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All » Questions

Wife of Startup Founder: Do Startups need to have timelines, projections and financial plans?

My husband started an AI tech startup a year ago and over this period I’ve had little visibility into how it’s all going. He has been building an app during this time and has been telling me that I’m trying to take over his business (although I have absolutely no knowledge of AI) because I…

February 14, 2019

2 Answers

How can I raise money to launch?

I have a great product but I don’t have to financial ability to launch or run a pilot project. I don’t know whether to approach investors because I feel they would want to see some traction at least, which I don’t have. Is there anyway to convince them without having launched?

February 14, 2019

No Answers

Can one startup provide management service contract to a close-ish competitor?

I’m the CEO of a startup and have been approached by a near competitor, also a startup, to join their team.  The competitor seems to need my skills and those of my team, but my startup is too far along for me to agree simply to bring our team over.  Is there a way to…

January 7, 2019

No Answers

What is an ex-cofounder entitled to?

First of all, my organization is really informal and there are no legal material or formal agreements and no one has money invested in it. It probably doesn’t qualify as a startup, at least not yet. All 4 founders are full-time students with no idea what we’re doing. We hold an annual show for young…

December 26, 2018

1 Answer

How to Handle Partners Afraid of Leveling Up?

I’m CTO of a small fintech startup.  We raised a decent amount of seed funding, enough runway for most of next year, and the product launches next month. We have enough financial runway to break even and start building positive cashflow, in theory. I feel like we should be talking to follow on investors and…

December 26, 2018

1 Answer

Why do engineers keep leaving my company?

I am a single founder (non-tech). We have a great product, that clients are lining up to buy and everyone except engineers seem to understand and are passionate about it. We are profitable already but for 4 years I’ve been fighting with the engineers over features, processes etc. We had engineers that lied to me, tried…

December 26, 2018

1 Answer

How can I start setting up an incubator?

I live in Spain, and there are no private accelerators. The local government is in deals with some international accelerators to install them in a building to operate and connect startups with an international network. I think that should be done by someone local who better knows the entrepreneurs, angels … networks, etc. I feel…

December 26, 2018

2 Answers

As a CTO/lead engineer how can I deal with external assessment of the shitty software I developed and evolved?

A new manager asked for an external assessment of our software for scalability and sustainability for next investment round.. I’m the technical co-founder (very few equities though), we are only 3 developers and I’m still very involved in programming. I’m probably more like the lead engineer than a CTO. We are in the 5th year,…

November 25, 2018

1 Answer

My two co-founders are trying to push me out

We’ve been building this startup for the past two years. We’re bootstrapped and everything was built with our own money and re-invested profits. Life was difficult and for the better half of this year we’ve had many arguments and differences of opinion, but ultimately always moved forward. Now they’re offering a share buyout and bonus…

November 25, 2018

1 Answer

How to value my 1-year start-up?

On one side, one of my friends wants to invest some money in my start-up, and on the other side we have started discussions with a business angel. Both amounts are obviously not the same and I do not believe their equity share should be the same “mathematical” formula. Any tip on how to treat…

November 23, 2018

2 Answers

How much notice to leave company of 2 people?

We started the company almost 2 years ago. I’m the technical founder, he’s the business guy. The best analogy of our business is a job marketplace. We are doing pretty good for user growth for the “job seeker” user base but we haven’t signed up a single company to pay to post their job in…

November 23, 2018

2 Answers

How can I stop the habit of always needing a business partner?

I guess I’m the ADHD-preneur kind. Since I was 18, I have always been involved with multiple gigs at once. Some successful, some not. But always along with a business partner. The way I see it, having a business partner allows me to have the peer pressure I need to keep deadlines on track. Having responsibilities…

November 19, 2018

1 Answer

I’m unable to understand if I’m being successful enough to dedicate 100% to my startup

I founded an open source focused IT Consulting startup 7 years ago without any business knowledge and had to learn by doing over the years. But during all this time I was never able to really understand if I’m on the right path or if I should just stop investing my time since I don’t…

November 19, 2018

3 Answers

Walk Away and Try Something Entirely New?

I’ve run my own fitness and health business for 17 years, and tried my hand at several ventures. I’ve employed, on and off, 14 freelance Trainers. The strong passion I once had for my business and industry has faded, and now at 45 I’m lost as to what to do, moving forward. As a personal…

October 29, 2018

2 Answers

My day job company found out about my bootstrap startup. What can they do?

Need some pointers here: I have bootstrapped a company (pre-rev) with some IP (patents) already issued a long time ago. My current employer (remember I am bootstrapping) found out about this company. While I did not use any company resources, they are on a witch hunt to prove otherwise. Can they claim anything? I didn’t…

October 23, 2018

6 Answers

I’m a woman CEO and in couple with my Co-Founder (CTO) and he cheated on me. He’s now trying a takeover of the Startup.

Hello y’all, It’s difficult for me to write these words, but here we go: I’ve dated my ex-boyfriend, a brilliant Full-Stack Dev with the charisma of an Alpha-Male. He eventually cheated on me and when I found out / confronted him, he broke up with me. We founded a startup that’s really successful (we started…

October 23, 2018

3 Answers

Someone who advised our startup is now claiming to be a co-founder and a right to equity. What is the legal standard here?

I began receiving the advice and shared ideas of someone in the early days of my startup, pre-formation. There were some initial discussions about the advisor potentially joining the startup, perhaps as a co-founder, but we never conclusively agreed to anything and there are no written agreements of any sort. Eventually, another person joined my…

October 23, 2018

1 Answer

I’m the CTO for my startup and feel incompetent and overwhelmed, what should I do?

I was the technical co-founder of my startup so naturally, I became the CTO. I was great as an individual contributor, but as a team lead, I’ve felt completely lost, demotivated, and feel like I am not the right fit for the job. It’s very taxing and managing people is draining me completely, and none…

October 2, 2018

4 Answers

How do you deal with being pushed out?

The person I hired to help me and my co-founder is now taking my job and pushing me out. He sucks up and agrees to everything my co-founder dreams up so he has become the favorite. I don’t know what to do …

October 2, 2018

1 Answer

What do I do with the MVP Developers?

I did a deal with a dev company -1 resource in particular – to create the MVP. It’s gone well so far but this techie has taken a job overseas (4 days a week for 6 months). My launch is time sensitive – it either goes live in 3 months or I have missed the…

October 2, 2018

1 Answer

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