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    Thursday, October 22, 2020

    Thank you Thursday! - (October 22, 2020) Entrepreneur

    Thank you Thursday! - (October 22, 2020) Entrepreneur


    Thank you Thursday! - (October 22, 2020)

    Posted: 22 Oct 2020 06:08 AM PDT

    Your opportunity to thank the /r/Entrepreneur community by offering free stuff, contests, discounts, electronic courses, ebooks and the best deals you know of.

    Please consolidate such offers here!

    Since this thread can fill up quickly, consider sorting the comments by "new" (instead of "best" or "top") to see the newest posts.

    submitted by /u/AutoModerator
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    A random idea I got when I was high passed 50% of its fundraising goal in 24 hours

    Posted: 22 Oct 2020 10:54 AM PDT

    Hey all,

    Like the title states I was tired of my tired and dry eyes while being high so I created an energizing eye drop with a friend. We pitched this idea at our university startup competition, under the pretense that we thought of it while working late in the library, and have spent the last 18 months going through accelerator programs and working with FDA consultants and manufacturers. Indigogo link, we were actually kicked off Kickstarter

    Anyway we passed 50% of our $50k goal in the first 24 hours but could use a ton of help. We positioned this product for professionals, drivers, and pot users and could use some help reaching that last audience. Most of the big marketing platforms make it supremely difficult to target smokers.

    Not sure if this type of post is allowed here but I see a ton of success stories and not many struggles. Feel free to ask any questions and I will do my best to answer them.

    submitted by /u/i_am_nk
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    Startups: Why the best exit strategy is no exit strategy

    Posted: 22 Oct 2020 10:57 AM PDT

    Hey r/Entrepreneur, Andrew here. I wrote an article about what I've learned about startup exits from $5 billion in M&As and IPOs. Here's the full version of this post with pictures and references. This article was first published on Fast Company.

    Why the best exit strategy is no exit strategy

    As I interviewed dozens of exited founders, many of whom sold for $100s of millions, I noticed a pattern––none had an exit strategy that included the company that actually bought them.

    In fact, none of them really had an exit strategy at all. At least not one that they took seriously.

    Why is that? If planning for an acquisition doesn't work, why do over 50% of founders expect to get acquired?

    An exit strategy isn't really a strategy

    A strategy involves a plan and its execution. It assumes significant control over the outcome.

    Unfortunately for startups, an exit requires a mind-boggling combination of the right internal and external factors––many of which are outside your control.

    First of all, an acquisition requires a buyer, and no amount of desire to sell can manufacture one. Even with a potential buyer in place, they need to make an offer that you're willing to accept, at a time when you're ready to sell.

    But as you've probably heard––companies are bought, not sold. In other words, the buyer decides who they want to buy, when they're ready and how much they're willing to pay — and there's only so much that you can influence.

    "I think there's a lot of founders who believe that they'll just be able to sell their company when they want to. In reality, this is not how it works. It's very rare that an acquirer comes along who wants to buy your company for as much as you're willing to sell it for."

    Sean Byrnes, founded and sold Flurry to Yahoo for $250 million

    If exit strategies are not effective, why do many investors expect them from founders?

    Investors look at an exit "strategy" like they do at financial "projections"

    Neither is meant to be taken very seriously or is expected to be accurate, but it's important that the founder is thinking about both and investors want to know that.

    VC firms are not charities––they expect returns on their investments, which requires 2 things:

    1. An increase in price per share (and in effect, company valuation)
    2. A liquidity event (aka an exit), where shares are sold for cash

    So regardless of how much a company grew, an exit must happen for investors to realize their return. "[LPs] can't spend unrealized gains," points out Scott Kupor of Andreessen Horowitz, "The only thing that matters in this business are actual, realized, and distributed returns to LPs."

    In other words, VCs only invest in startups with the goal of them eventually exiting.

    It seems like a more appropriate term should be exit potential, not strategy. Investors want to make sure that founders are working on ideas that have the potential of scale and liquidity, but are also well aware that having strict plans for both is unrealistic, especially early on.

    If planning for an exit is not meant to be taken seriously, what can startups do to get bought?

    Getting acquired is like getting married — it starts off as a relationship

    Out of ~50 exited founders that I've surveyed, 72% had a relationship with the buyer prior to the acquisition.

    The great thing about relationships is that they can be pursued and built deliberately.

    So although you can't plan for an acquisition with a high degree of certainty, you can optimize for one by building relationships that often precede it.

