44 karma · joined September 5, 2014
It’s true that we are taught to look over your shoulder when opening a car door, but to label it “the Dutch Reach” is really too much honor. It’s just common sense.
Getting Things Done - not the method but the insight that you can’t manage time, only your actions. And that it’s OK not do to anything without having to make excuses to yourself.
The 2nd and 3rd Ender novels - Ramen and Varelse are concepts that apply to vega/veganism from a completely different angle. It’s not an intended metaphor I think, but it applies to my life on a personal leve; (I’m not vegan, my wife is).
I've been a logo designer myself, waaaay back, and have always known that just having someone designing a pictogram and styling a word is kinda winging it. There's more to it than being good at drawing/sketching/Adobe-doey.
Our logo was a three month process with a branding agency, of which the actual logo design took less than a month to iterate.
The main part is getting straight what the brand represents, who's it for and what the persona of the brand is. You want the designer to really understand what the product/company is about. We couldn't have done this went starting out, since we didn't know all that.
So, if there's a take-away from all this, besides that good logos cost good money, is that you should get your product really straight, before spending money on a logo. Bad or fuzzy product view gets you a bad logo.
In our free market economy, there will always be a system where someone hires you to create value, which costs less than it makes them, in the end. If you want a bigger slice of that pie, you need to make it a viable business case. Hiring a top freelancer to create value, without the hassle for the employer, is worth a markup. Being scarce helps too.
To me, it sounds like your main issue is that you feel you don’t get enough of that added value you bring. If normal compensation schemes don’t cut it for you, you surely must be able to ask a major hourly rate as a freelancer, or a royalty.
I'd personally focus on a KPI that tells you something about how much your customers like your product, and can't live without it. Aim for turning even a few of them into evangelists. Retention is the main force driving that.
But once you get that deep, it's just as easy to implement a full AARRR funnel that will give you much more insight.
For example, one of my kids got into Thomas the Tank Engine. I got her an iPhone game that taught here eye-hand coordination and puzzle solving. Lasted for a week, after which she got into toilet training. There's an app for that (Pepa Bath, pretty cool). You catch my drift...
We do non-recurring monthly and recurring annual as a in-between solution.
Me and my co-founder regard our "ventures" into music as part of what needed to be learned to be able to become good coders. Without it, we would be not this skilled. So we're happy we didn't end up doing what we wanted to. Sounds like you have the same experience :)
I sometimes hear founders regretting it, thinking the returns are too high compared to the initial investment (angel, seed). That's unfair, I think. It reeks of jealousy. You can't put a value on the peace of mind you get, for a while, of being able to do it your way.
FWIW, we only did a large seed round, no need for VC since, so things might be pretty different for Startups in the Series ;)
About 10% actually did a review of us on launch which gaves us a major boost. However, the ones that reviewed us a few months later are those with a long tail.
Reach out to those that love good products. Even if they have a small audience, it all adds up in the end.
I was a mastering engineer before becoming a founder, and my cofounder was DSP engineer. We're both allergic to bad processing so we were pretty sceptic about everything Bose. Their other stuff is terrible, but this is awesome. Just did 20 hours of travelling, couldn't be happier. I also have 1400 USD custom mould Ultimate Ears but I'll never use those again on planes.
Only downside I've come across is some pitch bending when listening to high pitched strings in soundtracks (Rogue One, Arrival)
Then we targeted reviewers of competing/related products. That's what the kicker was in the end. A small launch easily eats up all your time, so keep it simple. A continuous drip beats a big bang.
Is your product niche enough so that there's a handful of sites covering it? Reach out to them. That's all you'll need in the start, and honestly all that is possible for you to reach. Don't go the way of paid ads and such, put in sweat first.
PS: IMHO you don't get to decide if you reach MVP, it's the users that do so by telling you it's a useful product and they're happy to be using it. Then they'll start asking to add more features ;)
Do you need your cofounder? Can your business continue without him/her? If so, continue to build out your business. If it's worthy of another round, it will come. If not, you just have a healthy business and you could always focus on a stock buyback program with interest to offer a more instant gratification for your angels/f&f investors. About 99,9999% of business are funded this way.
Everyone's always hoping to score big time, but if a startup grows into a regular business that's a pretty good result. Even a little dividend after ten years beats a liquidation.
It's a nuisance for incorporated startups for sure, but there's a catch: if you can show you can't afford it, you don't have to pay up. Problem is that you need a ruling for it, which you can request after incorporating. A classic Catch 22.
Otoh, to put 48K in perspective: if you work 32 hours a week the 48K comes down as well to the level of about 2K/m net income. If you're in Amsterdam you can count on 1+K just for housing so you'll need that kind of income anyway. Of course you don't really work just 32 hours, but your contract can state it without issues. 32-36 hours is considered fulltime in the Netherlands.
The system is designed on liability: when incorporated, you cannot not be held liable as a person, only the incorporation can. This has a cost, so to say. The Dutch systems assumes that if you need that kind of "protection", you have a proven business and revenue to pay for the "luxury".
If you choose the non-incorporated business types (a EMZ or VOF), you are personally liable and you get a LOT of tax rewards for it. I've been a successful freelancer for 15+ years before becoming a founder, and haven't paid more than 20K in taxes in all those years combined. You get so much tax benefits that it doesn't make sense to incorporate before you take home a profit of about 120K/y. With a median income <30K, that is a lot of tax to pay up for accountability.
But, if you want to go with investors incorporating is the way to go. You can't just incorporate in Estonia and have your company in Amsterdam. You'll be taxed like a Dutch company.
Long story short: NL is awesome for startups, just don't incorporate before you have investors or serious profits.
There's a big caveat though: 5%+ shareholders are considered managing directors (a "DGA": Director/Majority Shareholder), and as such should receive a minimum salary of 48K EUR per year. There's a special startup exempt on the way that lowers this to minimum wages for some years.
Bottom line: if you want to incorporate in NL, as a founder you're ought to receive a salary and pay taxes accordingly.
Triage everything that comes into your (e)mailbox, Slack, whatever. It's the deciding what's actionable and what's not that makes your GTD work. Get the info you need from those inboxes into a single filing system, and stick to it.
Mine is OmniFocus, your mileage most likely will vary.
How big is the team? Have you considered turning them into smaller timezone based teams, and doing short sprints? They'd all share the PO and Scrum Master so you'll have a pilot view .
Well worth the money, and I believe it has become cheaper now that they have freemium iOS app.