Launching a startup? Here’s what you can expect

Having worked with a number of founders on the earliest stages of their startups, I have seen quite a few promising folks drop out prematurely. It’s not that they are not tough enough or that they lack passion, but it seems that many first-time founders are not prepared for how grueling and long the startup journey can be. It’s striking how often I see pitch decks that project a startup to reach 100 million users or $5 million in revenue in a year or two.

Although striking, it’s not surprising why founders have such unlikely scenarios in mind given how much the media loves to portray nearly overnight successes like Snapchat and Oculus, which raced to a $2 billion exit in just 280 days since its first financing round. The likelihood that a startup will become a unicorn (valued at $1 billion+) is about one in a hundred. It’s even rarer that a startup can become a billion-dollar company in less than three years. In fact, the odds are roughly one in ten thousand. Is it any wonder, then, that many founders quit when they are expecting overnight success but arrive at a decade-long Navy Seals Hell Week?

Want your startup to thrive? Listen to your customers

by Sergio Paluch

The number one reason why startups fail, according to CB Insights, is that they never find a market need for their product. The sixth most common reason why startups fail is that they create a user-unfriendly product followed closely by not listening to customers. Think about that for a second. Three of the top mistakes that startup founders make can be solved simply by talking to your customers.

I personally learned this lesson that hard way on not one occasion but multiple times. What’s more embarrassing is that most of my professional career was spent leading user-centered design and user research teams, so I know that engaging your customers in a dialog can seem overwhelming. I understand that startup founders often rush to build their product because they are excited about their idea, or they think that testing their concept or product design are distractions requiring too much work. Not only that, doing customer research can be intimidating given that there are many techniques, which are complex in their details. This article will hopefully help you get started.

Have a startup idea? Here are the first things you should do

by Sergio Paluch

People say that ideas are a dime a dozen, but many entrepreneurs—even experienced ones—struggle to come up with promising product ideas. The fact that you have an idea that excites you is a great milestone, and even though the startup journey is long and arduous, you at least have got a ticket to the show now. However, starting to build your product at the outset can be extremely risky (unless you are working on a breakthrough platform technology such as blockchain or quantum computing).

Do you need a co-founder to build a successful startup?

by Sergio Paluch

A TechCrunch article published in 2016 argued that startups that have more than one founder aren’t necessarily more successful. The author pointed out that at the time of writing, 52.3% of startups that exited (were acquired or IPO’d) had only one founder. This analysis flew in the face of conventional wisdom: that teams needed two or three co-founders to make it. While I don’t dispute the findings, I do think that summary statistics miss a number of nuances that are critical when deciding whether or not to bring on a co-founder. In this article, we’ll dive deeper into the dynamics that are likely to drive this decision.

Can I Get Funding for My Startup with Just an Idea?

by Sergio Paluch

It’s quite common that I meet founders that are seeking capital for their startup idea. I love talking to these founders, but I inevitably tell them the same thing: It’s exceedingly rare, these days, to raise capital for just an idea but not impossible. Moreover, there are ways that founders could finance initial product development without equity-based investment.

How to Get Seed Funding for Your Tech Startup by Thinking Like an Investor

by Sergio Paluch

Fundraising seed capital for your startup is a pain, right?

You don’t really know what investors are looking for or what chances you have to raise the money you need.

In this article, I’m going to walk you through how investors think about your investment.

Now, every investor is different, and despite what people tell you, seed investing can be very subjective. But this guide is meant to give you a general sense of what they are looking at and for, so you can be one step ahead of them (most of them).

Ready to dive in?

Let’s do it, but first, two sentences to put things in context:

Seed funding was meant to enable innovators to build and prove out their ideas in the marketplace, but with the increasing size of seed rounds (often $1.5M or more), investor’s expectations have also swelled.

What was an exceedingly difficult task in the past has only gotten more challenging, and startup founders need to work harder to distinguish their business from a multitude of other promising companies.

The most important thing you can do as a founder of an early-stage startup

by Sergio Paluch

I had the pleasure to attend a great panel discussion put on by Strawberry Creek Ventures and Castor Ventures, firms that invest in Berkeley and MIT alumni respectively. The two panelists were both fantastic entrepreneurs working on genuinely world-changing solutions, and over the course of the evening, they recounted their entrepreneurial journey. After the moderator finished asking her questions, the discussion was opened up to audience questions.

I asked the two entrepreneurs how they got their ideas off the ground at the earliest stages of their enterprise. This is a topic that I’m obsessed with given that it’s my job to help entrepreneurs launch and grow their startups. Both answers were great, but one truly resonated with me.

Getting VC funding without a huge network or diploma from Stanford

by Sergio Paluch

The other day I met a very charismatic, intelligent, and driven young man at a venture capital summit in Silicon Valley. He had a compelling vision for an app that both solved a pressing social problem and had great commercial promise. He floated around the room striking up conversations with one person after another, and out of the hundreds of people that were there, he out-hustled all of them, by a long-shot. I had a chance to catch up with him briefly at the end of the summit asking him how meeting investors was going. He looked up at me, exhausted and simply replied, “It’s been better.”

Should you look for a co-founder or raise capital?

by Sergio Paluch

I recently read a question on Reddit by an individual who was having difficulty finding a co-founder and asked whether she should first try to get funding, which would allow her to hire the team member that she needs. If you’re in a similar situation, my answer might offer a helpful perspective:

Investors look for the four ‘Ts’: total addressable market, tech, timing, and team. (I’d add a fourth T, which is traction.) Of those factors, my experience is that investors pay the closest attention to the team. Not having a single co-founder would put you at a tremendous disadvantage in that category.

Sergio Paluch

Launching a startup? Here’s what you can expect

Want your startup to thrive? Listen to your customers

Have a startup idea? Here are the first things you should do

Do you need a co-founder to build a successful startup?

Can I Get Funding for My Startup with Just an Idea?

How to Get Seed Funding for Your Tech Startup by Thinking Like an Investor

The most important thing you can do as a founder of an early-stage startup

Getting VC funding without a huge network or diploma from Stanford

Should you look for a co-founder or raise capital?

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