you misunderstood, you are not actually raising money, you are picking a number as if you were so you can agree on dilution. What would be a 409a valuation of your business? Say it's 100 million. How much extra cash would the business need to replace you? Say it's 1 million? I'm just guessing here but I think there is a math formula that can make it seem very standard and fair.
It seems that folks at HN look down on so called "CRUD" apps. But the truth for most CRUD apps is, that a lot of thought went into building these apps and they have a lot of important parts, whose construction cannot easily be automized. Good examples are:
- Certain inputs might trigger other actions (integrity checks, sending an email, notifying another users, etc.)
- The UI / UX needs to be optimized for the specific Usecase of the app
- There are unlimited options for filtering or ordering items, and the choice of options depends on the specific Usecase
- A lot of apps need Cronjobs in the background to support certain workflows (notifying a user if a certain input has not been done in a certain time)
- There can be rather complex rules on who is allowed to create, update, delete or view certain items
- AB tests and Analytics need to be supported for a lot of Tasks / Views
- etc...
I cannot imagine a "CRUD" framework, that supports all of these issues. It would basically just be another programming language ;)
Interesting that the chatbots learned to show "fake" interest in an item, just to conceide it later in the negotiation process.
But I think what is missing, is the time component when negotiating with humans. A negotiation process is usually better for humans if the negotiation is quick and not dragging on too long.
And more importantly the chatbots never seemed to "walk away" from a deal. But in real life, you sometimes have to walk away to show the other party, that you are not a pushover. It would be interesting to enhance the model so that chatbots negotiate repeatedly with each other and "remember" how the other party behaves and how far you can push the other party to concede. Because some negotiations really are zero sum games.
No, it's signaling that you're wasting time and need to move on.
Many situations cannot be resolved until you convince the other party that their business model or position or assumptions are wrong. Walking away is the only way to do that because it triggers escalation.
I had s sitstuiin recently where the account team couldn't get a term that we needed. We basically told them to go away and stopped 2-3 other negotiations. That let our counterparty get the resource he needed (SVP of product X) and balance returned to the force.
Not really, there are some situations where the deal is too heavily skewed for it to be favorable for you. In human terms "I'm not willing to pay this much for this". What AI might actually consider bugs would be stuff like politeness or pity (I can't refuse to buy from this small hungry child), basically things external to the actual process of negotiation, but that might have considerable impact on human agents and how they would feel afterwards. (for example giving money to a beggar is a one-way act, but the donor will likely feel good about themselves despite not getting any material gains) Similarly, people might purposefully adjust their tactics depending on the status of who they are negotiating with, making more concessions with family and friends. If the AI just looks at the inherent value of the items, it'll miss things like that.
Walking away is a bug if you consider a single deal - it's always better to get something rather than nothing.
However, if you zoom out and consider the optimal deal-making strategy over multiple deals, then walking away can be a good strategy. For example, a used car salesman would rationally walk away from a deal if they believed it's likely they can sell a car later for a better price.
If you consider multiple deals then you can also consider the concept of your reputation. This is information that other parties may have about you when they enter a negotiation in the future. You may rationally wish to make a sacrifice on a present deal in order to alter your reputation, to improve your outcomes in future detals.
The thing is, our approaches to this are like the average player of Go or Chess. Even the most seasoned dealmaking pro is like a grandmaster in Chess or Go. In short - a computer network that's been doing simulated scenarios for trillions of iterations will eventually hit upon dealmaking strategies where we aren't even sure why they work! We will just have computers negotiate with one another about everying because their arguments will match or outperform any human.
Imagine a chatbot who can chat up a girl online better than any human. Whose jokes make any human seel dull by comparison. And whose wit is quick to about 1 trillion jokes a second :-P
I like this quote so much and I love that it stands out:
“You all can defeat Trump next time, but not if you keep mocking us, refusing to listen to us, and cutting us out. It’s Republicans, not Democrats, who will take Trump down.”
I believe we have a similar problem in Germany. Several political decisions where called "alternativlos" (having not alternative option) and everybody opposing them was basically labeled a racist or bad person. For example the bailout of greece or the opening of the borders for all syrian refugees.
I am not arguing for or against one side, but I do believe that there were not fair discussions about the pros and cons of these topics. And this is a big reason why the "alt-right" (or whatever) is on the rise in Europe as well.
So give people room to discuss all of these topics, hear their voices and truly try to understand why they have a different opinion. This way we won't have another Trump and we won't have far-right elections anymore.
Chart title: "Media bias in Europe: Percentage of adults in each country who say their media is too right wing on the following issues minus the percentage who say their media is too left wing"
It's a year old, but I don't think this has changed much since then in terms of media bias.
