Startups Wednesday Social Club - Share What Events You Are Attending This Coming Week |
- Wednesday Social Club - Share What Events You Are Attending This Coming Week
- Startups have lost $100B. Are we in dot-com bubble 2.0?
- SaaS Founders/Developers: What do you wish you'd known before marketing your product to get your first 100 customers?
- How to create address and number for business?
- Fastest way to VALIDATE or REJECT an idea - Share and discuss
- Needing Inspiration + Terms to Ink a Partnership/License Deal
- Updating/ interacting with your investors as a founder
- Tips to improve team engagement at work
- "Optimize for making the app as fun as possible"
- Clerky for small business?
- When should founder equity begin to vest?
- What are your tips to be more productive?
- How do you separate your business finances in the beginning?
- How do I overcome the "trough of sorrow" in my fundraising pitch for a pre-seed round?
- I need a frank opinion.
- MVP Budget Template
- Advice about shareholder contract
- How to get more feedback from potential customers?
- Days away from my first app launch; looking for real advice from doers who’ve done it!
- [crosspost] Marc Randolph, co-founder of Netflix and the company’s first CEO, is doing an AMA in r/netflix!
- How to manage logins for many organizations?
- Founders who have thrown in the towel: When did you know that it was time to move on?
- Response rate in online raffles
| Wednesday Social Club - Share What Events You Are Attending This Coming Week Posted: 27 Nov 2019 05:06 AM PST Welcome to this week's Social Club thread.Share what events and meetups you are going to so we can discover new ways to be social together offline and help grow your local community. Focus on sharing events that are happening within the next 7 days of this date of this submission. Anything that falls outside of 10 days will be removed, no exceptions. No duplicate posts. If you happen to be attending an event that is already posted, leave a comment to inform the community that you will also be there. If you are hoping to organize something on your own, outside of an existing event, feel free to use this thread to rally some people together to meet up. Please use the following format to share an event: Event Name and URL: Location: Event Date: Event Time: Event Description: Event Cost: Discount Code: [if applicable] Please use the following format to organize people to meet up together: Location: Purpose of getting together: Suggested Places to meet up: You can also find more support using instant chat on the /r/startups discord. [link] [comments]  |
| Startups have lost $100B. Are we in dot-com bubble 2.0? Posted: 27 Nov 2019 05:55 PM PST The growth strategy the many investors embraced isn't working. WeWork, Uber, Jolt, Lyft, Fair and UiPath have all lost significant value and are laying off employees. Financing now is taking longer and behemoths such as SoftBank's Vision Fund have taken a beating and are spooked. So, are we creeping close to a burst of the bubble? Or will it be a soft and sober deflation. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 27 Nov 2019 08:54 AM PST For those with 100+ customers: Was it important to know who your competitors are? Or did you ignore them? Did you do a product launch? Where/how did you launch (e.g. did a press release + outreach, Hacker News, Reddit, Product Hunt)? Did you consider it successful? Or a flop? How did you determine your price point? Did you have any pricing strategy? What was your go-to-market strategy after the launch? For those under 100 customers What do you feel would be helpful to know right now to get your first 100 customers? [link] [comments]  |
| How to create address and number for business? Posted: 27 Nov 2019 11:42 PM PST My family and I are working on an app which involves using terms and conditions and privacy policy. For this we need to input a company address and phone number, but obviously would not want to use our personal ones. Is there a way to bypass this or are these things legally required to have in the privacy policy? If yes it's required, how would we create an address we don't have? [link] [comments]  |
| Fastest way to VALIDATE or REJECT an idea - Share and discuss Posted: 28 Nov 2019 01:59 AM PST I have started and failed with several startups.. A few had maginal success and one had decent success that i eventually sold. I get a lot of ideas (A LOT) and I'd like to think at this point I am pretty good at market testing to see if a strong need for the idea exists and whether my proposed solution solves that need. However, Recently I have found myself overwhelmed with ideas, which have resulted in me not being able to fully focus and commit to one of them. When you have ideas, how do you filter the bad ones out and focus on spending time testing only the ones with highest potential ? Do you try to find analogs? do you judge them based on certain criterias? do you do "back of the envelope calculations"? - Would love to hear from other entrepreneurs [link] [comments]  |
