Entrepreneurs can quickly become overwhelmed by the many actions required to establish their new venture as a legal entity that meets all local and federal regulations. In many countries, the regulatory hurdles can be a barrier to entry in their own right. While there are several actions to take when starting a new company, I … Continue reading Selecting a Legal Structure for Your Startup
No idea or company attracts resources to help it grow unless the entrepreneur can communicate the opportunity clearly to potential stakeholders, whether they are investors, bank loan officers, corporate partners, acquirers, suppliers, or employees. Over the years, I have worked with thousands of startup founders and teams and have honed in on a suite of … Continue reading The Reading Deck: Early Business Plan Document
For startups, crowdfunding is exploding as a viable alternative to more conventional early funding sources. In 2021, the global crowdfunding market was valued at $13.64 billion and is expected to double by 2028, according to Statista. U.S. and Canadian markets accounted for the most significant volume of funds raised at 73.9 Billion. During this period, … Continue reading Startup Finance | Crowdfunding
As a new semester begins, I have a new wave of startups looking for guidance in many aspects of business model formation, strategic planning, and project execution. However, one area that causes founders a lot of anxiety is their venture's naming. The challenges typically fall into two categories; either the founder can't come up with … Continue reading Intellectual Property | Trademark Strategy for Startups
One of the core professional skills that all entrepreneurs and innovators need to develop is what I call venture knowledge management. When you think about creating a new venture, from opportunity recognition to launch, founders are inundated with information. This information comes from multiple sources: Market research Talking to customers Seeking advice from mentors Speaking … Continue reading The Role of Information Search in Opportunity Discovery
In the last post, I offered a brief survey of the traditional funding sources for early startups. As in our textbook, I like to separate non-equity from equity funding sources, as the latter tend to be more applicable to later-stage ventures. By focusing on these early, non-equity funding sources. In a sense, every dollar counts towards … Continue reading The Practice of Bootstrapping
Any discussion on early venture funding should begin with what is needed based on the stage of the development. Most founders start the funding discussion with questions like, how can I meet venture capitalists to fund my new enterprise? The more savvy founder may ask the question: when is the appropriate time to start thinking … Continue reading Startup Finance | Early Funding
Over the past couple of posts, I have highlighted metrics to consider to measure product engagement and customer acquisition. For the final article on metrics, you will learn more about indices of your venture's financial performance. These metrics fall into three categories: Revenue, Profit, and Funding. The post ends with a discussion of the One … Continue reading Startup Metrics | Financial Performance
Customer acquisition metrics are the second category of startup performance measures closely associated with product engagement. As your venture moves from your early product testing to product launch, you shift your focus from customer engagement to customer acquisition. In the early MVP iterations, you are not interested in the acquisition, only engagement. In fact, in … Continue reading Startup Metrics | Customer Acquisition
As we continue to explore the various elements of financial planning for startups, it is time to look at the multiple ways you can measure and monitor your performance once you launch your venture. In a previous post, I outlined several pre-launch metrics that founders should consider monitoring as they develop their business model. These pre-launch metrics … Continue reading Startup Metrics | Product Engagement
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