gaming founders know this challenge well. What will it take for founders to win in consumer? Speed is also critical.

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Technical Review B2C Generative AI IPO 78

SoCal CTO

MARCH 1, 2010

My experiments in lean pricing - Venture Hacks , February 16, 2010 Ash Maurya, a lean entrepreneur who runs a bootstrapped startup called CloudFire, discusses pricing issues for first versions (Minimum Viable Product – MVP). This relates to another great post Freemium Founders: Start Charging for Things Today! Good stuff from Jason.

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A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

APRIL 25, 2011

“Yes&# if it means one of the co-founders can quit her day-job. “Yes&# if this extends the runway of our startup by at least three months. “Yes&# if it completely funds development we’d like to do anyway. “Yes&# if it will completely pay for three new marketing efforts.

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Java Software Review Technical Review Salary 311

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 8, 2014

Here is my perspective on the highest risk elements, from my years of working with investors and watching startups come and go: All the co-founders are first-time entrepreneurs. These are ones you need to bootstrap, crowdfund or pitch to friends and family. Marginal legality or public image.

New York City 254

New York City Silicon Valley Bootstrapping Technical Review 254

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 18, 2018

Thus I was happily surprised when I found the classic book, “ The Tech Entrepreneur’s Survival Guide ,” by Bernd Schoner, PhD, and cofounder of ThingMagic, which leans heavily on the people side of the equation. It just means that the cofounders trust one of their own and are willing to follow. The industry veteran. The financial suit.

Technical Cofounder 144

Technical Cofounder Cofounder Advisory Board Startup 144

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 2, 2023

Here is my perspective on the highest risk elements, from my years of working with investors and watching startups come and go: All the co-founders are first-time entrepreneurs. These are ones you need to bootstrap, crowdfund or pitch to friends and family. Marginal legality or poor public image.

New York City 246

New York City Silicon Valley Bootstrapping Technical Review 246

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

MARCH 11, 2014

Listen to this episode if you want to hear about a founder who has a product and users and paying customers … and is trying to figure out how to take his company to the next level and grow faster. I think another thing you wanted to talk about was the whole keep bootstrapping or raise money question. Jason: Exactly. Jason: Yeah.

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blog.captainrecruiter.com

MARCH 8, 2012

Technical Co-Founders Are A Myth. Two years ago I got the bug to do an online recruiting startup and I began the hunt to find a technical co-founder - a software engineer who works for no cash - to help me build my dream website. I learned something: technical co-founders are a myth. Captain Recruiter.

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A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

JULY 19, 2010

In each case, the founders were super-smart, had complimentary skill sets, worked together well (or well enough to get to important success milestones), and as a team represented a unique, powerful, and (in retrospect) unstoppable force. The Dream Team. The elements of our Dream Team were obvious from the start: Varied skillsets.

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Software Review Technical Review Development Team Review Bolivia 325

Jeff Hilimire

OCTOBER 8, 2014

My name is Richard Simms and, I am a Cofounder of Tech Talent South. My Cofounder, Betsy Idilbi , and I started working on TTS about a year and a half ago and have been going a million miles an hour since then. And here’s my Google Docs chat with him: Richard (at the bottom) and some of his students at Tech Talent South.

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viniciusvacanti.com

SEPTEMBER 7, 2010

Home About Contact Me How To Make It as a First-Time Entrepreneur Vinicius Vacanti Guide to Finding a Technical Co-Founder September 7, 2010 | View Comments Steve Job's Technical Co-Founder “I’ve got this HUGE idea. I just need to find a technical co-founder.&# So, why should they pick you?

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Cofounder Technical Cofounder Founder Ruby 43

Genuine VC

SEPTEMBER 18, 2014

When Chad Pytel introduced me to Bryan Helmkamp , CEO/Co-founder of Code Climate , I knew that I had to pay attention. The stats behind what Bryan and the team had accomplished while bootstrapping the business were incredible, including signing up over 1,000 paying accounts and analyzing over 30,000 code repositories EVERY DAY.

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Software Review Chad Ruby PHP 191

This is going to be BIG.

MAY 27, 2014

It was a company whose product I believed in and whose founder I liked, but a firm lobbed in a term sheet at a price 33% higher than what I had offered using a very light agreement meant for a much earlier stage company. Then, I read about the idiotic comments made by a co-founder of Rap Genius. Perhaps we all should.

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Term Sheet Founder Cofounder Software Review 156

YoungUpstarts

MAY 8, 2014

And when you’re bootstrapping a business, a mistake can be even more costly than not leveraging a chance for advancement. Tom Panaggio, author of “ The Risk Advantage: Embracing the Entrepreneur’s Unexpected Edge “, has enjoyed a 30-year entrepreneurial career as cofounder of two successful direct marketing companies.