I get that argument, but I see people of different minorities who just simply don't want to work with them, because the trump supporters put the grossness and sexism aside. They want to fix the voter surpression, and better encourage people who support the side of equality to come out and vote, than convince the people who supported trump.
I explicitely chose that mircrowave because it only had two knobs and I just get confused with too many buttons. I always thought I am weired for not wanting all these special features.
I Like your idea a lot especially your last paragraph.
I don't think providing these information alone is a viable business model. But it could be used as a "lead generater" to support another business model. Basically it would be Content Marketing strategy.
I am looking for a "Daily Operations Management Software". Let me explain.
Problem I am facing:
We have a lot tasks that need to be done on a daily, biweekly, monthly or whatever Basis. For example: checking new profile images, curating user data, checking error messages, etc.
My current solution
I setup cronjobs manually that send reminder emails to certain employees in my company, that remind them to do this Task. I also have an Excel sheet with a list of all these tasks all. In an irregular basis I control if these tasks are done properly.
Proposed Software solution
I can create a task with a description and assign it to a user / email. I can also assign how often this task needs to be done and wich superviser should be informed, if the task got forgotten and how often the supervisor should control the results. The assigned user gets reminded about this task and has to check whether or not he completed it or whether something went wrong.
Try looking into issue-tracking (aka ticket) systems. They generally come in two flavors: software development bug-tracking and service desk incident-response. They are mostly offered as SAASes these days with a monthly recurring fee per user.
Based on your description, and I hate to say it, but you might like something like Jira. Add recurring tasks plugin, and then the tasks you describe become as easy as scheduling a recurring meeting in Outlook. I think a workflow tracking system might bring tears of joy to your eyes.
I use an old-fashioned approach for some regular tasks, we hire a real human person just a few hours per month. They have a set of tasks which need doing monthly, and as a bonus they're flexible and occasionally take some initiative, or offer their services for basic tasks we might otherwise have to pay someone else to do Plus, they learn a little about running a small business, so I feel I'm giving back a little.
I made something very much like this as part if a custom business workflow software for a client recently. It never occurred to me to spin it off as a standalone thing.
I built almost this exact solution that we still use today. the only difference is when tasks are overdue, there is a escalation system that notifys a set of people you designate.
Please don't waste your time pitching to investors in this position in Berlin. If you make X < 100.000 EUR monthly revenue, then any "investor" in Berlin will probably tell you:
"Very interesting. Let's keep in touch and come back when you make 5 * X EUR revenue."
And if make X >= 100.000 EUR revenue per month, then you most likely don't need 50-75K.
One thing in Berlin ist crucial: Social Proof. If you have it, you can raise 5 Mio EUR with basically zero traction and if you don't have it, it will be a long and timeconsuming process to raise any money at a fair valuation.
Are you willing to spend 6 - 9 months to raise 50 K and do you have significant monthly revenue? If so, your approach to meeting random investors should work. Otherwise you might want to apply for an accelerator in Berlin (for 25 K) or just focus in bootstrapping until you can approach international VCs outside Berlin.
This. And it's not just Berlin, it's the whole Germany including banks - they will all tell you please make 1M, then we will lend you 1M with your 1M as a collateral. Simply forget it unless you managed to choose your parents wisely (i.e. rich or influential).
Then work on that. Or try to partner with someone who has that
How? Mingle. Go to meetings. Network "horizontally" (in your tech segment) and "vertically" (in your business segment).
One way you're not getting that is by being the foreigner just off the plane (or even there for a couple of years) that can't speak German
There's actually a funny series of bilingual books about "How to be Berliner/How to be German" that are kind of tongue-in-cheek but it gets on the overall mindset
And as someone said below, something like < 100k can be gotten from FFFs, so look onto that.
I disagree. If you don't already have Social Proof, then it takes a big investment to try getting it. I believe for 99% of all startup teams, the time is better spent by working on your product or acquiring customers.
Networking is not working. I have seen so many startups in Berlin, who had a good shot of making it, but who wasted time in "fundraising" or "networking" and therefore killed their business.
Now obviously to each his own and for some it might work. But I believe only very few people on very few occasions get something out of networking.
> Networking is not working. I have seen so many startups in Berlin, who had a good shot of making it, but who wasted time in "fundraising" or "networking" and therefore killed their business.
You're right. But even for a technical person, spending "24h" coding is too much
But ideally one person would be dedicated to coding, another, to the business/financial/fundraising side
Last time I checked about incubators or accelerators, most of the companies that work in that space were like "Oh no, we are not one of those, we do [insert some crap no founder needs] to help startups!"
Basically no one gives you money for anything if you don't know the right people and those who do want to own the company in full, which defeats the whole startup idea in the first place...
So there are no investors for early startups? (honest question, not a rethorical one)
There is still a lot between 100k revenue and not profitable at all. What about something like barely selfsustaining (but by that proven to be somewhat profitable) with 2 employees? Or making 10k with a 2-man startup?
