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Entries Tagged as 'Interview'

How to raise money with no lead

July 31st, 2010 · 8 Comments

Paul Graham says “The future [of funding] is no fixed amount, no fixed closing date, and no lead.” In other words, the future of financing is continuous, not discrete.
This post explains how to raise a seed round with no lead, no fixed amount, and a fluid closing date. The process is called mass syndication, or a [...]

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Learn more about: Angels · Interview

Naval on GigaOm TV

May 13th, 2010 · 3 Comments

GigaOm TV released an interview with our Naval today. It’s pretty damn good:

Video: Naval on GigaOm TV

The topics aren’t new but I always learn something when I listen to Naval. He discusses the three traits you need to look for in a partner, how important it is to be in Silicon Valley, and lots more.

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Learn more about: Interview · Video

Our Inc. interview about angels

April 22nd, 2010 · No Comments

Howard Greenstein from Inc. recently interviewed Naval and me for a post called 5 Questions for an Angel Investor:
Howard Greenstein: How does a start-up know when it is ready for Angel funding?
Venture Hacks: If you’ve just got an idea, check out incubators like Y Combinator and TechStars. Or you might be able to convince someone [...]

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Learn more about: Angels · Interview

Interview: How to close an angel round

April 6th, 2010 · 7 Comments

Sean Ellis taught me that startups need to be as creative and thoughtful about their marketing as they are about their products. But we’ve never applied that thinking to Venture Hacks. We focused on writing stuff that doesn’t suck, didn’t engage in marketing histrionics, and figured the customers would come. More important, we simply weren’t [...]

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Learn more about: AngelList · Interview

How to optimize web apps with KISSmetrics

February 17th, 2010 · No Comments

Thanks to KISSmetrics for supporting our interview with Sean Ellis. If you want an intro to KISSmetrics, send me an email. I’ll put you in touch if there’s a fit. Thanks. – Nivi
Hiten Shah from KISSmetrics recently sat down with me to discuss how to optimize funnels with their upcoming analytics tool, KISSmetrics.
You may know [...]

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Learn more about: Customer Development · Interview · Podcast · Sponsor

How to bring a product to market, Part 2 — after product/market fit

January 12th, 2010 · 14 Comments

“Where the #@!*% is Part 2?”
That’s what I’ve been hearing since we published Part 1 of our rare interview with Sean Ellis.
Here’s part 2.
In Part 1, Sean discussed what you do before product/market fit: how to get there, how to measure it, and how to survey your users so you can improve fit.
In Part 2, [...]

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Learn more about: Customer Development · Interview · Podcast

How to measure product/market fit with survey.io

December 15th, 2009 · 12 Comments

Thanks to KISSmetrics for supporting our interview with Sean Ellis. If you want an intro to KISSmetrics, send me an email. I’ll put you in touch if there’s a fit. Thanks. – Nivi
Hiten Shah from KISSmetrics recently sat down with me to explain how to use their product, survey.io, to measure product/market fit and find [...]

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Learn more about: Customer Development · Interview · Podcast

How to bring a product to market / A very rare interview with Sean Ellis

December 14th, 2009 · 34 Comments

Sean Ellis recently sat down with us and explained how to bring products to market. You should listen to this interview for ideas on how to get to product/market fit, how to measure fit, and how to survey your users so you can improve fit.
If you don’t know Sean from his blog or tweets, he [...]

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Learn more about: Customer Development · Interview · Podcast

Interview: How to pick a co-founder

November 30th, 2009 · 5 Comments

We received a lot of good questions and feedback on How to pick a co-founder:
Is two co-founders the only way to go? How do we split up the company? Who’s the boss? How do I know when to compromise on a co-founder?
So Naval and I recorded a 40-minute interview to answer your questions, explain how [...]

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Learn more about: Founders · Interview · Podcast

Opening board meetings to the entire company

March 25th, 2009 · 3 Comments

In the second part of my interview with Eric Ries, we discuss (1) acquiring customers without launching and (2) opening up board meetings to the entire company.
At IMVU, Eric and the management opened up board meetings to the entire company. Why?

To give people the information they need to do their jobs.
To teach everyone in the [...]

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Learn more about: Board of Directors · Interview · Launch · Organization · Podcast