Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 12, 2023

These things outside your control do happen, but based on my years of experience as a startup advisor and angel investor, I still see too many strategies leading to failure that are inside the entrepreneur decision realm. No startup can afford to do these serially. Easier-to-use’ and other fuzzy terms won’t get any attention.

Intellectual Property 312

Intellectual Property Startup Angel Investor Viral 312

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 20, 2021

It takes an effective team to attract and serve a community in business these days. With real-time online reviews and feedback via the Internet, and instant relationships via social media, a voice from the top that is inconsistent with what is heard from the firing line defines a dysfunctional and noncompetitive company for today’s customer.

Developer 387

Developer Startup Social Media Internet 387

The Startup Magazine

NOVEMBER 20, 2024

Enter the world of startups: dynamic, problem-solving enterprises equipped with the tools and creativity to transform elder care. From cutting-edge monitoring technologies to accessible reporting platforms, startups are stepping up to safeguard the well-being of nursing home residents and redefine the future of elder care.

Technical Review 159

Technical Review Startup Software Review Algorithm 159

The Startup Magazine

DECEMBER 12, 2024

Having a strong online presence is important for startups who are aiming to establish themselves in an already competitive market. By avoiding common mistakes, startups can build a great foundation for growth and customer engagement. By avoiding common mistakes, startups can build a great foundation for growth and customer engagement.

Social Media 137

Social Media Reputation Startup SEO 137

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 16, 2022

One of the biggest myths in the business world is that startups are no place for Baby Boomers, that aging generation born between 1945 and 1964. Today people over 55 are almost twice as likely to create successful startups as Gen-Y, age 20 to 34. Yet credible reports on current trends tell us just the opposite.

Advisory Board 368

Advisory Board Dividend Angel Investor Cofounder 368

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 22, 2023

In my experience, the Silicon Valley startup model, focused on disrupting established industries, has treated the USA well and created some great global businesses. It has played almost no role in the emergence of current non-US bred startups, including Alibaba in China, Waze from Israel, Paytm in India, and many more.

Global 345

Global Silicon Valley Marketing Indonesia 345

VC Cafe

SEPTEMBER 30, 2024

Israeli startups raised $2.43 Israel continues to be a relatively liquid market Another strong indicator for the strength of the Israeli startup ecosystem has been exits/ liquidity, especially given the shortage of exits in the venture capital industry. The current environment presents opportunities for resilient Israeli startups.

Israel 184

Israel Technical Review Startup Generative AI 184

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 11, 2022

Something happened in the past 7 years in the startup and venture capital world that I hadn’t experienced since the late 90’s — we all began praying to the God of Valuation. How might our next phase of the journey seem brighter, even with more uncertain days for startups and capital markets? What happened? There was no money train.

Valuation 466

Valuation San Francisco Ratchet Liquidation Preference 466

The Startup Magazine

DECEMBER 19, 2024

Facing competition is a major hurdle for startups. Startups must tackle challenges from scarce resources to changing customer needs proactively. Source Leverage Advanced Technologies Harnessing advanced technologies can transform how startups operate and compete. Take, for example, businesses in the fashion industry.

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Startup Differentiation Social Media 78

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 368

Technical Cofounder Intellectual Property Technical Review Incubator 368

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 19, 2023

Otherwise, in my experience, the startup will fail. The value of startup teams with the founder as an effective leader is many times the value of many strong individuals working independently. Only a dedicated leader can spot those special powers in each member and then build a well-oiled team which can win the startup war for you.

Leadership 318

Leadership Technical Review Technical Cofounder Development Team Review 318

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 12, 2022

In my experience as an angel investor to startups, goodwill disagreements are perhaps the most common reason that you will fail to close interested investors as an entrepreneur. This is the reason that many new startups offer freemium services, and prioritize attracting a large following above making a profit.

Valuation 368

Valuation Technical Review Due Diligence Angel Investor 368

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 16, 2022

These approaches allow your startup to grow more rapidly, save costs, but costly mistakes can lead to business failure. Some entrepreneurs view their outsourced employees as temps, or as a cheap way to staff the company during its startup phase. Utilization and personal growth of virtual employees is not my problem.”

