Tyler Richards

Let's talk for a minute about how Harbor compares to Nanit on pricing. Ultimately, Harbor comes with a 10" tablet and beats every other product on functionality many times over... but here are a few points on pricing. Nanit offers two tiers (as of spring 2024) at $120 or $300 per year PER CHILD. If you have two children in their premium tier you're looking at nearly TWO THOUSAND DOLLARS across two years! Harbor has one flat membership per household. For just one child, Harbor is just $33 more across two years than Nanit's camera, floor stand, and Memories plan. It comes with a dedicated 10" tablet and a level of reliability, security, and quality that no WiFi camera app based system can match.

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Niche doesn't mean single-product. Data from TideMark's 2024 Vertical & SMB SaaS Benchmark Report backs this up. The sauce for Vertical SaaS is owning a niche and layering new products over time to grow 'share of wallet'... Here’s what I’ve learned from acquiring and operating Micro SaaS: // Product Expansion: - Start with your core offering, but always be mapping out adjacent pain points - Look for low-hanging fruit - features users are cobbling together with spreadsheets or third-party tools - Aim for products that increase switching costs and make your solution "stickier" // Acquisition vs. Development: - Sometimes it's faster to acquire a complementary product than build in-house - Look for small, bootstrapped tools in your vertical that solve adjacent problems - Assess potential acquisitions based on tech stack compatibility and integration ease // Pricing and Packaging: - Bundle strategically - not all products need to be sold separately - Use add-ons to increase ARPA without scaring off smaller customers - Consider usage-based pricing for auxiliary products to lower the barrier to adoption // Sales and Marketing: - Retrain your sales team on solution selling rather than product pitching - Develop clear ideal customer profiles for each product combination - Use your existing customer base as a testbed for new products // Technical Considerations: - Plan for integration from day one - whether building or buying - Prioritize a consistent user experience across products - Consider a modular architecture to facilitate future expansion // Metrics to Watch: - Track product adoption rates within your customer base - Monitor support ticket volume as you add products - Keep a close eye on churn rates for single-product vs. multi-product customers The multi-product approach isn't just about making more money. In smaller verticals, it's often the only path to building a substantial business. It's about creating an ecosystem that comprehensively serves your niche, making it harder for competitors to dislodge you. Depth plus breadth. But don’t diversify for the sake of it — be strategic, based on actual user needs and market dynamics. Follow me if you want to learn more about my journey of acquiring & operating Micro SaaS. For the love of the game 🏴‍☠️ ⚡ #Growth #Product #Strategy #Sales #Marketing

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Founders, you're losing deals by not having a clear discovery call plan. I've seen this a lot where founders looking to scale up their early sales efforts are going into it thinking the product will get them through the sale In most cases, this isn't the truth You need to have some sort of framework to make the selling motion more repeatable Instead of demo'ing the product, try learning more about them and their challenges first. Your goal should be to know enough to build a customized demo for them. This will help in building solid relationships, build value throughout the process and likely speed up deals on the back end of it. If you don't know where to start, hit me up and I'm happy to lay out some early sales structure for founders! Go crush it out there 🤙

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Do you know how many hyper-growth public software companies are growing by over 40% this year? According to the latest June Guggenheim report… Zero. Not a single public SaaS company is growing over 40%. Do you know how many are growing their next twelve months (NTM) revenue over 30%? Also, zero! With that context, I was strategizing with my team on the most impactful ways companies can change their growth trajectory, and one thing we landed on solving immediately was time to integrate. If a company growing at 30% can pull in all net new integrations and thus revenue by just 1 month over the course of the year, it can increase its growth rate by almost 5%. For simplicity, assuming a $100M annual revenue, a 10% discount rate, and a 5-year valuation period, using a DCF, the company’s present value would not be 5% more valuable, but closer to 20% more valuable for all shareholders. The power of compounded growth rates. Game changer, and with just the smallest adjustments. That’s why smart companies are investing heavily in new customer onboarding and no-code, low-code technologies, like lightweight agents, hosted or embedded UIs, and more. The Socure team is ahead of the curve—ask our people about what we’re building and how we can help you accelerate your revenue growth.

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So, how do you do “Indexing”? For the right indexing, you need a quality filter. You shouldn’t just be investing at random since the bottom 90% of startups will return nothing substantial. Deal Flow Evaluation ● Random Deals: 500 Deals, 50 Meetings and 5 Investments ● Validated Deals: 100 Deals, 50 Meetings and 10 Investments ● Referred Deals: 50 Deals, 50 Meetings and 20 Investments

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The best founders can turn off emotions when making complex decisions. If you can hone this skill, you should.

