Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 30, 2021

Defining the right business model requires the same diligence as designing the right product, but the approach and skills required are different. 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.

Technical Review 399

Technical Review Product Advisory Board Business Model 399

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 16, 2022

Supportive co-founder and executive positions. Every startup needs two or three key advisors who have the domain experience, connections, and complementary skills to guide the founders through those early crises. Software and hardware development architects and designers. Member of the Advisory Board.

Advisory Board 368

Advisory Board Dividend Angel Investor Cofounder 368

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 13, 2013

I started as a programmer, and then a database designer, and then a project manager, and I led conversion teams. You’ve got entrepreneurs and founders who are really – a lot of them are in the very early stage of their startup. Technical founder. So it was from ’91 to ’94 that I programmed. You’re 42.

Cofounder 337

Cofounder Technical Cofounder Startup San Diego 337

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 18, 2020

Supportive co-founder and executive positions. Every startup needs two or three key advisors who have the domain experience, connections, and complementary skills to guide the founders through those early crises. Software and hardware development architects and designers. Member of the Advisory Board.

Advisory Board 312

Advisory Board Startup Dividend Angel Investor 312

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 9, 2018

It’s predictable, there is no reason to get mad about it and with a well-designed play book you can overcome this much of the time. I left the meeting and had to attend a 3-hour board meeting where two founders have been fighting and each want the other one fired. I call it, “Remind me why I love you again?” That wasn’t you.

Software Review 381

Software Review Churn Rate Due Diligence New York 381

YoungUpstarts

DECEMBER 24, 2020

Together with IT businessman and investor Rustam Gilfanov, we try to figure out what one needs to take into account when designing a business plan for a startup. Remember that investors will not appreciate a business plan that features exorbitant salaries of the founders. To have a breakthrough idea is not enough to launch a startup.

Business Plan 263

Business Plan Ukraine Cofounder Startup 263

YoungUpstarts

MAY 21, 2020

by Nick Frandsen, co-founder and managing partner at Dovetail. By creating a wireframe of the app, which is a basic screen-by-screen design of how you imagine your app to function, it will help you to understand the connections between the opening page and all the clicks required within the app for it to perform as expected.

Product 264

Product Cofounder Audience Product Development 264

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 14, 2017

As the idea went from innovating on software & systems to launching a company to rolling it out in the field brought on Rahul Gandhi as his co-founder to physically launch the company. Sam & Rahul have worked closely together on “innovate & operate” since the earliest days of MakeSpace. Seriously, this happens.

Operations 286

Operations New York City Technical Review Startup 286

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 19, 2014

I first met Andrew Stalbow , the founder & CEO of Seriously in August of 2013. and Petri was co-founder and head of creative at Remedy Entertainment that launched the hit PC games Max Payne and Alan Wake. It is what Seriously was designed to do. But I’m guessing the narrative is similar elsewhere.

Technical Review 373

Technical Review North America Los Angeles Cofounder 373

Steve Blank

MARCH 12, 2014

For the second startup, we chose a year-old web/mobile startup whose market is college bound teens, with a founder who had skipped the initial customer validation process. Knowing they had 3 weeks before presenting to the company co-founders, the kids felt intensity like no traditional classroom could generate.

Lean 335

Lean Customer Development Startup Silicon Valley 335

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 1, 2014

Supportive co-founder and executive positions. Every startup needs two or three key advisors who have the domain experience, connections, and complementary skills to guide the founders through those early crises. Software and hardware development architects and designers. Member of the Advisory Board.

Entrepreneur 266

Entrepreneur Advisory Board Dividend Angel Investor 266

YoungUpstarts

MARCH 4, 2019

by Peter Johnston , founder and CEO of Kalo. IdentityMind produces RegTech, a platform designed to help small and medium-sized businesses remain compliant. Peter Johnston is the founder and CEO of Kalo , the only all-in-one software platform that streamlines onboarding, integrating and paying freelancers.

Technical Review 228

Technical Review Software Review San Francisco Due Diligence 228

View from Seed

NOVEMBER 6, 2014

Isaac Cambron is co-founder and CTO of Zensight.co , whose pre-launch product enables sales reps to find and use their best content to close more deals. That lets you learn the flaws in your design much earlier. Instead, tie them together early and just deal with the pain that comes from the interfaces changing every day.