Cost 346

Cost Philippines Bandwidth Cofounder 346

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 6, 2023

For the elite startups and entrepreneurs who manage to attract the investor they dream of, and survive the term sheet negotiation, there is still one more hurdle before the money is in the bank. Make sure everyone accurately posts their role with your startup on social media profiles, resumes, and references.

Technical Review 296

Technical Review Due Diligence Term Sheet Bankruptcy 296

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 2, 2022

I have personally used this approach in leading startups as well as large organizations, in highly technical roles as well as business development and marketing. For one-on-one coaching from the startup founder, I call this approach five-minute mentoring. Everyone learns best from failures, so failure should never be a feared option.

Elevator Pitch 386

Elevator Pitch Technical Review Dividend Leadership 386

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 14, 2021

For example, my dictate that entrepreneurs need to find a “ painful ” problem to solve (such as high cost, low productivity) to attract customers, doesn’t really account for many successful startup businesses today, including top social media platforms, dating sites, and new fashions. Build positive relationships with potential customers.

Customer 432

Customer Social Media Dividend Technical Review 432

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 15, 2022

At our mid-year offsite our partnership at Upfront Ventures was discussing what the future of venture capital and the startup ecosystem looked like. Pitchbook estimates that there is about $290 billion of VC “overhang” (money waiting to be deployed into tech startups) in the US alone and that’s up more than 4x in just the past decade.

Technical Review 416

Technical Review Pre-Money Valuation San Francisco Valuation 416

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 7, 2023

Unfortunately, for startups entering a regulated market following this advice this might not be the optimum path. And why was Bill’s advice of staying away from Washington flawed for startups? These barriers to new innovative startups are called economic rent. Regulation What’s regulatory capture? Why is it bad? In the U.S.

Washington 319

Washington Government Marketing Silicon Valley 319

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 11, 2021

As an angel investor to startups, I’m still surprised to find entrepreneurs who expect investors to give them money, and assume no strings attached. In any case, your startup is now part of some investor’s portfolio, so you need to treat the situation like reporting to a new boss, and not like a new freedom.

Term Sheet 433

Term Sheet Liquidation Preference Advisory Board Startup 433

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 12, 2021

Use that same technical and business expertise that served you well on this startup to find the next opportunity. Here are the key recommendations from both of us, based on my own business mentoring insights: Re-launch using your enhanced core competency.

Technical Review 417

Technical Review Entrepreneur Due Diligence Institutional Investors 417

Steve Blank

MAY 26, 2024

I was the head of Marketing for MIPS Computer , a RISC chip startup. I invited him over to meet the founding team of Ardent, our new startup, whose founders he knew from DEC. And when he left DEC he created the Bell-Mason diagnostic to help predict patterns in successful startups.

Boston 263

Boston Engineer Founder Community 263

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 2, 2021

New entrepreneurs routinely jump into a startup with a full charge of passion and energy, but often find themselves drained of both after a few months by the workload and challenges. As a result, burnout and loss of passion are consistently listed among the top causes of startup failure, according to many experts. Don’t wait.

Entrepreneur 435

Entrepreneur Startup Early Stage Business Model 435

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 17, 2024

Today, a new class of startups are attempting to sell these products to the Defense Department. Amazingly, there is no single DoD-wide phone book available to startups of who to call in the Defense Department. But startups? Most startups don’t have a clue where to start. So I wrote one.

Programming 249

Programming Customer Portfolio Government 249

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 18, 2021

Seth Godin once said that overnight success in startups takes about six years, and Seth is an optimist. We have all seen businesses and startups with great ideas that never seem to reach the finish line, while others with more mundane solutions seem to take some hidden path to success. Thus we all look for shortcuts.

Startup 435

Startup Demand Entrepreneur Product 435

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 20, 2021

I believe the Maker Movement and hardware startups with limited resources are made for each other. They come at the early stage while a startup has no revenue or valuation, so professional investors are hard to find. Countless startup teams have already been spawned from these. Accelerate the trend to higher purpose startups.

