There are a lot of founders struggling to keep their startups alive right now. Because they are spending more than they make. And their cash is running out. Maybe they funded it themselves …
I hear from founders every week who pitched big investors and were turned down with responses like these: “Your market is too small” “We don’t like services revenue in the …
I talked to software founders last week in Ireland, Salt Lake City, El Paso, Dallas, Phoenix, and other places. I didn't recommend the same thing to any of them about funding …
A practical founder told me yesterday that he made a bet with a friend many years ago. Who would end up with a bigger prize when they sell their companies someday? His …
Have you heard investors say, “You can’t make big money unless you raise big money?” How there is a bigger pie when you raise big VC money and you keep on …
"It's all about the X." I told that to a technical founder yesterday and it finally got through to him. We were talking about their prospect pipeline, expenses, milestones, funding, and marketing …
The role that good luck plays in startup success is usually overestimated by founders as they are building… and underestimated after they have achieved some success. I wrote that as a short post …
Here are 20 of the most common types of software companies that I see right now. Which one describes your company? 1) The startup just starting. More hope than traction so …
Hamid Shojaee is one of the most well-known, successful, and generous entrepreneurs in the Arizona tech community. Hamid explains the most important lessons he learned building the two software companies he …
A software founder friend in Phoenix just asked me this common question: "Should I be responding to inbound acquisition requests that ask about our EBITDA?" His company will either double or triple …
Early-stage Series A and B venture funding were down 22% last quarter and startup seed funding was down 11% from last year's crazy times. This is not a crash for tech …
Q: What happens when a founder creates a vertical software company that grows slowly and steadily with just a little outside funding? A: The founder ends up being worth more than …
If you didn't hear this story for yourself, you might not think that a tiny software company could bootstrap and grow profitably for 8 years, then finally raise outside capital …
I was on an accelerator panel this week to give feedback to the founder of a marketplace startup. Her company has already generated over $500K in net revenue with no outside …
This month we just crossed 6,000 companies on Gregslist - my curated list of all software companies in 12 cities in the US. A curious thing becomes starkly visible when you …
If you think you want "big VC funding" someday, then you've got to have one of the few businesses that will grow crazy fast and exit at over a billion …
I'm excited to announce my newest project--it's live today! The Practical Founders Podcast has in-depth interviews of serious founders who have built valuable software companies--without big funding. There are MANY practical founders …
There has been a serious pullback in the valuations of private and public software companies this year. But I'm not seeing a serious pullback in demand for software tech from business …
"The future is already here, it's just not evenly distributed." -- fiction author William Gibson. You've created a new thing that actually works. But that's not enough. A few customers use …
Do you ever get 90% of the way through building a new business, product, or project only to realize you're only halfway done? This happens to me and every entrepreneur I …
Building a software product is very hard. But getting customers, revenue and steady growth is now the HARDER PART of the startup-to-scale game. Great products are necessary but not sufficient. It doesn’t matter …
Public and private software company valuation multiples have come down hard this year, but they are still valued on MULTIPLES OF REVENUE. Here are 5 reasons why SaaS companies are still …
I have seen a lot of technical founders become capable CEOs and great leaders. But I have never seen a savvy business/sales founder develop into a great coder and engineer. This is …
Many startup founders complain that investors won't invest until they show a lot more traction. Proof that the product works, that customers love it, and that the CEO can grow …
We sometimes hear that 50% of new businesses don't make it through their first year. Or that 90% of startups fail. Maybe. Here's my take on it for software startups. First, software …
When I’m talking with startup founders, I often use a specific term that requires some explanation. It's LEVERAGE. As in "Where's your leverage in that area?" This isn't financial leverage that multiplies your …
The highest-leverage way to grow a business faster is to DOUBLE DOWN on a target market, sales channel, use case, or marketing message that is already working very well. But there's …
Every mentor, advisor, consultant, board member, or peer founder has a powerful magic trick when they give feedback or advice to an entrepreneur. They are not you. They haven't been fanatically thinking …
When my son graduated in 2017 with a degree in electrical engineering, he didn't join a big company for his first job. He created a tech startup with a friend. For the …
Here’s the fourth most successful way I see software founders funding their way across the Startup Traction Gap between MVP and sustainable sales. It’s not something I can recommend to new …
Entrepreneurs are optimistic. They find hard problems and think "I could fix that." Normal people don't do this. Most people run into problems or frustrations and just think "that sucks." A big …
Bootstrapped and lightly-funded SaaS companies looked pretty uncool the last few years when they didn't raise big VC funding. These practical startups are looking pretty cool now. They aren't laying off …
Founders often tell me they want to create an advisory board. I ask this question to see if this would be useful for the founder: Do you just need more advice, do …
When I talk to software venture investors, there is one question that reveals their stage focus 100% of the time. It’s like a law of gravity that can’t be defied. Here’s the …
