Startups How to calculate pricing for a service that requires a paid api? |
- How to calculate pricing for a service that requires a paid api?
- Things Smart People Never Say In Public
- Keeping track of vendors and user accounts!
- Sales Consulting for Manufacturers
- I got an offer from a startup without a strike price tied to equity (Sales) (US)
- Good product manager/bad product manager, but for design and engineering
- Pre-rev valuation for startup with $5m sales LOI?
- Cofounder equity split dilemma : help
| How to calculate pricing for a service that requires a paid api? Posted: 08 Mar 2018 06:08 PM PST Hello, I am working on an Android app that uses a paid api. I am currently not generating any money, but I plan to shortly. I have am trying to figure out how to price my product at a sustainable level. Currently, it is free. My problem is, if in a 4k new monthly users batch, I convert 4% to an in-app purchase of 2.99. That will cover the api cost by something like 3 months for the entire 4k users batch. If then I make no more money from the same batch I am losing money at the three-month mark as they continue to use the api but I am not making money from them.
What are my options? I am not sure I can get away with charging a subscription fee. I may try. I am currently working on reducing my reliance on the paid api. Should I maybe try and make the user purchase cost in a 4k batch equal to 12 months of usage?
Please let me know your thoughst. [link] [comments]  |
| Things Smart People Never Say In Public Posted: 09 Mar 2018 01:50 AM PST Have you ever had a conversation and said something that you immediately regret? It's happened to the best of us at one point or another, but the Smart people choose their words wisely.
The words that come out of our mouths can be interpreted in four ways: positive, negative, neutral, or unclear. Smart people and emotionally mature folks tend to speak in a deliberate, transparent manner; crafting their words to minimize a negative or enigmatic response. To avoid the dreaded thoughts and feelings that accompany an impulsive, erratic string of words, it helps to have a basic understanding of things not to say in public. Here Are 10 Things That Smart People Never Say: 1. "That's not fair." : I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but life isn't fair. Saying a phrase similar to "That's not fair! " makes you appear immature and whiny. Perhaps what happened is not fair; it may even be an egregious injustice. The thing to remember is that people surrounding us are often unaware of the "incident," and even if they are privy to the scenario, proclaiming "It's not fair" does absolutely nothing to solve the problem. Instead of complaining when things don't go their way, intelligent people want to know exactly what went wrong so that they can make the proper adjustments in order to prevent future mistakes or misunderstandings. 2. "It's not my fault." : It's never a good idea to cast blame. Even if it had been minimal involvement, you still had a role to play. As such, you also shoulder the blame. If not, offer an objective, dispassionate explanation of what happened. The moment you start pointing fingers is the moment people start seeing you as someone who lacks accountability for their actions. Instead of pointing fingers and throwing others under the bus, intelligent people hold themselves, and their teams, accountable. 3. "I'll try." : I will try..." There are no three words in the English language that are more deceptive, both to the person who says them and the person who hears them. People who say "I will try" have given themselves permission to fail. No matter what happens, they can always claim that they "tried". If you're asked to do something, either commit to doing it or offer an alternative, but don't say that you'll try because it sounds like you won't try all that hard. 4. "I can't." : Saying I can't suggest that you're not willing to do what it takes to get the job done. Instead of saying what you can't do, say what you can do. For example, instead of "I can't run those numbers," say "I don't yet know how to run that type of analysis. Is there someone who can show me so that I can do it on my own next time?" 5. "It is what is." : There may be a certain zen feeling with this statement, but an intelligent person would never say it out loud since it translates to "I have nothing to add to this situation," "I don't know how to fix this problem." Intelligent people don't back down from a challenge. They thrive on making the world better. They use their problem-solving skills and innovative thinking to face problems head-on. And, they never accept something for what it is. 6. "He's a jerk." : There is no upside to making a disparaging remark about a colleague. If your remark is exact, everybody already knows it, so there's no need to point it out. If your remark is inaccurate, you're the one who ends up looking like a jerk. There will always be rude or incompetent people in any workplace, and chances are that everyone knows who they are. 7. "As I've said before." : This phrase implies that you're insulted for having to repeat yourself, or that you're somehow "better" in some way than the recipient. To be fair, repeating the same thing over and over again to the same person is frustrating. Refrain from verbalizing this frustration, and attempt to clarify what you're saying. 