Steve Blank

JANUARY 17, 2023

In exchange for attending an accelerator, startups give up 5% to 10% of their company’s equity. The studio’s internal team builds the minimal viable product, then validates an idea by finding product/market fit and early customers. In return for the lower risk, a venture studio typically takes a larger percentage of equity.

Technical Cofounder 368

Technical Cofounder Intellectual Property Technical Review Incubator 368

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 2, 2021

I like the summary of the competitive reality in a new book, “ Rethinking Competitive Advantage: New Rules for the Digital Age ,” by Ram Charan, who relates a wealth of current experience from global clients: Customers expect a personalized experience. Features, availability, and brand are just the price of entry.

Software Review 355

Software Review Algorithm Global IPO 355

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. Nevertheless, it’s an option that doesn’t cost you equity. Commit to a major customer.

Intellectual Property 261

Intellectual Property Technical Review Incubator Bootstrapping 261

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 8, 2021

In fact, the cost may be minimal, if you do your networking and build a relationship with an experienced business executive or two in your domain who are willing to share and give back for a nominal retainer, perhaps one percent of your new startup equity. The cost of a co-founder is usually fifty percent of your equity.

Advisory Board 356

Advisory Board Bandwidth Cofounder Technical Review 356

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 11, 2022

In those years I learned to properly build product, price products, sell products and serve customers. If they are private we still have fig leaves that cover us because some rounds might raise debt vs. equity or might fund with terms like multiple liquidation preferences or full-ratchets or convertible notes with caps.

Valuation 466

Valuation San Francisco Ratchet Liquidation Preference 466

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 24, 2021

Others schedule exhaustive training sessions for everyone on the team, including showcase customers, to make sure that everyone paints a consistent picture. Due diligence always involves on-site visits, informal discussions with any or all members of the team, vendors, and good customers as well as bad. Traction in the marketplace.

Technical Review 379

Technical Review Due Diligence Term Sheet Bankruptcy 379

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 25, 2020

Yet one of the first things a potential equity investor asks about is your exit strategy. Equity investments are not loans, so there is no loan payback period or interest payments. Equity investments are not loans, so there is no loan payback period or interest payments. Find a private equity firm or friendly individual.

Exit Strategy 376

Exit Strategy Startup Private Equity Equity 376

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 16, 2022

Often the Boomer is more willing to work for equity, and easily convinced to step aside when revenues reach that next threshold. Manage customer service. Marketing and sales to Gen-Y customers. Member of the Advisory Board. Software and hardware development architects and designers.

Advisory Board 368

Advisory Board Dividend Angel Investor Cofounder 368

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. Nevertheless, it’s an option that doesn’t cost you equity. Commit to a major customer.

Intellectual Property 219

Intellectual Property Technical Review Startup Incubator 219

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 22, 2020

Most founders like to talk about their many months or years of sweat-equity , but cash invested is a stronger commitment. Is there a real customer willing to give a testimonial? Don’t be sidetracked by potential customers in the middle of a free trial, or friends of the founder.

Technical Review 436

Technical Review Due Diligence Sweat Equity Burn Rate 436

Steve Blank

MARCH 12, 2014

Therefore we needed them to think and learn about two parts of a startup; 1) ideation - how to create new ideas and 2) customer development – how do they test the validity of their idea (is it the right product, customer, channel, pricing, etc.). Customer Discovery in the Real World. This was a huge learning moment.

Lean 335

Lean Customer Development Startup Silicon Valley 335

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 18, 2020

Often the Boomer is more willing to work for equity, and easily convinced to step aside when revenues reach that next threshold. Manage customer service. Marketing and sales to Gen-Y customers. Member of the Advisory Board. Software and hardware development architects and designers.

Advisory Board 312

Advisory Board Startup Dividend Angel Investor 312

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 10, 2023

Taking on equity investors to fund your company is much like getting married – it is a long-term relationship that has to work at all levels. 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.

