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
- Friendly Reminder: Delaware Franchise Tax Returns are Due on 3/1
- How do you deal with the competition?
- How to launch new startup that is B2B2C?
- Equity Split
- How much is my contribution to the startup worth?
- Our app Breezy got featured on Product Hunt's Home Page
- How to lower drop rate between landing page and signup ? Advice needed
- What are some tips for boiling down a good pitch for your company?
- Is it always difficult to find co-founders?
- How do I define my title at the startup I just joined?
- Should I shut down my startup or continue improving
- How to find startup ideas?
- Launch to email list didn't go well, what other options do I have?
- Taxes before incorporation
- Best Resources For Finding A Startup To Work For
- How can you decide what features to focus on in the early stages?
- Approaching traditional FMCG companies
- How to get students excited about the start up world ?
- I have time, engineering knowledge, patient but I don't have any idea
- What creates a HUGE amount of value to customers?
- Looking for some advice on where to find certain companies.
- My startup had many problems and I had no solutions... When was the last time you couldn't solve a major problem?
| Posted: 27 Feb 2020 05:05 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]  |
| Friendly Reminder: Delaware Franchise Tax Returns are Due on 3/1 Posted: 27 Feb 2020 05:58 PM PST As a friendly reminder, if you formed your startup as a C-Corp in Delaware, make sure you file your Delaware annual report (also known as the franchise tax return) before 3/1 to avoid a $200 penalty plus interest. This is commonly overlooked for companies that operate outside of Delaware, as oftentimes the registered agent or attorney who assisted with the formation of the business doesn't notify you of the reminder notice that's sent out. Filing the Delaware franchise tax return (also known as the annual report) is relatively simple, but a lot of companies forget about it and end up accruing unnecessary late fees. The instructions for filing are summarized below:
Upon logging in, you may be alarmed to see a very large tax amount due. This is almost always incorrect, so don't panic. Delaware has two ways of calculating the tax, and they naturally default to the one that gives them a higher taxable amount. It's also important to note that this is not an income tax, but rather it is a franchise tax that companies pay for the rights to have their corporation domiciled in the state of Delaware. I hope this helps at least one or two of you avoid late fees! [link] [comments]  |
| How do you deal with the competition? Posted: 27 Feb 2020 03:47 PM PST Hey everyone, I'm a startup founder, and after months of work, another start up came out of nowhere doing something similar to what we're doing but are further along. This has been incredibly discouraging, and I feel like if we're to continue we need to make some major changing to set us apart from the competition. What do you all do about it when you get discouraged by some competition? [link] [comments]  |
| How to launch new startup that is B2B2C? Posted: 27 Feb 2020 02:13 PM PST Hey gang, I have started to flirt around with another startup idea that I am trying to flush out to see if it's viable and I am starting to get stuck, due to implementing a different business model than I have before. My previous startup was B2B, and the one I am currently building/built is B2C, both of these are straight forward on how to interact with the respective consumer base. However, my new idea is a little bit different. This startup has the same interactions that is similar to Angies List, where my customers that pay are businesses, but they use it to advertise to their potential customers. I am trying to figure out the best way to launch, as in the beginning I'll have low traffic of both traffic types. I already have a landing page built, haven't launched it yet, to get businesses to preregister and regular users don't pay anything, so I don't feel that they need to preregister as their account is the simplest to register for once it's live (just E-Mail and password). What is the best (in general) approach to get businesses to register? They know the user traffic will be low at launch, and I don't want it to be barren for when users go to my site and see that no businesses are on there. Do I charge businesses on launch day? Do I charge them 2 weeks before launch day, so they can login and setup their business profile on the site and whatnot so they're ready to go on day 1? Do I offer a free month for businesses on launch day or shortly before? I appreciate your input and I am very eager to learn new things about all business models. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 27 Feb 2020 10:04 PM PST Would like to know your feedback on the following. I was invited to join an idea with another person. Currently we are in the steps of getting things ready for what needs to be done for the MVP. Anyways, I was told that I did not have to spend penny during this project (idea would be funded by partner), and I would be given 10% of the company for time rendered. However I had an option to buy up to 5%, where it would be $4k per 1% (money would be put inside the corporation that was created). I have a 5 month period to buy in at that rate elsewise I would have to buy in at whatever rate the company is worth after the period is over. I feel spending $20k on an idea to gain an extra 5%... So I would be up to 15% is a bit rediculus... But I might be wrong. I would later be lowered due to seed fund rounds (if it takes off). What do you think about this deal? And what would you approach your partner with? Like should I continue with the project or tell him its not worth my effort to continue. Note: To get MVP done, which would be to hire a coder, designer, and do a few marketing tactics would cost around 50-60k [link] [comments]  |
