Both Sides of the Table

MAY 23, 2012

I have been close to the tech & startup sectors for more than 20 years and I can’t think of a period in which I felt more optimistic about the innovation and value creation I see in front of us. The opportunity to transact at the point of purchase increases the sheer number of revenue opportunities. This never existed a decade ago.

Venture Capital 347

Venture Capital Technical Review LP Mobile 347

Steve Blank

JANUARY 22, 2014

Dino Vendetti a VC at Bay Partners, moved up to Bend, Oregon on a mission to engineer Bend into a regional technology cluster. Today with every city, state and country trying to build out a technology cluster, following Dino’s progress can provide others with a roadmap of what’s worked and what has not. Tech investing is risky.

Early Stage 295

Early Stage Silicon Valley Oregon Technical Review 295

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 24, 2017

A version of this article is in the Harvard Business Review. — Unremarked and unheralded, the balance of power between startup CEOs and their investors has radically changed: IPOs/M&A without a profit (or at times revenue) have become the norm. 20th Century Tech Liquidity = Initial Public Offering.

Founder 281

Founder Technical Review CTO Hire IPO 281

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 14, 2014

The “valley of death” is a common term in the startup world, referring to the difficulty of covering the negative cash flow in the early stages of a startup, before their new product or service is bringing in revenue from real customers. It always reduces risk to plan your business first. Apply for contests and business grants.

Entrepreneur 283

Entrepreneur Intellectual Property Technical Review Incubator 283

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

OCTOBER 17, 2011

Still, you should also be getting better at preventing cancellations, or at least certain types of cancellations, such as crappy tech support or lacking a feature. Our cancellation log implicitly represents this metric because we review it weekly to look for trends. So total expected revenue is $RN/ p.

Business Model 245

Business Model Metrics Engineer Technical Review 245

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 23, 2020

But there is no magic formula on how to bring these together a second time, but I did see some good insights on the parameters in a classic startup business parable, “ Endless Encores ,” by Ken Goldstein, who advises startups and has built companies in technology, entertainment, media, and e-commerce.

Technical Review 324

Technical Review Entrepreneur Due Diligence Business Model 324

Steve Blank

AUGUST 21, 2013

What we found is that during the class almost all of them pivoted - making substantive changes to one or more of their business model canvas components. In the real world a big pivot in life sciences far down the road of development is a very bad sign due to huge sunk costs. Some of these teams made even more radical changes.

SBIR 321

SBIR Technical Review Lean Startup 321

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 4, 2022

The “valley of death” is a common term in the startup world, referring to the difficulty of covering the negative cash flow in the early stages of a startup, before their new product or service is bringing in revenue from real customers. It always reduces risk to plan your business first. Apply for contests and business grants.

Intellectual Property 261

Intellectual Property Technical Review Incubator Bootstrapping 261

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

JULY 19, 2010

Their products are over-priced, buggy, lacking features, and every experience I've had with their tech support has been atrocious, but man their stuff looks and feels nice! Indeed, most of the innovations we've made at Smart Bear in the art of code review have already been duplicated by both commercial and open-source competitors.

Software Review 325

Software Review Technical Review Development Team Review Bolivia 325

Steve Blank

AUGUST 29, 2011

More than 90% of startups fail, due primarily to self-destruction rather than competition. After 50 years of technology entrepreneurship it’s still an art. 74% of high growth Internet startups fail due to premature scaling. 93% of startups that scale prematurely never break the $100k revenue per month threshold.

Software Review 300

Software Review Early Stage Technical Review Startup 300

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 14, 2022

You can review all the specifics of this approach in the classic book by Nathan Furr and Paul Ahlstrom, appropriately titled “ Nail It then Scale It: The Entrepreneur's Guide to Creating and Managing Breakthrough Innovation ,” but I will net it out here. Nail the business model. Nail the solution.

Angel Investor 359

Angel Investor Technical Review Incubator Business Model 359

SoCal CTO

DECEMBER 1, 2010

I continue to collect great content that is the intersection of startups, products, online and technology. The United States is now a debtor nation to China and that the bill is about to come due. These are probably the two sites where I've posted the most reviews. One out of ten of Americans are out of work.

