Startups Need help valuing my startup |
- Need help valuing my startup
- Freemium SaaS: What's your free:paid user ratio?
- How to handle "Idea Guy" and where I stand in current position(life)?
- LambdaTest WordPress Plugin For Multi-Browser Screenshots Launched On Product Hunt
- Is being a Founder now a job title that’s just as attainable (read on)
- Almost all of my ideas involve high startup costs and/or significant levels of manpower and expertise - why would anyone listen to me, much less trust me?
- How to increase users in an online marketplace?
- Should I pick a name used by a Japanese company as my English name?
- Looking to start a Gaming Lounge/Cafe with some friends/coworkers
- How to come up with a Startup idea?
| Posted: 31 Oct 2018 10:44 PM PDT Have just received interest in acquiring my startup and don't know the ballpark that I should push for. Would love to get any help possible! Industry: recruitment service/software Age: 2 years 2018 revenue: $300,000 (by year end) 2018 expenses: $35,000 (by year end) I am the only employee but I'm very easily replaceable. If they replace me, they'll likely need to spend $65,000 yearly on a salaried employee to do the day-to-day that I'm doing. There is no debt on the company. Brand is becoming rather reputable and reputation is expanding quickly. The pipeline for the future is great. Plenty of market share to eat up with no competitors that offer the same service in the same way. I spend very little money on marketing. All done through word of mouth, email marketing, and a little FB retargeting. The potential buyer is on an acquisition spree and seems so far to be very interested. I have no idea where to even start to value my business. I'd love to make an exit so I can start on more ambitious goals, but if I'm going to get ripped off, I'm happy to decline as the future looks good. Can anyone lend any insight? [link] [comments]  |
| Freemium SaaS: What's your free:paid user ratio? Posted: 31 Oct 2018 08:45 AM PDT We're starting to think about experimenting with our pricing model to drive subscriptions, but just curious to those who have experience running freemium SaaS models, what kind of ratios do you find most common? Obviously this will depend on the market, the product, etc, but curious to know what others have experienced. A bonus would be to anyone who has embarked on similar growth campaigns to convert free->paid, what was your strategy? We have a couple of ideas floating around, but curious as to what's worked well (or hasn't) for others. [link] [comments]  |
| How to handle "Idea Guy" and where I stand in current position(life)? Posted: 31 Oct 2018 11:53 PM PDT Hello there, (incoming wall of text, young and could use some advice) So I have quite the dilemma I am in. I have a long time friend (has known me since I was 4 years old, he is 10 years my senior). I am currently 21 and recently graduated from university nearly 2 years ago with a health sciences/kinesiology degree -- no longer want to pursue that field and was just working full time after I graduated. "Idea Guy" approached me with a rather, looking back at it now, "snake-oil" salesman pitch. Now 2 of the ideas are rather concrete and more grounded than a startup. They are legitimate businesses that are established so I am not too concerned with those. I put the work in for those and now am waiting gov't approval. My role would be classified as operations -- mkt research and data, coordinate meetings, assimilate ideas, business plans, pitch decks, etc. I am more concerned with his approach to business. He is the typical "idea guy" -- climbed the corporate ladder, made good money, bought real estate, and has residual income from that and just "works" on these projects on the side. I use the word "work" rather loosely because he does not have much technical skill. Now I am not stating that I am computer genius or know how to code but know my way around organizing ideas and writing reports, doing the market research/data collection, finances, etc. What I consider basic non-technical duties. I do not know much about the software side but there are folks for that and I totally get that. I never try to overstep any boundaries and know the limits of my ability/knowledge. However the Idea-guy in question does not. He is constantly on facebook when we do work together (getting inspiration), watching motivational videos, and anything not relative to the actual work unless it is general, macro idea type stuff (e.g., how the product should work, execution, requests more than is feasible/practical for an MVP). Now this is not necessarily a bad thing because I am not super creative so it is nice to have someone else with the abstract ideas but that gets old real fast when there is no execution. Like at all. If I for example request he do something on the computer -- his typical response is "oh can you just do that, i do not know how to", "I am just the idea guy", etc. It gets old real fucking fast. Maybe I am just young and dumb (I for certain am), but I cut back my hours at my job so I can work part time on these few start-up ideas but I have not been paid any money for any of my work. I am not hurting for cash at all right now (have about a year of living expenses saved up with income coming in from business with brother) but I was thinking about returning to college to pursue another degree in a field that I am more certain of (entered college at 16, had no idea what I wanted to do, who does at 16, still don't really know but I think i've figured it out after going through college once already). Anyway, he has a new idea and suggested I quit my job so I can work on this idea full time. I of course was hesitant because this idea is only a week old and he responded with "if you aren't willing to dedicate your time to this really great idea -- then I don't know what to tell you!".....Well shit, color me stupid for not wanting to do something super irrational considering I have done ZERO mkt research about it. Now this raised a huge red flag -- because he then went on to say "maybe I should form another team, you are busy working on the