Gust

FEBRUARY 10, 2025

Ive seen and worked on countless wrapper decks and time and time again I see some common mistakes from founders looking to fundraise. Luckily, its not too hard to mitigate the most glaring pitfalls and create a winning pitch. The post Creating an AI Startup Pitch: Standing Out in a Tsunami of Ideas appeared first on Gust.

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pitching startup founder 91

Gust

FEBRUARY 4, 2025

In the turbulent journey of entrepreneurship, dealing with taxes seems the furthest of priorities, however, understandingjustenough of the intricacies of taxes and accounting can save you a lot of hassle and money. In Q1 we do a lot of extra programming around tax and compliance to help founders find the balance between preparedness and growing the business.

startup 91

startup entrepreneurship founder investment 91

Gust

JANUARY 23, 2025

Properly modeling your startup's churn is crucial to a full-picture financial model and will help you better understand your current growth trajectory. The post Cumbersome Cap Tables appeared first on Gust.

startup 91

startup 91

Gust

JANUARY 17, 2025

oya and her team bootstrapped to build Orgo, a mobile app that simplifies and centralizes family logistics. Features like preparation time, travel adjustments, and clear driver assignments make it a game-changer for busy families. The post Gust Mission Control Founder Spotlight: Zoya, Co-Founder & CEO of Orgo appeared first on Gust.

founder 91

founder 91

Gust

JANUARY 7, 2025

In less than 12 months, Andrea Bazett transformed her dream of improving human-canine relationships into Pack Animals, a 3,000 sq. ft. dog gym and wellness hub in San Ramon, CAwhere dogs and their humans come to connect, grow, and thrive together. Let's learn about her journey! The post Gust Mission Control Founder Spotlight: Andrea Bazett, Founder of Pack Animals appeared first on Gust.

founder 91

founder 91

Gust

DECEMBER 2, 2024

When founders fail to discuss and document key aspects of early contributor relationships, answers to key questions about the company are left open to interpretation. The post Issuing equity helps you protect it appeared first on Gust.

founder 91

founder investment investing 91

Gust

JULY 23, 2024

There's a difference between your 409a valuation, and the valuation negotiated with investors during a capital raise. The post You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means. appeared first on Gust.

capital 91

capital investment investing 91

Gust

NOVEMBER 18, 2024

Understanding your startup's metrics is like having a GPS for your business journey. It helps you navigate challenges, make informed decisions, and steer your company towards success. The post 10 Reasons Why You Need a Great Financial Model (Today!) appeared first on Gust.

startup 161

startup 161

Gust

NOVEMBER 12, 2024

It’s not uncommon for terms in early-stage startups to be wildly overloaded, but valuation may take the prize for the most confusing to founders. If you’re unsure about the difference between a pre-money valuation, a post-money valuation, a valuation cap, a 409a valuation, and the value of your common stock at any given time, you’re not alone! But, as a founder, it’s worth understanding enough to avoid equity mistakes and to avoid sounding like that guy from The Princess Bride when you’re talkin

founder 91

founder startup 91

Gust

OCTOBER 16, 2024

As your startup scales, attracting and retaining top talent becomes a key part of your success. Offering stock options is one way to align your team’s long-term incentives with your company’s growth, but when is the right time to introduce a stock option plan? The post Scaling up? Here’s when an option plan can help appeared first on Gust.

startup 91

startup 91

Gust

SEPTEMBER 17, 2024

Why taking money from unaccredited investors is a bad idea, and how to best navigate that situation. The post How To Not Take Money From Unaccredited Investors appeared first on Gust.

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91

Gust

AUGUST 28, 2024

Successful fundraising is a sales process and can benefit immensely from being run as one. The post If You’re Serious About Fundraising, Trust The Process. appeared first on Gust.

investment 170

investment investing 170

Gust

AUGUST 19, 2024

There are few humans on earth better suited to help you navigate startup issues than Gil Silberman. Here he is breaking down the new Angel Capital Association's Model Convertible Note. The post Revenge of the Convertible Note – Part 2 appeared first on Gust.

angel capital 91

angel capital capital startup 91

Gust

AUGUST 13, 2024

There are few humans on earth better suited to help you navigate startup issues than Gil Silberman. Here he is breaking down the current state of very early stage funding tools used by founders and investors alike. The post Revenge of the Convertible Note – Part 1 appeared first on Gust.

