Startups Shipping a major hurdle |
- Shipping a major hurdle
- If you want sponsors or partners to fund or promote your products or event, here's what I learned
- Additional Ways of Finding an Angel Investor
- Need help defining subscription option specifics
- Getting Paid vs. Getting Shout-Outs, as a new service-based startup.
- Dark Matter Funding
- Accelerator interviews begin in a few months. Would Toastmasters be worth it, to prepare?
- Other dev/tech leads, how do you manage the loop of suggestions, fixes, small features that are sent to you by other (non-dev) company members?
| Posted: 06 Jun 2018 07:16 PM PDT Hi guys, After finally registering the company name and getting across all the legal hurdles, there is one that seems to be an issue that I can't yet find a solution for. The product I'm selling has to be shipped from China to South Africa, it is extremely lightweight and a small box. Even when ordering 100s of the product, it is a very small size and so lightweight that shipping companies prefer to put it on air freight, and that becomes very expensive. I don't yet have the money to order thousands to justify getting a cargo container on a ship for around 800-2000 USD. How do you handle shipping from China for a small, lightweight load? [link] [comments]  |
| If you want sponsors or partners to fund or promote your products or event, here's what I learned Posted: 06 Jun 2018 03:21 AM PDT If you already have a lot of time, a big network, and money you can hire proposal writers or even an agency to do this for you. As a founder, I've found out that there are shortcuts or smartcuts so I saved my money and didn't use any agency. In the last few years, I have been engaged in a lot of for-profit and non-profit ventures over the years. Initially, I self-funded most of them but I later found out that there are individuals and even huge businesses that are willing to help sponsor or promote entrepreneurs. I have set up child-feeding projects (over 350 children at the last event), education scholarships for the underprivileged and even purely for-profit business seminars, workshops, and books. What you want your perfect partner or sponsor to do is to: *Pay you or invite you to speak at their events or at someone else's. *Fund your event, book tour, business growth, or marketing expenses *Email their massive databases about you, your brand and your business *Feature you on their podcasts blogs, newsletters=, magazines or websites (most of which probably get tons of traffic) *Issue press releases for you and your business *Teach you how to make more of an impact in your community *Secure media appearances for you (many people who got on TV used this approach) *Buy massive quantities of your products or services *Refer you to their friends, investors and even give you testimonials. *Hire you as a consultant, coach or service provider (you become their preferred vendor) *Use your products or services in their promotions or as upsells in their sales funnel. *Spend tens of thousands of dollars promoting you. How do you do this? The key is to find out which organizations or individuals are already interested in what you are planning to do. It's not just about what you can give them right now. It's about what you can give them if you receive the sponsorship you are asking for. That mindset is going to be your secret weapon. The Process Step 1. Identify businesses, individuals, institutions, corporations and people who would like access to your audience or customer base. Step 2. Pitch them via a brief email or call Step 3. Send a short one-page summary highlighting the benefits that you bring. Step 4. Get a live one on one meeting with a decision maker. Step 5. Create the proposal Step 6. Present a proposal with the following: Executive summary (1-2 pages max) Project Overview Your Profile Promotion Plan Sponsor or Partner Benefits Sponsor or Partner Requests(what they said they wanted when you spoke with them). Remember: It's not just about what you can give them right now. It's about what you can give them if you receive the sponsorship you are asking for. There's a lot of material online about this but if anyone here has a shorter or faster approach, please share. Most corporations are easy to reach via phone or email. I use Linkedin to reach out to people who work for the organizations I want to talk to. At sundry times, I just walked in and asked for an appointment. It takes perseverance since sometimes you may not get the first sponsor but if you keep at it, you'll find someone. [link] [comments]  |
| Additional Ways of Finding an Angel Investor Posted: 06 Jun 2018 03:46 PM PDT Hello all, on mobile, so apologies beforehand for any formatting issues. My team and I are working on a project which relates to the recent sports betting ruling in the SCOTUS. No, it is not another sportsbook; it is completely unique and we are confident there will be high demand for it. The idea is solid, and we have an MVP which everyone is quite satisfied with, but we need to push this out by fall, which will make our (willing) developers need to go full time on the app/website. None of us have the money to support ourselves/ somebody else without a job. We also do not want/need to give up a ton of equity until we are ready for launch. So that puts us squarely in angel territory. The standard avenues and our problems with them are: Friends/family: None of the people we know/ are related to have this kind of cash. I have gone this route on an earlier startup, and it was successful for myself and the investors, but we are talking substantially more money this time. Accelerators/incubators: every one I have spoken to has a 2-3 month long process from application to funding, which is too long, although I am going through with it anyway. Angel.co: we live in an area in the us that has few angels on that site. I am starting to reach out to Angels from further away, but the advice and guidance factor is something that we could all appreciate with somebody who was nearby, although distance is not a complete dealbreaker. Are there any avenues besides the above listed that you all have found worthwhile? Also, am I fundamentally looking at this problem through the wrong lens? Is there something else you would try first before looking for Angels? Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks all! [link] [comments]  |
