The Next Web

SEPTEMBER 22, 2013

While you are working away on your business plan, looking for ways to raise capital, finding the right people to hire, etc., But have you ever had the opportunity to pick the brains of founders who created amazingly successful startups and companies like Envato , Backblaze , Simple , or Treehouse ? Things snowballed from there.”.

Cofounder 164

Cofounder Founder Startup Bootstrapping 164

Steve Blank

MARCH 12, 2014

We realized that past K-12 Entrepreneurial classes taught students “the lemonade stand” version of how to start a company: 1) come up with an idea, 2) execute the idea, 3) do the accounting (revenue, costs, etc.). We wanted to teach our students how to think like entrepreneurs not accountants.

Lean 335

Lean Customer Development Startup Silicon Valley 335

Steve Blank

JANUARY 22, 2014

Few entrepreneurs find this scalable and repeatable business model because it’s not easy. Startups still need capital to scale once they find good product-market fit and a repeatable-scalable business model.). This is true whether the company is concept stage or ramping revenue. The Bend Experience.

Early Stage 295

Early Stage Silicon Valley Oregon Technical Review 295

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 19, 2011

Nail the business model. Leverage your customer conversations to predict and validate your business model. For example, when you think about distribution channels, revenue streams, or the relationship with the customer, ask customers what they expect. These areas include market, process, and team transitions.

Startup 286

Startup Angel Investor Technical Review Incubator 286

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 14, 2021

Customers more than ever want to do business with people they know, respect, and trust, and implicitly allow these factors to override cost and other features. Yet don’t assume that any of these will override the basic need of every business to be self-sustaining via revenue to meet expenses over time.

Customer 432

Customer Social Media Dividend Technical Review 432

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 20, 2012

Nail the business model. Leverage your customer conversations to predict and validate your business model. For example, when you think about distribution channels, revenue streams, or the relationship with the customer, ask customers what they expect. These areas include market, process, and team transitions.

Startup 296

Startup Angel Investor Technical Review Incubator 296

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 26, 2020

Provide specifics on the customer business model. All startups, including non-profits, need revenue to thrive, such as such as from subscriptions, retail, online, licensing, or services. They want to see revenue to share in the return. Here I recommend a 5-year projection of revenues, expenses, and funding requirements.

Business Plan 423

Business Plan Product Intellectual Property Elevator Pitch 423

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 25, 2010

Customer Development is a technique startups use to quickly iterate and test each part of their business model. How you execute Customer Development varies, depending on your type of business. In my book, “ The Four Steps to the Epiphany ” I use enterprise software as the business model example.

Customer Development 274

Customer Development Web Developer Customer 274

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 18, 2014

Nail the business model. Leverage your customer conversations to predict and validate your business model. For example, when you think about distribution channels, revenue streams, or the relationship with the customer, ask customers what they expect. These areas include market, process, and team transitions.

Entrepreneur 283

Entrepreneur Startup Angel Investor Technical Review 283

TechEmpower

JULY 31, 2023

When talking to startup founders or other innovators, we always ask questions to better understand their business as a core. What does the business do? One way to approach that last question is to use this simple model: Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) How will your business reach prospects?

Metrics 260

Metrics Startup Retention Acquisition 260

Steve Blank

MAY 9, 2017

The founders were simply wrong about their assumptions about customer needs. It turns out the term “visionary founder” was usually a synonym for someone who was hallucinating. Founders Need to Run the Company Longer. So, almost like clockwork 20 th century startups fired the innovators/founders when they scaled.

Restful 249

Restful Silicon Valley San Jose Puerto Rico 249

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 15, 2019

Nail the business model. Leverage your customer conversations to predict and validate your business model. For example, when you think about distribution channels, revenue streams, or the relationship with the customer, ask customers what they expect. These areas include market, process, and team transitions.

Startup 245

Startup Angel Investor Technical Review Incubator 245

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 7, 2013

The market and venture capitalists are looking for business, but with a continuing focus on proven business models. Your friends and family are really the only answer until you have a significant revenue stream. Follow with a killer executive summary, investor presentation, and financial model. Timing is critical.

