- Vai trò của Founder, CEO, và BOD khác nhau hoàn toàn ở mỗi giai đoạn startup — Pre-Seed cần focus vào tech risk & team building, Series A focus vào product-market fit & revenue, Series B+ focus vào scaling.
- Pre-Seed stage: Tech risk là concern chính vì product chưa có — founder mất 1.5 năm + phải thay 2 CTO mới tạo được sản phẩm thực sự hoạt động (ví dụ: Canavi job-matching platform).
- Series A stage: Startup đã có sản phẩm + revenue → focus vào scale, team expansion, market expansion — founder phải chuyển từ “maker” thành “leader” để quản lý team lớn hơn.
Welcome to BG Podcast Episode 2, I’m Hai, the host of the Podcast
The podcast will share my real experience in building and fundraising for startup founders. Nếu bạn muốn hiểu rõ hơn về ranh giới vai trò giữa Founder, CEO và BOD qua từng giai đoạn startup, tôi có viết chi tiết hơn tại đây.
I built 3 startups, 1 bootstrapping, 2 fundraising from angels and Venture Capital, and in the Board Of Directors of 6 startups
Will have the differences focus on each stage of Startups
1.Pre-Seed Stage:
Technical Risk is the main concern
You will spend most of the time to build a tech team
The tech Team will help to build the product
You will see the delay in launching a product
The product will be refused by the users
Your tech team will re-build it
Or you will have to fire the tech lead
And re-build the product
For example:
When I built the job-matching platform Canavi
It took me 1.5 years and replace 2-CTOs to rebuild and launch the product
Choose your tech co-founder carefully in the stage
2.Seed Stage:
Market Risk is the main concern
You will spend most of the time testing until find Product Market Fit (PMF)
You will launch the product, have some paid users
But the number stops growing.
You will talk and take the feedback of the customers all the time
In a lot of cases, you will have to rebuild the product
For example: It took me 1.5 years and 2 times to relaunch our Virtual English Testing Room FLYER
In the first launch, we had paid users, but it grew slowly after 3 months. Due to the heavy operation model.
The second time, we took the feedback and grew fast during 3 year
Each week, we sat down with the customers to collect the feedback from them and improve the product
Good luck with the product you choose
Next, Is Growth Stage
3.Series A Stage:
Go To Market Risk is the main concern
Now you have the good products and have the customers
How can you build and upgrade the MKT & Sale Channel to go to market?
Is your acquisition system better than your competitors?
To win the niche market in the short period
4.Series B Stage
Expansion Risk is the main concern
When you win a niche market (Ex: A country).
And now you want to expand to other countries.
Is that the right decision?
How can you win the new markets?
Will the old strategy work in the new markets?
That’s the challenge of Growth Stage
For example:
As we are fundraising series B for CyberSecurity VinCSS
We spend most of the time checking the following steps to grow
Does that create new products, enter new markets, or growth by M&A?
And we choose to enter the new markets (beside Vietnam)
5.Series C and Above
Culture Risk is the main concern
Your startup will have many people at this stage
Your culture helps to bring everyone together
Work and achieve the vision of the startup
Each stage has different work to do, so turn your focus to the right position, right time, Startup Founder
If you like it, please like, share, and comment on the video, so that it will be recommended to more startup founders
See you in the next episode
(End)
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