Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 11, 2014

In my years of advising startups and occasional investing, I’ve seen many great ideas start and fail, but the right team always seems to make good things happen, even without the ultimate idea. You need to have a technical genius on the team to get your startup product off the ground. The industry veteran. The sales professional.

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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.

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Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 9, 2020

In my years of advising startups and occasional investing, I’ve seen many great ideas start and fail, but the right team always seems to make good things happen, even without the ultimate idea. You need to have a technical genius on the team to get your startup product off the ground. The industry veteran. The sales professional.

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Technical Cofounder Cofounder Advisory Board Stock Options 308

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 7, 2020

Yet everyone has limits, and every investor implicitly has similar limits on what makes a startup investable, or one to avoid at all costs. 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.

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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. Startups die due to a variety of causes. In 2007, Paul Graham gave a variety of causes for startup death in How Not To Die. Distraction is fatal to startups.

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Cofounder Technical Cofounder Technical Review Software Review 155

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. In the 4 or 5 years since then, SSL247 has doubled in size 5 or 6 times and I’ve set up another 2 startup businesses. Be curious and adventurous: think like The North Face.

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SoCal CTO

SEPTEMBER 8, 2010

August was a slow month in terms of traffic and I was away for a lot of the month, but there were some really great posts at the intersection of startups, technology, product and being a Startup CTO. He blogs to 10,000 web entrepreneurs at Software by Rob and co-hosts the podcast Startups for the Rest of Us.

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SoCal CTO

MARCH 1, 2010

Here are some recent great posts that I’ve come across that generally fall in the intersection of startups and CTOs. They have a related post: Designing startup metrics to drive successful behavior | For Entrepreneurs , but I think that looking at my Startup Metrics post provides a bit broader set of metrics to consider.

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A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

OCTOBER 11, 2010

This is Part 5 of the 5-part series: 5 lessons from 150 startup pitches. 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. Infection built-in, not bolt-on.

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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%). Until now, consumer tech was perceived as a risky binary investment. But don’t just take it from me.

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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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Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 18, 2018

In my years of advising startups and occasional investing, I’ve seen many great ideas start and fail, but the right team always seems to make good things happen, even without the ultimate idea. You need to have a technical genius on the team to get your startup product off the ground. The industry veteran. The sales professional.

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Technical Cofounder Cofounder Advisory Board Startup 144

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

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 8, 2014

Yet everyone has limits, and every investor implicitly has similar limits on what makes a startup investable, or one to avoid at all costs. 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.

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New York City Silicon Valley Bootstrapping Technical Review 254

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

JULY 19, 2010

This is Part 2 of the series: 5 lessons from 150 startup pitches.??? No, wait, the real question is: What are you going to do when another smart, scrappy startup copies it, and gets $10m in funding, and is thrice featured on TechCrunch? What if someone copies your awesome business idea? The Dream Team.

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A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

APRIL 25, 2011

Everyone says small startups require focus. Given my specialty and my goals, traditional career (or startup) theory says I should have said “no.&#. “Yes&# if this extends the runway of our startup by at least three months. “Yes&# if it means one of the co-founders can quit her day-job.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 2, 2023

Yet everyone has limits, and every investor implicitly has similar limits on what makes a startup investable, or one to avoid at all costs. 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.

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New York City Silicon Valley Bootstrapping Technical Review 246

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 29, 2013

This post was written by Sarah Milstein, co-host of The Lean Startup Conference. We’re looking for speakers for the 2013 Lean Startup Conference. If you’re a Lean Startup veteran, feel free to skim the beginning, as this is mostly stuff you already know. Last week, we announced that our short application form was live.

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Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 11, 2010

Taking other people’s money to fund your startup changes your life in ways you cannot predict. To someone laboring in a cash-strapped startup, money often seems to be the endgame. And that they don’t set your co-founders or key employees against you in meetings. By Francine Hardaway, Ph.D. What do they need to do?

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ReadWriteStart

MAY 30, 2022

The Proud Owners of a Startup. Today, as the proud owner of a startup, you’re probably much better at managing your money. 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. We have all been there, done that. You might even ask for it.

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Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 22, 2018

Yet everyone has limits, and every investor implicitly has similar limits on what makes a startup investable, or one to avoid at all costs. 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.

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New York City Silicon Valley Bootstrapping Technical Review 202

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. Chad is the CEO of thoughtbot, a consulting firm that makes web + mobile apps for early-stage startups.

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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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Technical Cofounder Cofounder Software Review Management 220

crowdSPRING Blog

DECEMBER 7, 2012

These posts and videos are about logo design , web design , startups, entrepreneurship, small business, leadership, social media, marketing, and more! If your small business or startup sends email newsletters or other email marketing campaigns, what is the best time of day to send those emails? How to Get Startup Ideas - [link].

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Social Media Small Business Design Media 104

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.

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Jeff Hilimire

OCTOBER 8, 2014

I realized that I enjoy interviewing startup friends about their business, but sending them a bunch of questions and having them reply didn’t allow for me to react to their answers, and honestly, if I actually interviewed them over Skype or something I think about eight people would actually watch the video.

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Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 13, 2015

In my years of advising startups and occasional investing, I’ve seen many great ideas start and fail, but the right team always seems to make good things happen, even without the ultimate idea. You need to have a technical genius on the team to get your startup product off the ground. The industry veteran. The sales professional.

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Technical Cofounder Cofounder Advisory Board Stock Options 120

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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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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mashable.com

AUGUST 20, 2011

Startup life is all about bootstrapping, but you need a place to work, right? Here’s a breakdown of three workplace styles — home-working, coworking and traditional office space — with pros, cons and input from startups utilzing each environment so you can figure which the right choice is for you.

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www.readwriteweb.com

OCTOBER 7, 2007

This is typically called “bootstrapping&# and it is fraught with potential pitfalls and dangers. But when done well it can really help get a company going fast, professionally and without the founders having to give up much (if any) equity - or bankrupting themselves. What is bootstrapping? Why bootstrap?

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Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 9, 2016

Yet everyone has limits, and every investor implicitly has similar limits on what makes a startup investable, or one to avoid at all costs. 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.

New York City 120

New York City Silicon Valley Startup Bootstrapping 120

The Next Web

JULY 20, 2013

But if our website says that Credo invests in IT, Internet, mobile or healthcare startups predominantly in Central Europe, I just don’t feel obliged to respond to a gold mine in Mongolia or Australian TV production studio. Co-investments are an industry standard, and entrepreneurs should strive to get as much know-how on board as possible.

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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. TNW: Do you ever sleep?

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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.

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YoungUpstarts

SEPTEMBER 23, 2017

I raised money and traded equity, but with my venture, I had to make one of the toughest decisions, to build it with some assistance of co-founders. Find the right co-founders. Having co-founders provides a strategy to avoid funding your start-up, with the help of investor’s money.

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The Next Web

AUGUST 26, 2013

Editor’s note: This is a guest post by Christian Reber, CEO and co-founder of Berlin-based 6Wunderkinder. Today, in steps 10-12 I want to discuss with you raising your first round of money, hiring to develop and maintain your company culture, as well as defining your role in the management of your startup.

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