Steve Blank

JULY 15, 2010

The collapse of the IPO market and dysfunctional math in the venture capital community has stacked the odds against you. Startup lifecycle in an IPO Market. Until 1995 startups going public typically had a track record of revenue and profits. Netscape’s 1995 IPO changed the rules. Here’s why. Free At Last.

Venture Capital 306

Venture Capital IPO Liquidity Event Entrepreneur 306

Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 10, 2009

Heck, thats what it says right there in the agile manifesto. In a lot of cases, thats just a fancy name for revenue or profit, but not always. Labels: agile , continuous deployment , lean startup , product development , Test-driven development 4comments: Nivi said. The Lean Startup Intensive is tomorrow at Web 2.0.

Continuous Deployment 123

Continuous Deployment San Francisco Software Review Lean 123

Agile VC

MAY 26, 2011

Google is still a private company (their IPO was Aug 2004). The market size for online advertising, e-commerce, and web premium services are 1/10th to 1/3rd the size they are today. It’ll be nearly two years before the concept of “Web 2.0″ ″ is popularized by Tim O’Reilly (the first Web 2.0

Term Sheet 178

Term Sheet Silicon Valley Technical Review Social Network 178

Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 20, 2009

Sounds very similar to agile development which is the way. If you can start getting ROI on a feature in month one of a twelve month project versus waiting until the end, youve comparatively reduced the cost of development by the revenue generated by that feature over 11 months. The Lean Startup Intensive is tomorrow at Web 2.0.

San Francisco 161

San Francisco Software Review Continuous Deployment Development Team Review 161

Startup Lessons Learned

NOVEMBER 17, 2008

If youre making revenue, you should be finding ways to grow it predictably month-over-month; if youre focused on customer engagement, your product should be getting more sticky, and so on. The Lean Startup Intensive is tomorrow at Web 2.0. Tell your Startup Visa story Speaking 2010: Webstock, GDC, Web 2.0, Expo SF (May.

San Francisco 88

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 88

Startup Lessons Learned

NOVEMBER 8, 2008

This theory has become so influential that I have called it one of the three pillars of the lean startup - every bit as important as the changes in technology or the advent of agile development. The Lean Startup Intensive is tomorrow at Web 2.0. Tell your Startup Visa story Speaking 2010: Webstock, GDC, Web 2.0, Expo SF (May.

Customer Development 168

Customer Development Developer San Francisco Customer 168

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 15, 2010

Usually, they are delivering only a fraction of the revenue they promised. Usually, they are delivering only a fraction of the revenue they promised. The Lean Startup Intensive is tomorrow at Web 2.0. Tell your Startup Visa story Speaking 2010: Webstock, GDC, Web 2.0, Expo SF (May. for Harvard Business Revie.

Hockey Stick 105

Hockey Stick San Francisco Entrepreneur Lean 105

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 2, 2009

We were even more embarrassed by the pathetically small number of customers we had, and the pathetically low amount of revenue we had earned so far. We’d always cringe as we admitted that, no, we really only had a few thousand customers and a few thousand dollars in monthly revenue. Retention cohort analysis. Is there s choice?

San Francisco 60

San Francisco Tampa Continuous Deployment Lean 60

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 27, 2009

To increase the number of iterations you have left, you can either increase cash on hand (by raising money or increasing revenues), reduce burn rate, or increase the speed of each iteration. And, of course, theres the Lean Startup session at the upcoming Web 2.0 The Lean Startup Intensive is tomorrow at Web 2.0. Expo SF (May.

San Francisco 117

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 117

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 13, 2008

And one day a remarkable thing happened: we started making more than five dollars a day in revenue. Its now a technique I recommend for any web-based startup. The Lean Startup Intensive is tomorrow at Web 2.0. Tell your Startup Visa story Speaking 2010: Webstock, GDC, Web 2.0, I just came across this post. Expo SF (May.

SEM 164

SEM San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment 164

Steve Blank

AUGUST 5, 2010

I think you can blame Customer and Agile Development for a small part of it. In 1980 Genentech became the first IPO of a venture funded biotech company. But these VC’s aren’t Lean because they fund startups with web-based distribution models. Here’s why. Electron-based Venture Capital.

