Steve Blank
APRIL 10, 2019
A version of this article first appeared in the Harvard Business Review. VC’s have just changed the ~50-year old social contract with startup employees. In doing so they may have removed one of the key incentives that made startups different from working in a large company. For most startup employee’s startup stock options are now a bad deal. Here’s why.
View from Seed
MAY 14, 2019
A number of blog posts recently have mentioned this, but we seem to be experiencing a rise in repeat founders starting new businesses and raising seed capital. We’re also seeing a wave of folks who were not founders, but were star players among the first 25 folks at a unicorn company also starting new companies. As a founder with that kind of experience, you are likely to find that a lot of the typical advice for startups on the internet isn’t quite applicable.
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deal architect
MAY 2, 2019
I find Frank Scavo a great sounding board. He has a way of simplifying things and pushing back when things are buzzword-y. I have quoted him in several books. He has introduced me to case studies I have profiled in.
YoungUpstarts
AUGUST 20, 2019
by Chris Makara , founder of Bulkly. When you’re running a startup, pennies aren’t the only thing you’re pinching. You’re squeezing every last minute out of your day to “get it all done”, to tackle the to-do list that seems to always be growing. But effective social media marketing takes planning, scheduling, monitoring, engaging, liking…all of which take up more of the time you don’t have to spare.
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
SEPTEMBER 4, 2019
It really is possible for an introvert to succeed as an entrepreneur, even though you can’t expect to start and build a business alone. You need to build business relationships with partners, team members, investors, and of course customers. In fact, all you need to do is follow the model of some famous self-proclaimed introverts , including Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and Bill Gates.
Hearpreneur
AUGUST 9, 2019
Each business has a story. No matter if the business is a Goliath like Wal-Mart, or a local business owned by a couple or family, the business has roots in an idea. For each business owner, the story of their journey can range from monetary needs or the passion for a unique project. Each story is different though the reasons may be the same. No matter the tale, the background behind each and every business is what fuels each and brand.
Start Up Roar brings together the best content for start up professionals from the widest variety of industry thought leaders.
ReadWriteStart
JANUARY 18, 2019
Creating a high-quality product is just one part of building a profitable business. The reality is that a myopic focus on product development can ultimately prevent you from achieving your business goals. Unfortunately, this notion is one that many growing companies don’t understand until it’s too late. For most companies — and all early-stage startups […].
ConversionXL
OCTOBER 15, 2019
If you’ve ever tried to build an attribution model that wasn’t position-based (i.e. last click, first click, linear, etc.), you might have felt overwhelmed. But customer paths are non-linear and pretty complicated— sooo many things influence conversions. . Most businesses have a lot of data about customer behavior: the devices they use to purchase, ads, competitors’ pricing, keywords, etc.
ConversionXL
JUNE 5, 2019
Usability testing is one of the most effective ways to uncover issues that users have on your website or app. It works whether you’re a behemoth with millions of users or a startup that’s just left the proverbial garage. The problem is that usability testing takes time—time to recruit participants, moderate and watch videos, and compile results. Tools can help with the analysis component, but: Tools won’t be useful if you don’t have a good methodology; Few tools help you go from data (videos) to
YFS Magazine
JANUARY 16, 2019
If you have recently started a new business, here are three powerful ways to stay energized, remain inspired and avoid burnout.
YoungUpstarts
APRIL 9, 2019
We all know that starting a business is hard work, and growing it is even harder. Every step has to be thoroughly thought out, because if you miss even one, it could mean everything. New businesses are started all the time, but only a few of them last beyond five years. Now that the internet has fostered such an accessible and easy way for people to connect and run their own start-ups, competition has skyrocketed.
View from Seed
MAY 9, 2019
Throughout human history, our working environments have gone through several huge shifts. From hunters and gatherers to farmers and traders, from farmers to industry factory workers, and from factory workers to the modern day office employee. Today, we are starting to see the next big shift in our type of work environments. With the click of a button, you can be face to face with someone across the globe and that’s impacting how we work with each other.
