Dear Lucas… A time-honored strategy among “super unicorns” (e.g. Google, Facebook, Twitter) is to get users first, then figure out how to monetize way later. It is not uncommon for investors to consider “revenue later” strategies. I’m not saying we want to put all our eggs in this basket however, but what do you think […]
Dear Lucas… I’m self-funding a startup right now, it’s my first company and I would like to get all the advice and help I can! I’ve read a lot of conflicting advice on pitching style, but it seems that while most of them advocate the use of well chosen analogies some of them put more […]
Dear Lucas… My startup has been growing steadily for three years now. I bootstrapped it and we are making over five million dollars a year now. I know we could be doing so much better with some extra marketing budget and I believe that if we continue to invest ahead of our revenues, it will […]
Dear Lucas… I have never raised money before and I don’t know how anybody remains sane after pitching venture capitalists. I just finished my first round of bay area pitches… and it sucked. I had to tell the same story a half dozen times a day and I never knew how well I was doing. […]
Dear Lucas… My startup recently failed. I was the CEO, and it was in a super-hot space with three other competitors. Two of the competitors were acquired and the founders in both companies became super-wealthy. I checked out their LinkedIn profiles and for most of the founders, it was their first startup.With only two startups […]
Dear Lucas… I want to get your opinion on my product, and some strategic advice if possible. Reading the lean start-up and watching countless videos, entrepreneurs always say it is easier to raise money before launching and I wanted your thoughts on that. I think raising money is a huge factor for whether I have […]
Dear Lucas… My product automates a task that is currently manual and labor intensive for most companies. I started the company almost a year ago and I am putting the finishing touches on the product right now. We are about two weeks from launching. My technical co-founder is building it out and we have hired […]
Dear Lucas… I have an idea I’ve been working on that I’d love to get your feedback on. I’d also like a little mentoring on startups and the like if you’re willing. It’ll probably take me a couple more weeks or a month to have my prototype ready and my idea crystallized. What I could […]
Dear Lucas… My co-founder and I created a startup almost a year ago now. We put together a friends and family round, but it is running dry and neither of us have paid ourselves anything for months now. I have about 60 people signed up for my service right now. They are not paying yet, […]
Dear Lucas… Question for you: I had the opportunity to speak at a conference in Vegas last month. Ran about 20 minutes — a good toe dipping in the water experience. I’m hooked. I’d like to speak at future conferences — have any recommendations or articles that might help me formulate rock solid speeches? —Newbie Speaker Hi Newbie Speaker, […]