Startups Working on something you're passionate about or believe in. How true it is? |
- Working on something you're passionate about or believe in. How true it is?
- New Job @ a Startup. Creating immediate value, but making too many mistakes. How do I move slower and break less things?
- Don't hide behind social media and email - pick up the telephone.
- Next stages for launching an App/Company ?
- Business strategist presented a clearly fake pitch. Implications from a technical point of view?
- Hi, I’m a 17 year Highschool student with ~$1000 saved up, what can I do?
- Too many responsibility, how to get through to CEO that I need more help?
- Startups & Options Explained...can anyone help?
- Realistic budget for marketing?
- Launching summer 2019
| Working on something you're passionate about or believe in. How true it is? Posted: 26 Mar 2019 11:33 PM PDT I constantly hear two opinoins, for doing startups, working on something you believe, or find something that the market needs. I'm confused which one is more important? Or do we have to have both? My story is, working on marketing/sales in a small startup. Three founders, I'm the first employee. The problem is, we've pivoted a lot of times, during the last six to nine month. And sometimes it's big pivots, like jumping between industries. Our CEO, always have new ideas/new area to work on. Each time the reason he came up, either from seeing someone else's success with similar product, or realizing something hot just came along, or he thinks he sees user needs in a niche market, whatever it is. All these reasoning makes sense logically in the context at that time. Of course they don't work for us in the end. Looking back now. I kept reminding the words other people say, that startups is about something you like, you believe in, you have passion about. Or at least you're familiar with. I find it really hard to believe that, one can just come to a new area, with little domain knowledge and relationships, doing some small improvement, and get successful. Because any wall you hit, you'll just turn around and walk away. It seems that our founders doesn't really have a shared passion on anything, or maybe it's the CEO's thing, I'm not sure. But there's the other words that going after market needs. If we make something just by working behind closed doors, nobody will buy the product, and hence it doesn't make sense to do that. Words saying that founders should go to market and do whatever the user needs. If we're talking about passion, can't people just be passionate about "building a startup" itself and do whatever it takes to bring the right product to the market? They sorta create a contradiction. Should we focus on what we like? Or what the user like? I'm really confused here. What's the right thing to do? Should I be losing faith in the founders? Thanks for your time, would love to hear your opinion and experience. Cheers [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 26 Mar 2019 04:01 AM PDT TLDR:
Everything has been going great for the last 3 months, founders are impressed with my ability to understand the industry and make an immediate impact on MQLs, SQLs and revenue but 4 days ago I kicked off a series of mistakes.
I apologized for all these things, didn't make excuses, and scheduled a meeting to discuss areas that I needed be more thoughtful on at the expense of slowing down or stopping marketing initiates, and areas that mistakes are just part of the process. The outcome of the conversation is there was a misalignment in priorities. Going into the relationship my priority was to hit the ground running and drive MQLs, SQLs and revenue to prove myself & abilities, whereas the company wants slower, more consistent growth. The action item from the meeting is to put together a daily / weekly / quarterly / one-off projects road-map, and split my time between consistent activities (e.g. publish blog post / podcast), and one-off activities. This should have been a conversation we had at the beginning of the relationship, but due to not having any marketing leadership experience it's something I missed. I feel really bad about the mistakes that I've made, it's reduced my confidence and I'm second guessing myself on everything I'm pushing out the door. If you look at each mistake I made from the perspective of SQLs are more important than everything else, they make sense. If you look at each mistake I made from the perspective of slower, more sustainable growth it looks sloppy with low attention to detail. I really like the company, my responsibilities, the industry the company is in, my coworkers, and the financial opportunity the role represents and I want to make this work. How do I move from a 'move fast & break things' mentality, to being more considerate of the impact of the all of the micro decisions I make hundreds of times a day? How do I move forward from this and come out a better marketer? Last Question - I am still in equity negotiations. We have an equity package but it hasn't been finalized. How do I prevent these mistakes from negatively impacting this discussion. [link] [comments]  |
