Mark MacLeod
startupcfo.ca · Personal blog · on HN since 2008
Mark MacLeod, a startup CFO in Canada, writes about venture capital, fundraising, pricing and startup finance.
What HN saysHN commenters recommend it as a good resource on venture funding and cite his post arguing against white labeling for startups.
37HN people shared it
4linked it in comments
48stories submitted
202story points
11 years agolast shared
2008people per year2026
Most-shared posts
- 1Top 10 Signs Your Business Is Not VC Fundable2 people · 5 points · first shared 2012 · discussion on HN
- 2The end of bootstrapping2 people · 5 points · first shared 2015 · discussion on HN
- 3Homepage2 people · first shared 2013
- 4VCs to avoid taking money from1 people · 81 points · first shared 2013 · 42 comments on HN
- 5Mark MacLeod: A checklist of what VCs are looking for in an elevator pitch1 people · 34 points · first shared 2011 · 5 comments on HN
- 6The cost side of freemium1 people · 8 points · first shared 2009 · discussion on HN
- 7Pricing revisited1 people · 4 points · first shared 2008 · 1 comments on HN
- 8Is Web 2.0 the great VC return equalizer?1 people · 4 points · first shared 2008 · discussion on HN
- 9Venture Math 1011 people · 3 points · first shared 2013 · 1 comments on HN
- 10Early Funding Mistakes Can Be Fatal1 people · 3 points · first shared 2011 · discussion on HN
- 11Era of small exit1 people · 3 points · first shared 2009 · discussion on HN
- 12Follow-on rounds - size matters1 people · 2 points · first shared 2008 · discussion on HN
- 13Be like Mike1 people · 2 points · first shared 2010 · discussion on HN
- 14Startup Back Office 1011 people · 2 points · first shared 2011 · 1 comments on HN
- 15SaaS pricing: Push your base version1 people · 2 points · first shared 2010 · discussion on HN
What HN people wrote when they linked it
rahimnathwani · 2015-05-05
Brad Feld provides a great overview in his book 'Venture Deals'. Mark MacLeod's blog is also good: http://www.startupcfo.ca/
Do you have questions about specific topics?
pain_perdu · 2013-07-23
I think Golden Venture Partners are a cut above many Canadian VCs. See http://goldenvp.com/
Mark MacLeod may be a good person to speak to as well: http://www.startupcfo.ca/
mindcrime · 2013-07-17
Working on answering my own question here, in the hopes that this may help someone else down the road. Here's one article that argues against startups going down the "white label" path:
http://www.startupcfo.ca/2012/06/why-i-hate-white-labeling-for-startup…
And another that takes a dim view of pure "white labeling" but suggests co-branding as a valid option:
http://davidcummings.org/2011/08/11/white-labeled-software-strategies-…
MartinMond · 2013-03-02
The "tradeoff" seems to be "make the server into a
dumb store for encrypted data." At which point, you
don't have Evernote (an API for fuzzy-matching
clippings punted into it from various devices),
you have Evernote (a set of fat client programs)
plus a POSS (Plain Old Storage Service, like S3.)
In fact, the workflow sounds like it would have more
in common with editing a Word document over SMB than
with making web requests.
Not at all. Fuzzy-matching can be done client side just as well as server-side. The constraints are a bit different, but not too much (E.g. on the server-side: Make it scale --> conserve CPU, on the (mobile) client-side: Make it fast --> conserve CPU)
Otherwise, yeah most Web Apps are nothing more than editing stuff over the network and visualizing it differently.
The #1 competitor or a SaaS isn't some other SaaS but rather Word/Excel: http://www.startupcfo.ca/2011/05/the-1-competitor-for-saas-vendors/
Edit: Also there's no reason to believe the client-side store wouldn't be encrypted. That'd be exceedingly stupid.