Tag Archives: Financial Projections

TSG’s Highlights from the Connection Innovation Report: San Diego

TSG’s Highlights from the Connection Innovation Report: San Diego

CONNECT, a San Diego non-profit helping to create and scale innovation companies, assists entrepreneurs by providing resources that allow them to grow their business. Since 2005, they have measured the growth in economic innovation in San Diego. We highlighted the key findings of the report to showcase the advancement of San Diego’s entrepreneurial growth. We recommend that all San Diego entrepreneurs read the full Connect Innovation Report to stay up to date with startup trends and growth insight of the community!

San Diego Created 405 New Innovation Startups in 2015

Over 1,600 new jobs were created in San Diego by just innovation startups alone. The various industries include: Software (255), Life Sciences (82), Communication, Computer & Electronics (50), Aerospace, Navigation and Marine Tech (8), Environmental Technology (7) and Recreational Goods (3).

Ranked First in California For New Innovation Life Sciences Startups Created in 2015

According to the report, over 3,700 new tech and life sciences companies have been created between 2005-2015. San Diego also ranked second in the number of communications technology, recreational goods manufacturing and environmental technology startups in 2015.

Innovation Economy Grows To An All-Time High

2015 proved to be a historic year for innovation economy, creating nearly 149,440 high-paying jobs. That’s 11% of total employment in San Diego County with the city of Carlsbad arriving at number one, having the most new innovation startups created, a total of 63. Downtown San Diego (54) and Sorrento Valley (52) weren’t far behind.

Top Ten U.S. Metros for Startup Activity and Growth Entrepreneurship

San Diego ranked 7th using the Kauffman Index of Growth and Entrepreneurship, which gives equal weight to the rate of new entrepreneurs, opportunity share of new entrepreneurs, and startup density of a region.

VC Funding in Software Sector Surged in 2015

Invested in 28 deals, the total venture capital funding for the software sector was $240 million in 2015. This is an increase of 150% from 2014.

Mergers & Acquisition (M&A) Closed More Than $31 billion in Technology and Life Sciences Where a San Diego Company Was Either a Target or Buyer

The M&A area is dominated by life sciences companies. Medical devices sector accounted for 12 deals totaling $15.4 billion. This is almost half of all M&A deal value for San Diego’s innovation economy.

Research Grants

More than $1.29 billion in various grants were awarded to San Diego research institutes and companies. This ranks San Diego county 2nd in California behind Los Angeles County for NIH and NSF grant funding received in 2015.

We encourage all of the startup savvy founders in San Diego to read the full report on the CONNECT website.

The continuous growth and increasing number of startups in San Diego, calls for the need of a support structure and foundation crucial for success. TSG serves as an invaluable source of information into the startup environment, and in particular, the San Diego startup community. We take pride in providing critical information, tailored business plans and financial projections that propel companies forward to sustainable growth. Please continue to follow up with us on social media and reach out to us with your startup questions and inquiries of your business or idea!

How Does A Convertible Note Works For Startups?

How Does A Convertible Note Works For Startups?

A convertible note is an investment instrument intended to provide a startup company with early stage financing.

It’s a compromise of sorts, blending the downside protection associated with a loan and capturing the upside potential of selling equity shares.

Why are they used?

It can be very difficult for investors and entrepreneurs to agree on the valuation of an early stage company. Valuations are complex, and require a considerable amount of time and data that early stage startups just don’t have. A convertible note for startups allows the valuation conversation to be delayed until later down the road when a valuation can be more easily determined. Typically, this occurs at the next funding round. At which time, the note will convert from a loan to equity.

What’s the “discount rate” and other terms?

Early stage investors that invest in the form of a convertible note expect to be appropriately compensated for the extra risk taken by investing at such an early stage. As such, when a valuation is determined at a subsequent round of investment, the early stage investors typically receive a “discount” on that valuation where their investment gets converted at a cheaper valuation. The discount rate is predetermined and agreed upon at the time of signing the note. 20% is a common discount, but it can range widely from around 10% on the low end to 35% on the high end.

