-
Website
http://venturebeat.com/ -
Original page
http://venturebeat.com/2008/09/30/how-start-ups-can-navigate-through-the-falling-dominoes-of-the-economic-crisis/ -
Subscribe
All Comments -
Community
-
-
Top Commenters
-
Popular Threads
This is a crisis of the system, and there has been energy building around the idea that the system needs to be reconsidered. We have social media, people have realized that they participate, influence (Yochai Benkler - Wealth of Networks), and social business is making its way into the mainstream. Here comes the time for us to implement these ideas that have been brewing. This is where I expect the next big thing to come from...
Private equity shops look good since during downturns is where they make their best returns by buying companies on the cheap. I'm also hopeful for startups and entrepreneurs. This crisis can be a good time for some companies to really make their mark.
This crisis - and many that have gone before - simply add as a reminder that sound business basics do not really change at all....although many would claim they do - as they beg for a bail out.
Show me the money....show me the value.
Effective sales and marketing activities are essential - not just to generate revenues and create value that result in successful exits ...but just to survive.
In any economic climate the process of understanding and communicating end user benefits - something they see value in and are prepared to pay hard cash for - is essential.
But it is an area in which early stage tech ventures - and their investors - can be vulnerable.
Sales and marketing - being able to tease out the real end user benefits, articulate and communicate them - is a specialised area and one that founders may not have a natural affinity for.
The attraction in your innovation and your ability to successfully exploit it - what investors saw when they agreed to provide funding - is still there.
It maybe a harder sell, but the benefit is still there.
You just need to define and communicate it to the right end user in the right way.
Phil Tapsell
TechVenture Solutions UK
http://bit.ly/2jra6s
You better rely upon having paying customers than waiting until the VC asks his money back.
I think your article would have been more valuable if it wasn't VC-centric. The value of VC's is in the realm of hyperbole. The most recent fact on this came from Inc. magazine's Top 500 issue. This is their listing of the top 500 private companies, based on who has the strongest past three years of sales. In this issue it had a 10 year anniversary bonus supplement on the Top 5000. Of the top 5000, only 3% had VC funding.
Small businesses and start-ups are well advised to ask VC type questions of themselves, but realize that VC money should not define or drive their business. And the business community is going to be more supportive if it puts VC funding discussions in the back-ground relative to more useful and relevant paths of success.
The Inc 500 is not a good baseline since the startups referred to in this article are tech startups not non-tech companies that dominate the Inc list. Most of the startups that have relevant businesses and do survive will have cushion from VC money or will be the rare downturn proof tech business.
Also many tech companies in Silicon Valley don't bother to submit their companies to Inc 's list compared with their non-tech counterparts.
http://jwojdylo.wordpress.com
The startups that survive this time are the ones that would do so with or without VC money.
http://www.abercrombieshop.us