Steve Blank
JULY 11, 2017
If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the people to gather wood, divide the work, and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. I was visiting with an ex-student who’s now the CFO of a large public tech company. The company is still one of the hottest places to work in tech. They make hardware with a large part of their innovation in embedded software and services.
Both Sides of the Table
NOVEMBER 14, 2017
Nearly every successful tech startup I’ve observed over the past 20 years has gone through a similar growth pattern: Innovate, systematize then scale operations. An alternate outcome that I also unfortunately observe in some cases are companies who had extreme early success with an initial product adoption but failed in key areas that limited the growth and therefore the ultimate financial outcomes.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
YoungUpstarts
AUGUST 25, 2017
Artificial intelligence is increasingly making inroads into different areas of our lives. Many of the current and proposed uses for artificial intelligence are things that only a short time ago would have sounded right at home in speculative science fiction. As more and more of these seemingly magical uses of artificial intelligence come to be realized, there is also an increasing awareness developing of just how much we can achieve with truly intelligent machines and pieces of software.
A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks
AUGUST 22, 2017
Product teams have been repeating the MVP (Minimum Viable Product) mantra for a decade now, without re-evaluating whether it’s the right way to maximize learning while pleasing the customer. Well, it’s not the best system. It’s selfish and it hurts customers. We don’t build MVPs at WP Engine. The motivation behind the MVP is still valid: Build something small, because small things are predictable and inexpensive to test.
Speaker: Nick Noreña, Innovation Coach and Advisor, Kromatic
Every startup and innovation project exists within an ecosystem that either helps or hurts that project. As innovation managers, we need to keep a pulse of that ecosystem and make sure we're helping those innovation projects we're managing every step of the way. In this webinar, Nick Noreña will walk through an Innovation Ecosystem Model that he and his team at Kromatic have developed to help investors, heads of product, teachers, and executives understand how they can best support innovation in
Startup Professionals Musings
AUGUST 4, 2017
Not so long ago, every business assumed that the keys to success were the highest quality product, the best value for the buck, and the best customer service. Now all we hear about is providing the best “customer experience.” Exactly what is that customer experience that every modern marketer is talking about, and how do you measure it? A classic article in the Harvard Business Review “ The Truth About Customer Experience ” defines it as your customer’s end-to-end journey with you, not just the
View from Seed
SEPTEMBER 12, 2017
Apparel is currently one of the most fascinating categories within the Everyday Economy. It’s a $1T+ global industry undergoing tectonic shifts. We are currently seeing the most rapid collapse of retail since the Great Recession, due to the internet changing consumer demand and purchasing patterns. In 2017 alone, we’ve seen widespread store closures or bankruptcies from apparel retailers, including: True Religion.
Start Up Roar brings together the best content for start up professionals from the widest variety of industry thought leaders.
deal architect
JUNE 20, 2017
UNIT4 had an analyst day last week. FinancialForce is hosting its user conference this week. I missed both due to other commitments but I see lots of tweets from fellow analysts.
Feld Thoughts
JUNE 13, 2017
Today Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) announced their support for Global EIR , a cause for which I care deeply. As you may know, over breakfast in 2015 Jeff Bussgang and I launched Global EIR with the hope of advancing the startup visa effort on a local and state level after it stalled in Congress. Since then, Global EIR has grown to 13 university programs across the country, helping 42 international founders start companies.
Steve Blank
APRIL 5, 2017
I was having coffee with the CEO of a new startup, listening to her puzzle through how to communicate to potential customers. She was an academic on leave from Stanford now selling SAAS software to large companies, but was being inundated with marketing communications advice. “My engineers say our website is old school, and we need to be on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, my VP of Sales says we’re wasting our marketing dollars not targeting the right people and my board keeps giving me their op
Steve Blank
OCTOBER 24, 2017
A version of this article is in the Harvard Business Review. Uber , Zenefits , Tanium , Lending Club CEOs of companies with billion dollar market caps have been in the news – and not in a good way. This seems to be occurring more and more. Why do these founders get to stay around? Because the balance of power has dramatically shifted from investors to founders.
Both Sides of the Table
APRIL 20, 2017
Just over a year ago I wrote about how MakeSpace had raised $17.5 million in capital to build out its operations in 4 cities: New York City , Los Angeles , Chicago and Washington D.C. I pointed out that the storage market in the US alone is ~$30 billion / year and there is no dominant provider — the largest player has < 10% market share. If you have a storage need in one of these cities please consider checking out MakeSpace.
