Steve Blank

JUNE 1, 2011

Reinventing the board meeting may offer venture-backed startups a more efficient, productive way to direct and measure their search for a profitable business model. Yet boards of large companies exist to monitor efficient strategy and execution of a known business model. 1) It’s their fiduciary responsibility.

Silicon Valley 300

Silicon Valley Business Model Venture Capital Balance Sheet 300

Steve Blank

AUGUST 27, 2012

Tossing their agile development process and at times their entire business model in the air, the company would go into fire-drill mode and engineering would start working on whatever his latest insight was. ” “A pivot is a substantive change to one or more of components to your business model.

Founder 323

Founder Cofounder Advisory Board Burn Rate 323

Steve Blank

JUNE 1, 2011

Reinventing the board meeting may offer venture-backed startups a more efficient, productive way to direct and measure their search for a profitable business model. Yet boards of large companies exist to monitor efficient strategy and execution of a known business model. 1) It’s their fiduciary responsibility.

Silicon Valley 273

Silicon Valley Business Model Venture Capital Balance Sheet 273

Up and Running

APRIL 27, 2020

There’s a great amount of uncertainty, people losing their jobs, and a direct hit on cash flows that can place businesses in dire straights. Current businesses are finding ways to pivot their business models, revisiting their budgets, and developing new forecasts to minimize their burn rate and maximize their available cash runway.

Software Review 113

Software Review Lean Forecast Business Plan 113

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 15, 2014

At least wait until later, when you ready to scale, and have some “leverage” based on a proven business model, some real customers, and real revenue. Focusing on the burn rate and prioritizing every possible expense will keep overhead down, help you stay lean, and achieve a higher profit earlier.

Bootstrapping 276

Bootstrapping Entrepreneur Startup Burn Rate 276

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 28, 2013

At least wait until later, when you ready to scale, and have some “leverage” based on a proven business model, some real customers, and real revenue. Focusing on the burn rate and prioritizing every possible expense will keep overhead down, help you stay lean, and achieve a higher profit earlier.

Startup 264

Startup Burn Rate Bootstrapping Valuation 264

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 27, 2012

Investors like $1B markets with double-digit growth rates. Business model. Marketing, sales, and partners. Show breakeven point, burn rate, and growth assumptions. Define the characteristics of the overall industry, market forces, market dynamics, and customer landscape. Financial projections.

Elevator Pitch 247

Elevator Pitch Exit Strategy Burn Rate Merger 247

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 19, 2010

Investors like $1B markets with double-digit growth rates. Business model. Marketing, sales, and partners. Show breakeven point, burn rate, and growth assumptions. Define the characteristics of the overall industry, market forces, market dynamics, and customer landscape. Financial projections.

Elevator Pitch 235

Elevator Pitch Exit Strategy Burn Rate Merger 235

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 10, 2011

Investors like $1B markets with double-digit growth rates. Business model. Marketing, sales, and partners. Show breakeven point, burn rate, and growth assumptions. Define the characteristics of the overall industry, market forces, market dynamics, and customer landscape. Financial projections.

Elevator Pitch 234

Elevator Pitch Exit Strategy Burn Rate Merger 234

Gust

DECEMBER 7, 2014

At least wait until later, when you ready to scale, and have some “leverage” based on a proven business model, some real customers, and real revenue. Focusing on the burn rate and prioritizing every possible expense will keep overhead down, help you stay lean, and achieve a higher profit earlier.

Bootstrapping 191

Bootstrapping Entrepreneur Startup Burn Rate 191

abovethecrowd.com

FEBRUARY 24, 2015

As another example, consider that most public marketplace companies, such as ebay or GrubHub, report revenues on a “net” basis rather than gross (approximately 80-90% of revenues go to supplier partners, so this is the proper conservative representation). If you want to know if the business model truly hunts, you must pay careful attention.

IPO 40

IPO Liquidation Preference Valuation Technical Review 40

Gust

AUGUST 19, 2012

Investors like $1B markets with double-digit growth rates. Business model. Marketing, sales, and partners. Show breakeven point, burn rate, and growth assumptions. Define the characteristics of the overall industry, market forces, market dynamics, and customer landscape. Financial projections.

