A Practical Introduction to Financial Capital for Bootstrappers
This post explores meaning of financial capital for bootstrappers. It addresses the real costs of market exploration and product validation and verification. […]
Recap From “Startups: What’s Hot, What’s Not (2018)” Today at WIC
A summary of my talk at Women in Consulting lunch meeting today on “Startups: What’s Hot / What’s Not (2018).” Includes slides and links to sources. […]
Investment Presentation Formats
If you have bootstrapped your startup to the point where you have a business that both merits and would benefit from outside investment then you may need to consider seeking investment. Here are some common formats we have seen for an investor presentation. […]
Successful Bootstrappers Are Trustworthy Salespeople Committed to Customer Satisfaction
If you want to be a succeed as a bootstrapper, start with what you've got: you have an insight into an opportunity, a marketing edge, a particular problem where you're going to bring distinctive value. A Bootstrapper Doesn't Wait For Investor Approval Don't wait to get started until an investor tells you [...]
Dan Scheinman’s Blue Ocean Venture Strategy: Target Entrepreneurs Over 35
Dan Scheinman (@dscheinm) graduated from Duke Law School in 1988 and went to work as an associate at DLA Piper before joining the Cisco legal department. Once inside he worked his way up to General Counsel, then ran corporate development which included managing minority investments and acquisitions, and finally was general [...]
Q: How To Estimate Prospect Counts and Market Sizes
Here are some back of the envelope models to estimate prospect counts and market sizes. […]
Draper University of Heroes Takes Holistic Approach to Teaching Entrepreneurship
Tim Draper, founder of the VC firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson, is taking a holistic approach to entrepreneurial education with his "Draper University for Heroes" in San Mateo. Here is a promo video from the school's website. [vimeo clip_id="45872530" width="400" height="300" frameborder="0"] In a planning document submitted to the City of [...]
Ryan Waggoner: Maybe Startups Are So Hard Because We’re Doing Them Wrong
Ryan Waggoner wonders if the popularized approach to startups is wrong. Instead of putting health and relationships at risk, try patience and humility. […]
Three Useful Tools: MyPermissions, SocialMention, HackerFollow
MyPermissions: Checks for third party application access to your Facebook, Twitter, Google, Yahoo, LinkedIn, Dropbox, Instagram, and Flickr accounts. SocialMention: Allows you to do keyword and phrase search across more than one hundred social media sites including Twitter, Facebook, FriendFeed, YouTube, Digg, Google, etc... HackerFollow: follow comments and posts by [...]
Isaac Garcia on “Bootstrapping Central Desktop” at Feb-11 BB in Milpitas
Isaac Garcia, co-founder and CEO of Central Desktop, will share "Lessons Learned Bootstrapping Central Desktop" at the Milpitas Bootstrappers Breakfast® on February 11, 2011 at 7:30am. Central Desktop delivers a SaaS collaboration platform that helps businesses manage projects and documents in the cloud with colleagues, customers and partners. Isaac Garcia [...]
The Venture Lifestyle Business
"Some buildings need air conditioning because they have air conditioning. Because they were designed to be air conditioned, they have no natural ventilation and would be miserable to inhabit without air conditioning." John Cook in "Maybe You Only Need It Because You Have It" I wonder if the same thing [...]
Steve Blank Plans to Crowdsource E-Schools
Steve Blank gave a thought provoking talk at the Startup Lessons Learned Conference on “Customer Development 2.0: Why Accountants Don’t Run Startups” (slides here and related blog post “Why Accountants Don’t Run Startups” which is part of a category of blog posts on “Durant vs. Sloan”). He also referenced Robert [...]
8 Tips for Evaluating Funding Alternatives
Many entrepreneurs planning their first software startup get stuck on funding and ownership issues. Here are some simple rules of thumb that may help you reframe an issue: Revenue, especially break even revenue, is never dilutive of your ownership. The right co-founders, while dilutive, substantially increase your chances of success: [...]
Do Not Pay to Pitch Investors
Jason Calacanis has gone a little bit off the dial on "why startups shouldn't have to pay to pitch angel investors" but he is nonetheless correct that you should not pay large fees to potential investors for consideration or the right to present. Our focus is helping bootstrapping technology startups [...]
Prediction: Angel Investing Down in 2009
I was still mulling over the implications of yesterday's briefing by Nate Burgess when I came across "Prediction: Angel investing in 2009 will be up?" by Alexander Muse on the Texas Startup blog. Briefly his thesis is: The angel investment market hovers around $12 billion each year. I predict that [...]
Financial Modeling for Startups Workshop–Early Bird Ends Tomorrow
Update Tue-Sep-23: Sold Out, No Walk-ins. We will offer it again: you can sign-up to be notified of upcoming workshops We just finished our last rehearsal for next Wednesday's (Sep-24) "Financial Modeling for Startups" workshop we are doing jointly with Nathan Beckord of Venture Archetypes. I think it will be [...]
Three Points About Seeking Investment
Three key points about seeking investment. […]
Plug and Play Expo Startup Pitches
Are you trying to raise venture capital? If so, the Plug and Play Tech Center Expo is the place to be. The full day agenda included presentations from thirty-one companies to a panelist of investors from Norwest Venture Partners, Menlo Ventures, Foundation Capital, Amidzad Ventures, and Mohr Davidow Ventures. The [...]