Entrepreneurs are complaining that the significant amount of time it takes to apply for one of these grants is an investment they can't afford, and the detail being requested simply isn't available at the early stages of a startup.
This duality, he says, is similar to the beginning stages of a startup, which commonly also brings together two people, a business and a technical co-founder.
In the early stages of a startup, Silicon Valley founders appear to be significantly more stingy than their East Coast counterparts, offering less equity than similarly-sized startups in Boston and New York.
Traklight CEO and founder Mary Juetten says that intellectual property makes up over 80% of most small businesses' valuation, but is often overlooked in the early stages of a startup.
Since there aren't too many data points in the early stages of a startup, getting featured by a reputable media outlet (ideally national, but niche works too) will create another entry point for people to find out about your product or service.
While there are general notions in the industry about what equity to offer to folks at various stages of a startup's lifecycle, there is little data available that shows how equity grants and compensation more generally compare across innovation regions.
The early stages of a startup are like launching a rocket against the force of gravity.
7. Three stages of a startup - 1. Pre product, pre revenue, 2. Product exists but no revenue, 3. Product and revenue (given the context of SaaS, sustainable business model is implied in this definition).
If your imagination allows you to see this early stage seedling of a startup could one day be truly a company that changed something big.
Partech also has growth funds and partners tend to invest at various stage of the life of a startup.