Steve Blank
NOVEMBER 1, 2017
This article first appeared on the Harvard Business Review blog. Jeff Immelt ran GE for 16 years. He radically transformed the company from a classic conglomerate that did everything to one that focused on its core industrial businesses. He sold off slower-growth, low-tech, and nonindustrial businesses — financial services, media, entertainment, plastics, and appliances.
Steve Blank
MARCH 15, 2017
If you don’t know where you’re going, how will you know when you get there? I was having a second coffee with an ex student, now the head of a marketing inside a rapidly growing startup. His company had marched through customer discovery, learning about the customer problem, validated solutions and was now scaling sales and marketing. All good news.
Steve Blank
SEPTEMBER 14, 2017
A shorter version of this post first appeared on the HBR blog. — I just watched a very smart company try to manage innovation by hiring a global consulting firm to offload engineering from “distractions.” They accomplished their goal, but at a huge, unanticipated cost: the processes and committees they designed ended up strangling innovation. There’s a much better way.
A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks
MARCH 21, 2017
Large companies don’t acquire small companies for their financials. Revenue multiples, profit multiples, premium over the previous financing — these are metrics used by sellers to help determine a minimum acceptable price. That’s the price that “pays for” enough foreseeable upside that it’s not worth rolling the dice against future troubles or the unlikelihood of an exit.
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?”. Here’s one reason why: Startups can do anything.
Both Sides of the Table
APRIL 23, 2017
When you run a startup you’re always on borrowed time. You have cash in the bank, a monthly burn rate and a “cash out” date that few in the company truly comprehend. I’ve never met a founder who wasn’t acutely aware of his or her ticking time bomb and the sense that failure and humiliation is a real possibility. It’s why so few can really start a business from scratch.
A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks
NOVEMBER 7, 2017
We’re tired of hearing how small software companies usually fail. The data show that the two most common causes are: (1) Product isn’t useful to enough people, and (2) Problems with the team. But what about the companies that die even though they did sell some copies of software, and where the early team isn’t dysfunctional? I don’t have data for that cohort (tell me if you do!
YoungUpstarts
FEBRUARY 12, 2017
by Andriy Skoropad, co-founder & CEO at Perfectial. You know PayPal, have heard of Bitcoin and, probably, even stumbled upon the term FinTech a few times. But have you a clear understanding of what exactly does this word stand for? Some claim that all possible interactions of finance and technology, which I guess includes credit cards – the 1950’s invention, are FinTech.
Steve Blank
JUNE 14, 2017
Automobile manufacturers shipped 88 million cars in 2016. Tesla shipped 76,000. Yet Wall Street values Tesla higher than any other U.S. car manufacturer. What explains this more than 1,000 to 1 discrepancy in valuation? The future. — Too many people compare Tesla to what already exists and that’s a mistake. Tesla is not another car company. At the turn of the 20 th century most people compared existing buggy and carriage manufacturers to the new automobile companies.
A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks
OCTOBER 4, 2017
Idealistic founders believe they will break the mold when they scale, and not turn into a “typical big company.” By which they mean: Without stupid rules that assume employees are dumb or evil, without everything taking ten times longer than it should, without wall-to-wall meetings, without resorting to hiring anything less than the top 1% of the talent pool, and so on.
YoungUpstarts
SEPTEMBER 14, 2017
by Sean Gordon, CEO of Hirenami . Employee training is usually associated with new hires. However, even the most seasoned employees can benefit from training. Many companies are seeing the value of training veteran employees and for good reasons. Sometimes a company has to change directions or how they sell their products. Other times company leaders notice a drop in productivity or accuracy or need employees to become more efficient in order to remain competitive.
YoungUpstarts
MAY 29, 2017
by Quan Heng Lim, Cyber-Operations Consultant at Horangi. “The Lean Startup.”. “Fail Fast, Pivot.”. “Agile Methodology.”. The trend today is for teams and projects to be flexible, adaptable, continuously reassessed and developed to ensure that products and/or companies fit market demand. In the chase to produce the best minimum viable product or to push out the next killer feature, security is often given the backseat.
YoungUpstarts
JULY 25, 2017
by Robbie Kellman Baxter, author of “ The Membership Economy: Find Your Super Users, Master the Forever Transaction, and Build Recurring Revenue “ In recent years, the Membership Economy has been disrupting the old methods of doing business in a major way. Essentially, companies focus on long-term relationships rather than short-term profits, and customers respond with “forever transactions.” It’s all part of a major paradigm shift in which many businesses are rethi
YoungUpstarts
MAY 11, 2017
by Ana Grasic , cofounder of WeGrowth. Starting your own business takes a lot of courage and determination, but it can also be very rewarding. That’s why the majority of small business owners will tell you that they would do it all over again, even though it is hard work. Being your own boss has its ups and downs, just like any other part of your life, really.