    Forming such relationships should not be a major focus for founders, but it should be somewhere on their agenda. "Build it and they will come" approach doesn't work for acquiring customers, nor does it seem to be particularly effective for getting acquired.

    "As a founder, it's good to stay close [with potential acquirers]. Even if you're years away from where you think you want to exit, you really would be doing yourself a disservice if you didn't always know the market for the main asset that you control — your company."

    Chris Barton, founded and sold Shazam to Apple for $400 million

    Besides forming relationships with potential buyers, what else can founders do?

    Leverage, Leverage, Leverage

    Not all exits are created equal.

    In fact, most are much smaller than you probably think (70% are less than $15 million) and many are mediocre financial outcomes for founders.

    While having the right relationships increases your chances of getting acquired, leverage determines whether it's a bad sale or a good one.

    Although any acquisition is better PR than bankruptcy, the financial outcome of bankruptcy is the same for founders as a bad acquisition — neither leads to a payout.So how do you build leverage?

    Never be desperate to sell

    "The thing that makes the conversation entirely different in M&A context is whether the founder has leverage or not. The best possible place you can be as a founder approaching an M&A conversation is when your company is growing and is profitable (or close to it). "

    Armando Biondi, founded and sold AdEspresso to Hootsuite

    Similarly, Justin Kan, who started and sold Twitch for $1 billion to Amazon, explains that "If you're running out of money, your company hasn't been growing and you're desperate to sell it, then you don't have any leverage."

    Essentially, leverage comes from having optionality, which is the opposite of desperation. Having optionality allows you to take an acquisition offer at your own terms––when both the price and timing is right.

    "Acquisition as an exit option is not a panacea. It's not a release valve, it's not an escape pod, and it's not a fallback. This is the most common misconception of building toward acquisition. It shouldn't be the final option, it should be the third option, with the public markets and a lifestyle business being the other two."

    Joe Procopio, who founded and sold Automated Insights for $80 million to Vista

    Optionality, and in effect leverage, comes as a natural by-product of building a great company.

    So as paradoxical as it may sound, the key to optimizing for a successful exit is to not focus on the exit at all, but on building a great company.

    "The best strategy, in fact your only strategy, is to focus on building a successful and highly profitable business. As long as you do that, you will control your own destiny and decide if and when you get acquired on terms you decide." writes Sean Byrnes (sold Flurry to Yahoo for $250 million).

    Lastly, don't forget to get lucky

    Unfortunately for Silicon Valley, you can't hack luck.

    Even with all the right ingredients in place––a successful business, relationships with potential acquirers and all fingers crossed––a successful exit may just never happen.

    So if you still insist on having an exit strategy, make sure to include "must get lucky" as one of the key steps.

    submitted by /u/Ternopil
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    Hello!!

    Posted: 22 Oct 2020 05:59 AM PDT

    I'm an 11 year entrepreneur and has made over $325 selling different type of duct tape designs. After getting so much support on my last post I've decided to take a step up and start selling my wallets on Etsy. If you would like to buy one my shop name is PaxtonDuctTapeGoods. Thank you for taking your time to read this.

    submitted by /u/paxtondixon
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    Why I wanted to be a successful entrepreneur without having any customers. And why those customers made me a successful entrepreneur. My experience with sales calls.

    Posted: 22 Oct 2020 11:32 AM PDT

    2 years ago. We had a product and a sound idea but much was still to be done.

    I love all the things you can think about what it's like being an entrepreneur, besides only 1 thing - sales calls.

    Once the product was live, we started to get inbound leads coming to our website, and eventually, someone had to deal with them...

    This is something that was really painful to me, but I know that any entrepreneur has to go through it at some point, so I embraced it. I still remember how much my hands were sweating just from touching the phone...

    Eventually, things got a bit better as I practiced more. And once the business started to grow, the pain was relieved.

    I wanted to share this experience because I feel like there are probably lots of other entrepreneurs out there going through the same process and thinking it only happens to them. But let me tell you, it happens to everyone, don't blame yourself!

    However, there are a couple of things that we can do to make this easier, and one thing is preparation. The first person I called was actually my best friend. When I called him he wasn't even expecting a sales call so it was good to learn how to handle different reactions for example.

    I also structured every step of the calling process so I could perform better (see the picture here: https://i.imgur.com/EpC2Vh3.png). This guide (or cheat sheet like I like to call it) was essential to develop my phone calling skills and now it's being helpful for my sales reps too. Yeah, I know you may say that you'll sound like a robot if you follow these types of structures and that you prefer to freestyle. I've heard that a lot. But the truth is... that's not how it worked for me and probably doesn't work for many other people too. In the first times, I sounded a bit like a robot, but once I started to really master the call it was when things got really good.

