It seems that there is no shortage of venture capital firms declaring their solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement. That’s wonderful, so let’s capitalize on this energy with meaningful action. There have been some excellent articles written about ways to increase investment in Black and other underrepresented founders, and I wanted to share a couple of practices, from the perspective of a white male investor, that have helped Beta Boom broaden our deal flow and invest inclusively. Half of our portfolio startups are led by Black founders, and 80% are led by founders from all underrepresented groups.
One of the biggest factors determining the level of investment in underrepresented founders is deal flow, or the leads that investors see. Currently, the investment community primarily relies on warm introductions from their professional network. It does not take much brainpower to realize that investors’ networks tend to mirror themselves. So if you are a white Stanford University alumnus, there is a fair chance that your network is not replete with economic and ethnic diversity. If your own network lacks diversity and you rely on your network for deal flow, how can you expect to see startups led by diverse founders? …
Embarking on a founder’s journey is somewhat like building an airplane in that it takes a variety of skills to get it right, and failure can be disastrous. Yet, most founder teams lack all the skills and knowledge necessary for their startup to take flight, so learning new skills on the job is a common challenge. While giving a novice aviator the responsibility of building an airplane from scratch with little or no support would be considered immoral by most, investors provide capital and encourage aspiring entrepreneurs to risk their livelihoods, homes, relationships, and mental health without helping to arm them with the skills they need to be successful. …
Many inexperienced startup founders expect sales to come flooding in as soon as they launch their product and marketing campaign. In reality, that rarely happens even if you have an outstanding product that is fairly priced. I have seen many startups flounder at this point as the team gets discouraged by the lack of sales and traction thinking that the product is a failure. The trick is to be patient and take a very hands-on approach initially. In this article, I will provide a strategic outline for the earliest stages of your sales initiatives.
1. Become your company’s first salesperson
Every startup founder should sell, and most take on the role by default in the absence of a dedicated sales team. Beyond necessity, serving as your company’s salesperson has vital benefits in that you will personally learn what are the weak points in your offering and process. Rather than hearing feedback second-hand, experiencing it directly will allow you to make better decisions and improve at a faster rate. The success of your sales efforts will likely hinge on the following…
Few questions are as polarizing as whether tech founders should themselves move or move their startup to Silicon Valley. On one side, you have staunch advocates arguing that no other place has such access to capital and talent. On the other side, opponents insist that founders should stay where they are. We’re here to tell you that both sides are full of hot air. The answer is much more nuanced.
In this episode of Startup Basics, Sergio and Kimmy discuss how Silicon Valley and rising tech hubs compare on factors such as inspiration, knowledge, access to capital, talent, and customers. We’ll give you some details to consider and let you make up your own mind.
Startup Basics is a weekly podcast created by Beta Boom and hosted by Sergio and Kimmy Paluch. Available on Spotify, iTunes, Google Podcasts, and Sticher.
Like many of the topics I cover in my Startup Basics podcast, this article is based on a mistake I’ve made in the past: not ensuring that all of our analytics are installed and working correctly. While this advice is particularly relevant to software products, it applied even if your startup is selling hardware or physical products online.
Without properly functioning analytics in place, you will likely waste tons of time and resources since you will be flying blind at the time when you should be making continuous course-corrections. …
What do Gmail and Slack have in common beyond being among the most loved and used apps in the world? Both were created with a focus on just three key features, which the companies sought to perfect beyond all.
Rather than checking off boxes and cramming in features, innovators would be well served to carefully consider what are the one to three key things that would make your product clearly superior to other options.
In this episode of Startup Basics, Sergio and Kimmy explain why focusing on just two or three key features is vital to building a meaningfully differentiated and valuable product.
Originally published at https://betaboom.com on May 3, 2019.
What do Gmail and Slack have in common beyond being among the most loved and used apps in the world? Both were created with a focus on just three key features, which the companies sought to perfect beyond all. Paul Buchheit, who led the development of Gmail, famously wrote about his team focusing on just the ability to search, threaded conversations, and large storage. Similarly, Stewart Butterfield recounts how Slack’s big three features were the ability to search conversations, seamless synchronization, and simple file sharing. …
People say that ideas are a dime a dozen in startup land, but many aspiring tech entrepreneurs struggle with finding a worthy one to pursue. What makes things even more difficult is that it’s often difficult to tell a good idea apart from a bad one. Even the world’s best investors who see thousands of products per year pass on startups that end up being category defining tech companies and invest in others that have little merit. Fortunately, there are a few places from whence one can draw inspiration.
Start with yourself
At Beta Boom, we seek to invest in founders that are outlier experts in their problem space meaning that we like founders that have created a product solving a need or want that they themselves have and with which they are profoundly familiar. We look for these outlier experts because the insights and passion that they possess are irreplaceable and serve as their initial moat-a barrier that makes it harder for the competition to copy their efforts. For that reason, I recommend starting your search by examining your own life. …
If you are new to startups, you will surely come across the term “product-market fit” at some point. It’s a very useful concept for describing a key phase of a startup’s journey, but it can often be difficult for entrepreneurs to understand this state and to recognize when their startup has entered it. In the following article, I will attempt to define and describe what is product-market fit in the simplest terms I can and help the reader identify what factors drive it.
Efficiently bringing an exceptional product to your ideal customers
When you are launching a high-growth company -a.k.a a startup- your goals are to:
- Build a product that solves a need much more effectively than other available…
As I wrote before, the best thing that the founders of an early-stage startup can do is talk to people. Speaking to potential customers in person has an enormous advantage over other forms of marketing in that you are able to immediately receive their verbal and emotional reaction to your pitch, product, and important details that can set your startup apart from the competition. Events can be a phenomenal forum to speak to your target audience, promote your startup, and engage with your customers.
Event marketing is one of the most underutilized forms of promotion, probably due to the discomfort that many of us feel when having to chat with perfect strangers about something that is so dear to us–our startup. Another challenge to founders that are just starting out is that some events like conferences can be relatively expensive. At the same time, events solve a key challenge with respect to finding your target audience since they should draw together like-minded people that are, hopefully, also your ideal customers. …