8. "This will only take a minute." : Saying that something only takes a minute undermines your skills and gives the impression that you rush through tasks. Unless you're literally going to complete the task in 60 seconds, feel free to say that it won't take long, but don't make it sound as though the task can be completed any sooner than it can actually be finished. 9. "I give up." : Saying "I give up," is seemingly harmless, it is an affirmation that we're incapable of overcoming something in front of us. Maybe it's a terrible boss, a difficult assignment/project, a disdainful co-worker, or any countless number of things. Remember you are much stronger and smarter than you think. There is absolutely nothing that you cannot overcome. "I can do this" are the only words you need. 10. "That's not in my job description." : If your boss asks you to do something that you feel is inappropriate for your position, the best move is to complete the task eagerly. This often sarcastic phrase makes you sound as though you're only willing to do the bare minimum required to keep getting a paycheck, which is a bad thing if you like job security. Later, schedule a conversation with your boss and it also enables you and your boss to develop a long-term understanding of what you should and shouldn't be doing. What other phrases should be on this list? Please share your thoughts in the comments section below. [link] [comments]  |
| Keeping track of vendors and user accounts! Posted: 08 Mar 2018 05:35 PM PST Hey all! I can't be alone in this problem - wondering if there's a solution that exists. The startup I work for uses 35+ different Saas products/tools for our daily work. Sales has a CRM, video meeting, drip email campaign manager; Marketing uses an email newsletter provider, a landing page generator, etc, etc. When we were smaller, managing this wasn't that bad, but now that we're approaching 30 employees, it's really hard to keep track of - especially when someone leaves. We want to make sure we cutoff access, and also scale back any plans where we pay per seat. There's also the issue of managing billing for all of these. Does anything exist to help centralize this? Or maybe there are a couple tools that could do the job? Thanks! (And yes, I realize the irony in asking for software to solve my 'too much software' problem!:) ) [link] [comments]  |
| Sales Consulting for Manufacturers Posted: 09 Mar 2018 02:03 AM PST Hello all, My name is Garrett and I am starting a sales consulting business for manufacturers. We would be paid on performance and realized sales. In my life I have seen many manufacturers not take the right path to open up sales channels. There will be many challenges to avoid pitfalls and redundancy but I believe my strategy will be 3 months to a year to increase sales for each client. The reason I am posting is because in order to get exposure I'm not sure what platform I should launch on. Is there a manufactures network or social media network to get my name out there? Also any other advice would truly be appreciated since I am in the early stages of development. Thanks! [link] [comments]  |
| I got an offer from a startup without a strike price tied to equity (Sales) (US) Posted: 08 Mar 2018 07:03 AM PST I got an offer to be an Account Executive at a Enterprise SaaS company based internationally, that recently expanded to the US. They have received Series A funding and are roughly 2 weeks away from getting Series B funding. Since they just moved to the US 10 months ago, they don't have a valuation yet and cannot offer a strike price with the equity in my offer. * Is this normal to not tie a strike price to equity? * Would my shares be worth more if I joined the company before or after the Series B? * Any 'gotchas' I should look out for? Company is four years old, with $5MM in ARR, with forecasts to make it to $8MM ARR by the end of 2018. The base salary is a 10% bump and my variable is a 30% bump and commission structure/accelerators are more attractive than my current company. [link] [comments]  |
