Launch Chat

Today’s question comes from from Carl, who has a question about MoviePass. How did the company take off with such a bad business model? Why were investors OK with a strategy that has consistently lost money? Was there some original plan that didn’t pan out?

Today’s question comes from from Tanner. Imagine you found an angel investor willing to pay you $100 million, with the condition that you have to use it build your own startup. Where would you put that money to ensure success? Your goal doesn’t necessarily have to be profit maximization. For example, some may be interested in sales or growth maximization while others may be interested in social welfare. Another goal could be to sell to a large corporation. The question is, what would you do in that situation?

Today’s question comes from from Edward. I’m close to being finished with my MVP and am ready to move on to market viability and seed round investing. I’ve got a lot of people in my network who are interested in what I’m doing and would be great additions to my team. How can I give them incentive to work with me without giving them equity deals above and beyond how much they’ll be able to put into the business? How do I manage the split?

Today’s question comes from from Chris. I’ve seen advice that said I should find leads by cold emailing the founders or CEOs of companies that may be interested in our product. I’ve also heard that I could use LinkedIn to find leads. Is cold emailing the best or most used strategy?

Today’s question comes from from Michelle. My startup involves users buying and selling items and services to each other. We would like to improve customer experience by providing customers with refunds if payment problems arise. How do we handle the compensation process? Do we need a bank account? How complex does this process need to be?

Today’s question comes from from Kyle. I’m solving a specific problem using my background but the markets where this could be deployed are areas I’m not all that interested in. Is it OK to work on a startup you’re not passionate about?

Today’s question comes from Peter. I’ve done some research into competitors and I have a few competitors in the US but none have expanded nationwide yet. If I place a stronghold here in London would I be able to expand to the US and immediately have a leg up on my competitors?

Today’s question comes from Paul. I’ve spent a few days thinking of every name imaginable for my business that I’m starting. How do you come up with a unique business name? Do you go with something generic or something that is specific to what the product or service does?

Today’s question comes from Victor. I’m wondering if you have a formula or calculation to figure out the valuation of a company. I’m looking to bring in new investors but need to know how I can determine the value of my company.

Today’s question comes from Samuel. Can you recommend a staged roll out plan for a startup? I don’t want to activate everyone that’s signed up, but I want to test my new app with a few users first before rolling out to everyone. Is there an easy way to do this?

Today's question comes from Mark. I am trying to figure out how many users may be needed for our first round to validate the product and validate where needed. We are looking at getting feedback that would help improve our functionality for our customers. Most of our customers are signing up and leaving, but should I continue to try to get users or should I focus on getting feedback.

Today’s question comes from Theo. I am part of a team that just started working on our MVP for a SaaS product. I’m wondering when we should start building the marketing website? Should it be at the same time as we build the product so that we can get Alpha testers?

Today’s question comes from Simon. 1) I see a lot of people have grown tired of Kickstarter because many products failed to deliver as promised. Do you see this as a viable option for startups? 2) Are you potentially locked into a design if you put it on Kickstarter?

Today’s question comes from Tony. I’m working on some patent applications and I’ve narrowed it down to two lawyers: one with a big firm in Silicon Valley with lots of experience and one local guy who seemed interested in working with me and spent time explaining things to me that the other guy did not.

Today’s question comes from Cheryl. From what I understand, a mentor should help guide growth and stop telling founders to quit their startup. What responsibility does a mentor have if they know failure is imminent?

Today’s question comes from Miguel. Most unicorn startups seem to accept just having bad customer support during the early stages. It seems the fastest growing startups spend the least amount of time and service on customer support. Our startup wants to prioritize customer support, but what are your recommendations for different stages?

Today's question comes from Jeremiah. I am a solo founder of my startup and I'm wondering if I should do an About Us page that just showcases me. Would you recommend having an About page in this situation? When should you have an About Us page and what should it have on it?

Today's question comes from Jacob. I don't have a big budget to spend on ads, but I do have time to work on marketing. If you were only going to do free marketing plans, what would you spend time on?

Today's question comes from Jimmy. I just bought a company for a few thousand dollars from Flippa. The founder didn't have time to work on it anymore, but it has potential. What are some things you would do to get it some traction?

Today's question comes from Lindsay. What kind of benefits can I offer my earliest employees? I can't offer health care, a lot of time off, or a large salary. What are some things I can offer them on a limited budget?