| Don't hide behind social media and email - pick up the telephone. Posted: 26 Mar 2019 08:43 AM PDT Whilst the age of the electronic communication is clearly upon us and all businesses have had to adapt to the myriad of outlets, websites, platforms, apps and forums that now exist there is one sales tool that has survived the test of time - the telephone. The telephone remains a fantastic weapon in the arsenal of a salesperson yet I find I am meeting more and more salespeople who show an alarming reluctance to pick it up. They'll happily spend hours trawling through LinkedIn or other similar sites for people to contact, they'll Like, Comment and Share others posts across social media and they will willingly send an email to someone they like they look of but there is a definite reluctance emerging when it comes to the telephone. Anyone who has ever had to do telesales as part of their work will know it can be a hard slog. Getting past the Receptionist or PA is one challenge and then you only really have a minute or two to get the attention of the target when you do get through - and even then many will say no without really listening to what you have to say. But it's part and parcel of selling. You have to get stuck in, you have to roll your sleeves up and remain absolutely determined. You have to disregard the knock-backs and try them again on a different day. Engaging with a human is, without doubt, an essential element of prospecting for new clients and it is vital if your objective is to make an appointment to visit your target. Now, I fully accept the role social media and electronic messages have to play in the life of a salesperson but they should be avoided as the initial method of contact in a B2B environment. That said, I thoroughly endorse a well written email that is sent before a sales call is made as it gives a nice conversation starter. I spend a good deal of time around underperforming sales teams to analyse and report to company owners where and why things are going wrong. One of the first areas of any sales process I will investigate is the telephone call data of the salespeople and there is, without doubt, a trend away from time spent at a desk hitting the phones. There's lots of excuses from the sales teams about why they don't make that many calls and whilst some have some logic, the majority are just irritating excuses. Time and time again the top performing people in a sales team are the ones who are constantly on the telephone, often making 100+ calls on days when they are in the office. They also hate missing an incoming call and book out segments of their working week for filling their diaries in the weeks ahead. Conversely, the underperforming people are nearly always the ones with the excuses and poor call data. Telephone calls are the fuel to the sales machine - if you don't keep fuelling the machine then sooner or later it is going to stop. What's more frustrating is the telephone is the best method of getting your opening pitch across, it provides the opportunity to address any reservations a prospect has and gives the opportunity to find out so much more information than any electronic message can ever do. If you're one of the salespeople that does everything possible to avoid making cold calls to potential clients then give yourself a kick up the backside and stop trying to kid yourself that you can be a success without getting on the phone. Sales takes lots of hard work and the best salespeople are real grafters that let little stand in their way - follow these guys, pick up the phone and get that diary filled and the rewards will soon become obvious. [link] [comments]  |
| Next stages for launching an App/Company ? Posted: 26 Mar 2019 02:41 PM PDT Currently working on an iOS app/company (my ultimate goal is to have Microsoft acquire it), it's around ~60% done. I plan to launch a private beta in Q3 of this year, but after that what are my next steps? Before launching this app (I own 100% of it btw), what actions must I take when it comes to: - Branding it, do I need a legal consultant to secure any IP? - How do I register my company? - Should I use the app as an MVP to attract investors? - What are the first steps when it comes to speaking/presenting myself to potential investors and what do they care about? - How do I create shares? - How do I begin marketing on a larger scale, creating video ads, etc? - (Is there anything important I missed ?) I'm pretty young (19 yrs old) and very technically inclined (have a fare amount of experience being a software engineering intern at large tech companies so I understand the fundamentals of how to scale a product from a development standpoint), but I really don't know much about the business side of making a company/app, any book recommendations, or resources, or any advice in general? [link] [comments]  |