founder 70

founder startup 70

Gust

AUGUST 6, 2024

At Gust, we’re building for early stage startups, the people and organizations that support them, and the angels who fund them. We know it’s not the fastest way to build a business, but we believe it’s the best way to build an enduring company that has an outsized impact on the startup ecosystem. That's why we are happy to announce our partnership with Peachscore The post Data-Driven Startup Acceleration at Scale: Gust and Peachscore Unite!

startup accelerator 91

startup accelerator accelerator startup ecosystem startup 91

Gust

JUNE 25, 2024

There are few humans on earth better suited to help you navigate startup issues than Gil Silberman. In addition to being the legal mind behind Gust Launch, Gil has the distinction of being the lawyer who incorporated LinkedIn, co-founding a unicorn (Forge Global), helping countless startups navigate from 0 to 1, and being a leading candidate for most interesting man in the world.

founder 91

founder startup 91

Gust

JULY 8, 2024

Properly modeling your startup's churn is crucial to a full-picture financial model and will help you better understand your current growth trajectory. The post All Startups Have Churn and Will Benefit From Modeling It Well appeared first on Gust.

startup 91

startup 91

Gust

JUNE 13, 2024

California has some of the strongest employee protections in the U.S., and often sets a precedent for regulations enacted elsewhere. But, California's employment laws can also be complex, because they change and evolve from year to year, often in nuanced ways. The post California Employment Liability Trends for Tech Startups appeared first on Gust.

startup 70

startup 70

Gust

MAY 22, 2024

What's the strategy behind your pitch deck? Are you providing the color investors are really looking for? The post Positioning your Pitch Deck appeared first on Gust.

pitching 91

pitching strategy 91

Gust

APRIL 29, 2024

Understanding your startup's metrics is like having a GPS for your business journey. It helps you navigate challenges, make informed decisions, and steer your company towards success. The post Know Your Numbers: The Ultimate Guide to Data-Driven Success for Startups appeared first on Gust.

startup 91

startup 91

Gust

APRIL 18, 2024

Are you producing and distributing regular company updates to your network? Here's why you should. The post The Quick Guide to Company Updates appeared first on Gust.

networking 91

networking 91

Gust

APRIL 11, 2024

Yielding 10x growth or more, known as “hockey-stick growth,” remains the goal for many investors. But only one percent of startups become unicorns; in fact, most VC-backed companies don’t reach their expected rate of return. “That means 95% of founders—or more—are gonna have a bad time,” explains Rand Fishkin, the author of Lost and Founder, and co-founder of Moz and more recently of SparkToro.

VC 172

VC founder startup 172

Gust

APRIL 4, 2024

Yielding 10x growth or more, known as “hockey-stick growth,” remains the goal for many investors. But only one percent of startups become unicorns; in fact, most VC-backed companies don’t reach their expected rate of return. “That means 95% of founders—or more—are gonna have a bad time,” explains Rand Fishkin, the author of Lost and Founder, and co-founder of Moz and more recently of SparkToro.

VC 79

VC founder startup 79

Gust

MARCH 22, 2024

Investors prefer investing in Delaware C Corps which don’t allow founders to take personal tax losses for early expenses. Many founders are tempted to make an S-Corp election which allows a pass-through tax treatment similar to an LLC. While that could be a small short term gain in the early days, it can jeopardize a much larger tax free gain in the future ($10M+).

founder 167

founder investment investing startup 167

Gust

MARCH 5, 2024

Some very small businesses—particularly those that offer the professional or personal services of a single individual—can be launched and grown with few or no resources other than human time and talent. But most businesses require some money before they can be started—to pay for software, buy tools or equipment, lease office space, or pay for the time worked by employees or outside contractors.

personalized services 160

personalized services investment investing entrepreneurs 160

Gust

FEBRUARY 14, 2024

It’s Delaware Franchise Tax Season! If you’re incorporated in Delaware and you’re staring at a terrifying notice with the number $85,165.00 on it, don’t panic. It’s very likely that your startup only owes $400. Read on for details on how to refigure your bill, easily file your report, and reduce your stress in future years. The post Don’t Panic! Your pre-revenue startup doesn’t owe $85,165 in Delaware Franchise Taxes appeared first on Gust.

startup 91

startup 91

Gust

FEBRUARY 1, 2024

Startups are often at the forefront of innovation, developing new technologies, products, and services that disrupt traditional industries and bring fresh ideas and approaches that drive technological advancements. In that regard, startups often rely heavily on their ideas, and the unauthorized replication of those ideas may result in a loss of control over the unique aspects of a startup’s offerings.

strategy 91

strategy startup disruption innovation 91

Gust

JANUARY 17, 2024

Thomson Reuters Enterprise Centre GmbH v. Ross Intelligence Inc., decided in the federal District Court in Delaware on September 25, 2023, asks the question whether a company can train its AI on a competitor’s copyrighted works in order to help it compete? What if the AI output does not infringe the competitor’s copyrights? The answer so far is “maybe,” but that the answer is not “no” adds to the hazards of using copyrighted works as training data.

