Startups Tuesday Operational Roundtable - A Forum to Ask About Legal, Accounting, Project Management, or How to Get Started |
- Tuesday Operational Roundtable - A Forum to Ask About Legal, Accounting, Project Management, or How to Get Started
- Am I co-founder if my friend came up with all the ideas, but I coded all of them out.
- I have created and scaled a successful mobile COVID-19 testing operation, but I feel like there's low-hanging fruit / opportunities we're leaving on the table to get more people tested. What are some applications for this that I may be missing?
- A step-by-step guide of how I would build a SaaS company right now - part 5
- Starting an LLC
- How do I start a canned food company?
- Help. People eagerly joined my WhatsApp group but no one talks! How do you break the ice in a new community?
- How to get funding
- Difference between Restricted Stock Awards (RSA) and ISO+Early Exercise?
- I started a cocktail kits business in India, and want feedback on the website and the idea.
- Make a digital Corporate Minute Book
- I need help on how to present my startup product to an organization
- Part 2/6 of the 60 Minute Presentation for a Head of Growth Role at a Startup: Data Friendliness and Follow Every Penny.
- Startup moving too slow
- Where to start with a business idea and what to consider
- Free Bookkeeping Apps/software
- Great idea! Need help to get the gears moving!
| Posted: 04 Aug 2020 06:05 AM PDT Welcome to this week's Operational Roundtable Thread. Ask about anything related to legal, accounting, project management, or how to get started. 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]  |
| Am I co-founder if my friend came up with all the ideas, but I coded all of them out. Posted: 05 Aug 2020 12:42 AM PDT My friend came to me one day saying he wanted to make a start up. So far he's just coming up with the ideas and I'm coding all of it, putting in work. I asked him what my title is and he sounded unsure. Didn't mention co-founder, just head developer. I thought being cofounder means there's someone else that fills the requirements of what the other cofounder is missing (i.e. Coding Experience). I don't want to sound mean towards him, we still hang out all the time, but what do you think? Does coding the whole app make me cofounder? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 04 Aug 2020 11:27 PM PDT We are an ops + medical team that wants to see as many people tested as possible. In a pretty short time we've built some very solid technology and lab relationships that let us conduct large numbers of COVID-19 tests, identify the best lab for a fast turnaround, and get results in 2-3 days every time (even when hospitals are waiting 7 days). Restaurants, police departments, real estate firms, etc. hire us to build a temporary testing suite in their offices. Our teams can each test up to 1,000 patients/day. Usually, we bill patient insurance, and uninsured patients have their tests covered by their employer. All results are delivered to the patient and the employer. Our typical sale is to businesses who rely heavily on having people present and want to minimize the chances of an outbreak. They hire us to come and test their asymptomatic workforce, sometimes as often as every 1-2 weeks for each employee. This is important because many of these are front-line workers and at high risk of coming into contact with COVID-19, and we very regularly identify these people who are infected but have not yet started to exhibit symptoms. Workplace testing is great, but I suspect there's a lot we're missing because we are so caught up in that world. What we're trying to figure out is what other use cases we may not be thinking of where a rapidly deployable testing capability could be valuable. Workplace testing volume ebbs and flows and we want our teams out there testing as many people possible even if it's not employer contracts. What are some things we could do with this? [link] [comments]  |
| A step-by-step guide of how I would build a SaaS company right now - part 5 Posted: 04 Aug 2020 07:27 AM PDT Part 1 Part 2 Part 2.5 Part 3 Part 4 This is it, the last post in the series. Definitely didn't hit one a week, life came up regularly. During this process of writing these articles it has helped to better inform my current project. Even if you've done something a hundred times, writing out your thoughts on the subject really helps narrow down your focus and can be extremely helpful. I'm a huge proponent of using pen and paper and creating outlines and lists and this series of articles is all about that. We've been applying all these steps in the background and things are going well being only 4 months in. I'll throw that up as another post down the road when we've got something more tangible. What started as a project that was going to be SaaS changed to be managed service realizing that what we offered people wanted but didn't want to manage. People are looking for turnkey these days with services that they can just track results on while paying for value and understanding that perceived value. That's not to say that we won't go SaaS down the road, but we'd rather allow the knowledge gained from running it as a managed service to help inform the best on-boarding and upkeep. We've also seen how competitors really just stop short of actually providing something of real value in terms of how their products are implemented. We love lazy companies, even if they don't know they are being lazy. This is part 5 of 5.
