Legal In’s and Outs for Your Startup
You must fully understand the 83b Election:
What is an 83(b) election?
Making an IRS Section 83B election
Assignment of Intellectual Property
Some amazing templates from Y Combinator, templates from Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati (Series AA Equity Financing Documents)
Read MoreAlexis Ohanian: How to make a splash in social media
This month Alexis Ohanian, the founder of ReadIt will be talking at a Rose Tech Free Lunch Friday, I am looking forward to it!
They were the first successful company to get an exist out of ycombinator.
NYC Startup Events
These are by far the best places to go for startup events.
Gary’s Guide
Meetup
NextNY
Startup Digest
Plancast
Entrepreneur’s Roundtable
Ultra Light Startups
New York Tech Meetup
These are recommended events from Standard Start.
Read MoreTop TechCrunch Picks
TechCrunch has an event every year that shows off the great companies and innovation. Anyone starting a tech company should be following the site.
Read MoreFree Lunch Friday Notes August 6th 2010
NYCSeed‘s managing director Owen Davis came by the Rose Tech Incubator this week to give a talk on what investors look for in startup’s. Some of the key points Owen mentioned that I took away from the talk are below. (NYCSeed only invests in the 5 NY borrows).
FUNDING CRITERIA
To anyone doing a startup, “Time matters”. Owen mentioned that committing large amounts of time to R and D is a bad mistake.
Timing has to be in your favor, things have to be aligned. Your technology and the timing is key. You can build something great but is there a demand for it?
Owen recommends 2 person teams, I hear this magic number a lot, google, yahoo, etc. Startups with 2 founders is the magic number. It shows a demonstrations team work, difference in dynamic. With a team of two you have a sounding board.
Another key thing is to have a prototype complete.
Showing you have tech leads on as founders is the DNA of the company it is important. Moment by moment technology changes.
Angels and VCs like to see a good sized market, show a clear path to revenue.
TYPE OF STARTUP COMPANIES
Network Effect
-Hard to invest in these
-Risk
–e.g.: Gaming companies
–e.g.: iPhone apps
–e.g.: YouTube lost 40 or 50 million a year
-not real innovation
Application Oriented
-look at market
-build an application
–e.g.: ticketfly.com
–e.g.:quickbooks
Innovation
e.g.: google’s rank algorithm
e.g.: Advertising space, customer segmentation of ads
Investors believe or don’t believe in the innovation you have.
Some companies have pricing power, if coke raised it’s prices they would be ok.
If a copper wire company raised it’s prices it would take a toll on them
Some examples of companies that have a little higher prices are:
zappos.com has customer loyalty.
Amazon charges more then others.
Wholefoods charges much more then others.
Team
Having a good team culture is important.
Be honest and be transparent that is what is important.
WHAT MAKES A COMPANY FUNDABLE
Big Market
Team
A “good business” is not necessarily fundable.
A lot of great biz that will be successful without funding.
GOOD TRENDS
-how do u derive meaning out of data
-New ways to data mine
-Project management tools
-Online learning
-Digital advertising
-Billboard industry
-Local search
-Building a better Craigslist
-Building better Email
Free Lunch Friday Notes July 30 2010
Kirill Sheynkman came over to the Rose Tech Incubator and spoke about pitching to VC’s. I took some high notes personal notes from the talk.
The pitch.
Tell them what you are doing.
Market.
Why now?
“We are a _____ for ____ a market worth $$$.”
What is the pain you are addressing.
Who are the people that have the pain.
How many are there?
Product.
Why this.
Team.
Why us.
Deal.
Why now.
Let them know your realistic goals.
Milestones.
Think about the next round.
Expect 35%-40% for a series A.
2 1/2 post round B.
How are you going to get to this point?
Think about the next round
Who will sign the check?
Down Rounds are bad!
Funding cycles.
The approach.
The first meeting.
The second meeting.
The partner meeting.
Due diligence (can take weeks).
Close (4 to 6 weeks to get a deal done.)
Start to pitch 6 months before the next round. It is the CEO’s job full time to be raising money.
It is the board of directors job to manage how well the CEO’s performance is going for a company.
Check out Kirill’s blog, he is also on twitter.
Read More
My name is Daniel. I’m an entrepreneur, hacker and cofounder of drchrono. drchrono is a medical platform for doctors.
