Startup Funding

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Five Competitive Advantages: Network Effects

Competitive advantage increases revenue by 30% over the competition or decreases cost by 30%. Here are five sources of competitive advantage: Recurring revenue Channel access Platform-based solution instead of singular products. Network effects in action (the value of the product increases with the number of users) Virality (not the same as network effects; users invite other users) Most businesses increase in value as the customer base grows as it validates the product/service and encourages others to use it. If a business can harness that customer base and turn it into a community that more aggressively attracts other users then it’s a competitive advantage.  Hall T. Martin is the founder of TEN Capital and a builder of entrepreneur ecosystems by startup funding through angel networks, funding portals, syndicates, and more. Connect with him about fundraising, business growth, and emerging technologies

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Eric Smith of AppBrilliance

At AppBrilliance, they believe that the next-big-thing in tech is the disruption of the trillion-dollar financial industry by nimble technology companies and major platform providers such as Google, Facebook, Amazon and Apple. Their platform unlocks the future of money by removing the barriers between technology companies and the financial institutions where people bank today. Excerpts from the interview: Eric’s pointers for first-time investors that want to invest in the fin-tech space. According to Eric, it’s a challenging space to invest in because there is a pretty broad disconnect between the traction that you need to have and the ability to scale. What the next stage of industry evolution is- blockchain technology is going to play a very important role as the industry starts to evolve. It just really creates a transparent way to accept funds and record those transactions so you’re able to fully maintain precise transactional data when you’re using the blockchain . Listen to full episode with Eric Smith You can find AppBrilliance at https://www.appbrilliance.com/ Eric can be reached on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/cericsmith/

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Five CompetitiveAdvantages: Platform Based Solution

Competitive advantage increases revenue by 30% over the competition or decreases cost by 30%. Here are five sources of competitive advantage: Recurring revenue Channel access Platform based solution instead of singular products. Network effects in action–the value of the product increases with the number of users Virality (not the same as network effects) (users invite other users) A platform-based solution is a competitive advantage over a single product as it provides a solution that works for more than just one type of customer. Platform solutions have a lower cost than single products because you can reuse the research, design, architecture, packaging, and other aspects. Platforms also reduce the cost of supporting the customer as you can reuse support resources. Hall T. Martin is the founder of TEN Capital and a builder of entrepreneur ecosystems by startup funding through angel networks, funding portals, syndicates, and more. Connect with him about fundraising, business growth, and emerging technologies

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Five Competitive Advantages: Channel Access

Competitive advantage increases revenue by 30% over the competition or decreases cost by 30%. Here are five sources of competitive advantage: Recurring revenue Channel access Platform-based solution instead of singular products. Network effects in action (the value of the product increases with the number of users) Virality (not the same as network effects; users invite other users) Channel access indicates you can connect to a group of customers that others cannot access. Perhaps your previous job gave you contacts throughout the industry that you can now leverage for your startup. Perhaps you have found a social media channel, SEO, email, other marketing channels that work well. It takes some experimenting to find that channel. In your pitch to investors, you want to highlight this as it’s a key differentiator. It may not be a sustainable advantage for the long haul, but it can be crucial to launching your startup. Hall T. Martin is the founder of TEN Capital and a builder of entrepreneur ecosystems by startup funding through angel networks, funding portals, syndicates, and more. Connect with him about fundraising, business growth, and emerging technologies

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Five Competitive Advantages: Recurring Revenue

Competitive advantage increases revenue by 30% over the competition or decreases cost by 30%. Here are five sources of competitive advantage: –Recurring revenue –Channel access –Platform-based solution instead of singular products. –Network effects in action–the value of the product increases with the number of users –Virality (not the same as network effects) (users invite other users) In today’s world, you would think every business has recurring revenue.  Yet, I find most businesses who are raising funding did not structure their business that way. Recurring revenue helps your business in several ways. It opens up your business to new customers who could not afford your product previously because the one-time payment was too high. By breaking the payment into smaller steps, more customers can afford it. It provides a known revenue stream so you can plan your business better as you know how much you will have coming in. Overall this should increase your revenue in the long run by 30%. Hall T. Martin is the founder of TEN Capital and a builder of entrepreneur ecosystems by startup funding through angel networks, funding portals, syndicates, and more. Connect with him about fundraising, business growth, and emerging technologies