| Needing Inspiration + Terms to Ink a Partnership/License Deal Posted: 28 Nov 2019 01:45 AM PST Hi, I have been developing a relationship with someone for about a year now. We have complementary skillsets somewhat as well as overlap. More importantly, we have complementary technology. I pursued funding with him briefly and that did not bear fruit. That would have been one set of terms discussing shared ownership in a joint venture and IP agreements to co-license our respective technologies to the joint venture. Besides funding, otherwise I've made him some money in the process by referring some work his way. Now, I think there's a different kind of deal I'd like to pitch him where I act as his distributor and pay him royalties in exchange for him not working with other commercial ventures in my space. The usual terms I think of going on here are quotas, quotas, quotas. Let's say I have 1 year exclusivity to meet a revenue quota for him to maintain the exclusivity. His software is open-source and technically it sounds like I can just download it and run it myself, but I value his added expertise beyond lacking the time to set up his software. He is genuinely motivated about the same vision I believe in. In our prospective partnership, he's the soul in the soup and I'm the guy who made more corporate tradeoffs than I'd like (but enough to navigate the business landscape I think). During the exclusivity term, I'd ideally seek to prevent him working in a solutions capacity with other customers acting as competitors to me. Figure that competitor finds my site -> click -> click -> finds his open-source software underlies my stuff -> contacts him. Agreement should block that from happening. I'll provide him analytics that demonstrate exact numbers to hold the quota accountable. What am I missing here??? I do see a much bigger vision for where this partnership can go, but I need to generate $10-20k MRR first so there isn't a financial pressure. EDIT: Something else I just thought of is that I'd like to give him code access to my stuff (the more we cross-integrate the stronger our relationship/integration). This requires a NDA but also is a non-compete appropriate??? i.e. on paper it says, "I won't step on your toes, you don't step on mine, we are in this for mutual benefit". What would the NCA term on something like this be??? Thanks! [link] [comments]  |
| Updating/ interacting with your investors as a founder Posted: 28 Nov 2019 01:40 AM PST Hey guys, I am looking to understand how investors collect and compile data from their portfolio companies. For example a SaaS startup will need (probably?) give monthly updates on burn rate, cash in hand, MRR, churn, growth etc. From my research the frequency and metrics are laid out by lead investor in the documents and they collect in various methods like excel, pdf and ppt files. Hoping I can get a better insight from people (on VC or startup side) who are currently involved in this, or were in the past. [link] [comments]  |
| Tips to improve team engagement at work Posted: 28 Nov 2019 01:33 AM PST Managing a team of diverse employees is no easy task. It's not only hard to manage multiple active projects happening simultaneously, but it's difficult to prioritize and remember the numerous projects in pipeline! It is however easy to end up overwhelming your team, and even easier to forget how hard they are all working. We get so caught up in our own work stressors that sometimes it's hard to think about everyone being in the same boat. The last thing you want is for your employees to feel discouraged or unappreciated. No one wants to work in an unpleasant or stressful work environment, so here are some tips we came up with to ensure your team feels appreciated and engaged in their work. Communicate. Keep them in the loop. Your employees want to feel like they have a role in the company. Keeping them updated on bigger picture ideas, and showing them that they are contributing to the success of the company, will increase their interest in the well being of the company, and lead them to work even harder. You want passionate employees who understand and are knowledgeable about your business. How do you create that? By teaching them! Always remind your employees that your door is open for questions and that you are there are as another helper in the team, and not just as a supervisor. Support New Ideas. Supporting new ideas will encourage more employees to create new ideas. Even just listening to a new thought will motivate them because they know you will be receptive to what they have to say. Nothing brilliant ever comes from the status quo so allow your employees to explore and share their thoughts. You never know who will come up with the next great idea for your business. Encourage Creativity. Encouraging creativity will create a fun environment that will make employees want to come to work every day. Creativity creates better ideas and your employees will feel empowered to create something unique. Many companies go as far as to push their employees to create. Google has a bar just to open employees' minds. You don't have to go as far as to allow your employees to drink while working, but create a space that inspires creativity. Give your employees creative freedom instead of strict guidelines on content. You will be surprised by how valuable open-mindedness can be. Support Individuality. It is important to allow employees to express themselves. Feeling like you have to fit into a certain mold only stifles creativity and creates a toxic work environment. Think about the staff at Buzzfeed and how unique they allow all their employees to be. Providing an accepting space for your employees makes them feel excited to come