Equity-based crowdfunding, where small investors join forces and buy an ownership stake in young companies, is becoming a big business, with nearly 1.4 billion dollars invested in the United States and Europe in 2015*. Most of these transactions originated in online platforms, and recent regulatory changes are helping to attract more investors to take part […]
What Mistakes Are Killing Your Startup? #5 and #6: Launching too Early… or too Late
If there is one trend that did change the shape of the entrepreneurial ecosystem these last few years it has been the lean start-up movement. The concept is straightforward: It’s the philosophy that you should validate your initial ideas (assumptions) with real-life data before you invest more time and money in your project. The premise […]
Business Angels or Crowdfunding? How About a Crowd of Angels?
We are increasingly consulted whether it would be better for start-ups to assemble financial resources through crowdfunding (e.g. Kickstarter) or through angel investors, and how to sequence each funding mode (i.e. what should come first). However, an alternative route is to combine both modes by attracting financing through a ‘crowd’ of angels, or ‘equity based […]
What Mistakes Are Killing Your Startup? #4 Confusing an Accessible Market with a Potential One
When meeting with entrepreneurs and evaluating the market size for the opportunity they are pursuing, I often see the same mistake: a confusion of the accessible market with the potential market. How many times have I come across this lie (as well as others….): “our market will give us $50,000 million in 2017 – look […]
What Mistakes Are Killing Your Startup? #3 Marginal Niche
What is a niche product? It is a good or service with features that appeal to a particular market subgroup. A typical niche product can be easily distinguished from other products, and it will also be produced and sold for specialized uses within its corresponding niche market. It sounds great…so why is that an issue […]
