Startups In a GrubHub business model, is it important to sign up businesses first or customers first? |
- In a GrubHub business model, is it important to sign up businesses first or customers first?
- Quit a startup and now I have to pay $20k to get the stocks
- How do I approach or find investors extremely early on?
- This was written for nonprofits but can really help startups also.
- Launching an Apparel Line (Men's Sportswear)
- Adding (Coding) Features to POS Systems?
- Fundraising for NSFW web project. Is it possible?
- Where to start with B2G pricing
- The Widening Valley of Death for Startups
| In a GrubHub business model, is it important to sign up businesses first or customers first? Posted: 29 Dec 2018 06:07 PM PST I am working on a platform that is similar to the GrubHub model. I am working on the MVP now and I have been thinking, is it more important to sign up business first or customers first? Or should there be a balance between both of them? I have been struggling with this for a while now, and haven't really found an answer because to entice customers I should have businesses signed up and to entice businesses I should have customers signed up etc.... I am not sure if anyone here has ran into this issue. Your feedback is greatly appreciated folks! [link] [comments]  |
| Quit a startup and now I have to pay $20k to get the stocks Posted: 29 Dec 2018 09:26 AM PST This shares current value based on most recent funding is 2x strike price, but not sure if that means anything because from the stories I read here about liquidations most of the money goes to the VCs and I may not even get my money back (even with successful exit). That's why I'm worried of buying them. The startup is doing well in terms of growth and their product is unique, but too early to tell if they will succeed in making revenue. I know it's a risk and it can go either way like buying any other stocks. But I was wondering if anyone had similar situation and can share their experience ? EDIT: to elaborate, the stocks are part of an option grant I received when I joined the startup. Now because I left, I have the option to buy them for $20k within 1 month of quitting or otherwise the option expires and I will lose them. [link] [comments]  |
| How do I approach or find investors extremely early on? Posted: 29 Dec 2018 07:57 PM PST I've been working on a website idea in a niche market for about 6 months now. Here is where we are in our life cycle:
The problem we are facing right now is that our team consists of two people; a longtime friend (works in Cyber Security at an accounting firm) and me (I work as an auditor at an accounting firm). We are both too busy (and busy season starts January 1st which means 70-80 hour work weeks for us) to actively push our website to the next step and both are too young to have disposal savings that would be enough to throw at, let's say a web developer, to begin bringing our product to life (at an MVP level). We honestly would only need about 10-20,000 in order to develop enough to start having users test and sign up for our website. We know angel investment websites are out there... but do those actually work for startups at the phase we are in? Y-combinator and other combinators sound great too but we are hesitant on quitting our professions so early on to move and work on our website before we know what we have... actually has potential (besides looking great on paper). Where can we find people to pitch to? EDIT: Or even smart individuals who have more time and share our same vision that will devote time to finishing or polishing the edges for us? [link] [comments]  |
| This was written for nonprofits but can really help startups also. Posted: 29 Dec 2018 11:30 AM PST Thinking of Customer Relations as Binary Would you like in on a secret that we have learned over the years? This is probably the number one biggest piece of advice you could ever hear for building a successful organization. It can not only help you to grow your exponentially, but also give you a much better experience while running it! Ready for it??? Keep your existing donors and backers happy! Ok well that sounds less revolutionary when it's spelled out. Even in bold. But it is amazing to me how many non-profits, and especially for-profits get this wrong. Organizations will spend fortunes to acquire new clients, and buy traffic to a website. While at the same they actively try to prevent people from contacting them with issues or concerns. I will never understand this. When someone reaches out to you it is a great opportunity. True, they may have a problem or concern, they may even be angry, this is your time to shine! The Binary choice I believe that every situation has 2 options on how to react. It can either be a very big important reaction, or a calm, no biggy kind of reaction. Here is the catch. You have to pick one. The person on the other side of the table will pick the other. Let me explain with a scenario. Let's say a new donor calls upset about a charge on their card. They are mad, calling you names, accusing you of being a fraud etc. What do you do? 2 choices One you sympathize. Oh my, I am so sorry we must have made a terrible mistake. We will start by contacting the CC processor to insure that this will never happen again. Obviously you will be refunded immediately. Let me just get a supervisor on the line as well to go over this and make sure we take care of this. Can you just give me the details from the charge on your card? Just to be sure on our end does a spouse have access to that card? Now maybe they realize that the error was on them The client will take the no big deal reaction now. They are happy you listened and cared about the concern. This will probably turn into a life long ambassador to your cause. What if you took the no biggy reaction? Told them, ya this happens, we will refund you. Or even worse, they couldn't even find a way to contact you? It only takes a few minutes to care. [link] [comments]  |
| Launching an Apparel Line (Men's Sportswear) Posted: 29 Dec 2018 05:42 PM PST Hi all! Just wanted to ask advice to anyone with experience in launching an apparel line. Feel free to provide general advice, or direct relevance to the quick summary below! TIA Quick summary of where I am at. We have finished designs and received our first samples, currently in process of signing with a factory in Hong Kong and another in Thailand (I made an effort to lock two factories instead of just one, thought more branches the better. In turn, have to fulfill both MOQs so more $). We've nailed down the fabric and sizing, which is bitchin. Need: Website Social Media (Looking to optimize instagram PPC as main driver, and youtube for video trailers) Sales Reps Investors (So far have spent around 10k of my own money. Need $60k to get the first line of inventory. Will be pitching to potential investors) I have zero experience in the apparel business. I just saw a niche and decided to act on it, and now I'm in deep waters. [link] [comments]  |
