Clive Butkow on LinkedIn: What does it really take to turn a startup into a success story? We have… (2024)

Entrepreneur lessons from a venture capitalist : Why do entrepreneurs fail? Unable to get burn under control. An insightful lesson from SAASTR This sometimes kills startups sometimes it only maims them. But one way or another, the best founders wrestle a too high burn rate into something manageable This should be obvious, and there are a few different reasons a startup can’t get their burn rate under control. You might have a founder who once raised money and believes they’ll keep getting it.Another issue is when a CEO doesn’t know what to do, especially in a high-churn model like SMB. In the early days, they were efficient because it’s self-serve with small deal sizes and sales cycles.Then, they hire 20 or 50 reps, scale the marketing budget, and churn remains 3-6% per month. CEOs are in a pickle here. Burn goes up literally with the amount that they grow and they can’t solve the problem.The third reason a CEO might not be able to control burn is that they don’t understand how to budget and end up overhiring. This third group might not fail as a startup but will feel pain when they have to course-correct.Imagine you make it to a million and raise $5M. Terrific. It doesn’t mean you spend all of it. They go from burning $0 a month for two years because they’re bootstrapped to $50k, which is okay because $50k for $5M lasts a long time, doesn’t mean you spend all of it. But then they hire a couple of VPs, and it goes up to $100k. Those VPs overhire, and overspend, and $100k becomes $200-$250k, which is 5% of your capital per month. That won’t last very long. The third category isn’t intentional, but it does require unnecessary belt-tightening.

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A useful solution helping startups and corporates communicate with your blue collar work force

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Entrepreneur lessons from a venture capitalist - some key reasons why entrepreneurs fail. I read this great article on SAASTR which I have modified to include my experience A Founder’s Understanding of Their Market Doesn’t Get Deeper Over Time - In the early days, people get excited about their market, but if the founder’s understanding of their market doesn’t get deeper over time, they simply won’t make it. A truly great founder understands the market so well that it’s shocking. They respect their competitors and can see where the market will be 3-4 years out.You’re Too Slow to Hire VPs - The best leadership finds a way even in slightly tougher times. Maybe it’s not five executive hires in one week, but a good rough rule of thumb is to see if they bring on at least 1-2 great additions to the team within 12 months.Too slow in executing tasks and growing the business - The best startups really do iterate more quickly. Imagine you have two competitors at a million in revenue. Both have crummy products, but they did something well because they have a million in revenue. They both seem cool, yet only one can push out 50% more software a quarter. Who’s going to win? The one who can iterate faster.Making Excuses for Misses Repeatedly - you don’t need excuses. A large number 90% of founders makes excuses for everything that goes wrong in the business. Every investor update is the same excuse as the last one. A root cause analysis is great, and good founders have them. But the truly exceptional founders will have a root cause analysis with a solution. Maybe they made the wrong hire or entered the wrong market. That’s the cause. The solution is hiring the right person or relaunching next quarter. The best founders own and fix their mistakes. They don’t hide behind excuses. When the excuses come out, confidence goes out the door. Excuses don’t create success.No surprises - The worst is when a senior executive comes to a board or team meeting, and the quarter or month’s execution is nothing like what they presented. So many folks get caught in the trap of making stuff up or lying to cover up issues. Do not hide from the news you know is coming. You likely won’t lose your job or respect if you do. The best already have a solution.There’s a Slowdown in Transparency, Especially During Tougher Times - The worst sign of a startup that’s not going to make it is failing to send an investor update on the first of the month. When things are great, the update arrives on the 1st or maybe even the 31st of the previous month because sharing good news is exciting. But when growth slows and slows again, the emails start arriving on the 7th of the month or stop coming altogether. When a VC sees this, they immediately lose confidence in the founder.A Lack of Deep Understanding of the Competitive Landscape - If you don’t have a deep understanding of the competitive landscape, it’s a bad sign. The best CEO’s are respectful of their competitors.