Here is the third most successful way I see how software startups get across the Traction Gap from MVP to repeatable revenues. But most new tech founders I talk to think …
I'm looking for a few seed and pre-seed investors who actively invest in B2B SaaS, vertical SaaS, marketplaces, platforms, and consumer apps. I talk to over 500 serious software founders a …
Here's the second most popular way I see founders get across the Traction Gap between MVP and sustainable revenue traction. It may seem obvious, but it's less common than you think. FOUNDER …
I wrote a post last week about the dreaded "startup traction gap" between having a sellable MVP and getting to $50K MRR or some other measure of traction. This is 1st …
I was in Phoenix last week and hosted 80+ software startup founders and SaaS CEOs on Tuesday night. I know most of these founders, but there were plenty of new faces. …
In the last couple of weeks, I have talked to a dozen startup founders who are stuck between the ideation/starting/MVP stage and the early customers/revenue/growth phase. This is the dreaded Traction …
There is more Service in most SaaS product businesses than they let on. The general baseline for B2B SaaS companies is that at least 80% of revenues are from software, less …
Investors and acquirers know there is a huge difference in company value between these two kinds of $5M ARR software companies. One kind of company will accelerate. The other kind will decelerate. What …
For startup founders who have just finished building their first "sellable" product, I am often the first to tell them what their real title is. For their primary job. It's VP of …
These two things never go together: 1) Ambitious startup founder with growing revenues and big exit ambitions. "Someday this will be worth millions." 2) No lawyer or "some lawyer I know" who …
How many things did you try before you decided on this startup idea? First-time entrepreneurs are surprised to hear this question. They just don't know simple "innovation math" yet. Experienced entrepreneurs know …
There are many benefits to creating, pitching, refining, and defending your investor pitch deck--then pitching it over and over... Even when you don't successfully raise funding or you aren't trying to …
Founders are often frustrated by inconsistent feedback from investors after a pitch meeting. Too low of a valuation. Or too high. Too much story. Or not enough. Traction means $20K …
How much time and effort is required to raise money from outside investors for your early startup? It can take most of the founder's time for six months to a year …
I think software startup valuations will stay on the high side for the while, compared to 2019 levels. We’re already seeing fewer crazy-high deals, but valuations aren’t dropping off a cliff …
All startups have to cross a massive credibility gap on their way from a startup idea to becoming a big company. Early customers, employees, investors, and partners all have a healthy …
I heard three software startup investor "pre-pitches" in the last few weeks that all had the same big problem. They were missing the simple startup math story about getting their first …
Show me something that is changing in our world… And I’ll show you a crazy person behind it all. Crowds don’t change on their own. There’s always a “crazy” person and their team …
I talked to a startup founder this week whose business is growing steadily. But he has issues with a cofounder. It's killing his hope for the future of the business. Cofounder problems …
When investors evaluate a tech startup or growth-stage company, they look at things like the potential market size, your team, traction, customers, and product. But they are really asking one big …
I talked to a software startup founder in London yesterday who was in a bit of a mess. His MVP software was late, they are running out of money, not sure …
I talked to over 10 early-stage software startup founders in the last week about their next funding rounds and all the options. They think growth funding is "getting investment from outside …
Measuring avg. Customer Acquisition Costs (CAC) with clarity and confidence is really hard when you are starting your SaaS business. Here are the most common CAC mistakes that SaaS startup founders …
Your business is defined by what you say NO to. Let me explain. Did you know every restaurant could cook any other type of food? They all have pots, pans, refrigerators, stoves, and …
There's a serious question that a lot of people are asking these days after the chit-chat stops. It is asked by successful people who devoted their entire careers or invested everything …
For startups trying to find traction and happy customers, it just doesn't pay to try to sell to everyone in your market. Or the average customer. For startups selling new things, …
One of the most useful tools I use in entrepreneurship and marketing is The 10% Rule. I use it every day. It works like magic well when looking at any market …
Almost 50% of software companies on Gregslist have no outside funding and fewer than 20% are VC-funded. Does that surprise you? There are 5438 software companies on Gregslist.com in 11 cities …
What's the least believable part of this startup financial projection chart? Hint: It's not the hockey-stick revenue growth. 100% YOY revenue growth is not common, but it happens. The crazy part of this …
Getting 100% of your startup funding advice from investors is like getting nutrition advice from McDonald's. "Of course, you should supersize it. Everyone's doing it." Investors aren't bad or wrong, it's just …
How are entrepreneurs getting software built for their startups this year? Does the tech stack matter? Offshore, nearshore, or US-based teams? No code? In this Ask an Expert in-depth video interview, I …
I talked to 10 startup founders last week who are raising money from investors, have raised, or are planning to raise. I always ask this question: What kind of money are …
I didn't think about my own luck when I was in the midst of my career. Most things didn't go my way and I worked almost all the time. Where was …
A lot of social debate in the last week about using Calendly and other scheduling links. Here are 9 ways I have used Calendly to schedule 3000+ meetings in the last …
The people who succeed are the ones who say no to the things that don’t help them succeed.
