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Clarity

Damien Melle

Claremont, CA

WCPS Holdings is responsible for managing our investments and overseeing the growth of our companies within their respected industries. This includes providing financial support, accounting services, executive level management, strategic planning, and operational management support.

Renttoday.us – a residential property management firm with more than $400,000,000 in assets under management.

Fixd Construction Co., a branded service specializing in residential rental property repairs and rehabs.

Bale Investments, Inc. – a boutique real estate investment firm specializing in residential assets in the Southern California marketplace.

Ryot Solutions, Inc. – A software and web development company with a focus on global solutions in the area of asset management, project management, and consumer web based services.

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Business Development Start-ups Real Estate Business planning SaaS New Business Development Financial Analysis Crisis Management Real Estate Transactions Critical Thinking

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Startup and Small to Midsize Companies in Growth or Crisis Mode.

As a CEO and founder of several companies I have a deep understanding on both hyper growth and crisis management. Every company will experience growth during good times and some sort of crisis within the lifecycle of their company. How you handle the ups and downs of your business will define your long term success. As an entrepreneur I understand that all too often the dream can overshadow reality. While this can be a strong skill it can also be a dream killer if not managed well. I can help with critical business decisions, expansion, down sizing, and many other problems faced by today's business owner or executive. Although I will not make your decision for you, we can discuss the pros and cons which will help you form a better opinion on how you should move forward.

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Answers

Damien Melle answered

What is your best piece of advice for a first-time startup CEO?

Don't try to hire like minded people! Hire the areas you are weak, know your financial position, your market, your customer and have a clear objective.

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Startups

CEOs

Advisor

Damien Melle answered

How do I start my company

This is not a clear question. If you can share more details of what your attempting to build I can provide you some basic guidance.

Some questions to consider:
1. What product or service do you want to offer?
2. Who is your target customer?
3. Partners or sole proprietor?
4. Startup capital, what is needed. Start by deciding on the most basic needed tools to reach your customer.

Let's discuss and build a game plan.
Damien

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Start-ups

Damien Melle answered

What are the best platforms to hire agencies for mobile development?

Elance.com, however outsourcing development is much harder than just hiring a firm with a nice website. It requires very specific planning from your side.

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Business Development

New Business Development

Web development

Damien Melle answered

Can a C Corp be the owner of and fund several LLC's? Can these LLC's have the same paid Directors?

Yes, however you must maintain separate accounting books for each. If you simply use them to shift money around you could create additional liability.

It also depends on what your seeking to accomplish. Typically if the Corp had LLCs they have different partners in each or different sets of projects or products. For example a home builder might structure several LLCs (Home Sales Phase 1, LLC then Home Sales Phase 2, LLC) whereas each LLC will be funded by a different round of fund raising and build 20 homes each in a master community of 100 homes.

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New Business Development

Damien Melle answered

If I have an online process that helps apartments lease their units, should I have a real estate license to accept the referral fees?

Looks like you have some good replies and some gray answers on this thread. If you have a business model that will fill vacancies as an app or website then pricing can be structured to not violate state laws.

However if you're trying to be the leasing agent then yes you might have some issues. I will warn you that property management and leasing are very much on the radar of state regulators in California. So understanding your services and how you will be paid is critical.

I am the CEO of a large residential property management company in Southern California. I have extensive experience in this space and would be more than happy to share my experience. Best of luck!

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Real Estate

Corporate Law

Damien Melle answered

I'm thinking on buying an apartment/house to rent it out. What should I know before I embark on this

This is a complicated question. Depending on your objectives, type of investment, and financial situation will determine the best answer. Owning investment property is a great way to invest. I have owned several properties and I am currently the CEO of a residential property management firm with more than $400 million in assets under management. So I know a few things on the topic :-)

I would be more than happy to discuss your plans and help you better understand a potential investment.

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Real Estate

Damien Melle answered

How do you recommend paying employees if your start-up is not generating revenue yet? We are a service-based start-up that is still in its seed stage.

When taking on employees you have to be mindful of state labor laws. If they are sales people working on commission only then you might get away with this form of payment. However if they are providing you skilled labor then you maybe required to pay them minimum wage.

The bigger question should by, why would someone want to work for you with little or no pay? And who would trust the growth of their company with staff making little to no pay?

It's the old saying, you get what you pay for.

Without knowing too much about your company I would say that if you do not have revenue your not ready to hire. The free labor comes from founders (sweat equity).

I would be glad to speak with you further on the topic.
Best of luck.

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Start-ups

New Business Launches

Compensation

Damien Melle answered

We're a successful Indian software outsourcing company. How do we implement a growth strategy that will allow us to achieve 5M USD turnover in 18 mos?

Congrats on your new business. Our company also has a software company located in Bangalore, India. This is a very interesting market and offers lots of opportunity for software companies.

I see you have lots of great feedback already but I will toss in my opinion in hopes it helps.

You have two ways to achieve your sales goals, which by they way is extremely aggressive even for a US based company let alone an India firm with a market conversion of 63 to 1INR. The first is by continuing to seek business for short life products via eLance or other lead sources. The other option is to create a product or service within a space that will allow you to gain recurring revenue from your client base.

The later offers more stability as you continue to grow your business. The first and your current model is very risky as any change in lead providers, SEO or search engine ranking can quickly cause your monthly revenue to fall. Because your pushing on such an aggressive growth plan this will typically mean higher fixed cost that could be damaging.

Best of luck, if I could be of further help please let me know.
Damien Melle

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Growth Hacking

Growth Strategies

IT Outsourcing

Damien Melle answered

When's the best time to raise capital for your startup?

To start off with, stop watching what your competitors are getting in terms of funding. Most start ups who get funded will fail, so this is not a worthy measurement.

If your product has sales only consider funding that will help you grow your user base, ie new development, larger marketing area, etc.. The longer you bootstrap the more of the company you will retain. You also need to consider an exist plan before talking with investors as they will want to know how they will get their money back.

I have a company currently working on fundraising for a series A that has been bootstrapped for 2 years. It's a challenge because it's easy to fall into the trap that money will solve all or most of your problems when in fact this is rarely true and often can make the problems worse. Finding that balance is critical, for all you know your competition is currently hating life... Or thinking they are can make you feel better. :-)

Glad to share my experiences if that will help. Best of luck with your app.

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Investments

Raising capital

Venture Capital

Damien Melle answered

We are 3 Co-Founders in Ideation phase of our SAAS product. How do we split equity fairly? When do we incorporate the company: Now or later?

You incorporate before your first sale! Depending on your state you can incorporate yourself for a few hundred dollars (CA for example only requires a one page declaration and filing fee of $145, first years tax to the state of $800 is waived).

You do this for liability reasons.

Secondly equity should be split based on contribution. If you plan to take on capital partners you will all be diluted at that time.

This a complex question with many open ended issues. I advise speaking with someone in detail rather than making your decisions based on a few replies on this thread.

Best of luck
Damien

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SaaS

Start-ups

Incorporation

Reviews

Member since June 2015