2.5 - Process, process, process - Start one, refine it, continually improve it - Part 2.5
5. Build customer advocates along the way, tell their stories (lead with examples) The following applies to all businesses, but specifically is relevant when referring to SaaS companies as anything below an enterprise level platform has changed dramatically. The way people purchase in combination with greater access to materials online has led to a continued decrease in trust with sales people and or teams. Most people would prefer to transact without having to deal with salespeople today. I count myself among them. What customers want to see - What the product looks like Established workflows that it solves for People like us that are currently using it The process for getting started and on-boarded A good story is more powerful than stats most of the time. So let's build customer advocates and tell their stories. Establish the different personas that use your products, find companies/people that are using your product that would make for a good story. We're all about helping other people relate to how to use your product for a specific industry sector. So now let's figure out how a well produced piece of content can check all these boxes and more. There are a few key features here:
This is all about building a community of stories that people will come back to to reference down the line. This series of posts is a good example. The advice is provided from a standpoint of having done and worked with these groups of companies in different roles over the years. This is marketing for today's world, actionable, relatable, content that is built to be a seamless transition into taking action. The majority of these stories will come from the contact you have with customers. Be relatable As a customer I need to be able to see myself in the person or company you are highlighting. I need to feel like I am just like your current customers, looking to solve for the same things. I need to understand that your product is for someone like me, almost tailored with me in mind. Be raw, not polished The BS meter is high, when high production value comes into play, there is always a hint of something not being authentic. Go for raw, not polished, this brings down the walls a bit, and relates to the point above where you need to genuinely see yourself as a customer. Focus on the customer's company It's not about your product, it's about how your customer uses your product. Focus on their company, their internal processes, and how your product enables them to unlock losts time or revenue. Use the customer's social media I don't see this one done often enough. If you're producing a piece of content, provide the contact information for the customer's social media. If I'm a similar potential customer, it's not uncommon for me to reach out to the person featured to ask for their candid feedback on using your product. I've personally done this more than a few times when assessing what platforms to work with or try out. So assuming you've been able to do this correctly, you've now driven traffic back to your website which means we need to make sure that it's clear, supportive, and enough to spark the conversation towards conversion. You have to create a great experience. Where does a great experience come from? It starts from the moment someone reaches your website. Most B2B websites fall into one of two categories: Freemium OR Demo required And nearly all of them are light on providing clear descriptions of HOW people are using their product. This is my all time biggest pet peeve. I don't want to hear from your clients via a scripted video, I want to see them on YouTube using your product in a raw manner. I know I've signed up for trials and upon seeing the platform never come back. I don't want to read buzzworthy feature sets, I want to see working examples. We've made this massive transition to as someone put it in another post "REAL MARKETING". When you're doing sales, your goal should be to genuinely help someone, this includes making sure everything is crystal clear, expectations are laid out, and there is a good understanding of all steps involved. People don't like sales people though so...marketing it's actually on you - Make your websites better. Seriously, make them a lot better. Know where you can ask for more information, couch it as wanting to put you in touch with someone with specific industry experience. Personalize the prospective customer's experience. Industry knowledge goes a long way during a sales process. One of the best things you can do for your websites is to read all the copy outloud and match your website to a customer journey, bring someone through the buying process all one one page, then allow people to dig a bit deeper. I'm waiting for someone to do something more creative with a pricing page as well. From a buyer perspective it's one of the first pages I click likely before I looked at all your features, if you know it's got a high click through rate, use that as marketing space, build something interactive so you understand who you're pricing for, it's like an email after you buy something, that sucker has an extremely high open rate and it's the most misused space ever when it comes to marketing. There are too many websites out there that have too many buzzwords, are long on fun graphics but short on actual product photos and videos, and make things a bit complicated. You know the types I'm talking about they also usually have a video with cartoons instead of actual product shots. Off to YouTube I go! Examples of easy places to make improvements -