VC funding isn't bad. It's just not for most startup software companies. More than half of VC-funded companies wash out completely with no big prize for founders and their employees. I just …
Most startup founders I talk to every week are hearing about the BIG FUNDING game. They are wondering if they should be playing that game too. It's everywhere online with big funding …
Who is more likely to get their startup to product-market fit: technical founders or business-side founders? Greg R. asked me this question on a podcast interview this morning. Here's the simple answer: Both …
For big businesses, the main thing is keeping the main thing the main thing. For startups, the main thing is surviving long enough to find your main thing.
I talked to 3 technical founders this week who had the same problem. In Ukraine, India, and Phoenix. These are serious coders who have built real $1M ARR software businesses with …
The savviest entrepreneurs and the most experienced marketers know something that isn't obvious. You wouldn't know it if you haven't done it for years. It just looks easy and effortless when you …
A startup founder I talked to this afternoon was in a bit of a panic. "Is it going fast enough? Should we be doing different things?" So I asked her what she …
I was talking with a friend today about the over-coverage of venture capital funding in the tech media and at all levels of tech ecosystems. Scott Petty also happens to be …
In the startup world, there is a lot of conversation about raising VC funding and successful exits. But what if you didn't do either in your software business? I know thousands of …
I talked with a technical founder today who never got revenue traction in his startup, but he was able to sell his technology to a bigger software business that wanted …
Show me any growing business with a line of waiting customers... and I’ll show you a specialist who is known at the best at something specific in their market. We don’t line …
In the last 5 months, I have invested in 5 software startups as an angel investor. When I talk to founders about raising money, I always ask this question: "If someone wrote …
The most successful founders I know are extremely savvy about execution. Superpowers. But they also were thoughtful and clear about the strategic decisions they needed to make to execute so well. Most …
There's an assumption there that "funding" means big VC funding from outside investors. But all startups are funded in some way. They are never not funded. Here are 9 ways startups fund …
Here's my definition of strategy: Strategy is just the decisions you make that make execution work better. If execution doesn't improve eventually, it was the wrong strategy. I believe these things about strategy …
For 30 years I have been an avid student and practitioner of time management systems, planning approaches, productivity software, and mental approaches. It's mostly to help me manage my procrastination …
I caught up with a founder friend yesterday to hear about his new Web3 startup that uses blockchain, cryptocurrency, and NFT technologies. We last spoke when we both lived in Phoenix …
Finding product-market fit requires product-market grit. I don't know any entrepreneur who easily found their sweet spot of the right customer and the right product at the right time and things …
A founder I advise just sent their annual 2021 investor report today. They grew from $1.8M ARR to almost $5M ARR this year. This means the value of the company more than …
Here's my favorite thing about the crazy game of growing startups into bigger global companies: Fast-growing companies are opportunity factories. Fast growth creates massive career acceleration for those who join early, grow …
I have this conversation 10 times a week: Me: How’s it going over there? Software startup founder: Great! Me: How’s it really going? (pause) Founder: We’re f*cked. It’s all hard. Me: Welcome to the club. That’s …
I talked to a savvy software startup founder this week who reached out to me for a mentor call to get my thoughts. He has a big newfangled idea, a first …
Sam Knight is a startup entrepreneur who grew a construction software business with a friend in the Dallas area. Sam and his cofounder sold their growing SaaS business in 2020 for …
Startup accelerators, incubators, and studios can be helpful for first-time startup founders. But there's a problem with the accelerator business model that is frustrating to a growing number of savvy SaaS …
"How big is your potential market?" is an interesting question. But it's not very helpful to software startup founders. Here's what's actually useful: "What's the fastest way to get 100 or 1000 extremely …
There's a new thing happening in the software startup game that didn't happen very often just 5 years ago: Some savvy startup founders are self-funding software companies and growing them …
Self-funded software startups can raise outside funding someday if it makes sense. Or not. Or sell it for under $100M. Venture-funded software companies don't have the option to be unfunded at …
As a warmup to next week's holiday, here's one thing I'm grateful for: Software companies are valued on multiples of revenue. That's pretty darn amazing. Most other companies are valued on multiples of …
There are twice as many self-funded companies on Gregslist than companies with VC funding. There are 3 times as many software companies that have "no or very little" equity funding (67%) …
Three founders and two investors used the term "base hits" in the last week when talking with me about founders selling companies for $10M-$50M. Here's why using "base hits" vs "home …