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Five Competitive Advantages for Building a Winning Business Model

When I ask an entrepreneur what their competitive advantage is, most point to their product and say it’s better. Of course, they spend ten minutes citing anecdotal stories to “prove” it. My definition of a competitive advantage is that it increases in revenue by 30% over the competition or a decrease in cost by 30%. Here are five sources of competitive advantage: –Channel access –Recurring revenue –Platform based solution instead of singular products. –Network effects in action–the value of the product increases with the number of users –Virality (not the same as network effects, users invite other users) These advantages give your business the ability to scale. Scale comes from revenue increasing faster than cost. In raising funding, competitive advantages can make the difference in closing an investor. The key is to quantify the effects of the advantage in dollars. If you just say you have it then it will convince no one. You must demonstrate with numbers. Hall T. Martin is the founder of TEN Capital and a builder of entrepreneur ecosystems by startup funding through angel networks, funding portals, syndicates, and more. Connect with him about fundraising, business growth, and emerging technologies

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5 More Reasons you Should Join a TEN Capital Network Investor Reverse Pitch and Startup Pitch

This year as TEN Capital Group turns 10 we’ve decided to branch out and hold events across the US. This year we’ve had events in Austin, New York City, San Francisco, Dallas, Houston, Seattle and upcoming in Chicago, Orange County, Sunnyvale and Washington DC. We’ll also be circling back to Houston, San Francisco, New York and Dallas before the year ends. We are passionate about what we do and these events are a great way to keep the startup community connected. Find out what’s new in the startup space Identify new business models that can help your business Meet great people who can join your team Learn new investment structures that can improve your IRR Remind the community that you are still there

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How Does the TEN Capital Funding Program Compare to Revenue-Based Funding?

Revenue-based funding provides a return from the revenue rather than from equity ownership. It works well for businesses where there’s no anticipated sale of the business and investors receive a return in the form of a revenue share. It works well for companies with uneven revenue as it provides a payout based on a monthly or quarterly revenues. It requires ongoing operations to calculate the revenue for payouts and monitor the business for progress. To reduce the cost of revenue-based funding, TEN Capital uses a 3X in 3 year redemption right at “Investor only  discretion”. The redemption right gives the investor the right to ask the company to buy them out at 3X their original investment at the 3 year mark. The investor can choose the redemption right or forego the right and become an equity investor and wait for the IPO or acquisition exit.   It removes the burden of ongoing monitoring and cash collections and leaves more cash in the business to help it grow. Hall T. Martin is the founder of TEN Capital and a builder of entrepreneur ecosystems by startup funding through angel networks, funding portals, syndicates, and more. Connect with him about fundraising, business growth, and emerging technologies

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The Liquidity Challenge in the Startup Funding World

I remember the last ACA (Angel Capital Association) meeting I attended. The theme was exits and how to achieve them. It seemed like every angel or angel group had a list of the deals they’ve been in for more than ten years. The sessions focused on helping the entrepreneur achieve an exit. More than a few of the sessions talked about how to deal with entrepreneurs who no longer wanted an exit. It appears that if the entrepreneur can gain an above market salary that in many cases they’ll make more if they stay with the business for ten years or more than if they sell the business. One of the key metrics to monitor is salaries of the C-level team of your startup and compare it against market rate. It should be about 70% to 80% of the market rate. If it’s above 100% then you’ve got a problem. First, those are funds that should be growing the business. Second, the startup has most likely given up on a high dollar return on selling the business and is now taking their exit through the payroll plan. Having talked to many an entrepreneur about achieving an exit, I find that about half want an exit but can’t get to one with a large influx of new capital or they don’t want one at all. Either way, it’s a problem. There’s a saying in the financial world, “Getting into the deal is easy. It’s the getting out part that is hard.” Hall T. Martin is the founder of TEN Capital and a builder of entrepreneur ecosystems by startup funding through angel networks, funding portals, syndicates, and more. Connect with him about fundraising, business growth, and emerging technologies

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