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
- How do you track and organize your marketing/operational experiments?
- Is this the right order?
- Is there disadvantage in not fully utilizing authorized shares?
- How to brainstorm a name for your startup and domain
- Idea Validation: Leetcode-like platform for systems development
- Taking time off as a one man startup
- Question regarding accepting investment money
- Selling custom AI-based solutions to small businesses
- What's the best way to beta-test an application?
- How to expand a service to USA? What are some taxes and marketing strategies to consider?
- Go big and maybe earn big? Go slow and earn slow? Or wait?
- Best place to post product idea?
- What method do you use to get people to your landing page?
| Posted: 02 Jan 2020 05:06 AM PST 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]  |
| How do you track and organize your marketing/operational experiments? Posted: 02 Jan 2020 10:17 AM PST We want to ramp up our a/b testing, among other things, in 2020, and I'm curious how you all organize and track all the different things you want to test in your business? I feel like everything we do, or want to do, is going to be haphazard without some sort of framework to set guidelines, metrics, etc. Edit: To clarify, I'm talking about tools to track and organize, rather than just using an Excel spreadsheet or something. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 02 Jan 2020 01:12 PM PST
I'm curious to see the order that has worked for others who have both succeeded and failed at their startups. [link] [comments]  |
| Is there disadvantage in not fully utilizing authorized shares? Posted: 02 Jan 2020 10:27 PM PST I see that typical c-corp startups authorize 10 million shares they are incorporated, so I was going to follow that path. I am a sole founder, and would like to issue 3 million shares (30% of authorized shares) to me, would that cause any issue down in the road compared to issuing 6 million shares to me (60% of authorized shares)? My intuition is that authorized shares do not matter whatsoever because what matters are issued shares which are used for ownership/voting %... but I just wanted to confirm. The reason that I am asking this is.. I might want to find another co-founder down in the road, and if I do so, I would like to have enough shares left so that I can issue them to the co-founder, say 2 million shares to him (e.g. 6:4 ownership). with 3 million shares issued to myself, I can give him 2 million shares and we will still have 5 million authorized shares left. But if I had issued 6 million shares myself, I would have to give him all remaining 4 million shares for 6:4 ownership and that will alone consume all available authorized shares, which I have to amend. So if I issued 3 million shares myself, and decided to work as a solo founder, can I operate as if I only have 5 million shares authorized, and pursue for 60% voting ownership? This also made me to think... why don't companies authorized 100 million or 1 billion shares, but operate as if 10 million shares have been authorized? That way the company will never likely need to authorized more shares, while they can still operate as if there are 10 million shares are available with due diligence. [link] [comments]  |
| How to brainstorm a name for your startup and domain Posted: 02 Jan 2020 07:55 PM PST During the last few years, I have worked on a couple of startups and a few landing pages and every time I had to go through the same process to come up with a great name with the .com domain available. If you have done this once you know what a pain it is. You brainstorm, squeeze your brain out, come up with a great name only to find out that the domain is taken. Why do we care about the .com domain so much? Because that's what most people remember especially if you are a B2C startup. As you know .com domains are the most valuable because of the scarcity of the remaining good domains. Pretty much all the four-character domains that do not have dashes and numbers in them are gone. Almost all good combinations of five-letter words are gone as well. You can still find very good five-letter combinations that can be used as great company names but they are extremely scarce. It's impossible to find them manually. It becomes easier and easier as you increase the number of characters, but ar the same time, it becomes more and more difficult to remember for your customers. That's why computers are better at these tasks. For example, this is a good tool that helps you brainstorm and create new names and immediately do a whois search to make sure the domain is available. Brainstorming and coming up with a name with the domain name is just the first step. You need a lot more to have a great name that you also give you a good feeling. I have a few metrics that I believe can be helpful to narrow down your brainstorm results. A great name should be: Emotional Founders should feel great about the name. We have seen weird names that become big. So if you come up with a name that is not great, there is still a chance for the brand to grow, but if the founders do