Tag Archives: ecosystem

Startup Branding 101

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Entrepreneurs invest a lot of time, energy and money into launching their startup. The hours are fueled with excitement and anxiety. There’s a sense of urgency to launch quickly and generate revenue before running out of seed capital. The marketplace is filled with an abundance of competition; hence setting a startup apart from the rest is crucial to its survival and success. This is where branding steps in; once the strategy and goals of the startup are well defined, companies start branding.

Branding is what distinguishes companies apart through a process of creating a unique name, logo, and the experience delivered to customers to attract them and retain their loyalty. The essence of branding is not merely a logo, slogan and a color palette; it is the psychology that is behind a business, the connection between the company and the customer, and understanding your customer and their love for your product.

Many entrepreneurs tend to fail to understand the essence and create a poor identity for their brand. It is important for them to understand that all aspects of branding are critical to their business. They sometimes tend to spend so much time creating and perfecting their startup and don’t allocate the sufficient time and resources to this important step. Some spend a vast amount of time on their beloved idea, which they fall in love with, and end up creating a brand identity based on their thoughts, emotions and visions, completely neglecting to get feedback from customers. They simply assume that customers will love the startup as they have packaged it ignoring their customers’ brand experience.

The branding process should be considered similarly to the product development process; consider customer experience in the design process, gather feedback, adapt, iterate, and repeat until the brand created will resonate with the target. Through receiving customer feedback, resources would be utilized to only improve what customers care about rather than being wasted on items the customer doesn’t care about. Focusing on brand identity while neglecting brand experience is rather pointless when the customer won’t care about the product being promoted.

By a startup improving their brand experience and tweaking flawed products/services, they will gain a clan of passionate and loyal customers who will push the company to grow and thrive. Ignoring that fact could lead to a quick diminishment of any startup.

Guide: First VC Meeting

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Entrepreneurs often seek out venture capitalists (VCs) to seek early stage fundraising for their startup. The process of finding the right VC for their startup, getting through the door, and leaving an impression often proves challenging. Below is a set of guidelines to prepare every entrepreneur seeking funding:

Find the right VC: Do your research and focus on identifying firms who prefer to invest in your stage, industry and technology. Avoid presenting to investors who don’t understand your industry and technology.

Request a meeting: Send the VC an email requesting a meeting that includes your elevator pitch and your presentation attached. This gives the VC the chance to go through your decks and think of it and do the required research ahead of meeting you.

Who should attend: The CEO must attend the meeting and can be joined by a co-founder, if one exists, and one or 2 valuable team members provided that they are good with people and all have a role to play at the meeting.

Presentation: Make sure you have prepared a great deck and rehearsed your delivery as well as how to reply to potential questions before attending the meeting. Do not deliver an overly detailed and lengthy presentation. It is crucial to deliver the perfect pitch, with confidence, passion, and knowledge. Check our post on what your presentation should include and how to deliver the perfect pitch.

Experience: Highlight your relevant past experience and those of your key team members. This helps the VC to decide whether you and your team are capable of implementing the next steps.

Time management is critical. Spend a fraction of the time focused on your presentation and postpone all questions until afterwards. The remainder of the time would be used for discussions. If you are not prepared and focused, the VC will take over the pace of the meeting and lead the discussions.

Don’t expect to get funded: Don’t try to use the first meeting to get funded as soon as possible by throwing in all sorts of information during the initial meeting. What you should be looking for is a request for a next meeting. Usually, VCs would study your presentation and discuss it with their team and would then contact you for a follow-up meeting.

After the meeting: Email the VC after the meeting to thank them for the time and attention they gave you. Do not pester them by constantly calling afterwards. They would get back to you. You can politely call or email a week or two after your initial meeting to follow up.

The intent of a first meeting with a VC is for them to explore if the opportunity you offer is interesting enough for their firm to seriously consider as an investment opportunity. If you have left the meeting with the VC informed on what you do, how you do so, your customer base, your marketing strategy and financial overview, you would have succeeded. Remember, you might never get the chance to meet this VC again, be prepared!

For a better understanding on what VCs look for, read our post on How To Attract Investors.

The Benefits of Entering a Startup Competition

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Entrepreneurs can achieve a lot by competing in startup competitions, even if they don’t win. A primary motivator for startups to enter competitions is usually the chance to acquire additional funding. However, the benefits of entering a competition, let alone winning, are myriad.

Validation:
Usually, the companies/organizations that host startup competitions are the foremost leaders in their fields. When you are selected by them to pitch at their competition, this adds to your reputation with a third-party validation.

Exposure:
The companies/organizations that host startup competitions usually tend to have a strong PR arm. It’s great publicity. If you win you will get a great amount of exposure and recognition, and even if you don’t win, your name will still get out there in the media. These competitions are designed to bring investors and entrepreneurs under one roof so you would also get your name out there to top industry names.

Networking:
As mentioned, the people who attend these competitions are seasoned investors, mentors, and entrepreneurs. It is a great way to meet them and expand your professional network locally and globally; you would also meet and interact with peers who have faced your current challenges. These relationships may be able to help you grow and develop your startup, gain investors, meet a mentor, and keep you in the loop on what’s happening in your field.

Feedback:
When pitching your idea to an audience, you gain the opportunity to receive valuable feedback from prospective investors and clients on your startup, providing you with knowledge on how you can adapt or develop your idea further.

If you have a startup and these benefits have enticed you to participate in a competition, apply to compete at the BDL Accelerate 2015 Early Stage Startup Competition before November 9th. You can read all about the additional benefits of competing and all the BDL Accelerate 2015 stats.