View from Seed
NOVEMBER 7, 2019
Like many things in life, the VC/startup ecosystem is one of cycles. Looking back over the last decade it’s remarkable to see how the emphasis has shifted across cycles and what the overarching narrative was. I believe we are in a denouement ( the final part of a play, movie, or narrative in which the strands of the plot are drawn together and matters are explained or resolved ) that will both signal a high water mark for many startups but also create an opportunity for patient, early investors
Both Sides of the Table
FEBRUARY 12, 2019
Seed investments are down by any measure (funds, deals, dollars) over the past 3 years in deals < $1 million AND in deals between $1–5 million. What gives? Over the past month a colleague ( Chang Xu ) and I sifted through data on the venture capital industry (as we do every year) and made a bunch of calls to VCs and LPs to confirm our hypotheses.
ReadWriteStart
JUNE 28, 2019
When it comes to raising money for your startup, there are several ways of doing it. However, out of all startup funding options, the two most popular methods are Loan and Equity. Both types of loans are very different from each other, and sometimes it becomes challenging to choose the right option for your business. […]. The post Business Loan vs Equity Financing: How to Fund Your Startup appeared first on ReadWrite.
Steve Blank
OCTOBER 15, 2019
This article previously appeared in the Harvard Business Review. The type of disruption most companies and government agencies are facing is a once-in-every-few-centuries event. Disruption today is more than just changes in technology, or channel, or competitors – it’s all of them, all at once. And these forces are completely reshaping both commerce and defense.
ReadWriteStart
APRIL 26, 2019
Most tech entrepreneurs get lost in the logistical plans for their businesses. You’re worried about the timetables and deadlines for your developers or how you’re going to stretch your initial capital investment to last a full six months. These are important considerations, especially for AI and IoT startups tinkering with revolutionary new technologies.
Startup Professionals Musings
JANUARY 26, 2019
Until the recession a few years ago, market research indicated that as many as 90 percent of the roughly 20 million American small business owners were motivated more by lifestyle than growth and money. More recently, the desire for extra income has become the key driver in new startups, according to the popular press. It seems that more people are focused on money today.
deal architect
AUGUST 9, 2019
I drove by the Renaissance hotel in Powai on the outskirts of Mumbai in India last month. It brought back memories - I had taken a client there 15 years ago on a due diligence trip as they looked to.
TechEmpower
JULY 9, 2019
Round 18 of the TechEmpower Framework Benchmarks project is now available! When we posted the previous round in late 2018, the project had processed about 3,250 pull requests. Today, with Round 18 just concluded, the project is closing in on 4,000 pull requests. We are repeatedly surprised and delighted by the contributions and interest from the community.
A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks
OCTOBER 8, 2019
I won a fake stock market competition in elementary school. I put all my money in a few penny stocks — where prices are less than a dollar, and because of their small denomination, their value (as a percentage) fluctuates wildly. Some days I had the worst portfolio, other days I had the best. The competition happened to end on an up-day. This was an example of “high risk, high reward.
YoungUpstarts
MARCH 28, 2019
Being a handy-man offers a lot of mobility and freedom. You develop relationships with all your clients and become known in the neighborhood as someone trustworthy. Plus, you know how to fix everything in your own house. This is a huge benefit if you’re trying to do remodeling. No outside costs or discounted costs from co-workers who know parts of the craft that you don’t.
Startup Professionals Musings
DECEMBER 6, 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. I often get asked about the real alternatives to bridge this valley, and there are some good ones I will outline here.
Startup Professionals Musings
DECEMBER 11, 2019
These days, it is almost impossible to find a small business where everything is done at the home location, by full-time employees. We are in the age of outsourcing, by any of many popular names, including subcontracting, freelancing, and virtual assistants. These approaches allow your startup to grow more rapidly, save costs, but costly mistakes can lead to business failure.
Steve Blank
NOVEMBER 12, 2019
This article previously appeared in War On The Rocks. There was a time when much of U.S. academia was engaged in weapon systems research for the Defense Department and intelligence community. Some of the best and brightest wanted to work for defense contractors or corporate research and development labs. And the best startups spun out of Stanford were building components for weapon systems.