    I wanted to share this experience because I hope it helps you feel more confident about your skills. A shoutout to everyone going out of their comfort zone out there!

    PS: also, use this cheat sheet. I mean it, use it every time you have a call, and one day when it feels automatic, that means you're mastering calls. congrats on that :)

    -----

    If you would like to see what exactly each point on that cheat sheet means, I'm sharing the notes I wrote for my team a while ago. Feel free to use this content for yourselves too.

    submitted by /u/r_pg101
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    When it comes to discuss salary, your current salary is not necessary.

    Posted: 22 Oct 2020 12:39 PM PDT

    I was in contact with several headhunters on LinkedIn. I could not spend time energy doing all the calls and interviews, so I asked (nicely) the headhunters about the salary range and benefits. Most never got back to me. Some asked me about my current salary and my expectation.

    I simply said no, my current salary is irrelevant.This is something that was commonly advised, but I don't think everyone understand how important it is.

    In most of the cases, the company already has a budget for the new position, and also in most of the cases, they want to pay as little as possible. If they can pay you less and still make you happy (because it's already 40% higher than your current salary), why would they pay you more (even if they totally can)? ( Such employers exist, but they are not the majority). Same goes as expected salary.

    You are worth what you bring to your new employer. You might be heavily underpaid with your current employer, but that has nothing to do with the negotiations.

    For me, it is always salary and benefits upfront. If it is a match then I will proceed further, otherwise, "Thanks, but may be next time". That saves both sides time and effort. They already know a fair amount of my information from my LinkedIn profile, therefore, what to expect from me, why can't I know what I can expect from them.

    In the end I got back a few ranges, which I politely said I will not proceed further, and only continued with 2 headhunters that provide a number I am comfortable with (even though it contains the infamous phrase"up to", at least I know what I can expect).

    submitted by /u/tradewithmiller
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    I want some input on the cleaning business I am looking to start, can anyone please help?

    Posted: 22 Oct 2020 11:08 AM PDT

    I have been wanting to start a business for the past few months, and figured out that starting a cleaning business at this time might be a smart idea.

    I've done some research and have spoken to a few business owners on various social media networks. I also have lined up a few real estate businesses that might be able to open up a few doors to cleaning new homes for showings and cleaning apartments for incoming tenants. I truly just want to get started, literally next week, but I want some advice first.

    I live in upstate NY and I definitely have some competition, but I am not afraid to go out there and advertise my business and talk to various business owners. I do have a few questions though:

    -My first step will be to either start an LLC or a Sole proprietorship then I will make a website. Should my primary advertising focus be on Google?

    -Is it acceptable for me to find the number of building managers and call them and advertise my business?

    -Am I allowed to go door to door and bring a sales package to various apartment complexes to discuss providing them with janitorial services? My idea is to call them ahead of time and schedule an appointment. I just want to make sure I stay professional.

    -I have never cleaned professionally before- I am aware that there are a few classes that I can take and get some certifications for deep cleaning and carpet cleaning knowledge. If you've ever owned a cleaning company, would you recommend that I just get started by providing basic cleaning such as vacuuming, dust cleaning, window cleaning, mopping etc?

    I have a huge list of cleaning supplies I will choose from and allocate my money to. I am trying to go the eco friendly route.

    I will keep track of all expenses and data using Excel.

    Is there any other piece of advice or resources you would recommend me to take advantage of? Anything would be really appreciative as this is something I am very excited about and I truly want to put all my energy into learning as much as I can and grow this idea.

    -

    submitted by /u/Phoenicia12
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    How to get your products in big box retailers?

    Posted: 22 Oct 2020 01:48 PM PDT

    We are trying to get our vitamin supplement into a big store like Walmart and target, they all have pages for vendor submissions but I have read how they really aren't great and you should just try to get a meeting with a higher up.

    We are trying the website rangeme.com but it has bad reviews, how else can we get into stores aside from tracking down higher ups?

    submitted by /u/Hockeylockerpock
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    How Build a 7 Figure Online Business - Get Expert Advice

    Posted: 22 Oct 2020 01:30 PM PDT

    A couple of weeks ago, I did an AMA about how to build a successful online business:
    https://www.reddit.com/r/Entrepreneur/comments/iu8ds0/how_to_build_a_7_figure_online_business_ama/

    Lots of good stuff was covered off, particularly from young aspiring entrepreneurs who hadn't yet take the leap into entrepreneurship.
    Today, I want to hear from online business owners who have taken that leap, and are in their first 3 years in business.

