BC STARTUPS
Saved by @zmbnski

Some wed night thoughts on investor “value add”:

1) At the end of the day, money is a commodity. That mere fact should make every vc shudder.

It is amazing how many ppl (incl myself) clamor to get into a commodity business!

 2) As such, to differentiate, different investors provide other things beyond money. Sometimes it’s community. Sometimes hiring help. Sometimes expertise or sector-focused networks. Etc
3) And some VCs are truly value add! For example, if I had an edtech co, I would hands down raise from @jwdanner - he has been there as an entrepreneur, built schools, and invested in so many hit edtech companies.
4) But at the end of the day, regardless of who invested in you, it’s the founders + team who are doing all the work.
5) when I think about what I’ve done for my own founders, it’s ranged from doing intros (mostly to other investors) to cust acq advice to feedback etc

But the reality is - all of my founders would’ve figured out how to get that intro or that piece of advice w out me
6) if I’m going to be honest w myself, probably the biggest value add I’ve provided is being a shoulder to cry on.

Entrepreneurship is such a lonely road. And often as ceo or the founders you hit so many rough patches and you can’t / don’t really tell anyone
7) We all hit rough patches in the road. Even some of my best companies were not all roses and butterflies and those founders really cried - either out loud or in their heads - a lot!
8) as a matter-of-fact personality, I’m not an inspirational person who can make you feel like $1m bucks (go to @ericbahn for that!). But I can be a lending ear, a shoulder to cry on, & sometimes have a few encouraging words so you walk out feeling a bit better.
9) That’s probably how I’ve been the biggest value-add - to just be that friend who is there when the world seems to be falling apart.
10) Ultimately, doing a startup is all about morale control. In the beginning morale is so high! It’s not because you have money or anything - it’s sheer excitement.

Later, you make progress, but morale often drops. And you have more than you started. Why?
11) Clearly ppl’s spirits are not always correlated w absolute progress in the business. It’s correlated w how *they feel*.

And that is what investors can impact the most - for better or worse!
12) this is why the things I care most about are 1) how my founders are doing *as ppl* (you can’t even think about building a great co if you’re falling apart yourself), 2) how can I help make a situation *more* positive even if it’s crappy.

At least this is what I try to do

More from Elizabeth Yin

Elizabeth Yin
Elizabeth Yin
@dunkhippo33
Today's thread is a continuation on *how* you generate momentum in fundraising.

Here's a rough conversation I had with a founder (called 'C') over the course of days a few months back.

Read on >>

1) C: I'm having trouble raising. VC A and VC B are taking so long to get back to me.

Me: Oh, when did you meet w/ them?

C: 3 weeks ago.

2) Me: Oh, are you mtg w/ anyone else?

C: No, I got busy working. I had all these sales calls to make.

Me: That's the problem - there isn't a reason for them to move quickly. There's no investor at the table.

3) C: But I have all these sales calls to make!

Me: I really don't have a great answer for you here. This is probably the hardest part about fundraising - juggling your actual job w/ your fundraising job, which is full-time too.

4) Me: You need to hand off your sales calls to your co-founder. And then you can do mtgs back to back.

C: Ok...

[some time passes]

C: Ok - I'm ready.

Me: How much do you want to raise and what are you using the money for?
ALL , FUNDRAISING
Elizabeth Yin
Elizabeth Yin
@dunkhippo33
Today I want to talk about the legal aspects of startups. How to set up? How to think about legal costs?

Fun!

Read on >>

1) Lawyers are expensive -- oof! A startup lawyer can cost you $300-$1k per HOUR! An associate paralegal may be slightly cheaper. But still pricey.

What do you need from a lawyer?

-company setup costs
-doc creation and review for financing rounds
-exit negotiation

2) For the purpose of this thread, we're just going to focus on setup costs, because this is where I see the most mistakes.

Once you get going, you may quickly realize you need a better lawyer - hah - and that generally helps w/ solving for financing rounds and exits

3) If you want to potentially raise money from VCs, you'll want to set up as a Delaware C Corp. If you don't ever want to raise from VCs, an LLC is fine.

Lots of ppl start out as an LLC because you can get tax benefits if you are not profitable.

4) But to me, if you know you want to raise VC money, it feels a bit penny wise / pound foolish, because you will need to spend $$ to convert your LLC to a Delaware C corp.
STARTUPS
Advertisement
Elizabeth Yin
Elizabeth Yin
@dunkhippo33
A thread on employee equity in early stage startups -- what are the compensation norms? What every early employee should ask? Some thoughts on whether the structure is fair.

