Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 14, 2009

What matters is proving the viability of the company’s business model, what investors call “traction.&# Of course this is not at all true of many profitable small businesses, but they are not what I mean by startups.) Compared to the million-dollar startup, they are operating at micro-scale. Fantastic post.

Customer 167

Customer San Francisco Lean Hockey Stick 167

The Startup Magazine

JULY 28, 2024

This rational buying process can lead to more predictable sales cycles and less whimsical decision-making from your clientele. It’s business, not personal, and that’s rather refreshing! Beyond One-Night Brand Stands B2B relationships are the rom-com of the business world: built on commitment and developed over time.

B2B 158

B2B B2C Green Business Model 158

Entrepreneurs-Journey.com by Yaro Starak

SEPTEMBER 8, 2011

We are going to leave out companies selling into municipalities or educational institutions due to long sales cycles that are very complex, hard to manage and even harder to profit from. What Is “B2C&# ?

B2C 103

B2C B2B Business Model Sales Cycle 103

ReadWriteStart

MAY 4, 2011

First up, Manoj Dharap presented EzeeBank , a core banking solution for credit co-operative societies. Manoj is experiencing a long sales cycle of close to 12 months, but he has already created a sustainable company that has revenues and profits. On the other hand, it can be a perfectly fine owner-owned-and-operated business.

India 116

India Entrepreneur Silicon Valley Massachusetts 116

The Next Web

MAY 12, 2013

Sales cycles were long and unpredictable. “You don’t need an MBA to realize that this sort of business model wasn’t going to work” “Nothing ever filtered down properly to the operational employees. You don’t need an MBA to realize that this sort of business model wasn’t going to work.”.

Israel 126

Israel Database United States Cloud 126

VC Cafe

JUNE 7, 2010

Pudding Media let go 25 employees this morning and announced it will cease its operations in Israel. The company’s assets will be put on sale as the company only retained five employees for maintenance reasons. A ccording to Calcalist ,Pudding Media, an Israeli mobile advertising startup, faces imminent shut down.

Media 95

Media Malaysia Thailand Asia 95

www.forentrepreneurs.com

FEBRUARY 2, 2010

It's amazing how good, carefully evaluated metrics can make all the difference in the successful growth of a business. SolidWorks 2: The best VAR management program in the world? just.a.guy David -- this is a great article. VC Venture capital Viral growth Plugin by wpburn.com wordpress themes Copyright © David Skok 2009, 2010.

Metrics 55

Metrics Design Entrepreneur Startup 55

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

NZ Entrepreneur

SEPTEMBER 16, 2020

The statistics show that even though most founders bet their time and resources that their startups will be the best in the world, 90% of those new startups won’t be in operation in 10-15 years. Some common drivers of sales underperformance include product-market fit challenges, slow/low sales channels, and poor execution.

Startup 86

Startup Sales Cycle Down Round Revenue 86

Duct Tape Marketing

JANUARY 30, 2025

The Financial Reality: While franchising offers a lower-risk business model, profitability depends on location, operations, and marketing innovation. Here's my operational experience. A lot of it depends on the operator. What's your operational experience? You got to be a good operator.

Private Equity 76

Private Equity Bankruptcy Naming Equity 76

BeyondVC

AUGUST 26, 2008

The highest friction sale is spending lots of money on marketing and trade shows and having a large, direct sales force of expensive reps pounding the pavement for months trying to close a large deal with an enterprise customer. Follow that with a 3 month implementation process to get the customer happy.

Cost 78

Cost Sales Sales Cycle Demand 78

Tim Keane

APRIL 14, 2008

Can we, in short, develop knowledge that other competitors do not have to reduce our sales cycle and increase results? If our automated warehousing system is state of the art and provides us a 10% increase in Net Operating Income, what can we do with that money? Can we keep it to use as a war chest to expand in other areas?

Ireland 60

Ireland Wisconsin Forecast Sales Cycle 60

BeyondVC

AUGUST 26, 2008

The highest friction sale is spending lots of money on marketing and trade shows and having a large, direct sales force of expensive reps pounding the pavement for months trying to close a large deal with an enterprise customer. Follow that with a 3 month implementation process to get the customer happy.

