Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 5, 2009

Chasing funding versus chasing customers and a repeatable and scalable business model, is one reason startups fail. Is there a profitable business model? The Traditional VC Pitch Entrepreneurs who pursue the traditional product development model don’t have customer data to answer these questions. Can it scale?”

Customer Development 270

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 270

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 14, 2009

Underwriters realized that as long as the public was happy snapping up shares, they could make huge profits on the inflated valuations (regardless of whether or not the company should have ever been public.) The valuations for acquisitions were nothing like the Internet bubble, but there was a path to liquidity, difficult as it was.

Silicon Valley 237

Silicon Valley IPO Technical Review Venture Capital 237

www.forentrepreneurs.com

FEBRUARY 2, 2010

Business Model I would like to propose that in addition to team, product, and market, there is actually a fourth, equally important, core element of startups, which is the need for a viable business model. However there is a lot of value in looking at these same metrics for all other businesses.

Acquisition 103

Acquisition Cost Customer Entrepreneur 103

Tim Keane

JANUARY 12, 2010

Term-sheets and Valuations: Thinking about Negotiations.   I’ve sat down with entrepreneurs and a copy of a term sheet guide I like [ “Term Sheets & Valuations - A Line by Line Look at the Intricacies of Venture Capital Term Sheets & Valuations ” by Alex Wilmerding, Aspatore Press.] The Valuation Question.

Term Sheet 68

Term Sheet Valuation Dividend Liquidation Preference 68

crowdSPRING Blog

MAY 4, 2011

Must read article for all startup entrepreneurs about valuation – [link]. Interesting perspective by @msuster on product vs. service startup business models – [link]. Negotiation Tips For Small Businesses, Entrepreneurs and Freelancers – [link]. Top 10 tips for email newsletters – [link].

Social Media 92

Social Media Small Business Design Media 92

crowdSPRING Blog

DECEMBER 21, 2012

B t Metrics – [link]. Good read about how Aviary changed its business model | The Verge - [link]. This is a very useful valuation tool from AngelList (browse startup valuations) - [link]. Key Digital Marketing Trends For 2013 | crowdSPRING Blog – [link].

Social Media 100

Social Media Small Business Design Media 100

crowdSPRING Blog

NOVEMBER 1, 2013

Why Small Businesses Are Building Remote Workforces | Business Insider - crowdspring.co/1aHHoaf. Good whitepaper on advertising measurement metrics | by Ben Kunz – crowdspring.co/HsVIMR. Qualities Of Truly Great Employees | Business Insider by Dharmesh Shah - crowdspring.co/1h0QmFY. Nuts - crowdspring.co/1akpXj7.

Social Media 94

Social Media Small Business Design Media 94

Steve Blank

MARCH 17, 2020

But next the question is, ‘What happens to my business?”. The questions every startup or small business CEO needs to ask now are: What’s my Burn Rate and Runway? What does your new business model look like? What does my business model look like now? What are the new financial metrics? How do you know?

Burn Rate 436

Burn Rate Startup Valuation Sales Cycle 436

VC Cafe

OCTOBER 23, 2022

” No one questions the importance of revenue, but asking the question enabled us to start thinking on what would be the right metric. Did you know that companies like Airbnb, Spotify and Netflix purposely avoid setting revenue as their North Star Metric? Why is revenue not a good ‘North Star’ Metric?

Metrics 179

Metrics Revenue B2C Portfolio 179

betashop.com

OCTOBER 8, 2012

But, you can iterate and iterate on features, but you cannot iterate your way to a business model. I’ve seen too many businesses get stuck or fail because of their endless pursuit for the magic new feature that is going to help them gain traction. Never, ever, choose your investors based on valuation. Connect With Me.

Technical Review 108

Technical Review Technology Software Review Valuation 108

David Teten

JANUARY 19, 2021

This structure allows for alignment on the front end, and real-time flexibility for performance metrics,” says Samira Salman , a family office investor and advisor. . Flexible VCs have created structures based on other company performance metrics than revenues, such as profits or founder salaries. Typical business stage.

Cofounder 78

Cofounder Technical Review Equity Dividend 78

David Teten

DECEMBER 3, 2019

Technographics vendors such as Builtwith , Datanyze , HG Data , Stackshare, and Stacklist help CEOs identify the right tech platform on which to build their business; they’re also helpful for investors to due diligence a company’s tech stack choices. Modano standardizes Excel models to improve comparability and reduce error rates.