There are a lot of Investors in Berlin. But without Social Proof, it would probably be a waste of time trying to approach them.
If you make about 100k revenue (or if you have otherwise significant traction), you can not only approach investors in Berlin but also ouside, which kind of solves the "Social Proof" problem.
If you are barely selfsustaining, then please stay bootstrapped and grow your business. Otherwise the process of fundraising in Berlin will most likely kill your business.
If you have Social Proof, you know you have it. If you are not sure, then you don't have it.
Social Proof could mean:
- You are a Serial Entrepreneur
- A famous Business Angel invested in your company
- You graduated from a University with a great Alumni Network
- etc.
Basically if a potential investor evaluates your Market, Traction or Business Model, then you already lost. If a potential investor invests, because he thinks other investors want to invest, then this is Social Proof.
For example you are talking one hour with a potential investor:
If you talk 90 % of the time about who else is investing and about how to structure the investment round, then you have Social Proof. If you instead talk 90 % of the time about how big the market is, what your revenue model will be any why your churn rate only decreased 2 % in the last month, then you don't have Social Proof.
Also if the potential investors talks about making the investment bigger to increase your run rate and increase your leverage for a Series B, you have Social Proof. If instead the potential investors is asking you if you can decrease your burn rate or recommends you to raise a smaller amount, then you don't have Social Proof.
Yes! I think trying to make revenue as early as possible and making side gigs if necessary, is a valid way to bootstrap. But this is just my opinion and this topic should require its own thread, if you want to go into details.
Social proof is a catch 22. Social proof is proof of previously being successful(or perceived to be). They want the return of investment to granted as possible. And for that they want previous successes.
We are creating an online marketplace for short term work in Germany (https://www.instaff.jobs). Businesses can publish their jobs on our platform, jobbers apply with their profile and then these businesses can book the jobbers online. We take care of quality management and employment overhead (working contracting, payroll accounting, etc.).
We made close to 3 Mill. EUR revenue in 2016. We acquire 90 % of our customers via SEO and about 10 % via Google Adwords. We don't do any direct sales.
Our #1 growth strategy was creating well designed and highly targeted landingpages for all relevant keywords. For example if potential customers search for certain type of jobbers in certain German cities, these are some of our landingpages:
So include glamour shots of young attractive women on your landing pages when possible. Got it! :)
I can't remember what Madison Avenue Ad man (aka Mad Men) is responsible for the quote "in tits we trust". Ogilvy ? It's a tasteless quote, but I can think of many companies, like GoDaddy, that use this strategy shamelessly at first. The links above are by no means that extreme, but I suspect it did help your marketing success.
Thinking of my own marketing, I don't even have a photo of a human being using our product. I'll work on that.
We are mainly targeting short term jobs for exhibition, events and promotion right now. 80 % of the time, customers book young females for these jobs. So your are right, that we show "young attractive women" on a lot of landing pages, but this is more a result of our business model. The comparison to GoDaddy is not fair, since it has no relation to their business model, that they show young females.
And we make sure that our jobbers not only upload high quality pictures but also write their personal experience in a targeted and concise format. For example we now started other verticals such as temporary chefs and on these pages you see mostly middle aged men with cooking experience:
I am experimenting with an idea to target experienced workers and will try your landing page strategy. Basically a recruitment platform to find experienced workers a gig / job.
thank you for sharing. Have a look: http://tryoldster.com/
email me , i'd love to set it up in germany / partner with you. wink , wink ;-)
We don't do cooperation with other companies, since we want to be focused 100 % on our business model. But I wish you all the best with your platform and I can recommend you to also create highly targeted landingpages. For example (just out of the blue) you could have a page on the url:
And on this landingpage you show some of our "oldsters" who are based in New Work and who have marketing experience. And in addition you show your platforms USP on this page and create Call-to-action button on how to get in contact with an "oldster". You obviously have to check yourself what kind of businesses are in your target group, what keywords they would search and what kind of landingpage could attract them.
There is a lot of content on the internet about proper call-to-action buttons (short: CTA). But I will try to give you my experience:
1.) The first CTA should be above-the-fold, visible to users right away without scrolling.
2.) If it is a longer page, the the page should contain multiple CTAs, so the user does not need to "scroll back" up.
3.) The CTAs should be visible and standing out from the rest of the content
The label of the CTA is very important. We use "Unverbindliche Buchungsanfrage" which can be roughly translated to "Non-binding booking request". We try to convey, that clicking on the button is risk-free and free-of-charge.
The first CTA on the page gets the most clicks, since a lot of customers do not scroll down.