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Did you know that YC founders get a secret weapon… and it’s not what you think. “Bookface” is YC’s internal social network. It was needed because YC had funded larger batches and the hardest part of a community is knowing who is in it and who you can trust and ask for help. On the platform, founders share real methods and advice that would break if it were shared widely It’s secret knowledge shared with a trust-first community - answering 80% of the questions a founder can have about building and selling a product, be it to clients, candidates or investors. Before the platform, if you had a B2B startup, you had to reach out cold to potential customers. Now there are over 1000 YC companies you can sell your service to and all of their contact information is in Bookface. As a result, YC alumni companies are often over 50% of your new sales during YC. It’s superpowers like this that make YC deals so attractive compared to the norm. You are investing in a founder with a 10x network already!

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Frictionless onboarding isn't just nice to have. It's mission-critical. But it's not about flashy design. It's about delivering value, fast. Calendly's 2-minute account setup process was key to their $3 billion valuation. They focused on getting users to their first scheduling link ASAP. Optimize your onboarding: • Minimize required inputs • Provide contextual guidance • Personalize the experience • Set clear expectations • Celebrate small wins Remember: In PLG, your product is your primary salesperson. Make that first impression count. How long does it take for a new user to experience value in your product?

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How to pitch: The company has zero traction —> “We’re early” You only have 2 customers —> “We’re working with design partners” You currently have no revenue but hoping some pipeline finally closes —> “we’re on track to exit this year at $3M ARR” You’re in the natural kill zone of a FAANG —> “We view them as partners rather than competitors” There’s no way the tech can actually work —>“We’re manifesting the future” And of course: One of your developers uses Co-Pilot to write some front end code —> “We’re an AI company”

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Niches get riches is the dorkiest phrase I’ve ever used here, but I believe deeply in it. As an investor, community builder, event dude, and LinkedIn bloviator, we have different crowds we try to reach with content and events, so figured I’d make it clear. And if you relate, drop a comment which apply, cuz we’re not doing many “this applies to everyone” events. Increasingly curated. Partially exhaustive list here: 1. Freak founders hellbent on building Utah’s next breakout startup. Much much much more on that over the coming days, weeks, months, and years. This is the primary audience and the only reason why any of this matters to Convoi Ventures. Freak founders are definitionally outliers, and pattern matching where outliers come from is tricky, so we’re going to turn over every damn stone to find them. And do our best to build up some along the way. 2. Founders that don’t see themselves represented in Utah’s current ecosystem. That includes many things such as: - bootstrapped founders - Verticals like consumer, hardware, marketplaces, health/med, deep tech - people not of the predominant faith in the state (which happens to be my faith that I love, but know it can feel uncomfortable at times as an outsider) - female, PoC, immigrant, LGBTQ - what else? 3. Community builders 4. Runners (let’s get it babyyyyyyy) 5. People obsessed with food (my truest love, if I’m being honest) 6. People in different functions/function leaders like engineering, sales, product, marketing, customer success, etc 7. Pre-founders 8. Angel investors 9. Readers 10. People new to Utah and trying to find their crew 11. Spouses of founders (probably need a support group more than anyone else on this list. V excited about what we’re going to do here specifically) There’s probably more, but that’s what popped in my head first thing this morning. Comment where you fit in there and if something you’re passionate about is not there, lmk and maybe you’ll find a kindred spirit in the comments? Looking forward to meeting and hanging with as many of you as possible over the coming months.

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**STARTUP FRIENDS -- if you're at TechCrunch #DISRUPT this week, let's connect! We have two things going on: 1) If you are a Foundersuite or Fundingstack user, we are doing several 5-min "mini-interviews" at Disrupt. DM me here on LInkedIn if you'd like to be featured ( = free social media love for your #startup :) 2) Join us for a FREE "Funders + Founders After Event" with our friends at FundVoyage and Nixon Peabody LLP featuring startup pitches, wine and h'ordeuvres (took me a few tries to spell that correctly... :) Reg link 👇 STARTUP TRIVIA: can you correctly name what's going on in this photo? Post your answer in the comments :) #startups #venturecapital #entrepreneurship #raisingcapital

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🗣 Startup Founders (particular early stage) I'd love to pay it forward and help you! What's top of mind or what questions do you have that I can (potentially) share thoughts on? From hiring and team building, to designing a cohesive product or fundraising. Run wild!

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❌ Every founder I work with has had a "great call" with a VC that goes something like this... 👨‍💻 Founder: "The call was great! They're super interested!" 😅 Me: "That's awesome, what are next steps?" 🤔 Founder: "Uhm, not sure they just said they'd get back to me soon..." This isn’t the right way to go about it. ALWAYS make sure to ask investors questions during your call to gauge their interest. Below, I’ve listed some questions I suggest founders use to drive CLEAR next steps. 🎯 Based on our conversation today, how interested would you say you are in considering an investment in our startup? 🎯 Could you share your level of interest in our company on a scale from 1 to 10? What would help to make it a 10? 🎯 What does your typical due diligence process look like? What's the timeline? 🎯 Are there immediate steps we can take that would help you in making a decision regarding investment? 🎯 As we move forward, who else within your team or organization should we connect with to discuss this opportunity further? 🎯 What further details would you need from us to fully understand our business model and the opportunity it presents? A good rule of thumb: pay close attention to body language throughout the conversation. Pause when you see eyebrows raised, head nodding, or other signs of engagement, and use these moments to check in. Frequent check-ins keep everyone engaged. Now go get that paper!! 💸 #fundraising #startupsuccess #startupjourney

