Bret Waters
Redwood City
Silicon Valley guy - find me on Threads.
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Articles by Bret Waters
Stop Drinking the Kool-Aid: Build a Business, Not a Pitch Deck.
I’ve ranted for a long time that unicorn hunting has warped the startup ecosystem. So when I recently watched this video of John Vrionis explaining all the things wrong with the Sand Hill Road Venture Capital model, I nearly stood and applauded at my desk. Watch the video when you have a chance, but here’s the essence of it: Premature scaling is a leading cause of startup death.
Startup Land 2024
For startup founders and their investors, 2024 is a whole new enchilada. Last year marked the end of a decade-long run of crazy market conditions and we’re now in the new normal. Here’s my list of trends to be aware of as we enter this new era. Eggs are shipped by the dozen, and so is this list. Note that this is not a dozen “technology trends” (you can find plenty of those elsewhere).
Case Study: Dollar Shave Club
In 2010, a guy named Michael Dubin had graduated from college and was learning comedy improv while working various marketing and advertising gigs, trying to decide what to do with his life. One night he met a friend’s father at a party, and they started talking about the ridiculous cost and hassle of men’s razors. The two of them chatted about how irritating it was to have to go to the story to buy overpriced razor blades every couple weeks.
Is it dawn or dusk in Silicon Valley?
In the 80-year history of Silicon Valley there have been three major accelerants to the growth of the ecosystem. The first was the flood of research dollars provided by the Department of Defense during the 1960's and 1970's, the second was the greenfield internet and the lifting of H-1B visa caps during the 1990's, and the third was the avalanche of cheap capital from 2010-2022. All three of those have now run their course. It definitely feels like we're at the end of an era.
Marketing your early-stage startup for free (do it now, not later).
Successful startups begin their marketing efforts long before they actually have a product ready to sell. Customer acquisition always ends up being harder than you think it's going to be, so begin the process of building a marketing foundation now. Also, great entrepreneurs know that product development needs to be informed by real-world interactions, so you want to be doing customer development while you are doing product development.
This startup is using AR on smartphones to help everyone learn the benefits of meditation and...
Everybody tells me I should do meditation. Even the Mayo Clinic recommends meditation, saying that it will improve my emotional well-being and overall health. But honestly it's just not something that comes naturally to me.
What has unicorn hunting done to us?
I was enjoying a glass of wine recently with my friend, David. We've both been in the Silicon Valley startup world for our entire careers - he ended up hiking the Venture Capital trail while I stayed on the entrepreneur path, but we were both hunting unicorns (billion dollar companies). Yet here we were, with a delicious bottle of Rafanelli Zinfandel, talking about Mittelstand, the German term describing companies that are decidedly non-unicorn but are the rock-solid foundation of any economy.
Hire for attitude and aptitude.
Yesterday, Sam Altman (former President of Y Combinator) tweeted “If you hire for extreme amounts of aptitude and drive, and put those people in positions that are ‘ahead’ of their career trajectory, you are almost guaranteed of success”. I smiled when I read this tweet, because in my own career as a serial startup CEO, I found this to be 100% true.
The biggest dilemma for any startup founder.
Photo by Brendan Church on Unsplash Startup founders are caught between two absolute imperatives as they go through the daily ups and downs of running a startup. On one shoulder is the mythical Steve Jobs, saying “You must stick to your vision, ignore the naysayers, and believe that you are right, no matter what!”.
How to test and validate your startup idea.
Photo by Andrew Measham on Unsplash For entrepreneurs, the ideation phase can be fun (everyone loves brainstorming!) but at some point you need to test and validate your startup idea. Or maybe you have several startup ideas — how do you choose which one to go all-in on? In my own career, I learned the hard way that building an unvalidated idea can be a very expensive mistake. Fortunately, today there are incredibly powerful tools and processes available for validating a startup idea.
Build something people want.
Photo by eniko kis on Unsplash The Launch Path: Step 2 Sidebars: ➵ The Edsel. ➵ The Truth about MVP’s. ➵ Put some Turk in your MVP. ➵ Great entrepreneurs are willing to embrace being wrong. ➵ Can a startup be both B2B and B2C? ➵ Build the right MVP. ➵ Trader Joe’s. ➵ Doing Customer Interviews Right Back in 1999, toward the end of the year, I had an awesome idea for a new startup.
Startup Founder Integrity
Photo by Claudio Schwarz on Unsplash Excerpt from The Launch Path (a new book, under development). Some entrepreneurs have a tenuous relationship with truth-telling. Don’t be one of those. My first full-time job, at the age of 21, was with a company in San Francisco. One day the Feds came marching into the accounting office and arrested the CFO. It turned out that he had been writing himself company checks for $50K to support his personal gambling habit.
Anatomy of a Term Sheet
The Launch Path (a new book, under development). A term sheet is simply a non-binding document outlining the terms of a proposed investment. If accepted, it then becomes a guide for the lawyers who will draw-up the actual legal documents required to complete the financing. As with anything, all of these terms are negotiable. So let’s dive in and understand what they are mean. This example is for a Series A (first equity financing) for an awesome new startup named Breakfust.
Glossary of Startup Financing Terms
The Launch Path (a new book, under development). Equity Financing Any financing where the investor is buying part of the company in return for the capital invested. The investor now has a claim to a percentage of all future profits of the company, and to a share of any future sale (or liquidation of the company). Unlike debt there is no operating repayment obligation, per se.
As a predictor of startup success, what’s better: solo founders or founding teams?