    I can offer advice about anything to do with your online business, but in particular SEO, copywriting, site design and conversion optimisation.

    About Me:
    I started my first online business in 2008. Over 12 years, that business went from nothing to $1m in annual revenue, with a 40% profit margin. I started two more, and I'm in the process of building a fourth site right now.

    My sites:
    www.nzvenues.co.nz - a venue guide for corporate events
    www.findaband.co.nz - a live band booking agency
    www.aucklandweddings.co.nz - a wedding guide for Auckland.

    I am now working on my new site, Anywhere Millionaire, and helping online entrepreneurs level up their businesses through optimising SEO, copywriting, site design and conversion optimisation. If you're interested in learning more, please check out my private FB group:
    https://www.facebook.com/groups/anywheremillionaire/

    submitted by /u/zipiddydooda
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    I have access to an email list of hundreds of people that have bought expensive custom jewelry from a local shop, but I don't know how to monetize it

    Posted: 22 Oct 2020 01:24 PM PDT

    I don't make jewelry, but I'm wondering if there's a way to partner with her and sell a new product or maybe access to the list. We are in a tourist area and and people gobble up anything with the name of the area.

    I don't want to risk unsubscribes from the list by spamming something not relevant to them at all.

    The product could be as simple as a nicely made t-shirt with the area name on it, or even mugs or similar. A higher price point would be better for everyone.

    Does anyone have experience monetizing a list like this?

    submitted by /u/mike_pomeranz
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    Need advice: pie seems getting smaller

    Posted: 22 Oct 2020 01:00 PM PDT

    So I started a business with a friend, reselling stuff. After a year or two, a friend of my partner wanted to invest some money in our business. Since it was small and we could use the help, we gave him a third for about 2000$. It's still a very small business that needs more money, since all we do is re-sell on Facebook/insta.

    A few months ago we got our first hire, a sales man. He gets a commission of 15% per sale + a low flat fee per hour. Although margins vary per product, it's about an 20% of revenue he gets.

    So, for now, the pie is 80% of revenue in 3. All good.

    Today two friends want to invest with us as well. It's a total of 5000 dollars. Due to covid and a bad sale, our total assets total 3000$ and those 5k would be a god send. However I have no idea how I should approach splitting the pie even further.

    Any advice and thought would be great. I was thinking in offering "our services to sell their products in our platform." And no ownership, however it ends up being the same thing, I keep being a third owner of nothing, and the earnings are still split between lots of us.

    submitted by /u/Mangomagno123
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    What are some website/ online business ideas that would be cool if someone made?

    Posted: 22 Oct 2020 12:45 PM PDT

    title says it all

    submitted by /u/pugglyman
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    How should we set and adapt the price of our services?

    Posted: 22 Oct 2020 12:21 PM PDT

    I'm working within a team of three to deliver workshop facilitation services, joined recently to help do business development. Our CEO has been networking and selling these services herself for the last 3-4 years. As a newbie to the business, I don't have enough experience to challenge some of her decision-making. However, her price on the product seems to me to be too high. She'll take the max to any client has been willing to pay, and make that the new normal.

    For example (dummy numbers) there's a 2 hour workshop we've run that used to be priced at $3,000, she recently got a client to pay $5,000 and now wants every proposal here on out to reflect the elevated rate. This seems like a massive leap for the other smaller clients we typically work with and there's nothing that's materially changed with the experience we offer that justifies the price leap.

    I just want some outside opinion on how to approach pricing. The CEO's position is to set the value of our services at the highest levels and then offer percent discounts to bring it back within a client's budget. But we're talking workshop facilitation, not SKUs and that approached logically doesn't make sense to me.

    This is a small enough team where my voice can matter. And I want to ensure that we collectively succeed.

    submitted by /u/karikit
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    How Brian and Joe funded Airbnb with cereal

    Posted: 22 Oct 2020 12:09 PM PDT

    For the last few days I've been writing about Airbnb and lessons we can learn from it. This is part 3 in that essay series.

    The Dumbest Startup That Ever Worked — What You Can Learn From Airbnb — PART 1

    The Dumbest Startup That Ever Worked — What You Can Learn From Airbnb — PART 2

    The Dumbest Startup That Ever Worked — What You Can Learn From Airbnb — PART 3

    The Dumbest Startup That Ever Worked — What You Can Learn From Airbnb — PART 4

    TLDR: Lesson 1: It's possible for you to make things better. Lesson 2: Solve your own tiny problem. Lesson 3: Validate quickly and double down when it works. Lesson 4: It's easy to connect the dots ex-post-facto. Lesson 5: Finding product/market fit from day one is fiction.

