Category Archives: Startup Life

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July 10, 2013

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Dealing with VCs, Startup Life

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Startup Valuations Revisited Again

I have posted on startup valuations a couple of times.  First on October 12, 2012 and then on November 28, 2012.  On June 27th Fred Wilson wrote a post called Valuation vs. Ownership.  Great post.

Here is the good news:  if you read my prior posts and Fred’s post, I think you are about 99% of the way there in solving any mystery behind startup valuations for early stage financing rounds (i.e., Series Seed or Series A).   Yes, it is more art than science (I still have never used any sort of DCF for a valuation at this stage), but the art is really not that mysterious.  Fred’s post hits some really interesting points on how valuations can actually impair limited partners (those investing in the VC fund) more than general partners (those running the fund).

Enjoy solving the mystery.

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June 26, 2013

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Public Service Announcements, Startup Life

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StartFast Syracuse

Yesterday I visited StartFast up in Syracuse with my VC partner Jennifer and Ithaca-based digital media pro Ken Rother.  StartFast is a Tech Stars affiliated accelerator, and it is a testament to what human drive can accomplish.  Not to belabor the point, but Syracuse is not known being a hot bed of startups.  That is changing.  Nasir Ali, Martin Babinec and Chuck Stormon have launched (and now Nasir and Chuck are running) a great program.  This is the second full year of its operation.

We met with teams originally from Los Angeles, Florida, Toronto, Texas….and Syracuse.  All have viable business concepts and are pivoting and working away.  The space is just what you would expect at an accelerator – open, high ceilings, full of din (not food, but noise).

My favorite StartFast company so far is Calester, which simply pushes an events calendar to you based on your own calendar availability.  Visiting Ithaca?  Calester will tell you what is going on that fits your schedule.  All in one spot so you don’t have to look in more than one spot.  Simple and useful.  And it will populate your calendar too.

Thanks to Nasir, Chuck and Martin for StartFast!

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May 28, 2013

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Board of Directors, Dealing with VCs, Management, Startup Life

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Too Much Communication – NEVER

I have posted about communication often.  Just type “communication” into the search field and see what pops up.  This morning I read Mark Suster’s post called “8 Tips To Get the Most Out of Your Investors and Board”.  It is all about communication with board members (a bunch of whom are often investors).  No surprise – I love what Mark wrote.

I thought it might be helpful to state a few reasons why it is just about impossible to over-communicate with your VCs:

1.  Our VC partners at a firm are constantly asking “what’s going on with XYZ company”.  Frequent communication from the CEO helps us give good answers to our partners.  You should assume that “update” type emails from CEOs are forwarded to partners inside our VC firms.

2.  Limited partners of a VC firm also ask the VCs “what’s going on with XYZ company”.  Nice to be fully loaded with information to give solid answers, even if the company is not doing that well.

3.  Doing inside rounds (which happen frequently) are way easier if the key constituents (board members and investors) are all on the same page.  Inside rounds are often done in pressure filled situations so not having to spend lots of time getting people up to speed is a huge plus for a CEO.

4.  A statement a CEO never wants to hear from a board member is “I did not know that…..”   Frequent updates solve that problem.  And, if a board member says that it is awesome to be able to say back “well, it was in the update email recently sent”.  You might be surprised how much time can be spent (sometimes wasted) dealing with a cranky board member who feels surprised by company developments.

Those are just a few of the reasons off the top of my head.  Hope you had a great long weekend…..

 

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May 13, 2013

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Dealing with VCs, Startup Life

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VC Rejection Lettery

A friend of mine sent me a 10 page VC Rejection Letter (that landed in his inbox).  I am going for put this into the “almost must read category”.  It completely cracked me up, and will either make you (i) hate VCs, (ii) realize that VCs can find a way to get to “NO” under almost any circumstance, (iii) realize that the letter actually has some very good tips for those raising $$ and/or (iv) make you laugh.

Enjoy….here it is.   Venture Fundraising Rejection Letter.

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May 2, 2013

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Startup Life

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Guest Post – Creating a Mobile-Friendly Site for Startups

Here is an article contributed by Lori Campbell, a member of PressTheWord, a tutorial channel in Youtube. Fascinated with web design, Lori and her team aim to teach every beginner how easy it is to build websites.  If you have web design/Wordpress related inquiries, feel free to interact with them through their channel, PressTheWord

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Just a few short years ago, most businesses did not see the need to go the route of creating a mobile friendly version of their site.  The technology was relatively new and only the “techno-geeks” really took advantage.  However, once smartphones and iPads started to dominate the market, the number of users surfing the web via mobile devices skyrocketed to the point where over 10 percent of total internet traffic is coming from mobile devices. 

This explosion has forced many business to reexamine their sites and forced them to either redesign their site or setup a separate website entirely.  For those just starting a new site, you will want to setup your website to be mobile friendly from the start and today we will share with you some tips for creating a mobile friendly site.

You have several options when setting up your website, but we will give you the two most common methods that most businesses use to make their site web-friendly.  The first and the one that a lot of business use is the development of a separate mobile site for their business.  There are several advantages of this site, including the ability to optimize the website for web users.  With those advantages comes additional maintenance needed to keep both websites updated.

The other option for developing a mobile friendly site, and one that Google advocates, is setting up a responsive web design.  When creating a responsive web design, you will code your site in such a way that it will automatically adjust itself to the screen size of your user’s devices.  Images, text, banners, and menus all resize themselves automatically based on the screen resolution of the device it is displayed on.  It is truly a one size fits most solution for creating a mobile friendly site.

For those wanting to create a mobile friendly site using a responsive design, we have a detailed WordPress tutorial on youtube that teaches you how to setup a responsive site.  Once you have setup this site, you can test it in several ways.  The easiest is simply test it by resizing your browser.   You will then notice the website resize itself based on the size of your browser.  Next, test out the site on your cell phone, smartphone, and other mobile devices to see how it looks.

A responsive web design will probably be the best bet for any Startup wanting to create  a mobile friendly site.  Google recommends it and their standards are the ones that usually drive the web industry.  By getting ahead of the curve now, your business will  be ready for a future where mobile traffic will be a driving force on the web.