Startups Fundraising Thursdays - A Forum to Ask About Fundraising, Investors, Accelerators, and Other Sources of Capital |
- Fundraising Thursdays - A Forum to Ask About Fundraising, Investors, Accelerators, and Other Sources of Capital
- Can you answer Michael Seibel’s questions about your startup?
- When should i form a holding company?
- What is the biggest challenge you faced in your startup?
- Last slide to complete for pitch deck - Financials
- Worried about putting certain key value Propositions on first launch of landing page..
- When you realize your idea is doomed
- 9 Clever Solutions if the .com Domain Name of Your Brand is Taken
- Being Micromanaged by Boss' Sister, Need Advice on How to Address the Situation
- What should we prioritize: Following up with previous users, or move on quickly?
- Important question for every startup!
- What do startup incubators offer in exchange for the equity you give them?
| Posted: 31 Oct 2019 06:05 AM PDT Welcome to this week's Fundraising Thursdays Thread. Ask about anything related to fundraising, investors, accelerators, grants, and other sources of capital. That includes how to find these sources, how to work with them, and how to negotiate with them. Don't be shy. The purpose of this is to learn and share ideas and methodologies with one another. Any question is a good question! If you are answering questions, remember to be kind and supportive. Many are just starting out and have no idea what they are doing. That's okay! We all knew nothing before we knew something.You can also find more support using instant chat on the /r/startups discord. [link] [comments]  |
| Can you answer Michael Seibel’s questions about your startup? Posted: 31 Oct 2019 06:08 AM PDT These are questions Michael Seibel mentioned that he likes to ask startups as part of his 2018 "Building Product" Startup School presentation. Problem What problem are you solving? What problem will be solved at the end of what you are doing? What do we expect the result to be? Can you state the problem clearly in two sentences? Have you experienced the problem yourself? Can you define this problem narrowly? Who can you help first? What can we address immediately? How do we get the first indication this thing is working? Is the problem solveable? Customer Who is your customer? Who is the ideal first customer? How will they know if your product has solved the problem? How often (frequency) does your user have the problem? Who is getting the most value out of your product? How intense is the problem? Are they willing to pay? How easy is it for your customer to find your product? Which customers should you run away from? Product Does your product actually solve the problem? Be truthful. How and why not? Which customers should you go after first? How do you find people who are willing to use your "bad" first versions of your product? Who are the most desperate customers as how do you talk to them first? Whose business is going to go out of business without using you? Are you discounting or starting with a super low price? Are you consider this approach? If so, why? Performance What are you using to measure how users are interacting with your product? What 5-10 metrics are you measuring to understand how your product functions? Why those metrics? When you build a new product or feature, what is the metric that will improve because of that feature/product? What number do you track to show how well your company is doing? What is your top level KPI (revenue, usage)? What are the underlying metrics that contribute to achieving your top level KPI (new users, retention of users, content created => DAUs at Social Cam)? Which of these metrics are you trying to move this development cycle? Product Development How long is your product dev cycle? What is causing it to be that long? Who is writing down notes at your product dev meeting? Which category does each of your brainstormed ideas fit: New features/interactions on existing ones; bug fixes/other maintenance; A/B tests? How easy/medium/hard are they to do? How can you restate the hard ideas (disaggregate idea into smaller ideas)? What parts of hard ideas are useless or hard? Are there other options? Which hard idea will improve act the KPI the most? Which medium? Which easy? What is the spec for the product/feature we want to build? [link] [comments]  |
| When should i form a holding company? Posted: 31 Oct 2019 08:46 PM PDT Okay so i've got my company registered as an LLP(indian version of LLC) under which i plan on operating multiple businesses like an online ecommerce store, a graphic design agency, a marketing agency. Do i need to get all of those businesses registered as well? Or can i run those businesses under the umbrella of my registered company? [link] [comments]  |
| What is the biggest challenge you faced in your startup? Posted: 31 Oct 2019 10:49 PM PDT What is the biggest challenge you faced in your startup? As you know starting a new business is not easy even if you have enough expertise and investment. This is why most of the startups with great ideas fail even in the initial stages. What is the greatest challenge you faced in your startup? And how you solved it? [link] [comments]  |