    We'll cover lesson 4 today.

    LESSON 4: IT'S EASY TO CONNECT THE DOTS EX-POST-FACTO

    Did you know that Brian and Joe sat on their idea for 4 months, after that initial SXSW event? In fact, they started working on a roommate matching website because Airbnb seemed too insignificant.

    https://youtu.be/W608u6sBFpo

    A month in, they noticed that the roommate idea already existed. And as their family kept asking what they were working on, they kept on explaining the Airbnb idea. Eventually, they decided to go back to working on Airbnb.

    They launched several times at SXSW, getting hardly any traction and running out of money. Because fundraising wasn't working either and they were in debt, they figured maybe we should focus on the breakfast part of Airbnb instead.

    FUNDING AIRBNB WITH CEREAL

    ''The founders were nearly out of options. Out of sheer desperation, Chesky and Gebbia resurrected an idea that had come to them before the Democratic National Convention: shipping Airbnb hosts free boxes of cereal—Obama O's and Cap'n McCain's—that they could then serve to guests.By this point, Chesky and Gebbia had racked up $20,000 in credit card debt each. Blecharzyk thought the idea was crazy; he said he wanted nothing to do with it, and that they'd best not spend any money on it.'' (Gallagher, 2017)

    Photo of the cereal.

    The idea was to give their hosts free cereal that they could then give to their guests. They called Kellog's. Didn't get called back. They called smaller manufacturers. Success… Except, they wanted to print a few 100K boxes if they paid $200.000 or something in advance.

    So they turned to an old RISD buddy who owned a printing shop. He could print 500 boxes for free, in exchange for a cut of the sales. So they decided to change the idea to selling exclusive, collector edition, $40 cereal instead.

    https://youtu.be/6yPfxcqEXhE

    They got their 500 flat boxes, hot glued them together, and filled them with the cheapest store-bought cereal they could find. They shipped several to the press hoping they'd cover it.

    It worked! They got massive press and completely sold out of Obama O's. Many got resold on eBay for as much as $500.

    2008 Techcrunch

    They made around 20K and paid off their debt. But still… no traffic to airbedandbreakfast.com.

    Blecharczyk, deeply skeptical of the ce­real plan from the start, decided enough was enough. Back in Boston, he started consulting again and got engaged.(Gallagher, 2017)

    Essentially they weren't much further along than when they'd first launched. Now, minus 1 co-founder. They went on to live on unsold Cap'n McCain's for a while until Michael Seibel (Justin.tv, Social cam, CEO of YC), who they'd met at SXSW, recommended they apply to Y Combinator.

    On the day of their interview, Joe wanted to grab one of the cereal boxes. Brian and Nate thought he was out of his mind and told him to leave it at home. He snuck it with him anyway.

    The interview went terrible. At that time (and arguably still to this day) YC was mostly focused on technological innovation. Psychological innovation gets a bad rep in Silicon Valley's engineering dominant culture where things like marketing, branding, and consumer psychology are typically sneered at.

    More on psychological economic value creation here.

    It didn't look promising. But Joe grabbed the cereal (much to the surprise of Brian and Nate) out of his bag and handed it to the YC partners. He explained how selling cereal funded their company.

    Ultimately, that was the reason why Airbnb got into YC. They figured, if you can manage to sell $! cereal for $40, maybe you can convince people to stay at strangers' homes too.

    20/20 HINDSIGHT

    It looks straightforward in retrospect. You notice hotels are sold out. Couchsurfing already showed there was at least some appetite. You quickly validate your idea and you're off to the races. But at that time it was obviously far from obvious.

    In fact, this is one of those areas where you can be too smart for your own good. Suppose, you knew with certainty that the free cereal would be a bad idea. Even if you were right, you still would have been wrong. Because there's no way you could predict that the free cereal idea would lead to the selling limited edition idea (Brian and Joe).

    Which would lead to taking it with you to an accelerator interview (Joe) which would turn out to be the linchpin.

    Had they had the money to pay the manufacturers or had they been able to print a smaller batch, maybe they never would've thought of selling it. Had Nate been more persuasive, then maybe they would've never pursued the cereal idea. Had Joe given in, then maybe he wouldn't have told the cereal story because it didn't seem very Silicon Valley. [1] And maybe, we wouldn't have had an Airbnb.

