3. Define Startup
People 2x Idea = Startup
Note: Enterprise = Business Model (Startup) > 0$
Sunday, September 18, 2011
4. What comes first, the team or the idea?
Your Idea
Team Idea
Sunday, September 18, 2011
5. Validation
Who’s problem are you solving?
Sunday, September 18, 2011
6. It’s not all about $$
Funding ≠ Success
Only 16 percent of the fastest-growing and most successful
companies in the US had venture financing
Sunday, September 18, 2011
7. Do you have full
Commitment?
diff btw. co-founder and an employee
“...oh yeah, i have a developer working for me.”
Sunday, September 18, 2011
8. Have all of these?
Team
Validation
Commitment
Let’s go....
Sunday, September 18, 2011
15. Advisors/Mentors
The early believers
1. Find people that care
2. Be strategic
3. Bad advice can kill you
4.Your job isn’t to impress them
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16. Legal
1. “Don’t incorporate a hobby”
2. No lawyer should charge for advice
3.You get what you pay for
4. Don’t Sign NDAs
Sunday, September 18, 2011
17. Founders Documents
1.You need a lawyer
2. Keep it simple
3.You MUST have an operating agreement
Sunday, September 18, 2011
18. Structure
3 Main Types: LLC, S-Corp, C-Corp
LLC/S-Corp - If you WILL NOT take funding
C-Corp - If you WILL take funding
~$2,500 for basic filings
Build a relationship.You will need them again.
Sunday, September 18, 2011
19. Accounting
Money is never an easy topic...
Sunday, September 18, 2011
20. Accounting
Do-s
1. Know your REAL burn rate
2. An annual budget
3. Accounting System
4. Know your runway
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21. Accounting
Don’t-s
1. Operate on a CASH basis
2. Use your personal accounts
3. Fall behind
4. Hire a FT person until economics of time make sense
Sunday, September 18, 2011
24. Taxes & Filings
SOOO MANY!
State, City, Federal, other...
DON’T BE LATE! Make a system of reminders
Put it on the wall!
Sunday, September 18, 2011
25. Other things...
Practice your pitch! Assume you suck
You will have shitty days
Track the metrics that matter
Don’t talk to all the big guys first
Act bigger than you are
Sunday, September 18, 2011
26. At the end of the day...
Pivot
Steal
th
Sunday, September 18, 2011
27. The people that matter will judge you by what you do,
not by what you talk about
Sunday, September 18, 2011