54 items tagged “entrepreneurship”
2024
What does a board of directors do? Extremely useful guide to what life as a board member looks like for both for-profit and non-profit boards by Anil Dash, who has served on both.
Boards can range from a loosely connected group that assembled on occasion to indifferently rubber-stamp what an executive tells them, or they can be deeply and intrusively involved in an organization in a way that undermines leadership. Generally, they’re somewhere in between, acting as a resource that amplifies the capabilities and execution of the core team, and that mostly only helps out or steps in when asked to.
The section about the daily/monthly/quarterly/yearly responsibilities of board membership really helps explain the responsibilities of such a position in detail.
Don't miss the follow-up Q&A post.
If you try and tell people 5 interesting things about your product / company / cause, they’ll remember zero. If instead, you tell them just one, they’ll usually ask questions that lead them to the other things, and then they’ll remember all of them because it mattered to them at the moment they asked.
2023
There is something so vulnerable and frightening about doing your own thing, because it’s your fault if it doesn’t work. And then there’s this other kind of work, where you’re paid an extraordinary amount of money, you’re the hero before you walk in the door, you’re not even held that accountable, because you have a limited amount of time, and all you can do is make it better.
2022
Reasons Why I Think 50% Coding 50% Marketing is the Best Framework for Solo Tech Founders (via) Jon Yongfook offers a deliciously simple recipe for splitting up the work of both developing and marketing a product: one week of development, then one week of marketing, then repeat. I really like this concept: I mix the two activities randomly at the moment and constantly find myself feeling guilty that I’m not spending enough focused time on either of them!
Retrospection and Learnings from Dgraph Labs (via) I was excited about Dgraph as an interesting option in the graph database space. It didn’t work out, and founder Manish Rai Jain provides a thoughtful retrospective as to why, full of useful insights for other startup founders considering projects in a similar space.
2016
What’s the first thing you would check if the company is losing money even though there’s a big increase in its revenue?
The company’s expenses.
[... 31 words]2014
What are the key points accelerators such as Y-Combinator drill into their startups?
They also teach the importance of launching something and getting real feedback. The entire three month YC process is based around the need to launch and demonstrate traction in order to raise money from investors.
[... 89 words]Do accelerators (which do not take up equity) accept not-for-profit ventures into their programs? If yes, which are some of the best ones?
Y Combinator recently started funding non-profits: http://ycombinator.com/np.html
[... 37 words]2013
What are some examples of startups funded simply for the strength and uniqueness of its founders rather than for any particular idea?
A good portion of YC companies fit this definition—it’s common for YC to fund the team and then work with them to help them either fix their initial idea or find a better one.
[... 64 words]As a non-technical single founder for a web startup, is it better to hire a design firm to build the prototype, or find a technical co-founder?
Find a co-founder. The problem with using an outside agency to build your initial prototype is that you won’t really start learning about your product until after you have launched it. You need to have the talent available in-house to then make changes and improvements based on the feedback you get from real users.
[... 123 words]I’ve been working alone for about a year, how do I get out of this feeling of loneliness because no one is around me?
This is why co-working spaces exist. I don’t know which country you are based in but here in the UK most cities and many larger towns now have at least one tech-focused co-working space where you can rent a desk on a month-to-month basis and have a work environment outside your home with other freelancers with whom you can socialize.
[... 129 words]Should I pull the plug?
Is there any way if turning this in to a recurring revenue product? It’s enormously easier to get money from an existing customer (since they already know that your product works for them and is worth the cash) than to sign up a brand new customer.
[... 140 words]In which case have you seen a non-tech sole founder rise to build a sustainable great company without a tech co-founder? How can this work? What are the steps/advice you would give to the non-tech founder?
Here’s a great write-up of his experience: From Selling Scoops Of Ice Cream To Founding ZeroCater | TechCrunch
[... 110 words]I’m a developer, I’ve an idea, how to look for funding?
If you only need $10,000-$15,000 you should be looking at funding it yourself—professional investors very rarely get involved for that size of raise, and you probably wouldn’t want them to—giving up equity in exchange for so little money is usually a bad idea.
[... 90 words]What should be my strategy to become a tech entrepreneur?
Go and work for an early-stage startup. Pick well and you’ll learn a ridiculous amount in a very short space of time: excellent preparation for later striking out on your own.
[... 47 words]Can top VCs hire almost any employee they want for their portfolio companies?
There’s little a VC can do to convince someone to go and work for one of their portfolio companies that the company couldn’t do itself. They might hear about good candidates through their networks, but that candidate will still have plenty of other opportunities to chose from.
[... 117 words]Is it worth it to give up equity in a seed stage company for something other than money? E.g. access to multiple consultants/mentors, as well as regional angel and vc groups?
Yes, but not very much equity. It’s reasonably common to give small (less than 1%) stock grants to members of your advisory board for example.
[... 75 words]Is it possible to run a successful company without being unethical or operating on the fringes of the law?
There is nothing inherently unethical about entrepreneurship. Find a problem people have. Figure out how much money solving it will save them (or help them make). Charge them less than that.
[... 108 words]What are most important websites, online sources of knowledge and news for startups?
Hacker News is still the best starting point, which is pretty impressive considering how long the community has been around.
[... 41 words]What do you do when you passionately believe in what you’re doing and have been seeing strong customer validation, but people around you constantly diss it? How do you persevere without a support system?
This is one of the reasons it’s a good idea to build a circle if trust with other entrepreneurs—or potentially even move to a “startup hub” region where more people are doing startups.
[... 110 words]What should the CEO’s salary be in a startup seeking seed capital? Is there an average number?
If you haven’t yet raised any capital, how can you pay a CEO salary at all?
[... 133 words]Why was the popular Silicon Valley incubator named Y Combinator?
From this interview with Paul Graham http://www.paulgraham.com/frinte...
[... 95 words]What prevents founders from taking blown up salaries?
When the money runs out, the startup dies. If a founder takes a high salary they are reducing the runway of the company, and dramatically increasing its chance of failure. Good founders will take the lowest salary they can make work for them.
[... 168 words]I have an offer from an angel, but just landed a 5 minute meeting with a big time VC. Do I try use the offer from the angel to my advantage, if so, how?
An offer is worth a lot more than a five minute meeting—and VCs are much more likely to take you seriously if you’ve already convinced someone else to invest.
[... 98 words]What are some early examples of SaaS?
37 Signals’ Basecamp was one of the pioneers if modern SaaS back in 2004.
[... 27 words]What can startups do on big data day one?
Log everything, and then forget about it. That way you’ll have data you can analyse later on, but aside from setting up logging and log storage you won’t waste any time messing around with Big Data when you haven’t yet found product-market fit.
[... 58 words]How can I sell an idea to investors?
At minimum: build a prototype. If you really want then to take seriously, launch a first version and demonstrate traction.
[... 34 words]Are there any websites, forums, or blogposts that discuss startups’ technology stacks or IT infrastructure?
The website www.highscalability.com has a good collection of articles on this topic (case studies about specific startup’s technology stacks) stretching back several years.
[... 45 words]What is a good list of conferences, speaking gigs, hackathons, and other technology-centric events where one can reach software architects and developers?
We have a pretty comprehensive list of (mostly tech) conferences in the Midwest USA here: http://lanyrd.com/places/midwest...
[... 45 words]Besides MTurk, what are some good resources to use when doing market research for a startup?
SurveyMonkey and Google both offer services where you can pay to get responses to a survey from a large number of recipients:
[... 51 words]