Startup 397

Startup Cofounder Incubator California 397

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 24, 2023

This will improve your effectiveness in your current role, and give you a head start towards a future role, such as startup founder, where you are the boss. Having worked in my own career on both sides of the fence at various times, I recommend that everyone practice thinking like the boss in every role to prepare.

Management 291

Management Leadership Demand Founder 291

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 26, 2022

Bureaucracy can appear quickly in startups as well as large companies. Every entrepreneur must be alert enough to spot the change early, and agile enough to adapt quickly. Here are some key strategies to maximize the agility required for you to survive and prosper: Stamp out organizational inflexibility. The real problem is inflexible people.

Agile 379

Agile Technical Review Leadership Social Media 379

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 21, 2023

The biggest complaint I hear from fellow investors is that startup founders often talk way too long, and neglect to cover the most relevant points. The average length of a funding pitch to angel investors is ten minutes. Even if you have booked an hour with a VC, you should plan to talk only for the first fifteen minutes.

Technical Review 369

Technical Review Elevator Pitch Angel Investor Matching 369

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 11, 2023

In reality, based on my experience as a startup advisor and investor, these constraints lead the best entrepreneurs to the most innovative solutions and new markets otherwise overlooked by their peers and competitors.

Technical Review 277

Technical Review Partner Matching Channel 277

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 26, 2023

These disruptive technologies also have the potential for exposing your business to new competitors, including a wealth of startups that can jeopardize your core business, and redefine the marketplace. Don’t count on these as short-term solutions to a growth problem. If you go this route, make sure your solution is strategic.

Product 354

Product Technical Review Artificial Inteligence Dividend 354

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 18, 2022

As a consultant, I hate to see you lose that startup focus on innovation, change, and customers. Remember that as a startup problem solving was the priority, often requiring emotional persistence and peer disagreements. Reward persistence and grit in team-member problem solving. Enable a positive and highly engaged leadership culture.

Artificial Inteligence 385

Artificial Inteligence Startup Metrics Agile 385

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 19, 2022

Winning customers as an entrepreneur in a startup has many parallels to a young army trying to penetrate some formidable new and unfamiliar territory. I’ve long been aware of the 2500-year-old, but still current, masterwork on military strategy by Sun Tzu, “ The Art of War ,” but never thought very relevant to business startups.

Due Diligence 366

Due Diligence Startup Small Business Leadership 366

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 8, 2022

For maximum value with the least effort, focus on only the “what ifs” that are the highest priority in your mind for your own startup. The cost to acquire a customer, or traffic to conversion ratios, are critical to the success of most startups. Pricing is always a tricky issue.

Conversion Ratio 368

Conversion Ratio Startup Business Model eCommerce 368

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 7, 2022

A common pain of startups after an exhilarating first surge of early adopters is a long and frustrating plateau of slow growth, where it seems like nothing you do will get your business to profitability. Some startups hire more people to delay automation, or spend money wildly on new tools for the future.

Startup 335

Startup Social Media Metrics Viral 335

Steve Blank

JUNE 20, 2022

He previously cofounded several enterprise software startups, and his previous job was building a new innovation organization from scratch inside another large company. I just had coffee with Anthony, a friend who was just hired as the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of a large company (30,000+ people.)

CTO 368

CTO Technical Cofounder CTO Hire Incubator 368

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 12, 2022

For example, entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson has started or grown over 400 companies, from record labels to space travel, so for him the joy is clearly in the startup. Bill Gates, on the other hand, spent most of his career building Microsoft to a multi-billion dollar company, so he made the transition from startup to growth company.

Startup 343

Startup Metrics Hiring Leadership 343

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 5, 2023

It’s helpful to think of startups as proceeding through several stages, which I have defined a long time ago from a funding perspective. Their real value is your access to senior advisors with experience, and other startups in the same stage. The challenge is finding and using qualified affordable support organizations for each stage.

Incubator 305

Incubator Startup Exit Strategy Institutional Investors 305