Running a business

tags : product management, Economics

Handbooks/Ops guides §

• Hanbook of cos: https://handbook.directory/?s=35
• https://registerspill.thorstenball.com/p/the-basics

Raising Money (Seed Round) §

Pre-Seed §

SEEDRound §

Template: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1ptygN61-kPcL6XMVq-QVBA5BDLSL04Qh?dmr=1&ec=wgc-drive-hero-goto

FAQ §

• How much to raise? (See template)

  • 24(2Y)-36(3Y) runaway + 25% buffer
  • Carta has the median time from seed to Series A as 23 months.

• Pre-req before going to investor

  • Have conviction
  • Validate
    • “Validate the customer’s needs and your unique product insight. Speak with buyers (100+ in the consumer space, 30+ in SMB, 10+ in enterprise) to deeply understand their pain point, and offer them your solution in the most realistic way possible (a prototype is better than a pitch deck) and name a price. You’re looking for at least 40% of ‘wow!’ and ‘when can I get this?.’ Anything less is just people being nice to you.”
  • MVP
    • You have some expression of your thesis. At the most, you have built a simple product and have some paying customers. At the least, you have a clear written memo and/or deck that outlines what you plan to build

• Attack vectors

  • Raising a seed round comes down to activating emotional triggers in prospective investors, including the fear of missing an incredible opportunity.
  • The most surefire to get a yes from many investors is to get a yes from other investors.
  • Mystery is always more seductive than the truth. Never reveal the actual names of who gave you a term sheet. Just accurately describe them in the abstract (and never lie).

• Fundraising period

  • 2-3 week window on your to run your fundraise and speak to investors.
  • Ideally, you want to speak to as many investors as possible in the shortest period of time.
  • research each investor before your pitch window
    • invested in similar companies
    • check size and investment philosophy
    • do they lead?
    • What do other founders think of them?
  • INTRO
    • Take the time to consider your most powerful connection to each investor

• Pitch Deck

  • A minimal deck and/or memo with a simple budget is all that you’ll need at this stage.
  • show
    • there’s a real problem to solve
    • a big enough market
    • that you’re the one to solve it.
  • Ensure good quality
  • Have all your materials polished and ready to go before your pitch window
  • Tailor your pitch to each prospective investor.

  • Presentation

    • Presence in a meeting matters even more than your materials. Showing up as the best version of your authentic, relaxed, and confident self is key.
    • Prepare your pitch by writing a memo. (may/maynot share it with investors but write the memo)
    • Start real pitches with less important investors so you can iterate.
    • If you don’t know, simply say, “I don’t know, but I’ll get that answer for you.”
    • Acknowledge competitors factually
      • including their strengths.
      • promptly move on to your strengths and your vision
      • Avoid disparaging competitors or spending too much time on them.

  • Ref

    • https://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/sequoia-capital-pitchdecktemplate/46231251
    • https://www.ycombinator.com/library/2u-how-to-build-your-seed-round-pitch-deck
    • https://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/airbnb-first-pitch-deck-editable/45768374

• Investor Types

  • Lead Investor: This is not needed for seed round
  • Angels
    • Rather open a SAFE (simple agreement for future equity) at reasonable valuation
    • start collecting the checks of smaller angels while you are having conversations with larger funds.
    • In seed, a term sheet is commonly a SAFE with a post-money cap.
    • Rounds are actually not closed until the funds wire.

Culture §

I am the last person I’d go for business advice. These are just random thoughts that I’d probably like to experiment with someday.

• Have some kind of company culture that puts out interesting thing on the internet that slightly diverges from what your company actually does. Example could be running a TIL site that could benifit anyone from the Internet but the contents of it are from employees. So you’ve a new way to reach people and your employee have fun doing so aswell.
• 4 fits
  • problems that u are solving
  • the channels that u use to reach the customer (business model)
  • the product / solution
• You need to have a business idea not a product idea

Indian Business §

Some are indian research labs (zulip socials)

• https://newsletter.theindianotes.com/
• https://peopleplus.ai/voice
• https://d91labs.org/

Links §

• Seth Godin Steps
• https://twitter.com/david_perell/status/1413995757552689154
• https://twitter.com/shreyas/status/1412622302185881600
• https://twitter.com/shreyas/status/1411394575877296128
• https://archive.is/0O8O6
• https://www.allthingsdistributed.com/2006/11/working_backwards.html
• https://www.reforge.com/blog/growth-loopS
• https://twitter.com/barrettjoneill/status/1497950095228080137
• https://twitter.com/patio11/status/1483267542080626693
• https://twitter.com/obiltschnig/status/1473915766743445506
• https://www.ted.com/talks/yochai_benkler_the_new_open_source_economics?language=en
• https://sive.rs/multiply
• https://github.com/everpix/Everpix-Intelligence