The very first money that many enterprises raise — whether they go on to raise more money or not — is seed funding. (Some startups may raise pre-seed funding in order to get them to the point where they can raise a traditional seed round, but not every company does that.)
The name is pretty self explanatory: This is the seed that will (hopefully) grow the company. Seed capital is used to move past the first steps (product development, for example) and to start exploring what the next stages will be (like growth or a pivot).
Seed capital may be raised from family and friends, angel investors, incubators, and venture capital firms that focus on early-stage startups. Angel investors are perhaps the most common type of ...
A business model canvas is a method for determining a company’s business model in a visual, straightforward way. It can be used to develop new business ideas or to sketch out the business model for an existing business. It was developed by Alexander Osterwalder in 2008 and is part of the lean startup methodology.
Every company needs to be able to clearly and concisely outline their business model. Not only does it serve as a guide for moving the company forward, it also helps when approaching investors and partners. However, figuring out a business model can be tricky, especially for first time founders. And that’s where Osterwalder’s business model canvas comes in.
The business model canvas can be printed out in large scale, so that an ent...
A market analysis is an assessment of any given market that includes both qualitative and quantitative research. Conducting a thorough market analysis as a key piece of your business plan ensures that you know everything there is to know about your market.
Coincidentally, it reassures any current or future investors that you know what you’re doing, that you’ve done you’re homework and that you’re the right entrepreneur to address the gap in this particular market.
But — in order to conduct a thorough market analysis — you need to cover a wide range of topics. Before diving into the specifics, remember that at its core, a market analysis is about learning the most you can about your market.
You’ll discover w...
Can a startup apply for a small business loan? Are you sure? Usually when startup founders think about funding, we think about venture capital or accelerator programs. That’s because those funding sources offer potentially big payouts, oftentimes with no obligation to pay back the money if the startup fails.
But, there’s another source of funding that’s more traditional — and potentially riskier: the small business loan.
Small business loans are a more traditional way of getting financing, which means they may be easier for some startups to get than venture capital, which can be a long and arduous process.
They’re a great option for startups that already have some momentum and — even better — some income coming in. That’s because while ven...
Have you settled on a logo for your startup yet? That decision seems like a small one — a quick thing to simply check off the to-do list! — but it’s actually a pretty big undertaking. Startup logos, while often tiny, can make a huge impact on the success or failure of your company. That one tiny little image will be used everywhere — from iPhone tiles to your letterhead to packaging for physical products to swag. With that much real estate, a bad logo can do some serious damage.
But, how do you know what a bad startup logo looks like? Surely logo design is at least a little bit subjective! Perhaps, like the famous Supreme Court justice quote about pornography, you know it when you see it. However, even within the spectrum of subjectivity, t...
A “go to market strategy” outlines how your startup plans to deliver your product to your customer. While similar to a business plan, a go to market strategy is narrower in scope. A business plan covers everything about the business, while go to market strategy zeros in on exactly how your startup will deliver a product or service to your customer.
This one might seem painfully obvious, but you have to know what you’re selling before you can sell it. With that in mind, take a little time to clearly define your product before you dive into the rest of your go to market strategy. You need to be able to say exactly what the product is as well as what it does.
Granted, much of the info...
If you’ve seen the movie “The Social Network” you remember Dustin Moskovitz as the kid from Jurassic Park who did little more than sit in a corner and code. Like most other things in the movie, that wasn’t exactly true. Or– yunno– true at all.
While still close friends with Mark Zuckerberg, Moskovitz has been gone from day to day management of Facebook since 2008. But we spoke with him just before Facebook’s IPO, which was poised to make him the world’s youngest billionaire.
Moskovitz made the surprising move to leave Facebook pre-IPO to co-found Asana, a company that seeks to make communication and collaboration within companies more seamless. He says telling Zuckerberg he was quitting was one of the hardest things he’s ever done.
In this ...
The Airbnb pitch deck from 2009 has become an increasingly popular reference for entrepreneurs around the world. The company founders, Brian Chesky, Joe Gebbia and Nathan Blecharczyk used this pitch to raise $600K from Sequoia Capital and Y Ventures. The company has since become a giant in the Travel industry, closing a round in early 2015 on a valuation of over USD $20 Billion.
Originally recovered from a 2011 talk by Blecharczyk on Startup Bootcamp in Boston, we got a glimpse at the exact slides that they used to pitch investors on their original fundraise. The deck was incredibly successful at summarizing the company vision and the huge market opportunity they had before them.
We’ve added all the original slides in this article along wit...
For many first-time founders, pulling an idea off the ground might look easy, yet a lot of them fail in their first few attempts.
According to CB Insights, more than 50% of startups fail in their first four years. 42% of them do because of a lack of market need, 29% run out of cash and 14% ignored their customers.
Founders learn about this process gradually, and often the hard way. The counter-intuitive nature of startups makes it difficult for first-time founders to have the right guesses at first.
It is clear that this stage was a legitimate challenge within the startup community — and it needs to be addressed.
Conversations were had and attentions were focused on fleshing out the very best way to assist these fledgeling startups to mark...
There are only a handful of common angel investment terms that you should be familiar with before you go out looking for capital.
Angel investors will generally be pretty forgiving if you don’t know everything there is to know about structuring an angel investment deal or reviewing a term sheet. So don’t get too worked up if you don’t know the details here (why would you?).
All that being said, there are a handful of common angel investment terms that you should be familiar with because they will have a material impact on how your deal looks. As long as you understand the basic conce...