If I took the pain of early-stage software founders and boiled it down into one question, it’s this: “How do I fund my software business without giving up ownership?” Although I don’t believe that money solves everything, I know that it helps. With enough funding, you can:
Pop quiz: Does a Freemium business model really convert to a growing SaaS? Sure, you get widespread access to potential customers… But are they just there because it’s free? Or do they end up paying?
“If only we had money, we could…” It’s a story I’ve heard a thousand times. Startups heaving a sigh, wishing they had investors to fund the awkward early stages. Scraping to get your software in shape… Working 60+ hour weeks… Can’t afford to hire people so you’re wearing every hat for every department… But the dark side of receiving VC
Have you asked anyone working a normal job about their workflow? If you get in the details of their processes, you’ll immediately see the optimization opportunities. Just think of all the excel sheet management that goes on in the professional world… This is one of the main reasons why there can never be enough SaaS businesses. There are just countless
Years ago I attempted to raise money for my first company, Flowtown, with my co-founder Ethan. You know what we did? We cold emailed investors. We figured “We have a startup, they invest in startups… so surely they want to hear from us”, and hoped our confidence would cut through the noise. It didn’t work. Obviously. They didn’t even bother
Funding. The day will come when you need it for your SaaS. You’ve grown your startup, got a brilliant team and you’ve got a great product you can actually take to investors as proof. Now it just needs that push. But before you even think about trying to fundraise or approach investors, you’ll need to know how to value your
I recently got on a call with a potential coaching client who asked me the best way to create momentum during the fundraising process. And it got me thinking… “what’s been true in my own successful fundraising experience… as well as the 150M raised by those I’ve mentored/advised?” Turns out, there were some consistent (and repeatable) markers that can make
I’ll never forget one of the first times I pitched an investor. I was literally pacing in the back alley of a SF coffee shop with one of those ugly pre-2007 cabled headsets plugged into my iPhone. I had a warm intro to the investor. Things were going smooth. But with just ONE single misstep, I got those gut-wrenching words
When I started my SaaS (that stands for Software-as-a-Service) startup Flowtown my co-founder Ethan and I had a tough decision to make… How do we fund the company? Even though I had the capital to self fund the whole thing, as I had just sold my previous company Spheric, he was 23 and didn’t have a penny to his name.
How do you build a $100M revenue business in 3 years? That was the question my coaching client Larry asked me with a straight face. Now, before you dismiss his question, you need to know that he just exited his previous startup a few months earlier. So I knew he had the chops. What a great question I thought …
