Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 14, 2021

As an advisor to new business owners, I’m accustomed to seeing primarily the simple traditional product pricing strategies , usually driven by competitor prices, or cost plus a reasonable margin. I often wonder whether you as the entrepreneur have worked as hard on your pricing strategy as you have on your innovative solution.

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Pricing Startup Competition Examples 145

Berkonomics

FEBRUARY 9, 2023

The rest of the purchase price was concocted from a brew of zero-coupon bonds (where the face value is many times the invested amount until the reduced cost bonds mature thirty years later), and borrowing using the target company’s accounts receivable and other assets as collateral for a loan to purchase the company. What power!

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Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 27, 2011

The most obvious way to explain this is with sales people. If you hire 6 sales reps in January at $120,000 / year salary then you’ve taken on an extra $60,000 per month in costs yet these sales people might not close new business for 4-6 months. “COGS” represents the amount that each sale costs you.

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Startup Venture Capital Sales Technical Review 418

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 31, 2012

Jeff (also an HBS alum) co-teaches the LTV course with Professor Eisenmann about a student of theirs who had written a blog post about sales taking on some of my previous assertions. That student is Erin McCann who formerly worked in sales at Google, so she has some ground to stand on in her assertions.

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Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 5, 2012

When convertible debt first started being introduced as a “faster, cheaper way to get startups funded” they didn’t have pricing built into them. ” And some seed stage investors told me, “I prefer not to fight over price now. They’ll get priced soon enough by a VC.” Enter “the cap.”

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Startup Pricing Equity Venture Capital 354

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 21, 2013

So when I meet with GRP portfolio companies that do enterprise sales I try to emphasize the following: 1. This might mean helping customers buy traffic, arb’ing deals, helping with RTB pricing or trading, etc. Often your sales engineers can do the customizations without bugging the core eng team.

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Software Review Software Services Companies 321

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 17, 2021

Yet in this age when customers have a thousand alternatives, and are overwhelmed by a multitude of messages, sales efforts can make or break a business. In fact, I believe modern entrepreneurs need to be super sales people, in the most positive sense, to their team as well as customers. No pain usually means no sales.

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Berkonomics

JANUARY 26, 2017

The rest of the purchase price was concocted from a brew of zero coupon bonds (where the face value is many times the invested amount until the reduced cost bonds mature thirty years later), and borrowing using the target company’s accounts receivable and other assets as collateral for a loan to purchase the company. What power!

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Pricing Sales Tool Equity 120

TechCrunch LA

MARCH 3, 2019

Tesla said that to achieve this lower price it will shift all sales globally to online only, meaning the company will be closing many of its stores over the next few months. The $35,000 Tesla Model 3 has arrived — but it comes with a price. Musk later said they would be hiring more service technicians.

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Design Layoffs Pricing Los Angeles 272

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 9, 2012

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. ” That’s b t.

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Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 30, 2014

On sales I often talk about “ Why Buy Anything, Why Buy Now, Why Buy Me ” as a tool to think about a sales process. On teams I have a framework for tech teams “ CTO vs. VP Eng ” or on sales I have “ Journeymen, Mavericks & Superstars ” 5.

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Startup Framework CTO Coach Sales 407

Berkonomics

JULY 26, 2018

These are so succinct, so well defined, so precise that everyone in sales and everyone involved in marketing must be able to answer these three questions without pause, and convincingly. It would pay you to work over this set of questions in a special session with sales, marketing and senior management in the room at once.

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Sales Custom Customer Pricing 226

Berkonomics

AUGUST 10, 2023

From the moment such an investor looks seriously at your company, the investor or VC partner is thinking of the end game, the ultimate sale of the company or even of an eventual initial public offering. There is no middle ground. Resetting your priorities Taking money from these sources involves resetting priorities over time.

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Venture Capital Sales Invest Class 292

Berkonomics

AUGUST 17, 2023

Preparing for the game… If you have been following our recent insights, you’ll be up to speed knowing that professional investors negotiate tough terms, from provisions of control over asset acquisition, eventual sale of the company, future investments, forced co-sale when others attempt to sell their shares and more.

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Berkonomics

SEPTEMBER 28, 2017

The document should also contain clear buy-sell clauses, forcing any sale of shares to first be offered to the corporate treasury, then to the other founders in proportion to their holdings, and then if no interest, to outside investors. How about the price per share? a share, then options must be priced at that amount.

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Equity Class Pricing Sales 256

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 21, 2013

While still owning the business he now does $60 million in annual sales built from nothing. He wanted to keep his prices low (apparently he has never raised his wholesale price in 30 years). Focus on the customer and provide value - ”We just do our own thing and try to keep the price low. What touched me?

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Entrepreneur Startup Pricing Product 415

TechCrunch LA

DECEMBER 8, 2020

He did note that in the four markets where the company has gone live since launching its business in January 2019 — San Diego, Los Angeles, the Inland Empire , and Sacramento — has yielded an annualized revenue run rate of over $400 million in gross merchandise value (the total value of home sales transacted on its platform).

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Both Sides of the Table

JULY 6, 2015

Many people are too cautious in sales processes and as a result when they present their solutions they end up sounding milquetoast and undifferentiated from anybody else in the market. I recently wrote about the three rules of sales. In sales we often call these USPs (I wrote about them here: Unique Selling Propositions ).

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Sales SaaS Startup Venture Capital 150

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 4, 2013

Put simply – you need enough users in a segment who care about what you’re doing to dictate investing further in the product or in sales & marketing resources. One of the things I have observed over the years is that a hard charging sales oriented founder/CEO can often hide the defects in a product. Like DeviantArt.