Here’s an example of the convertible note process:

Joe Angel invests $500K in a seed round investment
Startup issues Joe Angel a convertible note for $500K that has an automatic conversion feature at the next round of financing with a conversion discount of 20%
Startup closes a $1M Series A round with a VC at a pre-money valuation of $5M
VC receives 16.67% equity
Joe Angel’s note will convert to equity at a 20% discount on the pre-money valuation for 10% equity

The above return does not account for interest on the loan, which typically ranges from 5-7%. It’s not paid out like a regular loan, but instead accumulates and then the interest is added to the conversion amount at the end of the Series A startup funding round.

Main benefits:

Convertible notes are attractive for both the startup founders and potential investors. The startup needs this type of early funding to prove their concept and build momentum, and it gives savvy investors a way to gain significant discounted equity in a potential rising star.

Other benefits include:

Relatively simple to create, especially when compared to the preparation and legal resources needed for later funding rounds. The negotiations around valuation can be deferred, so the founders can focus on initial strategy and refining their service offering
Early investors should receive discounts because they took a chance on the firm at its earliest stages and they then often remain as loyal long-term investors.

Some caveats:

With the discount, the startup does give the investor a bigger stake in the company compared to the same money received by other investors, but this early-stage investment is often required in order to reach any growth.

On the investor’s side, they need to look very closely at the startup to be sure they are not taking on outsized-risk. The risk involved is higher than what is reflected in the typical 20% discount of the convertible note. This simply boils down to the challenges facing startups to actually move forward from seed to Series A funding rounds. Less companies are able to do it as they don’t build enough momentum to warrant larger-scale VC money.

Another risk for convertible note financing can come if the convertible note is too large. The problem can come when it converts to represent a big portion of the next round, which might discourage other investors from coming on board because they’re limited in the potential equity stake.

If you have a question about pursuing a convertible note strategy for your Startup or you’d like to discuss our business plan writing services, feel free to contact us for a free consultation!

How To Understand Customer Lifetime Value and Customer Acquisition Costs?

How To Understand Customer Lifetime Value and Customer Acquisition Costs?

The Key to Profitability for your business

Understanding customer lifetime value and customer acquisition costs.

It comes as no surprise that a company must earn more revenue over the lifetime of any given customer (referred to as Customer Lifetime Value or CLTV) than it costs to acquire the customer (referred to as Customer Acquisition Cost or CAC).

While there are additional overhead and operating expenses that affect profitability, the first step in building a profitable business is to implement a scalable business model where your Customer Acquisition Cost is lower than your Customer Lifetime Value.

In theory, this seems rather obvious. However, putting this concept into practice can be difficult as your CLTV and CAC aren’t always extremely apparent. Additionally, it takes seasoned marketers and business leaders who understand how retention rates, sales & marketing channels, and business models affect

CLTV and CAC.

In this blog I’ll be discussing the factors that affect CLTV and CAC as well as strategies for increasing CLTV and reducing CAC. While much of what’s presented below is generally true across most industries, there are certainly caveats for every industry and business model.

Customer Lifetime Value

Before we discuss strategies for increasing CLTV, let’s wrap our heads around what CLTV is and how it is calculated. In its simplest form, CLTV is a prediction of the net profit attributed to the entire future relationship with a customer. CLTV is calculated by forecasting the average customer lifetime (the number of months the customer purchases your product), the average monthly spend of your customers, and the average monthly cost of distributing your products.

As a result, you can increase your CLTV by:

1) increasing the average monthly spend
2) increasing the average customer lifetime
3) decreasing the cost of distributing your product.

Increasing Average Monthly Spend Per Customer

The most immediate way to increase your average monthly spend is to increase your price. However, an increase in price will often lead to either a reduction in conversion rates (the number of total customers) or a reduction in retention rates (the number of repeat purchases from a given customer).

You don’t want to increase your average monthly spend only to decrease the total number of customers or the average customer lifetime.

You can also increase the average monthly spend through upselling and cross-selling techniques. Think of Amazon suggesting additional products and services bought by other customers looking at the same item. Additionally, you can implement increase average monthly spend by implementing loyalty programs, improving conversion rates through website optimization, and streamlining the sales process.

Increasing Average Customer Lifetime

CLTV can also be increased by improving retention rates, or the percentage of customers that remain customers over time. Companies with low retention rates are required to draw the majority of their profits from just one purchase per customer while companies with high retention rates benefit from spreading their CLTV over numerous purchases.

