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  1. Ravens_Shadow

    Stop Pouring and Start Drinking!

    MINDSET 
    View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zS2yF1dUYfs One of the best videos i've seen in a long time. This applies more to my personal life than my business life these days but wow. What a refreshing take on the doom scrolling, attention economy we live in!
  2. Ravens_Shadow

    Ravens Guide to Leading With Ruthless Integrity

    PEOPLE SCALING EXECUTION 
    Ravens Guide To Leading With Ruthless Integrity - PART 1 This is my guide to leading with ruthless integrity, or at least trying to persuade you to do so. Integrity is a lost art in business and not many founders today actually practice ruthless integrity. The word ruthless is used here on...
  3. Ravens_Shadow

    Ravens Guide To Taking Action - A step by step process that is guaranteed to result in millions of dollars

    GOLD! SCALING EXECUTION 
    Ravens Guide To Taking Action - Stop Action Faking For a Lifetime 8 Years ago I started my software company and have relentlessly executed on my goals since its inception. I’ve grown the company to 25 employees, millions in revenue, got my dream car, and found the love of my life. I’m...
  4. Ravens_Shadow

    FTC Bans Non-Compete Agreements

    TAXES | REGS 
    A huge win for any budding entrepreneur to do what their day job does as a business. Hopefully this stops a lot of shitty businesses from existing and spawns a much better competitive environment. https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2024/04/ftc-announces-rule-banning-noncompetes...
  5. Ravens_Shadow

    The Entrepreneurial Blur? Are YOU affected by these symptoms too?

    MINDSET 
    I had a call with a long-time friend from the forum yesterday and we both have this feeling that I'll call the Entrepreneurial Blur. He told me he knows of quite a few others who have this same feeling, so let's try to set a diagnosis and lay out the symptoms. For those of you who have been...
  6. Ravens_Shadow

    409(a) Valuations, doing it by the book, and other IRS pitfalls

    Do any of you guys do 409(A) valuations for your companies? Does anyone know how it works? If I grant equity to new employees do they have to pay an absurd amount of taxes? Why with any accountant or lawyer i've ever had have they *never* mentioned this requirement by the IRS? From what I'm...
  7. Ravens_Shadow

    AMA - I built a software company worth 8 figures

    GOLD! HOT! EXECUTION AMA 
    I've been wanting to do an AMA (Ask me anything) for a while. I've built a desktop software company worth 8 figures, but I'm aiming for $1 billion, not to be a unicorn, but just because I think its the natural progression of where I'm headed. I started the company in 2016 and I have 15 employees...
  8. Ravens_Shadow

    The Desert of Desertion's Sibling: The Dessert of Deceit

    By now most of you know what the Desert of Desertion is. It's that phase where your entrepreneurial dreams are in jeopardy due to there being a drought of customers, money, positive feedback loops etc. This is the phase where a lot of would be entrepreneurs give up on their dreams and move to...
  9. Ravens_Shadow

    Business is easy and it affects forum participation from heavy hitters.

    NOTABLE! HOT! MINDSET 
    Part 1: Business is easy, internal battles are hard. I’ve been pondering about my view that business as a whole is easy, it’s fighting your internal battles while building a successful company that’s hard. The tasks that I do on a daily basis are mostly simple and I’m honestly just typing...
  10. Ravens_Shadow

    What are the best things you've ever done to increase your revenue?

    MARKETING 
    What is the best thing you've ever done to increase your businesses revenue (or profit if you read it that way)? For me it was a total pivot of our old product to something that fit the market much better. As for something actionable that anyone else can apply, focusing on individual customer...
  11. Ravens_Shadow

    Managing Your Expectations Is Everything! Expectations.. An Integral Piece To Your First Million In Sales.

    NOTABLE! MINDSET 
    Managing Expectations While On Your Entrepreneurial Journey Preface: I'd consider myself relatively successful now that I've built up a company that's generating over $1 million in ARR and I'm finally able to reap my rewards via fat dividends checks. I’m writing this from the perspective of...
  12. Ravens_Shadow

    Don't let the vocal minority prevent you from making a killing! What is your hater to buyer ratio?

    NOTABLE! 
    WHAT'S YOUR HATER TO BUYER RATIO? *I dislike the word hater, but it gets the point across. Something I’ve learned when selling a product (software in my case): For every one person that publicly complains and denounces your pricing, value, licensing model, product usefulness, etc, hundreds of...
  13. Ravens_Shadow

    Just stick with it, don't quit. It's a hard journey - $30k in a single month... finally.

    GOLD! EXECUTION 
    If this thread stops one person from quitting, then it's done its job. I've been on my "fastlane" journey since 2012 and as of the past month I finally hit my goal, which was to make $30k in a single month.. and we actually surpassed this. Our goal now is $60k per month, then $90k, and so on...
  14. Ravens_Shadow

    How do you handle your sales processes? How is your pipeline setup for keeping track of leads and their status?

    MARKETING 
    I've got around 1,500 warm/hot leads from a form on my website where users are signing up for beta access for our upcoming software product. The product isn't out yet, but it will be soon. We've got 3 categories of leads: Individuals/Small studios with less than $1mil in revenue. Studios...
  15. Ravens_Shadow

    The story of Prusa 3D Printers journey to 100k printers shipped. $230,000,000+ valuation

    An excellent breakdown of Prusa's journey from nothing to the top of the 3D printing industry. 450 Employees Company valuation @ $230m in 2016 View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xX3pDDi9PeU Nothing short of incredible, and they sold 30,000 more printers during the production of the...
  16. Ravens_Shadow

    A fundamental question for any entrepreneur: What do I want from my business?

    NOTABLE! 
    I’ve got a friend that I call a few times a month to see if he’s taken action on his ideas and help him break down any barriers he may have. We’ll talk about what he’s doing and he’ll throw up a bunch of excuses about why he can’t launch yet, albeit it’s been 4 years since he started his...
  17. Ravens_Shadow

    Build-A-Bear promotion + backfire. 8+ hour queues for teddy bears..

    FUNNY 
    Build-A-Bear runs a promotion where for July 12th, you can get a bear for the cost of your child's age. So you could buy a bear for your 3 year old for $3. Apparently the bears typically cost up to ~$50. Lines were getting to be so long, and presumably disorderly, that they had to end the...
  18. Ravens_Shadow

    Too scared to take the plunge?

    MINDSET 
    You know what it's like to be too scared to take a risk with entrepreneurship right? We have all been there at one point or another. Maybe years later in your journey, you're still scared about some things. For the typical wantrepreneur it may sound something like this: "I would totally start...
  19. Ravens_Shadow

    The Fastlane Forum Thread and Rep+ Exchange

    @MJ DeMarco I had an idea that may be a good way to expand upon popular threads, encourage rep+ exchanging, and highlight some of the best gold on the forum besides the gold tag. This is more of real-time thing vs seeing recent posts. What if we had a page on the forum that was similar to a...
  20. Ravens_Shadow

    Raleigh/Durham/Cary, NC (Triangle) Meetup

    MEETUPS 
    Any one here in North Carolina want to meet up sometime this month/next month? I just moved back to the east coast and would like to bring fellow forum members in the area together for an afternoon. Looking for something a bit more casual/social.

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