With tech startups, it's all loose-goosie. You raise money as you go, often from friends, family and investors.
It's rare for a startup to make money immediately, so you need to make sure that you have enough saved or that you have another income stream that can support you.
There is never a time in a company's history when cost control can be relegated to the back burner, but for a startup company, keeping costs low is a vital necessity.
Startups are constantly raising money, sometimes before they have even hired a lawyer.
For the devices we use... the funding models are completely screwed up. Angel funding isn't sufficient for hardware.
Landing a million-dollar investment for your startup is exhilarating. But as big as that number sounds, it doesn't go far. Many startups just getting off the ground won't have a CFO to monitor finances. It doesn't take much for spending to spiral out of control.
I'm saying there's plenty of money out there for great consumer entrepreneurs with great consumer products attacking really big markets.
Entrepreneurs believe that profit is what matters most in a new enterprise. But profit is secondary. Cash flow matters most.
The right algorithm is to put off seeking funds for as long as physically possible. And in an ideal world, a startup would never have to seek funds at all.
If you're in a squeeze for capital and you have a solid, mutually beneficial relationship with a VC, your chances of raising will increase dramatically.
When valuing a startup, add $500k for every engineer, and subtract $250k for every MBA.
