July 14th, 2009
bizSessions 1.0, FTW or WTF funding models for startups
Hosted by Wildcog, and the creators of geekSessions, tonight was the first bizSessions.
Jonathan Abrams, founder of Friendster and now Socializr, was the first to speak.
The Lean Startup
- Low burn rate, the use things that are cheap
- Open source, cloud computing
- Aglie web development
- Charge from day one
- Understands “free”
Why isn’t every startup a “lean” startup?
I learned about a new startup called Fotki from its co-founder Igor Shoifot (Webware 100 winner). They claim to be a “blog-hosting” platform, and offer FTP access to upload pics. Email i@fotki.com to try it.
- Create a low-cost foundation
- Follow the power users and the money
- Let your users play and pay
- Focus on the kind of growth that bring money
- Fight where you can win
- Don’t put all eggs in one basket
- Constantly tweak the vision and product
- Don’t let the big opportunities slip away
- Be ready to scale
- Be close-fisted but open minded.
Kent Goldman from First Capital was next up to speak.
- Validate entrepreneur’s hypothesis
- De-risk or disprove it
You should try to raise small chunks of money in different avenues. You are not raising $3 million because that is the assumption of what a Series A is supposed to be. It should be the metrics of your business that decides how much money you should raise.
Boot strapping, Angel money, VC funding, micro funds, ramen profitability?
And the cost of starting a business is a lot less today. Now you can build it in a weekend.
Ping Li from Accel Partners, who spoke about the health of the VC industry in Silicon Valley, was the last to present at bizSessions Tuesday night.
In the 90s, we had a technology constipation. It took a couple years for the system to work itself through. These past few years, we have had a lot of breakthrough products and real trends that have changed the numbers. Data centers are moving from solos to cloud architectures.
Your funding strategy should not fuel your business strategy.
Andrew Mager is a web developer at Ning, Inc. in Palo Alto. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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