Retention rates can be increased by improving customer satisfaction through strategies such as customer service and support centers, sending periodic discounts and promotions, offering loyalty programs, and enhancing the overall customer experience.

Decreasing the Cost of Distribution and Fulfillment

Every business’ cost structure will vary but some of the more common ways to decrease the cost of distribution and fulfillment include: purchasing inventory in larger amounts, utilizing cheaper vendors and suppliers, substituting lower cost materials, decreasing base salaries and increasing commissions, utilizing independent reps over in-house reps, and reducing waste.

Customer Acquisition Cost

Developing a business model that results in a low CAC and that is scalable is difficult and where many startup businesses fail. In a world of data overload, it is challenging to attract and successfully sell products and services to people that have never heard of you. Every product and service is different, but for most companies the customer goes through several stages before making a purchase.

First, they have to become aware of your product or service through PR, advertisements, word of mouth, social media, reviews and blogs, etc. Next, they often need to be courted by sales reps and go through some sort of on boarding process.

This process from start to finish can be costly. Naturally, you have options as to how you allocate your marketing and customer acquisition dollars. Strategies such as SEO are typically low cost but usually don’t offer a strong degree of control, targeting, and results. Unlike strategies such as direct sales which are typically very costly but come with a strong degree of control, targeting, and results.

It is important for businesses to research standards in their industry and then benchmark themselves against those standards in order to pick the appropriate channel mix for their business. Additionally, companies can get creative with low cost channels that will help to reduce the average CAC across all channels.

For example, referral and word of mouth programs (such as business that offer one month free for every 10 friends referred) are a great way to acquire new customers at very low costs. While you cannot rely on these strategies exclusively, they will help reduce the average CAC across all strategies.

Optimizing the CAC and CLTV ratio is crucial to the success of any business. The earlier the business can figure out the right mix the sooner they can begin scaling in a profitable way.

Here at The Startup Garage, we help entrepreneurs devise the appropriate business models and sales and marketing strategies that will enable them to scale a profitable business. Contact us to learn more.

How To Measure and Achieve Product/Market Fit

TSG_ProductMarket from The Startup Garage

How To Measure and Achieve Product/Market Fit

Product/Market Fit is a term that was coined to define the process of creating a product that resonates
with a specific target market(s).

Taking this definition a step further, Product/Market Fit is proving sufficient demand within a target market segment to justify the spending of capital (human and financial) in order to begin scaling the company.

The definition of Product/Market Fit is fairly straight forward, achieving it is far more abstract.

How do you know when you’ve achieved Product/Market Fit?

When do you transition from a bootstrapped startup focusing all your resources on product development to an accelerated startup that is ready to begin scaling?

Answering these questions correctly can be the make or break for any young company.
Most startups don’t get second chances to scale the business, so timing is everything.
As a result, it is crucial to start measuring Product/Market Fit as early as possibly, to measure it often, and to continually fine-tune your product until you’ve gotten it right before you consider scaling.

Measuring Product/Market Fit is a bit of an art and a science. On the one hand, you can feel when Product/Market Fit is or isn’t happening.

Answering some of the following questions can help you assess the Product/Market Fit Feeling

– Are you getting new customers with little to no marketing strictly through word of mouth?

– Does your sales cycle take too long?

– Are your conversion rates above/below industry standard?

– Are you getting exciting press reviews and interviews?

– Are you struggling with holding sufficient inventory?

– Do you need additional sales and customer support staff to satisfy new customers?

On the other hand, you can use data from customer surveys as a way to measure Product/Market Fit.
Essentially, you are gathering information that will allow you to gauge how much value your customers are getting from the product and how disappointed they would be without having access to your product.

If half of your customers or more could live without your product then it is a safe bet that you haven’t achieved Product/Market Fit (disclaimer: this benchmark will vary from industry to industry based on average churn rates, customer lifetime, customer lifetime value, cost to acquire new customers, etc).

Achieving Product/Market Fit

Once you’ve achieved Product/Market Fit, you are ready to begin scaling the business. In order to scale,
you need to implement a business model that allows you to acquire customers at a profit while still
delivering on the customer benefits and value that got you here in the first place. Continue to test and
tweak your business model until you’ve developed a well-optimized and scalable customer acquisition
process.