| Last slide to complete for pitch deck - Financials Posted: 31 Oct 2019 05:21 PM PDT I'm having the hardest time determining a good business model and subsequent financial projections for my company. As a consumer software company, growth is our biggest priority - and hopefully attract lots of eyeballs and have high levels of engagement and repeat visits. One of the hardest things is determining our path for revenue though. I've decided against freemium models because of the extra dev resources required to manage two offerings. A free trial model wouldn't work as I want users to continually come back with no monetary barriers. What's left is going for lots of users that we can eventually monetize through ads. But how do I even begin to calculate those projections? I've looked all over for similar companies that have done this, and all I'm left with are complicated excel models and templates. Anyone have any advice or know how to tackle this? As of right now we are still in Alpha with only double digit users for showing traction. If financial projections are required, what is a good way to estimate and then show how this evolves over time? [link] [comments]  |
| Worried about putting certain key value Propositions on first launch of landing page.. Posted: 01 Nov 2019 12:29 AM PDT Hey Everyone, I've been working on a new SaaS business for awhile, and I'm just about set to release my landing page so I can start building a larger customer base and generate some traction. It's a simple and clean landing page, highlighting my key value Propositions. The thing is, I'm worried about sharing some of these key value Propositions as they are what differentiate my service from anyone else in my market. That might sound naive, but I am working on a patent around these key values/features and my platform is in a niche market with limited competition. My competition is way ahead in development, and one company found out about me as I've been doing customer development. They even reached out to talk with me and gave me access to see their unreleased product which was a surprise. Even though they are ahead and are 3 years into development, they have no core team, and they don't offer anything new. In talking with them, there are some other players around but I haven't been able to find them. The company I talked too was even offered to be bought out, which was surprising after seeing their service. My only guess is that the buyer had a near identical platform, idk. From that insight and talking with various potential users, I've seen that I'm on the right track and my platform could provide real value in the market I serve. People are excited about it, and I think it could make a real and needed difference. But I've been doing this solo so far, and have a ton of work to go, and a release is still a year away. I have secured some pre-seed funding, and im in the works of putting a team together, but I've been doing this as lean as possible with nearly zero cash. Everything I've done so far has been to make sure I have an amazing understanding of what is needed for a successful execution. Now I'm at the starting point, and Im frozen because I hate the idea that I wont be able to go fast enough before someone with more resources, talent or money sees the vision and potential of my service and makes it as their own. So what should I do? Do I showcase these key points, or use them as a smoking gun? The service still has value without them, but I'm just unsure if I should release at a later time when more work as been done. Thanks [link] [comments]  |
| When you realize your idea is doomed Posted: 31 Oct 2019 07:09 AM PDT This post is not for those who have already experienced that visceral punch in the gut when you come to the realization your idea isn't going to work - this post is for people who have NOT experienced it, and might not fully grasp the importance of research, as I didn't (even though I thought I did), and the consequences of not giving your idea enough diligence. Here are my missteps. They're almost all psychological. I've found these are the most dangerous type because it's very tough for books and articles to really address what your own unique biases might be, and despite how many of them you've read, it's still possible to pull this kind of mental gymnastics on yourself. I hope that this short list helps someone understand that possibility and maybe help you recognize some of your own potential cognitive blind spots.
This would have helped me so I hope it can help someone! [link] [comments]  |
| 9 Clever Solutions if the .com Domain Name of Your Brand is Taken Posted: 31 Oct 2019 12:22 PM PDT After countless hours refining your brand story, brainstorming names and designing your marketing materials you have finally come up with a stellar brand name for your business. You complete all the official paperwork to register your business under this name. Finally, you go to the registrar of your choice to register the .com domain name that matches your brand name. To your shock and horror you find that it has already been registered. You are not alone, this happens to countless new businesses every day. You can't go back in time. So what do you do?