Technology 334

Technology Ruby Startup Engineer 334

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 26, 2020

As a hardware designer, I’m sure you do the same thing as you document your product specifications and pass them on to other members of your team for implementation. In fact, this context is your best opportunity to attract a co-founder who has the business skills and interests that are complementary to your technical strengths.

Business Plan 423

Business Plan Product Intellectual Property Elevator Pitch 423

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?

Technical Review 78

Technical Review B2C Generative AI IPO 78

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 21, 2012

I often get asked about finding cofounders and I usually give the standard list of characteristics of what I look for in a founder. And I emphasize the value of a founding team with complementary skills sets – i.e. the hacker/hustler/designer cofounder archetype for web/mobile apps. Taking Time. Taking Time.

Cofounder 332

Cofounder IPO Early Stage Green 332

Steve Blank

APRIL 23, 2018

If you’re following Tesla, you might be interested to know that Sloan wasn’t the founder of GM. Where are the charitable foundations, business schools, and hospitals named after the founder of GM? The founder of what became General Motors was William (Billy) Durant. And a founder of Neuralink a brain-computer interface startup.

Michigan 301

Michigan Cofounder Stock Forecast 301

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 4, 2013

Should I trust my instincts for founders and products or should I be more focused on the market size or business plan? ” As far as “terms” go I’m 100% aligned to have the most vanilla, founder-friendly terms I can. And I listen to the reasons their co-founders quit their well-payed job to join them.

Early Stage 361

Early Stage Deal Flow Investment Bankers Technical Review 361

View from Seed

APRIL 27, 2020

Founders do not have this luxury. Most founders are going through hell right now, and that is not going away any time soon. For investors and founders, the next several years are going to be very different. Pre-seeds will be tougher as investors gravitate more towards proven founders or folks within their existing networks.

Cofounder 194

Cofounder Software Review Portfolio Technical Review 194

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. For new car companies such as DeLorean and Fisker, designing and testing the product is only the beginning. Huge ramp-up time and money required.

New York City 315

New York City Silicon Valley Startup Bootstrapping 315

Up and Running

JULY 28, 2022

Innovation can be a product, design, or a process of doing things to solve a technical problem. Industrial Design – Rights given for a product’s aesthetic or ornamental aspect. Common information includes processes, formulas, designs, practices, instruments, and patterns. Develop a founders agreement.

Small Business 167

Small Business Intellectual Property Cofounder Software Review 167

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 9, 2023

Defining the right business model requires the same diligence as designing the right product, but the approach and skills required are different. 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.

Technical Review 220

Technical Review Advisory Board Software Review Business Model 220

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 11, 2023

Designed by the Navy’s OPS-20-G team and built at National Cash Register (NCR) in Dayton, this same Computing Machine Lab would build ~25 other types of electromechanical and optical machines , some the size of a room with 3,500 tubes , to assist in breaking Japanese and German codes. Why Minneapolis/St. Serendipity came to Minneapolis-St.

Minnesota 317

Minnesota Engineer Minneapolis Silicon Valley 317

View from Seed

JANUARY 24, 2018

The concept our Guilds is simple: We want to bring together small groups of Product and Go-to-Market experts to lend their time to support our portfolio company founders and key operators. Pierre Valade, Co-Founder of Sunrise & Mobile Designer at Microsoft. Brian Balfour, Founder & CEO of Reforge.

Operations 176

Operations Cofounder Technical Review Angel Investor 176

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 4, 2013

Should I trust my instincts for founders and products or should I be more focused on the market size or business plan? ” As far as “terms” go I’m 100% aligned to have the most vanilla, founder-friendly terms I can. And I listen to the reasons their co-founders quit their well-payed job to join them.

Deal Flow 347

Deal Flow Early Stage Investment Bankers Technical Review 347

YoungUpstarts

MAY 11, 2017

by Ana Grasic , cofounder of WeGrowth. With a clean, modern design and a 14-day free trial, Hiri is definitely an email client every small business owner should try out. Ana Grasic is cofounder of WeGrowth , a marketplace for professional marketers and business owners looking for services. Plan Your Daily Tasks.