Then, you are ready to pour gasoline (sales and marketing dollars) on the fire (a startup with
proven Product/Market Fit and business model).

Taking the time to fine-tune your product until you’ve achieved Product/Market Fit will greatly improve
your likelihood of strong conversion rates and successfully scaling the business. It will also allow you to
reach scale with less capital (giving up far less equity in the meantime).

If you have a question about your Startup business idea or you’d like to discuss our business plan writing services, feel free to contact us for a free consultation!

The Importance of Bookkeeping for a Startup Business

The Importance of Bookkeeping for a Startup Business

Bookkeeping, by definition, is the process of recording a company’s financial transactions and history.

It is the first step in the broader accounting process which involves reporting and analyzing data to make business decisions.

Many entrepreneurs find that they are wearing too many hats as it is and they just
don’t have time to dedicate towards proper bookkeeping.

However, bookkeeping is crucial for any startup for several reasons:
First and foremost, it helps companies make better financial and management decisions. Proper bookkeeping can help you understanding the key financial benchmarks that determine whether your company is operating successfully or not. Bookkeeping also helps with managing cash flow and answering questions such as: who owes you money, who do you owe money to, when should you send an invoice, when are your bills due, etc.

Second, consistent bookkeeping will help minimize the headaches when it comes to preparing your annual taxes. If you can provide your accountant with a well maintained balance sheet, cash flow statement, and profit and loss statement he/she will be able to dedicate their time towards making sound tax decisions rather than fixing problems with the financial statements.

Third, sound books will help you with planning your business’ next steps. By understanding key benchmarks such as cost to acquire a new customer and cost of goods sold you can begin to make educated decision about the best way to grow your business.

Fourth, investors require solid books. The frequency of which you report financial records will be determined by you and your investors. In any case, the more automated and uniform your financial reporting systems are for reporting crucial financial information the happier your investors will be. It will show to them that you understand your cash flow needs and the business key performing indicators that will allow the business to scale.

Furthermore, when raising capital, sound records will instill confidence in your investor and significantly increase your likelihood of receiving a check.

Now that you are on-board with the important of bookkeeping for a startup, let’s look at 10 of the most common types of bookkeeping accounts for a startup or any business for that matter:

Cash:

This is your most basic account and it tells you exactly how much cash you have in your
bank. Many businesses will monitor their cash account by separating cash receipts and cash
disbursements.

Accounts Receivable:

Not all companies will have accounts receivables. Receivables represent
money that is due from customers and is therefore only applicable to companies that sell
products or services prior to collecting payment or a portion of the payment upon the time of
sale. Tracking receivables will help you understand cash flow and keeping a detailed list of your various receivable accounts will help you stay on top of billing and invoices.

Sales:

The sales account is closely tied to cash and accounts payable but provides slightly
different insight. Sales is where you track anticipated incoming revenues from what you sell.
Tracking sales accurately will help you understand whether your business is on track to meet
predetermined metrics and benchmarks.

Accounts Payable:

Similar to accounts receivable, accounts payable represent money that you
owe to your suppliers and vendors for products and services that you did not pay for entirely
upfront. Tracking your payables will help you with managing cash flow, ensuring that you don’t
pay your bills twice, and may even make you eligible for discounts if you are able to pay early.

Inventory:

While inventory is not equivalent to cash or accounts payable it is certainly an asset on your balance sheet that needs to be carefully accounted for and tracked. Properly managing your inventory will help with understanding cash flow and anticipated production runs.

Loans Payable:

You loans payable account tracks the amount of capital that you’ve borrowed, how much you still owe, and how much is due in the next billing cycle.

Purchases or Cost of Goods Sold:

This account helps you understand the cost of delivering your product and service and when subtracted from your Sales account you end up with gross profit.

Payroll:

Payroll is the biggest expense for most businesses and should be monitored closely. Maintaining an accurate payroll account will pay dividends when it comes to tax and
government reporting requirements not to mention understanding your personnel expenses.

Retained Earnings:

Retained earnings are simply profits that are not paid out to owners or shareholders. Retained earnings are cumulative, or a running total, and demonstrate the profits that are reinvested back into the business.

