4 ms·

The Entrepreneur's Roadmap – From Concept to IPO

151 points by mgav 9y ago

hennsen 9y ago
You don’t necessarily need an IPO and NYSE to be an entrepreneur. Have an idea for a product people need and are willing to pay for, create an organization that provides that product to these people to a price they can pay and that allows you to properly pay things and people neded to make and continually improve that product. Done. I hear too many stories where people design a company from the ground up for investors to get into instead of thinking about any of the abovementioned points. And then we are surprised that we have one financial bubble imploding after the other.
- herbst 9y ago
  Exactly. The sentiment that you need VC money and IPO is kind of crazy these days. Why would I even want further people that say me what I should do with my company. Except when money really is necessary I really don't see why.
  - ttoinou 9y ago
    This. Unless the product needs a lot of Research and Development first, you don't need to follow the VC path all the time
  - hennsen 9y ago
    And even if you need money for your product to develop and to pay initial stuff/staff to get started, that doesn’t necessarily have to come from an IPO-oriented VC...
- firefoxd 9y ago
  I'm still in part one, but I think the roadmap is still useful even if you don't go IPO.
  - hennsen 9y ago
    Might be and i admit i didn’t really start reading into it. I am just against the idea that you have to go VC, IPO, and NYSE to call yourself entrepreneur.
- nathantross 9y ago
  Hence the rise of the ICO for example.
olivermarks 9y ago
From Steve Case's intro: '...Entrepreneurship may be at its cultural apex in this country, but it is actually on the decline. Between 1978 and 2012, the number of companies less than one year old declined as a share of all business by 44%.' This looks to be a very useful read, focused on the future 'third wave' rather than the past...and seems particularly valuable around scaling up after initial push...something I don't know enough about...
eorge_g 9y ago
This is interesting as a piece of brand marketing for the NYSE. They must be taking the ICO threat seriously.
- kwikiel 9y ago
  Because the threat is real - by projects like https://neufund.org/ https://neufund.org/ Ability to get access to liquidity and financing is game changer for some industries and separates startup hubs from other usual cities. Imagine that instead of getting through bankers underwriting IPO's you can do same thing in the form of token as equity. It's currently not compatible with Howey Test since equity tokens are obviously a security - but once one sensible country will adapt reasonable regulations towards cryptocurrencies and equity tokens NYSE and VCs may be distrupted - and free market, althou still regulated can produce multiple productivity improvements via removing such frictions.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
PeOe 9y ago
I also think that actually planning for the involvement of a VC is quite crazy. Many companies "use" VC´s for the wrong reasons. Why would I plan to give away a piece of my company for money? I mean, VC´s can be useful when you really need financing and want to scale. But otherwise one should concentrate on really building a long-term business. But enough about that. The article otherwise is pretty helpful. I can especially relate to this quote: “If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together.”. That´s an important lesson. Together you can bounce ideas and make clearer and better decisions.
zoeadamovicz 9y ago
ICOs are very much like IPOs, just a lot cheaper to start. The only step to take to make this a real threat for NYSE is cleaning up the regulatory situation - which is already happening around the world. And than indeed the questions is what the role of VC would be in the world where anyone, even a bar around the corner, can afford an IPO...

151 points by mgav 9y ago

You don’t necessarily need an IPO and NYSE to be an entrepreneur. Have an idea for a product people need and are willing to pay for, create an organization that provides that product to these people to a price they can pay and that allows you to properly pay things and people neded to make and continually improve that product. Done. I hear too many stories where people design a company from the ground up for investors to get into instead of thinking about any of the abovementioned points. And then we are surprised that we have one financial bubble imploding after the other.

herbst 9y ago
Exactly. The sentiment that you need VC money and IPO is kind of crazy these days. Why would I even want further people that say me what I should do with my company. Except when money really is necessary I really don't see why.
- ttoinou 9y ago
  This. Unless the product needs a lot of Research and Development first, you don't need to follow the VC path all the time
- hennsen 9y ago
  And even if you need money for your product to develop and to pay initial stuff/staff to get started, that doesn’t necessarily have to come from an IPO-oriented VC...
firefoxd 9y ago
I'm still in part one, but I think the roadmap is still useful even if you don't go IPO.
- hennsen 9y ago
  Might be and i admit i didn’t really start reading into it. I am just against the idea that you have to go VC, IPO, and NYSE to call yourself entrepreneur.
nathantross 9y ago
Hence the rise of the ICO for example.

olivermarks 9y ago

From Steve Case's intro: '...Entrepreneurship may be at its cultural apex in this country, but it is actually on the decline. Between 1978 and 2012, the number of companies less than one year old declined as a share of all business by 44%.' This looks to be a very useful read, focused on the future 'third wave' rather than the past...and seems particularly valuable around scaling up after initial push...something I don't know enough about...

eorge_g 9y ago

This is interesting as a piece of brand marketing for the NYSE. They must be taking the ICO threat seriously.

kwikiel 9y ago
Because the threat is real - by projects like https://neufund.org/ https://neufund.org/ Ability to get access to liquidity and financing is game changer for some industries and separates startup hubs from other usual cities. Imagine that instead of getting through bankers underwriting IPO's you can do same thing in the form of token as equity. It's currently not compatible with Howey Test since equity tokens are obviously a security - but once one sensible country will adapt reasonable regulations towards cryptocurrencies and equity tokens NYSE and VCs may be distrupted - and free market, althou still regulated can produce multiple productivity improvements via removing such frictions.

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

PeOe 9y ago

I also think that actually planning for the involvement of a VC is quite crazy. Many companies "use" VC´s for the wrong reasons. Why would I plan to give away a piece of my company for money? I mean, VC´s can be useful when you really need financing and want to scale. But otherwise one should concentrate on really building a long-term business. But enough about that. The article otherwise is pretty helpful. I can especially relate to this quote: “If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together.”. That´s an important lesson. Together you can bounce ideas and make clearer and better decisions.

zoeadamovicz 9y ago

ICOs are very much like IPOs, just a lot cheaper to start. The only step to take to make this a real threat for NYSE is cleaning up the regulatory situation - which is already happening around the world. And than indeed the questions is what the role of VC would be in the world where anyone, even a bar around the corner, can afford an IPO...