| How much is my contribution to the startup worth? Posted: 27 Feb 2020 09:47 PM PST Here's the situation: I am currently working hourly for an online e-commerce business. This company is still relatively small, the only employees are myself and the founder. The company was founded roughly 1 yr before I was brought on and have been part-time with the company for roughly 2 years. My original role was hourly doing creative tasks but my role has since evolved into that similar to a creative director/designer creating a brand for the company. I am also responsible for marketing, social media, and content creation among other things. Both the founder and I still do this part-time. We are starting to grow and looking to bring on more employees in the near future. I currently own no shares in the company but have been responsible for significant growth and the establishment of the brand. I am looking to propose becoming a shareholder in the company but need advice on how much equity my contribution to the company is worth / how to calculate monetary investment to equity percentage (factoring in my history and contribution within the company.) [link] [comments]  |
| Our app Breezy got featured on Product Hunt's Home Page Posted: 28 Feb 2020 12:58 AM PST Hi everyone, we're super excited to share with you that we just launched our startup Breezy which aims to help you quickly find the best and most affordable insurance for your pets! We just launched on Product Hunt! https://www.producthunt.com/posts/breezy-2 This is our MVP launch and we're still at least a few weeks away from the solution that we initially envisioned. However, after the first week of YC Startup School course where Michael Seibel emphasized the importance of having an MVP and getting feedback from customers early on, my Co-Founder Richard & I sat down and discussed what we can do or how many features we can trim down to get something out in 4 weeks instead of 10, which led to our launch today! The reason why we decided to build Breezy is that as a pet parent myself, I found the pet insurance search process to be extremely redundant and overwhelming as you have to fill out the same application form over and over again just to get a quote. In addition, understanding each provider's policy and exclusions can be very frustrating as they can be quite different depending on the plan you choose. Also, there is no clear evidence as to why the prices vary so much when comparing one company to another. Our goal is to make the pet insurance search process easy and transparent. And we're in the process of adding more providers to our website. Please check out our website https://sobreezy.com/ and feel free to reach out with any questions or comments. All feedbacks are greatly appreciated! [link] [comments]  |
| How to lower drop rate between landing page and signup ? Advice needed Posted: 28 Feb 2020 12:30 AM PST Hi everyone, I'm the head of a startup called Picsell.ia and we have launched our product last week. Our landing page is good at converting, about 6% conversion rate, and the goal we have set for this page is to make people click on a button "Start 7 days trial", which redirect to the signup page of our platform. The problem is, nearly no one creates an account after they arrive on this signup page. The question I'd like to answer is : "Why are people expecting when they click on the call to action on our landing ?" Do you have general advices to lower the drop rate between those two pages ? Or if you mind going on our landing page and click on this button to tell me what you think of the process and what could afraid you as a potential customer ? The link : https://www.picsellia.com I can also post screenshots of the two pages here if you don't want to go to the website, just tell me. Sorry for the long post, and thank you in advance for your recommendations ! PN [link] [comments]  |
| What are some tips for boiling down a good pitch for your company? Posted: 27 Feb 2020 08:31 PM PST A friend and I have been working on a project and when we explain the problem at length people get it and go "Oh yeah I've definitely had that problem" and show good interest, but we're finding it a bit hard to take that and boil it down into the pitch. We've gone through three different pitches so far and we spent about an hour on the pitch tonight, we were really happy with it and then pitched it out on twitter with an "I get it" or "I don't get it" poll and had someone within the first minute of that poll tell us they didn't get it. The problem is something pretty simple when we can explain it a little longer but the phrasing for a short one-sentence pitch is tripping us up. [link] [comments]  |
| Is it always difficult to find co-founders? Posted: 27 Feb 2020 06:58 AM PST Does everyone here feel it's super difficult to find the right co-founders at the right time? I attended top universities, worked at FAANG, have strong networks, but still find it super difficult to find a co-founder at the right time, with the right culture fit and with the right interests on the startup I'm working on. Any hacks would be really appreciated! [link] [comments]  |