This one seems so obvious, however, many people just give up when they find that the domain name is registered. Type the domain name into your browser and see what it resolves to. If you get a landing page indicating that the name is for sale then contact the owner to see if you can acquire it. If the page is parked at a registrar or the domain does not resolve to a website then use Whois or ICANN Lookup to find out who the registrant is and contact them. The above is actually a good situation to be in because at least it means that the domain name is available. If there is a business using the domain then it can be extremely difficult and even impossible at times to acquire it. Many business owners say "we will buy the domain later when we become a big company and can afford it". Even if you're a unicorn and can afford it, the business might still not want to sell it to you due to the value that it provides to them. What do you think is happening with Cruise Automation which was acquired by General Motors and Cruise.com. There are numerous other cases exactly like this one. Would you sell a domain name that your entire business depends on?
All your marketing materials contain this name. All your customers know you by this name. You have incorporated with this name. You tell yourself that rebranding is not an option. However, the truth is that on average businesses rebrand once every 7-10 years for a variety of reasons. If you cannot acquire the .com domain of your current brand name you could see this as an opportunity to find a new name. You should ask yourself why you are in love with this name and cannot let go of it? You are not married to this name. Even married people get divorced every day! Paul Graham, one of the founders of Y Combinator, doesn't mess around telling you why in this situation you should change your name.
If you can find a natural and short industry related word to append to your brand name then go for it. This can add extra meaning to your domain name and retaining a .com extension has the benefit of preserving trust. Even a massive company like Tesla was using the domain TeslaMotor.com until 2016 as the domain Tesla.com was already taken. Do not append inc, llc or corp to your domain name as it's redundant. The only people who care about the legal name of your company are the taxman, law enforcement services and people suing you. It's just ugly and the world doesn't need anymore ugly domain names.
We only suggest doing this if prepending a verb to your brand name leads to a powerful call to action. The type of example that works is something like GoNeural.com (this is an actual domain name we have available for purchase). We see many examples of businesses using verbs like "try" and "get" which are just weak. Don't do it unless it sounds really good like TryHarder.com or GetSmarter.com.
If you have a powerful company slogan that is short and memorable then this strategy can work. A great example of this is JustDoIt.com which redirects to Nike.com. Of course in this case, the slogan isn't actually their main domain name, but you get the point.
There are actually 3 types of ccTLDs. There are those in general usage across all industries like .co. It is an alternative abbreviation for company as well as the ccTLD for Colombia. There are those that have been adopted for specific industry usage such as .io (tech startups and the ccTLD for the British Indian Ocean Territory) and .ai (artificial intelligence companies and the ccTLD for Anguilla). Finally, there are those that only have country specific usage like .de for Germany and .ca for Canada. The later type is acceptable if your business activities are primarily tied to a specific country and you have no intention to expand globally. The former types are acceptable if you operate on a global scale and/or are in one of these industries. Note that having a domain name with a ccTLD has minimal impact on your ability in Google to rank globally. However, the downside of ccTLDs is that they lose direct (type in) traffic to the .com version of the domain and are perceived to be less trustworthy by customers. An important point to mention is that if you are based in the United States, using the .us ccTLD is not really a viable option. Customers expect reputable businesses in the United States to have a .com extension in their domain name.
You could opt for one of the historic generic top level domains (gTLDs) such as .org or .net. If you are a non-profit organization then .org is even better than .com, so use it. However, if you are business then .net suffers from the same downsides related to trust and direct traffic mentioned above for the ccTLDs. You will have exactly the same issue using one of the numerous new gTLDs. If you go this route then at least make sure that whatever extension you have to the right of the dot matches with your brand name. Great examples are Home.loans or Poker.club.
You could wait and check if the domain name expires using a tool like Domain Monitor. If the domain expires and the registrant does not renew it then you may be able to acquire the name either through a backorder service, an auction or registration. This can be a risky approach if the domain is in high demand as many more people will become aware of it.
