Startup Grind Sacramento will be hosting a free virtual workshop featuring Right Box Founder, Josh David Miller (JDM) who will discuss how startups can design a strong business model.

No one invests in weak business models, and no successful business is built on one.

And yet most early-stage startups and small businesses have generally terrible foundations that go on to plague them in later stages. Without a crystal-clear understanding of how your company meets the four basic components of any business model, you’re doomed to fail.

Suboptimal business models sink your chances of:

-Raising money

-Getting customers

-Turning a profit

-Scaling your company

-And more!

In this talk, JDM — aka Josh David Miller, aka “the shredder of business models” — will walk through the process of generating the best possible business model hypotheses for early-stage startups, using design thinking.

Some of the things we’ll talk about in this workshop include:

-What a business model is (technically);

-How to succinctly pitch yours;

-Common areas of weakness in startup business models;

-What investors look for in a business model; and

-How to turn unknowns into experiments and experiments into data.

Most importantly, JDM’s going to show you the tools he uses to:

1. Find the weakest part of your business model;

2. Turn it into a question; and

3. Develop a path to fix it.

Who’s this talk for?

This talk is geared toward the founders of companies who have not yet achieved product-market fit. You could be:

-A solo founder with nothing but an idea looking to get started;

-A founding team with a product and revenue looking to scale;

-And everyone in between.

So, what do you say? Let’s talk business models!

Date: June 21, 2020

Time: 5:00 pm (PDT)

Location: Online

Register: StartupGrind.com/Sacramento

I was sorting my mail and almost threw out the above postcard into the junk mail pile. When I noticed that it was made out to one of my first startups, iReadandLearn.com where I made apps for children. I must have made hundreds of dollars from this endeavor (yes, I know). Anyway, I followed the instructions on the card and went to https://smallappdeveloperassistance.com/ and followed the directions and entered my Claim ID and Confirmation Code and found that I was eligible for $250. Whoa. Free money! Cash payouts range from $250-$30,000.

I was wondering why a post card wasn’t sent to Apptology where I literally have published hundreds of apps. There was an option on the claim site to submit a claim if there was no card sent. I entered Apptology’s information and after submitting it, found that it was not eligible for a claim.

Puzzled, I went through the fine print:

You may be included in this settlement and entitled to receive a payment if you are or were a U.S. developer of any Apple iOS application or in-app product (including subscriptions) that:

1. Was sold for a non-zero price;
2. Was sold via Apple’s iOS App Store between 2015 and 2021; and
3. Earned, together with any other iOS applications or in-app products (including subscriptions) sold through all of your associated developer accounts, proceeds equal to or less than $1,000,000.00 through the App Store U.S. storefront in every calendar year from 2015 to 2021 in which you had a developer account.

Ah. So Non-zero price means that the apps can’t be a free app. Sadly, all the apps Apptology published were free apps. Oh well, I’ll take what I got.

This was a result of a class action lawsuit  Cameron et al v. Apple Inc where:

A settlement has been reached with Apple Inc. (“Apple”) in an antitrust class action lawsuit brought by U.S. app developers about Apple’s App Store. The lawsuit alleged that Apple monopolized (or attempted to monopolize) an alleged iOS app and in-app product distribution services market in violation of U.S. antitrust and California unfair competition laws. Apple denies all allegations and the settlement is not an admission of wrongdoing by Apple.

Bravo to Donald Cameron who took on Apple with this class action lawsuit. Prior to this, Apple took 30% of all proceeds from App Sales. Now it’s been reduced to 15%. So, for my fellow Apple Developers, you have until May 20, 2022 (yes, days from now) to submit a claim. The URL again is https://smallappdeveloperassistance.com. Good luck!

Startup Grind Sacramento will be hosting a free virtual workshop featuring Nifty Nanners Founder, Kevin Su. Kevin will go discuss what NFTs (non-fungible token) are and why they are the current rage.

About Kevin Su

In this event, Startup Grind Sacramento welcomes back our former intern, Kevin Su.  Kevin Su is a content creator, marketer, engineer and cryptocurrency investor since 2013 and NFT collector.

Graduating with a degree in electrical engineering from UC Davis in 2017, he quickly decided to pursue his passion for video marketing and audience development instead.

Over the last several years he has worked at a top video marketing agency, with some of the biggest content creators on YouTube. He believes that with Web3 there is an opportunity for all artist and creators to not only build an engaged audience, but also easily monetize off their work like never before. He also believes that NFTs will consume everything in the digital future.

Since February 2022 his brand Nifty Nanners has gained an audience of over 100,000 followers and 45 million views. Currently his focus has been to educate and entertain people on NFTs and the web3 space. With his expertise in content creation and audience development, his goal is to help creators grow and convert their audience into web3.

by introducing them to the crazy world of NFTs.

Date & Time: Wednesday, May 18, 5:00 PM

Location: Online

Cost: Free

Register: Startupgrind.com/Sacramento