From our perspective at gener8tor, a fundable startup features five essentials:

A hustler
A visionary/operations person
A brilliant user experience lead
A great hacker
An innovative business model*

In other words, the startups that grab our interest are four-fifths people and one part business model.  This plays out in practice as startups offering ‘A’ execution of a ‘B’ plan appeal to us far more than those promising ‘B’ execution of an ‘A+’ plan.

The hustlers lead it off for us and for good reason – they verify, validate and sell.  We know our hustler-led teams because they’re the ones grabbing revenues, getting attention, and securing follow-on funding before the others.  More philosophically, hustlers fit our model of customer-driven development through minimum viable product and quick customer feedback loops. From an investor’s perspective, the hustlers just make you feel better about the whole endeavor. Hustlers live on what … Read More »