Read on >>

1) First, there are NO NORMS! Hah. I have literally seen everything from giving early employees no equity to giving employee #1s near co-founder level of shares.

But what is more common than not?

2) In the Silicon Valley, if you're hiring your 1st employee, & you've raised NO $$ & are paying very little (e.g $0-$10k / yr or thereabouts), your first employee is basically a co-founder.

And the equity tranche for employee 1 should be closer to a co-founder level.

3) For ex, a friend of mine gave his employee #1 10% (vesting over 4 yrs of course) of the business. This employee was only getting his housing paid for. And this was 10 yrs ago, so it was during the bust.

4) On the flip side, if you have raised some $$ & are paying employee #1 near mkt rate, typically I see around here ppl get 1-5% (w/ vesting).

Caveat - near mkt rate doesn't mean compared to Google or FB salary rates. I mean compared to "normal big cos"
STARTUP
Elizabeth Yin
Elizabeth Yin
@dunkhippo33
Saturday thoughts on funding: Where it helps. Where it doesn't. And how it affects team, success, and PM fit.

This is just my $0.02 after looking reviewing 30k+ early stage startups personally and having led 350+ investments across 2 VC firms & as an angel.

Let's begin! >>

1) Money is great to have in building a startup (for the least dilution and pain possible) That's true and always will be true. 😆

But just like how money can't buy you happiness, it also can't buy you PM fit.

2) PM fit is the holy grail for software startups. (we're not talking biotech - if you have a cure to cancer, I guarantee you everyone wants it).

But for software startups, it's unclear if ppl want your product at your price pt.

3) If you don't find PM fit, in this day and age, you will be able to get some sales. Maybe even say $1m in sales (or more!) per year, and you can still make a living.

But having sales does not mean that you have a repeatable customer acquisition process that can be sustainable

4) As an aside, that is why we invest at pre-seed & don't care about startup traction, because I don't believe traction at the earliest stages suggest PM fit. Traction only shows that a founder can execute (& that's impt too) but there are other ways to assess execution earlier.
STARTUPS
Elizabeth Yin
Elizabeth Yin
@dunkhippo33
Last week, I wrote a thread about generating momentum for startups.

Today's thread is on how emerging fund managers can generate momentum for their fund.

Whatever you do, momentum is so impt to get ppl onboard -- for hiring, for sales, for fundraising.

Read on >>

1) First, why does momentum matter?

Think about it from the "buyer's perspective" -- it is almost ALWAYS better to wait and get more information if you can get the same deal. Right?

More info on a potential investment. More info on a new product. Etc.

2) There are few situations where it's impt to be a first mover.

If you're a product buyer, it could be you have a dire situation at your company that alternatives can't handle.

But if you have a decent alternative (alternative product or alt investment), it's better to wait.

3) That means it's YOUR JOB to create momentum. Whether for fundraising, sales, or hiring.

So with that in mind, how do you generate momentum for fund fundraising?

4) In a prior tweet about generating momentum for startup fundraising, essentially I said to limit your supply (the amnt you are raising) in tranches AND to increase demand by packing in mtgs.

Unfort this doesn't quite work well for funds.
STARTUP , FUNDRAISING

More from Startups

Justin Jackson
Justin Jackson
@mijustin
A lot of bootstrappers think they have a marketing problem:

"I need to get better at marketing."

But, it's more likely that you have a product problem:

"Do customers really want this? Do they care enough about this to switch to a new solution?"

☝️ this is why most of my book, @marketingdevs, is about:

1. Choosing the right market
2. Building something they want

"If your product is remarkable, getting noticed is a lot easier." – @peldi


I was reminded of this concept again this morning while reading @pjrvs' book (Company of One):

"Sales increase when you honestly evaluate what someone needs and then teach them the value of what you're selling."


To succeed, your product has to offer an outcome that is highly desirable to a large group of customers.

The number of sales your product receives is a multiple of these two variables:

1. How big is the target market?
2. How desirable is the outcome you're offering them?
STARTUPS
Suhail
Suhail
@Suhail
1/ The first 18 months of starting a company is often life or death. I must've made 5 different companies that each failed within 9 mo. 😭 Each time the company failed I figured out what I could do better. Eventually startup #6 got to $40K/mo by month 18. Here’s what I learned...