Cost 60

Cost Sales Sales Cycle Demand 60

Hearpreneur

MAY 8, 2022

connections and benefit from quicker sales cycles and more opportunities. The problem with trying to serve everyone is that in the end, you don’t end up serving anyone, which is especially relevant for service-based businesses like ours. As a COO of the Mediumchat group, I'm responsible for all operations including marketing.

Entrepreneur 133

Entrepreneur Audience Social Media Channel 133

Hippoland

AUGUST 8, 2018

In other words, if you can get 1000 people to come to your website consistently for under $5, then this business model works for you. Sales cycles matter though. Business customers, depending on the problem, are less price sensitive than consumers. Sales cycle, as a consideration, also works the opposite way.

Founder 48

Founder Sales Cycle Affiliate Retention 48

Hippoland

AUGUST 8, 2018

In other words, if you can get 1000 people to come to your website consistently for under $5, then this business model works for you. Sales cycles matter though. Business customers, depending on the problem, are less price sensitive than consumers. Sales cycle, as a consideration, also works the opposite way.

Founder 48

Founder Sales Cycle Affiliate Retention 48

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 19, 2009

Distributed version control model – first in the industry like ours and we are filing patents. Page 4: Business Model. I had planned a balance of large companies and SMB/divisional sales but have changed my thinking. Reasons: cost of sales executives, long sales cycles, deep functional requirements.

Venture Capital 274

Venture Capital Term Sheet San Diego Viral 274

ReadWriteStart

SEPTEMBER 23, 2010

Today she is operating at a 30,000 feet level, and I am concerned that unless she gets down to earth and develops more granular and specific strategies, she will not get anywhere. With enterprise customers, this would result in tremendous exit barriers, making sales cycles long and involved, which a small startup will find hard to withstand.

India 114

India Silicon Valley Incubator Bootstrapping 114

YoungUpstarts

AUGUST 19, 2016

WeVue co-founder Taylor Wallace told me he doesn’t have a lot of time for training in the competitive software development industry, so he hires the “naturally curious” to fit with the company’s product-oriented business model. So what’s the best way to create your dream team? Study your game plan.

Startup 100

Startup Burn Rate Cofounder Salary 100

Hippoland

FEBRUARY 12, 2018

2) What is the business model and the potential unit economics? Certain investors tend to gravitate towards certain business models. But, it’s not so high such that only a small number of people can pay for it, so you don’t have to get the sales process perfect as a first-time entrepreneur or be a super salesperson.

Seed Stage 48

Seed Stage Business Model B2B Email 48

Hippoland

FEBRUARY 12, 2018

2) What is the business model and the potential unit economics? Certain investors tend to gravitate towards certain business models. But, it’s not so high such that only a small number of people can pay for it, so you don’t have to get the sales process perfect as a first-time entrepreneur or be a super salesperson.

Seed Stage 48

Seed Stage Business Model B2B Email 48

conversionxl.com

SEPTEMBER 10, 2013

The most common mistake startups make is assuming they can operate the same way big companies do, and expect success with little to no feedback from potential customers. Startups rarely survive by guessing, and can only create products and business models based on facts about their target market. Pivot the product entirely.

Customer Development 60

Customer Development Conversion Developer Customer 60

infochachkie.com

SEPTEMBER 24, 2011

There is an inherent conflict in a consultant’s business model and the needs of a startup. Thus, as your startup matures, many of your operational functions can be successfully outsourced. Yet, it does nothing to help you execute your business model. Startups cannot afford such scapegoat luxuries. Pyramid Power.

Equity 40

Equity Silicon Valley Cofounder PR 40

Cracking the Code

OCTOBER 10, 2008

In my case (LucidEra -- a SaaS analytics provider focusing on sales, marketing, and financial analytics), weve found that success requires not only building some best practices for analytics into our solution, but also coming up with a repeatable and scalable way to show the customer how to use the analytics and how to interpret the results.

Software Review 48

Software Review North America Europe Metrics 48