Will Little @wclittle Subscribe

Managing Director at Prota Ventures.
I'm a bioengineer-turned-software-developer and venture builder/investor. Learn more about me professionally on LinkedIn, personally here, and check out the podcast I host, Ventures.

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Topic:   Startups
 Will Little

Sep 22, 2016
Startups Financial Modeling

Startup Financial Modeling, Part 2: Start with Your Assumptions

In the previous post of this series we described what financial modeling is and why it is important for startup founders to build their own models from scratch. Today, we’ll begin by diving into how to practically start building a financial model.
Will Little

Sep 16, 2016
Startups Financial Modeling

Startup Financial Modeling, Part 1: What is a Financial Model?

Our plan is to break this out into a four-part series and guide you through the components necessary for building your own financial model from scratch: Part 1: The why and what of financial modeling // Part 2: Assumptions // Part 3: Income statement and custom detail tabs // Part 4: Cash flow, balance sheet, and keeping the model updated.

Will Little

Sep 14, 2016
Startups

Startup Rocket helps entrepreneurs build better companies

Along with my partners at Prota Ventures, I’m excited to announce today the public launch of Startup Rocket, a service that helps early stage entrepreneurs ideate, validate, create, grow, and fund new ventures. Startup Rocket provides a comprehensive operations framework, a collaborative online coaching tool, personalized coaching, and a ton of helpful resources for every step of a new entrepreneur’s journey.
Will Little

Aug 17, 2016
Startups

Introducing the Startup Rocket Framework

Based on decades of experience ideating, validating, creating, growing, and funding startups (from both sides of the table), my partners and I are developing a framework to help entrepreneurs with the first critical steps of their journey. Our goal is to help founders build upon the traditional business plan and ideation tools out there to focus on executing what matters: acquiring and retaining happy, paying customers.
Will Little

Aug 8, 2016
Startups

How to architect data flow and storage in a new startup

You may think you have a good idea, but it’s data’s job to tell you otherwise. Ironically, in the startup world today where everyone knows they should make “data-driven decisions”, few founders actually setup their data architecture and flow to give them the data they need on a daily basis to make smart choices, let alone facilitate growth.
Will Little

Jul 20, 2016
Startups Software Development

Five questions to ask when choosing a technology stack for your startup

Almost as dangerous as stating your political or religious opinions online is suggesting software tools and languages for a startup. Software engineers are an opinionated and tribal bunch; say the wrong thing and you’ll be ridiculed and cast out of camp faster than you can say “spaces are better than tabs.”
Will Little

Jul 12, 2016
Startups Visual Design

Why writing a user interface spec (UI spec) is critical for startup teams

Building a software product is hard. While we’ve all heard stories of hero developers cranking out projects in a weekend that go viral, that’s obviously not the norm. For the rest of the world, a smart and diligent approach is needed to build something useful and keep their team (however large or small) on the same page to avoid wasting time.
Will Little

Jun 7, 2016
Startups Marketing Product Management

Data-driven startups: How to design and build smart funnels within your product

The dance between product and growth in a new startup is rarely elegant, especially when founders fail to bake smart funnels into their product.
Will Little

May 16, 2016
Startups Software Development Product Management

Startups: How to set a realistic timeline when building a software product

“Sure, we'll have that done in three weeks.” says the engineer. The marketer rolls her eyes, of course, and expects it in five. Eleven weeks later, it's delivered (and it's not very good). After an additional seven weeks of ironing out the basic bugs and UX kinks, marketing finally feels comfortable promoting it. Why didn't the engineer just say “about 20 weeks” and aim for delivering a tad early?
Will Little

May 5, 2016
Startups Software Development Redux Ruby on Rails React

Seven reasons why a Rails, Redux, React, and React Native stack is fantastic for new startups

Here are the reasons why I'm all-in with this software stack.

Will Little

Apr 30, 2016
Startups Coaching

Life Coaching

Most of us — if we are fortunate (and whether we like it or not) — have people in our lives who help point out our blind spots and teach us new things. Significant others, friends, colleagues, kids, parents, sports coaches, teachers, music instructors, etc. are often the people that pour into us and/or remind us that we’re human. (Seriously, we have many people to thank!)
Will Little

Apr 12, 2016
Startups Venture Capital

Introducing Prota Ventures

Along with our first set of portfolio projects, my partners and I are excited to unveil Prota Ventures, a venture-building and early-stage investment firm based out of Seattle, Chicago, and Jacksonville.
Will Little

Feb 20, 2016
Startups Marketing

How to conduct free and low-cost experiments to validate your new business idea

Entrepreneurs are always tempted to build their products secretly in a cave. This, however, is rarely the most effective way to succeed. According to common Lean wisdom, the better route is to get the idea in front of customers early and often, smartly collect feedback, and iterate rapidly toward product-market fit. But, as anyone who has ever tried it knows, this is easier said than done. How do you actually validate an idea? How do you best design experiments? Who do you ask to participate in them?
Will Little

Jan 16, 2016
Startups

How (and when) to select advisors for your new venture

Like all entrepreneurs who have been in the game for awhile, I too am forever grateful for advisors who have helped shaped the course of my career and the ventures I've co-founded. However, finding the right advisors and formalizing the relationship properly is often a confusing process. I've fallen into many traps (as both a founder and an advisor) that are avoidable with — you guessed it— the right advice.
Will Little

Dec 22, 2015
Startups Software Development Visual Design Product Management

Building a new web product: How to best setup engineers AND creatives for a win

Pre-launch startup operations are always chaotic. That being said, equipped with your idea, team, market analysis, customer personas, early validation via surveys and interviews, and a brief overview statement (yes, do all that first), there is something simple you can do to setup your engineers and creatives for a win.