Where are you going to find your customers? No investor believes in the old adage “If you build it, they will come”. A more appropriate saying for today is “If you want the money, you better prove it”.
Continue Leave a Comment December 9, 2009
One of the toughest questions entrepreneurs need to answer when looking for funding is how you know your product concept will attract paying customers. This is a series of blogs of how some start-ups have addressed this issue.
Continue Leave a Comment December 1, 2009
It takes a lot of effort to find the right employee and integrate them into the company, so how do you keep them from leaving the company? And what if that “right” employee turns out to be the “wrong” employee?
Continue Leave a Comment November 19, 2009
I recently heard a venture capitalist say everything is free today for start-ups – open source, tools, and people. Are people really free? Can labor costs be zero? In the early stage start-up, an individual’s performance matters a great deal. How do you attract and hire for a start-up?
Continue Leave a Comment November 17, 2009
Why are product development schedules so elusive, seemingly like trying to hit a moving target? Schedules are particularly crucial in a start-up because sales can’t sell what R&D doesn’t have available, and investors don’t fund hype and vaporware for very long.
Continue Leave a Comment October 9, 2009
Is your staff ignoring the development schedules? Is your staff ignoring the development schedules? Are you asking yourself what went wrong? Here are some funny stories on how NOT to plan a project and present it to your staff.
The question of how to bootstrap a company is on most entrepreneurs’ minds these days. Attend any meeting of the investment community, angels or venture capital, and you’ll hear how entrepreneurs should focus on bootstrapping their companies and not approach the investment community for funding until they have a proven product. How exactly do entrepreneurs do this and what does it mean?
Continue Leave a Comment September 30, 2009
A business plan with all the right stuff will win investor confidence and gain funding for the start up company. It may be difficult to attract funding today, but those start-ups with the RIGHT STUFF have investors anxiously wanting to talk further.
Continue Leave a Comment September 24, 2009
The success or failure of a start-up often hinges upon the quality of the team assembled. One common mistake to avoid is to make the team lopsided, where the team is heavily weighted to the backgrounds on the founders at the expensive of neglecting other important functional areas.
Continue Leave a Comment September 11, 2009
Money is like air. People can’t live without air and high tech start-ups can’t live without money. What does it take to get a company funded and off the ground?
Continue 7 Comments August 31, 2009
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