According to trademark law, the first entity to use a trademark in commerce is considered the owner. Note that a trademark covers specific classes of goods or services. So if you used the name (or a confusingly similar name) to market your businesses products or services prior to the domain name registrant acquiring the domain name, you may have a case. In such circumstances you may be able to prevent them from using the name or require that they turn the name over to your possession. It's important to note that the name does not necessarily have to be a registered trademark for you to take legal action. The trademark is established by your use of the mark for particular classes of goods and services. You have several options to enforce your legal rights. You can submit the matter to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) to be resolved under its Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) and seek a ruling that the domain name be transferred to you. Also you can file a trademark infringement lawsuit seeking damages and compensation and a court order that the registrant transfer the domain name to your possession. We give these tips as practical solutions for businesses in this predicament. However, we stress that if your brand name is [brandname] then ideally your website should be at [brandname].com. Intuitively this is what your customers expect and trust. [link] [comments]  |
| Being Micromanaged by Boss' Sister, Need Advice on How to Address the Situation Posted: 31 Oct 2019 03:07 PM PDT Hey all! This is definitely more of a workplace structure question, but I'm curious if any of you have experience with coworkers that micromanage you. I work at a new product startup , and the team consists of me, my boss, his sister (SIS) and parents- full on family business. I work on the marketing side of things, and SIS works on social media. This is what's making work so difficult- my boss' sister is constantly asking me to do things how she wants them, and anything I've proposed to her has been completely ignored. She isn't bad at her job, but I think in her mind, she believes she is right about everything. And not to be narcassistic, but I went to school for marketing and advertising, and am desperately in love with my job here and feel that I am following the correct practices. SIS never had interest in social media before, and doesn't plan on staying more than 2 years with the company. How do I talk to my boss or SIS about this? I hate conflict, don't want to step on any toes or taint any relationships with this family. I'm starting to get a lot of anxiety from this situation, and don't know how to fix it. Any thoughts/advice? [link] [comments]  |
| What should we prioritize: Following up with previous users, or move on quickly? Posted: 31 Oct 2019 11:29 AM PDT The title might not be very accurate. This is sorta long story, so bear with me. I just had a serious discussion with my co-founder yesterday. What happens is this:
So I dragged him out of the work and had a discussion about the situation. The outcome is this:
My question is, probably a more general one, it's like the question of "should we pivot or iterate". The tricky thing is what is the definition of pivot vs iterating. My heart fully learns to "pivot" in the sense of the above context, but my issue is, I'm constantly stuck in the mode of not knowing what to do (out of ideas), and anxiety. On the other hand, my co-founder, since he thinks it's valuable to follow up with current users, doing newsletters, sending emails, hanging out in where the users might be, those sort of things. He seems to have things on his plate. Many times I don't agree on what he is doing because I see no value to help us finding a business model, but as said above, he thinks we should learn about the industry and new ideas will surface along the way. Thanks for reading. I'm not asking for a confirmation on yes/no, cause I think this is a complicated matter (even though my ego wants that). Any suggestions you might have, on coordination in such cases, or pivoting vs iterating, I would be really grateful for that. Thanks! PS: Our consensus is that we won't change the industry. Separate story, but that one we agreed on already. [link] [comments]  |
| Important question for every startup! Posted: 31 Oct 2019 07:50 AM PDT Hi everyone! I wanted to ask a question but what was the drive and motive that led you to do more with your startup even when it was hard as heck. I am creating a service based startup and I would love some motivation and guidance. What I wanted to create is a platform for mentors to meet with mentees! I wanted to cut down the cut time of finding a mentor as we all entrepreneurs / or any individual want atleast some kind of guidance in their business work, personal life, or anything else. Thanks everyone! [link] [comments]  |
| What do startup incubators offer in exchange for the equity you give them? Posted: 31 Oct 2019 06:24 AM PDT I was interested to learn what do start up founders get in return for enrolling in a incubator/accelerator. I've heard the US based ones such as YCombinator give you some finance and some advice from experts in the field (such as marketers or scaling specialists). However I was wondering if this is the main resoucres or do these organizations alos offer boot camp style training in technical skills like programming or sciences. If so what style is this in (is it a bootcamp with a bunch of other startup founders). Also if you've had some personal experience with these types of organizations, what part of the offerings of an incubator was most useful to you? If you haven't been through an incubator what kind of resouces do you find would be most useful to you as an entrepreneur (technical resources/education, organizational skills, legal help, marketing help)? [link] [comments]  |
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