Because founders alone don’t have to make decisions before anyone else, they control nearly the entire mission of their startup.
But it costs you dearly to be the boss: A caller must be comfortable with decision-making under pressure and needs to be adept at fundraising, hiring, pitching, managing, and so on. , everything.
According to Russ Heddleston, who founded DocSend before it was acquired by Dropbox, lone wolves tend to do better with investors: His analysis shows that one can raise an average of 3.22 million dollars after 42 meetings, but teams of four or more needed to sign up for 30 meetings to raise $1.7 million.
But fundraising is only one part of a founder’s journey. If you can’t connect with an investor who can help you find and fill a talent or expertise gap, you can’t build a sustainable company.
Speaking as a veteran of many early-stage startups – I’d rather work at a company led by a team. This tends to foster a collaborative work culture, but it also makes it easier to pivot when needed and the work is less overwhelming.
In the CTV + guest post, Heddleston identifies Four factors to consider before you decide to start your own businessalong with some ideas for single founders who need to build a support system.
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On Tuesday, May 24, at 11:30 a.m., I’m hosting a Twitter Space with Silicon Valley-based immigration attorneys Sophie Alcorn.
If you have questions about working and living legally in the US while pursuing a career in technology, feel free to join the conversation. To get a pre-chat reminder, by @TechCrunchPlus.
Thanks so much for reading, and have a great week!
Walter Thompson
Senior Editor, TechCrunch +
@yourprot character
How to develop your DTC startup’s data strategy and identify key metrics
Image credits: deepblue4you (Opens in a new window) / Beautiful pictures
Most e-commerce startups use the same core platforms and analytics tools to collect data for dashboards that measure the health of their business.
As a result, most direct-to-consumer companies make the same mistakes when refining raw transaction data, according to Michael Perez, data and growth director at M13.
Computational errors fed into the platform data can cause teams to miscalculate key metrics, “overestimate customer lifetime value and overspend on follow-up campaigns,” says Perez. town”.
He identifies two common data errors: creating metrics at the incorrect level of granularity, and using metrics that ultimately often lead to data container errors.
“We’re usually big fans of plug-and-play business intelligence tools, but they won’t scale with your business.”
This is a single digit SaaS multiple
Image credits: Karolina Noring (Opens in a new window) / Beautiful pictures
SaaS startups have seen smooth sailing, but in this ongoing downturn, stormy weather is ahead.
The days of double-digit revenue multiples are coming to an end – public software companies that are barely growing at 40% are trading at around 10x revenue, meaning startups cannot maintaining that pace could see their valuation multiples drop to one, Alex Wilhelm found in an analysis of data from the Bessemer Cloud Index.
“The future is likely to span down rounds, flat circles and what I expect will be some dramatic explosions.”
To win insurtech 2.0, focus on underwriting before development
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According to Jamie Hale, CEO and co-founder of Ladder, the first wave of insurtech startups has focused on driving growth at the expense of managing their underlying risks.
“Focusing on customer experience on the front-end actually leads to rapid growth, but not focusing on underwriting on the front-end can lead to a very large number of customers,” says Hale. claims, very quickly.”
Hale offers five tips that insurtech startups can use to improve innovation underwriting, and thus, the overall customer experience.
5 Lessons From ‘Star Wars’ That Could Change Startup Managers’ Strategy and Tactics
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The story of “Star Wars” is based on a narrative structure developed by Joseph Campbell, a writer and professor of literature who conceived of “a hero’s journey.”
Consisting of 12 stages, his archetype asks a protagonist to leave his ordinary life behind after hearing the call to adventure – you can imagine why it’s such a popular metaphor in the world. technology investment.
According to Touchdown Ventures President Scott Lenet, Jedi Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi offers five distinct lessons for founders and investors.
For example, “‘I have a bad feeling about this’ is a recurring joke in the franchise – nearly every major character utters a line at one time or another,” Lenet writes. .
“These are also life-changing words for business leaders and startups, because they are a symbol of awareness and initiative.”
