Fred Wilson's Survival Matrix(avc.com)
avc.com
Fred Wilson's Survival Matrix
http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2008/10/the-survival-ma.html
12 comments
Are you working on your startup full time? The cost of a single person working on a startup is at least $30k/year, even if you cut salary to the bone.
We've put about 5 man-years into the project, spread out over 4 years time. That time includes 3 years of full-time effort (myself for 1 year, co-founder for 2).
To be completely thorough, we ended up spending a lot of our personal savings to pay our personal bills, which was not included in the official seed investment. Still, that only amounts to perhaps an extra $25k (so all told, we're in the $70-80k range).
With a family of four I've gone back to working full-time at a corporate employer; my co-founder has not and continues to work on it full-time, as he is single and lives a pretty spartan life.
To be completely thorough, we ended up spending a lot of our personal savings to pay our personal bills, which was not included in the official seed investment. Still, that only amounts to perhaps an extra $25k (so all told, we're in the $70-80k range).
With a family of four I've gone back to working full-time at a corporate employer; my co-founder has not and continues to work on it full-time, as he is single and lives a pretty spartan life.
Anyone else find it weird that a VC lacks basic Excel skills?
Not to mention the inability to edit the resulting image if Excel isn't playing ball.
Captain Obvious, is that you?
That entire article and its charts can be summarised in 10 words:
Hoard cash and decrease burn rate to improve survival chances.
That entire article and its charts can be summarised in 10 words:
Hoard cash and decrease burn rate to improve survival chances.
Metrics to slice real data are the basis of informed decisions.
Certainly, but some insights are "duh" insights and not particularly worth sharing with the rest of the world.
"Spending less money and having more money in your bank account improve your chances of survival" should be, from a VC's point of view, roundabout on the same level as "water makes you wet".
"Spending less money and having more money in your bank account improve your chances of survival" should be, from a VC's point of view, roundabout on the same level as "water makes you wet".
Well, lots of people fail to understand "make something people want", right? And I'm getting doubly annoyed with the "less is more" UI advice so often repeated, and then not followed!
well known and obvious to everyone != not worth sharing.
well known and obvious to everyone != not worth sharing.
Was happy to see that NewsCred is in the comfort quadrant!
I am too...oh wait, I don't have a startup at the moment. Maybe that means I should start another one...
Just read your post on your last startup - great post and seems like you learned a lot. I would really encourage you to jump in again. You sound like you're made of the right stuff! Good luck with whatever you do.
Either I'm way out of my league and everyone else has amazingly-capitally-expensive ideas, or we're the cockroach on the cockroach's back.