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Startup Custom Customer Technical Review 401

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 22, 2010

The price / share is actually $2.40 (not $3.00), which is $3,000,000 pre-money / 1,250,000 shares (because you had to create the 250,000 share options). Term Sheet Overview : The second most important economic term in the term sheet other than price is “liquidation preference.&# Thus the “true&# pre-money is only $2.4

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Venture Capital Pricing Startup Funding 405

Berkonomics

DECEMBER 21, 2017

Almost always, professional investors, including angel groups and venture capitalists, also require at least one seat on the corporate board.

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Invest Sales Resource Email 243

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 1, 2014

You enter your make, model, trim & year and out pops a price curve of purchases in your area and in most states you will then be offered a fixed price to purchase that car. So what could be wrong with price transparency in the auto sector? I can’t imagine buying a car any other way.

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Truecar Startup Hulu Pricing 338

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 7, 2014

I spend a lot of time with startups and thus hear many companies talk about their approach to sales and their interactions with customers. Given customers & sales are the lifeblood of any organization you’d imagine everybody would respect their customers. Contrast that with a VC conversation I had. Startup Lessons'

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Customer Custom Venture Capital Software Review 341

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 10, 2021

On the other hand, the biggest winners will turn out to be much larger than the prices people paid for them and this will happen faster than at any time in human history. However, to be a great VC you have to hold two conflicting ideas in your head at the same time.

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Venture Capital Writing Invest Pricing 471

Berkonomics

JUNE 15, 2017

From the moment such an investor looks seriously at your company, the investor or VC partner is thinking of the end game, the ultimate sale of the company or even of an eventual initial public offering. Taking in angel or venture money requires a setting of an entrepreneur’s expectations that may come as a shock at least at first.

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Venture Capital Sales Invest Class 243

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 17, 2017

The most obvious way to explain this is with sales people. If you hire 6 senior sales reps in January at $120,000 / year salary then you’ve taken on an extra $60,000 per month in costs yet these sales people might not close new business 6 months. COGS” represents the amount that each sale costs you.

Startup 227

Startup Venture Capital Sales Course 227

Berkonomics

JANUARY 6, 2022

First, the marginal exit event: Sometimes the end game or sale of the company is not a happy event for the early investors, including the entrepreneur or the founders. Most sophisticated investors will take either a promissory note or preferred stock, both of which come before founder or management stock in a sale or liquidation.

Venture Capital 156

Venture Capital Sales Pricing Equity 156

Berkonomics

JUNE 29, 2017

If you have been following our recent insights, you’ll be up to speed knowing that professional investors negotiate tough terms, from provisions of control over asset acquisition, eventual sale of the company, future investments, forced co-sale when others attempt to sell their shares and more.

Invest 243

Invest Entrepreneur Sales Startup 243

Berkonomics

MARCH 8, 2018

The option price should be set by appraisal under IRS rule 409a, and certainly should be low enough to recognize that common stock options are not worth as much as preferred stock, given the many preferences of the latter. You do not pay professional investors who are serving on behalf of an investment company or VC and paid by that company.

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Venture Capital Equity Sales Invest 256

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 15, 2013

And a natural sales person. You can’t just name your own price.” I’ve sat through so many meetings where sales reps didn’t ask for the order. Any great sales person will ask you at the end of the meeting, “So, how’d I do? She was a nurse but was never graduated from a 4-year college.

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Sales Class Training Technical Review 416

TechCrunch LA

AUGUST 11, 2021

Snipfeed is free to set up, but if you make sales, the company takes 15% — this percentage is inclusive of any transaction fees. Through Snipfeed’s referral program, creators can make 5% of sales from anyone they onboard to the platform (this comes out of Snipfeed’s commission). “We Image Credits: Snipfeed.

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Platform Commerce Startup Tool 286

TechEmpower

MARCH 4, 2024

Key Functions with High Impact Generative AI is revolutionizing sales by enabling dynamic pricing and personalized customer interactions, boosting conversion rates and customer satisfaction. Post-sale, AI analyzes customer data to improve service and loyalty, making it a cornerstone of modern sales methodologies.

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Generative AI TechEmpower CTO Hire Outsource Development 295

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 15, 2013

Importantly we were also able to use the “platinum customer club” as a sales tool as we were trying to land larger accounts. As we were deep in the sales process with the larger accounts we would offer them access to the platinum club as a way to hold the line on price negotiations.

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Custom Customer Pricing Startup 297

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 14, 2012

But if you raise the money at the big price (or any price) please go in with the expectation that you are going to build a large, long-term business. Raising a large round at whatever price will almost certainly take many potential buyers off the table. to justify a “strategic” price. Think about it. .”

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Venture Capital Pricing Social Network Acquisition 316

Berkonomics

AUGUST 3, 2023

Some businesses require very little capital and the founder can self-finance the enterprise and retain 100% of its ownership and control from ignition through liquidity event (startup through sale). Strategic investors validate a business, by their presence creating the very value they pay for with increased price per share purchased.

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Venture Capital Startup Class Invest 295

Berkonomics

OCTOBER 20, 2022

Far too often, I come across companies with commission structures that take into account “all” the possible permutations of profit on a sale, causing everyone to wait for an accounting person to complete a cost analysis in order to find the magic number, or for a manager to rule on percentage splits for territories or products.

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Sales SaaS Pricing Course 177

TechCrunch LA

APRIL 5, 2022

The feed shows videos of homes on the market, as well as a price tag. As you scroll, you can guess whether the price Playhouse showed you is higher or lower than the actual listing price, helping to educate future buyers about the market (… and also it’s fun, even if you’re not looking to buy a $2 million home in San Francisco).

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Content Pricing Seed Funding Los Angeles 255