    I made this same argument before with The Point. If you were so brilliant that you knew The Point was stupid, you would've missed the fact that the series of experiments in it are what led Andrew Mason to Groupon. [2]

    IGNORANCE AS A STRENGTH

    I believe that in startups, a little ignorance is actually a strength which is why (empirically) many smart and cynical people never seem to make change happen.

    Looking back, there's always this inclination to fall victim to hindsight bias: the common tendency for people to perceive events that have already occurred as having been more predictable than they actually were before the events took place. I.e. It's easy to predict the past when you're living in the future.

    Of course, the Airbnb fundraise rejections and the fact that the founders themselves almost gave up, demonstrate that these things do not occur anywhere as linearly as the media would have you believe. As a result of this misguided belief in certainty, we tend to discard seemingly bad ideas for ones that appear to us as obviously good.

    More on this in Why Your Business Needs More Weird Ideas—Part 1

    I'm sure this will remind some of you of Peter Thiel's theory, from his lectures and his book Zero to One, that competition is for losers.

    He proposes that you actually don't want the good ideas because when they're obvious, everyone will be pursuing those. You also don't want the bad ideas for obvious reasons. What you want are good ideas that are disguised as bad ideas. [3] That way, you'll have a headstart because it'll take a while for the world to catch up. Especially considering how risk-averse people are.

    Thiel on competing

    NO ONE KNOWS THE FUTURE MARKET CAP EX ANTE

    Then there's the issue that no one can really tell you how big or small something is gonna be. Investors will pretend they know. They don't. If they really did, they would be like you, a founder. In my experience, investors are usually a good 6-12 months behind in ''seeing the matrix''.

    That's not because they're not as smart. But rather, because they aren't in the trenches. You are.

    There are so many founders I know or whose stories I've heard of, where investors didn't want to invest because the market seemed too small. But for them, it's an intellectual problem. Whereas the founder has first-hand experience dealing with the problem and the solution for its users.

    That doesn't guarantee you're always right, but it does give you a much better perspective. In good marketing (which is rare these days), qual is where you start. Qual informs quant. [4]

    More on this in: Should You Worry About TAM And SAM?

    STEVE JOBS ON CONNECTING THE DOTS LOOKING BACK V. FORWARD

    The following is from Steve Jobs' 2005 Stanford Commencement Address:

    ''None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But 10 years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, it's likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backward 10 years later.Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.''

    Jobs' Commencement Address

    And that's true. Usually, founders present us with these amazing stories because it makes for good PR and it boosts their ego. Who doesn't want to be perceived as the Matrix's almighty Oracle?

    But this stuff's messy and literally everyone is making it up on the fly.

    John Collison (Stripe Co-Founder) said the exact same thing about companies whitewashing their history at Stanford in 2015:

    https://youtu.be/9DUQ7_7Pj_c

    Bottom line: When something is validated and you enjoy it, don't be hesitant to push it because you believe the market might not be big enough. Things are only clear looking back so ''trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future''.

    NOTES

    [1] Brian said that he thought about Mark Zuckerberg and how he'd probably never glued serial boxes together, ''so maybe that was a bad sign''.

    [2] From The Right Way To Start A Startup:

    Andrew at the NY Tech Meetup in 2008:''The biggest mistake we made with The Point was being encumbered by this vision of what I wanted it to be. And taking 10 months to build the product and making all these assumptions of what people would want, that we then spend the next 10 months backtracking on.Instead of focussing on the one little piece of the product that people actually liked. So, uhm, If there's any advice that I have it's you're way too dumb to figure out if your idea is any good. It's up to the masses. So build that very small thing and get it out there and keep on trying different things and eventually you'll get it right.''

    [3] I do wanna reiterate the point I made in part 2, you have to start small and take baby steps. Just like you don't start with a 500lbs deadlift, you shouldn't start with the most ambitious idea ever. You should give yourself wins, feel shine, and gradually ''graduate'' to more ambitious endeavors.

    If you're a successful founder then the context changes. You have money to fall back on, your family is taken care of, investors will write significant checks, almost without hearing your pitch. I mean look at Parker Conrad's Rippling. After Zenefits he was able to raise a 17M dollar seed round. Rippling was Conrad and 40 engineers and almost no revenue for 2 years. That's just not a situation most founders can relate to. Which is why you should start small initially.

    Conrad on Rippling

    [4] Qualitative research refers to non-scalable, hard to quantify research. Talking to consumers, potentially focus groups (although I'm not a fan of that), spending time with the user in their environment, watching them use your product, ethnography, and so on. Quantitative research refers to the stuff that you're probably familiar with, analyzing numbers, using mathematics, creating models, and identifying trends based on that.

