Steve Blank

APRIL 12, 2010

Startups are the search to find order in chaos. At a board meeting last week I watched as the young startup CEO delivered bad news. The Search for the Business Model. A startup is an organization formed to search for a repeatable and scalable business model. Pivoting the Business Model.

Business Model 334

Business Model Agile Customer Development Startup 334

The Startup Magazine

NOVEMBER 22, 2022

She realised the revenue operations market was booming, especially within the tech industry, and therefore wanted to explore what is largely an untapped market within the UK and Europe. RevOps, or “Revenue Operations”, is a B2B function that uses automation to help teams make the right decisions to grow their business.

Congo 158

Congo Technical Review Africa Netherlands 158

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 11, 2022

An effective tool I see used more and more, as a prelude to a more detailed business plan, is the Business Model Canvas , first introduced by Alexander Osterwalder back in 2008. In my experience as a new business advisor, a business is nothing until people are aligned and work in sync. Key partners.

Business Model 334

Business Model Intellectual Property Angel Investor Channel 334

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 2, 2022

I expect that should seem intuitive to all entrepreneurs, but every investor I know has many stories about startup funding requests with major business model elements missing. The most common failures are solutions looking for a problem, lack of a defined market, or an inadequate revenue model. Revenue model.

Business Model 256

Business Model Distribution Viral Green 256

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 5, 2018

A version of this article first appeared in the Harvard Business Review. It’s the antithesis of the Lean Startup. Almost overnight the floodgates opened, and risk capital was available at scale from venture capital investors who rushed their startups toward public offerings. ” Fire, Ready, Aim. And it may work.

Lean 335

Lean Burn Rate Startup IPO 335

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 26, 2023

Every new business quickly realizes that revenue coming in every period on a committed basis is the Holy Grail to survival and growth. Based on traditional research, getting new customers is five to ten times harder than getting additional revenue from existing customers.

Business Model 294

Business Model Startup Cloud Curation 294

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 14, 2022

I found their five phases of the process to be compelling, based on my own years of experience mentoring startups: Nail the pain. Great businesses begin with a customer problem that has a big and monetizable pain point. Nail the business model. It’s time for a new startup model. Marty Zwilling.

Angel Investor 359

Angel Investor Technical Review Incubator Business Model 359

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 30, 2019

The “valley of death” is a common term in the startup world, referring to the difficulty of covering the negative cash flow in the early stages of a startup, before their new product or service is bringing in revenue from real customers. Join a startup incubator. Use crowd funding. Get a loan or line-of-credit.

Intellectual Property 219

Intellectual Property Technical Review Startup Incubator 219

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 4, 2022

The “valley of death” is a common term in the startup world, referring to the difficulty of covering the negative cash flow in the early stages of a startup, before their new product or service is bringing in revenue from real customers. Join a startup incubator. Use crowd funding. Get a loan or line-of-credit.

Intellectual Property 261

Intellectual Property Technical Review Incubator Bootstrapping 261

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 19, 2023

Entrepreneurs who experience success with their first startup are often amazed to realize that the risks and fears of doing it right the second time go up, rather than down. Encores are tough, especially in the high-risk world of startups, yet every entrepreneur I know can’t wait to start over and do it again.

Technical Review 229

Technical Review Due Diligence Business Model Demand 229

Steve Blank

JANUARY 17, 2023

Three types of organizations – Incubators, Accelerators and Venture Studios – have emerged to reduce the risk of early-stage startup failure by helping teams find product/market fit and raise initial capital. They do the most to de-risk the early stages of a startup. Reducing Startup Risk.

Technical Cofounder 362

Technical Cofounder Intellectual Property Technical Review Incubator 362

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 15, 2019

I found their five phases of the process to be compelling, based on my own years of experience mentoring startups: Nail the pain. Great businesses begin with a customer problem that has a big and monetizable pain point. Nail the business model. It’s time for a new startup model. Marty Zwilling.

Startup 245

Startup Angel Investor Technical Review Incubator 245

Steve Blank

APRIL 23, 2014

For decades large companies have gone shopping in Silicon Valley for startups. What can companies learn from others’ failed efforts to integrate startups into large companies? The answer - there are two types of integration strategies, and they depend on where the startup is in its lifecycle. The Innovation Portfolio.