Elevator Pitch 146

Elevator Pitch Exit Strategy Burn Rate Merger 146

Professor VC

JANUARY 27, 2011

There are so many unknowns at this stage and the only known is that the business model is going to change at least once, or in the current most overused term in the Silicon Valley, there will be a "pivot". Part of it was the out of the box thinking and turning the typical venture investment thesis upside down. work at home.

Technical Review 31

Technical Review Due Diligence Silicon Valley San Jose 31

Professor VC

JANUARY 27, 2008

In addition to the case study analysis, the students also have the opportunity to develop a business model and financial model for a new concept, which always proves a lot more challenging. With a limited number of these opportunities and 10-year fund cycles, there wasnt a lot of transition among partners in firms.

San Jose 28

San Jose Technical Review Angel Investor Venture Capital 28

VC Cafe

JUNE 6, 2024

Benchmark: Serena Capital advises B2B SaaS startups to target a gross margin of 80% or higher to demonstrate the scalability and profitability of their business model. Burn Rate Definition: Burn rate is the rate at which a startup is spending its capital to finance operations before generating positive cash flow.

B2B 97

B2B Burn Rate Generative AI Retention 97

Professor VC

MARCH 10, 2009

I take CFO roles in early stage companies and participate on the management team during the early financings and business model development phases. Can Entrepreneurship Be Taught? ► October. (1). Watch Out for the Red W(h)ine. ► September. (1). Survey says VC's invest on Gut Instinct. ► July. (1). ► May. (1).

Bootstrapping 28

Bootstrapping San Jose Silicon Valley Angel Investor 28

ReadWriteStart

JUNE 13, 2011

Reinventing the board meeting may offer venture-backed startups a more efficient, productive way to direct and measure their search for a profitable business model. Yet boards of large companies exist to monitor efficient strategy and execution of a known business model. It's their fiduciary responsibility.

Silicon Valley 117

Silicon Valley Balance Sheet Metrics Early Stage 117

Professor VC

APRIL 7, 2011

My partner in Menlo Incubator , Gary Kremen , and I had a recent debate on which one of us hates convertible debt more. I take CFO roles in early stage companies and participate on the management team during the early financings and business model development phases. ProfessorVC. The last blogger in Silicon Valley.

San Jose 36

San Jose Technical Review Angel Investor Valuation 36

Professor VC

FEBRUARY 12, 2008

Once the point is reached where you want to move ahead, we put the sales hat on and convince our partners about the incredible opportunity that we are lucky enough to be able to invest on the ground floor. This was the beginning of the dot com bust and getting a consumer deal through the partners at my venture firm was next to impossible.

San Jose 31

San Jose Technical Review Venture Capital Angel Investor 31

ReadWriteStart

JANUARY 27, 2011

And, oh by the way, we also really like the idea of the 1M/1M entrepreneurs building valuation and negotiating leverage through these business development efforts, instead of signing off large chunks of their company in form of equity early on. The game has started getting some traction already, and has a good virality index.

Dilution 114

Dilution Revenue Finance Entrepreneur 114

Professor VC

NOVEMBER 19, 2009

If you have a reputation for cutting corners, not treating employees or partners right, it will become very difficult to do business. I take CFO roles in early stage companies and participate on the management team during the early financings and business model development phases. November 20, 2009 8:26 AM. ► May.

San Jose 43

San Jose Silicon Valley Las Vegas Venture Capital 43

Professor VC

JANUARY 17, 2008

A partner from the law firm (sponsor, covers the drinks and food) tosses out some softball questions to the panelists, the audience chimes in with Q&A and finally, culminates with the meet and greet where the panelists are flooded with business cards and pitches on the next great thing, which is often very similar to the last great thing.

Pre-Money Valuation 28

Pre-Money Valuation Angel Investor Angel Groups Valuation 28

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 14, 2016

Many experienced partners are funds have 7-10 boards and most of these will need more capital. Huge funding increases lead to massive wage inflation, rent inflation and thus higher burn rates. Just as with the late 90s there is no new “business model” that defies the laws of gravity.