I've had terrible experiences where it comes to B2B websites. It feels like a lot of brands make it all about them rather than how a customer would look at a website. With the amount of free tools that are now available, I really don't want to have to figure things out if I'm paying. If I'm buying software for my business, I want someone to get it configured and set up and provide best practices for making sure I get the most out of it. You have a million competitors, if you're willing to get it setup for me and provide support so that I benefit, you're headed to the top of the list. If you go to an agency's website it usually (the good ones) has a page dedicated to the process. The same should be true of any SaaS website, take the time to explain to someone they process whether buying or implementation so both parties have clear expectations. So how does this change my opinion about how to fix this problem? Start with the story, always. People don't buy products, they buy experiences involving products from people like them or people they aspire to be. Highlight the value propositions that people want in an experience. We're going to channel Part 1 again here and the reasons someone buys:
So all these things are really cool, but what if a business literally stepped in and handled all the process and flows of getting this setup, so when they turned over an instance, it was pretty much turnkey? This is where I think we're headed and this is where you customer advocates come in. I think this because with an abundance of platforms on the market that do similar things splitting hairs over a specific functionality isn't something people really care about, in other words, it's all about the results that a platform can provide and for most people you have about 2 months to prove results. I've noticed this a lot with companies I've worked with, people get stuck into using what they know and really don't want to spend the time learning something new or switching over. Even the best on-boarding isn't entirely seamless because unless you're already a product expert it's tough to get the most out of a new product right away. This brings us to the big conundrum and requires a mental shift. You're not looking for more customers, you should be looking for more of the ideal customers. Let me explain - when you're building out your SaaS company when you're a step above MVP and working towards v1 you're going to have to do a lot of hand holding because things aren't going to be perfect, features will be lacking, bugs will exist, etc. Even as you start to mature, you're battling with shorter and shorter attention spans. So we're looking to find more ideal customers. These are the ones you can build for quickly. They are a subset of your market that you can apply work done for one with workflows and easily setup others using the same workflows/templates etc. One of the things not readily discussed is how to measure the perceived value of your solution. For some people the value of your solution will be astronomical, for others, maybe just a slight improvement and for those that stop using it well no improvement. So we're really looking for clients that realize astronomical value. This won't be everyone, but for those that you are blowing away their expectations, understand why and how so you can replicate this for others. This is why a really good, personal on-boarding and setup is so powerful, the keys to the castle are literally there, if you take advantage. Spend time to understand the workflows that your customers are creating, setting up, and which ones are the most impactful for them. This is your story to tell. I've noticed this time and time again with clients, some companies think that products are cheap, while others think of them as being expensive, the price, the exact same. So we're looking for customers that think the product is "cheap" as it has a higher perceived value. Your SaaS business is also a services business in the beginning, you're providing a service to solve a problem, it's your job to get it configured and immediately providing value for the price that you are charging. Example Two people walk into a barber shop - the first person sees an open barber chair then gets to work on their own hair. The second person is brought to the barber chair, asks a bunch of questions about what the person is looking for style wise, lays out the services they are going to offer, hot shave, how they'll start and finishes with product recommendations for maintenance. Who's going to get the better review? The same goes for selling your software. Because people don't like sales people but love implementation people. Your website should be doing all of the heavy lifting and you should be implementing really intelligent ways to collect data about interested parties so that you can customize your follow up with them. It's never about getting them on the phone to talk about their business, it's always about what you can already know about their business and showing that you can provide value towards improving it. There is a gap in the above paragraph that a lot of people overlook. Data collection and personalization at scale. You're looking for intent data points during someone's time spent on your website. Hotjar and recording screens are great, but you're looking to build a profile of someone before they reach out or take an action to sign up etc. This is a huge space for disruptive businesses