Ghost的动态

The startup ecosystem in San Francisco is ROBUST, my experience: I've explored various startup ecosystems lately, and each has its unique shine. In San Francisco, what stands out is the sheer volume of activity. Every day, there’s been at least one pitch event, networking mixer, or founders/investors gathering to attend. Here are some highlights: -I had the pleasure of listening to Christina founder of Vanta and Jeff Seibert founder of Digits share their startup journeys and tactics. It was incredible to get advice from them. I also had a great conversation with MG (if you're not a fan of accounting and you are building a startup, you should connect with MG). Benjamin brought lots of humor to our conversation with James who is building Duet, a SaaS startup providing mission control software for medical transport (he is raising atm). -Supply Pay won a pitch-off against nine other startups at a Startup Valley event. A huge thank you to my new friends Oleh and Dmytro for their willingness to be in front of the crowd—they helped me explain factoring by playing the roles of a farmer and importer. Tom and I swapped stories about building software in the medical space (founders in this space should connect with him). Special thanks to Andrew for recording the Supply Pay pitch—DM me if you want to see it. -Hyperbolic's event, “AI After Hours,” was a hit. I met Bradley and discovered a product that could be a game-changer for organic marketing. Imagine getting paid to promote and eat at your favorite pho spot—that’s just the start of what he’s building (going to test it out with my wife at our family restaurant soon). Following that event, I went to the Microsoft Reactor after-party, which turned out to be "Death by PowerPoint." Fortunately, Bradley read the room and led some cool people to a bar across the street, where I learned from my friends Fred and Christina how to locate free graduate/Ph.D.-level engineering talent ?? (DM me for access to this). I also discovered the cool things happening at Hive—connect with Shrinidhi if you need models that understand your content! -The week ended with Founders Friday, an event hosted by Kyosuke and his team. For those building in fintech, be sure to connect with Steven—he is helping fintech startups manage their code better! Zakreya blew my mind with what's possible in nanorobotics and phototherapy—he’s building some truly sci-fi products that will make a huge impact in cancer detection and elimination. A big thank you to Ismael, who dropped many gems, especially on navigating my upcoming NYC trip. My new friend Paul also gave invaluable advice on how to prepare before heading to NYC (Paul is building effective anti-theft solutions for big retailers). Finally, I learned about an interesting accelerator opportunity from my new friend Pavel, who’s doing something exciting in the due diligence space for VCs & founders. It was a great first week in SF. I look forward to learning more from everyone here!

It’s Startup Saturday ?? I want to find the top new SaaS GTM Startups on LinkedIn: Early-stage startups are being overshadowed by larger ones. And I’m not seeing all the new tech. So I'm looking to connect with more up-and-coming Startups on LinkedIn. So, if you're a startup that is at Seed or Series A, drop 3 lines below: → What's your business? → What’s your favorite growth tip? → Who is 1 other startup worth following? Who are the Next Sales Tech, Martech, RevOps tech, CS tech, and AI GTM tech brands should we all should be following? Tag ‘em. Tag their founders. Make sure to tag diverse founders and startups with diverse leadership. And submit them here -> https://lnkd.in/e2Y5y3W7 Next 50 GTM Startups list is being curated… *The Next movement has delivered > 1.2 million impressions for emerging talent so far * Let’s make that even higher for startups finding their footing. Let's help emerging startup brands grow. Out with the old. In with the Next. ??

on 23 October 2023, I decided to focus 100% on helping tech founders in their early days (€0 to $25k MRR) because... I feel the pain of thousands of startups I've seen over the years, of losing dozens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of $ and mainly years of their lives by making the same mistakes the predecessors' founders have made in the past. I want to change that, at least with a few startups, at a smaller scale (for the moment), where I can offer my time and expertise in one-to-one personalized mentoring sessions articulated on my founders' needs. from my expertise, the common problems tech founders face in their early days are: ?? focusing on multiple customer profiles, not enough resources to do that ?? investing months/years of work on a product idea without customer $validation ?? lack of discipline & fear of talking with potential customers & selling to them ?? trying to build startups like SpaceX without having $200 million & Elon's expertise ?? losing focus on their business by going all-in in fundraising mode ?? lack of persuasive skills in attracting relevant intelligence (angels, hires, etc.) ?? procrastinating a lot, ideas without execution = 0 these are the common problems that create failed & zombie startups in the market & most founders are losing years of their lives by focusing only on what they are good at (usually only building products) the beauty is that I love working with my founders > helping them solve these problems & pass every barrier they encounter if we start together today, we can start working together on, for ex: ?- Articulate the Customer Profile & Their Problem through Customer Interviews ?- Hypothesis Testing through Fast & Low-Cost MVPs ?- Attract Paying Customers & Grow your Traction ?- Prepare your Startup for attracting your first Angel Investors my purpose is to help my founders reduce wasted time, money & energy in the wrong direction => how? I make you laser-focus on your customer & guide you through the steps. besides this, I’m posting content on LinkedIn daily based on my expertise if you are a Founder of a Tech Startup (€0 -€25k MRR), we can gladly schedule an intro call to get to know each other and check how I can help you with my expertise. Angel Investor or VC looking to partner up & invest in the amazing founders I'm working with? Today, I'm actively working with 12 Tech Startups every week, most of them with the potential for growth & interesting stories. A message away I am. Let's play the game together! & I wish you a great day, dear reader :) cheers! _____________________________________ photo at Business Room Podcast you can watch the full podcast with me talking with Adrian Delcea (link in comments) (Romanian-language) #adigheorghe #mentoring #founders #startups #techstartups #businessroompodcast