Acquisition 333

Acquisition Intellectual Property Silicon Valley Startup 333

Steve Blank

JUNE 27, 2017

As more and more companies face disruption from globalization, new technology, and startups that have more capital than the incumbents, the continuing cry from Wall Street investors is, “Why can’t companies be as innovative as startups?”. Here’s one reason why: Startups can do anything. Startups can do anything.

Startup 297

Startup New York City Valuation Distribution 297

VC Cafe

NOVEMBER 2, 2019

Benchmarks are typically specific to stage/business model/geo. In Rob Go’s words: For seed and Series A deals, investors will also need to see a high-potential team with founder/market fit , a large and attractive market opportunity , and a business model with increasing returns to scale. Consumer apps and services.

B2C 141

B2C Technical Review Startup Retention 141

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 21, 2020

Some analysts argue that revenue drives growth, while others say user growth drives revenue. Google reached $1B in revenue within five years of incorporation, and now has a market capitalization of over $1 trillion. A business only achieved critical mass by becoming cash-flow positive. Both have worked.

Revenue 434

Revenue Valuation Viral Retention 434

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 6, 2019

The “valley of death” is a common term in the startup world, referring to the difficulty of covering the negative cash flow in the early stages of a startup, before their new product or service is bringing in revenue from real customers. Join a startup incubator. Only one-third make it past their tenth anniversary.

Finance 320

Finance Intellectual Property Technical Review Incubator 320

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 23, 2020

Entrepreneurs who experience success with their first startup are often amazed to realize that the risks and fears of doing it right the second time go up, rather than down. Encores are tough, especially in the high-risk world of startups, yet every entrepreneur I know can’t wait to start over and do it again.

Technical Review 324

Technical Review Entrepreneur Due Diligence Business Model 324

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 2, 2022

There are no guarantees in business, but it pays to learn from the experiences of entrepreneurs and business experts who have gone before you. As a long-time mentor to entrepreneurs, here is my collection of smart risks that investors and I look for in new startups: Focus on a tough customer problem rather than a fun technology.

Forecast 304

Forecast Stock Options Technical Review Metrics 304

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 16, 2022

A question that I still hear debated often is whether a new online platform startup growth strategy should focus on user count or profits. Most startups and investors I know don’t have unlimited funds, so the first question they should ask and do ask today, is “When is your company going to be profitable (self-sustaining)?”

Revenue 297

Revenue Widget Angel Investor Early Stage 297

David Teten

JANUARY 21, 2021

This essay is part of a series on alternative VC: I: Revenue-Based Investing: a new option for founders who care about control. II: Who are the major Revenue-Based Investing VCs? III: Why are Revenue-Based VCs investing in so many women and underrepresented founders? IV: Should your new VC fund use Revenue-Based Investing?

Equity 78

Equity Revenue Cofounder Colorado 78

ReadWriteStart

JANUARY 26, 2021

Launching a startup is ridiculously exciting. Of course, most of you reading this know that the odds of your business becoming a tech unicorn are slim, even if you have a great idea in place. That’s because more than half of all startups fail within the first five years of operation. Lack of Market Need. Running Out of Capital.

Startup 180

Startup Angel Investor Business Model Demand 180

VC Cafe

FEBRUARY 27, 2024

especially if the startup already has a product and revenue? While the answers are somewhat semantic, the pre-seed funding round is making a comeback in 2024 startup financing. Pre-seed round tends to be the first ‘institutional’ round of funding in a startup. Seed is about showing initial product market fit.

Valuation 186

Valuation Software Review Generative AI Technical Review 186

YoungUpstarts

JUNE 4, 2019

by Bruce Cleveland, Founding Partner at Wildcat Venture Partners and author of “ Traversing the Traction Gap “ As we continue our exploration of the Traction Gap Framework® – a step-by-step approach that startup teams can use to go from ideation to preparing to scale – I will walk you through the principles.

Framework 127

Framework Architecture Cleveland Early Stage 127

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 12, 2018

The “valley of death” is a common term in the startup world, referring to the difficulty of covering the negative cash flow in the early stages of a startup, before their new product or service is bringing in revenue from real customers. Join a startup incubator. Only one-third make it past their tenth anniversary.