Steve Blank
OCTOBER 17, 2017
“…it takes all the running you can do to keep in the same place. ”. The Red Queen Alice in Wonderland. Innovation, disruption, accelerators, have all become urgent buzzwords in the Department of Defense and Intelligence community. They are a reaction to the “red queen problem” but aren’t actually solving the problem. Here’s why. In the 20th century our nation faced a single adversary – the Soviet Union.
YoungUpstarts
SEPTEMBER 12, 2017
by Vidhatanand Sharma, Chief Engagement Officer at OpenSense Labs. The internet is rife with opinionated and polarised content over the ‘Best CMS’ of today’s times. In today’s world what drives the demand of the market are the complexity of technologies. These complexities poses new challenges for Drupal as well. Choosing the right technology is confusing and an equally important task.
YoungUpstarts
JUNE 5, 2017
by Brian Zeng, owner of Ponbee.com. “We spend as much as half our days in meetings.” – ‘ State of Modern Meeting ’ by Blue Jeans Network. It is therefore essential for business owners to think of ways to make meetings more productive and reduce the time spent in the conference rooms. This will not only ensure higher productivity and better efficiency within the organization, but the employees will be better engaged.
YoungUpstarts
NOVEMBER 15, 2017
by Celina Kirchner, full-stack attorney at Michelman & Robinson, LLP. Yep, you read that title right. Insurance is the next big industry due for a disruption. And with that I know just what your thinking: insurance = SNORE. But wait, before letting your eyes glaze over or clicking out of here entirely, give me just two minutes of your time to explain – because the opportunity is big and the technology is really cool.
Startup Professionals Musings
DECEMBER 27, 2017
I started out in business as a techy geek, so I understand why technologists starting a new venture spend so much effort getting the product just right. Yet I’ve learned over time that building the business is all about having the right team members. Thus I’m frustrated when I see founders pushing off recruiting, or jumping to quick and cheap solutions, like Craigslist and free job sites.
Startup Professionals Musings
SEPTEMBER 11, 2017
In the old days, every entrepreneur dreamed of easily taking their startup public, and making it big. Today the rate of startups going public (IPO – Initial Public Offering) is up from the dead zone, but is still half the rate of 15 years ago. Smart entrepreneurs are just now starting to look at this option again, due to its unpredictability and the challenges of running a public company.
Both Sides of the Table
AUGUST 14, 2017
There’s a lot of mystique about what happens at board meetings and a lot of imagined board-room drama. I read commentary or Twitter or blogs and realize that there are also strongly held convictions that there are these evil VCs who do terrible things to mostly altruistic founders. The image of boards and of investors vs. founder conflicts has been so at odds with my experiences on dozens of boards over the past 20 years that I thought it was worth sharing what I actually see.
Both Sides of the Table
FEBRUARY 16, 2017
Every tech or major news journal in the country is preparing to write their Snap, Inc (creators of Snapchat, Spectacles, etc) stories and many of them seem to want a “How does it feel to have missed this investment story.” I won’t speak to most of them due to time and also due to the fact that I simply am not the story and don’t want to pretend like I am.
Both Sides of the Table
AUGUST 15, 2017
Many board meetings are bored meetings. Management teams whisk through slides trying to get through a presentation to share how great things are going and they are eager to get through the meeting so they can get back to their real jobs. This is a shame since the value that the right board could add is immense if you select the right board members and manage them effectively.
YoungUpstarts
APRIL 25, 2017
by Ross Kimbarovsky, founder of crowdSPRING. Many people confuse leadership and management. They are not the same. As you build and lead your teams, how can you ensure that you don’t suck as a leader? During my career, I’ve worked with a few remarkable leaders and managers. I’ve also worked with many who were average or even worse, mostly ineffective.
YoungUpstarts
OCTOBER 24, 2017
by Mark L. Zyla, managing director of Acuitas, Inc., and Jessica Wood, a principal at Bodker, Ramsey, Andrews, Winograd & Wildstein, P.C. So, you’re about to start a closely held business with your best friend (or a few friends). Congratulations! Before you get started, though, think pragmatically on the front end to avoid headaches at the back end.
Expert insights. Personalized for you.
329 
Let's personalize your content