| Business strategist presented a clearly fake pitch. Implications from a technical point of view? Posted: 26 Mar 2019 05:41 PM PDT Our business strategist presented a heavily inflated pitch to a group of investors. He boasted we reach 10% of market at present, while we are barely at 2%. His forecast showed an exponential growth in 5 years to reach 15M$ revenue starting from 0.5M$ and 3000 customers starting from 100. When our growth has been rather linear in the last 2 years. He claimed we are at the moment "almost" at break even, which I don't know for sure. To reach that target he asked 0.5M$ for software development and 1M$ for marketing. Our software platform is in cloud but lack self-provisioning, so most of installation and configuration is still done by hand by a couple of half-technical guys. The platform is fairly stable but old, like 10 years old. Scalability is achieved just replicating the environment as we don't have spikes in usage. 2 developers (me included) are spending time helping the half-technical guys. Even if we are just 2 developers, I define myself as "technical director". I honestly doubt of the sustainability of this approach. I guess we will find in the end "some" funding. But I really doubt we could sustain such growth with so little resources. Internally, he recognised having "pumped a little" the numbers. I wonder what will happen to me, to our dev team, and to our product if I accept these conditions. I tried to speak out, but I have few answers and I'm not really sure what to ask, without just looking catastrophic [link] [comments]  |
| Hi, I’m a 17 year Highschool student with ~$1000 saved up, what can I do? Posted: 26 Mar 2019 02:45 PM PDT Hello, I have saved up money before started an Amazon FBA product which failed. I learned a great deal from it like frugality, online marketing, and that there isn't a step by step guide that gives you a successful product. I've also read books on marketing and having / running a startup. I have some knowledge on business and I want to try again. This time I would like to offer an online service, rather than a product, but I do not have any good ideas. Any suggestions and tips would be greatly appreciated. [link] [comments]  |
| Too many responsibility, how to get through to CEO that I need more help? Posted: 26 Mar 2019 02:29 PM PDT The startup that I'm currently working for is a team of "6". I say 6 loosely because 2 are barely involved in day to day and another is more of an advisor/celebrity figure but still holds a C-level position. My official position is in business development but my responsibilities include everything other than administrative work, because our startup relies on a physical space and all the planning around that is CEO + our design person. I'm doing everything from creating and maintaining our website, outreach, the programming of the space (events, day to day operations) which is basically our entire business model, partnerships, planning our social media and content creation. Even holding some investor discussions. The CEO now wants go from planning social media and content to executing and creating it. Something that I neither have the time nor the expertise because I have no experience in creative things. How do I explain that social media and content is not something that we can handle on our own when the CEO is unwilling to even bring on a paid coop/intern student to do it? [link] [comments]  |
| Startups & Options Explained...can anyone help? Posted: 26 Mar 2019 11:43 AM PDT I recently got an opportunity to work on the side for a startup. My role would be business strategy, action planning, project prioritization, business development, pricing strategies, etc. My consulting/business analysis background will definitely help me in this role. I was offered vested options as a payout compensation scheme. The equity structure is over a four year period with vesting every year. 2019 i will own .63% of the company, 2020 will be 1.56%, 2021, 2.27%, and 2022 2.62%. I was also offered convertible equity. I would be able to convert the number of hours I worked to equity....to be honest I'm not too familiar with how it works so I rejected it at first. Is this a reasonable payout structure considering there are 2 founders and i'll be the first new "employee"? I was thinking of asking for more seeing as I will be doing a lot of work and the company is so green it only has 40K in revenues. Second, isn't this essentially just paper they are offering? Note - this is a private corp, not public. What are my exit options and how could I honestly get paid after 4 years? My understanding is an exit would be an IPO or a huge raise. Third, is it reasonable for me to request profit sharing? I think this startup has potential to easily do 500-1mill of sales in the next few years which is pretty good. I would like some sort of compensation if I am going to be working for free. Anyway, my startup knowledge is limited in a lot of ways and I am hoping for your help. A discussion on the risks and overall compensation structure is very much appreciated. Thanks!!!! [link] [comments]  |
