Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 14, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Tuesday, April 14, 2009 Validated learning about customers Would you rather have $30,000 or $1 million in revenues for your startup? All things being equal, of course, you’d rather have more revenue rather than less. And yet revenue alone is not a sufficient goal.

Customer 167

Customer San Francisco Lean Hockey Stick 167

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 7, 2011

Lesson: You dn’t want your customers to feel locked into using your software. It helps with sales cycles because customers know that they can switch away if they so choose. While customers will be willing to try your product, they think two steps ahead. Pricing information. Marketing materials. 29:45 minutes.

Software Review 285

Software Review Software St. Louis API 285

YoungUpstarts

JULY 17, 2013

I grew the business that I currently lead as CEO from a start-up to more than 60 million dollars in revenue in less than six years. My simple process has worked to spur growth and revenue for every business I have headed. Now with your deep insights, you can start to define the unique value you bring to the customer.

Georgia 238

Georgia Atlanta Sales Cycle Business Model 238

ReadWriteStart

JUNE 16, 2011

Freshdesk First, Girish Mathrubootham from Chennai, India, pitched Freshdesk , a SaaS company that provides small and medium businesses with on-demand customer support software that offers multi-channel social support. Freshdesk introduces itself as a kind of Salesforce.com for customer support so to speak.

India 123

India Bootstrapping Non-Compete Entrepreneur 123

YoungUpstarts

JANUARY 3, 2019

A recent survey by CEB reported that 57 percent of the typical business-to-business sales cycle is complete before the buyer’s first contact with vendors. This means that before they’ve even met you, your customers are more than halfway through their decision process! This presents your unique value. Experience.

B2B 170

B2B Sales Cycle Technical Review IPO 170

K9 Ventures

AUGUST 13, 2010

In fact, at the time (1996-1997) we offered both a downloadable product, that our customers could install on their own servers, and a “hosted-offering”, which came to be known as “On-Demand”, then the “ASP” (Application Service Provider) model, and today we call it “SaaS” (Software as a Service). We were desperate to get a marquee customer.

Revenue 72

Revenue Developer Java Customer Development 72

ConversionXL

OCTOBER 7, 2022

Customer acquisition cost (CAC) is an important metric for any ecommerce business. It tells you how much you need to earn per customer to run a profitable company. Put simply, you need a healthy customer acquisition cost for your business to succeed. Table of contents What is ecommerce customer acquisition cost?

Acquisition 22

Acquisition eCommerce Cost Customer 22

ConversionXL

JUNE 2, 2022

In this article, you’ll learn how to define your ABM strategy so you can target the right accounts and increase your revenue. Account-based marketing is an approach where marketing and sales work together to nurture target accounts and convert or retain customers. This required more product evangelism and customer wins.

Customer 98

Customer Marketing Channel Acquisition 98

ReadWriteStart

FEBRUARY 1, 2012

They also signed Global eTelecom as a customer, one of U.S.' Our plan is to have seven figure revenues and be profitable by Q3, in addition to to seven new hires by end of the year," he says. Ryan Bell, the CEO of Gremln.com says, "We continue to have advisory meetings to discuss how we will convert free users into paying customers.

St. Louis 118

St. Louis CTO Hire Fractional CTO Entrepreneur 118

The Startup Magazine

JUNE 20, 2024

Such a dual approach helps B2B startups generate new leads while building brand awareness and driving revenue growth right from the start. This approach allows startups to allocate their budget more efficiently, investing in other critical areas such as product development, sales, and customer support.

B2B 148

B2B Hiring Salary Early Stage 148

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 9, 2012

TLDR: Brant Cooper and Patrick Vlaskovits , authors of The Entrepreneur's Guide to Customer Development are back with a new book called The Lean Entrepreneur. It took the idea of Customer Development and made it accessible to a whole new audience. Illustrations by FAKEGRIMLOCK. You can pre-order it starting today.

Entrepreneur 167

Entrepreneur Lean Southern California San Diego 167

Up and Running

DECEMBER 23, 2020

Get your reputation together for that core service/product, and then branch out once you have loyal customers that have become advocates and spread your message throughout their personal networks. Implement systems to let the customers (and the data about customers) tell you what they like and what they don’t via purchasing trends.

Entrepreneur 149

Entrepreneur Sales Cycle Texas Hiring 149

The Next Web

SEPTEMBER 7, 2013

There’s friction in companies, and so the sales cycles are long. Forget big logos – optimize for customer champions. Try to get paying customers early – not for the money, but for true feedback. When signing on those early customers, it’s tempting to target big logos, but I’d avoid those guys in the beginning completely.