2/ Stay focused! Ignore things that are a waste of time: meetups & conferences, meetings with no clear agenda, fundraising if you're not fundraising, reading lots of tech media articles, etc. Every week should feel like significant progress in the first year.

3/ Your first 5 hires will be the difference between life or death. Choose carefully. Be picky. Many of the things we do at the company still are a result of those early hires' legacy. Have fun as a tight knit team. It will change & evolve as you get bigger so enjoy this moment.

4/ Growth may be flat for the first 9 months. It's gonna be okay. Almost every company has experienced this: Airbnb had to sell cereal in-between, Slack failed as a gaming company first, Tesla sold only 147 cars after 6 years! You probably won't be an overnight success either.

5/ In the beginning, do customer support yourself. You will learn a lot about why your product sucks. I did 5,000+ support tickets when it was the two of us. Delight customers & fix things fast while you learn. It will help you build an amazing intuition about your customers.
STARTUPS
Advertisement
James \u270c\ufe0f
James ✌️
@jamesg_oca
Starting a startup is hard. This thread will contain some key advice I think are particularly noteworthy:

1. “If you’re not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you’ve launched too late.” - @paulg The first version of my product was not great, but hey, it worked.

2. Don't build in a vacuum. You should build your product out in the open for the world to see. You will gain valuable feedback from users if you build publicly, and provide insights which ensure you are building a product users truly want. cc @rrhoover @sama

3. As a young founder, a massive weakness is age and the lack of credibility. Developing partnerships, trying to acquire customers. etc have all taken so much longer. In fact, when I mentioned my age, a few investors just walked away. cc @Jason

4. Work on what makes you feel excited. Working on something that you don't believe in will cause you to make rash product decisions, resulting in loss of user loyalty. @fredwilson

5. Take care of yourself. While doing the occasional code sprint can be incredibly useful, working 24/7 and disregarding your health just to build a great product is not a wise choice.
STARTUPS
Exploding Topics
Exploding Topics
@explodingtopics
10 fast-growing companies you've (probably) never heard of.

Thread 👇

1/ @Cubii

Ultra-portable elliptical trainer.

Why the 📈?

-Part of growing workout @ home trend
-Super small (fits under a desk or table)
-Proprietary tracking app
-Smart "fit while you sit" branding
-Sizable community of Cubii users


2/ @undraw_co

Open source illustration library.

Why the 📈?

-1000s pro-level illustrations
-As illustrations replace stock photos, demand for illustrations=📈
-Part of growing open source media libraries (music, images and icons)trend


@unDraw_co 3/ @flodeskinc

Email service provider that focuses on design.

Why the 📈?

-No-frills UI
-Appeals to Shopify stores
-Attractive email templates
-Designed for ecommerce marketing


@unDraw_co @flodeskinc 4/ @pushpay

Venmo for church donations.

Why the 📈?

-7900+ churches use it
-Disrupting cash donation baskets
-Taps into cashless payments meta trend
STARTUPS
Sharath \U0001f4e3
Sharath 📣
@5harath
From day 1, I intended to build @shoutoutso_ in public, and part of it is to be transparent with numbers, talk openly about our highs and lows, and share lessons as we grow!

I have been doing individual posts on numbers every week so wanted to one big thread with all updates 👇🏽

Week


Week


Week


Week
STARTUPS

You May Also Like

Ankur Patel
Ankur Patel
@AnkurPatel59
FEW USEFUL CHARTINK SCANNERS :

This Scanner will be More than Enough for any Swing / Positional Trader to find Good Stocks.

Few Important Chart ink Scanners which can help you to find Setups and boost up your Trading Account : 🧵

Do Retweet If you If it Useful

1. Momentum Stocks

This Scanner can be helpful for Short term Swing Trades . you can easily find Stocks which are in Momentum.

Stocks which are up by 20 % in 5 Days
Stocks which are up by 30 % in 30 Days
Stocks which are up by 30 % in 30 Days

2. Volume Spike

We always Look for Price and Volume Confirmation for Breakout Trading. This scanner will help you to find the Stocks Which has given a move with Good Volume . You can keep this Stock in Radar and catch the Next move in them :

3 . Reversal Scan

Stocks which are Down by 20 % + in 5 days

When Market Corrects for sometime , You can find Stocks where selling is Exhausted and they can make a Good Reversal move .

