Prembly’s Post

For my birthday last year, I shared 31 things I learned since founding my startup 🎂 This year, I tried to write 32 and... well, I didn't get far 🤷♂️ Not sure what that says about the last year! 😅 Looking back is simple though: we've made amazing progress ✅ Grown the team 🌱 Expanded the business 📈 And achieved ground-breaking improvements to our platform 🚀 I'm so proud of the team, and proud of myself for continuously pushing towards success 💪 Looking forward, I want more of the same 🎯 A consistent and purposeful focus on delivering the best for our clients 🔍 (Oh, and I can't wait for mass of Happy Birthdays from LinkedIn) 🎉 #HappyBirthdayToMe #Reflecting #Growth #Success ------- 👋 Hi - I'm Josh from Doc2. We work with finance businesses, getting your contracts created and eSigned faster with total compliance and oversight. 🖥️ Book a demo by following this link: https://lnkd.in/ei3qkHvf

Hi connections its yet another month since i had last penned down. As i had mentioned in my previous post that the startup was facing roadblocks with every step that we were taking. I feel this past one month has really taught me how to not lose hope and keep working until you move the roadblocks one by one. And yeah we surely did it too, we sorted our finances, we sorted our clients, we sorted our shooting schedules, we sorted our accounting, we sorted our budgets and thus finally after 4 long months of sleepless nights, stressed days and treating everyday as just another working day we finally made it to a stable position. From all the experiences that i had i learnt that if you have a team as passionate as you are dedicated to get things done, you would always find ways to get it done. Our boss has a tagline "whatever happens, the show must keep go on" I believe this is something that has really helped me to always have a positive outlook towards everything that was going on. So until next time, I hope you too get over all the roadblocks that might be in your way. #niminalday5 #journalentry

Issuing Stock Options to My Team—Navigating Surprises Along the Way Continuing my startup journey, I want to share how I issued stock options to my team and the challenges I faced. The most crucial aspect of a startup is who you’re embarking on this journey with. Forming a strong, motivated team is vital, and stock options are a great tool to unite everyone around a common goal. I decided to grant options to everyone from the start, even junior specialists. Now, my team has five full-timers and three fractional C-level managers, all with options. First, an unpleasant surprise: To issue options from a U.S. company (I have a C-Corp in Delaware), you need a 409A valuation. I discovered that Carta.com’s paid plan is practically the only reliable option for startups, but it’s not cheap. Thankfully, I negotiated quarterly payments with them. On the positive side, issuing options was super easy via Carta without any lawyers. Their support staff also helped when needed. Deciding what percentage to grant was another challenge. To avoid over-allocation that could break the cap table, I did my own research—Googling, asking ChatGPT, and consulting the community—to determine appropriate percentages. My fractional C-level hires received options without a cliff and vesting over 12-18 months, similar to advisors since they have other commitments. Forming a management team with experienced people was crucial. For the core team—engineers and designers—I set a standard 1-year cliff and 4-year vesting. They receive retainers with median market salaries based on their location. Finally, issuing options isn’t tied to contracts or job offers—you need separate documents. I used templates from Stripe Atlas and adjusted them. Hope this helps if you’re building a team. I’ll share more as I learn. In the photo, I’m with Karina, my assistant and marketing manager, who—even as an intern—helped me navigate this journey and provided tremendous support. #StartupJourney #StockOptions #Artifici.me

We have been talking to founders with early stage ideas. They all say the same thing. They have an audience ready to use their product if it were live today ( largely family and friends ). But are they willing to pay for it I asked? The hem’s and haw’s soon followed. Price point wasn't discussed. Our advice: Try to get a letter of engagement with an agreed price point. Very useful to show investors or grant funders that you have paying customers waiting. Would price point stop people from purchasing your product? How much would they be willing to pay? Would they want a monthly cancel anytime arrangement? Or a 3-5 year commitment? _________________________________________________ Follow Hydra-Software-Services for advice or services to support your startup   #sales #marketing #operations #product #software #gamification #finance #legal

A lot of VCs talk about "adding value beyond capital." Here's what that actually means to me: When we started growing our portfolio at Flybridge from dozens to hundreds of companies, we faced a fundamental challenge... "How do you maintain high-touch support at scale?" The answer wasn't hiring more partners. It was rethinking how value flows through a network. It's simple math: If I spend an hour helping one founder, that's valuable. If I spend an hour connecting four founders who can help each other, I've created 12 potential value exchanges. What we've learned: 1. The best knowledge often comes peer-to-peer 2. Founders trust advice from those who've just solved their current challenge 3. Every founder has something valuable to teach 4. Community creates unexpected collisions of ideas Real examples from our portfolio: • CTOs helping each other with technical decisions • Founders sharing hiring playbooks • CEOs advising on fundraising strategies • Teams collaborating on market insights As the network grows stronger, it becomes a magnet for new talent, ideas, and opportunities. The only way to play the long game is to build a community that scales beyond any one person and outlasts any single individual.

