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Clarity

Dr. Sean Wise

Toronto, Canada Area

Over $2B in capital raised for seed stage startups over the last 15 years. I've made 13 seed investments this year alone. I've spent the last 15 years in Venture Capital. 20,000 elevator pitchers heard. 5 seasons with Dragons' Den / 3 seasons with The Naked Entrepreneur. 2014 Mentor of the Year, Startup Canada

$5.00/min

Dr. donates to Camp Jordan ($6,587.24)

73

73 Calls

49

49 Reviews

26 minutes
Avg. call

Finance Entrepreneurship Start-ups Startups Mentoring Venture Capital Keynote Speaking Investments Business Elevator Pitch

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Venture Capital

15 years in Venture Capital in Canada and the US.

Keynote Speaking

I've given more than 200 keynotes on topics including: Lean Startup Methods, Raising Funds, 21st Century Entrepreneurship tools and Dragons' Den.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXm8B5x7B8Q

20,000 pitches heard to date!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tq0tan49rmc

15 years, 5 startups, 1 success = priceless expereince to share

http://www.youtube.com/user/NakedEntrepreneurTV

Answers 11
Reviews 49

Answers

Dr. Sean Wise answered

Do angel investors look for a certain number of active users when investing in an app startup that has recently launched, 5,000-10,000+?

Users are a sign of traction a.k.a. proof of concept. Most angel investors want to fuel growth and help you strive for product market fit. If you're following the lean startup model - most angels will only engage once you found problem solution fit and are reaching for product market fit.

That being said 10,000 users is a typical benchmark.

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Mobile Apps

Startups

mobile

Dr. Sean Wise answered

(Physical product) How/when/why did you know your 1st, 2nd etc. successful business would scale and not only appeal to a few hundred paying customers?

You should not scale until you reach product market fit. You should not scale unless of your cost of acquisition is greatly below your lifetime value of customer. You need to know how to run profitably small before you scale big.

That being said a good benchmark is don't scale until 40% of your users would pay rather than lose your solution.

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Entrepreneurship

Lean startup

Startups

Dr. Sean Wise answered

Should I continue developing my site further or keep a simple landing page with email capture to test my idea?

I have worked with startups for more than 15 years, mostly as a seed stage (pre revenue) VC.

More and more, funders and other stakeholders look towards third party proof points (e.g. users). If you can build a mock up or MVP great, but even a simple landing page with EOI proves that what you are working on may have legs.

Better to test, early and often is what the Lean Startup teaches us. Once you have proven something, only then move on, invest more, and build out. First search for problem/solution fit, then product / market fit, then scale.

If you'd like to discuss, drop me a follow up note and I can share more thoughts and resources.

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Testing

MVP

Dr. Sean Wise answered

How does one go about finding funding for a mobile app?

Great question. I have spent 15 years in the seed stage startups and now is a great time to be building and funding a mobile startup. We (my seed VC fund) invest in a lot of mobile startups that are pre revenue. Typically in the range of $50,000 for 5%.

That being said, having an MVP isn't enough. First try to bootstrap your way to early users. Customers are better than investors for a variety of reasons, including: no dilution and access to user feedback. Then try kickstarter, especially if this is a b2c app. Nothing proves you have a hot product like early users, especially those early users willing to put their money in first.

Next I might turn to an accelerator like Techstars or DreamIT. This programs offer you way more than just cash. These programs offer: mentorship, education and buzz. All very helpful assets in the early days.

Hope that helps, drop me a line if you wish to know more.

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Mobile applications

Funding

Dr. Sean Wise answered

I am an expat with a thin network in the US but a great product and hundreds of new signups a week - how do I get in front of seed stage investors?

As a seed stage investor (13 deals in the last 12 months) I'm happy to tell you it is easier than ever before to meet seed stage investors. Here are a few ways:

1) conect with founders in your city who have been funded. Ask for their advice. Impress them and let them introduce you to their investor.

2) apply to an accelerator (eg techstars) and nail it on demo day. The audience is filled with seed stage investors.

3) attend an event featuring the seed investors and ask for their advice after the show. Requests for advice are a great way to showcase your venture.

4) kickstart your project. Raise funds and engage early customers. Nothing impresses as much as sales and users.

5) leverage clarity, LinkedIn and product hunt.

6) use the same service providers (eg lawyers, accountants) ask them for an intro.

7) find out where their funds originate from and ask those LPs for an intro.

8) apply to present to your local angel group.

If I look at the deals we've done this year. 80 percent come from the channels above. Until then -- bootstrap it.

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Fundraising

angel investing

Dr. Sean Wise answered

Have traction on iOS. People want Android app but we're bootstrapping and have no resources. Best way?

While I agree with Tom, I think you might also try some crowd funding. Nothing confirms demand like users buying before it exists.