| How do I define my title at the startup I just joined? Posted: 27 Feb 2020 10:33 PM PST I work for a really great start up that is just over a year old. The ceo is a really down to earth woman who seems to really care about all of us. A friend brought me along and told me I would love it and that they would love me because of my work ethic. I do everything...from sweeping the floors to meeting with c-level execs and interacting with our high end clients. I like to approach my job as if I were an owner (I was given stock options) and I take my job seriously. I am one of the only males that works here but all the women are super chill and there isn't that much drama. Recently my manager (one of the only other guys there) told me that I had to come up with an official title. He said it would affect my future with the company because no one really knows exactly what I do. How am I supposed to come up with a name. I primarily deal with customers (who are having issues with our software, and I am told that everyone loves how I am able to turn angry customers around) but I also deal with the developers and programmers and have even helped design some of the packaging for our software. In the world of startups (I'm a noob) is it really important to have a super specific title? Will that affect how much I get paid? My personality is to always put my head down and work hard and not complain. But I have also developed this reputation as "the nice guy" and it bothers me because I am horribly worried about what the term "nice" means these days. I really work on not doing things that I will resent, but have tried to be as scrappy as possible and get stuff done. Will I be respected more for my title? Should I take that part of my job more seriously? I find that when people refer to me as "CSR" I get agitated because I feel I am so much more...I have trained all the other CSR's and get daily calls on what to do from them. One of them got promoted to "CSR Lead" and I feel I may be making a mistake not defining my title. I would appreciate any insight and/or advice! [link] [comments]  |
| Should I shut down my startup or continue improving Posted: 27 Feb 2020 04:07 AM PST I have started my SaaS startup over a year ago. Designed very nice landing and developed quality backend code without spending a time for market and marketing analyzes. We just thought about market is big because there are a lot of webmasters and each business having their own website now and want to grow conversions (my startup is CRO optimization tool). When we started to make marketing we faced a lot of problems:
We tried a lot of different strategies: we pay for SEO, content creating, blog, fb ads and also reddit ads. But didn't get loyal customers. Business coach on every video training courses are talking about MVP development time should be around 2-3 months, after that you should test hypothesis and check traffic. If it is not working good - left this business. Are you agree w/ this? or should I give a fight to the market , continue improving and develop new modules? And maybe after 2-3 years of continiously improvings I can get a success? Thanks for your answers! [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 27 Feb 2020 02:45 PM PST The title says it all. I am capable of coding medium sized and complex web applications, am designer by training and have business experience. I am not currently looking for something to start but i had plenty of projects back in the days just to practice coding but i never come to a point where i have a startup idea that could create revenue. Ycombinator says that a startup should evolve of a problem you may have but i am pretty good in solving problems/finding workarounds so i am just blind and dont see problems around me or in my industry. There is a solution for everything. I am also not looking for something that i am extremely passionate about and nothing i can exit for 10bn$ just something that makes revenue for a living and that i can realize with my capabilities. Again i am not looking for something i have to do tomorrow, but i am interested in your approaches on hoe to find startup problems or ideas to realize. Thank you [link] [comments]  |
| Launch to email list didn't go well, what other options do I have? Posted: 27 Feb 2020 04:49 PM PST I 'launched' my SaaS product today to my email list and so far have gotten lack luster results, my click thru rate is not great. I'm not sure if this is because of a bad open rate or just a bad email that didn't fit what it should have. I don't want to email my list again too soon so not to seem like spam - I really don't want to spam anyone - but I would like to reach more people about my service. A bit of background on the service, it is a website monitoring and alerting tool designed for companies/teams who need external monitoring for their website or API. Current service provided is a HTTP and SSL monitor with alerting following a possible outage or expiration of the SSL cert. What are some ways I can reach out or make my website seen by more people? PS I will be reaching out to companies/ people via cold email/call, I am looking for a more efficent way to reach and convert from say 2k views than 100 emails [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 27 Feb 2020 01:55 PM PST Hi everyone, I would appreciate if anyone could answer this for me. I know it is better to talk to lawyers about this type of issues, but I would still love to hear if anyone has been in the same situation. I have spent many dollars on my product development, hiring contractors, designers, etc. for my product within last 3 years. However, I have never created an actual company. I am planning to do this as soon as possible so I can start making revenue. Am I allowed to deduct some of expenses that I had before officially starting a C-Corp in Delaware? Or was I stupid to spend money before officially starting a corporation? Thanks for your time! [link] [comments]  |