Lean 265

Lean Internet Silicon Valley Venture Capital 265

Startup Lessons Learned

DECEMBER 23, 2009

They were accustomed to measuring their progress primarily by gross revenue compared to their targets. They were accustomed to measuring their progress primarily by gross revenue compared to their targets. The Lean Startup Intensive is tomorrow at Web 2.0. Tell your Startup Visa story Speaking 2010: Webstock, GDC, Web 2.0,

Metrics 167

Metrics San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment 167

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 5, 2009

And so the spreadsheet is built with conservative assumptions, including a final revenue target. No matter how low we make the revenue projections for this new product, it’s extremely unlikely that they are achievable. In a startup context, numbers like gross revenue are actually vanity metrics, not actionable metrics.

San Francisco 102

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment Startup 102

Agile VC

MAY 7, 2014

I believe this may be the most anticipated tech IPO of all time… some may argue Facebook was a bigger deal, but Alibaba’s offering has been “in process” for a long time and may very well be the largest IPO ever both in terms of size of offering and initial market cap of the company. USD in revenue for 2013.

China 187

China B2B Flash IPO 187

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 1, 2009

If they were an unknown web 2.0 Not even if its generating revenue. So I don't think the Apple experience should be used to discount lean, agile, or customer development-type approaches. The Lean Startup Intensive is tomorrow at Web 2.0. startup, they could release the app and see how customers respond. Expo SF (May.

San Francisco 166

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 166

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 24, 2009

What is the right revenue model? Aside from the dramatically shorter development cycle that browser games enjoy, the split testing of features (which is intuitive to web application makers) is something that propelled Zynga's games and revenues to the top of the social games vertical. Though technology tools and Web 2.0

San Francisco 113

San Francisco Lean Technical Review Distribution 113

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 15, 2009

The agile software movement has made numerous contributions: continuous integration, which helps accelerate feedback about defects; story cards and kanban that reduce batch size; a daily stand-up that increases tempo. The Lean Startup Intensive is tomorrow at Web 2.0. No departments The Five Whys for Startups (for Harvard Business R.

Continuous Deployment 167

Continuous Deployment Software Review San Francisco Lean 167

Startup Lessons Learned

DECEMBER 28, 2009

Some of these benefits are shared by agile systems which have continuous integration but large batch releases, but others are unique to continuous deployment. No automated test is going to catch that, but it still will drive revenue to zero. No automated test is going to catch that, but it still will drive revenue to zero.

Continuous Deployment 122

Continuous Deployment San Francisco Lean Metrics 122

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 29, 2008

So you do a split-test, and you discover that Feature X causes people to spend 20% more time on a given part of your product, say a particular web page. We built and are refining a communications and productivity Web 2.0 The Lean Startup Intensive is tomorrow at Web 2.0. Is that a success? tool for a large public Utility.

San Francisco 68

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 68

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 28, 2008

In fact, in the early days, when IMVU would experience unexpected surges of revenue or traffic, it was inevitable that every person in the company was convinced that their project was responsible. The Lean Startup Intensive is tomorrow at Web 2.0. Tell your Startup Visa story Speaking 2010: Webstock, GDC, Web 2.0, Expo SF (May.

Lean 68

Lean San Francisco Continuous Deployment Startup 68

Startup Lessons Learned

DECEMBER 14, 2009

Now, Andrew’s excellent piece that I quoted from above correctly diagnoses two situations where consumer internet companies often get in trouble: They focus too much on short-term revenue, getting caught in a local maximum via constant optimization. The Lean Startup Intensive is tomorrow at Web 2.0. Expo SF (May.

Customer 156

Customer San Francisco Viral Lean 156

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 2, 2009

We just add up the revenue we've made in the past few months from Win98 users, and compare to the pain that Win98 has caused as identified in 5Ys. The Lean Startup Intensive is tomorrow at Web 2.0. Tell your Startup Visa story Speaking 2010: Webstock, GDC, Web 2.0, So far, it's been a net win to keep supporting it.