Technical Review 175

Technical Review Technology Product CTO Hire 175

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 23, 2013

My friend Ron Ashkenas interviewed me for his blog on the Harvard Business Review. Ron is a managing partner of Schaffer Consulting , and is currently serving as an Executive-in-Residence at the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley. He is a co-author of The GE Work-Out and The Boundaryless Organization.

Business Model 334

Business Model Technical Review Business Plan Search 334

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 14, 2021

As a logical and data-driven business advisor, I have long focused on facts, technology, and quantifiable pain in guiding entrepreneurs. Most consumers now use their online access from smartphones and tablets to interact with social networks, product reviews, and monitor the videos of culture influencers around the world.

Customer 432

Customer Social Media Dividend Technical Review 432

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 13, 2012

After helping build the first Ethernet switch startup, I was attracted by Asynchronous Transfer Mode 25Mbit/sec technology, (ATM25) which was 2.5x The result: great success of my third startup, a load balancing technology for web servers back in the late 1990’s. Maysee now enjoys hockey stick revenue growth.

Japan 305

Japan Customer Development Developer Customer 305

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 30, 2019

The “valley of death” is a common term in the startup world, referring to the difficulty of covering the negative cash flow in the early stages of a startup, before their new product or service is bringing in revenue from real customers. It always reduces risk to plan your business first. Apply for contests and business grants.

Intellectual Property 219

Intellectual Property Technical Review Startup Incubator 219

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

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.). These two startups had problems they could not solve on their own due to lack of resources—time, people, money.

Lean 335

Lean Customer Development Startup Silicon Valley 335

Steve Blank

JUNE 27, 2017

This article originally appeared in the Harvard Business Review. As more and more companies face disruption from globalization, new technology, and startups that have more capital than the incumbents, the continuing cry from Wall Street investors is, “Why can’t companies be as innovative as startups?”.

Startup 306

Startup New York City Valuation Distribution 306

ReadWriteStart

JUNE 19, 2021

There are few technologies in the world today that can make a Trillion-dollar impact on the global economy. Also, it can open up numerous business models and revenue channels that were earlier inaccessible for want of a suitable hardware and software solution. IoT (Internet of Things) is one of them. Source: Mckinsey.

Technical Review 215

Technical Review Software Review Cloud Vertical 215

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 20, 2012

You can review all the specifics of this approach in a recent book by Nathan Furr and Paul Ahlstrom, appropriately titled “ Nail It then Scale It: The Entrepreneur's Guide to Creating and Managing Breakthrough Innovation ,” but I will net it out here. Nail the business model. Nail the solution.

Startup 296

Startup Angel Investor Technical Review Incubator 296

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 14, 2009

Posted on September 14, 2009 by steveblank Over the last 30 years Wall Street’s appetite for technology stocks have changed radically – swinging between unbridled enthusiasm to believing they’re all toxic. While there was an occasional bad apple, the public markets rewarded companies with revenue growth and sustainable profits.

Silicon Valley 237

Silicon Valley IPO Technical Review Venture Capital 237

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 5, 2018

A version of this article first appeared in the Harvard Business Review. Tech IPO prices exploded and subsequent trading prices rose to dizzying heights as the stock prices became disconnected from the traditional metrics of revenue and profits. Then the cycle repeats with a new set of technologies.

Lean 335

Lean Burn Rate Startup IPO 335

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 24, 2014

“Attached is a copy of my full business plan for your review.” The first page of the business plan better be an executive summary which gives the investor a taste of the financials, as well as opportunity, competition, and key executives. “I I don’t have a business plan, but the technology is disruptive.”

Entrepreneur 299

Entrepreneur Technical Review Business Plan Angel Investor 299

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 15, 2019

This article previously appeared in the Harvard Business Review. Disruption today is more than just changes in technology, or channel, or competitors – it’s all of them, all at once. They’ll use government regulation and lawsuits to keep out new entrants with more innovative business models.