Photo by Jenny Ueberberg on Unsplash I’ve been a solo founder and I’ve also been part of founding teams. Honestly, I think my personality is better-suited to being a solo founder (and my former co-founders would probably agree). But for you, as you’re starting your venture, it is better to be a solo founder or to get some co-founders? This is one of the longest-running debates in Startup Land — if you ask three people in Silicon Valley you’ll probably get five answers.
Cap Tables (and how to avoid my very expensive mistake).
This is a simple one. They can get very hairy. In the world of startups, few things are as consequential as the Capitalization Table. Conceptually, it’s a very simple document— it’s just a list of who owns what percentage of the company. But it can get complicated in a hurry, with cofounder agreements, stock options issued, lawyers who hold stock warrants, investors who own preferred shares, advisors who were promised equity, and many other twists and turns.
The most important startup advice ever.
One Tweet to rule them all. I woke up this morning and saw this Tweet from Paul Graham, the co-founder of Y-Combinator: In 99% of startups, failing to execute is a much bigger danger than being copied. So it’s a mistake to risk the former in order to avoid the latter. I’ve been immersed in the Silicon Valley startup world for my entire career. I’ve worked with hundreds of entrepreneurs through my teaching at Stanford and my work with two startup accelerators.
Excited for LA tech
After 20 years in the Bay Area and the Silicon Valley tech world, my husband and I are packing up the kids and dog and moving to LA. Neither of us had jobs lined up in LA and it’s not like its possible to save money while living in SF with 3 kids, but I was having a #girlboss moment and feeling confident that I could move to LA and find my people… and find I did! I did a whirlwind get-to-know-LA-tech tour.
Oliver Walsh of ASYSTEM: Getting An Upgrade; How Anyone Can Build Habits For Optimal Wellness, Performance, & Focus
As a part of our series about “How Anyone Can Build Habits For Optimal Wellness, Performance, & Focus”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Oliver Walsh. Oli Walsh is a seasoned entrepreneur and co-founder of the innovative self-care company, ASYSTEM. Prior to ASYSTEM, he was CMO of the women’s fashion retailer Aritzia, where he helped take the company public. He also co-founded and served as CEO to Wednesday Agency, the pioneering London-NYC creative agency.
The Feedback-Centric Organization
Let’s consider two engineering managers, John and Jane. They have the same seniority, they both work on similar projects in similar conditions and their teams are both terribly smart. John insists on personally reviewing and approving every change, no matter how small. This doesn’t just concern the codebase: if an engineer wants to try a new productivity tool with the team, they have to go through John.
Social Impact Heroes: Why & How Moran Amir of Adornia Is Helping To Change Our World
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path? I love the mix of art and commerce. I didn’t want to pursue a traditional path after business school. I decided to continue my previous experience in the fashion space and translate that to jewelry. Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company or organization?
Preparing and Delivering Great Pitches and Presentations.
Adapted from a webinar by Bret Waters and Daniel Brown, delivered 30 July 2020. I’ve been in Silicon Valley my whole life, and I have founded and run three software companies. Today I teach entrepreneurship at Stanford University and I mentor startup CEO’s at the Miller Center for Social Entrepreneurship. In my career as an entrepreneur I’ve given a lot of pitches, and in my role now I see a lot of pitches — thousands, probably.
Where do entrepreneurs get their ideas?
The simple answer is everywhere. A deep curiosity, pure unbridled opportunity, circumstantial necessity, outgrowing employment, curiosity and many other avenues provide the muse for entrepreneurs. There is no magic lamp to rub but there are certain places to look if you find yourself drawn to self-employment. Keep expectations realistic though and dream big. They sound like opposing statements but that is the essence of entrepreneurship.
Salome Sallehy of Sugar Sugar Wax — “True self-care isn’t about salt-baths and chocolate cake.
As a part of my series about strong female leaders, I had the pleasure of interviewing Salome Sallehy. Her professional career in marketing began long before she graduated and received her business degree. Coming from a long line of apparel producers, the fashion industry was her first foray into the business of brand building. From there her path in business followed her interests; from real estate to tech and ultimately into beauty.
The Women Who Built Silicon Valley
No, it wasn’t all old white men Photo source: ‘Cosmopolitan,’ 1967 Last week, I gave a presentation on The History of Silicon Valley to the 4thly accelerator. I talked about how a Palo Alto guy, William Shockley, invented the transistor in the 1950’s. How a group of men nicknamed the “traitorous eight” quit their jobs to found Fairchild Semiconductor. How two of those guys went on to found Intel. You know, the standard stories from the early days of Silicon Valley.
Innovation Trends 2020
(from a webinar I delivered on 30 April 2020). Each year I write a paper on Global Innovation Trends. My research for it involves interviewing 100 corporate executives who run innovation for their organization. So their titles are “Head of Innovation”, “Director of Innovation”, “VP Innovation”, etc. It’s a pretty amazing opportunity to talk to the people who run innovation for some of the largest brands in the world, located all over the planet.
The Launch Canvas. – Bret Waters – Medium
A proposed framework for getting your startup from idea to launch. It’s become axiomatic that something like 90% of all startups fail. But I think far more fail to even launch. For the past ten years I have taught and coached entrepreneurs at Stanford University and at the Miller Center for Social Entrepreneurship. Like many others, I use Alexander Osterwalder’s Business Model Canvas as a well of helping entrepreneurs to think through the business model for their startup idea.
Trump's wrong decision for small business in America
This month, Donald Trump Donald TrumpNY Democrats call for Cuomo to unite party Putin’s secret Santa is filling his wish list Reid backs electors' demand for intel briefing on Russia before vote MORE announced that he chose businesswoman Linda McMahon to run the Small Business Administration (SBA). The agency’s administrator is one of the most important positions in a president’s cabinet. I think the president-elect has made a terrible choice.
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