to come in. (we spend entirely too much time just guessing) The same is true during implementation, many companies don't have the best processes in place no matter how well they think they have things managed. B2B really needs to learn from B2C when it comes to storytelling. When I see a Nike commercial, I'm invested in the story behind the person trying to accomplish something, the fact that Nike is featured isn't the focus, never has been, it's all about what people that wear Nike are accomplishing. This is marketing, they back this up with a solid product. When you're building a company, you're asking someone to trust in you, when you are newer, you're asking people to really trust in you. Build trust through creating micro relationships with potential clients. Make it about them. When you're getting started and beyond, your product doesn't do things for people, your product enables people to accomplish amazing things. When you shift the focus to this mindset great things happen. So the main theme of all this is - People don't buy products, they buy experiences involving products from people like them or people they aspire to be. Yes every purchase is based on an experience, an influence, a need, a want, a desire, to be like someone else. Someone is always first. Focus on them, learn from them, then tell their story. Sidenote and closing thought on this - if done correctly, you should be looking for bite size quotes, images etc that work well for social media. Most people today discuss long form content broken down into shorter bits to drive traffic and stretch out content. Keep this in the back of your mind. These posts have been good to write, a constant reminder of how to stay focused and create something in a responsible way. During the process of writing these they also reflect my current journey of not just advising companies but working on building our own company. As always let me know if you have any questions. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 04 Aug 2020 08:43 PM PDT Okay so I am looking to start a LLC and I don't know where to start. I've been looking into LegalZoom and a few other companies to get a LLC. I was wondering where other startups have gotten their LLCs and how much they cost and what good does an LLC do for me. I'm so new at this so any help would be appreciated. Thank you in advance! [link] [comments]  |
| How do I start a canned food company? Posted: 04 Aug 2020 09:40 PM PDT I would like to start a canned food company but I have zero experience in that world. I will need a food contractor who can prepare and can the food as per my specifications and I will take care of other parts of the business. I might consider a drop shipping company as my e-commerce front. Has anyone done something like this ? Can you guide me or point me to the right resources ? Thanks 🙏 [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 05 Aug 2020 01:33 AM PDT So, I've managed to gather 50+ interested users in a WhatsApp group in a matter of couple of days. But the problem is I don't know where to go from here 😅. How do I grow an engaging community? No one really talks, I'm assuming everyone is "shy" since it's a group of introverts. (My website is a blogging platform for tech students, and almost all the users are from the same college.) Any community building ideas are welcome! I wish to convert this into an engaging community where students actively participate and help each other. I plan on hosting a bi-weekly online meetup on Google Meet or Zoom, but that seems unlikely if no one is interested in texting in the first place. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 05 Aug 2020 01:29 AM PDT Hi everyone! I have an idea for an invention in the restaurant and bar industry that would help eliminate theft by employees and improve efficiency. But I don't have the funds to develop the product and go patent it. How could I get some starting capital? And pls don't say friends and family because that is a no go for me (I don't want to owe them anything because that isn't good for personal relationships) [link] [comments]  |
| Difference between Restricted Stock Awards (RSA) and ISO+Early Exercise? Posted: 04 Aug 2020 08:24 PM PDT I'm talking to a startup company that is making a big deal of the fact that they provide equity slightly differently. I'm familiar with ISOs and the benefits of an early exercise with an 83b election. However, the equity structure for "Restricted Stock Awards" sounds a lot like an ISO + Early exercise. RSAs are distinct from RSUs, and involve a purchase at par value for tax benefits because taxes will be applied to the RSA purchase price minus value (ie. 0), as opposed to the vesting value. This sounds identical to an ISO + Early exercise + 83b election. What am I missing here? are there additional benefits to these RSAs over ISO+Early Exercise? Is there any reading you can recommend that can explain the difference? [link] [comments]  |
| I started a cocktail kits business in India, and want feedback on the website and the idea. Posted: 05 Aug 2020 01:57 AM PDT Hi Good Folks of r/startups, I'm putting down the overview of the problem and solution we are trying to build. My website is mixydrinks.com Mixy is a platform that aims to elevate at-home drinking experiences by offering cocktail kits and a one-stop-online-shop curated by top Indian Mixologists.The Problem we see:
The Solution we offer: Mixy is an online platform which connects top mixologists directly to customers through a one-stop online shop.