91

91

Gust

DECEMBER 14, 2023

When people hear about the 25 percent annualized rate of return that active angel investors obtain, they assume that there must be some secret involved—perhaps an old-boy network of hidden links that connects angels to brilliant entrepreneurs and tech innovators or a mathematical algorithm developed by some genius at MIT that helps angels identify and invest in the businesses that are guaranteed to be the Apples, Googles, and Facebooks of tomorrow.

investment 91

investment investing networking innovation 91

Gust

NOVEMBER 28, 2023

The principal roles of the lead investor was to negotiate the terms of an investment with the founder of the startup. In theory, the terms could be “here’s a million dollars to use; if the company becomes a big success, please give it back to us.” Unfortunately, that’s not the way it works. When a corporation is established, its ownership is divided into pieces called shares of common stock.

investment 91

investment investing founder startup 91

Gust

NOVEMBER 28, 2023

Over the past 20 years, the typical structure for seed/angel deals has shifted from common stock (in the mid-1990s) to convertible notes (late 1990s through early 2000s) to full Series A convertible preferred (mid-2000s) to convertible notes with a cap (late 2000s) to Series Seed convertible preferred or similar (present). This shows the increasing sophistication of investors and founders, the increasing experience and publicity surrounding the advantages/disadvantages of various options, and th

founder 91

founder investment investing 91

Gust

NOVEMBER 8, 2023

Even in this age of videos and text messages, the quickest way to kill your startup dream with investors, business partners, or even customers, is embarrassingly poor writing. Being very visible in the startup community, I still get an amazing number of badly written emails, rambling executive summaries, and business plans with one paragraph per chapter.

startup 91

startup communities 91

Gust

NOVEMBER 1, 2023

Pitch decks for demo day. Goes without saying that raising capital is a critical moment for any startup. It’s your first impression that can essentially make or break (figuratively) the opportunity at hand. Branding is what sets one business apart from another. It's what makes Apple a luxury tech brand and Nike a reputable sports brand. Understanding how to create an effective branding strategy can help your startup stand out on your big day.

pitching 91

pitching strategy opportunity capital 91

Gust

OCTOBER 23, 2023

Know your market and competition, or don’t spend a dime on anything else. I love absolutes – statements with no wiggle room for gray-area responses. Well, here is one of those, and it deals with market research first and foremost. Let me tell you a short story at my own expense. The post Market Research in Tech: Avoiding Investment Blunders appeared first on Gust.

investment 70

investment investing 70

Gust

OCTOBER 13, 2023

A note is a loan. That is, a lender gives a company $100, and the company writes a note to the lender stating "we will pay you back $100 one year from today, along with 10% [or some other number] per year interest". The convertible part means that in addition to the straight repayment mentioned above, the lender and the company agree that instead of the company paying back the loan in cash, if the company raises money by selling stock to another investor before the loan is due, then the original

investment 91

investment investing 91

Gust

OCTOBER 4, 2023

In our previous posts, we discussed how to call a Board of Directors Meeting, the Quorum Required for the meeting, along with the Means of Attendance, Written Resolutions Documenting the Board Minutes, Duty of Care, and addressing potential conflicts of interest. Our third installment will delve into the importance of well drafted meeting minutes. The post Board Meetings and the Importance of Well-Drafted Minutes appeared first on Gust.

board 91

board 91

Gust

SEPTEMBER 26, 2023

On March 16, 2023, the U.S. Copyright Office published a policy statement saying that the Copyright Office would generally not register copyrights in the output of artificial intelligence. The Copyright Office invoked the traditional requirement for a work to be copyrightable that the creative authorship must be that of a human author. Stephen Thaler owns a computer system he calls the “Creativity Machine,” which he claims generated a piece of visual art of its own accord.

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creativity 91