Starting a company is a big step. I strongly suggest you read through the following links to help get some perspective on what you're about to do! Many of these are good food for thought.
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Startup Road Map
1. Initial thoughts...
2. Get Educated
3. Get Networked
4. Test your Business Model
- Before you code - test
- Complete & test a 1 page canvas
- Understand the unfilled need
- Verify the need
- Understand your advantage
- Research the Competition
- Focus - don't "boil the ocean"
- Develop an Elevator Pitch
- More reading - biz model
5. Build a Team
- Build your Founding Team
- Build a management team
- About Stock
- Founders Stock
- Stock Options
- Stock Buy-Back Provision
- 83(b) Election
- Common vs. Preferrred Stock
- More reading about Teams
6. Protect you Company
- Start with a Clean Sheet
- Choose a name & Trademark It
- Choose a Business Structure
- Create a Legal Entity
- Get Legal & Accounting Advice
- Protect your IP
- Nondisclosure Agreements
- Contractor agreements
- Employee Agreements
- About Patents
- Trade secrets
- About Trademarks
- Copyrights
- 10 Lessons from a CFO
- Top 10 Legal Mistakes
- 18 Mistakes that Kill Startups
- More reading: protect your company
7. Get Organized
8. A Realistic Funding Plan
- A Realistic Funding Plan
- How Much will you Need?
- Bootstrap (Why you Must)
- How to bootstrap
- Sources of micro-funding
- About Angel Investors
- About Venture Capital
- About Accredited Investors
- About Convertible Notes
9. Prototype and Test
10. Raise Money from Angels
11. The Business Plan
- Business Plan - Do you Need One?
- Cover Page
- Table of Contents
- Executive Summary
- The Problem/Opportunity/Need
- Your Solution
- Business Model
- Your Advantage
- Market Size
- Marketing and Sales Strategy
- Competitive Strategy
- Strategic Partners
- Funding Requirement
- The Team
- Operations
- Exit Strategy
- Financial Statements
- Elevator Pitch
12. Raise Venture Capital
- About Raising Venture Capital
- Fund Raising is a Sales process
- Sales Tools for Fund Raising
- Creating the Investor Presentation
- Investor pitch video series
- What NOT to Say
- Find and Qualify Prospects
- Manage your VC Sales Funnel
- Getting the First Meeting with a VC
- Things to Remember at the First Meeting
- Getting the Second Meeting
- Develop a Syndicate (not just one VC...)
- Due Diligence
- The Term Sheet
- Term Sheet Anatomy
- Valuation and Control
- How Many Stock Options should you Allocate?
13. Tools and Documents
14. Food for thought...
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