Small Business 196

Small Business Product Cofounder Email 196

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 13, 2018

During the first year of the company’s life, I was a fireball – relentless in creating and pursuing opportunities – getting on an airplane at the drop of a hat to fly anywhere, anytime, to get a design win. Our chip was nearing completion, and I had convinced early lighthouse customers to design it into their computers.

Part-Time VPE 334

Part-Time VPE Employee Cofounder Hiring 334

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 28, 2018

My friend Michael Broukhim, founder & co-CEO of FabFitFun and I recently had a catch-up meeting for 3-miles on the Santa Monica “Bird Trail” No company has ever elicited so many questions by friends, colleagues, entrepreneurs, fellow VCs and journalists as has Bird, the company that pioneered the electronic scooter as a service market.

San Francisco 256

San Francisco Valuation Los Angeles Technical Review 256

SoCal CTO

APRIL 28, 2014

I guess it should not be a surprise that Founders have lots of challenges working with developers. Challenges I started by asking the founders in the room to tell me some of the challenges they have working with developers. Developers (and Founders) are challenged to know how much is okay in terms of bugs.

Technical Cofounder 280

Technical Cofounder Developer Fractional CTO CTO Hire 280

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 22, 2019

AI assistants in homes are great (Google Assistant, Siri and Alexa) – but to children, they might easily be considered co-parents or teachers. Your role in business is to manage the transition where humans and machines will productively co-exist to keep human customers satisfied. Individual biases must be excluded.

Artificial Inteligence 243

Artificial Inteligence Technical Cofounder Cofounder Security 243

YoungUpstarts

NOVEMBER 8, 2016

started because the company founder was upset after he struggled to find new content for his daughter to watch on YouTube. Leading a company as a solo founder is a similar experience. I recently spoke with the founders of InfluenceLogic , a Phoenix-based software company. Online video service Pluto.TV

Phoenix 256

Phoenix Los Angeles .Net Matching 256

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 18, 2019

Depending on the composition of the founding team, you might or might not have near-term holes in certain functions at the exec level – e.g. you’ll most likely need to bring on a CTO/VP of Engineering shortly after the seed round if you don’t have a technical co-founder.

Part-Time VPE 195

Part-Time VPE Seed Stage CTO Hire Forecast 195

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 5, 2018

Jeff Katzenberg has a great track record – head of the studio at Paramount, chairman of Disney Studios, co-founder of DreamWorks and now chairman of NewTV. Lean was designed to inform the founders’ vision while they operated frugally at speed. ” Fire, Ready, Aim. He just hired Meg Whitman. The result?

Lean 335

Lean Burn Rate Startup IPO 335

YoungUpstarts

OCTOBER 2, 2020

Now, anyone can create apps and websites, design chatbots, automate processes, open ecommerce stores, and lots more — all without typing out a single line of code. As a result, entrepreneurs, founders, CEOs, marketers, and anyone in between can take advantage. The point of no-code tools is to empower non-engineers to create.

CTO Hire 264

CTO Hire eCommerce Engineer Software 264

Duct Tape Marketing

OCTOBER 31, 2024

Outsmart Competitors With Agency-First Web Design written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing  The Duct Tape Marketing Podcast with Itai Sadan In this episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast, I interview Itai Sadan, founder of Duda , a website builder designed for marketing agencies and small businesses.

Web 73

Web Design Fractional CTO CTO Hire 73

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. For new car companies such as DeLorean and Tesla, designing and testing the product is only the beginning. Huge ramp-up time and money required.

New York City 254

New York City Silicon Valley Bootstrapping Technical Review 254

VC Cafe

AUGUST 11, 2022

A couple of weeks ago I was did a fireside chat with Alon Grinshpoon, founder and CEO of Echo3D , a CDN and CMS for 3D content in the cloud and a Remagine Ventures portfolio company, as part of an entrepreneurial finance MBA class in Tel Aviv University. We were discussing both sides of the table and the relationship between founders and VCs.

Founder 187

Founder Term Sheet Cofounder Venture Capital 187