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Software Review Analytics Private Equity 78

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 22, 2016

That should make you wonder - how do you measure traction in a metric? According to most experts , business traction is evidence that somebody really wants your product. It’s business momentum, independent of whether you have a product delivered, proven the business model, or significantly penetrated the opportunity.

Metrics 143

Metrics Advisory Board Startup Lean 143

Up and Running

MAY 15, 2019

There’s no one model—or one business plan—for breweries. Each brewery will have its own unique business model and business plan. Before opening a brewery, prospective brewers have to figure out the right business model for their plans, location, interests, startup resources, and long-term vision.

Oregon 24

Oregon Jordan Software Review Distribution 24

Cracking the Code

NOVEMBER 13, 2008

The fact that SaaS valuations are being more affected by the downturn than the Nasdaq can be surprising given the supposed resiliency of the SaaS model (recurring revenues) but it translates the public investors belief that SMB software spend is going to be hit very hard by this recession. With this decline, the average EV/08 rev.

Software Review 48

Software Review Technical Review Valuation Portfolio 48

Cracking the Code

OCTOBER 10, 2008

Effectively measuring and understanding your CAC and CLTV metrics are key to future success. You validated our business model and added huge value to our efforts. Bessemer SaaS Law #1: Your key monthly business metrics are: CMRR (Committed Monthly Recurring Revenue), Churn, and Cash flow - “Bookings” is for suckers.

Software Review 48

Software Review North America Europe Metrics 48

reidhoffman.org

NOVEMBER 12, 2013

Friendster’s valuation set the tone for the entire social networking space. Press and analysts characterized LinkedIn in one of two ways: “LinkedIn is an interesting niche that might be worth paying attention to” or “LinkedIn is the Friendster for business”. The general rule is one business model drives the business.

Entrepreneur 111

Entrepreneur Viral Revenue Networking 111

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 2, 2018

Employs a profitable business model with customer traction. A winning business model, like Zappos, often benefits social needs as well as business needs. But business models need to be validated by paying customers (beyond free trials) before they are credible.

Intellectual Property 48

Intellectual Property Initial Public Offering Merger Acquisition 48

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 13, 2011

People ask me if they really need ANY business plan, unless they are looking for an outside investor. In fact, a business plan is needed more by you than investors, as the blueprint for your company, team communication, and progress metrics. Explain the business model. Include a current valuation estimate.

Business Plan 290

Business Plan Sweat Equity Exit Strategy Intellectual Property 290

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 13, 2012

People ask me if they really need ANY business plan, unless they are looking for an outside investor. In fact, a business plan is needed more by you than investors, as the blueprint for your company, team communication, and progress metrics. Explain the business model. Include a current valuation estimate.

Business Plan 283

Business Plan Sweat Equity Exit Strategy Intellectual Property 283

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 1, 2019

With the real data from that surge, you need to take a hard look at business model realities, cost of customer acquisition, inventory costs, and other key metrics. Here is my summary of the key focus activities of that challenge for every business owner: Manage cash flow daily and plot a plan to profitability.

Silicon Valley 215

Silicon Valley Bankruptcy Metrics Valuation 215

Up and Running

MARCH 21, 2016

It’s tempting to focus on yourself and your business model, but ultimately, investors want to know what’s in it for them. Get them to agree that the metrics make sense and then hit them. Share user engagement and metrics. See Also: 7 Key Metrics Every Business Owner Should Monitor. His advice?

Cofounder 60

Cofounder Metrics Angel Investor Silicon Valley 60

Cracking the Code

DECEMBER 2, 2006

Today, VARs are the key to the SMB segment and their business model is collapsing, opening new opportunities for them and for technology providers. To survive, VARs need to change their business model and move from product sales to services. Detailed SaaS Spreadsheet (Valuation and CAC benchmark). My Investments.

Software Review 48

Software Review Technical Review Europe Software 48

Ben's Blog

APRIL 28, 2010

Looking across these nearly 50 companies, the study finds that founding CEOs consistently beat the professional CEOs on a broad range of metrics ranging from capital efficiency (amount of funding raised), time to exit, exit valuations, and return on investment.

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Cofounder Technical Cofounder Software Review 78

Up and Running

OCTOBER 3, 2018

Financial Summary: Explain your business model, startup costs, revenues, and liabilities to the company. Milestones and metrics that you’ll need to hit to be viable. People in the business predict technology will develop to generate more data-driven insights about which spaces give the best value to residents.

