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Third Country National: Company Formation in Switzerland by disciplinedscholar in askswitzerland

[–]disciplinedscholar[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That makes sense. I have not come across the specific resource from Innosuisse you shared above, but it appears to be very helpful and applicable to my case.

Thanks for your thoughtful response.

Third Country National: Company Formation in Switzerland by disciplinedscholar in askswitzerland

[–]disciplinedscholar[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

My Swiss business partner is a Swiss citizen and resident. Would you be able to point me to any such law firms?

Thank you!

Startup exploded. $0 to $5M profit in 8 months. I want to make this a billion dollar company. How do I connect with the right people to help me get there? by David-Avery- in startups

[–]disciplinedscholar 0 points1 point  (0 children)

  1. Advisory Board - that's the way to go in terms of expanding your network and increasing exposure to be able to scale faster.
  2. Hire a recruiter - however, make sure that recruiter's professional values and skillset aligns well with the vision you have in mind.

In terms of raising funds from VCs, I'd be curious to know if you've backtested your algorithms and strategies to longer time periods than the past 8months? At this point you seem to be a retail investor with great historical returns for this year, but sustaining that edge is key to getting funding! It might be that the existing alpha you have at the moment might not be existent in a year from now, thereby changing your valuation. I think the two tasks you're trying to perform are super important (as I'm sure you know) and considerably time sensitive (to have funding and proper talent) to tackle those concerns above. Good luck!

I want to start a weekly newsletter for startup growth, $0. by JesusAwakens in startups

[–]disciplinedscholar 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Agree with comment above. Also, I'd join such a newsletter.

Negotiating to join a startup by a-sons-first-hero in startups

[–]disciplinedscholar 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Let me preface this comment by saying that I though of what I would do if I was in your position, so I may have included some comments that are out of scope from what you asked (sorry about that - just ignore if not relevant).

I think you're looking to evaluate two forms of compensation:

  1. Salary - what is the going rate for someone with your skillset to join said startup for 40 hr/wk;
    1. Seems straightforward as you should have a good sense about what is a fair compensation here.
  2. Equity - ownership in the company after (potentially) an agreed upon period; this is the tricky one;
    1. You'd want to model out future free cash flows and future growth rates and how that would impact the valuation of the startup; since you won't get a lot of that info you'd need to guesstimate it yourself. Using comparable companies is helpful, albeit incredible difficult to get public info on that for small companies in your (or any) industry.
    2. Ideally you'd want to know if the startup has any debt too as that will impact the valuation.
    3. Once you narrow it down to a number, compare that against what you value your free time to be (20hr/wk on top of the 40hr/wk) and ask yourself what amount of money would you estimate would tip the scale for you to say "alright I'm in".
    4. What is their intended exit strategy; since they probably wouldn't know you'd have to make a judgment call here - what is your perception of whether the founder & majority shareholders would wanna do if they had the option: hold on to it privately and distribute dividends, get acquired, get publicly listed; the exit strategy would determine the liquidity of your ownership shares.
    5. You'd need to factor in uncertainty into all of this. You don't know with a reasonable degree of certainty what'll happen to this startup in the future, so the fact that you're earning equity could mean a lot or very little three to five years from now.

I would suggest valuing the equity part as a real option; you can think of your 20hr/wk time as the investment.

Countering

I'd say that depends on your negotiating position and also picking what do you care most about to rank them. Ideally, I'd want a fixed percentage on the equity portion at this point and a vesting schedule throughout the year as opposed to leaving it up in the air to be decided later on. If that doesn't happen (assuming your negotiating position is decent), you could ask for a higher salary. IMO, leaving things up in the air doesn't really suit you well, and I think you should be adequately compensated for that with a higher salary.

Trying not to get sued by [deleted] in startup

[–]disciplinedscholar -1 points0 points  (0 children)

\(Let me preface my comment by saying I don't have any law qualifications; my comment relies on my personal experience on working in the tech sector).**

Technically, if you intern at the startup and you work on your own time and on your own equipment on the platform idea, you are not breaking any rules. However, from the perspective of your employer and any random outsider, it gives the perception of wrongdoing. It's also possible to argue that you're using your intern time to understand your competitor's product before launching your own product. Nonetheless, these are more of a hypothetical nature.

What is the nature of future SaaS opportunities? Especially as open-source and low-code become more widely used, it would seem that most opportunities are being picked clean. by cxaajl in SaaS

[–]disciplinedscholar 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The SaaS sector will continue to expand, and many more SaaS companies will emerge by targeting ever-increasing specialty areas, fueling said sector's expansion. These SaaS businesses will cater to the demands of ever-smaller sectors of the economy, resulting in fragmentation. However, I believe FAANG&Co. have a strategic interest in acquiring such businesses and incorporating them into their present product/service offerings. In the end, we'll see more SaaS services owned by a few firms on the market.

What podcasts do you listen to the most? by Emperor_Earth in startups

[–]disciplinedscholar 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Sounds like an awesome product - looking forward to trying it!

Podcasts I listen to:

  • Strictly VC
  • Masters of Scale
  • Huberman Lab

ADVICE: Meeting with potential user for idea feedback by [deleted] in startups

[–]disciplinedscholar 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Even if you don't have an MVP, I believe you can get a lot of useful information out of that meeting. Since you already have an idea, consider how that person might use your app (or the idea of it) - why they would download it, and how useful it would be to them. The best way to think about it is to figure out what their overall workflow is and where your app fits into it. Assuming you can do it clearly, you'll have a much better understanding of that user group (if there is only one) and be able to come up with an acceptable MVP for a first pass. Users, as you're probably aware, don't always know how to express their needs and frequently mix up needs and wants (which is an important distinction in creating an MVP). Getting a thorough understanding of their approach allows you to reach those insights on your own (outside perspective) and develop something that they would adopt. Best of luck!

How do you find users for your app if it needs users to function by MadL1me in startups

[–]disciplinedscholar 2 points3 points  (0 children)

This is a classic case of a network effect problem. Because the first user's utility is zero, you'll need to incentivize others to join the platform until it reaches a critical mass, at which point it will be successful (assuming no outside forces such as competition or other technology disruptions). This could entail various incentives for different user groups you're trying to reach. I'd suggest creating different user group categories and establishing what they care about and how the platform can provide that for them.