Technical Cofounder 145

Technical Cofounder Sales Cycle Cofounder Sales 145

YoungUpstarts

SEPTEMBER 1, 2015

by Eliot Burdett, co-founder and CEO of Peak Sales Recruiting. Building a sales team from scratch is one of the most difficult and important tasks of a CEO. Generating revenue through sales, especially as start-up capital diminishes, can make or break a company’s success. Map out individual sales goals.

Sales 100

Sales Cofounder Sales Cycle Revenue 100

NZ Entrepreneur

FEBRUARY 25, 2025

Sales tech changes, but at the very heart – sales is about building positive relationships that sustain your business. Key services and resources Were building B2B sales pipeline and revenue, especially for tech, IT, engineering and professional services sectors. Sales is the engine room for your business.

Technical Review 52

Technical Review Sales Cycle B2B Sales 52

Steve Blank

AUGUST 15, 2016

This is a perfect example of why it’s important to talk to customers. Somewhere along the line, however, Michael and his co-founder stopped listening to customers. Here’s what happened: We got the product out; we got paying customers. Our revenue model was wrong. Filed under: Customer Development , SiriusXM Radio Show.

Cofounder 147

Cofounder Entrepreneur Africa Sales Cycle 147

ConversionXL

JUNE 2, 2022

Done right, both can help attract the kind of high-quality leads that become long-term customers and advocates. DocuSign combines both to fuel its sales funnel. You’ll also learn how to approach ABM and lead generation to engage your ideal customer. ABM is built on a list of target companies that should be your customers.

Lead Generation 94

Lead Generation Marketing Sales Cycle Campaign 94

ConversionXL

MAY 27, 2022

Longer customer journeys and drawn-out purchase decisions influenced by multiple touchpoints. This has changed how buyers interact with sales. More than two-thirds of buyers have researched your solution (and others’) before talking to sales. Plus, 60% prefer not to interact with sales reps at all. More conversions?

Demand 115

Demand Affiliate Audience Leadership 115

ConversionXL

JUNE 14, 2021

Why should customers buy from you? In this guide, you’ll learn how to differentiate your business and attract your ideal customers by creating a unique selling proposition. How a unique selling proposition (USP) attracts better customers and builds your brand (and where marketers get it wrong). The basics are important (e.g.,

Software Review 158

Software Review Audience Differentiation Framework 158

ConversionXL

JULY 8, 2021

In this article, we’ll explore how to calculate conversion rates and its application across different channels and customer journeys. The method for calculating conversion rate varies by channel, sales cycle, and stage of the marketing funnel. Context also matters around traffic sources and customer journey stages.

Conversion 156

Conversion CPA Metrics Analytics 156

ConversionXL

APRIL 7, 2021

The book dedicates quite a few pages to the ‘customer-centric stack’ and argues that because you’re now able to know when someone is in the market for a solution like yours [via IP lookup or 1st or 3rd party intent data], you don’t need to “spam” them. In those days we just called it sales.

IP 98

IP Marketing Technical Review Software Review 98

Hearpreneur

JANUARY 30, 2022

In fact, connecting with customers and prospects is one of the most difficult tasks facing business leaders today. Face-to-face engagement is important, especially at vital points in the sales cycle or while creating relationships. Thanks to Adam Wood, Revenue Geeks ! #7- Thanks to Gavin Johnson, EV Cable Shop ! #4-

Entrepreneur 127

Entrepreneur Green Technical Review Social Media 127

BeyondVC

DECEMBER 7, 2005

As you know, I am enamored by frictionless sales. Frictionless sales means reducing the pain for customers to adopt and use a service/product and consequently reducing the cost of sales and marketing to get a customer and generate revenue. Free software grows revenue opportunities.

Sales 78

Sales Java Open Source Software Review 78

Steve Blank

MARCH 17, 2020

If you’re running a startup or small business, your first priority (after your family) is keeping your employees and customers safe. Next, take a look at your actual revenue each month – not forecast, but real revenue coming in each month. Subtract your monthly gross burn rate from your monthly revenue to get your net burn rate.

Burn Rate 436

Burn Rate Startup Valuation Sales Cycle 436

YoungUpstarts

MARCH 27, 2019

International e-commerce is growing exponentially year over year, and social media is a popular platform for brand discovery for overseas customers. Be sure that your e-commerce site can connect directly to social platforms so customers can easily make purchases directly from a social post. Forgetting About Brand Consistency.

