Key Startup Tips:
- What is your team/Company’s distinct competitive advantage in providing this product/service to the customer?
- What is the specific product or service you plan to provide?
- Who, specifically, is your customer? Do they have money? How do they pay you?
- What is the quantifiable economic benefit of solving that problem?
- What is the problem solved by the product or service you plan to provide?
- People invest in people, not ideas
- Entreprenerus don’t take risk, they mitigate them
- A purchase order is key to a good valuation
- There are 5 other companies with your same idea, what makes you different
- Keep team small and don’t outsource
- Only build what customers want
- Don’t save money on a lawyer, $600/hr gets more done at less cost than $200
- Don’t hire sales team early – Founder is top sales person
- Tip Determine pattern to sales before staffing big sales team
- Sell what helps your customer make money, not to customer’s technology guys
- All good markets have competitors, you do too – don’t claim no competition
- There are 100’s of ideas, but few good implementations
- Cash flow is more important than your mother
