by Burch LaPrade | Apr 14, 2017 | Company Blog
Since settling on a general business focus in June of last year, we have moved deliberately to develop our first product (as discussed in a prior post) and relied heavily on customer input to inform our critical design decisions. Done well, our framework has a few...
by Burch LaPrade | Apr 3, 2017 | Company Blog
Building complex software takes time. Exactly how long? Great question. It’s one we get asked. A lot. And our answer has changed over time. At the outset, we only had a general sense of how much work was entailed. Months later, after spending countless hours on...
by Burch LaPrade | Mar 13, 2017 | Company Blog
Six months in, and we’ve hit a key development milestone. One noteworthy upshot of this: after focusing heavily on building the foundation for our software platform to this point, we’re now ready to focus on customer-facing features. From a business standpoint, this...
by Burch LaPrade | Feb 9, 2017 | Company Blog
Our goal at Gain Compliance is to create a valuable company. The measure of our success, ultimately, won’t be a passionate mission statement, great company culture, fulfilling work environment, compelling product, or mass adoption with satisfied customers. Don’t get...
by Burch LaPrade | Feb 1, 2017 | Company Blog
In terms of the administrative and regulatory overhead of running a startup, the need to conduct a 409A valuation makes for an interesting discussion. The concept of this IRS rule is simple: a company must value its shares fairly and price its options accordingly....
by Burch LaPrade | Jan 21, 2017 | Company Blog
This week, we choose a benefits provider for health insurance. As a company, we spent a decent amount of time researching and debating the relative merits of the options. Not very exciting, I realize, but this process is pretty typical of the day-to-day tasks and...
by Burch LaPrade | Dec 30, 2016 | Company Blog
I was chatting with the owner of my neighborhood coffee shop last week. Her place is the antithesis of the Starbucks experience: locally-owned, single location, true artisanal approach (roasting done on premises, espressos are pulled by hand). Not only does this shop...
by Steve Siegel | Dec 22, 2016 | Company Blog
Whether you are contemplating a new business or looking at new market opportunities to drive growth within an existing company, there never seems to be a shortage of ideas around the next big market opportunity. Unfortunately, not all ideas are good ideas — nor are...
by Burch LaPrade | Dec 18, 2016 | Company Blog
One asset of our founding team is its diverse expertise: we brought sufficient experience and knowledge to cover the bases necessary to get off and running. Leveraging overlapping skillsets, we were able to research and identify a market opportunity, draft a business...
by Steve Siegel | Dec 5, 2016 | Company Blog
I am part of a startup right now — three founders and our first real employee. Prior to this, I was at a rapidly growing tech company that recently went public. My prior company, an established player in a defined market, looked at several dimensions when evaluating...