What are the fastest-growing startups right now? We just released our annual Top Startups list, a data-backed ranking of the 50 emerging companies you should be paying attention to right now in the U.S. The list highlights the young companies (all founded within the past five years) that are shaping the future of their industries, growing fast and recruiting top talent along the way: https://lnkd.in/USTopStartups2024 LinkedIn News editor Juliette Faraut breaks down the list to share who came out on top and how professionals should weigh the career benefits of working at an early-stage startup vs. a large corporation. Which startups stand out to you on this year’s list? And what are the unique career benefits of working at an early-stage startup? Tell us in the comments. #LinkedInTopStartups

Zepto just claimed the #1 spot on LinkedIn’s 2024 Top Startups list! ?? But what’s their real secret? ? It’s not just fast deliveries or a great idea. ? It’s the power of building a strong brand community. When you look closely at the startups on this year’s list, like Zepto, MindPeers, and Battery Smart, one thing stands out: ?? They’re not just creating products, they’re creating trust. So how can YOU apply this to your personal brand? Let’s break it down: ? Show up consistently → Just like these startups are visible in their industries, you need to show up regularly to build trust. ? Engage deeply → It’s not enough to have a product or service. Build relationships with your audience. → Interact, share value, and let people see the human side of your brand. ? Tell your story → Top startups aren’t just selling services, they’re sharing their journey. → Your personal brand should do the same, share what makes YOU different. If these startups can build loyal communities, so can YOU. How are you using your personal brand to stand out? Share your thoughts in the comments below! ?? #LinkedInTopStartups #Zepto #PersonalBranding #StartupGrowth #LinkedInNews

This week on Startup Life: Unscripted, we're excited to bring you a conversation with ?? Elaha Gurgani, a Community, Marketing & Social Media Associate at early-stage venture capital firm EVP. Here's a sneak peek of our conversation: ?? Global Upbringing: Elaha reflects on how her international experiences have fostered adaptability, a critical trait for thriving in startups. ?? Transitioning Roles: She discusses her shift from working in startups to a venture capital firm, bringing her community-building expertise to a broader scale within the startup ecosystem. ??♀? Building Community: She highlights the importance of empathy and cultural fluency in her role, essential for connecting with and growing a diverse startup community. ??? Entry into Startups: Offering advice for those aspiring to join the startup world, Elaha emphasises the value of embracing one's unique experiences and learning in public as key strategies for success. Curious about more startup stories? Just hit the link below to subscribe and join our vibrant community. Stay tuned for more inspiring tales from trailblazers like Elaha, who are?making waves in the industry!

I've long been captivated by the startup world. As a young marketer in Atlanta, weekends often included walks on the Beltline, listening to Marie Forleo and Tim Ferriss interview thought leaders, entrepreneurs, and changemakers. I love big ideas, testing and learning, and tales of innovation, grit, and triumph. More so, I admire stories of perseverance through failure—and who contends with more failure than startup founders? That’s why I’m excited about the Startup Mountain Summit. For the FoundersForge community, this event is one of our most impactful, bringing together inspirational founders to learn from each other against the beautiful backdrop of Fall in Appalachia. I’m thrilled about our speaker lineup, and here’s why you should be, too. Asia Orangio, founder and CEO of DemandMaven, Inc, was a crowd favorite last year. She shares actionable tools to help founders go from 0 to their first 100 customers. I’m eager for attendees to leave her workshop with tangible insights for their startup journeys. Steve Carse, who co-founded King of Pops after being laid off in 2009, has turned the brand into a Southeast favorite. Now, with a book coming out next year, Steve champions the idea that Work is Fun. Founding several successful companies and authoring The Turnaround Series, it’s safe to say that Jeff Hilimire knows a thing or two about what makes a company prosper. His latest venture - Purpose Group - is built on the notion that business should be a force for good in the world. William Warren, founder and CEO of The Sketch Effect, transformed a creative endeavor into a thriving business. The Appalachian Highlands region is brimming with talented creatives, and I’m excited for our community to hear William’s story. With a degree in aerospace engineering and experiences at Twitter, Yahoo, BrightRoll, and the consulting world, Guy Yalif’s expertise is varied and fascinating. But I also admire how he built Intellimize with two old friends while prioritizing a company culture that celebrates family. Lauren Glass Mullins is the founder of Personality Pool and the first recipient of InvestTN funding in all of Tennessee. She’s a driven entrepreneur building her innovative company right here in the Tri-Cities. If you want to learn how to get your products and services built as a technical or nontechnical founder, FoundersForge Executive Director David Nelson's talk is for you. And Noah Kagan, #30 at Facebook, #4 at Mint.com, CEO of AppSumo and author of Million Dollar Weekend, will inspire you to validate and launch your business in a weekend. If you need motivation, tools to grow, or inspiration for the kind of company you want to build, you’ll find it at the Startup Mountain Summit. Whether you're a seasoned founder or just starting out, get fresh inspiration and take your startup journey to new heights! Tickets & Info: https://lnkd.in/g7KPWkQV

