Startups Peer Support and Self Management Saturday’s - A Safe Place to Vent, Seek Emotional Support, Share Self Management Techniques and Experiences, or Just Rant |
- Peer Support and Self Management Saturday’s - A Safe Place to Vent, Seek Emotional Support, Share Self Management Techniques and Experiences, or Just Rant
- My Startup is Profitable, but Cash Poor
- Acceptable Pay + Equity Package for Team #1
- What is an appropriate way of going about raising an F&F round of funding?
- How do you guys know when and what to do in order to maintain LLC?
- Difference between new start-ups compared to developed businesses?
- How Brand Strategy Can Be Applied To Your Business
- Sunday’s Success Stories - Celebrate Your Successes From the Past Week: Anything goes, none too small!
- [Opinion] Do you think starting a startup with community funding on Patreon might work for small niches?
- Looking for mentors
- ELI5 Bootstrapping a start up?
| Posted: 02 Nov 2019 06:05 AM PDT Welcome to this week's Peer Support and Self Management Thread. This is a Safe Place to Vent, Seek Emotional Support, Share Self Management Techniques and Experiences, or Just Rant. The goal for this thread is to help one another manage mental and physical health so we can more easily find success. We all struggle sometimes and it is important to recognize that the struggle is part of the journey. The important thing is to learn how to overcome that adversity to grow and succeed. Be tactful and classy in how you vent your feelings and share your frustrations. Act in a mature manner. Ask questions, share experiences, and be there for one another. Practice empathy in giving advice and remember that what worked for you isn't guaranteed to work for others. Make suggestions, not demands of others. #Because this is meant to be a safe place to support emotional and physical health there is a zero tolerance policy in effect. Be KIND. Be sure to report any conduct that is in violation of that key tenet. You can also find more support using instant chat on the /r/startups discord. [link] [comments]  |
| My Startup is Profitable, but Cash Poor Posted: 02 Nov 2019 03:16 PM PDT Hello fellow entrepreneurs. I launched my startup in 2017, in the medical hardware business. We started the company with only 50 K, we have been growing steadily each year (expected to close this year with 700K) and we have always been profitable. The problem, is that, even though we are also cash flow positive, we are always cash poor. At the end of each month, we always end up with no more than 60 K in the bank account, which limits our investment to fuel growth, as we always want to keep a safety cushion. I finished reading the biography of Nike's founder, Shoe Dog, (which by the way, I highly recommend) and saw that he also had the same problem while growing Nike. Always growing but always at the verge of bankruptcy. This made me realize that this probably a common problem in business, and would like your advise or experience on what to do to break this vicious circle. Thanks a lot for your help. [link] [comments]  |
| Acceptable Pay + Equity Package for Team #1 Posted: 02 Nov 2019 10:05 AM PDT Hi, So just for context, we're currently a three person team (tech person included) about to close our seed round. Though as we move to start putting together our initial team, trying to understand what an acceptable salary + equity package is at this level. We are looking to bring in an experienced tech lead + other engineers, as well as a sales and growth expert. We are at the seed level so obviously we can't afford to pay Bay Area salaries right off the bat. Trying to hit milestones for an A round without having to raise a bridge. Any advice for what offers we should start with? I'm only asking because I don't want to offer a figure that's clearly irresponsible for a seed stage company neither do I want to insult talented individuals. Any advice would be highly appreciated. Thx, L [link] [comments]  |
| What is an appropriate way of going about raising an F&F round of funding? Posted: 02 Nov 2019 03:40 PM PDT My friend and I have been working on an app for the last 18 months. We have put two builds on the app store, which people are downloading and using. We believe we have now collected enough data from these trial builds to make our product, which we have full confidence that it will go viral, based on the data collected from users as well as finding a brilliant way to market it for next to nothing. To build this we need $50,000, all of which will go to our team in India that has built the first two versions. We paid for those ourselves, but have no more money of our own to put into it. We are now down to two options, find an individual who is willing to take a risk on us (preferred option) or raise the money from friends and family. We both come from well off families and could definitely get the money from them. We havent asked for any money for this project so far, and are very proud of that. F&F is a last resort for us, especially since our families have a strong belief in not getting things handed to us. However, we may have no other option, and if this is going to work (we are putting our entire lives on hold due to how strongly we believe that it will), i think F&F is going to have to be the route we take. We are both 23 years old, so i think another aspect that is at play is that our families may think we are just over our heads and not qualified to handle this type of money. What