Startups Don't wait go live asap |
- Don't wait go live asap
- Letting go my cofounder next week
- Bootstrapping and getting goodwill help from friends. How do I return the favour back?
- Need ideas on how to mitigate the risk of my developer leaving.
- Preferred Share with Voting Rights
- How to deal with burnout
- Is there a startup financial rule of thumb?
| Posted: 08 Jan 2022 11:20 PM PST Hey everyone wanna share small success we had, 3-4 months ago we released our free crm, 2 weeks ago we passed 1000 active users. The CRM is focused on entrepreneurs and small business owners who mainly generate their leads thru networking, it has everything one will need to be able successful business referral network with other businesses ( calendar, directory of 8000+ business networking groups and more). We are not yet monetizating it, and not all features are complete. Moral of the post is don't wait until everything is done, release as soon as possible and start bringing customers in. This way you can build something that your customers want and they can be your brand ambassadors [link] [comments] |
| Letting go my cofounder next week Posted: 08 Jan 2022 11:42 AM PST Using a throwaway account for this, but I'm a founder/CEO of a company that raised 3M end of last year. I have a cofounder who joined a bit later than others and he joined as COO. He had previous startup experience while me and our third cofounder (CTO) didn't so it seemed to be a good idea (also my seed investors recommended him). I gave him 15% equity with vesting which is now completed (after dilutions he has a bit less than 10% left.). He was a bit older than us so he knew how to ask money and he has been the highest paid employee of the company since day 1. In the beginning everything ran smoothly, he helped us make proper accounting, legals, etc. We got along very well (still do), but never really clicked on personal level as he was kinda oldschool, didnt get jokes, etc. But hey, differences make us stronger, right? Anyways, in like 2 years after we had been working together, we started having problems, because we now have accounting firm and law office and he basically became intermediate between them and me. He didn't have much to do so he started hopping in to others stuff with 'ideas' that often made no sense as he didn't really understand them - but he at the same time tried to seem equal as a cofounder so he tried to control how we were doing marketing, sales, product, etc. We (with other cofounder) tried to get him involved with other parts of the business, but him not properly speaking english caused another set of problems. Also, as he didn't understand the sector/tech we were building and since all our sales meetings are technical with CTOs involved, he couldn't do that either. We even tried him on customer support, but since he didn't understand the product/industry he started giving false advice and as he was so focused on 'getting the money' that he started guilt-tripping a customer (…if they don't choose our product) and it blew up in social media. Basically from there on we tried to keep him only on legal/finance, but it started feeling as we're dragging him along and about a year ago I confronted him about it (he was fully vested already then). Eventually we decided that he'll step away from leadership and that he would focus his time on a single project (quite big one) which was mostly about back-office finance/legal. Meanwhile with the other cofounder we decided to see how it goes. As our team grew we felt more and more how he's offsync with everyone, that he really doesn't fit in the culture and that his input is not equal to others. Now in the very end of the year he said he deserves nearly 100K bonus (just him). I said its a big ask (and refused) and told him I'll think how we should move forward and have 1on1 in January. I've decided to let him go next week, and I feel oddly relieved. The only thing I'm concerned about is the "dead equity" and how future investors look at it. Has anyone been in similar situation? [link] [comments] |
| Bootstrapping and getting goodwill help from friends. How do I return the favour back? Posted: 08 Jan 2022 11:08 PM PST I'm currently bootstrapping on an idea. It is very early days. I've spent a few months on it thus far. It's a development heavy product and I feel that going alone is too slow as I have to switch context between product, design, engineering. I've been looking out for co-founders but the people I'll like to work with are not available at the moment. I started reaching out to past contacts and colleagues to ask if they might be interested to help out on the side. They are people who would make great employees but not necessarily inclined to be or suited as co-founders. One of them has shown interest and started helping out of their own goodwill. I intend to rope in one or two more people to help. What are some good ways to compensate them for their time? My current train of thought is to explicitly state that I will give them some form of compensation if a seed round has been raised:
What other options are there that I can consider? Thanks! [link] [comments] |
| Need ideas on how to mitigate the risk of my developer leaving. Posted: 08 Jan 2022 04:09 AM PST Hi All, I need some ideas & advice on how to prepare in case my only developer has to leave,gets sick, etc. I am a semi-technical founder, that is, I created and developed a piece of software that I have since turned into a web app... but I don't code don't know web development. This means I had to hire a web developer to transform my software into a web app that is now ready for launch. I have a good relationship with my developer and he is very talented but I am increasingly concerned something will come up and he will no longer be able to maintain and work on the web app. All my eggs are in one basket. I've learnt a little myself about coding with the intention of being able to maintain the app until I find a new developer but I really don't have time to get good enough. My company is very early stage and bootstrapped, so funding is very tight. I'd appreciate any thoughts on how I might prepare a contingency plan in case my developer abandons ship. Thanks all! [link] [comments] |
| Preferred Share with Voting Rights Posted: 09 Jan 2022 12:55 AM PST So i'm currently raising seed round, for my company. It will be a preferred share with voting rights, that was asked by one of the investor, how common is this? and they also ask for the same benefit as the common stock. Is this a red flag? My run rate is very safe right now, since we achieved profitability and hit product market fit pretty early with only 2 employees, so i don't really rely on this seed round. [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 08 Jan 2022 01:27 AM PST Long time lurker. First time poster so bear with me yall. Seriously burned out and having trouble getting over this mental block. Have an opportunity to get out (8 figures) - seriously considering it but I just feel lost. Not sure if this is just a rant or needing advice but ugh it's been hard. I'm doing well no doubt but that just doesn't seem to matter anymore as it's taking a such a toll on my mental health. I guess it's just needing proper detox and relaxation activities? [link] [comments] |
| Is there a startup financial rule of thumb? Posted: 08 Jan 2022 09:48 AM PST I'm working in the fashion sector (non tech) and am working through financial modelling. Into three sections of overheads (inc premises and salary), cost per acquisition and profit, is there a rule of thumb regarding how much percentage of net sales to allocate to this? I heard on a podcast that someone aims for 33% across each category but this feels somewhat low-balling my CPA. Great to hear any thoughts on this - at pre-trading stage currently. [link] [comments] |
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