| Good product manager/bad product manager, but for design and engineering Posted: 08 Mar 2018 08:40 AM PST Hey everyone at r/startups. Hope you're all doing well! I'm looking for documents/blog posts/essays/any other useful material that are to design and engineering what Ben Horowitz' "Good Product Manager, Bad Product Manager" is to product. Essentially, foundational reading that you'd not only want people in those roles to read and attempt to embody, but also documentation that you can share across a company and have everyone understand the role as the role is "meant" to be understood. As a product person, I've found that sharing Good PM/Bad PM with non PMs helps them understand what I'm trying to do a bit better, creates a useful framework for them to give me feedback through, and helps them know when/where I'd like them to push me. Any help much appreciated. Thanks! [link] [comments]  |
| Pre-rev valuation for startup with $5m sales LOI? Posted: 08 Mar 2018 10:14 AM PST In pre-launch of an e-commerce / platform play and working through investor interest. Basically I am only going to raise capital through this group or just self-fund. There are some (time based) benefits they'll bring to the table, but easy to replicate. I know they have $30m or so to fund seed capital. I also have gross sales lined up of $5.5m in form of LOI. That is where I'm struggling on pre-money valuation. Rev multiples are pretty obvious for internet startups, but this is still technically pre-rev. My ask will be $2 or $4m, but at what? [link] [comments]  |
| Cofounder equity split dilemma : help Posted: 08 Mar 2018 08:26 AM PST Hi guys. I have a cofounder dilemma about equity I would like some external opinions on. In a nutshell: I am a non technical founder with many years of experience in advertising, marketing, design and some past startups. I came up with the idea for this startup two years ago alone. Created a business plan, designed UI, hired a designer to help with that aswell, and essentially invested about $800 into the startup including quitting my job before approaching my CTO. He is a very talented guy, we actually work very well together. Problem is he is currently part time finishing school, and accepted a full time offer on the other coast after college at a big firm, where he will continue to work part time on our business. He has to take the full time offer due to visa issues. Our startup revolves around connecting with restaurants ect in NY. But he will be moving to California for this job, so he can only focus on the app building aspects, and cannot put that on pause for example to go knocking on doors with me in NY to show growth and add users. Same goes with investors, he can't skip work to give presentations and and help me raise money— I will have to do all the growth steps alone as he only focuses on the technical aspects, on top of design, marketing, networking, and funding these steps with my savings (including cost of living to be full time). He can of course eventually pitch in money his job pays him, to fund some expenses such as pamphlets ect. But currently I am burdening those costs myself. So we agreed on 30% for him, 70% for me. Which I felt was fair, considering that he will have a full paying job with benefits as I turn down freelance work to be full time on the company. Our business revolves around two apps tied together, for both iOS and Android. Now I want to be clear that it is a lot of technical work. He also helps with the website, servers, new integrations, and will continue to manage these things are we grow. I genuinely appreciate his role and the hard work he will and has done. But to me, that is precisely why he has 30% of the company. 6 months in, he texts me to tell me he wants more equity, presumably 50%, because the technical aspects will become more difficult with time as we grow and that the amount of technical work he has to do in his opinion is the same as the CEO work. I fundamentally disagree with this, as I think that on top of my standard CEO responsibilities, which can be argued are equal to the CTO, I will have to also do the work of two founders due to his absence. Double the amount of restaurants outreach. Double the amount of investor meetings. Expos alone. Interview candidates alone. Network alone. Double everything non technical that a cofounder typically helps in during different stages to show growth in an investable time period. Not to mention putting my career on hold and not taking on freelance to focus on the company. Our app is currently able to onboard vendors and further development can be paused until we reach a certain number. Those numbers need to be physically reached by walking into restaurants. But due to the fact that he can't physically join me to add vendors he would essentially be forced to either wait or keep building tech that we might not necessarily need at this stage. Am I being unreasonable? Is this not a fair split? I really want to work with him, we do make a fantastic team and I do really respect him, but I don't think I can give more equity without being resentful. This isn't fueled by greed I genuinely just don't think more than 30% is fair. Any thoughts? Any help appreciated, Thanks [link] [comments]  |
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