    The problem with our quant heavy world is that all data comes from the same place, the past. Nothing pointed to the iPhone being a better phone than all the others. Nothing pointed to the market being willing to spend significantly more on soft drinks (Red Bull) and vacuums (Dyson).

    And on top of that, significantly more people use those complex mathematical tools even though they're woefully unqualified. Not good enough to be right, not bad enough to lack confidence, but in that middle ground where they mistakingly believe they know what they're doing.

    Rory on data analysis

    ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Pfew, that was a big one. Hopefully, you learned a ton. I got a newsletter: The Younglings. The best methods and models to help you grow your company like hell. Want in?

    submitted by /u/Younglingfeynman
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    want to start my own clothing boutique

    Posted: 22 Oct 2020 12:07 PM PDT

    so i want to start my own clothing brand and i like to be very organized with my money. my goal is to raise $5000 for the start up and then start spending and everything. until i reach my goal i'm just working and planning everything out. is this a good idea or should i start and spend as i go?

    submitted by /u/heywhattfamidoing
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    Best Place To Sell Instagram Accounts Fast

    Posted: 22 Oct 2020 11:58 AM PDT

    I have many Instagram Babe accounts which manage and grow. I would love to sell them and earn a couple of bucks. Where could I sell them quickly for extra bucks?

    submitted by /u/QualityOrders
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    Picture printing start up

    Posted: 22 Oct 2020 11:45 AM PDT

    Picture printing startup I have an idea to start a business that prints people's digital pics into physical copies. I, personally, would love a service like this as I'm tired of having thousands of digital pics that are abandoned in laptops and hard drives.

    Thoughts on this?

    submitted by /u/Vaalz1
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    What's the worst that could happen?

    Posted: 22 Oct 2020 11:37 AM PDT

    If you're thinking that, do me a favor and smack yourself for me.

    You should be asking yourself... "what's the best that could happen?"

    Stop and think about the lives you will change, the experiences people will have, it'll inspire you to success.

    ...And this is something I take to heart. The reason I left big pharma R&D to drive sales/commercial growth in a small company.

    Now I'm much more fulfilled than I ever was during my 5 years in big pharma.

    Hope this helps someone who may be faced with decision-paralysis.

    submitted by /u/thefinestgreentea
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    How to actually go about starting a business?

    Posted: 22 Oct 2020 11:07 AM PDT

    I want to start a basic cleaning business in my area here. Initially I just want it to comprise of myself and I want to do this part time in addition to my job. There are a lot of apartment complexes in this area looking for people to clean empty units and sometimes yard work. This could possibly be a good target costumer base I think, but I also want to be able to include some other things, like cleaning offices and other industrial buildings, groundskeeping, and residential homes as well. My biggest problem with starting a business of my own is simply not knowing how to do it.

    submitted by /u/bravevline
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    ATEC X - free entrepreneurship conference from Germany - Oct 29&30

    Posted: 22 Oct 2020 11:06 AM PDT

    Dear fellow entrepreneurs!

    I am excited to share that RWTH Aachen University is celebrating the 10th anniversary of our Tech & Entrepreneurship Conference atec x - this year in an all new digital format!

    Join us for free on October 29 & 30 and get your tickets via https://hopin.to/events/atec-x-2020?ref=62cd1a64de32

    Highlights:

    Get inspired by top speakers, such as @Jan Frodeno (3x Ironman World Champion), @Maximilian Tayenthal (Co-Founder @N26), @Frank Thelen (Serial Founder & Tech Investor), @Sven Schmidt (@Machineseeker.de), @Florian Heinemann (@Project A), and many more

    Build your network with some of Europe's leading tech investors (e.g. @HV Holtzbrinck Ventures, @Global Founders Capital , @Speedinvest, @Freigeist) during intimate 1-1 speeddating sessions or our virtual EXPO

    Pitch your business in a competitive tournament in front of >1,000 participants and a senior investor jury for a chance to win cash prizes and other benefits

    Listen in to engaging panel discussions, where interdisciplinary groups of leading RWTH professors, successful founders and (corporate) investors discuss new frontiers of tech in AI, robotics or new materials.

    Check us out at https://www.atec-x.de/ and follow us here (https://www.linkedin.com/company/atec-x/) and here (https://www.instagram.com/atec.x/).

    submitted by /u/s2theven
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    Looking for advise on business model... professional gift buyer!~

    Posted: 22 Oct 2020 10:36 AM PDT

    Long story short...