Social Media 113

Social Media Media San Diego Sales Cycle 113

Steve Blank

AUGUST 15, 2016

This is a perfect example of why it’s important to talk to customers. Somewhere along the line, however, Michael and his co-founder stopped listening to customers. Here’s what happened: We got the product out; we got paying customers. Our revenue model was wrong. Filed under: Customer Development , SiriusXM Radio Show.

Cofounder 120

Cofounder Entrepreneur Africa Sales Cycle 120

ConversionXL

OCTOBER 22, 2018

To get marketing a seat at the table and prove that it can drive revenue and pipeline, we’ve become borderline obsessed with numbers. To reframe marketing as an investment rather than a cost center, we must connect all the dots to revenue—but it’s hard to do without the right tools and models to get started. form fills).

B2B 131

B2B Marketing Analytics Campaign 131

ConversionXL

MAY 27, 2022

It aims to fuel your sales pipeline , shorten the sales cycle, and generate revenue. In other words, it boosts revenue by delivering the right information to the right people at the right time so that they can make confident decisions. .” – Beth Caplow, VP and Principal Analyst at Forrester [via Forrester ].

Demand 91

Demand Lead Generation PPC Leadership 91

The Startup Magazine

AUGUST 11, 2023

This suggests the firm should have a list of paying customers, consistent sales cycles, a clear value proposition, and a developing revenue pipeline in the ideal situation. The criteria change after a company reaches the growth stage when it is deemed to have attained product market fit.

Seed Stage 148

Seed Stage Technical Review Early Stage Due Diligence 148

ConversionXL

MARCH 20, 2019

While it doesn’t publish prices publicly, an interview with the Demandbase CEO in 2017 claimed that the average revenue per customer per month was $20,000. The high price tag self-selects Demandbase customers. It’s not just a giant CRM that matches customers with a subset of relevant accounts. Image source ).

Software Review 117

Software Review Software Marketing IP 117

Up and Running

JUNE 27, 2018

Without a marketing plan, you risk losing your customers and wasting your budget even if you have the right tools to support the campaign. Value propositions exist for a reason: they add more meat to what you have to offer to hungry customers. Let your customers know why you are the best in the market. Differentiate yourself.

Marketing 109

Marketing Social Media Campaign Sales Cycle 109

ConversionXL

MARCH 6, 2019

On Facebook, an ideal customer may log on to see photos of a new nephew, not to check out a 30-second demo of your SaaS product. The strategy, according to Google, improves ad recall (and, undoubtedly, YouTube revenues). Compared to the B2C world, B2B attribution faces two challenges: Sales often take place offline. Recruiting.

Video 129

Video B2B Technical Review Campaign 129

ConversionXL

NOVEMBER 5, 2020

I know this language sounds formal and stuffy, but high-ticket service sales cycles are long. Interviewing your customers can reveal the priorities they’re aware of. For ambitious agencies, taking an MVP approach can unlock incredibly lucrative revenue streams. For us, that priority was the sales pipeline.

PR 120

PR B2B Lean Audience 120

ReadWriteStart

JUNE 9, 2021

It was late 2019 when they started Accord, the world’s first Customer Collaboration Platform. It’s a shared workspace so buyers and sellers can work together throughout the laborious B2B sales process—making it a lot more collaborative and a lot less painful. . 2021 sales technology landscape (from smart selling tools ).

B2B 87

B2B Sales Technical Review B2C 87

BeyondVC

DECEMBER 7, 2005

As you know, I am enamored by frictionless sales. Frictionless sales means reducing the pain for customers to adopt and use a service/product and consequently reducing the cost of sales and marketing to get a customer and generate revenue. Free software grows revenue opportunities.

Sales 60

Sales Java Open Source Software Review 60

ConversionXL

FEBRUARY 1, 2018

This post will cover how many of your favorite SaaS companies use drip marketing to generate leads, convert customers, and more. More specifically, email drip marketing involves delivering the right content to the right recipient at the right time based on how a user interacts with your brand and where they are in the sales cycle.

Marketing 97

Marketing Campaign Software Review Email 97

Where to Play

AUGUST 18, 2020

Here potential customers are individuals, corporations, and families who can sit-in or organize their events for tea/coffee gathering. A takeaway set up is considered as several customers prefer to drink coffee/tea at home. Food will be delivered to customers e.g. individuals, corporate and family or they can come for a pickup.

Pakistan 62

Pakistan Sales Cycle Marketing Technical Review 62