Do let me know what you think about the idea and the website which you can access here mixydrinks.com, we do have a community which you can signup for. TIA [link] [comments]  |
| Make a digital Corporate Minute Book Posted: 05 Aug 2020 12:22 AM PDT I've not found a direct answer for this, so I want to confirm. Is a digital corporate minute book just a folder in a cloud service? I can understand a physical binder and ledger, but I want a digital one because of my three other co-founders and the utility of it. Is this just any digital folder, or is there some kind of structure or protection required? Any suggestions on how to make and maintain one, since I will be doing this for the first time? [link] [comments]  |
| I need help on how to present my startup product to an organization Posted: 04 Aug 2020 11:47 PM PDT could anyone please provide the tips to pitch my product to an organization what format will be more effective and how to begin a presentation example format, presentation, or PDF my product is Edutech tools related, and I am trying to pitch it to educational institutions by which students could achieve better results [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 04 Aug 2020 04:53 AM PDT Marketers and sales people can get a reputation for speaking in esoteric jargon, especially when interviewing. So I led with the fact I'm good with numbers knowledge and to show I'd always use data to inform decisions and be incredibly cost efficient. First post in series - here Get friendly with data and money
Time is fleeting in a startup. What you need from a growth lead is the answer backed by data, not a frivolous omnidirectional debate. I have my North Star Metric, that's my goal. When I come to you with a direction, my phrasing will always be 'we're going to' or 'we've started to'. This is because the data has been exported, analysed, documented and already consumed to inform my decision. By the time my proposal is shown, it will be inscrutable and proven with the research I undertook to reach the decision, I'm simply letting you know that the work has been done and this is the best step to take. My workings will always be written in a workable doc with precise links to the reporting I have extracted the data from.
I cannot stand grey areas in marketing, there are no excuses. Not having attribution partners in place or an absolute key understanding of your purchase pathways is wastage. If my budget is $10 or $10m, understanding exactly where that money went and what the ROI was will be incredibly significant. Example Retained agencies. Agencies will be held accountable to report on all hours of the work they undertook for the company, they will report on ROAS and specific time taken on projects. Be pedantic, or bring the skills in house. A good rule of thumb is that 1 hour of work needs 30 seconds explaining; if it requires less, it is perhaps not an hour's work. Push for details. Example Paid Social I am an expert at reading whether an ad is good or not with the data, I guarantee my ads will deliver. The learnings and data were there to be read and understood and learnt from, so I did. Unnecessary charges based on having poor or no attribution partners whose entire reason for existing is to make sure you're not overpaying and to source the purchase is ridiculous. Unnecessary charges based on poor construction of your campaigns and then overpaying need never happen. One look will tell you Snapchat's UI could be operated by toddlers, all it requires is learning the format of successful ad building based on the readily available data. Plug into the right places, pay for the right conversions, and understand the terminology exceptionally and monitor intimately.
Knowing where you're starting from with the specific data you can acquire, down to the minutia, will absolutely help you grow healthier and better. Every step you take that leads to a measurable improvement in growth, IS growth. When it comes to managing a team, being able to prove improvements or detriments makes for an easy performance review. Not just for your employee, but for yourself. Though very black and white as a review process, it is always your responsibility to create an environment that encourages learning and growth, if your team member is not improving, it is your responsibility to better this environment and get them on the path. An upwards curve following a performance review represents your learning, their learning and better results.