10 Tips For Startup Success

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shutterstock_308670116Launching your startup is definitely no easy feat. If you have a great idea for a startup and have been contemplating going forward with it, these 10 tips will help you start your path to entrepreneurial success.

  1. Stay in motion.
    Many people come up with great ideas only to convince themselves it’s not worth the effort to start working on them, or that they don’t have the skills to see it through. No matter how big your vision, success begins at the starting line. Don’t overanalyze and hesitate. Focus on what you know and the take the step forward to persevere.
  2. Be focused but willing to adapt.
    Pick one of your great ideas and figure out how you are going to master it but be prepared to adapt, evolve, and iterate. Keep trying and adapt your idea while getting feedback.
  3. Be prepared for criticism.
    Constantly seek critical feedback on your idea. You don’t always have to agree with the feedback you receive but the more feedback you have, the more information and knowledge you will have to make the right decisions for your business.
  4. Perfect your elevator pitch.
    You should be able to develop 3 sentences that are clear, compelling, and concise to convey what you are trying to accomplish. This will come in handy when pitching and networking.
  5. Never stop networking.
    Develop a wide network of connections. With every new relationship you create opportunities to be introduced to an investor, an advisor, or a supportive peer. Make sure you’ve perfected your elevator pitch since you would have to convey your message really quickly.
  6. Learn how to attract investors.
    Many first-time startup founders find attracting investors really challenging. Click here to learn how to reach out to investors and attract them.
  7. Build an awesome team.
    Think of your startup as your baby and every individual you hire as the nanny. You want to find the right, passionate and competent people to work with you.
  8. Learn to work with limited resources.
    As a startup you are limited in resources. Sometimes you will find yourself wearing two hats, other times you will find yourself doing mundane tasks, but more importantly, there are times when you have to get really creative on the way you will make things work.
  9. Take a deep breath.
    You might find yourself constantly stressed and worried or overwhelmed with the excitement of your own startup business. As exhilarating as this may be, and as rewarding as it may feel, remember to take a step back every once in a while to take a little breather.
  10. Never give up.
    Last but not least, never give up. There will be days when you will feel like your idea will never pick up or that it will fail. Every successful entrepreneur has felt that, but they were all determined and refused to give up. Keep pitching your idea to as many people as you can and don’t get discouraged when you get more negative responses than positive ones. Have a thick skin and investigate alternatives and adaptations rather than surrendering.

To gain knowledge on the startup industry, attend BDL Accelerate 2015 in Beirut on December 10 to 11. Gain the chance to listen to 100 global seasoned entrepreneurs and investors and the opportunity to network with them. Several workshops will also be provided during the 2 day conference. Check our website to find out more. 

How Startups Can Attract Investors

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For the first-time entrepreneur or founder, looking for seed stage funding may prove to be challenging. Many startup founders look for advice to pitch to investors while their idea is still at a concept stage. The biggest challenge most of them face is they don’t know how to attract investors and what factors influence their decision to invest.

Before understanding how to attract investors, a startup founder needs to learn where to find investors to reach them.

  1. Friends and family:
    Your friends and family know you best. They know your strengths and all your negative attributes. However, if you decide to go with this option, let them understand that investing in a startup is a risky affair and they should only invest if they are willing to take the chance to risk their money. Don’t forget, mixing business with personal relationships can turn into a messy affair.
  2. Individual Angel Investors:
    Another route you can take to raise investment is to find an individual who is prepared to invest in the idea of a startup. The investor has to understand your area of expertise and could bring value to your startup. Think of people you may know who fit the criteria, or of people you know who are connected to such individuals, to make an introduction pitch.
  3. Angel Investor Firms/ Venture Capital Firms
    These firms are continuously seeking to make investments in startups. Check the map of Lebanon’s startup ecosystem to see the list of the major players looking to invest in Lebanese startup companies. With firms such as these, you could raise a much larger investment than from an individual.
  4. Startup Advisors/ Accelerators.
    Startup advisors would understand you better and guide you in the right direction. They would also assist in bringing in the right investors for your startup.

Once you have decided on which route you want to take, understand what it is that investors look for in a startup before you approach them.

  1. Experienced Entrepreneurs:
    The investors prefer more experienced entrepreneurs rather than someone who is completely new in the field; however, don’t be discouraged if you do not have the experience, as this is a completely new field and is not the only contributing factor.
  2. Team:
    Investors will check the entrepreneur and the team, if one exists. They prefer entrepreneurs who are passionate and excited about their idea and their vision, who are tenaciously willing to stick to their vision through challenges and obstacles, who are willing to reevaluate and adapt their plans when needed, who are capable of working with a team, understand their market, and are coachable.
  3. Customers:
    All investors are going to take a look at your customer base. You will have to consider the acceptability of the product in the market. What would compel someone to buy your product or service? What problems would your product solve and how is it better than the alternatives? Positive responses to questions such as these will be a major factor to attract investors.
  4. Opportunity:
    Investors are constantly seeking big ideas that can create an impact, change our behavior or our way of thinking. They also consider if the market is ready to embrace your big idea or if it is an opportunity that the world will not be able to recognize for several years, hence the payoff will be delayed.
  5. Business Model:
    Investors will definitely look at your business model in terms of analyzing if the model is profitable, expandable, repeatable, predictable, and so forth. By studying where revenue will come from and challenging the expenses it would take to generate that revenue, the investor can decide if this investment is worthwhile. Moreover, your business model will assist the investor in creating a probable plan on when they would be able to generate profit and exit accordingly.

 Self-evaluate your startup based on these tips, and if you find areas where you do not excel in, work on improving them. The extra time you invest will significantly help your chances of getting invested in.