they don't understand is just how legitimate this idea is, how much work/money we've already put into it, and how much validation of the idea we have received from all the testing we've done with the first two builds. It is a social media type app, so being that they are from an older generation, it also may be hard for them to fully grasp what this even is. I was hoping someone could give us some advice on the most sound way to go about asking for this. We want to remain as humble as possible, and not make it seem like we are demanding the money or anything like that. Do people create GoFundMe type accounts and just send them around? Should we hold a live presentation in front of all of them explaining why we need the money? Is there a different route we should take other than F&F? Any feedback helps 🙏 [link] [comments]  |
| How do you guys know when and what to do in order to maintain LLC? Posted: 02 Nov 2019 11:04 PM PDT Hello, I've been working on an ecommerce website and going to launch within a few weeks. I've already established an LLC in California back in May. It's an one man company and I don't have anyone else working for me. I'm confident on the business side of it, but not so much on the legal side. And I'm not sure if I can afford a lawyer right now. The reason I'm not so confident on the legal side is because I understand there are things that I need to do to legally maintain my LLC. For example there were some "statement of information" stuff, which I understand need to be filed every odd year, I also need to pay an LLC fee every year by a certain date, and of course there are taxes. I haven't really looked into what I specifically need to do to maintain my LLC, so I may even be missing some things here. My question is, for one man companies, do I need to be keeping track of those things myself? I already have a ton of stuff to do and I'm very afraid that I might miss something and get in legal trouble, like forget to pay the LLC fee or something. Do most people keep track themselves? Or do they have a lawyer who notifies them? Or is there a paid subscription service that will help me do so? Or anything else? Or maybe I will get a reminder mail from the state of California? Sorry it's my first startup, so I'm not sure if I did a good job explaining. Let me know if something's not clear. Thank you for your time in advance, I really appreciate it. [link] [comments]  |
| Difference between new start-ups compared to developed businesses? Posted: 02 Nov 2019 10:58 PM PDT New start-ups work to develop product market fit. On a daily basis it is essentially all trial and error and trying new methods all the time till the task at hand reaches a suitable standard? Before product market fit, the start-up continuously iterates until it gets an MVP and enough new and recurring users to keep the start-up going until it can reach PMF. The MVP, and business model keeps iterating and gathering cashflow. If the start-up reaches PMF it would have iterated hundreds of times of what marketing channels to exhaust, what the customer segments to sell to, and optimized every metric until the business model is sustainable and growing? For each thing like digital marketing, sales, manufacturing, strategy, is it simply optimizing enough KPI/metrics to reach a standard that is suitable for sustainable growth? In developed businesses they look to take start-ups with PMF and then strategically growing capabilities, and competitive advantage, so that this start-up does not get market share eaten up by second movers, or later comers? the role of transitioning from PMF to developed business is to really push the marketing, engineering, user experience on large scale. Its on strategically steering the company towards the vision, and gaining ever improving capabilities, marketshare, business development, brand positioning, competitive advantage? The goal from PMF to scale is to gain in those areas, and to again go through iterations until solid teams, and cross function is achieved to create core capabilities and a competitive advantage? [link] [comments]  |
| How Brand Strategy Can Be Applied To Your Business Posted: 02 Nov 2019 12:00 PM PDT For anyone who wants to understand the branding process, and how you can apply brand strategy to amplify your business creating a more effective brand. I'm sure this post will be of value to some of you, let me know if you have any questions on the matter and I will try elaborate or clarify things for you :) (If you prefer, I have a video about this for those of you who may like that way of learning instead of reading. But no need to watch it if you are happy reading. Video: https://youtu.be/2YC93KLGh\_0 ) First we want to understand what a brand really is. Most people think of logos and graphics here, but they are not your brand. Your brand is the story that people tell, to themselves, and to other people about you. The story they believe about you. In other words your brand is your reputation. Your logo, and graphics only serve as a shortcut, a reminder of that story. And only to the people who you have had an opportunity to tell that story to. Trust is a big factor in this story, as people only do business with people they trust. Very important when it comes to selling. We mark products with identifiers to let people know they can trust them. But powerful brands go far beyond just being trustworthy. Strategy is then a plan, a roadmap, towards the goals you've set out for your brand. When we are doing brand strategy, we don't just randomly hope that the story we are telling is going to work. We craft an intentional story that is true to who you are as a business and that your audience wants to believe in. The main reasons for doing brand strategy are: Increasing conversion rates, creating loyal fans = return customers and upscales, selling on the emotion, higher priced products, easier word of mouth, increasing trust, longevity. So really great for those long term goals over many years. The process for doing brand strategy for your business is as follows: 1 - Find the why of your business, what value you are trying to bring over the long term. Similar to your mission statement. 