| Adding (Coding) Features to POS Systems? Posted: 29 Dec 2018 09:18 AM PST Say I was a gym owner, and I wanted to track which of my personal trainers' clients were buying drinks after their workouts, purchasing better memberships, or even referring their friends to come have a personal training session. If I already have a Point of Sale system, is there a way I (or a programmer/developer) could add on to the POS system so that we could keep track of those stats? Or would it just be best to contact the people who run my POS to see if I could have that service added? *I just want to stat I am not a gym owner, but know of people/businesses that I believe could benefit from these services [link] [comments]  |
| Fundraising for NSFW web project. Is it possible? Posted: 29 Dec 2018 10:33 AM PST They say investors (even angels) are not interested in NSFW projects even if project matches all usual criteria of a promising startup Is it true? Are there any ways to get funding? --- To be more specific I'll provide some general project details (sorry for self-promotion) You are aware of Tumblr news, right? We are looking to transform our current site (community of gif makers) into GIF-blogging platform that is going to substitute Tumblr in this niche. At the same time platform will become source of content for GIF/image fans in addition to adult sub-reddits. - In other words. We'd like to replicate proven model of (organic) traffic generation. And monetize it more successfully being not bond by various restrictions (that you have when owned by Verizon/Yahoo :) ) [link] [comments]  |
| Where to start with B2G pricing Posted: 29 Dec 2018 09:01 AM PST I've got a service that I'm wrapping up and looking to sell. It's focused at government, from local cities and counties to COGS and state level groups focused on public safety. I have two interested clients, one state org that wants to use our API to supplement their own data and one COG that wants to use it to generate data and inform the public of public safety issues. I've been working with the state org for over a year getting their input and making contacts through them, because of the way their department does contracts the only reason we haven't been able to do implementation is because we have to be subbed through an existing contract so we're trying to find a company to sub through, otherwise they're excited and ready to go. The COG is similar but the implementation problem is a matter of wrangling the right people, police/fire/ems chiefs, etc. I've discussed pricing with both groups and both have indicated they wouldn't be able to pay as much as I think it might be worth, the COG gave us info on a similarly structured service they use. We figured pricing based on that service model, what is the value of a life in their jurisdiction so it came down to $.00x/person in 5 tiers for the administration data generating side. Then we hopped over to the API side and used the same model with a different base price, $.000x/person. For the state though this could end up being insanely priced, over a few million monthly if the entire state(or even half) is generating data. Right now any price we chose we'd be making money since we just have server costs, no employees currently but if we hired, we'd quickly start having issues. How can I make sure that i'm pricing this right for growth while not pricing myself out before I even get started? [link] [comments]  |
| The Widening Valley of Death for Startups Posted: 28 Dec 2018 10:18 AM PST Article Summary: Many founders believe in the myth that the first steps of starting a business are the hardest: Attracting the first investment, the first hires, proving the technology, launching the first product and landing the first customer. Although those critical first steps are difficult, they are certainly not the most difficult on the arduous path of building an iconic company. As early and late-stage funding becomes more abundant, founders and their early VC backers need to get smarter about how to position their companies for a looming valley of death in-between. Founders should no longer assume that their all-star seed and Series A syndicates will guarantee a successful follow-on financing. Progress on recruiting and product development, though necessary, are no longer sufficient for B-rounds and beyond. Founders should be mindful that investors that specialize in leading $20-50 million rounds will have a plethora of well-funded, well-mentored, well-staffed startups with slick presentations, big visions and some early market traction from which to choose. I think these are good points of wisdom for startup founder who have already raised a round and know they will likely need to raise at least one more before reaching "independence" or "exit", however defined. That said, I distinctly remember similar themes being disused back in 2015. There was a similar market scare and suddenly a ton of talk around startups without good business models "going broke" due to inability to raise subsequent funding rounds. Only the "best" would survive (survival being defined as raising your next round / not going bankrupt). While many did eventually face issues, the causes of failure rarely had to do with the state of the economy of venture capital ecosystem. If anything, there grew to be an over-abundance of capital and the economy boomed. Thus, any issues startups faced were largely of their own design, and they mostly hardly themselves to blame. Bad business models were simply bad business models - it just took some time for investors to realize it. I'm sure we can all think of a few. We now have a new market scare, and the same questions are being prompted. Is it different this time? Will the economy / VC ecosystem deteriorate to the point that startups will feel the pain? Or will the typical, organic drivers of success and failure continue to dominate and best explain relative success? My take - the great "valley of death" is a constant. It may expand or shrink based on market conditions, but it is always there, even in the best of times. We've always seen massive failure rates, even for companies that have raised 1 or 2 rounds. That middle stretch between initial success and late-stage success has always been extremely difficult. Market conditions do not explain this phenomenon very well. Would love to hear what others think! [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