Venture Capital 252

Venture Capital IPO Elevator Pitch Initial Public Offering 252

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 4, 2013

The instructor then presents a cohort specific lecture explaining how the business model for their area (therapeutics, diagnostics, devices and digital health) builds on and/or differs from the canonical business model in the online Udacity lectures (which the students had to watch as homework.). Lessons Learned.

Lean 266

Lean Customer Business Model Customer Development 266

YoungUpstarts

AUGUST 24, 2017

by Stefan Pretty, founder of Subbly. Subscription business models have been around for a pretty long time, but thanks to modern technology, this model has evolved from milk or newspapers delivery to a versatile eCommerce experience. Subscription business brings recurring revenue. Conclusion.

Churn Rate 149

Churn Rate eCommerce Business Model Bootstrapping 149

VC Cafe

MARCH 16, 2025

Mention that you do “Consumer tech” as a startup founder and you’d be limiting your funding options to one third of the venture capital funds (in Israel that figure is probably closer to 10%). Gaming founders know this challenge well. Until now, consumer tech was perceived as a risky binary investment.

Technical Review 78

Technical Review B2C Generative AI IPO 78

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 9, 2012

They need to realize that investors ask for projections, not merely as predictions, but more as commitments from the founder and his team. In reality, you need to set these projections as goals for your own use, to convince employees as well as investors that you have a business which is challenging, but achievable. Cash flow is king.

Forecast 238

Forecast Burn Rate .Net Business Model 238

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 7, 2011

Blogs weren’t popularized yet so it was an oddity for me to read the founder of a software company spewing out advice. Joel met his co-founder for Fog Creek software and learned a valuable management lesson. He is responsible for bringing in revenue from advertising and their careers offering. What did you learn at Juno?

Software Review 285

Software Review Software St. Louis API 285

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

AUGUST 8, 2011

When should a company should focus on growth only, ignoring the business model and revenue? This episode was expertly co-hosted by Joshua Baer , founder of OtherInbox , progenitor of Capital Factory , angel investor , and previous founder of SKYLIST and UnsubCentral, both sold.

Cofounder 226

Cofounder Angel Investor Hosting Software Review 226

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 28, 2015

Building an ethical business is more than just compliance and meeting legal requirements, and it has big paybacks. One 11-year study of over 200 companies, detailed in “ Corporate Culture and Performance ,” found that those working on their culture improved revenue by 516%, and increased net income by 755%. Marty Zwilling.

Founder 120

Founder Software Review Offshore Startup 120

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 15, 2013

They need to realize that investors ask for projections, not merely as predictions, but more as commitments from the founder and his team. In reality, you need to set these projections as goals for your own use, to convince employees as well as investors that you have a business which is challenging, but achievable. Cash flow is king.

Forecast 238

Forecast Business Plan Burn Rate .Net 238

VC Cafe

FEBRUARY 27, 2024

A founder asked me what makes a $2M round “pre-seed”? especially if the startup already has a product and revenue? To reduce the impact of dilution, the expectation is that startup valuation should more or less double between the pre-seed to the seed, and seed to series A (ideally backed by reasonable traction/ revenue multiples).

Valuation 186

Valuation Software Review Generative AI Technical Review 186

VC Cafe

MARCH 1, 2024

Most startups equate the process of fundraising to dating – founders have to typically kiss a lot of frogs until the find the right fit. Eliminating middlemen in healthcare – from using AI to automate repetitive human jobs to exploring new and better business models for providing care.

Artificial Inteligence 176

Artificial Inteligence Technical Review Software Review Generative AI 176

Steve Blank

MARCH 16, 2016

To most founders a startup is not a job, but a calling. Founders can now access the largest pool of risk capital that ever existed –in the form of Private Equity (Angel Investors, family offices , Venture Capitalists (VC’s) and Hedge Funds.). (BTW, What does this mean for startup founders? Here’s the thing most founders miss.