| Best Resources For Finding A Startup To Work For Posted: 27 Feb 2020 10:04 AM PST Let's have a conversation about how qualified candidates can find open positions at startups. [link] [comments]  |
| How can you decide what features to focus on in the early stages? Posted: 27 Feb 2020 09:44 AM PST I'm part of a startup (in the very early stages) that is creating an application for users. We have tons of (awesome) features that we would like to implement, but due to time and money constraints, we need to decide on which features to focus on first. In our early iteration should we focus on:
Any advice at all is appreciated, thanks in advance! [link] [comments]  |
| Approaching traditional FMCG companies Posted: 27 Feb 2020 09:35 AM PST So I have an app (I know...I know...just hear me out), for which I need to approach good old FMCG companies like Proctor and Gamble , Gillette etc to name a few. And through my limited research of (whatever I could find on the internet) I decided to approach the C-level executives of the companies. Now after a lot of pain I was able to get their email addresses. But they don't seem to respond and I can't try out all the variation since the companies are numbered. How should I go about it? [link] [comments]  |
| How to get students excited about the start up world ? Posted: 27 Feb 2020 08:47 AM PST I'm the student co ordinator of the entrepreneurship club of my college. Ours is a quite prestigious engineering institution. We have good resources and even got an incubator on campus. But we're not so satisfied with student engagement as most students believe that they may not be good enough or maybe afraid of the risk involved in starting up. We want to organize events, competitions and get students involved as early as in their first, second years of undergrad and shape them into innovative thinkers. We believe that the skills that u develop in the journey, will help you in any other place though you may not really start up after college. Need tips to do this effectively. I'm happy to provide any other details if needed. [link] [comments]  |
| I have time, engineering knowledge, patient but I don't have any idea Posted: 27 Feb 2020 10:55 AM PST As title says, I have:
But I don't have an idea. I don't know what to develop, a mobile app, a SaaS or a niche website, or a fricking fart sounds application. I'm desperately searching for a problem to solve. Does this ever happen to you? [link] [comments]  |
| What creates a HUGE amount of value to customers? Posted: 27 Feb 2020 10:04 AM PST For something like shoes, I've noticed that the Allbirds shoes which recently became a billion dollar company has wool that, as wool naturally does, heat up when wet. It also is very unique type of material, and it's eco friendly, and its cool. It seems like it tapped into a lot of different hot topics, and caught steam. Is the key to creating HUGE amounts of value to customers, is on trend, and have positive features on the product to be valuable. The customer figures out how much value the brand has, and the product has by itself. Then if they consider Allbirds shoes to be worth $140 dollars give or take, they will think it has value at $100.Is creating the RIGHT mix of emotional benefit and functional features, the idea to differentiate and drive value. Then its growing and sustaining that pmf tha has the market size, that has the features that rival the competition in a new distinct way? [link] [comments]  |
| Looking for some advice on where to find certain companies. Posted: 27 Feb 2020 06:25 AM PST I am finding myself in a space where I need to target a very specific set of companies, and I am not sure how to get in front of them. I am finding that small startups love the idea, but they only have a small number of people which does not really have a need for what we are building, eventually they might. I had the CEO of a 150 person startup reach out to me and want to implement the product, since we are in MVP/beta stage I let him know and he was cool with it. Days later he came back and said he went with another company just based on our newness. Any ideas on how to get in front of companies that might be past seed and maybe approaching their A series. That is the only idea I have for this. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 27 Feb 2020 06:13 AM PST Welp, like the title says. My startup faced many problems and I threw everything at them trying to fix them. I usually think I'm a natural problem solver but this time... I've got nothing left and I'm winding it up. I've read countless tales of fearless entrepreneurs giving it their all and finding a solution in the last minute but those are all soaked in survivor bias and I don't think that represents all our stories. When was a time (whether in a current startup or previous) that you gave it your all but everything still failed? [link] [comments]  |
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