I haven't seen a deal structured this way. Usually they get 6-10% equity I exchange for some small amount of money ( ~ $25k ) and tons of mentorship. 15% for $20k seems high ( you are valuing your company at $133k ) but there might be more to it. Accelerators are great specially for unknown foun...
Convertible notes are by no means "earned." They are often easier to raise for early-stage companies who don't want to or can't raise an equity round. Equity rounds almost always require a simultaneous close of either the whole round or a defined "first close" representing a significant share o...
If you're a service business and haven't been able to make profit, then I highly doubt investors are going to get involved. The beauty of selling your time is you can get people to buy right away, and if they pay anything above $25/hour - then you should make profit assuming you can live off of ...
It all depends on what one decides to be a definition of a "success story." For some entrepreneurs, it might be getting acqui-hired, for some -- a $10M exit, for some -- a $200M exit, and for others -- an IPO. Based on the numbers I have anecdotally heard in conversations over the last decade o...
Carolyn's points are spot-on. Tactically speaking, I would suggest that you make contact with the recruiting partners at the top VCs. Greylock, a16z and others have partners specifically focused on helping their portfolio companies with recruiting. Cold calls and emails with a "I'm an entrepr...
According to Sensor Tower volumes Snapchat has no signs of desperation. Rebranding usually has nothing to do with desperation or failing products, more likely with a different market positioning. Snapchat could be sold tomorrow for around 15 billions with just 330 employees. To me this looks p...
I've lead the marketing team for 3 VC funded startups that all successfully acquired customers en mass, but along the way I've certainly observed a fair share of startups that failed due to inability to acquire customers fast enough. Here are some common reasons startups fail: 1. They incorrectl...
Interesting question, but I doubt anyone humble enough will be able to answer it in a few lines. I'll use an example from sports to answer: all baseball/soccer/football teams have the same amount of players (on the field) and the same roles/positions. They usually also have a similar amount of ma...
The quickest path to cash is almost always consulting. Be very specific about what it is you can offer. Don't just offer "business consulting". Find a niche and serve it. Reach out to your network, including friends and family and ask if they need or know of anyone who might want to hear about w...
These are tough questions. It may be possible to hire third party marketing companies that would be able to do some testing for you to give you the metrics, but most likely the best option would be to do the testing in house. I think that you would need to set up a few of these alternative sampli...