other app ideas and waiting for the other gov't contracts to go through." He is already distributing equity points and of course giving himself triple mine when his already tasking me with a long list of items that he knows he can't (or rather, unwilling to). I am taken aback right now. Just got off the phone with him. I'm distraught because he is like family to me but he is also really putting me in a tough position. I have no idea what to do and am thinking of just walking away at this point from everything and going back to doing my thing. I plan on talking with one of our more senior partners/legal consultants tomorrow about this matter as he is over double my age and can offer some insight. He may be a bit biased but he can definitely shed light on this as he has worked with "idea-guy" much longer than I have. TL;DR brought in about 6-7 months ago to work on some booming industry businesses, very viable, start-up idea was introduced by idea-guy, has consumed a lot of my time, "idea-guy" is strictly that -- full of ideas but seldom types out a single word, mainly talks. Wants me to quit job and work full time on these projects and new idea that is only a week old. Big red flag. What would you do? Thank you. Feel free to ask any questions. Just sort of rambling right now. Trying to process everything as I cannot sleep right now. I have though about leaving before and was met with some bs by idea guy about "who cares if you enjoy the work -- work for the money so you can be philanthropic, etc".....I have no idea what to do right now. [link] [comments]  |
| LambdaTest WordPress Plugin For Multi-Browser Screenshots Launched On Product Hunt Posted: 01 Nov 2018 01:42 AM PDT We are now live 🚀on Product Hunt with our WordPress Plugin. Check out our profile on Product Hunt and leave us feedback on how you feel about us or a word of encouragement if that's more your style. 😉 #WordPress #WordPressPlugin #softwareasaservicesaas #producthunt #saas #testing #softwaretesting #launch https://www.producthunt.com/posts/lambdatest-wordpress-plugin Here's what you can do using LambdaTest Wordpress plugin for multi-browser screenshots: -->Perform visual cross-browser testing directly from your WordPress dashboard. -->Take screenshots across 2000+ combinations of browsers, browser versions, operating systems, and devices. -->On encountering a bug, mark it to your bug management tool directly from your WordPress account, hence making bug management easier. -->Take screenshots of your pages and posts from the editor to ensure cross-browser compatibility. -->Integrate your account to various bug management tools like JIRA, Asana, Trello, GitLab, GitHub, VSTS, Bitbucket, Paymo, and TeamWork. And a lot more features. With LambdaTest WordPress Plugin you can capture up to 25 screenshots in one test session. You can perform up to 10 screenshot sessions every month using our freemium plan. But you are special, so we are offering a 35% exclusive discount for product hunt users on our listed price if you opt for an annual subscription. Use coupon code PH35 while upgrading to avail the same. By a free sign up you can perform a lot more than screenshot testing. Here are some of the major highlights of the features that we provide in our product: → 2000+ browser and browser versions where can you test your web-apps. → Real-time interactive testing → Automated Responsive testing to perform Visual UI testing. → Smart UI Testing wherein you can compare image to image and identify visual deviations. → Single click bug logging to help you log a bug from screenshots with only a single click. → Inbuilt issue tracker which directly allows you to integrate your bug to JIRA, Slack, Asana, Trello, GitHub, Gitlab, VSTS, Bitbucket, Google Meet or emails. → Testing of the websites hosted on local and private servers using SSH tunnel. → Wordpress plugin for taking full-page automated screenshots. We provide access to all our features in our freemium plan. The only difference between our freemium and premium plan lies in the amount of consumption. As a premium user, you can perform unlimited testing for all the features on our product. We envision LambdaTest as a platform that can fulfil all the needs of the testing community. We are continuously growing to facilitate a complete testing ecosystem. Thanks to our customers' valuable feedbacks and suggestions. [link] [comments]  |
| Is being a Founder now a job title that’s just as attainable (read on) Posted: 01 Nov 2018 12:02 AM PDT What I mean is more and more I am starting to notice that there aren't that many accidental founders that I'm running across. People prepare to start up, scale, and they speak the terminology really well too. It seems like you get measured in the amount of exits you have, with the first one being the key exit. There's a clear predefined path (for most tech founders in my experience) and its starting to get to the point where in my mind somebody being a Founder is as much as them having prepared for the job as one would as a data scientist, or a plumber. You can't apply for it but you can see similarities. I don't know how I feel about it. What are your thoughts? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 31 Oct 2018 11:14 AM PDT Pretty much all of the ideas for startups I have that I feel very passionate about involve either high startup costs and/or significant levels of manpower and expertise right out of the gate. For example, I've always loved the idea of something like Blinkist but for academic papers, or a startup that takes research coming out of political/policy think tanks and translates it into short, educational animated videos (think Crash Course). There are other ideas that I have, but you get the general gist of it. I'm a senior in college preparing for graduate school, double majoring in social sciences and humanities fields. The graduate programs I'm looking at fall into three broad categories - history and philosophy of science (with an emphasis in internet studies), decision making psychology, or public policy. I essentially have no background in anything STEM or business related, although I recently became involved in an entrepreneurship program at my school that has put me into contact with some high-level administrators. I don't know what my future holds. I always assumed that anything related to entrepreneurship or startups was off the table for me, because of my background. The barrier to entry always seemed too high, considering the nature of most of my ideas. I don't really have any specific questions, but I am looking for advice - what do you do when you have ideas for startups, but most of those ideas involve either high startup costs or a relatively high level of manpower and/or expertise? Is it a total crapshoot to pursue these kinds of ideas? Why would anyone listen to someone like me, much less trust someone like me? Is there anything I can do to put myself in a position where something like this isn't totally unfeasible? [link] [comments]  |
