Fund My Startup

Yesterday, I was the unfortunate recipient of a massive spiderweb crack in the screen of my iPhone 3Gs.  After brushing off my gut reaction – which was to use this an opportunity to rationalize buying a Google Nexus One phone – I did a quick Google search online for “fixing cracked iPhone screens”, thus learning that I had a few options:

1. Apple Store Genius Bar
2. DIY kit
3. Shady send-it-in-and-we’ll-fix-it online offerings
4. Shady fix-it-in-a-parking-lot guy

I laid out my options.

OPTION #1: Apple Store Genius Bar

Cost: $199

Upsides: A near-immediate fix without precious time away from my primary post-pc device.

Downsides: Price.

Decision: Let’s be serious, there’s not a chance in the world that I’m dropping $199 at an Apple store to repair a phone that is halfway through its product life-cycle.  FAIL.

“Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.”  -Mark Twain

A fellow entrepreneur, David Garland, wrote a post worth reading entitled, “Don’t Entrepreneur Alone: The Importance Of Mentorship For Young Entrepreneurs.”  As I thought about the subject, it seemed necessary to expand upon David’s thoughts and touch on the importance of ‘quality’ mentors.

A common misconception is that all mentors are helpful.  Unfortunately, the reality is that it’s fairly difficult to find a mentoring team that adds any real value.  The wrong mentors will actually be detrimental to your startup. At best, bad mentors will waste a startup’s already limited time.  In worse situations, poor mentoring advice may actually sink a young, susceptible startup.

So how do you go about qualifying a solid mentoring team?  There’s no specific formula, but here’s a set of…

“All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes, to make it possible.” – T. E. Lawrence

Roughly 2 months ago we put a temporary, yet tight lid on nearly everything financing related.  It was following an epiphany we had regarding a new strategic focus, that we reevaluated the allocation of our resources.  As opposed to using up valuable resources on financing activities, we decided to instead direct them towards attracting reputable customers, generating revenue, and revamping the entire product.  By focusing solely on building tangible value for paying customers, we anticipated our financing story would also improve.

A week ago I received a request for our executive overview; for the first time I could…

“Empty pockets never held anyone back. Only empty heads and empty hearts can do that.” -Norman Vincent Peale

This is a quick reference to a few of the most intriguing and resourceful blogs in the web/tech startup space.  It’s OK if you don’t agree with 90% of what you read on these blogs; I certainly don’t.  The goal for us founders is simply to be a sponge.  Knowledge, when practically applied, makes you dangerous.

BLOG STARTER KIT:

Venture Hacks:

Description: Baback Nivi and Naval Ravikant’s experience as both entrepreneurs and investors results in tremendous, practical advice for any tech entrepreneur.  They like to refer to themselves as the “hamburger helper for entrepreneurs.”  Topics include pitching your deal and negotiating terms, as well as a bunch of other general thoughts on building startups.  They just recently published their first digital book entitled, Pitching Hacks.

A little taste: Raising money is a black swan

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Ask the VC:

Description: Authored by VCs Brad…

“Worrying is destructive. Worrying slows you down. Worrying makes it harder for you to achieve any attainable goals.” -an unnamed fellow entrepreneur

Recently, an enthusiastic entrepreneur approached me at a networking event to mention that’s he’s working on a “tremendous” new start-up.  He was hoping that I might have a few relevant connections to offer.

Awesome.

Excited to hear about his deal, I pushed for the details.   Unfortunately, he informed me that he cannot disclose anything in too much detail because his start-up is still in stealth mode.  In fact, if I really would like to know more, he notified me that he’d be open to grabbing coffee the following week, at which time I could sign a non-disclosure agreement.

I smiled politely, wished him the best of luck, and moved on to a different conversation.

Pulling simply from the nature of our discussion that day, it’s possible I will never know just how tremendous…

“The most important thing for a young man is to establish credit – a reputation and character.” -John D. Rockefeller

Theoretically, one can logically conclude that being the son of a tech industry veteran provides tremendous networking advantages.  Now living it, I disagree.

For a little background, those close to me know that I have a tremendous amount of respect and admiration for my Dad, Bob Lozano.  It’s not merely because he built and exited a tech venture in the Midwest – which folks on both coasts will argue is virtually impossible – or because he’s founded and persevered through 3 deals.  It’s largely because he ventured out on his own with 8 kids, no money in the bank account, and a fiery determination to simply make it work.  Yes, my Mom is a saint for all she’s put up with .

When I dove headfirst into my first real startup, my network…

Jason Calacanis, Founder & CEO of Mahalo (also known for Silicon Alley Reporter & Weblogs), wrote a must-read for all tech entrepreneurs entitled, “What to Do if Your Startup Is Failing.”  In it, he proclaims that there are 2 types of entrepreneurs in this world: real ones and the folks who play entrepreneurs for some portion of their lives.

Great read .

“All men dream: but not equally.  Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes, to make it possible.” -Thomas Edward Lawrence

An important question that frequently arises for any product company is, “How long will it take to build?”  Internally you will debate this (our lead developer can insert his silent chuckle here).  Externally you’ll hear it constantly from your customers, partners, investors, family, and really just about everyone you meet.  If you’re honest with yourself, the realistic answer is usually simple: we don’t know, but we’ll estimate anyways.

This rule applies to every build: your alpha, your beta, & every iteration within.  This is the nature of building a new product.

Product timelines are tough to pinpoint because of the…

The guys over at one of my favorite blogs, Venture Hacks, just officially released their first digital book: Pitching Hacks.

In their own words:

“We’re excited to share our first book with you: Pitching Hacks. It’s all about pitching startups to investors. 83 pages of beautiful PDF. $19.

We’ve raised $100 million for startups like Epinions, invested another $20 million in companies like Twitter, and advised many others. Pitching Hacks shows you how to apply the simple lessons we’ve learned along the way.”

Here’s a few samples of the book you may want to check out:

• Why do I need an introduction?
• Can I get investors to sign an NDA?

If the stellar free advice they’ve been pumping out on their blog is any indication then this is probably well worth the $19 license fee.

“The fight is won or lost far away from the witnesses, behind the lines, in the gym, and out there on the road; long before I dance under those lights.” -Muhammad Ali

There are many reasons why I love software startups: innovative thinking, blank canvases for building new products, smart people, etc.   The single greatest reason, however, is that each day that you don’t die as a company becomes another opportunity to edge slightly closer to a product/market fit.  With proper focus you’ll always end up building a little bit more, generating a few more customers, gathering additional customer/market feedback, and refining your product.

Why must you keep building?  Because as Marc Andreessen writes, a product/market fit is the only thing that matters and as Paul Buchheit points out, it usually takes a long time to get there.  If you’re working on a new deal I recommend you read both posts.  Here’s an…