2 - Define goals, what goals are you trying to reach. Goals are like the target of your business, your why is the drive to push you there. 3 - Competition analysis, listen to the stories, framing and positioning of your competition. Both direct and indirect. To see how you can craft a story that stands out from them. 4 - Audience, who is your ideal customer. What do they believe? What do they want to believe? Focus on psychographics, but demographics are important too here. 5 - UX, user experience, how do you want people to feel when they interact with your brand and why? What does your audience want to feel? 6 - Story, you combine all other the previous parts to form one coherent story for your brand. At the heart of your story is where your why meets your customers beliefs. The other parts are used to frame and position that story. (This will take several iterations.) 7 - As an extra/bonus step, trust factors. What trust factors can you provide, create, highlight, amplify, etc. (Vital for selling.) The next step is to then start telling your story. (A lot, constantly, and don't ever stop.) Do this more through your actions as a business. Both seen and unseen. Make sure everything you do, in your business, aligns with your story. Those repeated actions are what will form/influence the gut feeling in your consumers. Words will give them a way to articulate that story. But it is the feeling that is more important. (People buy with emotion, not logic.) You need to start listening to how your consumers are talking about you, what stories they are telling. Create actions to push or pull them closer to the story you want them to be telling. Continue to monitor them, make sure your brand stays on track. To sum up, choose the narrative of your brand for it to be super effective. Do not leave it to chance. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 02 Nov 2019 06:05 AM PDT Welcome to this week's Sunday's Success Stories Thread. A lot of us get way too hung up on the destination and the fact that we are not there yet. It is important to take a moment to reflect on a great quote from Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., "The steps you take don't need to be big, they just need to take you in the right direction"- Jemma Simmons This is extremely relevant to all of us in this community. We should all be more aware of the successes we achieve every day that carry us closer to our goals. Celebrating these successes, no matter how small they are, allow us to stay motivated, focused, and happy while we struggle to achieve dreams of various sizes. The purpose of this thread is to share our successes from the week with one another and have something to celebrate together. So, let us know what successes you have achieved this week! Nothing is too small or insignificant! #Because this is meant to be a safe place to support emotional and physical health there is a zero tolerance policy in effect. Be KIND. Be sure to report any conduct that is in violation of that key tenet. You can also find more support using instant chat on the /r/startups discord. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 02 Nov 2019 03:52 AM PDT Do you think starting a startup with community funding on Patreon might work for small niches? Building a small community of public supporters on Patreon might help a young or recently started startup to find its niche by showing that other users care about helping with small funding for this startup idea? Have you ever used Patreon to build a small community of supporters for your startup? I will try it in the future and post here the results. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 02 Nov 2019 06:53 AM PDT Hi Folks, After starting from the bottom, heading head of ops profile for couple startups now I feel it's time I can take the jump. But due to usual power distance with investors whilst an employee of a startup has shunted me off from major interactions. I've bootstrapped myself for next couple of months, just needed some constant mentoring from an entrepreneur/investor who can guide us to the right direction will be immensely helpful to myself and team. As we are planning to do things right from the start. A word of advice or caution would be really helpful for us. Thank you. [link] [comments]  |
| ELI5 Bootstrapping a start up? Posted: 02 Nov 2019 04:57 AM PDT Is the process of Bootstrapping a start up or business something that can be easily broken down into a list in order of first to last steps taken for your business and its development? Or is the act of bootstrapping a continuous process until your star up or business is self sustaining with recurring revenue? Please help me to understand the process, Thank you in advance. [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