San Francisco 164

San Francisco Lean Technical Review Software Review 164

Agile VC

AUGUST 1, 2012

The best example of this was Facebook’s disclosure during their IPO process back in May that “mobile” usage was increasing significantly but FB’s monetization of mobile users lagged considerably. Gaming is still the largest category, where you see multiple mobile game companies with $100M+ revenue (e.g.

Mobile 160

Mobile Advertising Bandwidth Web 160

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 7, 2010

Should you charge from day one, testing the revenue model first? Their speed should be measured in validated learning about customers, not milestones, features, revenue, or even beautiful design. Should you charge from day one, testing the revenue model first? The Lean Startup Intensive is tomorrow at Web 2.0.

San Francisco 154

San Francisco Lean Metrics Design 154

Agile VC

JANUARY 27, 2012

As a result of a convergence of many factors (lean startup methodology, broadband & smartphone penetration, social web, cloud computing, etc), breakout startups are clearly getting scale faster than they used to. Multi-billion dollar valuations for late stage startups like Dropbox, et al.

Hockey Stick 113

Hockey Stick Seed Stage Silicon Valley Syndicate 113

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 30, 2008

Not just about expenses, about increasing revenue. Make sure for planned revenues you have "leading indicators" to know if you will hit it. This can take the form of a traditional sales pipeline or a registration-activation-revenue chart. And its hard to know if youre truly succeeding without a focus on revenue.

Lean 121

Lean San Francisco Continuous Deployment DC 121

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 27, 2009

These are companies that generate revenue by offering a free product with an upsell or premium version. ► August (2) SXSW Case Study: SlideShare goes freemium ► July (4) Case Study: kaChing, Anatomy of a Pivot Some IPO speculation Founder personalities and the “first-class man&# th. Expo SF (May.

San Francisco 148

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 148

Startup Lessons Learned

NOVEMBER 22, 2008

The whole episode cost us hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost revenue. In fact, it was the revenue trends that eventually alerted us to the magnitude of the problem. Unfortunately, revenue a trailing indicator. Its a great time to increase revenues without spending money on acquiring new customers. Expo SF (May.

.Net 158

.Net Operations San Francisco Lean 158

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 9, 2009

We were focused on revenue, but we didnt understand that revenue is not important for its own sake in an early stage company. Almost all of them got scooped up by pre-IPO Google this time. That year, right before the IPO, those months mattered a great deal in terms of financial outcomes. Thanks for an inspiring post.

San Francisco 94

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 94

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 16, 2010

Realizing it had taken a wrong turn, SlideShare rethought its approach to premium accounts and ultimately performed what we’d call a value capture pivot , one where the company changes the way it collects revenue from customers. The Lean Startup Intensive is tomorrow at Web 2.0. The process started with a few moving parts.

San Francisco 167

San Francisco Lean Analytics Continuous Deployment 167

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 1, 2009

Much of the content is shared with the Web 2.0 LIKED: Y startups fail, cont deployment vs waterfall vs agile, small batches & learn fr biz metrics #leanstartup As concise a summary as Ive ever seen. How does this map to the web? Its been a great twelve hours for the lean startup! farazq : Awesome session @ericries.

Lean 60

Lean San Francisco Startup Continuous Deployment 60

Steve Blank

MAY 9, 2017

For life sciences it was the Genentech IPO in 1980 that proved to investors that life science startups could make them a ton of money. For products that are simply “bits” delivered over the web, a first product can be shipped in weeks rather than years. Founders Need to Run the Company Longer.

Restful 247

Restful Silicon Valley San Jose Puerto Rico 247

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 28, 2009

They asked for my advice, and we went through a number of recommendations that readers of this blog will already be able to guess: adding revenue opportunities, engagement loop optimization, and some immediate split-testing to figure out whats working and whats not. The Lean Startup Intensive is tomorrow at Web 2.0. Great post, Eric.

San Francisco 79

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 79

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 11, 2009

This single decision wound up costing the company significant revenue and over the course of several months sent its customer growth into decline. It is a hangover of other days, of thin-skinned geeks who cannot still be heeded on the big, wide web. The Lean Startup Intensive is tomorrow at Web 2.0. Expo SF (May.

Community 158

Community Management Lean Software Review 158