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Equipment leasing for startups is more than just borrowing; it’s strategic capital management. 💡💸 Discover how this industry, rooted in the '80s and '90s, can help your startup thrive in today's market. Link to the article in the original Kruze Consulting post. 📑 #StartupFinance

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Every one of my startups that grew to $20M ARR at break-even or better Followed the RVNU 5-step process as their launchpad Step 1: Re-educate Step 2: Review Step 3: Audit Step 4: Rehabilitate Step 5: Grow It's all about taking that first step So rather than take an MBA, or get lectured by your VCs We created a framework and assessment to get the ball rolling. Takes 20 minutes, and it's totally FREE. We got you 👊🏼 #sales #saas #startups #venturecapital #GTMdebt

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I believe two of the big winners over the next 10 years in the SMB category will be PE who are rolling up the businesses and GenAI powered software that makes running these businesses significantly more turnkey and/or profitable. Thanks for having me on Jay Kapoor. If you want spicy takes fast forward to 25 min mark. If you want to get deep in market analysis buckle in for the whole thing. https://lnkd.in/d8M7Jyrx

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Create Health Ventures Launches Inaugural $21M Fund for Early-Stage Digital Health Startups  Create Health Ventures, a venture capital firm focused on early-stage digital health companies, has closed its debut fund, raising $21 million, surpassing its initial target. Launched in 2024, Create Health Ventures is based in Austin, TX, and Chicago, IL. The firm focuses on technologies that enhance healthcare access, improve patient experiences, and deliver value across payers, providers, and pharmaceutical companies. *Its primary focus includes:   1. Payer-Facing Technologies: Solutions that improve member experiences, enable seamless data and workflow integration, and scale technology across geographies.   2. Clinical Trial Enablement: Tools to help pharmaceutical companies recruit and retain participants for late-stage clinical trials as demand increases. *Founders and Approach:   Create Health Ventures was co-founded by Emma Cartmell and Amit Aysola, healthcare veterans with over 45 years of combined experience. They bring operational expertise, regulatory insight, and an extensive network to portfolio companies. The firm exclusively invests in startups led by healthcare industry founders, leveraging its unique value-added platform for scaling businesses.  *The platform includes: - Business development support   - Access to executive coaches   - Connections to healthcare leaders   - Cross-selling opportunities among portfolio companies  *Key Quotes by GPs:  - Emma Cartmell: “Founders from the healthcare industry understand the challenges and opportunities to improve patient outcomes. Supporting them is the most impactful way we can positively transform healthcare.”   - Amit Aysola: “Payers and pharmaceutical companies are driving demand for connected, scalable solutions, and we are investing in companies to meet these needs.”  *Investments and Impact:  The firm has made five investments so far and partners with foundations, impact investors, and strategic healthcare veterans to mentor portfolio companies.  *Portfolio CEO Feedback:   - Dr. Chip Grant (Watershed Health): “Create Health Ventures has been invaluable in scaling operations and fundraising.”   - Shara Cohen (Carallel): “They are the most collaborative and active investor team I’ve worked with.”   - Neil Batlivala (Pair Team): “They’ve helped us manage growth and reach underserved communities.” If you are experiencing difficulties in raising fresh capital and would require warm introductions to new LPs, contact G+QUANT     ▶ Please use G+QUANT's link for inquiries and fund decks, or send your inquiry directly to [email protected] #VentureCapital #DigitalHealth #HealthcareInnovation #Startups #ClinicalTrials #PatientCare #HealthTech #HealthEquity #CreateHealthVentures

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If you plan on raising money (especially in this economy), having revenue isn't enough. At some point -- especially if you want to raise money--you've got to look at the "quality" of your revenue. This framework applies to ALL business, not just high growth startups... high quality rev = - My revenue is consistent and predictable - I have good margins - I'm being paid my happy/loyal customers low value rev = -I rely on 1-2 large customers <---its a great win at first...but quickly becomes a source of stress. -Transactions are sporadic and/or late -I give a lot of discounts/have lots of "sales" to inspire transactions TO BE CLEAR: In the early days, we're all chasing sells/revenue to demonstrate desirability (aka people want what I've built) #AsYouShould. Get those early customers by any means necessary to validate desirability BUT pick a moment in time to do a revenue post-mortem with your team and get real about its quality. The linked article in the comments is an oldie, but a goodie....I first found it during my time leading a startup (i think i first saw Keyona Meeks share it) when I was trying to understand revenue and anxious about the quality. I highly recommend for ALL entrepreneurs. cc: Prosper HealthTech Accelerator A vision of Prosper Powered by gener8tor

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