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Technical Review Entrepreneur Florida Cofounder 254

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 11, 2010

And that they don’t set your co-founders or key employees against you in meetings. Remember what happened to the alleged co-founders when Peter Thiel came in? Well, some of the people who considered themselves co-founders suddenly found out they weren’t! Some of those will be outside the company.

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Advisory Board Cofounder Phoenix Arizona 233

crowdSPRING Blog

DECEMBER 7, 2012

Attention founders: Here’s how you respond to an unfair post about your company - [link]. Questions to Ask Potential Cofounders: The Master List | Founder Dating - [link]. The Series A Crunch: One More Reason to Bootstrap and Skip Venture Capital | Enterprise Irregulars - [link]. What Makes People Happy?

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Social Media Small Business Design Media 104

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 13, 2015

Thus I was happy to see a recent book, “ The Tech Entrepreneur’s Survival Guide ,” by Bernd Schoner, PhD, and cofounder of ThingMagic, which leans heavily on the people side of the equation. It just means that the cofounders trust one of their own and are willing to follow. The industry veteran. The financial suit.

Technical Cofounder 120

Technical Cofounder Cofounder Advisory Board Stock Options 120

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 22, 2018

Here is my perspective on the highest risk elements, from my years of working with investors and watching startups come and go: All the co-founders are first-time entrepreneurs. These are ones you need to bootstrap, crowdfund or pitch to friends and family. Marginal legality or public image.

New York City 202

New York City Silicon Valley Bootstrapping Technical Review 202

SiliconHills

OCTOBER 25, 2019

Instead of seeking venture capital, Joyce Durst, Co-Founder, and CEO of Growth Acceleration Partners decided to bootstrap the software development company. Before co-founding GAP, Durst served as CEO of venture-backed startup Pinion Software, a security software company.

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Software Development Software Developers Partner Software 91

SoCal CTO

SEPTEMBER 8, 2010

He blogs to 10,000 web entrepreneurs at Software by Rob and co-hosts the podcast Startups for the Rest of Us. Before I get into the details for founders, let me talk about options-hungry employees. You can bootstrap your way into existence. Often it's the first source of good-natured strife between co-founders.

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Startup CTO Hire Cofounder Venture Capital 191

ReadWriteStart

MAY 30, 2022

While investors can seem like a solution to countless problems you encounter as a founder, don’t be too hasty to start eating from their hands. In this article, you’ll learn how bootstrapping makes you a better business – a leaner, smarter, more agile company that can roll with the punches. You might even ask for it.

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Bootstrapping Startup Equity Silicon Valley 147

The Next Web

JUNE 19, 2012

Under the relatively fresh ‘TNW Profile’ banner, we regularly shine a light on great European entrepreneurs and startup founders, to learn more about their journey and their business, and what drives them personally. Me and my cofounders Joanna Socha and Mariusz Lusiak just got into Y Combinator. What are you currently involved with?

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San Francisco Cofounder Founder Poland 136

The Next Web

JULY 20, 2013

Co-investments are an industry standard, and entrepreneurs should strive to get as much know-how on board as possible. Some large VCs in Silicon Valley or even superangels like Ron Conway only look at investment opportunities that were introduced by their network: colleagues from other funds, angel investors, industry experts, advisors etc.

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Silicon Valley Mongolia Technical Cofounder Entrepreneur 124

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 7, 2015

That’s why investors acknowledge that two co-founders are often better than one -- with one focusing on the technical solution, and the other focusing on defining and building the business model. The founder had simply not done the work to validate a price and customer segment. These two jobs need to be done in parallel.

Business Model 120

Business Model Technical Review Advisory Board Software Review 120

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

APRIL 29, 2013

” Easy for them to say, but what about a bootstrapped, profit-driven business? But since you don’t, in my experience (and in a non-scientific survey of some of the 100 startups currently officing at the fabulously Capital Factory co-working space in Austin), a good pre-data rule of thumb is 20 months.

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Bootstrapping Affiliate Cofounder Channel 285

Up and Running

MAY 10, 2012

Ben Lamson and Sulaiman Sanni, WeDidIt cofounders. ” The competition did more than educate and put money in the bank for this otherwise bootstrapped startup. ” The founders of WeDidIt saw an opportunity and a need, and put aside the fears everyone who’s ever struck out on their own faces.

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Small Business Advisory Board Employee Entrepreneur 142

YoungUpstarts

AUGUST 16, 2016

by Evan Varsamis, Founder/CEO at Gadget Flow Inc. Myself and my co-founders were just a bunch of young upstarts with a big idea. The capital earned in the agency was used to bootstrap the progression of the key business we wanted to launch. When you are bootstrapping cash flow is king. The Beginning.

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Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 19, 2015

That’s why I recommend that they find a co-founder who loves business challenges, including marketing and finance. Most founders bootstrap product development. Very few people have both, but there are some notable exceptions, including Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook and Elon Musk , founder of Tesla Motors, SpaceX and others.

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Technical Review Intellectual Property Cofounder Bootstrapping 120