Alan Jones

It sounds exciting to be a funder as well as a founder, but Alan Jones from M8 Ventures shares the financial reality of angel investing.

It’s very early in your startup’s journey. You and your cofounders have a good mutual understanding of what you think your startup should be, but you can’t agree on what to call it. You don’t have time for this right now, but you know you need a…

Whether you just closed your rings on your Apple Watch, got an alert saying someone liked your tweet, or stepped out to buy yourself a hot chocolate because you’ve worked hard on a spreadsheet model all day, we all rely on rewards (big and small) to…

How many times have you picked up the entertainment section of a newspaper to read a restaurant review that begins with something like: “The owner of this aspiring Michelin Guide restaurant, which is opening for the first time this week, says they’ve…

The “pre-money valuation” of your startup is the total value of your company before an investment is made: it determines both how much equity an investor will receive in exchange for their investment, and therefore, how much equity you, your team and…

One of the stupid things I did when I first made money was start an indie music label. It was the early 2000’s, online music was just beginning to take off, and I wanted to learn more about it from the inside. I thought I could see many parallels…

You can’t build a great team if you can’t recruit a team. Think about what you have to offer a potential cofounder or team member, and what that must look like to them vs not working in a startup. No wonder persuading people to join a startup is…

The goal of customer research at the earliest stages of a startup journey is to help us validate/ invalidate the assumptions we have made when believing we that we know what customers want. Chances are, in the first few years, your tech startup is…

(Author’s note: This story begins with the death of a friend and mentor. It is also about something I only just figured out last week — unusual for a ‘wise old sage’ of the Aussie tech startup community. Please bear with me and I promise it’ll be…

News » Advice » Here’s what you need to think about if you’re going to write your startup’s marketing As an early-stage tech startup founder you will often have to write your own startup’s marketing copy, and you may find it difficult if the brand’s…

Should I offer cash or equity to a startup advisor? Cash whenever possible, and equity only if you truly must. As a general principle, offer cash/commission to people helping you close a one-off deal (like raising a round) and only offer advisory…

I hear this a lot from founders: “I don’t need to do more customer research because I’m focused on solving the problem I experienced myself. I AM the customer!” Except you’re not, not any more. You haven’t been the customer since the time you first…

There’s a time (usually in the future) and a place (bigger markets first) to register patents, but if you’re still getting used to fielding questions from VCs, this is probably not the time and place. So why does it still get asked? Not sure but I…

The main way tech startups grow is through creating technology that solves valuable problems for their customers but another way they grow is through cutting smart deals with other companies. The first few deals I negotiated were content licensing…

Sometimes when you present the opportunity as “we just need you to build what we specify” you’re taking away the biggest motivation there is. If you’ve been working in startups for a while, you’ll be familiar with this kind of request: Seeking:…

At an accelerator demo day, nobody comes planning to invest in all the startups in the cohort. The goals are to sort the wheat from the chaff, and to consider whether to begin a dialogue with the best of the startups pitching. What if you don’t…

I like participating in outdoor endurance and adventure events for many reasons, not the least because they often involve solving problems and taking calculated risks based on partial information in a small team of high-achieving people who aren’t…

The earlier you are; The fewer your customers; The further you are from your revenue goal; and The bigger the customer; The more likely you are to screw yourself on the sales negotiation. Do you want one more thing to practice every day? No! But…