Posted by Martin Zwilling on August 10th, 2014
Most entrepreneurs struggle with financial projections, not wanting to commit to numbers they can’t deliver, and having no clue what investors might consider reasonable. However, making no projections, or non-credible projections will get your startup marked as unfundable. I recommend a simple set of guidelines, which work for at least 80% of the business domains I see.
Equally important, you
Posted by Martin Zwilling on July 20th, 2014
As an entrepreneur, your personal integrity is critical for getting and keeping the support of investors and team members, and your company’s integrity is critical for getting and keeping customers and vendors. But in a practical sense, what does that really mean?
Most definitions of integrity include something like “the quality of being honest and morally upright.” Yet, I’ve found
Posted by Martin Zwilling on July 13th, 2014
Where did this sense of entitlement in our business culture come from? I’ve written about this before, but I was reminded again a while back at a conference for startups when an entrepreneur started berating investors for not funding early-stage startups. It sounded to investors like me that they felt a funding entitlement for their startup idea. Of course, I’m
Posted by David S. Rose on July 13th, 2014
There are three separate questions you’re asking here, so let’s take them one at a time:
How important is trust in business partnerships?
It is critical. Vital. The single most important thing. Without trust you will spend the entire relationship looking over your shoulder and second-guessing everything your “partner” does and says. This may well destroy your entire business.
Are a
Posted by David S. Rose on July 6th, 2014
Surprisingly, no. Angels of a certain ‘level of professionalism’ have more in common with each other regardless of geography, than do novice and ‘super angels’ in the same city.
I am friends with many professional angels from around the world, and my analyses (allowing for our individual investment preferences) are virtually identical to those of Dave Berkus in Southern California,
Posted by Martin Zwilling on June 29th, 2014
The Hype Cycle was a concept put forward by Gartner, Inc. back in 1995 meant to apply to technology product evolution and acceptance. As I was reading about it a while back, it occurred to me that the concept relates directly to how investors see startup opportunities and potential success as well, at least those with technology in their offerings.
Posted by David S. Rose on June 12th, 2014
Does the company have a board of directors? Are there any investor representatives on it? If there is a “lead” Investor with whom you have a good relationship, you might try having him act as your front man. Otherwise, you might try sending ALL your investors something like this:
Posted by David S. Rose on June 1st, 2014
A company’s board of directors is technically elected by the company’s shareholders. So before a startup receives outside funding, the board is “elected” by—and usually consists of—the founders (although it may exist in name only.)
Once a company receives its initial seed, angel or venture funding, the documents prepared for the investment will include a Shareholders Agreement that gets signed
Posted by Martin Zwilling on May 25th, 2014
Every startup with any traction quickly reaches a point where they need to hire employees to grow the business. Unfortunately, this always happens when pressures are the highest, and business processes are ill-defined. At this point you need superstars and versatile future executives, yet your in-house hiring processes and focus are at their weakest.
The result is a host of
Posted by Martin Zwilling on May 11th, 2014
In the US, many entrepreneurs see grants as “free money,” since they are not loans and don’t have to be repaid. A grant is not an equity investment, so the entrepreneur doesn’t have to give up a stake in the company either. Typically they can be used to fund product development and commercialization that would otherwise require outside investors.
A