Technical Review 345

Technical Review Due Diligence Term Sheet Offshore 345

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 6, 2023

Others schedule exhaustive training sessions for everyone on the team, including showcase customers, to make sure that everyone paints a consistent picture. Due diligence always involves on-site visits, informal discussions with any or all members of the team, vendors, and good customers as well as bad. Traction in the marketplace.

Technical Review 296

Technical Review Due Diligence Term Sheet Bankruptcy 296

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 12, 2014

Yet one of the first things a potential equity investor asks about is your exit strategy. Equity investments are not loans, so there is no loan payback period or interest payments. Equity investments are not loans, so there is no loan payback period or interest payments. Find a private equity firm or friendly individual.

Exit Strategy 289

Exit Strategy Entrepreneur IPO Startup 289

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 11, 2020

Taking on equity investors to fund your company is much like getting married – it is a long-term relationship that has to work at all levels. 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.

Technical Review 310

Technical Review Due Diligence Term Sheet Offshore 310

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 25, 2023

Yet one of the first things a potential equity investor asks about is your exit strategy. Equity investments are not loans, so there is no loan payback period or interest payments. Equity investments are not loans, so there is no loan payback period or interest payments. Find a private equity firm or friendly individual.

Exit Strategy 264

Exit Strategy Private Equity Equity Technical Review 264

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 27, 2013

Partly out of the fact that in 1 week I depart for England to speak at LeWeb, attend our DataSift board meeting and generally make myself available to the DataSift team to meet their customers, partners and employees. You may know how much to pay in cash or equity for your new VP Engineering. And by now we all consider him a friend.

Advisory Board 365

Advisory Board Fractional CTO CTO Hire Los Angeles 365

The Startup Magazine

SEPTEMBER 15, 2020

Venture capital is a type of private equity. The downside to venture capital is that the company or individual doing investing generally get equity in the company. One difference between venture capital and private equity deals, in general, is that venture capital focuses on emerging companies. What is Venture Capital Funding?

Venture Capital 166

Venture Capital Technical Review Software Review Security 166

ReadWriteStart

JUNE 1, 2020

The primary source of your funds should be your paying customers, i.e., your business should generate enough revenues and profits to fund the growth and expansion. Any custom manufactured IoT device would require software development as well as hardware customization. Forms of funding. ? Equity investment.

Startup 150

Startup Entrepreneur Elevator Pitch Seed Stage 150

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 25, 2022

You need to do the due diligence to make that decision before you sign away your equity. A co-founder who has different motivations, for example maximum profit versus great customer service, will likely undermine you, take a minimal role, or leave the business quickly. The same benefits also apply to a joint venture.

Technical Review 313

Technical Review Due Diligence Partner Cofounder 313

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 29, 2020

Maintaining your team’s passion and freedom to focus first on innovating for customers are only a couple of the reasons for thinking hard before you seek money from crowdfunding, angel investors, venture capital organizations, or attempt to qualify for a public stock offering. Investors want board seats and a vote on key decisions.

Bootstrapping 310

Bootstrapping Advisory Board Startup Venture Capital 310

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 23, 2023

At a large company, sales usually means someone else has done the broad shaping for a potential customer. Customer Success roles : This is akin to handling a source. You make sure the customer is happy and keeps buying, preferably more. Security roles : Some ex-Agency people gravitate to roles in security. Look before you leap.

Government 241

Government Advisory Board Salary Sales Cycle 241

YoungUpstarts

SEPTEMBER 3, 2020

Investment banks simply help governments or businesses to raise capital through equity and debt financing. You could work on the side of the consumer, for example, can you negotiate a lower payoff amount on a credit card for a customer? What is the role of an investment banker? A career in this route can open many doors, though.

Investment Bankers 236

Investment Bankers Technical Review Equity Portfolio 236

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

MARCH 21, 2017

Rather, buyer behavior is rooted in their strategy — a combination of product thesis, their theory of their market’s evolution, how they need to position for customers and against competitors, their long-term brand development, geographic expansion plans, and so on. hundreds of millions of customers) and still growing fast.