After chatting with a16z this weekend, something clicked: we're seeing fewer exceptional founders these days. Why? Because everyone's starting with "I want to be a founder" instead of letting ideas emerge organically. My journey proves this: 1. MEA (first exit): Started by observing mobile developers getting sidelined by advertisers in 2009. No master plan. Just curiosity that turned into an opportunity. 2. Baskit (acquired by Fortune 1000): Born from a late-night conversation about shopping cart abandonment. Classic "what if we tried this?" moment. 3. GoMblty (acquired by Envoy): While everyone was building Bird and Lime, I stayed in the background consulting. Noticed corporates and universities needed private mobility solutions. Built exactly that. But here's the real talk: My three biggest failures? All came from trying to force a business into existence. Perfectly planned. Carefully strategized. And completely wrong about what the market wanted. The truth about exceptional companies? - They rarely start with business plans - They emerge from genuine curiosity - They solve problems others overlook - They pivot fast when needed Full breakdown on the three paths to building companies in this week's newsletter: https://lnkd.in/gHVejWeK What's your story? Did you set out to be a founder, or did you stumble into it? 👇

Two words all founders should remove from their vocabulary: “Should have.” We recently had to make a very tough decision for our team at Chezie. As a result, I've spent way too much time thinking about what we should have done over the past ~6 months. - We should have built this feature - We should have used this platform instead of that one - We should have negotiated for a lower price - We should have raised more money I'm coming to terms with the reality that everyday building a company is new one. You learn by doing. So yes, look back at the decisions you made to understand why something did or didn't work, but getting stuck on a “should have” does nothing but slow you down. And we don't have time for that 🚀 --- Share this with a founder that needs to read it!

Traditional telecalling isn’t built for small businesses—we’re changing that. For too long, 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐮𝐩𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐬𝐦𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐛𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐬 have struggled to access 𝐨𝐮𝐭𝐬𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐜𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐢𝐜𝐞𝐬, locked out by high setup costs, rigid contracts, and complex onboarding. With traditional solutions built for big players, smaller companies are left behind—forced to choose between expensive outsourcing or the burden of building in-house teams. To remove these barriers and make 𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐞-𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐝𝐞 𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 accessible to every business—SquadStack introduces 𝐏𝐥𝐮𝐠-𝐍-𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐲! Why 𝐏𝐥𝐮𝐠-𝐍-𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐲 is a 𝐆𝐚𝐦𝐞-𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐫: ◾Go Live in 24 Hours ◾Zero Fixed Costs ◾AI-Powered Quality Checks ◾Scalable on Your Terms Whether you're a startup validating product-market fit, a D2C brand capitalizing on fresh leads, or a small business needing seasonal support, 𝐏𝐥𝐮𝐠-𝐍-𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐲 empowers you to grow without limits. Ready to scale without barriers? 𝐆𝐞𝐭 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐞𝐝: https://lnkd.in/eF8A6KPT #PlugNPlay #SquadStack #Telecalling #ProductLaunch

I've been v blessed to have watched Reachdesk grow from $0 ARR to $20M+ over the past 5 years. Here are my 5 biggest recommendations for a founding AE getting going at a start up... 1 - Celebrate every single win My first deal was a tiny $1k one month trial - it didn't matter how small it was, we celebrated that win like it was a million dollar deal. 6 months later I closed my first $60k+ deal - we celebrated this no differently. Every milestone in a start up matters, no matter how small. 2 - Get comfortable with being uncomfortable In my third week, Alex Olley went off on parental leave (all be it not for long lol) which threw me in the deepest of ends. By embracing the feeling of being uncomfortable, I quickly got used to learning fast and getting things done. Alex trusted me to do a job and that gave me the confidence to give it a whack. 3 - Be a sponge Learn, learn, learn. I'm lucky to have been surrounded by a lot of smart people. When James Suwanpatra first came in, he brought a totally different perspective to our process and strategy. At an early stage, as things are being built, focus on these people and learn as much as possible. 4 - Run a tight ship With no logos, no case studies, no Marketing, it can be tough to get traction on your deals. As a team, we put a lot more emphasis on our Sales process. Running a grade A discovery, truly understanding the impact and quantifying metrics around pain, running detailed and relevant Proposals - all of these became so much more important given we had less to back our cause. 5 - Be prepared to wear many hats One of the first things a friend said to me ahead of joining a start up was - "prepare to get your hands dirty" and boy did we. Often we'd sit in a room as a pretty junior team alongside the Founders (only 6 of us at the time) and we'd discuss what we thought the best product focuses and outbound strategies were, how we can support customers in the best way, events we would would go to. It was in these sessions where ideas were born - we continued these until the teams grew to be bigger and more specialised. #saas #startup

The great joy of scaling startups is when customers thrive and run their businesses on your software. Importantly they refer more customers because they believe in you ! https://BlueSecures.ai Online Payments & Engagement Platform