Startup Basics

When you are raising capital for your startup, you have to sell your investors on your business. By treating your fundraise as a sales cycle, you can help add structure and efficiency to this effort. In this episode of Startup Basics, Kimmy and Sergio discuss how to work backward from your goal, keep track of your effort, and stay motivated when you're hearing a lot of no's.

Many founders quit their startup dreams when they fail to get their first handful of sales after launching their product. Don't be one of them! In this episode of Startup Basics, Kimmy and Sergio discuss a few tips and tricks to get those initial sales under your belt and set your company on a more positive trajectory.

Innovators are visionaries, but that can sometimes lead them to jump in head first into building or designing a product that isn't quite right and wasting precious time and resources going down the wrong path. The good news is that there is almost always a way to validate your vision and even solution design without writing a single line of code or soldering a wire.  In this episode of Startup Basics, Sergio and Kimmy discuss the importance of validating without tech and some ways to carry it out successfully. 

What do Gmail and Slack have in common beyond being among the most loved and used apps in the world? Both were created with a focus on just three key features, which the companies sought to perfect beyond all. Rather than checking off boxes and cramming in features, innovators would be well served to carefully consider what are the one to three key things that would make your product clearly superior to other options. In this podcast, Sergio and Kimmy explain why focusing on just two or three key features is vital to building a meaningfully differentiated and valuable product.

Running a startup is a race against time, so it's important to keep focused on those things that will help your startup succeed. At the same time, distractions abound. So what should you focus on and what should you eschew? In this episode of Startup Basics, Kimmy and Sergio discuss what are the things to prioritize and what to avoid. 

A very common conundrum for startup founders–particularly non-technical ones–is: “How do I get investment, when investors want to see a product and traction, but I can’t build my product and get traction without money?!” In this episode of Startup Basics we will explore three possible workarounds to help you make progress and break out of this classic Catch-22 situation. 

There is a growing movement to "bootstrap" startups, and that can be a wonderful path. However, there are a number of factors that make some startups much more suitable for bootstrapping than others. Moreover, there are some key negatives as well as positives that founders should consider before committing to bootstrapping.

It doesn't matter if you built the greatest product on earth if you can't find an effective distribution strategy to acquire customers.  In this episode of Startup Basics, Sergio and Kimmy explore a wide array of tactics and marketing channels. They look at flipping the traditional perspective: focusing on tasks first and then channels secondarily. This episode covers a lot of ground so is a must-listen for those starting out! 

Popular tech media would make it seem otherwise, but it's quite rare for a startup to release a product and see users or customers rushing in. Instead, many startups have limited means to promote their launch, and all they get at the beginning is a trickle. This can be very disconcerting, but there is a great framework that can help any startup gain a foothold, build a strong core of users, and figure out their go-to-market strategy. We call it the 1-10-100 rule, and this podcast is all about this brilliant strategy and how to implement it effectively.

Few questions are as polarizing as whether tech founders should themselves move or move their startup to Silicon Valley. On one side, you have staunch advocates arguing that no other place has such access to capital and talent. On the other side, opponents insist that founders should stay where they are. We're here to tell you that both sides are full of hot air. The answer is much more nuanced. In this episode of Startup Basics, Sergio and Kimmy discuss how Silicon Valley and rising tech hubs compare on factors such as inspiration, knowledge, access to capital, talent, and customers. We'll give you some details to consider and let you make up your own mind. 

The media loves celebrity founders such as Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, and Jeff Bezos portraying them as one-man shows. However, most successful founders have at last one co-founder, and it’s quite rare for one individual to build a huge tech startup on their own. Moreover, there are some really important benefits in having one or two co-founders helping you at the very beginning of your startup journey. This episode of startup basics dives into some important factors that can help you decide whether or not to bring on a co-founder.

One of the most deleterious myths that ruins startup dreams is the notion that things happen quickly. Unfortunately, we at Beta Boom meet founders all the time expecting that they will build a product, get traction, and will secure seed funding in a year or less. When progress takes a lot longer, they are caught off-guard and throw in the towel on tons of hard work and sacrifice. With the average age of a startup getting seed funding being over three years, just understanding that the typical startup journey is long hopefully will help listeners better prepare for the road ahead and will help them make their dreams a reality.  

Startup Basics is for entrepreneurs launching tech companies but are not fluent in "startup." Hosted by Beta Boom's founding partners, Sergio and Kimmy, the podcast covers all common topics and questions that many founders are afraid to ask or think they should know. Startup Basics covers subjects like these: Do I need a technical co-founder, and how do I find one? What do investors look for in early-stage startups? What is product-market fit and how to find it? How can I get customers? How can I get money for my startup? If you don't know the difference between a "seed round" and an "A round" or think a "cliff" is a steep rock face, chances are that this podcast is for you. There are other great podcasts focusing on growing a startup or looking back on successes, but Startup Basics really covers the initial stages of a tech enterprise in terms that nearly anyone can understand.