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10 Keys To Surviving Startup Cash Flow Requirements

Startup Professionals Musings

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. Join a startup incubator. Only one-third make it past their tenth anniversary.

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7 Keys To Making A Business Out Of Your Great Product

Startup Professionals Musings

Most technical entrepreneurs focus hard on building an innovative product, but forget that an elegant solution doesn’t automatically translate into a successful business. Businesses require an equally elegant business model, with the right price, messaging and delivery channel to the right target customers to keep the dream alive and growing.

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Is the Lean Startup Dead?

Steve Blank

A version of this article first appeared in the Harvard Business Review. It’s the antithesis of the Lean Startup. Almost overnight the floodgates opened, and risk capital was available at scale from venture capital investors who rushed their startups toward public offerings. ” Fire, Ready, Aim. And it may work.

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Startup Metrics

TechEmpower

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?

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5 Steps To Finding The Best Investor For Your Startup

Startup Professionals Musings

Even though the color of their money is always green, all startup investors are not the same. Investor due diligence on a startup is not a mysterious black art, but is nothing more than a final integrity check on all aspects of your business model, team, product, customers, and plan. It’s no fun for either side.

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10 Common Startup Mistakes That Are Rarely Admitted

Startup Professionals Musings

These things outside your control do happen, but based on my years of experience as a startup advisor and angel investor, I still see too many strategies leading to failure that are inside the entrepreneur decision realm. I certainly agree that starting a business is fraught with risk, and none of us get it all right the first time.

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Is a Venture Studio Right for You?

Steve Blank

Three types of organizations – Incubators, Accelerators and Venture Studios – have emerged to reduce the risk of early-stage startup failure by helping teams find product/market fit and raise initial capital. They do the most to de-risk the early stages of a startup. Reducing Startup Risk.