Last week I wrote about opportunities for rural founders. Here are some challenges?and how to overcome them. Lack of cofounders As the former Managing Director of IDEA Hub Accelerator, I ran 3 accelerator cohorts in rural America. Almost all of our 30 teams were led by solo-founders. Being a solo-founder isn’t all bad. One of the major reasons startups fail is due to cofounder issues, after all. But there is a reason companies are led by teams of cofounders. Cofounders can get more done than solo-founders. Even more importantly, cofounders play a crucial role in complementing each other’s skill sets. A solo-founder with an engineering background may struggle with sales, or one with a business background will be stuck in neutral without a full stack developer to build the software. There are ways to combat this. To a very limited degree, AI engines such as ChatGPT can handle some functions that a team member would otherwise handle (drafting memos, first versions of legal docs, etc). I often use ChatGPT as a thought partner for bouncing ideas around. For founders interested in finding a flesh and blood cofounder, we have had great success with the Y Combinator cofounder matching platform. This does mean that your cofounder team will almost certainly be remote, but we live in a world where tech is well-equipped to handle this. An important note, the Y Combinator tool should not be used unless a founder is ready to hit the ground running with a cofounder. Things can move quickly. Lack of investors Most rural communities don’t have any Angel Investors or VCs (Venture Capitalists) around. There is no way around it; this is a tough drawback. But it’s important to note that most investors don’t really care where a company is from, as long as it is lead by formidable cofounders with a product that solves a pressing market need. The trouble is finding the quantity of investors needed to raise an equity round. It’s fair to estimate that to raise a $500,000 seed round, a startup CEO will need to talk to ~100 angel investors or VCs. The trick is to get started. Many founders can find a startup hub within a few hundred miles where investors live, and where networking events may feature investors. Another trick I love for rural founders is to start looking for investors in a specific city on LinkedIn (San Francisco, New York, wherever). Send out hundreds of messages telling them you’ll be in their city and, would they be willing to meet up for coffee to hear about your company? This isn't true, as you in fact have no plans?to be in their city. However, once an investor responds with something like, “sure, can you meet me at the Backyard Brew next Tuesday, 10am?” you go and buy a plane ticket so you can make that meeting. You then proceed to book as many meetings as possible around this now-real meeting. Rural Startup Lab is here to help founders overcome these barriers find personal and professional success.

first 10k friends on LinkedIn on my road to building a 1M tech founders community until 2029 and solving as many problems tech founders have in their early days = at scale! today, I'm working one-on-one with my founders, which takes most of my time & focus in order to offer them value & clarity in validating their hypothesis with paying customers, increase the traction & attract relevant angels. in 1 month, I will have 1 year of doing ALL TIME this mentoring/coaching thing, and I truly love it! working with such amazing founders is a joy. this hat as an all-time mentor/coach / fractional co-founder / advisor or whatever my founders need me to be, this hat is only for a limited period of time combined with my previous expertise in building an angel investment platform, today's expertise will help me understand my customer profile, their life, their pains, and their startup problems, way much better. even if I have +4k tech startups evaluated in the last years and worked with over 500 startups in their early days, I still have many things to learn about my customers = the tech founders & I totally recommend to you this: to never stop learning about your customers, about the people you really want to help solve their problems. so, what's next on my side? za Roadmap (1) find my co-founders, a team of 3, max 5 (2024-2025) with whom to solve the difficult problems early days tech founders have, at scale - globally. (2) launch my first two books (2024-2025) => First Sales in your Tech Startups: How to validate with paying customers => First Investment in your Tech Startup: How to attract the right Angel Investors (3) launch the YouTube channel with Podcast from $0 to $1M ARR ( 2025 ) (4) SaaS community based for Tech Founders ( 2025 ) => targeting directly the problem founders have in attracting the first paying customers (+5) - launch dozens of tech products for tech startup founders in their early days meant to solve their problems & much more in the following +20 years serving this specific niche, tech founders with startups in their early days (between $0 to $25k monthly recurring revenue) cheers to you! & thank you to the 27 Startups (+50 founders) who have trusted me and have hired me to help them with their tech startup since 23 October 2023 let's ROCK, my friends! #10kfollowers #startupcommunity #doersventures #adigheorghe #founders #startups

Let's talk mission creep... Since I started as Executive Director of GrowCo, now Boyd Innovation Center, powered by GrowCo, a whopping 19 months ago, I have received a lot of questions and eyebrow raises regarding our focus on idea stage startups or, better known by startup community and ecosystem builders, as "building top of funnel". If you are curious about why this is our focus or why I've said "not right now" to ideas that don't directly relate to building top of funnel, please take five minutes of your day to read this awesome blog by Chris Heivly. #growcola