    I lost my job due to covid.. The whole experience really changed my mindset and I never want to be placed in a position where a company has all the control. I saw some really poor top-level decisions being made and at the expense of employees. This whole experience has lead me down the path of taking the control back and having a say on what my future looks like.

    That being said... I decided to venture out on my own! I have a particular skill-set. I have been a retail buyer and worked on brand concept and development teams. So I wanted to put my skill-set to good use. I'm looking to start a professional gifting service where we buy, wrap, and deliver for Holidays, weddings, special events etc, but I'm really having a hard time finding out who my competition is. It really got me thinking that maybe there is not a demand for this type of service... So my question really is... am I grasping at straws, because I want it so bad or does this seem like a viable concept?

    I did not want to post a link to my site, I didn't want to seem like I was self-promoting, but would love some feedback on it as well...DM me if you care to take a look and have time to give some feedback. I'm just a little nervous that I am barking up the wrong tree... any feedback would me much appreciated... thanks!

    submitted by /u/Slugbottom
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    Noobie question

    Posted: 22 Oct 2020 10:35 AM PDT

    I've done some research, nothing that I can find matches this model. However I am running into an issue trying to do some projections.

    Before I dive deep into getting a business license, Id like to get an estimate of what my outgoing vs incoming cash flow would be. Right now I am basing this off of retail values, however I do know that there is some margin in getting wholesale.

    I can't seem to find any web sites or anything for wholesale prices.

    Am I just looking in the wrong spots or is there a way to get pricing prior to getting a business license? Is getting the license first just a gamble that one needs to take?

    submitted by /u/Maleus21
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    What's the best way to add my logo to a photo to post on Insta, just using my phone.

    Posted: 22 Oct 2020 10:22 AM PDT

    I have adobe creative cloud so I have access to the full suite of software.

    Often times my co-founder will text me photo when he is doing field trials and I want to post them on instagram. I am trying to figure a way to add our company logo, just using my phone.

    I would prefer not to pay for an app, are there free solutions I am unaware of?

    submitted by /u/FITGuard
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    I was featured by Instagram at a Food conference, here's how...

    Posted: 22 Oct 2020 10:08 AM PDT

    Early 2017 I quit my job in investment banking to follow my passion in digital marketing. After hearing many business experts say "the riches are in the niches, I decided to niche towards the hospitality industry (things have changed a bit since then but that's where I started).

    I wanted to make a big splash in the hospitality industry by doing something interesting. So, I decided to create a data study around how Instagram helps hospitality venues (restaurants, hotels and bars) actually drive more customers and sales and not just vanity metrics. (Growing on Instagram is a lot harder nowadays).

    So, I ran Facebook ads to a survey that offered a free meal to a couple and ended up getting a few hundred people filling it out. I spent around £800 on FB Ads, and probably should've maximised some other free options to reduce costs but at the time I was more interested in speed.

    I then created a piece around this study and published it on the site. It went down really well. I emailed a bunch of magazines and publications and got some tremendous responses and shares from it. On the back of telling everyone about it, I was invited by a large restaurant chain here in London and I ended up training their team, which was really fun and the first time I had done that.

    Off the cuff, I decided to drop Instagram a message and had zero expectations. Out of nowhere, I received a message from the head of some department where they asked if I'd be happy for them to share it at a food conference. HELL YES!!! As a thank you, they sent me a bunch of gifts, which you can see here.

    What I love about data research pieces and in general content that generates a lot of interest is that:

    • No need to do loads of it
    • Positions you as a trusted expert
    • Opens doors you weren't expecting

    A pretty cool formula for getting more recognition and shortening the sales cycle. I've just published a quick video that shares a few other authority pushing content ideas.

    submitted by /u/Neil333
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    Looking for marketing savvy business partner

    Posted: 22 Oct 2020 09:56 AM PDT

    I'm working on a couple apps on iOS, one of which is on the app store in my post history if you're curious. (not circumventing promotion rules, has no ads and is free right now).

    I really need a partnership that brings some digital marketing savvy. I'm finding I have a product and engineering skillset but I am not a skilled marketer and need a partner to own that side.

    I am not backed, and can't really pay you right away. I can offer legally binding equity as i have an LLC, and if we scale we can put terms in to pay you rev share.

    If anyone with digital marketing skills wants to pad their resume or work on a side project with equity, feel free to reach out and we can talk more. Thank you!

    submitted by /u/AntonioClown84
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