Owner’s Equity:

This account simply tracks the capital investment that the owners’ have put into the business. This account is particularly pertinent if there are multiple owners who have put in disparate amounts of capital.

If you have a question about your Startup business idea or you’d like to discuss our Book Keeping Management Services, feel free to contact us for a free consultation!

The Correlation between A Startups Seed Round and Series A Round

The Correlation between Your Seed Round and Your Series A Round from The Startup Garage

The Correlation between A Startups Seed Round and Series A Round

Here at The Startup Garage we are often asked, “Has it become harder to raise capital for Startups nowadays?”

 

The answer is, yes and no.

On the one hand, the total dollars invested in U.S. startups in 2014 reached its highest point since the dot-com boom in 2000, according to Bloomberg. On the other hand, there are more startups competing for these dollars than ever before.

One of the hardest rounds to raise, and subsequently one of the biggest hurdles to startup success, is the Seed round. This round is potentially the riskiest round for an investor as most startups raising Seed capital have yet to accomplish any significant milestones that prove the concept.

The technology or product development is usually in its infancy,
The team is lacking,Traction is nominal if present at all, and The key benchmarks for success have yet to be proven. As a result, many good ideas never make it out of the gate.

Those that successfully navigate the Seed round significantly increase their chance at entrepreneurial success and at raising their next round of capital, the Series A round.

When raising a Seed round the question becomes, “How large of a seed round should I raise to maximize my chances of raising a Series A round?”

Smaller Seed rounds seem like a quick fix because they are simpler and faster to raise as they typically require less investors.

However, in order to raise a significant Series A round, the startup needs sufficient capital to accomplish enough milestones that will attract Series A investors. As a result, we see a direct correlation between the amount of capital raised in the Seed round and the amount of capital raised in the subsequent Series A round.

According to data from CB Insights, companies that raised both a Seed round and a Series A round can be categorized as follows:

  • Small – Below the 25th percentile (<$360K for Seed, <$2M for Series A)
  • Average – Between 25th and 75th percentile (between $260K and $1.5M for Seed, between $2M and $7M for Series A)
  • Large – Above 75th percentile (>$1,5M for Seed, >$7M for Series A)As depicted in the chart below, nearly half of all large Seed deals became large Series A deals. Most of the other large Seed deals went on to raise average Series A rounds with a small number raising a small Series A round.

For companies that raised small Seed rounds, 57% went on to raise an average Series A round, and only 13% raised Series A rounds of $7M+. Lastly, 63.8% of companies that raised an average Seed round went on to raise an average Series A round.

Moral of the story: if you plan on raising a Series A round, don’t cut yourself short during your Seed round.

Seed Funding From the Startup Garage

If you have a question about your Startup business idea or you’d like to discuss our business plan writing services, feel free to contact us for a free consultation!

7 Common Tax Mistakes Made by Startup Businesses

7 Common Tax Mistakes Made by Startup Businesses

A common misconception among many entrepreneurs is that their startup will not face any tax filing requirements while in the early stages of the business.

However, this is not the case.

If you incorporate your business or form an LLC you have tax and other government filings that are due, even if you had little to no financial activity.

As a result, it is important to understand the tax laws associated with your startup’s legal entity as they may differ depending on whether you are a sole proprietor, a partnership, or some form of corporation.

There is no “right” type of entity that can be applied to all startups. Rather, there is the type of entity that is right for you and your startup.

Below are a few common startup tax related mistakes that can save you time and money in the long run:

1.Proper Record Keeping

It is important for a business, no matter how big or small, to have its own set of books. If the startup team lacks a solid bookkeeper or someone with financial expertise it can be very inexpensive to hire a bookkeeper on a part-time basis. You can also hire a consultant or accountant to help you setup a system that you can maintain going forward.

2.Quarterly Taxes

While you are exempt from paying quarterly taxes in your first year it is still a good habit to get into. First and foremost, you don’t want to get sticker shock when it comes time to pay taxes and you haven’t been setting aside cash every quarter. Secondly, you are going to have to start getting in the habit of paying quarterly taxes sooner or later so you might as well start now.

