Startups – The Musings of the Big Red Car

The Care And Feeding Of Co-Founders

Big Red Car — Mon, 29 Apr 2024 19:17:19 +0000

The most successful startups are founded by persons whose skills are complementary and by working together they bridge the entire spectrum of skills necessary to exit the startup cradle alive and stand strong as a successful company. In theory that can take the form of a visionary, a creative person, a product development person, an […]

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Smile Direct Club Bankruptcy

Big Red Car — Thu, 14 Dec 2023 18:51:28 +0000

Smile Direct Club, founded in 2014 as a D2C company, was an ambitious effort to provide progressive tooth re-alignment to your smile at an attractive price. It had a good product, a healthy market, a good price, and satisfied customers; but, it failed and is now in bankruptcy. SDC had more than 2,000,000 customers (its […]

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The $10MM Gross Revenue Reality Check

Big Red Car — Thu, 16 Nov 2023 15:58:15 +0000

If you are a startup, I hope one day soon you get to $10,000,000 in gross revenue. If you do, I have some thoughts for you. A caveat first — there are a great number of exceptions to what I am going to share with you, so do not fall prey to missing the difference […]

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CEO Shoptalk – Celebrate The Winning Of Small Beginnings

Big Red Car — Thu, 27 Jan 2022 17:45:13 +0000

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. [John 1:1] In the beginning of any startup company is the crucible that is the startup world which flows from The Idea and becomes the Vision, Mission, Strategy, Tactics, Objectives, Values, Culture. Take a breath, a deep breath, […]

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The Three Year Itch, The Second Scale

Big Red Car — Sat, 09 Oct 2021 14:33:19 +0000

If you are a startup that has survived for three years, have a substantial gross revenue, are EBITDA positive, are GAAP earnings profitable, and have an attractive annual growth rate — CONGRATULATIONS. You are a top 1-5% startup company and now you face the Three Year Itch or the Second Scale issue. The problem is […]

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For Founders Only — The Thrill Of It All

Big Red Car — Thu, 29 Jul 2021 15:53:42 +0000

In life we get paid in cash, ego enrichment, and self-esteem nourishment. There are certain things that only a founder can experience or appreciate in the ego enrichment and self-esteem nourishment arena. Here is a list: 1. Only a founder gets the thrill of finalizing — owning — an idea that is either an aspirin […]

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Performance Appraisal And The PLAN

Big Red Car — Sun, 24 Jan 2021 19:33:46 +0000

You’re a startup on your way. You are at that magic 50+ employee level at which you start to pay attention to things like Performance Appraisal. With that level of staffing, you will find out that when the tide goes out, some folks have been swimming naked — meaning not everybody is a super star. […]

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Looping The Feedback

Big Red Car — Sun, 24 Jan 2021 18:42:09 +0000

I am struck by how sometimes in startup world we miss the obvious. Suppose you are a startup founder with a subscription element of some type to your future unicorn business. Being an analytical person, you check to see how many total subscribers/customers you have. About nine (or fifty) times a day. You undoubtedly want […]

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A Thought About Startup Ideas

Big Red Car — Fri, 22 Jan 2021 18:04:30 +0000

This week I had the great pleasure of chatting with all the Austin Techstars new class members. As usual, the Austin Techstars team did a great job of assembling world class ideas and talent to accelerate them. Every single company with which I visited has an idea that can and should work. Bravo! I was […]

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Rebuilding Your Website

Big Red Car — Wed, 30 Dec 2020 18:04:39 +0000

If you are a successful web based business there is a phenomenon that occurs with regularity at the end of your second year of operations — the necessity to rebuild your website from the ground up. If you are not successful, you are out of business by then. Sorry. You wake up and realize the […]

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