Every week another founder friend sells their tech business. This week it was Dan Jaffe, founder and CEO of LawLytics, who sold his company to one of the largest legal software …
Most of the big angel investors I know have one thing in common: They bootstrapped and sold their own software businesses. Isn't that ironic? The entrepreneurs who never took any outside investment are …
A Dallas software founder asked me this on our quarterly call today: "How can our company look serious and credible when we haven't raised a big funding round?" He started his vertical …
Every week another founder friend sells their tech business. This week it was Joshua Strebel and Sally Strebel, co-founders of Pagely, who sold their managed WordPress business to GoDaddy. I'm very happy …
I know 20+ founders who sold their business in the last year who didn't raise any outside funding or were unusually efficient in raising capital. These founders had a much higher …
You won't believe this story of successful software entrepreneurship unless you hear it for yourself. I have never seen anything like it. Nine years ago, my friend Saeed Eslami got a …
Ben Chestnut sold Mailchimp for $12 billion to Intuit. Big news, but there has been little media coverage and celebration. You'd think there would be gushing stories and endless positive headlines about …
Product-market fit means a company has "very happy customers who want to buy more and who recommend your products to their peers." But the concept of Product-Market Fit has been far …
Startups are everywhere. Everyone seems to be starting something. Where are all the finish-ups? Where are all the founders and their teams getting to their end game? For all the starts who raise money …
Two weeks ago I volunteered to judge a live startup pitch day with 23 undergraduate presenters at a major university in the Dallas area. Seven of the 23 startup pitches were …
Gregslist Phoenix is 5 years old this week. Gregslist.com/Phoenix I published my first curated Gregslist of 126 Phoenix software companies in August 2016. Back then, tech leaders and SaaS founders in Phoenix …
I talk to hundreds of SaaS startup founders and software CEOs every year through mentoring, networking, speaking, advising, consulting, investing, events, and now the Dallas Software Podcast. I'm amazed that every …
Last week I wrote a popular LinkedIn post about how all experienced angel and seed investors need to see some revenues before considering investing in your software startup. I implored software …
I have had 13 versions of this conversation in the last 3 weeks with savvy startup founders in Phoenix, Dallas, and Austin. Founder: I'm working on a cool new software startup with …
Last week in Phoenix I spent an hour with my good friend Hamid Shojaee to talk shop on his AZ Tech Podcast. Here's what we talked about: What's happening in …
Several times a month I talk to successful founders of: recurring revenue businesses that have great margins that are powered by software. But they aren't SaaS software businesses. They are "Service as …
Three (other) SaaS founders I advise are planning to raise sizable rounds from VC investors this year. These founders are NOT talking to the biggest Silicon Valley VCs that require unicorn …
Gregslist started in Phoenix with 126 local software companies on the list in August 2016. Now there are over 5,000 software and SaaS companies on Gregslist.com in 11 cities in 2021. We …
How long will it take to get to your next big startup goal? Here's my rule of thumb when estimating how long a venture or project will take to make real …
There are 301 industry-focused software companies in Arizona right now on Gregslist.com/Phoenix. That's half of all B2B software companies in the state. Surprised? For the first 20 years of my career in …
There is a lot more startup innovation funded by existing businesses than anyone sees. It just doesn't make the headlines that big funding does. Most of the founders I work with are …
There are more than 1700 software and SaaS companies in Texas in Austin, Dallas, and Houston. There were already a lot of software companies in Texas before 2020 when more tech …
In the current tech boom in Silicon Valley, first-time tech founders can raise money from VCs before they have a software product or paying customers. Outside of Silicon Valley, I don't …
I have talked to dozens of founders and CEOs this month about their plans for 2021. The most powerful words a founder can say about their plans next year: Doubling down. "We …
The VC-Industrial Complex dominates the conversation about tech startups. They have convinced new founders to chase outside funding to start their companies and win the SaaS game. They say this because it's …
"Why do we need to worry about our category as a startup right now?" That's a common question. The category game is not for every business. Small businesses play in existing categories. …
A real conversation with a talented and dedicated founder: "The seed investors I'm talking to don't think our TAM (total available market) is big enough since we focus on healthcare." Really? How …
Of all the founders of software companies I have worked with at Scaling Point in the last two years, half of their companies serve vertical markets. They are focused on a …
I have been looking for an example of a successful company that started "wide" by being many things to many people and then grew from there without focusing. I have been …
Industry-focused software startups have a much better chance of getting to product-market fit than other startups. Vertical software companies focus on a particular industry, like dermatologists, childcare centers, insurance agencies, independent …
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