Additionally, set up separate accounts for anticipated taxes like self-employment and employee withholding. The biggest problem for many business owners when it comes to tax season is having enough cash on hand to pay for taxes.

3.Record Your Startup Costs

Almost every cost you incur when starting your business is eligible for a tax deduction – think market research, travel, customer surveys, prototypes, advertising, branding, etc. All startup costs up to $5,000 are deductible in full in the first year. Furthermore, if your costs go over $5,000, you
can potentially roll out the deduction for up to 15 years.

4.Track Expenses Correctly

While many of your startup costs are deductible be sure that you are recording these expenses correctly to ensure protection if audited. For travel and entertainment expenses over $75 you need to maintain receipts and a recorded reason for the expense. When using your personal credit card be sure to write an expense report to the business shortly after incurring the expense. Track your miles if you plan to deduct car travel to and from your office.

5.Know How To Classify Employees

Many startups think they can avoid paying payroll taxes by classifying their employees as independent contractors. However, the IRS is cracking down on this misclassification and this is one penny that is not worth pinching.

There are a lot of nuances surrounding the differences between an employee and an independent contractor. The biggest factor has to do with how you control this person’s time. If you are telling them when and how to work they are most likely an employee.

6.Blending Business and Personal Finance

Many entrepreneurs make the mistake of neglecting to claim certain expenses as business expenses, such as a home office. On the other hand, many entrepreneurs fail to separate their personal finances from their business finances and often get sued or are forced to pay additional taxes. Be sure to maintain a clear line between your business and personal finances.

7.The Difference Between Equipment and Supplies

Typically, equipment expenses are amortized over the lifetime of that piece of equipment and therefore face unique deduction eligibility requirements. Supplies on the other hand, such as pens, notepads, and printer ink, have a lifetime value that expires far more quickly. In order to get the most out of your deductions be sure to track your expenses accordingly.

If you have a question about your Startup or you’d like to discuss our business plan writing services, feel free to contact us for a free consultation!

Startup Business Funding Report 2014

Startup Business Funding Report 2014

The past year has been an eventful one for Startup Businesses in their quest to raise capital.

Venture Capitalists, Angel Investors, and Peer-to-Peer Crowdfunding soared in 2014, breathing new life into uncertain economy.

    Venture Capital Roundup

According to the PitchBook Platform 88 billion dollars in venture capital was infused into the global economy in 2014. Beating out any other single year ever, including the dot.com era.

Silicon Valley continues to reign supreme as the most competitive market to raise VC funding in, while hometown hero Uber took the largest 2 VC deals at 1.2 billion each.

On the east coast, the city that never sleeps, NYC is also thriving in the innovation economy, coming in 2nd in United States venture capital hubs. With the biggest VC backed deal going to coworking space, WeWork, with $355million dollars in funding.

It’s fair to say the venture capital ecosystem had an incredible run in 2014, transforming software startups into “unicorns” and providing hope and opportunity in the face of aversion. Whether or not all the risk will bring sustainable long-term rewards will become more evident in years to come.

    Angel Investment Roundup

2014 found Angel investors and groups becoming more prominent on and offline for early stage startups. At this time the Halo Reports Q4 report for 2014 is still being compiled, however we anticipate a steady increase in investments similar to previous quarters.

In Q2 alone 206 deals were funded totally $594million.
Pre-money valuation continued to rise jumping to $3 million in Q2, while Healthcare and Internet funding continues to be the most heavily funded industries.

Across the board opportunities to #GetFunded are abundant amongst individual Angels and Angel Groups globally. While with in the US, California, New England, and Texas have the most active investment networks.

    Crowdfunding Roundup

Crowdfunding is rapidly changing the landscape of Startup funding, and doesn’t appear to be slowing down. At the close of 2014, crowdfunding is estimated to add at least 270,000 jobs and inject more than $65 billion into the global economy, according to estimates from crowdfunding platform Fundable. 2014 turned platforms like Kickstarter and IndieGogo into household names. On Kickstarter alone 3.3 million people globally pledged more than ½ billion dollars last year, which is equivalent to $1,000 per minute. The funding brought to life 22,252 creative projects, exploding the alternative-funding platform.

