A Fun Story of Landing Our First Startup Dollars

June 26, 2014

In 2007, some of my PhD lab friends and I were interested in becoming entrepreneurs. We had very little idea how to start a business. We had no money. But we had ideas. As we were mulling over the ideas, I was busy thinking of ways to fund them. One day while we were sitting […]

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Do you use the Hello Bar?

June 25, 2014

Use Hello Bar to tell your website visitors what page they should visit next — Hiten Shah (@hiten) June 25, 2014 This post is a tactical website post. I’m curious what others do with website-wide notifications. A few years ago, several Atlanta startups caught the Hello Bar bug and many websites, including ours, started using […]

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Sample Investment Spreadsheet from David’s Post Tonight

June 24, 2014

David Cummings posted a sample scenario tonight walking through numbers for an angel investor wishing to maintain a 1% stake in a seed investment through several rounds of fundraising. The point is that maintaining a percentage investment requires a lot of follow-on capital. I like to really understand the numbers so as I read his […]

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Dumb Reasons for Premature Scaling

June 22, 2014

I recently ran across the infographic below describing why startups fail. I think it accurately points out that startups often fail due to premature scaling (and the associated escalation of expenses). Reasons for premature scaling are often self-interested, prideful, and escapist: Desiring to give the outward appearance of success (e.g. hiring 20 people for your startup […]

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Pizzazz

June 21, 2014

I just read a post in Tech Drawl about the Yo App and SXSW. Ben is a successful entrepreneur from Atlanta, part of an older generation of successful Atlanta entrepreneurs like John Imlay whom he mentions. The word that stood out to me in his article is “pizzazz.” He basically says that the reason MSA […]

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Raw Lead Digging

June 20, 2014

I love it when team members roll up their sleeves and do startupy things to make a difference. Things like being a little reckless to get in front of an important potential customer. Or landing a speaking slot in a place typically reserved for more industry veterans. Or cold calling by the hundreds, day after day […]

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Landing a Customer Discovery Interview – A Script

June 19, 2014

After defining “what” our two new businesses will be and building landing pages for them (almost complete), we are now working hard on conducting customer discovery interviews. We are building prospect lists and calling them. Cold. Here is how we are scripting those interviews: Hi, my name is John Melonakos. I’m thinking about becoming an entrepreneur […]

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Is Software the Solution?

June 18, 2014

We started conducting customer interviews today for our two new ideas. In one interview with a seasoned entrepreneur and friend, the key question was:  Is better software the solution to the problems in this space? His answer was:  No. That’s pretty rough. It could mean that we pack our bags and stop pursuing the idea. […]

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De-Risking Startups for Founders & Parallel Entrepreneurship

June 17, 2014

Today I enjoyed meeting with Michael Tavani and talking about startups. In our conversation, I mentioned how I am working on two new venture ideas with new teams members. These new team members are new to startups. Essentially these new founders are enjoying a de-risked entry into startup life because my team and I are […]

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Fragility of Startups Over $1 Million in Revenue

June 16, 2014

Startups under $1 million in revenue are the definition of fragility. Everything is scary while you start. After a startup hits $1 million in annual revenue, things start to feel more stable. Product market fit has been achieved and the startup has enough cash to look for ways to grow and expand without penny pinching […]

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