Startup Professionals Musings
DECEMBER 13, 2019
When you are starting a new business, every resource is precious, including time, funding, and people. Yet we can all look back, after the fact, and realize that we could have been more memorable. Obviously you can’t go back for a do-over , but you can certainly learn from your mistakes as well as all our successes. Most challenges you have are not unique to your business.
Startup Professionals Musings
JANUARY 7, 2019
Contrary to what you might guess, the highest rate of entrepreneurial growth over the last few years is not Gen-Y upstarts, but Boomers over the age of 50, now called encore entrepreneurs. In fact, according to the latest Index of Startup Activity by the Kauffman Foundation and recent press reports , these Baby Boomers are actually driving a new entrepreneurship boom.
Startup Professionals Musings
APRIL 12, 2019
Image via Flickr by Phil Gyford Starting a new venture still costs real money, even though the entry price has come down dramatically in last few decades. For example, I come from a software background, and back in the early PC days, it could easily cost half a million dollars for a team of professionals to produce a commercial product. Now, with powerful high-level tools and open source software, winning smartphone apps can be built by a good hacker for a few thousand dollars.
Both Sides of the Table
MAY 21, 2019
Managing Your Startup Board?—?A Short Presentation I was invited to do a keynote presentation at the Khosla Ventures CEO Summit this week in Sausalito. It was an amazing gathering of some of the most ambitious early-stage CEO’s looking to make a dent in fields related to healthcare, biology, AI and other transformative fields. It’s encouraging to know that there are still great VC firms like KV that are looking to make these short of big bets on shaping the future.
Steve Blank
SEPTEMBER 17, 2019
This article previously appeared in the Harvard Business Review. AgileFall is an ironic term for program management where you try to be agile and lean, but you keep using waterfall development techniques. It often produces a result that’s like combining a floor wax and dessert topping. I just sat through my a project management meeting where I saw AgileFall happen first-hand.
Startup Professionals Musings
DECEMBER 20, 2019
With the current strong economy I’m seeing a continued resurgence of entrepreneurial spirit, and more startup activity than ever before. I believe the days of the “job work” mentality are thankfully waning, with more people looking to get satisfaction by making the world a better place, rather than just tolerating brain-numbing work to fund enjoyment elsewhere.
Both Sides of the Table
APRIL 18, 2019
The Truth About the Scooter Economy?—?An Insider’s Perspective “Bird Zero” that are custom designed by the company There is a story arc of the electric scooter market that took the world by storm in 2018, was second-guessed late in the year and has quietly re-emerged as a powerful force of growth where few really appreciate the speed and scale of what has happened.
Startup Professionals Musings
NOVEMBER 22, 2019
Most of us have blind spots in our ability to build a business, due to lack of experience, too much ego, over-confidence, or unjustified faith in a subordinate. Only a few of the entrepreneurs I have worked with in a decade of consulting are smart and humble enough to recognize that they don’t know what they don’t know, and have an effective process for shining a light on their blind spots.
Startup Professionals Musings
AUGUST 26, 2019
Starting a new business is fraught with challenges, and none of us has the bandwidth to kill them all. As an advisor to business owners, and an occasional angel investor, my job is to separate the actual challenges from the common misconceptions that distract many promising entrepreneurs while building the leadership team required for your solution, marketing, and finance success.
Startup Professionals Musings
DECEMBER 29, 2019
If you are like most entrepreneurs I know, there just aren’t enough hours in a day to get all your own work done, as well as run the many one-hour meetings each team member seems to demand for decisions and mentoring. I have found it to be more productive and effective to lead with the model that no meetings will take an hour, and may be done in as little as five minutes.
Startup Professionals Musings
AUGUST 19, 2019
One thing we all have to learn in business is how to work with and lead people that are not like you , and don’t think like you. In my experience as a business advisor, that’s probably the biggest hurdle to success encountered by every new business owner. Your biggest challenge may be members of your own family, some of your best customers, or a key business partner or investor.
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