not feel great about the brand, there is no chance. So, I wouldn't recommend going to a branding agency and asking for a name because there is a great chance that they give you a name that you don't like. But you may think that these professionals know better. Don't fall for that. You should love your name regardless of where it comes from. Availability We talked about this a little bit. Good names that with the available domain are scarce unless you can spend hundreds of thousands of dollars for them. Unless you have raised tens of millions of dollars and have some product-market fit, spending a dime on that is not a good idea in my opinion. There are still great names that are available out there that you can find. For example, using namecad I could generate some good names such as: bancoba, oxanos, saxwel, wrazo, and so many more great combinations. So, what I'm trying to say is that do not spend your money on expensive domains unless you have tons of money. One last thing about the availability has nothing to do with the domain name. By choosing that name, you should not be violating any copyright or trademark. I'm not a lawyer and this is not legal advice, but if you invent a new word like the ones above, it is almost certain that you can copyright it and get the trademark. Memorability After you are done with the brainstorming phase, you would want a name that is memorable. Getting the .com and aiming for less number of characters is along those lines. I believe that names that use strong letters such as "x", "cs", etc have a better chance of sticking. The other thing that I believe is that the names that make a mental connection with a mental image, are the easiest to remember. Take Spanx for example. Spanx is a brand name for women's underwear. It's a clever name. It both uses a strong letter as well as the mental connection. It sticks. Scalability We all know that the chances of success for a brand new startup are pretty slim. However, if you succeed, you don't want to carry a crappy name that does not scale with your business. Rebrands are expensive. You risk losing many customers if you do so. Don't pick a name that's tied to a particular place. The nice thing with invented words is that they are time and spaceless. Those are great choices for startups that want to grow. Relevance Having a name that makes a connection with what you do is great. It tells your audience what you do and again helps with that neuro-connection that makes your name more memorable. Cleanliness I had a friend who started a website that helped people pick therapeutic herbs for their simple conditions. He ended up naming his startup something that people mistake it with a marijuana dispensary. Last time I spoke with him, he did not sound happy about that. So, do some google search about the name and make sure it's not a slang name for something you don't want to associate your brand with. Well, hope this helps and best of luck with your startup! [link] [comments]  |
| Idea Validation: Leetcode-like platform for systems development Posted: 03 Jan 2020 01:42 AM PST I'm just coming out of a successful job hunt in software. While Leetcoding definitely helps one get a job, I think that's where most (not all) of its benefits end. It helps you get skills to get in through the door but once you're in, what then? "Experience, of course!", you'd say. And I agree, nothing teaches you better than experience does. But you can gain that experience only as you go along the path in your career. What is going to prepare you for the days you spent chasing the bug, using all sorts of stack traces, debuggers, etc. only to realize that it was a typo in your YAML file? So what I propose is a platform, containing problems that help you get experience in developing systems (backend, frontend, DevOps, etc), similar to what sites like Leetcode do for your algorithms practice. The problems will focus on specific areas to teach a few things per problem so as to be focused and would be submitted by the users. Who knows, someday someone's problem solved after multiple nightmares might help you avoid yours'. So I'm starting a newsletter in which I would send a problem to subscribers every week, to create content and build an audience. Would you say it is a good strategy to start? [link] [comments]  |
| Taking time off as a one man startup Posted: 02 Jan 2020 09:09 PM PST I have an e-commerce and delivery business. I do everything myself from deliveries, fulfilling orders online, customer service etc. Due to the nature of my business I will not be able to work remotely. I've been at it for about a year now, and while I make enough to support myself I don't make enough to hire employees just yet. I want to go on a two week vacation overseas. Would it be a bad idea to temporarily "close" for those two weeks until I get back, or should I try hiring someone to take over? I am hesitant to hire anyone because my inventory is valuable and I am afraid they'll either waste/break it through incompetence, or steal it. At the same time I don't want to lose any customers that want to buy from me when I'm gone. [link] [comments]  |