Intellectual Property 134

Intellectual Property Technical Review Startup Incubator 134

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 19, 2013

The “valley of death” is a common term in the startup world, referring to the difficulty of covering the negative cash flow in the early stages of a startup, before their new product or service is bringing in revenue from real customers. Join a startup incubator. Use crowd funding. Get a loan or line-of-credit.

Intellectual Property 309

Intellectual Property Technical Review Venture Capital Startup 309

David Teten

AUGUST 20, 2019

A new wave of Revenue-Based Investors are emerging who are using creative investing structures with some of the upside of traditional VC, but some of the downside protection of debt. I’ve been a traditional equity VC for 8 years, and I’m now researching new business models in venture capital.

Revenue 60

Revenue Cofounder Founder Venture Capital 60

YoungUpstarts

MAY 24, 2019

by Bruce Cleveland, Founding Partner at Wildcat Venture Partners and author of “ Traversing the Traction Gap “ As we continue our exploration of the Traction Gap Framework® – a step-by-step approach that startup teams can use to go from ideation to preparing to scale – I will walk you through the principles.

Framework 113

Framework Architecture Cleveland Early Stage 113

The Startup Magazine

AUGUST 11, 2023

These investments are a tremendous help to your startup because they will serve as a stepping stone to reach your target eventually. Some return value must be offered to the investors for startup seed funding to be considered acceptable. When considered, “seed funding” describes the initial sums of funds a startup raises.

Seed Stage 148

Seed Stage Technical Review Early Stage Due Diligence 148

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

OCTOBER 17, 2011

These three factors are, of course, critical to a healthy, growing startup, and yet individually they’re impossible to measure as precisely and easily as cancellation rate. (I’ve “LTV” means “the total revenue you’ll get from a customer over its lifetime.” So total expected revenue is $RN/ p.

Business Model 245

Business Model Metrics Engineer Technical Review 245

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 18, 2014

I found their five phases of the process to be compelling, based on my own years of experience mentoring startups: Nail the pain. Great businesses begin with a customer problem that has a big and monetizable pain point. Nail the business model. It’s time for a new startup model. Marty Zwilling.

Entrepreneur 283

Entrepreneur Startup Angel Investor Technical Review 283

VC Cafe

FEBRUARY 21, 2023

This is a question startup founders ask themselves multiple times a week. Understanding the benchmarks on conversion, retention, and churn for your business is therefore critical. Understanding the benchmarks on conversion, retention, and churn for your business is therefore critical. How are we doing?

Retention 109

Retention Conversion Churn Rate B2C 109

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 31, 2019

In the old days, every entrepreneur dreamed of easily taking their startup public, and making it big. Today the rate of startups going public (IPO – Initial Public Offering) is up from the dead zone, but is still half the rate back before 2000. Startups going public are laid open to competitors and critics.

IPO 210

IPO SEC Prospectus Startup 210

ReadWriteStart

JUNE 1, 2020

I have often been asked about Startup Funding by entrepreneurs. Many myths surround the subject of startup funding. Here is Startup Funding, a Comprehensive Guide for Entrepreneurs. Funding might be a need in some cases — but it’s not an absolute necessity. ? The business should be self-sustainable.

Startup 150

Startup Entrepreneur Elevator Pitch Seed Stage 150

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 22, 2011

As part of our Lean LaunchPad classes at Stanford, Berkeley, Columbia and for the National Science Foundation, students build a startup in 8 weeks using Business Model Design + Customer Development. How To Build a Web Startup – The Lean LaunchPad Edition. Write down your 9- business model canvas hypothesis.

Lean 334

Lean Web Coder Business Model 334

David Teten

AUGUST 19, 2019

So you’re interested in raising capital from a Revenue-Based Investor VC. A new wave of Revenue-Based Investors (“RBI”) are emerging. I’ve been a traditional equity VC for 8 years, and I’m now researching new business models in venture capital. Rational burn profile, up to 50% of revenue at close, scaling down.

Revenue 60

Revenue Technical Review Software Review Equity 60

ReadWriteStart

JUNE 8, 2021

After launching a new startup, you’ll be interested in growing the business as quickly as possible, thus generating more revenue, securing more stability, and improving your reputation as well. What Makes Employees Productive in a New Startup? So what is it that makes employees productive in a new startup?

Employee 127

Employee Product Startup Software Review 127