| How to increase users in an online marketplace? Posted: 31 Oct 2018 09:05 PM PDT Hi guys, I've launched an online wine marketplace in Italy and Europe (the marketplace is available in Euros only), to allow wineries, wine shops, and wine professionals to sell their products online. I'm looking for ideas on how to increase both number of users and sellers. Currently focusing on finding wineries and wine shops on Wine Searcher. Contacting wineries and wine shops owners on LinkedIn. Informing wine sellers and wine lovers on Facebook groups. When talking about online wine sales, many people tend to label them as a niche, but is it really such a small segment? Here is some overall data: • Italian wineries are more than 100,000; • The Italian wine industry is valued nearly 10 billion euros; • Over 10% of sales consists of wine that costs more than 7 euros – the one you usually buy in wine shops; • More than 1 million Italians drink expensive wine; • The international wine industry is valued 250 billion euros. This little data is enough to understand that wine is not a niche but rather, in Italy as well as in Europe, a huge market and a still largely unexplored online channel, one that will surely grow in the years to come. But then why is the penetration of online wine sales in Italy so low if compared to other European countries like France and UK? (Indeed it only amounts to 0.5% of the whole industry). First of all, the growth of online sales has started later in Italy than in the other European countries. We have dragged this delay for years but we are now slowly catching up in all product categories. Indeed, Italian e-commerce has increased by 16% in 2015, according to a well-known research by the Observatory of the University Politecnico in Milan. A second reason is definitely linked to traditional Italian customs. We are used to buying wine directly from the producer's cellar – though this is less and less true for younger generation. Finally, there is one more point to make, one that seems difficult to explain: when talking to people or interviewing them we are often asked, "can you really buy wine online?". Yes, you can buy wine online! It is more convenient, there is a wider choice and you do not have to break your back carrying heavy boxes. These are the reasons why, I decided to found My online marketplace with the twofold objective of becoming the dream wine shop for all wine lovers and to position ourselves in Europe and in the world as the benchmark for the worldwide wine offer. We currently have 25 registered sellers and more than 900 wines for sale, even if at the moment the sellers are only Italian. I could continue with contacting wineries, wine stores, and wine professionals online, using Wine Searcher, LinkedIn, and Facebook, however is there a way to improve my marketing efforts? Any information on how long it takes to build a 2 sided marketplace would be useful. Thanks! [link] [comments]  |
| Should I pick a name used by a Japanese company as my English name? Posted: 31 Oct 2018 07:05 PM PDT I came up with a name for my company that I think is very clever although my research on its effectiveness is incomplete so me and my friends might be the only ones who think it's clever. I recently learned that a Japanese internet hosting company has a name that is written identically in it's romanized name. Both our names are puns but theirs is on a Japanese word sounding like an English word and mine is on two English words so they sound completely different from each other depending on the language. If I were ever to expand into Japan (which is unlikely in the near future) I would probably opt for a translation of the name that preserves the feel of the name in English and would be different than their Japanese name. I don't know how international copyright works so I don't know whether a legal dispute would happen. If it did what would the ramifications be and is it likely? [link] [comments]  |
| Looking to start a Gaming Lounge/Cafe with some friends/coworkers Posted: 31 Oct 2018 07:35 AM PDT After a few weeks of talking passively about this, the 4 of us have agreed that we are committed to really trying to build something. We'd like to start up a Gaming Lounge/Cafe and have no idea what we're doing essentially. We've done some research and we know that looots more research is needed along with a SOLID business plan to even have a chance at success. I know that location is major as well. Anyone with any experience in this realm have any advice on the best first few steps to take in this endeavor? [link] [comments]  |
| How to come up with a Startup idea? Posted: 31 Oct 2018 10:29 AM PDT Hi everyone, I had two software startups. Both failed kinda. Or let's say didn't get as much as traction I had. I'm looking for my next SaaS and Startup idea. Something that can really help automate their manual part of job. Problems that you have or could arrive in future. I'm short on ideas why: 1 - my problems are not SaaS related 2 - market is overly competitive 3 - I am not passionate about a specific topic. People suggest looking at product hunt or beta list. Find "inspiration" but it is overly complicated :( [link] [comments]  |
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