Its clear Crowdfunding is disrupting how investors find opportunity and where entrepreneurs fuel their startup ideas. For the first time in history anyone can be an entrepreneur, investor, or both and the trend has yet to reach its tipping point.

    2015 & The Future of Capital Raising

2015 is sure to be a year of that will go down in history for innovative Startups and investment opportunities. The Startup Garage anticipates the following achievements in the next year: more women in the tech and the venture capital spotlight, emphasis on entrepreneurship and education with in academic institutions, and a rapidly expanding Startup Ecosystem.

If you have a question about your Startup Funding or you’d like to discuss our business plan writing services, feel free to contact us for a free consultation!

How To Determine Market Traction For Your Startup

How To Determine Market Traction From The Startup Garage

How To Determine Market Traction For Your Startup

The major thing to know about the first few years of funding a startup business is that in order to attract investor capital you must accomplish certain milestones.

Accomplishing milestones helps to reduce the risk associated with the startup venture.

Investors are constantly assessing risk when evaluating a startup and obviously prefer those that assume less risk. Additionally, accomplishing milestones allows you to raise capital at a much higher valuation because you’ve thereby improved the risk-to-return ration (i.e. the riskier the business the more equity the investor will need to compensate the level of risk).

There are seven main categories of milestones that most investors assess when evaluating a startup
investment opportunity:

– Business Planning

– Team Building

– Market Traction

– Legal

– Operations

– Product Development

– Founder Leadership

The specific milestones that you need to achieve within each categories varies depending on the type of business and the stage of capital that is being raised(startup round, seed round, series A, etc).

In this post, we’ll be focusing on the milestones that demonstrate market traction.

What is Market Traction?

According to Naval Ravikant, the Co-Founder of Angel List, market traction is simply defined as
“quantitative evidence of market demand.” Traction is proof that somebody wants your product, it communicated momentum in market adoption.

Why is Market Traction Important?

Per usual, it all boils down to risk for an investor. The more market traction you can demonstrate the less risk there is in the investment.

How Do You Demonstrate Market Traction?

Adequate market traction will vary at each round of capital simply because you have limited resources
to demonstrate it. Furthermore, one of the major reasons that you are raising capital is because you
want to grow your current traction.When raising capital from Friends, Family, and Founders in the Startup Round the amount of market traction that you can demonstrate is limited. You likely don’t have a product developed that is ready for market, so traction in the form of sales is not attainable. However, you can show potential traction by demonstrating the size of the market and trends that support your product claims and solutions.

Additionally, you can conduct primary research such as surveys and conversations with potential
customers and/or partners to help validate your value proposition. Lastly, you can put together a clear marketing plan to demonstrate how you will reach potential customers.

When raising Seed capital from Angel investors you will need to take your market traction to the next
level. This includes obtaining some Beta testers and ideally, some paying customers. You’ll need a full scale marketing plan that proves a significant market opportunity exists based on what you’ve learned about the market to date.

Ultimately, you need to prove that you understand the sales cycle for your business.

Lastly, when raising Series A capital and beyond from Venture Capitalists or institutional investors you need to show how you will scale the business. By this point, you want to deploy the capital raised in earlier rounds to not only show that there is a demand for your product but that you can scale the product. In order to demonstrate this you need to understand what it costs to acquire a new customer and what the lifetime value of that customer is.

If you have a question about your Startup or you’d like to discuss our business plan writing services, feel free to contact us for a free consultation!

Where to find market, industry and competitive analysis?

Competitive research from The Starup Garage

Where to find market, industry and competitive analysis?

Welcome to video Fridays
from The Start Up Garage


A place where Tyler Jensen, The Startup Garage’s founder, answers questions directly from viewers

Key Take Aways From Video:

1) One of the first places I start with is industry associations or trade associations for that particular industry that you’re going to be in.

2) Google search — really getting into google and searching for the data that you’re looking for is a great place to start, especially on the competitive analysis because your competitors are going to be online most likely, or they’re probably not a competitor.

3) The library has access to a lot of databases. These databases cost a lot of money, but if you go through your library you can get free access to them.

4) Build a team of advisors These are probably the best resource.

Whether you have a question about your business plan or you’d like to discuss our business plan writing services, feel free to contact us for a free consultation!