Valuation 150

Valuation Down Round Startup Later Stage 150

VC Cafe

JULY 6, 2010

VC Cafe: What is you business model? Our burn rate is very low and the technology is very scalable. Since we have APIs, we have opportunities for business models with media and content partners. Corporations and strategic partners, using the Libox platform. Simple as that.

Media 84

Media Management API HTML 84

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 15, 2020

Actually keeping the company in business, having it have a sustainable business model, having it pull in the funds that it needs to keep going, that's actually not a greedy thing to do. My partner, Martin, and I did just that. My partner, my spouse works, it's not a stress for me. Oh, no question. She took it all.

Dallas 68

Dallas Employee Government Social Media 68

pandodaily.com

JULY 18, 2012

But it’s possible that as the secret sauce of new media swings farther from disruptive technology and business models to a focus on curated and quality content, it’s the older entrepreneurs who are in the pole position. I have enough sense at 46 to have 2 business partners that are in their 60s and one of them is our CEO.

Entrepreneur 45

Entrepreneur San Francisco Silicon Valley Technical Review 45

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 13, 2009

Establish credibility with potential partners. In some businesses, especially in certain industries like traditional enterprise software, you simply cannot bring a new product to market on your own. You need to combine your product with others, and this requires partners like OEMs or system integrators.

San Francisco 168

San Francisco PR Lean Early Stage 168

Professor VC

JANUARY 17, 2008

I put up my Bodega Partners web site in 1995 and it served its purpose for a number of years, but I just didnt spend the energy to keep it current and finally just took it down last month. I take CFO roles in early stage companies and participate on the management team during the early financings and business model development phases.

Silicon Valley 31

Silicon Valley San Jose Angel Investor Venture Capital 31

www.chubbybrain.com

SEPTEMBER 28, 2011

At the end, I asked myself what are the most critical resources I need to be successful and the answer was partners and developers. For four years we have offered the synchronization service for no charge, predicated on the hypothesis that a business model would emerge to support the free service. Company : Untitled Partners.

Software Review 79

Software Review Startup Technical Review Vesting 79

Professor VC

SEPTEMBER 26, 2008

I spent most of the time with the reporter talking about Sand Hill Angels and how we add value to the start-ups and entrepreneurs that we partner with, which is why I just have a small mention in the article. How passionate are the entrepreneurs about their business? Does the business model pass the smell test?

Angel Groups 28

Angel Groups San Jose Early Stage Angel Investor 28

Professor VC

JANUARY 20, 2009

million from Lighthouse Capital Partners , which ultimately became critical to our balance sheet and they turned out to be a great partner as we worked through the equity financing process. Some were also dealing with issues of limited partners struggles with capital calls and asset allocations. We drew $1.5 ► October. (1).

Venture Capital 28

Venture Capital Silicon Valley San Jose Bootstrapping 28

Professor VC

FEBRUARY 26, 2010

My first reaction is incredulity that limited partners would buy into this idea. I take CFO roles in early stage companies and participate on the management team during the early financings and business model development phases. This certainly gives new meaning to " drive by investing " which became popular in the late 90s.

San Jose 28

San Jose Silicon Valley Venture Capital Angel Investor 28

Professor VC

SEPTEMBER 24, 2009

always focus on the business model and assumptions, but there are too many unknowns to put much faith in the future cash flow projections. I was a limited partner in Angel Investors, LP, Ron Conways fund in the late 1990s. Ive never heard of a VC running Monte Carlo simulations on possible outcomes. ► October. (1).

San Jose 33

San Jose Angel Investor Venture Capital Mezzanine 33

YoungUpstarts

JANUARY 11, 2018

Nailing solid fundamentals is crucial because good ongoing business practices offer a greater chance to succeed over the long term. When investment capital flows, companies often find themselves putting extreme growth above all other factors, creating high burn rates.

Los Angeles 133

Los Angeles Investment Bankers Cofounder Viral 133