| Realistic budget for marketing? Posted: 26 Mar 2019 07:00 AM PDT Hi guys, i´m working currently at a Software Start-Up which develops Mobile App´s. Its kind of a family business and the boss asked me to work there because he knew me. I got like 0 experience in marketing whatsoever and i got tasked to find out how much money we need from any Investor for a marketing campaign. I know there is google ads, but what does that cover ? Website ads? Youtube ads? Mobile games ads? Instagram and Facebook are also options ofc. In your opinion and/or experience : Whats the amount of money we would need for this ? Boss wants like 300k for 30% share, i think that is a bit of an overkill. But again i have no experience in this area. Are there any sources where i can get this kind of information ? And where do i find a Investor? I know some Websites but i think there are more. BTW , I´m currently studying mechanical engineering and its confusing but exciting at once! Edit: We have a product and my Boss paid all development by himself. We would like to sell the App to a Business and they offer it to their customers. You kinda gather points and then get something in return from the shop. ( Buy 8 Coffee get 1 Donut for free ) [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 26 Mar 2019 09:30 AM PDT I'm launching a mobile application this summer (so as long as everything goes to plan). Company X. We run so you don't have to. We are a marketplace application that connects locals to consumers who need a particular task done. We have outdone the competitors with groundbreaking innovations with a spin of minimalism and functionality that is geared towards the cravings of those who want and want it now. Late night cravings that you would love to get but are not able to? We satisfy that craving. Your toilet becomes clogged at 6:00pm and creates a colossal mess. We got your back. Need help moving and don't want to deal with the stress? We're here for you. I'm working on this with a singular individual right now who is the developer and the magician behind the scenes. We currently have a landing page in the works that is going to allow us to get out there, gather sign-ups from prospective consumers through CTA, along w/ those who want to become a worker. Once the landing page is done and it goes live, I'll begin a first round marketing campaign to again, make our local market aware of Company X and our existence. This will allow us to begin gathering consumers who are interested in utilizing our mobile application to help with activities/task that will ultimately make their life easier and save time. The plan is to start local in a singular hub and then slowly but surely branch out as we gain traction. All the while we are marketing Company X, the mobile application (both consumer and worker ends) will be getting developed. As it stands, we're more than mid-way through with the development and are actively scouting a UI-UX engineer who is going to be able to help us craft the user experience from start to finish. Other miscellaneous items will be occurring in the background to get things ready (ordering Company X swag for workers...think shirts, caps), forging relationships with payment processors, establishing the business as an s-corp, other marketing campaigns that will be launching and alike activities. Numbers Company X will charge 15% of each transaction that takes place. If we do $5,000 in sales/day, we see $750. That's $21k/month. This is per city/major hub and $5k is a very low figure that is attainable. If each job averages $50, we need to see 100 jobs completed/day. A competitor was doing this back in 2011... Daily sales will climb gradually as we build our consumer base. Let's say we triple sales in a year, we will be seeing $60k~/month from a singular city. Mind you, during this time, we will be expanding in other cities such as LA, Boston, Chicago. As we branch out into 10 cities, we expect to see $200k~/month before sales pump. This translates to $2.4m/year. If sales triple as expected based on forecasting of competitors, that number soars to $600k/month and $7.2m/year. Before going international, we plan to target 50~ major cities. Gross revenue expected (low-end): $1.05m/month --- $12.6m/year. Gross revenue expected (high-end): $3.15m/month --- $37.80m/year. The international landscape and general scaling with make the numbers above balloon further in size... Launch Once both sides of the mobile application are fully developed, UI is crafted, Q&A testing has been completed, etc, we will begin reaching out to interested workers who want to become a worker. Upon getting a solid workforce that is diverse in their abilities and general skills, we will begin reaching out to those who signed up as being interested in our landing page. This is when Company X will go live and individuals will be able to effectively request a worker via their mobile device in a few taps. Supply/demand is going to be an instant, on-going element that we are going to have to watch closely but this can be mitigated against and is being safeguarded by rolling out in a singular city first as opposed to multi-cities. We are working with local service providers for an event that we are going to hold downtown that is going to paint Company X for what it is; a new mobile application that connects service providers with locals/consumers who need help with anything that may come to fruition. As it stands, is there anything that I am missing from an outside view that is going to be vital to our success? Obviously, there are a myriad of small elements that are missing from above but for general purposes in terms of preparation, the data is there. The above is very limited in detail but gives an overview of what we're actively working on and how we plan to roll out Company X. What advice, based on the above would you give me when it comes to initial launch? [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