Volano likes to be around the start-up community for a lot of good reasons and Omaha, though not without its challenges, has become an increasingly friendly place for entrepreneurs to pursue their ideas. As a software company, we are particularly interested in how technological innovation can solve problems and make money. Start-ups are often warned about the rigors and risks involved in going out on their own, pursuing capital, investing in an idea, people, infrastructure and staying in the money during the early growth years. It would seem that most start-up companies get into business to eventually cash out or forfeit some measure of control and go public. But this isn’t always the case and a recent blog by the NY Times explores start-ups who chose less conventional paths.
Last week’s NY Times blog explores alternative methods of gaining liquidity without an IPO or selling to a larger company, but these decisions can be tough. Whether it’s the eyeglass e-com Warby Parker allowing “early employees sell shares to new investors” or the decision that some boot-strapped companies make to stay small enough where they are never beholden to outside investors and remain autonomous. Other entrepreneurs seek partnership with larger companies or investors in order to reach loftier goals. The challenge then is seeking the right relationships. Andrew Dreskin, the cofounder of TicketWeb sold his company for 35 million to Ticketmaster and regrets today that he didn’t hold onto it longer, believing it could have been a multi-billion dollar company.
Other start-up entrepreneurs have opted to sell their concepts in order to finance retirement or projects and companies to which they are more passionate. Seattle entrepreneur Dan Shapiro sold his comparison shopping tool “Sparkbuy” to Google which helped finance his passion project, Robot Turtles, a board game that teaches computer programming to preschool age kids. This writer is interested in any board game that is not “Sorry” and actually teaches applicable concepts.
It’s hard to pass up the advantages of taking your company public. First there is the obvious financial benefit of raising capital. This allows business owners to pay off debt, fund initiatives and invest in research and development. The prestige factor can also lead to a greater level of awareness through the publicity generated by the IPO. Taking your company public can also help increase market share and in many cases, lead to profitable exit by the founder who may not be interested in continuing on with the business, especially given the loss of total freedom. However, going public also leads to increased scrutiny, regulation and added transparency for investors. These changes may be tough for entrepreneurs to stomach given their focus on growing their concept.
January 19, 2021
Software development is a team-based endeavor because of the complexity involved in launching a new system. Gone are the days when one developer can be point on the whole back-office software stack. It now takes multiple specialized roles to (appropriately) fulfill the software delivery lifecycle. A typical software project requires: Leadership Product management Project management […]
January 13, 2021
One definition of rot is the process of deterioration. Something that decays over time. By this standard – software rots like food in the Nebraska heat. It’s true. If your software isn’t regularly updated, it deteriorates and breaks down. Consider this – software is written to work at a moment in time…but time marches on. […]
January 4, 2021
OMAHA, NE, January 4, 2021 – In late 2020, Volano Solutions announced it has changed its name to Volano Software and launched a new website: www.volanosoftware.com. The name change was made to more accurately reflect what the company does, and the website was designed to be more informative and user-friendly to clients and prospective clients […]
June 2, 2020
According to LinkedIn technology (software) has a higher overall turnover rate than retail. With that, it isn’t a matter of if, but a matter of when. Volano has engineered a culture of “by developers, for developers” and this helps our retention. In fact, most of the folks that work at Volano have been here +5 […]
June 2, 2020
It is hard enough to build a successful business, and few want to invest time and resources into worrying about an Intellectual Property Assignment. But alas, you must do your homework. Fortunately, we make it easy for Volano customers. When asked – “Who owns the software and IP for my project?” – it is an […]
May 28, 2020
Many of us remember the grade school game Telephone. It was funny to see how a simple message would get garbled as it was passed along from person to person. But it’s not as funny when that message is a critical business requirement that will be turned into software that will power your business. Yet, […]