Liquidity Event 120

Liquidity Event Founder Liquidation Preference Private Equity 120

The Startup Magazine

NOVEMBER 22, 2022

Catherine Mandungu is the founder of Think RevOps , a company that began as the pandemic was brewing. 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. Reducing revenue leakage. These goals are.

Congo 158

Congo Technical Review Africa Netherlands 158

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 4, 2011

If the founders are not experienced, find a couple of advisors from the business sector to fill the gap. Prepare an investment-grade business plan. Every entrepreneur needs a professional business plan for their own use, whether they intend to seek investor funding or not. This is called “validating the business model.”

Intellectual Property 249

Intellectual Property Angel Investor Technical Review Elevator Pitch 249

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 22, 2011

I recently spoke at the Founder Showcase at the request of Adeo Ressi. I said that at the Founder Showcase, too. Ah, but today’s Internet companies have real revenue! And for many of these they were (over) funded 7-10 years ago and don’t necessarily all represent great returns for investors or founders.

Saudi Arabia 309

Saudi Arabia Valuation IPO Technical Review 309

Duct Tape Marketing

JANUARY 4, 2024

Our deep dive into the world of email newsletters unveils tactical strategies for transforming subscribers into revenue-generating assets. As the founder of The Clikk, Russell has witnessed the evolving landscape of newsletters, recognizing them as a powerful intersection of content marketing and direct response promotion.

Revenue 96

Revenue Advertising Email ChatGPT 96

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.

B2C 141

B2C Technical Review Startup Retention 141

This is going to be BIG.

JUNE 17, 2024

Yet, everyone’s got an opinion about how a company measures up, especially the founder. ( The other day, I had a difficult conversation with a founder who clearly felt like VCs were the problem in her fundraising process. I don’t need to remind such a founder how the world is stacked against them. Then, there are nuances.

Technical Review 164

Technical Review Cofounder Startup Equity 164

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 26, 2013

Too many founders today face the conundrum that they need capital to get started, and even Angels defer until after you have your product built, business model proven, and a real revenue stream. Startups with connections or warm introductions to super-Angels should count themselves lucky.

Angel Investor 231

Angel Investor Entrepreneur Early Stage Silicon Valley 231

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 18, 2019

Depending on the composition of the founding team, you might or might not have near-term holes in certain functions at the exec level – e.g. you’ll most likely need to bring on a CTO/VP of Engineering shortly after the seed round if you don’t have a technical co-founder.

Part-Time VPE 195

Part-Time VPE Seed Stage CTO Hire Forecast 195

Hunter Walker

APRIL 17, 2025

By early 2024, we were sustainably profitable for a second time, on track to generate over $30 million in revenue and starting to get some PEs and strategics showing interest in Issuu. While every CEO and founder wants to create the next impactful IPO oriented company, IPOs are rare, even in the best of times. Thats a mistake.

Covenant 77

Covenant Acquisition IPO Artificial Inteligence 77

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 12, 2017

Nail the business model. Leverage your customer conversations to predict and validate your business model. For example, when you think about distribution channels, revenue streams, or the relationship with the customer, ask customers what they expect. These areas include market, process, and team transitions.

Startup 161

Startup Angel Investor Technical Review Incubator 161

YoungUpstarts

AUGUST 10, 2017

by Mark Gilbert, founder and CEO of MBS Accounting Technology & Advisory. Roughly 27 percent of startups can’t get the funding they need to take their business to the next level, according to the National Association of Small Businesses. Founders overlook how their salary looks to investors. >Investors

Software Review 124

Software Review Technical Review Due Diligence Startup 124

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 1, 2011

Mike is a no BS guy, has all the attributes I look for in a founder and says things like, openly shares knowledge and opines without a filter including this one, “whoever invented uncapped convertible debt should be spanked!&# Of course, monetization of search became one of the best business models in the history of business.

Semantic 302

Semantic Acquisition Valuation Angel Investor 302

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? Revenue-Based Flexible VCs.

Equity 78

Equity Revenue Cofounder Colorado 78