Government 322

Government Technical Review Acquisition Metrics 322

The Startup Magazine

FEBRUARY 17, 2025

There are currently 488 businesses in the IV therapy industry in the United States, indicating a thriving market. To stand out, new entrants must focus on creating a robust business model that prioritizes patient safety and adheres to healthcare regulations.

Mobile 88

Mobile United States Technical Review Business Model 88

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 19, 2011

You can review all the specifics of this approach in a new book by Nathan Furr and Paul Ahlstrom, appropriately titled “ Nail It then Scale It: The Entrepreneur's Guide to Creating and Managing Breakthrough Innovation ,” but I will net it out here. Nail the business model. Nail the solution.

Startup 286

Startup Angel Investor Technical Review Incubator 286

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 18, 2014

You can review all the specifics of this approach in a book by Nathan Furr and Paul Ahlstrom, appropriately titled “ Nail It then Scale It: The Entrepreneur''s Guide to Creating and Managing Breakthrough Innovation ,” but I will net it out here. Nail the business model. Nail the solution.

Entrepreneur 283

Entrepreneur Startup Angel Investor Technical Review 283

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 6, 2018

But there is no magic formula on how to bring these together a second time, but I did see some good insights on the parameters in a classic startup business parable, “ Endless Encores ,” by Ken Goldstein, who advises startups and has built corporations in technology, entertainment, media, and e-commerce.

Technical Review 233

Technical Review Due Diligence Business Model Demand 233

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 19, 2023

But there is no magic formula on how to bring these together a second time, but I did see some good insights on the parameters in a classic startup business parable, “ Endless Encores ,” by Ken Goldstein, who advises startups and has built companies in technology, entertainment, media, and e-commerce.

Technical Review 229

Technical Review Due Diligence Business Model Demand 229

VC Cafe

MARCH 1, 2024

In addition, founders thinking about starting a company can be overwhelmed by choice, as there are so many problems to tackle with technology, but it could be comforting to know that investors are interested in those areas in the first place.

Artificial Inteligence 176

Artificial Inteligence Technical Review Software Review Generative AI 176

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 21, 2020

“Attached is a copy of my full business plan for your review.” The first page of the business plan better be an executive summary which gives the investor a taste of the financials, as well as opportunity, competition, and key executives. “I I don’t have a business plan, but the technology is disruptive.”

Technical Review 310

Technical Review Angel Investor Business Plan Social Media 310

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

NOVEMBER 5, 2014

Or seen a review of an iPhone app hung up on pricing trivialities: “It would be pretty good at $0.99, but it’s not worth $1.99.” Consider the consequences of these monthly pricing possibilities: $0/mo means your goal is to maximize growth (trust and usage) instead of revenue. simple enough to be self-service).

Bootstrapping 294

Bootstrapping Technical Review B2C Sales Cycle 294

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

MARCH 21, 2017

Revenue multiples, profit multiples, premium over the previous financing — these are metrics used by sellers to help determine a minimum acceptable price. Even for startups, it takes years for a new product to become good enough to demand many millions of dollars in revenue.). Yet mobile advertising revenues were paltry.

Balance Sheet 242

Balance Sheet Vertical Acquisition Revenue 242

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 11, 2010

The Customer Development process is the way startups quickly iterate and test each element of their business model , reducing customer and market risk. In Discovery startups take all their hypotheses about the business model: product, market, customers, channel, etc. But now the bill had come due.

Burn Rate 252

Burn Rate Silicon Valley Marketing Boston 252

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 26, 2018

But as impressive as its technology is, the Apple’s smartwatch has been a product looking for a solution. Large tech companies like Google, Amazon, Apple recognize that the multi- trillion dollar health care market is ripe for disruption and have poured billions of dollars into the space. Healthcare on Your Wrist.

China 67

China Technical Review Software Review Algorithm 67

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 8, 2020

As a long-time mentor to entrepreneurs, here is my collection of smart risks that investors and I look for in new startups: Focus on a tough customer problem rather than a fun technology. Investors hate technology solutions looking for a problem, due to the high risk of no customers. Implement a modern real business model.

Management 322

Management Entrepreneur Forecast Stock Options 322