| Need help defining subscription option specifics Posted: 06 Jun 2018 04:34 PM PDT I have 3 options that have varying levels of available "things" you can manage. Free level is a limit of 3, $9.99/mo is a limit of 12, $19.99 is a limit of 30. The area that I am struggling with is enforcing the level of the user if they downgrade. For example, if they are at the $9.99 level, but then downgrade to free, what is the best practice there in regards to "removing" the content over the new limit? I've seen some services put anything past the limit in "timeout", but that seems like it's holding the content ransom. What are some other options that you have implemented or have had implemented to you? [link] [comments]  |
| Getting Paid vs. Getting Shout-Outs, as a new service-based startup. Posted: 06 Jun 2018 04:30 PM PDT If you are a brand-new startup and if you encounter a potential client or customer that has a super low budget but offers to shout you out for doing their project, what would you do? Would you take the shout-out, take the small budget, or just not service them? And why or does it depend? I am asking because of what recently transpired. A customer came to us asking if we could do a project for him; however, his budget is super low and has almost 18K followers on his Instagram. On one hand, I am thinking "time is money" but on the other hand, I am also thinking "publicity is needed". I keep going back and fourth between not providing the service and providing the service for the shout-out since the budget is super low; but I have not made anything official yet. What would you do in a situation like this? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 06 Jun 2018 08:43 AM PDT It's out there, but I cant see it or touch it. I think the people of /r/startups understand best the feeling of immense pride when creating a solution to a problem and knowing that there is a market for it. I am sure most understand the yin to the yan of entrepreneurial aspirations. One does not simply will a functioning business to fruition. I've always been paranoid about having one of my ideas snaked. This has led to the development of many ideas up to the funding stage but no further. For some people funding is the proverbial anthill and developing the business is the mountain, for me it is reversed. I'm a pre-revenue virtuoso, making a product and a company is second nature but making something of the company is an ineptitude seemingly greater than my aptitudes. I recently converted confidence into courage and sent a pitch deck to a respectable looking VC firm based in Toronto. I was happy to finally have pushed past my inhibitions! Then I stumbled across this place. I don't know why I didn't think to look on Reddit for advice but when I started to read the posts relevant to my situation I found there is a healthy distrust of VCs. Until I started reading the posts, I had never felt a feeling as close to losing my mom in Walmart. Small cardiac episode aside, I have faith in the system and the people in it. This is despite the presence of A-Holes and D-Holes alike. My product is awesome and is going to moderately affect the world. Probably a common sentiment around these parts but I wouldn't have sent out the pitch deck if I wasn't sure. The bad news is that I gave away most of the business concept. Everything that belongs in a pitch deck I put in it: Problem, Solution, Market, Traction, Revenue Estimates, Profit Estimates, Design, Competitors, etc. Good News is that there are patentable aspects to it which is what makes the product so great compared to the competition. I divulged none of those specifically, maybe a hint or 2 here and there but nothing revealing. The issue is that "they" could theoretically make an MVP with what I gave them but it wouldn't be anywhere near as good without the proprietary aspects. That may not stop them from attempting it. I do not know how they expect people who want to change the world to fill in forms and wait in turn for their email to be read and chewed on. I understand everyone in line ahead of me also feels that way but I still feel like bursting, which is why I post here. I am hoping that there is a solution I don't see. What should I do? The 2 options I see are to hope they are respectable and patiently wait for my chance or aggressively seek other funding in order to beat the hypothetical snake. Waiting is my natural position so that's what I am doing for now but I would appreciate if anyone has some advice for me. Thanks [link] [comments]  |
| Accelerator interviews begin in a few months. Would Toastmasters be worth it, to prepare? Posted: 06 Jun 2018 03:10 AM PDT Last post removed by Automod. Hello, I've applied to an accelerator, and interviews will begin in a few months. I've always been average at public speaking (Pretty good with 1-on-1s though, which is what the interviews are). Would attending toastmasters in the preceding months be a worthwhile investment of my time? I don't know if I have made it to the interview stage yet, but I'm hopeful. < Automod requires 500 characters, so adding some background. Not required reading > I've been planning on trying it out, but never had the time between school & work. I've heard it's really good for developing general life skills, so this is giving me a bit of an excuse to try it out. What are your thoughts? Cheers! [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 06 Jun 2018 07:28 AM PDT Hey all, Our startup has gotten to the 20+ employees point, with 3 devs... It's an awesome place to be but now we seem to receive a constant stream of suggestions, fixes, and small feature requests. Obviously, we do not do everything, and everything is qualified before it gets added to the queue. But I am wondering how you guys manage the process. I am thinking of opening an internal ticketing system, where other company members can add a ticket for this and assignments, status, responses can be communicated through the ticket. Any other suggestions? I do not want to add the entire company to a trello board. But the process right now from dev team to other company members happens entirely over email. [link] [comments]  |
| You are subscribed to email updates from Startups - Finding problems and solving them!. To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google, 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, United States | |
No comments:
Post a Comment