• Breaking News

    Monday, November 5, 2018

    Startups Leaving a (mostly/on it's way) successful startup as a founder

    Startups Leaving a (mostly/on it's way) successful startup as a founder


    Leaving a (mostly/on it's way) successful startup as a founder

    Posted: 04 Nov 2018 04:41 AM PST

    TLDR: (cue the Clash) Should I stay or should I go? Technical co-founder looking for advice on when it's time to leave.

    Founders who have left a successful (or on it's way) startup after several years (but pre-exit): what's your story on why and how? How'd it turn out? Were you able to do it gracefully? What did you learn?

    I'm not talking about leaving early on due to drama or failure to launch, but later stage, when things are mostly on track.

    My situation: Technical co-founder. VC backed. Enterprise software, mix of on-prem and cloud. Raised between $50-100M over 8+ years (enterprise software often has longer horizons). Company is in good hands, IMO, but the outcome isn't certain by any means. I'd probably buy my options and have founding common shares, so it would still be a decent outcome for me in all likelihood. There is a possibility that I could sell to a secondary in the near term at a decent, albeit not IPO/big exit, valuation. CEO and I are very open with each other and have a good relationship and we've openly talked about the crossroads I'm at. Family is supportive either way, but probably leans toward staying just because it's our current comfort zone and the money is good and it's not like I am miserable.

    My practical side says stay and find new ways to grow within the company. My gut says it's time to do something new.

    submitted by /u/hockeyandbikes
    [link] [comments]

    How can we find the approximate time of an FDA approval process?

    Posted: 04 Nov 2018 10:41 AM PST

    We are working on a medical device that is applied externally and does not use any chemicals to regulate the blood pressure. We have a design and filed for a provisional patent. But we need some funding to build a working prototype. We do not have funding yet, but we are looking for an Agnel investor who can help us with the FDA process as well. Crowdfunding is not an option for us since this is a medical device.

    In an ideal situation, we would like the angel investor to be kind of a mentor to us as well. We are not fresh college graduates and have several years of working in industry and academia under our belts, but this is our first startup and we want to make sure we do this right. We are also not against incubators or accelerators as long as they add enough value to the share that they ask for. So, if you know one, let us know. We are in the San Diego area, which is not the Valley, but it is much cheaper and there are biotech companies all around.

    - Should we figure out the FDA process before we talk to an investor including angel?

    - How can we find the approximate time of an FDA approval process?

    - How can we find an angel investor who might bring value and not just money?

    Thanks for your help in advance.

    submitted by /u/bikfoot
    [link] [comments]

    Getting more concerned as time is closer to launching online site

    Posted: 04 Nov 2018 11:31 AM PST

    I know it's mainly cause I've never launched a startup before, but I'm second guessing myself more as time goes on. I'm wondering if when launched will there be too many cancellations, or a ton of questions that will consume too much time. Will I have had a huge oversight that somehow got missed? Is there some roadblock I really haven't considered? Not really sure if what I'm feeling is normal.

    I'm very interested to hear other's experiences on this. How was your experience launching? What do you wish you had known before launching? What was something you did that made a huge impact?

    submitted by /u/lemony707
    [link] [comments]

    I Founded a startup 5 months ago. I had to put it on pause due to finances & recently accepted an offer. How do I update/handle my LinkedIn? Do I take my startup off?? Please advice!

    Posted: 04 Nov 2018 12:32 PM PST

    Sorry for posting on a throwaway, I had to for privacy reasons.

    About 5 months ago I founded an AI startup. I made good progress on the MVP, had a lot of interest from investors & potential clients. Unfortunately, due to a combination of mental stress and finances .. I have had to put it on pause. Bills need to be paid somehow, right.

    This past week I received a generous offer from a company, and I'm planning on accepting first thing on Monday. However, an "issue" arises: how do I handle my LinkedIn?

    I'm still super passionate about the startup. I'm planning on continue working on it after I get settled in my new position.

    1. On one hand, I don't want to completely remove the startup from my LinkedIn. This would imply that I'm abandoning the startup (or maybe I'm just going "stealth mode"?). I don't want to give off this idea. I still LOVE my startup, my product, and the tech stack I've built. I still want to associate myself with the startup somehow. My profile receives a fair bit of traffic from people of all backgrounds.

    2. On the other hand, I'm starting a pretty nice position at a new company. I don't want to give off the wrong idea that I'm leeching off them or whatever. Some people have really extreme reactions when I begin talking about my startup. They become intimidated and begin to plot / do politics. I want to avoid this altogether.

    What do I do? Advice is greatly appreciated, thank you.

    submitted by /u/itswhatevers
    [link] [comments]

    Starting a new company

    Posted: 04 Nov 2018 05:12 AM PST

    I got a bachelor in business, specialized in innovation in SMBs. I've been working full time for close to 7 years in a high quality hospitality business, and we have been doing really great. While I've been working here the company has grown from about about 8M USD revenue, to 30M USD revenue. The administration that I work for is small, we are only 5-6 people and I'm doing (and have been doing) lots of different tasks in the company. It's a typical entrepreneurial business in many ways, and the owners still work here. I got one formal boss and one informal boss (one of the founders).

    I recently "identified" (in lack of a better english word) a person with a skillset that will benefit our company in a few ways. She can make one of the best products in the market, wich we buy from someone else today at a cheaper price. It does require an investment, but the company is willing to take it. She can also make a different type of product that does not fit in to our range of products today, but is still very popular if it's made high quality.

    After a few meetings shes been offered a deal to start a new company, where I will be the general manager and she will be the COO (I might be wrong on the terminology, I would be her boss). She will get 20% of the company and a decent salary.