I notice that you have made EUR 3 million in 2016 using a scalable hands-off model where you can turn adwords directly into cash without needing to own or touch any inventory, meet anyone, or have any infrastructure beyond a website, which you have built. You have also solved the chicken and egg problem, since high-quality companies will only take the time to craft thoughtful and serious searches if you have a pool of qualified candidates, and qualified candidates will only post thoughtful and serious listings if the are likely to reach serious companies they want to work for. Further, knowledge workers - the kind you connect with companies, as opposed to manual labor, comprise roughly $3 trillion in value and are among the most sophisticated job seekers and very likely to try your platform: even absent large economies of scale and network effects you have proven your ability to convert them and monetize them by offering both themselves and companies that seek them, value in an innovative and sustainable way.
As a European VC, this is not the kind of opportunity we are looking for. Please don't contact me again.
The replies I mentioned have been (rightfully) detached from this thread.
I am adding this reply to make crystal-clear that the above is SATIRE about how hard it is for European companies to raise money from European investors. (I'm not a European VC.) You guys are killing it. I hope investors believe in you too.
We tried raising money for 5 months last year and we talked to partners from about 20 European VC, but we were not successful. We got no or low-balling offers at best. I guess we were missing what people call "social proof".
We don't need money, because we have been cashflow positive and growing for a while. And since fundraising was hyper time consuming we will not get back to fundraising again.
But I don't want to "rage" against the VC scene here. To each his own and I wish everybody who raises money successfully to grow his business all the best.
You don't have to follow up, but if you do: what valuation were you seeking and what's the highest low-ball offer you received?
For me the lowest valuation given your numbers and model would be $10m - but I am certain you were seeking a much lower valuation, and did not even get that. So what were you seeking and what offer did you get?
(By the way, the way I analyze your story it's not a social proof question: it's that you weren't in silicon valley.)
If you don't want to reply here you can email me at the address in my profile. Thanks.
We charge a markup (between 21 % to 43 %) on top of the employees wage.
Example: You book a promoter for 3 days. The promoters works 7 hours per day and earns 10 EUR per hour. Then his total gross wage is 210 EUR and our markup is 90,30 EUR (43 %) on top. So you as customer pay a total of 300,30 EUR to us.
We compete with traditional employment agencies who usually charge a markup of 50% to 200%.
> And if you book staff, you only pay the gross salary of the employee plus the InStaff service fee which ranges between 21 %(for Professionals) to 43 % (other Staff) - there are no additional costs.
Europe is not a single market at all. Simple thinks like making sure your invoice is paid from a customer who is based in another european country is practically impossible.
I know because I am the CEO of a staffing company in Germany: national as well as international businesses book exhibition staff and other temporary employees for events in Germany and Austria through our platform.
If one of our german customers does not pay, we can easily use the german legal system to ensure that we get our money. If we have to sue, our legal system makes sure that we are reimbursed if we win in court. But if for example an Italian business is using our service and they don't pay our invoice, we have no way to get our money. We technically could appeal to a court in Italy, get a lawyer in Italy, translate all documents to Italian and sue in Italy. But this would cost at least 20.000 EUR in total which are not reimbursed even if we win in court.
That is why businesses who are not based in Germany have to pay upfront. I cannot call the EU a single market, if my business has to treat a customer from EU the same like any other customer around the world.
So, maybe the UK will have some disadvantages if they are not part of the EU anymore. But they are not leaving a "single market" because the EU never was a single market. I guess they will be just fine without the EU.
Yes, but you can sell in Italy, right? I mean, the customers have to pay upfront, but they can pay and you can service.
Compare this with the need to incorporate in Italy, have people hired there, an office presence, and so on. The barrier is not 0, but it's not even remotely as it is outside EU.
But this is mainly a language issue. If you had a common language, you'd probably have it easy to sue people in other countries as well. And you can sue as a non-Italian without any problems.
The EU will never have the level of integration the US has, simply because there are different languages at play. But that's no fault of EU politicians.
Oh, it’s already a lot better than it was before. But you are right, a fuckton of work is required to make it even slightly competitive with the US, China, or India.
But we should work towards that – and not split it up even further.
Isn't one of the issues with the EU government that it's recalcitrant to reform? Brussels feels like they have a cozy little cocoon. Any attempts to make them work for the people in a meaningful way get rebuffed.
They actually work a lot for the people. The reason the EU is often unpopular with businesses is due to laws protecting people (labor laws, customer protection, minimum standards, ...). I'd argue that is politic for the people, just not for businesses.
Oh, the EU parliament works all the time for the people
The problem is that all national governments have to approve each EU directive before it becomes law in the EU council. The national governments then usually, due to lobby pressure, add loopholes to net neutrality, reduce consumer protections, or demand TTIP.
If you get rid of the EU, you’re only left with this council – and then you get zero net neutrality but instead TTIP and all the other bullshit.
Do you have any other ideas? Or did I misunderstood you?