| Question regarding accepting investment money Posted: 02 Jan 2020 05:12 PM PST My company (a delaware C corp) has just found an investor who is planning on giving us the money tomorrow, however we do not have a company bank account yet. Can we accept the money and put it in one of our personal accounts until we are able to get an official company account? It is an investment of $10,000 in the form of a SAFE note [link] [comments]  |
| Selling custom AI-based solutions to small businesses Posted: 02 Jan 2020 06:02 PM PST A few weeks ago I came across an online store printing customers' pets on various items. I became interested in their operations and after doing more research I learned they have a team of graphic designers manually cropping pets from the images sent by customers. That sounds like a very tedious task and I immediately thought to myself: why don't they use a Deep Learning algorithm to do that? I'm a software engineer with a background in Machine Learning so I know that algorithms for background removal can be pretty darn efficient. Implementing an AI solution would boost productivity tremendously, at least 40% according to some rough calculations. It seems like a pretty straightforward solutions to me: they have a problem and I have a solution. Still, after sending messages via email and LinkedIn to various decision makers I didn't get a single response. What could I be doing wrong? Possible reasons are the following:
I see the practice of selling custom AI solutions to small businesses just like selling websites. I'm not interested in developing a SaaS platform at this time (too risky and expensive). [link] [comments]  |
| What's the best way to beta-test an application? Posted: 02 Jan 2020 07:45 AM PST I made an application that I think is very useful (at least for myself), but I want to have some controlled feedback on it before I start marketing. Does anyone have experience with this? Should I post on LinkedIn asking for feedback or would reaching out to a couple of close friends be enough data to confidently say the app works/is a valid idea? Thanks in advance for the help. This is the first time with any sort of "business", so all your thoughts are much appreciated. [link] [comments]  |
| How to expand a service to USA? What are some taxes and marketing strategies to consider? Posted: 02 Jan 2020 08:06 AM PST Hi all, How does a company functioning in asia offer their printing services to end-users in the states (USA)? Has anyone done this successfully? What were the taxes and marketing strategies that you found worked for you? For context: We want to offer wallpaper and wall sticker printing services. The model might work bc printing overseas + shipping is usually A LOT cheaper than printing locally, almost half actually [link] [comments]  |
| Go big and maybe earn big? Go slow and earn slow? Or wait? Posted: 02 Jan 2020 11:58 AM PST Background: I am turning 30 this year. Its bothering me. I want to "be something" have something "awesome"! Sound stupid, but just feels like you don't know what life might bring you, and you always need to add to what you have. Just for incase. Currently have a great job, earning about 6 figures (as the guys from the US would say). Loads of benefits. I have the chance to go into a business of transporting coal and other mined oars. I would need to buy a truck (as we call them) with a trailer to haul the goods. I have the money for it. But would be about all of my savings. Returns should be able to pay that back in 2-3 years. But you know, there is risk... the mine could stop operating, political strains, world views on mining... Then there is the slow option. Invest in property? Rent it out, or airbnb. But the returns are basically the same as keeping the money in the bank with intrest. Only difference is that you have capital growth (hopefully) in property value. Low risk. Or just stay where i am and save up and wait for something els? I just don't know!! The positive me is saying. Heyyyy you might have a fleet of coal hauling trucks in 5 years. Negative me is saying. Shit, you might hate yourself for losing your cash. Then again. I am young, it might be the only time to take a risk. [link] [comments]  |
| Best place to post product idea? Posted: 02 Jan 2020 09:09 AM PST Hey guys, I recently started a MVP for my platform, it's a platform directed towards the Makeup industry. But I'm having issues in finding places to post the MVP to attract sign ups. Does anybody know places where I can post the landing site to attract more audience? I currently run Instagram Ads and posted it on a few subreddits. Any feedback would be appreciated. [link] [comments]  |
| What method do you use to get people to your landing page? Posted: 02 Jan 2020 07:38 AM PST I am evaluating an idea and have set up a landing page to see if it gets any traction. I have tried to post about it in a couple of places but it seems like it is not getting enough publicity. I might think about buying ads but I do not want to spend at this point. What methods do you use paid and non paid do get people to check it out? [link] [comments]  |
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