    Product 1 will be sold to the mother company at a discounted price, and to others companies after its up and running smooth.

    Product 2 will be sold through our own shops wich we will start up 3 of withing a year. We will also concider selling them to a few colleagues in the industry that we think are good companies. We will however keep it a premium product.

    Where most shops in our industry seems to be chainoriented and built to have lots of seatings, we are thinking about making our shops more instagram desitnations (think colorful exhibition).

    Is there a list of some sort as to what we should think about from day one? Ownership is taken care of for her and the mother company. We got our vision and values ready (and not one of those tacky ones that lots of people seem to come up with, just to come up with them), we more or less done with a SWOT-analysis.

    I've have not been offered a new contract yet, but I've been offered 1% ownership. And I do not know if I will offered a payrise or not. I will go for the job either way, but could I expect to negotiate a bigger part of the ownership, a higher base salary, options (right word? bigger part of the ownership for each year I stay e.g.) if I stay for a certain time, a percentage of operating profit after tax (all profits will be put in the company to grow), other ideas or comments?

    The reason she gets 20% of the company is a bit complication, but TLDR; She started a successfull company producing product 1 and 2. They were in the black after running the business for 7 months. She was then fired from the company and they are lawyering up. This also ensures that the mother company does not loose their focus on what they do, will continue growing and their general manager only have to replace me to keep on going.

    I've probably forgot some relevant information, but I'll fill in if you have a relevant question, if I can.

    submitted by /u/businessthrower
    [link] [comments]

    Looking for an affordable CPA for my startup

    Posted: 04 Nov 2018 05:00 PM PST

    Hello all!

    As I said I'm looking for an affordable CPA for my tiny tiny sole-proprietorship startup. I am barely having (income) transactions during the year (less than 10) and I won't be declaring expenses (long story). So pretty much this is why I say "affordable." I'm barely making money so I can't pay hundreds and hundreds to have someone assist me with what I need. Also, when I mentioned the amount of transactions I was mostly for reference.

    I don't mean to sound "cheap" and I'm sorry if it sounds that way. I'm just trying to be honest, and right now I am in a position where I can't really pay big sums.

    Thanks for your time.

    submitted by /u/MagnoliaFansShadow
    [link] [comments]

    Stubbornness vs. Opportunism

    Posted: 04 Nov 2018 05:40 AM PST

    Have had this on my mind for a while, and don't seem to be making much progress on my own so I thought to learn from what you guys think.

    How would you try to reconcile these qualities a founder is supposed to have? Stubbornness and opportunism seem to be attributes on opposite ends of a spectrum, yet entrepreneurs are expected to be both at the same time.

    Stubborn enough to push through in turning their visions into reality, and opportunistic and flexible enough to take advantage of trends and market gaps they can identify.

    Is it even possible to try to compare these, or are we talking apples and oranges here? Would love to hear different perspectives, your theories and experiences.

    submitted by /u/gx14
    [link] [comments]

    Looking for advice on Pay raise at startup

    Posted: 04 Nov 2018 01:20 PM PST

    Hi all, just to give a quick context to my question.

    I've been working as an Operations manager in a 5 man startup for the past year.

    My starting salary wasn't very good to begin with due to pretext that the said startup lacks funding. I'm currently taking a fairly small pay compared to market value, ($40k yearly compared to a median of $70k yearly in my town).

    My 1 year of service is coming up next month and we're going to have a talk about my pay raise.

    How should I tackle this subject of being under paid and the eventuality that I might be offered shares?

    submitted by /u/lokodeko
    [link] [comments]

    I'm creating a podcast show and my friend (the host) keeps retaliating against the guidelines and discussion points to go rogue. What to do?

    Posted: 04 Nov 2018 01:44 AM PST

    So I've started a podcast show that has a huge potential in my mind, and I've invited a friend and his friend to join me in making it happen. The whole thing is my idea and I have a very specific vision for it after knowing exactly what that podcast needs and how it can work like a charm. I even have a plan on how to start bringing sponsors to support our podcast and build a business out of it. My friend however is more interested in the show's idea and how he can use it to express his thoughts, but not very focused on the business side of it—and that's fine by me as long as the business runs smoothly. Of course just like any other good business, this podcast needs planning and care for both the content and production and if we don't follow the guidelines, the podcast will be just another podcast of the thousands out there with no added value to it. The first time we recorded, it went well. My friend showed some effort to comply with the guidelines, but unfortunately by the second episode, the guy is starting to show signs of retaliation to the rules. So when we decide on the points we want to discuss and how we want to discuss it, he would just impatiently say "come on let's just start recording" then just go by whatever he has in mind without following the points of discussion. Now I wouldn't mind that at all if he was good and his talk goes with the flow of the podcast or makes the whole topic we're covering clear; but it's actually coming out very random and messy, which ruins the podcast idea and the vision I have for it! And when we review the result together, he would see the bad outcome and then say "oh I guess we need more practice." He doesn't need more practice, he just needs to listen and then stick to the rules, but I'm guessing he doesn't like that.

    I know for a fact that having good or bad employees for business owners is one of the most frustrating aspects of their business-building, and my podcast is also just another business that I'm trying to build. How do you deal with difficult people in your business? Where do you draw the line and say that this is not working?

    We are a team of three so far, and we are all having fun, but in the same time Ii don't want to waste time just having fun randomly speaking into a microphone when we can actually provide golden content to the world and benefit from that. Yes we can always do the podcast to "just talk" and still have something, but that's a different kind of podcast and it's not going to take us anywhere (not saying it doesn't work, but it's not what I'm after).

    submitted by /u/pixelatedbeard
    [link] [comments]

    No comments:

    Post a Comment