Sometimes just learning a new word can completely change the way you operate your business. Just one little word can have that much power. In this article that word is “Market Launch.”
The next time my investors ask me when we’re going to launch I will have two answers for them. One will be our “product launch” and the next will be our “market launch.”
This clarity is going to make my life so much easier.
“Startup Metrics for Pirates: AARRR!” by Dave McClure
What is it: A very THOROUGH framework for marketing a consumer internet product
Who needs it: Founders of consumer internet products
When you’re going to need this: Writing your business plan and executing your marketing strategy (that means, you need this to plan, and you’re going to need to revisit it to execute)
Provides a great outline in short order. Also see Part I of this series: Elevator Pitch
This is a thorough, yet brief post on how to raise money from Angels and other seed investors. It gives very tangible advice. If you’re in this stage of your startup (which we are at Pocket Tales), you can start using this information immediately.
SproutBox is a new type of investment firm. It’s in the same vein as Y Combinator, TechStars, DreamIt Ventures, etc. but it has its own twist. Like the others, SproutBox asks you to relocate to their headquarters (in this instance in Bloomington, IN) and then gives you just enough money to live for 3 - 6 months. The difference is, SproutBox uses its team of 10 coders, designers, and marketers to build or extend your product. For this, they take a bigger percentage of the company than the other new wave investment firms, but if you’re an idea stage company without a technical lead (like Pocket Tales was) it’s worth it. The alternative is putting together your own team of great coders and that’s just hard, risky, and costly in terms of equity (if you don’t have cash, what else are you going to pay them with?)
Pocket Tales was invited to finalist day to present to roughly 15 people on SproutBox’s advisory board which included investors and community leaders. We weren’t selected but we came away with a ton of confidence, a great new network, and some great memories, so I thought I’d share my thoughts on the whole process.
The following video and presentation contain actual numbers from Mint.com’s startup story. It shows how Patzer and team budgeted expenses, hired developers, and raised multiple rounds of capital from “Garage” round to exit.
And it’s all wrapped up into a succinct 20 minute presentation.
This is extremely useful information; especially, for early-stage Indiana tech startups who see few if any examples of this type locally.
Patzer’s revenue model slide is particularly ingenious.
The primary purpose of this blog is to record for prosperity the experience of starting my first company. I’m a forgetful and nostalgic person. I expect to search this blog constantly for my own advice, for quotes of inspiration, and for links to useful resources. Also, many years from now, I expect to read these posts and laugh at how much and how little has changed.
The secondary purpose of this blog is to inform and connect other early stage entrepreneurs in Indianapolis, IN. There are no shortage of people telling me that Indiana is not the place to start an emerging technology/ low-cost internet company. There is little to no capital here for pre-revenue companies and similarly, its harder to find developers and other professionals desiring to work for a startup.
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the MAN who is actually IN THE ARENA, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”
-Theodore Roosevelt, CITIZENSHIP IN A REPUBLIC, “The Man in the Arena”
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