Balance Sheet 242

Balance Sheet Vertical Acquisition Revenue 242

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2014

You are particularly vulnerable if: You have revenue concentration (few customers each providing a large total of percentage of your revenue). You have a large number of startup customers (because when markets crash they have a funny way of going bankrupt quickly or cutting burn precipitously).

Burn Rate 383

Burn Rate Balance Sheet .Net Valuation 383

YoungUpstarts

OCTOBER 6, 2020

As it relates to symptoms, firstly, I would say a likely sign is that your underlying business could be underperforming, whether financially, servicing customers, or not being able to grow or expand. How can small businesses stay up to speed on evolving technology and compete with large companies with IT staffs and state-of-the-art resources?

Technical Review 246

Technical Review Small Business Software Review Security 246

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 15, 2023

With one of the many new tools , and a dose of sweat equity, you can create a website for almost nothing -- and you are on your way to success with ecommerce, your latest invention or personal services. Keep expenses down, but keep customer visibility and sensitivity as a top priority. Practice living on a shoestring budget.

Equity 349

Equity Hockey Stick Bootstrapping Sweat Equity 349

The Startup Magazine

JANUARY 24, 2020

Giving up too much investor equity. Too many startups end up failing because they let customer payments slide or never charge appropriate prices in the first place. This way, customers can automate payments and you can have an updated repository for all transactions in case any questions come up later on.

Software Review 177

Software Review Startup Technical Review Hiring 177

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 26, 2022

Maintaining your team’s passion and freedom to focus first on innovating for customers are only a couple of the reasons for thinking hard before you seek money from crowdfunding, angel investors, venture capital organizations, or attempt to qualify for a public stock offering. Investors want board seats and a vote on key decisions.

Cost 267

Cost Bootstrapping Advisory Board Startup 267

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

JANUARY 4, 2018

That revenue is in on 75,000 customers, earned through the hard work of 500 employees across six offices on three continents. Every day, 5% of the entire online world visits a customer running on the WP Engine Digital Experience Platform. I’ve always said nothing beats the high of getting that first customer to sign up.

Engineer 152

Engineer Revenue San Francisco Security 152

VC Cafe

FEBRUARY 27, 2024

In smaller funds, ticket sizes tend to be lower, so pre-seed is the only stage where micro funds are able to secure their minimum equity targets. Therefore, software startups (it depends of course) need less money than ever before to build an MVP and get to first customers. who’s talking to customers?)

Valuation 186

Valuation Software Review Generative AI Technical Review 186

Steve Blank

APRIL 1, 2020

Your customers will no longer be your customers. Your customers start buying. The CEO should dial through as many of the largest existing customers to get a firsthand understanding of the magnitude of any revenue shortfall. Ask yourself: Are there now new customers, new services and new channels to pursue?

South Korea 334

South Korea Salary Business Model China 334

ConversionXL

OCTOBER 7, 2021

For this reason, it could be a good idea to get a minimum viable product (MVP) as early as possible to show how your product will work to investors and customers. Then we ship it to customers way before it’s ready. To do that, research your target audience and build out customer personas. They also include a countdown clock.

Product 142

Product Marketing Software Review Social Media 142

VC Cafe

JANUARY 22, 2021

AWS Marketplace Startup Program – the ‘app store’ for B2B startups who are interested to sell their product to AWS customers. AWS Connections – A program that facilitates relationships between AWS enterprise customers and startups to solve enterprises’ needs and, in turn, help to grow startups. Support Programs.

Technical Review 174

Technical Review Startup Venture Capital Incubator 174

View from Seed

OCTOBER 3, 2019

The point of the businesses is for the customer to feel like they don’t have to worry about the problem you are solving. So you only want to engage a customer enough to effectively do your job and to remind the customer that you exist and are worth not cancelling. Establishing credibility is incredibly difficult as well.

Retention 196

Retention Equity Portfolio Channel 196

Steve Blank

MARCH 31, 2014

In spite of this, private equity funds have used the rallying cry of efficiency to hijack corporate strategy and loot the profits that historically would have been reinvested into research and development and new products. We legalized robbing the corporate treasury.

Private Equity 330

Private Equity Metrics China Intellectual Property 330