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Don’t get hung up on early stage valuation.

Berkonomics

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve walked away from deals where the entrepreneur insists on a start-up pre-money valuation that is so high, no angel could expect to make a return upon the investment, even with a reasonable sales price for the company down the road. And here’s the “why.”.

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10 Business Model Components Required In Every Plan

Startup Professionals Musings

You can’t succeed in business without an operational model that delivers value to customers at a reasonable price, with an underlying cost that allows you to make a profit. A target market is the group of customers that the startup plans to attract through marketing and sales their product or service. Sales/Marketing.

Sales 102
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Don’t get hung up on valuation.

Berkonomics

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve walked away from deals where the entrepreneur insists on a start-up premoney valuation that is so high, no angel could expect to make a return upon the investment, even with a reasonable sales price for the company down the road. Why fight about valuation, or disappoint the founder at the outset?

Startup 179
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6 Key Leaders Every Technical Startup Needs To Thrive

Startup Professionals Musings

Outsourcing your core competency does not work. The sales professional. A sales fanatic on the founder team helps to contain that risk. The combination of technical insight, founder authority, and sales experience is a hard-to-beat advantage in a competitive market. The operations superstar.

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10 Tips To Ensure That Your New Venture Is Investable

Startup Professionals Musings

No product, even with a large opportunity, is ready to scale until you can show it working, with multiple customers paying the full price, to validate the business model. Outsource what is non-strategic to optimize leverage. Use a minimum viable product (MVP) to validate the model.

Tips 135
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Some Quick Thoughts on Exits for Technology Startups

Both Sides of the Table

The median VC exit price for deals is $70 million (FLAG Capital via Bryce.VC). There is a mythology amongst some LPs (funds that invest in VCs) and some VCs that “entry price doesn’t matter – only investing in the absolute best entrepreneurs.” So entry price matters a lot. Outsourcing can be cheap.

Startup 323
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6 Cost-Cutting Recommendations For New Entrepreneurs

Startup Professionals Musings

You can now skip the mandatory office space rental, with secretary and bookkeeping staff, or outsourcing. Social media facilitates marketing and sales. Today, productivity is way up, you can do most anything yourself, and you can outsource to contractors with more skill and less cost.