Use a video walk through of the iOS app to demonstrate the product, then reach out to the android community to see if it resonants with them. If it does they will pay. If it doesn't then be happy you didn't sink money into building it first.

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Mobile applications

bootstrapping

Angel Investor

Dr. Sean Wise answered

How do most SaaS platforms track revenue? Realized revenue vs. sales.

Actually this is an accounting issue commonly referred to as "revenue recognition". How you recognize and record sales is dictated by both the tax regulations and corporate policy.

Go to the website of your national government tax agency and input "revenue recognition".

As long as you comply with generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) most likely be fine. But FYI, we recommend our portfolio companies track revenue as money in the bank and sales as part of the sales funnel.

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Financials

Finance

Financial Reporting

Dr. Sean Wise answered

At what point does an idea become valuable enough to warrant being monetized?

When 40% of your pilot customers insist on continuing to use your product you know you have something.

When 40% of the visitors to your MVP click on the "by now button" only to find out it doesn't work it is time to monetize.

When 40% of the people you show your paper based wireframes say "I buy that and will even give you a preorder"

Ideas are worthless.
How you comes from execution.
Work with early potential customers let them be your guide to monetization.

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Monetization

bootstrapping

Start-ups

Dr. Sean Wise answered

In what moment I inject capital to the startup?

So basically you are not correct. I think you need to gain a better understanding of the basics of capitalization. These should help:

http://www.axial.net/forum/business-valuation-intro-pre-post-money-valuation/

http://avc.com/2009/11/valuation-and-option-pool/

http://fundersandfounders.com/how-startup-valuation-works/

http://www.bothsidesofthetable.com/2010/07/22/want-to-know-how-vcs-calculate-valuation-differently-from-founders/

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Finance

Incorporation

Dr. Sean Wise answered

Need some advice on how to build a team, and determining what kind of talent I need?

Give a Google of "talent triangle". I have found that the majority of successful start ups have people with: Business acumen, domain knowledge and operational experience. E.g. (reverse order) someone who understands how to build it, someone who understands what customers want and someone who can help execute. A hacker, a designer and a hustler.

Of those three corners in the talent triangle what are you weakest on? Let that guide you.

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Start-ups

Team Building

Dr. Sean Wise answered

What are some things that first time entrepreneurs should consider?

What are some things that first time entrepreneurs should consider? In general or before quitting their day job?

I wrote a book on this topic with legendary investor Brad Feld. We based it on hearing more than 20,000 opportunity pitches. On Dragons Den on Shark Tank and first hand in our decades in the seed stage startup industry.

We found entrepreneurs should not quit their day jobs until they have:

- found something you are obsessed with
- enough money to live for 6 months
- found an unmet market need that they have unique insight on
- tested it with early adopters
- confirmed that your solution could add exponential value to those early adopters

We also found that access to early adopters was a key Barrier. One often mitigated when the founder is also a customer (ie member for the customer segment).

For more: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06Y16VJ4L/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_OmMxzb6AF69QA

Hope that helps.
Onward and Upward
Dr. Sean Wise, BA LLB MBA PHD
Partner, Ryerson Futures
A seed stage fund and accelerator

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Entrepreneurship

Reviews

Absolutely transformative call. I was missing the most important piece of the fundraising puzzle, and Sean identified it for me and brought clarity to my specific process here. Thanks a ton!

John Crestani Source: Clarity

Excellent insight! Extremely knowledgeable and very helpful.

Brian Jensen Source: Clarity

What a great call with Dr. Wise! His insights opened up several very large potential client sources for us. I highly recommend speaking with him!

Ian Nagy Source: Clarity

Dr. Wise provided invaluable and actionable insight. I can not recommend him enough!

Nizan Friedman Source: Clarity

I sent my pitch deck over 24H in advance and got in return lots of valuable feedback and strategies.

Mamadou Ndiaye Source: Clarity

Dr. Sean was extremely helpful and provided us with clear direction and excellent tips on our pitch deck. He's also very knowledgable in all aspects of start-ups. I appreciated his direct recommendations and will definitely be connecting with him again in the future.

Jake Rubin Source: Clarity

Dr. Wise gave me some 1st class advice and tips. He goes fast so have your pencil ready...

Eric Klein Source: Clarity

Received great advice from Dr Sean. We very much appreciate it. Thanks

Francis Yanga Source: Clarity

I HIGHLY recommend consulting with Dr Wise. He provides very specific, actionable advice and we ended the call with clarity of direction to my intended destination, which is priceless in time and resources saved! Plus, he’s a super cool guy with an excellent Children’s Charity being donated to with these calls ...so reach out to him!

Mark Wilhelmsson Source: Clarity

Very helpful! Thank you Sean!

Alex Potapov Source: Clarity

Great tips.

Saquib Khan,PMP,CSM,CSPO,SP Source: Clarity

Member since February 2013