El Paso 61

El Paso Business Plan Technical Review Forecast 61

Cracking the Code

DECEMBER 16, 2006

Detailed SaaS Spreadsheet (Valuation and CAC benchmark). SaaS 13 Index Valuation. SaaS business metrics: why are they different? S&M productivity (CAC ratio) for the SaaS 13 Index. Note: high CAC ratio means high productiviy (see blog post for definition). My Investments. CornerstoneOnDemand. anecdotes. (13).

Software Review 48

Software Review Silicon Valley Technical Review Software 48

David Teten

AUGUST 6, 2015

Some model users will want to stress-test assumptions and explore the detailed calculations throughout a model, but many important decision makers will only want to look at selected outputs (e.g. financial statement summaries, valuation analysis, ratio analysis, etc.) once a model has been finalized.

Balance Sheet 60

Balance Sheet Software Review Forecast Acquisition 60

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 22, 2010

People ask me if they really need ANY business plan, unless they are looking for an outside investor. In fact, a business plan is needed more by you than investors, as the blueprint for your company, team communication, and progress metrics. Explain the business model. Include a current valuation estimate.

Business Plan 186

Business Plan Exit Strategy Sweat Equity Intellectual Property 186

The Startup Magazine

APRIL 24, 2020

Whether you’re interested in selling a website you built from scratch, or want to sell your Amazon-based B2C brand, there are many different baseline factors that go into determining an appropriate website valuation number. While it’s true that valuations can get quite technical, the basics are relatively easy to understand.

eCommerce 100

eCommerce Valuation B2C Revenue 100

Gust

AUGUST 5, 2012

People ask me if they really need ANY business plan, unless they are looking for an outside investor. In fact, a business plan is needed more by you than investors, as the blueprint for your company, team communication, and progress metrics. Explain the business model. Include a current valuation estimate.

Business Plan 182

Business Plan Sweat Equity Exit Strategy Intellectual Property 182

Up and Running

FEBRUARY 17, 2016

There’s no one model—or one business plan—for breweries. Each brewery will have its own unique model and plan. Prospective brewers have to figure out the right business model for their plans, location, interests, startup resources, and long-term vision. Metrics: Know your numbers.

Oregon 60

Oregon Jordan SBA Cofounder 60

Version One Ventures

JULY 20, 2015

I often get asked about how to determine the valuation for a marketplace startup that is starting to scale. The main multiple we like to use for marketplace businesses is GMV (Gross Merchandise Volume…the total volume of goods sold on the marketplace). Our assumptions for this valuation: Scale: > $1b GMV. for 2015 GMV.

Valuation 60

Valuation Early Stage IPO eCommerce 60

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 7, 2015

How the solution and business model work to fund the business. Investors will impatiently expect a winning business model, customer segment definitions and volume projections. Investors will impatiently expect a winning business model, customer segment definitions and volume projections.

Product 120

Product Intellectual Property Liquidity Event Burn Rate 120

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 8, 2016

Validate your business model on real customers. Giving free beta copies of your solution to customers to elicit testimonials does not validate a business model. The best business models benefit social needs as well as business needs. Every business requires spending money to make money.

Intellectual Property 120

Intellectual Property Entrepreneur Elevator Pitch Exit Strategy 120

cdixon.org

AUGUST 3, 2012

Some consequences: - For consumer startups with non-transactional models (ad-based or unknown business models), you need something closer to 10 million users versus 1 million users to get Series A funded. - Hence, many early-stage consumer startups are switching to transactional models. -

Bridge Financing 86

Bridge Financing Early Stage Valuation Later Stage 86

The Equity Kicker

OCTOBER 8, 2012

They need to maximise for growth whilst either getting to profitability within their existing resources or maximise for increase in valuation at the next round by thinking of the milestones they can hit before running out of cash. Most companies aren’t so lucky. Sometimes investors are convinced. Sometimes not.

Silicon Valley 149

Silicon Valley IPO eCommerce Valuation 149

Growthink Blog

APRIL 15, 2015

Now given that the company has yet to even come close to breaking even, this can be viewed as either a great validation of Domo''s business model, or as more evidence of the “Bubble Mania” of the current technology financing landscape and a screaming signal to get out while you still can.

Valuation 48

Valuation Venture Capital Finance Acquisition 48