to work. It is easier for your employees to remain engaged when they can confidently express themselves and their ideas. Reward Hard Work. Giving acknowledgment to hard work and rewarding it will encourage employees to work harder. Think about how good it feels when someone thanks you or shows their appreciation after you worked hard on something. Then think about a time when you worked hard on something and weren't given the acknowledgment you felt you deserved. This feeling makes you not want to work as hard the next time. Be a manager that you would want to work for. And remember incentives also go a long way. Create a Plan for the Future. Creating a plan for the future with your employees will keep them engaged and working hard to reach those goals. Being able to see the plan makes them feel as though their valued and the company sees them with the business long term. Careers that provide room to grow promote employee loyalty. These are just some of the ways to encourage your employees. Remember that developing good relationships with your employees is one of the most important things a good manager can do. Clariti can help with the communication part of those relationships. [link] [comments]  |
| "Optimize for making the app as fun as possible" Posted: 28 Nov 2019 01:20 AM PST I just read a great blog post by Daniel Gross (pioneer.app, started the AI vertical at YCombinator) where he talks about the importance of the "last mile of UX" and the benefits by making your app fun to use. https://dcgross.com/reimagining-messaging/ This is something that I think early-stage startups are especially well positioned to do because:
Nomadlist has awesome confetti after you sign up: https://twitter.com/levelsio/status/995143936325791745 The Wufoo dinosaur used to show "RAWR" when you hovered over the dinosaur: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12D8zEdOPYo&feature=youtu.be&t=438 How are you making your app fun? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 27 Nov 2019 08:31 PM PST I'm a software developer and am developing marketing software. I'm in the process of incorporating and considering using Clerky. I know their templates are standard things that VCs want to see, but I'm not sure I will go that route, although it's always a possibility if there's a good opportunity. But for the time being, I'm treating it as a small business, not seeking outside funding, and trying to grow it organically. Does it make sense to use Clerky (or similar service) if the company won't seek VC funding initially, but may or may not one day? Thanks and happy thanksgiving! [link] [comments]  |
| When should founder equity begin to vest? Posted: 27 Nov 2019 10:29 PM PST Founder here, about to raise a seed round. Have been working with my cofounder in our spare time over the last 12 months, about 10 hours per week, while still having our full time jobs in tech. My feeling is that our vesting clocks should start when we go full time after the seed raise. I'm happy to not have a cliff and vest in say quarterly increments, but feel that counting the last 12 months doesn't make sense since we were both operating risk-free, and naturally making much less progress than once we will be putting 80 hours a week into it after closing the raise and quitting our jobs. However my cofounder would like the vesting clock to start when we incorporated. What would you do? [link] [comments]  |
| What are your tips to be more productive? Posted: 27 Nov 2019 04:28 AM PST So I'm a Product Manager at a startup and hope I am at least somewhat more productive than average. I'm sure that I can improve a lot tho. There are three pillars that have worked well for me: "Make sure to get the important things done", "Don't waste time on stuff that will not get you to your next milestone", and "make a lot of lists". What systems and tips do you have especially when it comes to working in teams? Thank you very much for your help in advance! [link] [comments]  |
| How do you separate your business finances in the beginning? Posted: 27 Nov 2019 10:07 AM PST So I've reached a point where building up my MVP is starting to cost real money (devices for testing, cloud subscription, services, etc.) I haven't registered a company yet so all this is on my personal credit cards. How do people usually handle this transitional period until a company is set up with proper accounts? [link] [comments]  |
| How do I overcome the "trough of sorrow" in my fundraising pitch for a pre-seed round? Posted: 27 Nov 2019 09:36 AM PST I released an MVP about 8 months ago and we have a very committed and insanely passionate userbase. However, we still haven't hit product market fit. We're getting there. Our cohort retention 90 days ago was 8.5% after 30 days. Now it's about 17% We have 5000 MAU and most of our users are very serious about the product. Of course, I'd prefer that we raise money when our numbers look amazing. 15% month over month growth, etc. However, we're not there yet. I'm concerned that I'm in a catch 22 state. I could raise money for 90 days but that would stop development. I could continue development but that would stop fundraising. It's really hard to do both, at least for me. I'm also a single founder which makes things harder. I feel like we're close to really gaining some traction but "close" could mean another 3-6 months of development. We're also not ramen profitable yet so it's difficult to focus on it full time. I do know that users are willing to pay but with our small MAU this means only about 2% of people pay so it's not a massive amount of cash. Would love some feedback here. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 27 Nov 2019 05:03 PM PST My startup is 11 months online, and these are the main metrics: -1120 trial users; -Converted 54 as paying users; -21 users churned; Context: -SaaS for B2B; -All these numbers were conquered using only a co-marketing strategy. -Integrates with CRMs, our main value is to improve salespeople's engagement and direct affect productivity using gamification to automate challenge, competition, and contextual feedback. -I have money until Jul 2020. Help: -Is the conversion rate normal for this context? -Should I try different marketing acquisition strategies? -Should I focus to find an accelerator like to help me? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 27 Nov 2019 11:52 AM PST I'm looking to build a budget to get to my SaaS MVP. This includes legal, design, development, some DevOps and infrastructure costs, etc. Been looking online and can't find anything. Does anyone have a recommendation or an example MVP budget that I can take a look at to see what I might be missing? [link] [comments]  |
| Advice about shareholder contract Posted: 27 Nov 2019 02:57 PM PST I recently joined a new venture, I met the original founders through a networking event and we clicked, shared the same views and have been working closely since to create the product. I am the technical co-founder by the way, but I'm definitely not as tight as friends as the founders are. It's getting closer to the point where we need to incorporate the company before launching/marketing the product. So, we need to have a talk about our shares and stakes in the company. Should I expect a lower stake in the company because I'm just the technical co-founder and joined later or should I be equal to the other 2 founders? I'm not sure how to approach this situation. I've never been at this stage in a startup. Any advice from my seniors would be greatly appreciated! [link] [comments]  |
| How to get more feedback from potential customers? Posted: 27 Nov 2019 02:56 PM PST Hello, I am currently in building phase of my SaaS B2B startup. I know I shouldn't try to make it perfect before I talk to potential customers and that I shouldn't make it on my own without asking what they need.. but, how do you even get proper feedback? Most people just ignore me when I ask for feedback. What is your strategy to get as many feedbacks as possible? [link] [comments]  |
| Days away from my first app launch; looking for real advice from doers who’ve done it! Posted: 27 Nov 2019 10:56 AM PST Firstly, I'm brand new to this sub and I have to say it's incredible how willing people are to lend advice and help. You guys are awesome! I'm working through the finishing touches on my first mobile app. The app is a relatively simple, but fun utility-type application. The lite version offers basic functionality while the premium version (~$1.99 through in-app purchases) offers full customization. The target audience is in an influencer-heavy market; expected demographics of users between 16-30. My intentions were to do a brief "soft-launch" with local advertising to see what organic growth might look and collect additional feedback before a full scale launch. I'm looking for any advice from anyone that's been through this process before; what's worked/what hasn't? There is such an abundance of conflicting information out there with checklists, launch services, etc; I'm just looking for real advice from doers who've done it! I'd also greatly appreciate any helpful resources. Thanks in advance! [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 27 Nov 2019 08:04 AM PST |
| How to manage logins for many organizations? Posted: 27 Nov 2019 10:28 AM PST I'm currently developing a web application and was wondering what the best way to manage logins for many organizations. There would be hundreds of organizations with hundreds of users and each organization will have their own SSO. Currently I was thinking of either doing a separate website for each organization that can be hosted under their own domain, but this might be a lot harder to maintain or have one main website where on the login page they select their organization. Which method would be better or are there any alternatives that would work even better? [link] [comments]  |
| Founders who have thrown in the towel: When did you know that it was time to move on? Posted: 27 Nov 2019 05:31 AM PST Was it that money ran out? You weren't seeing market fit? You generally lost interest? You ran into unforeseen issues with product dev? Either way, what made you ultimately say it's time for something else random characters so that my post doesn't get removed again for some arbitrary character limit rule [link] [comments]  |
| Response rate in online raffles Posted: 27 Nov 2019 07:25 AM PST Hey guys Well, we had an amazing participation/response rate of roughly 40% of all users. I tried to research a reference number but there don't seem to exist any official studies (apart of regular incentivized surveys in social science, but not in terms of lead-generation and marketing). [link] [comments]  |
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