4. Reversal Scan - Stock Down continues 5 days .

If you Know the Concept of 3-5 Days move . you might catch few stocks from this scanner. Always try and Pick stocks which are in strong momentum , you have more Chances of Getting Right in Reversal Trade.
TRADING SCREENERS , TRADING SCREENER , ALL
Anu Satheesh \U0001f1ee\U0001f1f3
Anu Satheesh 🇮🇳...
@AnuSatheesh5
Samayapuram Mariamman Temple
#Trichy
#Tamilnadutemples 🚩

Samayapuram Mariamman Temple is located in Samayapuram of
 Tiruchirappalli district.  Mariyamman here is worshipped as Samayapurathal a form of Parashakti.
Amman vigraham here is made of sand and clay so


no abhishekam done to the main vigraham. Samayapuram Mariamman Temple is one of the famous Shakthi Sthal of Tamilnadu.

Story says that paramashiva created Kali, out of the poison that he drank during samudra mathanam.  As Devi originated from the Kaalakoota/ halahala poison,


thus the name Kaali. Mariamman is believed to be a form of Kaali, and is also known as Mahamayi. It is also believed that Maharaja Dasharatha offered his prayers here.

Mariamman is Parashakti herself who blesses with prosperity and she is believed to cure all diseases.


Paramashiva, Mahavishnu and Brahma Deva are believed to have taken blessings of Mariamman here.

Om Shakti Para Shakti
🙏🕉🙏
ALL
Advertisement
\uc2e0\ub150\uc758\uc0ac\ub098\uc774
신념의사나이...
@Belposto_korea
What does Gold- Backed mean?
The Chinese Elders have been accumulating gold for hundreds of years. They are gold-rich. Some of their gold was loaned to the Central Banking System so that it could fund the rebuilding of Europe after the many war-torn years from World Wars I and II

BTW they never returned it but used it to start their financial empire to enslave humanity. This is the Central Bank Banking System./2

Maybe this is why one of the conditions to use their gold for the QFS is the demise and full disclosure of the Central Bank banking system before the RV can take place./3

The Elders have caves of hidden gold and are now using it to gold-back the currencies in the QFS for every country in the world. It is important to understand that the QFS and the money it is about to release is all brand-new currency./4

It was designed by the Alliance to fund the new financial system that will reset all Currencies of the world to Gold-Backed currency./5
SOCIETY
Egypedia
Egypedia
@Egypediax
Ancient Egypt was the most advanced civilization in the ancient world. Why was Egypt so special?

There are so many firsts in Egypt that we all know about, and that makes Egypt unique. For example, the Sumerians did not build the pyramids of Egypt.


Save as history
HISTORY
\u0936\u094d\u0930\u0940\u092e\u093e\u0932\u0940 \u0939\u093f\u0924\u0947\u0936 \u0905\u0935\u0938\u094d\u0925\u0940
श्रीमाली हितेश अवस्थी...
@HiteshAwasthi89
Sri Maha Bhairavar Rudhra alayam, Chengalpet, Tamilnadu

This temple is being constructed merely on the instructions from Bhairava by his devotee Shri Bhairava Siddhantham Swamy. The Temple is fully enshrinedin a transparent glass enclosure..1/n


with Rudrakshas on both the sides of the entrance This temple has a circular Sanctum Sanctorum which has twelve stepseach representing a sign of zodiac and after that twelve steps we find the supreme deity of this temple Sri Kshetra Paata Bhairava. 2/n


Beneath the Bhairava, in the lower level are installed the Ashta Bhairavas, SapthaRishis in the form of stones, and Saptha Kannis in the form of brass lamps. Thereare a number of little blue and white lights in the ceiling that is shaped like a dome.. 3/n


which give an ethereal atmosphere when switched on. The steps representthe twelve signs of the zodiac and when one steps over them to reach thesanctum sanctorum all the doshas pertaining to the horoscope are cleared onceand for all..4/n


The Sthala Vriksham ”Peepal Tree” which is grown on a pedestal, a trident which is considered as Bhairavi, Pancha Mukha Anjaneya, Prathyankara Devi, Subramanya, Rudra Vinayaga, Vaishnavi Devi, Naga Rudra, Eswara, Vana Durga etc. 5/5

#IncredibleBharat
#DekhoApnaDesh
ALL