• Home
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Special Offers
Business Intelligence Info
  • Business Intelligence
    • BI News and Info
    • Big Data
    • Mobile and Cloud
    • Self-Service BI
  • CRM
    • CRM News and Info
    • InfusionSoft
    • Microsoft Dynamics CRM
    • NetSuite
    • OnContact
    • Salesforce
    • Workbooks
  • Data Mining
    • Pentaho
    • Sisense
    • Tableau
    • TIBCO Spotfire
  • Data Warehousing
    • DWH News and Info
    • IBM DB2
    • Microsoft SQL Server
    • Oracle
    • Teradata
  • Predictive Analytics
    • FICO
    • KNIME
    • Mathematica
    • Matlab
    • Minitab
    • RapidMiner
    • Revolution
    • SAP
    • SAS/SPSS
  • Humor

Key Tips for Scaling Your Startup from Jason Calacanis

March 31, 2019   NetSuite
gettyimages 1004118598 Key Tips for Scaling Your Startup from Jason Calacanis

Posted by Anthony Stames, Software Industry Marketing Lead

LAUNCH founder Jason Calacanis recently sat down with NetSuite to share what he’s learned over a career in which he’s invested in more than 200 startups, including unicorns like Uber, Thumbtack, Calm.com and Robinhood. Some of his insights are surprisingly counterintuitive, others refreshingly down-to-earth. They’re all expressed in the kind of frank, practical terms that the industry has come to expect from one of its boldest voices.

In the webinar, Calacanis explained what works in the earliest stages of a startup’s existence doesn’t necessarily attract angel investors; what an angel investor sees as a sign of promise might strike a venture capitalist considering a round of Series B financing as a threat to ROI or a negligent investment altogether. Businesses in the startup phase that anticipate these challenges make the best possible case for the kind of financing that drives increased market penetration and valuation.

Here are a few takeaways:

Generate Revenue Right Off the Bat

Calacanis’ first point is the most important: startups should have one business model, and it should include revenue generation from day one. A long-term vision of success is what gets startups off the ground, but Calacanis warns against applying that same long-term thinking to a startup’s business model.

The days are gone when most startups could count on slowly developing a user base before introducing advertising revenue: companies like Uber and Airbnb incorporated revenue generation into their earliest business models and adjusted their revenue streams only as they made commensurate changes to their services and overall business models. In time, a startup may produce strong, reliable revenue streams through subscriptions, advertising and affiliate programs, but it’s unlikely to get anywhere near that point if its founders don’t concentrate on what works best right from the start.

Avoid the Feature Death March

If a startup’s business model should stay simple, so should its approach to product development. Founders are naturally filled with ideas for their flagship products, some of which can be incorporated in beta, others of which need to be held for future releases. And the ideas keep coming as a startup matures. That’s a good thing…right?

Not always. Calacanis notes that most successful startups focus on steady, incremental improvements to core services, not the introduction of flashy new features. A startup’s goal should be to produce deep products and services of narrow scope; this approach tends to set a startup apart from its competition and to cultivate customer loyalty. Developers, who know this phenomenon as Feature Creep, will be happier, too.

Adjust Your Team

It’s an awkward and often painful reality, but the right team for a startup’s bootstrapping phase isn’t the right one for an angel investor. Founding partners who feel right at home in the whack-a-mole flurry of a startup’s early days may not be content with just one role, or even effective in that capacity. And the distinction grows even more stark when rounds of VC move those founders up to managerial roles.

Successful startups are honest about the need for fewer generalists and more specialists as their companies grow. And they become adept, however uncomfortable the process may be, at helping people move on when the time is right. Even when those people helped launch the company from a dorm room.

Hear the rest of Calacanis’s points in his own distinctive voice.

Posted on Mon, March 25, 2019
by NetSuite filed under

Let’s block ads! (Why?)

The NetSuite Blog

Calacanis, from, Jason, Scaling, Startup, Tips
  • Recent Posts

    • Pearl with a girl earring
    • Dynamics 365 Monthly Update-January 2021
    • Researchers propose Porcupine, a compiler for homomorphic encryption
    • What mean should I use for this exemple?
    • Search SQL Server error log files
  • Categories

  • Archives

    • January 2021
    • December 2020
    • November 2020
    • October 2020
    • September 2020
    • August 2020
    • July 2020
    • June 2020
    • May 2020
    • April 2020
    • March 2020
    • February 2020
    • January 2020
    • December 2019
    • November 2019
    • October 2019
    • September 2019
    • August 2019
    • July 2019
    • June 2019
    • May 2019
    • April 2019
    • March 2019
    • February 2019
    • January 2019
    • December 2018
    • November 2018
    • October 2018
    • September 2018
    • August 2018
    • July 2018
    • June 2018
    • May 2018
    • April 2018
    • March 2018
    • February 2018
    • January 2018
    • December 2017
    • November 2017
    • October 2017
    • September 2017
    • August 2017
    • July 2017
    • June 2017
    • May 2017
    • April 2017
    • March 2017
    • February 2017
    • January 2017
    • December 2016
    • November 2016
    • October 2016
    • September 2016
    • August 2016
    • July 2016
    • June 2016
    • May 2016
    • April 2016
    • March 2016
    • February 2016
    • January 2016
    • December 2015
    • November 2015
    • October 2015
    • September 2015
    • August 2015
    • July 2015
    • June 2015
    • May 2015
    • April 2015
    • March 2015
    • February 2015
    • January 2015
    • December 2014
    • November 2014
© 2021 Business Intelligence Info
Power BI Training | G Com Solutions Limited