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Entrepreneur lessons from a venture capitalist - some key reasons why entrepreneurs fail. I read this great article on SAASTR which I have modified to include my experience A Founder’s Understanding of Their Market Doesn’t Get Deeper Over Time - In the early days, people get excited about their market, but if the founder’s understanding of their market doesn’t get deeper over time, they simply won’t make it. A truly great founder understands the market so well that it’s shocking. They respect their competitors and can see where the market will be 3-4 years out.You’re Too Slow to Hire VPs - The best leadership finds a way even in slightly tougher times. Maybe it’s not five executive hires in one week, but a good rough rule of thumb is to see if they bring on at least 1-2 great additions to the team within 12 months.Too slow in executing tasks and growing the business - The best startups really do iterate more quickly. Imagine you have two competitors at a million in revenue. Both have crummy products, but they did something well because they have a million in revenue. They both seem cool, yet only one can push out 50% more software a quarter. Who’s going to win? The one who can iterate faster.Making Excuses for Misses Repeatedly - you don’t need excuses. A large number 90% of founders makes excuses for everything that goes wrong in the business. Every investor update is the same excuse as the last one. A root cause analysis is great, and good founders have them. But the truly exceptional founders will have a root cause analysis with a solution. Maybe they made the wrong hire or entered the wrong market. That’s the cause. The solution is hiring the right person or relaunching next quarter. The best founders own and fix their mistakes. They don’t hide behind excuses. When the excuses come out, confidence goes out the door. Excuses don’t create success.No surprises - The worst is when a senior executive comes to a board or team meeting, and the quarter or month’s execution is nothing like what they presented. So many folks get caught in the trap of making stuff up or lying to cover up issues. Do not hide from the news you know is coming. You likely won’t lose your job or respect if you do. The best already have a solution.There’s a Slowdown in Transparency, Especially During Tougher Times - The worst sign of a startup that’s not going to make it is failing to send an investor update on the first of the month. When things are great, the update arrives on the 1st or maybe even the 31st of the previous month because sharing good news is exciting. But when growth slows and slows again, the emails start arriving on the 7th of the month or stop coming altogether. When a VC sees this, they immediately lose confidence in the founder.A Lack of Deep Understanding of the Competitive Landscape - If you don’t have a deep understanding of the competitive landscape, it’s a bad sign. The best CEO’s are respectful of their competitors.

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Entrepreneur lessons from a venture capitalist- I read an insightful article by Sam Altman. These are the highlights and all of them I buy into 100%. 1. How to succeed: pick the right thing to do (this is critical and usually ignored), focus, believe in yourself (especially when others tell you it’s not going to work), develop personal connections with people that will help you, learn to identify talented people, and work hard. It’s hard to identify what to work on because original thought is hard.2. On work: it’s difficult to do a great job on work you don’t care about. And it’s hard to be totally happy/fulfilled in life if you don’t like what you do for your work. Work very hard—a surprising number of people will be offended that you choose to work hard—but not so hard that the rest of your life passes you by. Aim to be the best in the world at whatever you do professionally. Even if you miss, you’ll probably end up in a pretty good place. Figure out your own productivity system—don’t waste time being unorganized, working at suboptimal times, etc. Don’t be afraid to take some career risks, especially early on. Most people pick their career fairly randomly—really think hard about what you like, what fields are going to be successful, and try to talk to people in those fields.3. Don’t waste time. Most people waste most of their time, especially in business.4. However, as valuable as planning is, if a great opportunity comes along you should take it. One of the benefits of working hard is that good opportunities will come along, but it’s still up to you to jump on them when they do.5. Go out of your way to be around smart, interesting, ambitious people. Work for them and hire them (in fact, one of the most satisfying parts of work is forging deep relationships with really good people). Try to spend time with people who are either among the best in the world at what they do or extremely promising but totally unknown. It really is true that you become an average of the people you spend the most time with.6. Minimize your own cognitive load from distracting things that don’t really matter. It’s hard to overstate how important this is, and how bad most people are at it. Get rid of distractions in your life. Develop very strong ways to avoid letting crap you don’t like doing pile up and take your mental cycles, especially in your work life.7. Keep your personal burn rate low. This alone will give you a lot of opportunities in life.8. Don’t worry so much. Things in life are rarely as risky as they seem. Most people are too risk-averse, and so most advice is biased too much towards conservative paths.9. Go out of your way to help people. Few things in life are as satisfying. Be nice to strangers. Be nice even when it doesn’t matter.

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A great post on founders of startups and why a founder not wanting to be the CEO is OK

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Entrepreneur lessons from a venture capitalist- what do we at conducive capital look for when investing in startups? I read this article, coupled with our experience, resonated with me and how we invest at conducive capital. We want to reduce the risk as much as possible. These risks include; Founder Risk: Evaluate team dynamics; consider adding or replacing founders if needed. We have a growing preference for companies with experienced founders that have built a company within the same or similar domain Market Risk: Validate the market practically; seek paying customers or credible prospects. We very rarely take market risk. Competition Risk: Ensure strong differentiation, a 10 X better product with a clear value prop; avoid claiming no competitionFinancing Risk: Rethink and reduce future funding needs; optimize your financial plan. Make sure your runway lasts approximately 12 to 18 months or longerTechnology and Product Risks: Build and demonstrate your product; focus on progress. We rarely taking pre-product risk unless the team has prior operating experience. Hiring Risk: Add crucial positions to the founding team if concerns arise. Just like you peel an onion and remove each layer in turn, risk in a startup investment comes in layers that get peeled away—reduced—one by one.Your challenge as an entrepreneur trying to raise venture capital is to keep peeling layers of risk off of your particular onion until the VCs say “yes”—until the risk in your startup is reduced to the point where investing in your startup is not too risky.Remember, the key is to make progress, build products, and continuously peel away risks to optimize chances of securing funds. Adapt, refine, and repeat until you hear that coveted "yes"!

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