The best heads of growth work closely with the money. This is logical when you consider that they're in control of a huge portion of the marketing spend. A successful growth expert will be able to monitor budgets based on previous campaigns and predict the likelihood of having more or less money to spend the next month, they're in a luxurious position of being able to control growth if they're seeing success. A growth expert can plot the course of growth in line with the company's motives. The company may look to raise, the company might be on the sliding path to be erased; it is the growth lead's job to remain at the forefront to plot out projections and predict the good and the bad. This means answering questions; 'How many conversions can we get for X?' 'Can we carry on growing if we spend X per conversion?' 'How much revenue can we generate with X on growth?' 'What's our runway if we cut all growth?' They are the very much the engineer of the marketing team. ------------------------------------------------------ This is the end of slide one - next slide is manufacturing creativity; coming tomorrow. Let me know if you have any q's or comments :) [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 04 Aug 2020 05:42 AM PDT This is kind of a rant/asking for help... Say you have a startup that you started with 2 friends and an acquaintance. MVP is built and you're getting positive feedback but that's not the issue. The issue is with management and leadership. You're not very good at managing people; especially now when your team is remote because of the pandemic. When you tell your co-founders that you need something done they take days to complete the task which slows everyone else down and the whole team ends up moving at a snail's pace. For example, you say to your partner "Hey, I need you to find the items we need from suppliers today so we're on track for next week" and he says Ok, then a whole day or two passes and he doesn't get back to you so you have to follow up (which you hate) only to find out that he didn't complete it because for whatever reason. This is what I'm dealing with. The task that I entrusted to my partner was not completed on time because he got into an argument with his wife on the day. I really don't see how a small argument can prevent you from accomplishing a task that would take roughly an hour or two but maybe I'm being insensitive. I really am not very much of a people person and I can come off as callous and insensitive so I'm trying my best to not be. But the example above is just one of many. But point is we are moving too slow and it's driving me crazy especially when I have follow up and remind them and push them to get things done. It take so much out of me. Any tips for remote management? Do I need to be more demanding or lay down some rules? Is this normal for startups? [link] [comments]  |
| Where to start with a business idea and what to consider Posted: 04 Aug 2020 03:44 AM PDT Hi there, I am currently looking for some help on where i would start with a business idea. I honestly have no experience in my own business or how i would fund this but was hoping the good people of reddit would be able to give some guidance and share any experience they have of owning their own business or any tips on where to start with this idea. What I want to do My idea in the simplest format is opening a retro arcade bar/restaurant. I feel there is a niche for this kind of business in the place that I live as we don't actually have anything that fits this genre. Apart from one place but this is actually very limited with the arcade machines that they have and i wouldn't totally consider it a retro arcade bar/restaurant. I think there is a good opportunity that is being missed here I also think you could host lots of different events through out the week and the weekends that would attract guests of all kind. I have been browsing place's online and have found a couple of places that I think could work for this idea. Questions I have What things do i need to consider? How does rent work when leasing somewhere per annum, do you pay this at the start of the year or the end and is there some kind of deposit that comes with this. Are there hidden fees i'm not considering? (the rent i was looking at is £60,000 pa) When leasing somewhere will they let me renovate the inside or will i have restriction because i don't own this place? Are licences expensive to serve alcohol? How do you find out what business rates you would have to pay? How would i acquire the arcade machines? Would i lease them or buy them? Do i need a licence for arcade machines? What kind of insurance do you get is there just some standard business insurance that covers you or is it specific due to the machines etc? I have some capital, could i go to a bank and get loan with some sort of business plan for the rest or would i need investors? How do i start with a business plan when i haven't actually even got a business? Where would a good place be to start planning all off this? I know this isn't just as easy as coming up with an idea and it happening over night but i needed to start somewhere and get some advise as i truly believe this is an idea that would be worth pursing. Thanks for any help you guys have. [link] [comments]  |
| Free Bookkeeping Apps/software Posted: 04 Aug 2020 04:55 AM PDT Hey everyone, I am looking for start my own brand and I need to keep track of the finances. Ive been in search of some bookkeeping softwares/apps but most of them are always paid once I download them. Can anyone suggest me something free of cost, as I am in the initial stage and have a very limited amount of capital. Thanks again! [link] [comments]  |
| Great idea! Need help to get the gears moving! Posted: 04 Aug 2020 02:04 AM PDT Hey everyone, I have a great idea that is currently not on the market for those who love the outdoors and more importantly overlanding. This would be a product, let's say a tent. How would I got about getting this in motion. Initially, I was thinking about designing a prototype on illustrator, then finding manufacturers and companies who produce the materials I need to go ahead and make sample batches. However, I do not want my idea to be stolen. Should I make a patent? And now should I go about aquiring money/investors. Thanks! Advice would be appreciated!! [link] [comments]  |
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