Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 11, 2021

Traction is evidence that your product or service has started that “hockey- stick” adoption rate which implies a large market, a valid business model, and sustainable growth. A graph that shows a hockey-stick “up and to the right” curve with at least three data points per key indicator is a great visual assist.

Hockey Stick 304

Hockey Stick Early Stage Metrics Acquisition 304

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 14, 2016

Your goal is that magical breakeven point and hockey-stick profit-growth curve. Deferred payments start with stretching the payables period but, more importantly, include giving employee equity in lieu of a higher salaries and negotiating vendor deferred payments out of future revenues. Use social media for early marketing.

Burn Rate 120

Burn Rate Hockey Stick Startup Salary 120

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 17, 2022

Every entrepreneur thinks he can relax a bit after his business model is proven, funding is in place, and revenues are scaling as projected up that hockey-stick curve. Unfortunately, the mainstream customers who can really drive revenue care more about price. This S-Curve, with no correction, can quickly lead to disaster.

Hockey Stick 265

Hockey Stick Guerilla Acquisition Startup 265

Up and Running

SEPTEMBER 8, 2014

Present a “hockey-stick” financial growth model without sharing your numbers behind your numbers (a.k.a. If I had a nickel for every pitch I saw where the financial projections grow in the shape of a hockey stick, I could have funded my last startup! Are you pitching “hockey-stick” financial growth?

Hockey Stick 114

Hockey Stick Technical Review Due Diligence Seattle 114

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 18, 2020

Most new teams are geographically dispersed these days anyway, so paying rent for an office should be differed to later stages when revenue is plentiful. Favor profitability over revenue and user growth. Investors have spread the word that you can’t get “hockey-stick” growth without a large cash infusion.

Hockey Stick 423

Hockey Stick Bootstrapping Sweat Equity Intellectual Property 423

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 14, 2023

Simply stated, it means that your business has the potential to multiply revenue with minimal incremental cost. Organic growth (reinvesting profits only) will not allow you to build the “hockey stick” growth curve desired by premium buyers at exit, or financial analysts positioning you for public stock sale.

Hockey Stick 339

Hockey Stick Intellectual Property Non-Compete Business Model 339

Up and Running

MARCH 14, 2018

Your revenue or business model. Show what you’re projecting in revenue (per product) over the next three to five years. If your financial chart shows “hockey-stick growth,” be sure to explain what happens to cause those inflection points. Investors tend to care about this slide the most. How will you make money ?

Hockey Stick 164

Hockey Stick Exit Strategy Technical Review Angel Investor 164

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 27, 2015

Big-bang hard launches make sense for large enterprises like Apple or Microsoft, who are building on existing revenue streams and have the resources for lavish events, Superbowl ads and large inventory buildups. Small real revenue today is better than large later projections.

Hockey Stick 120

Hockey Stick Startup Stealth Agile 120

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 19, 2020

Simply stated, it means that your business has the potential to multiply revenue with minimal incremental cost. Organic growth (reinvesting profits only) will not allow you to build the “hockey stick” growth curve desired by premium buyers at exit, or financial analysts positioning you for public stock sale.

Hockey Stick 386

Hockey Stick Intellectual Property Startup Non-Compete 386

Berkonomics

NOVEMBER 7, 2024

If you are a going business with a track record of revenues, then the importance of accurate current financial statements cannot be overstated. (If If there is no record of revenues, see the “The Berkus Method” available with any search query for valuing the business before revenues.) Careful about “hockey stick” forecasts.

Hockey Stick 62

Hockey Stick Liquidity Event Valuation Balance Sheet 62

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 13, 2012

By then, I had become a venture capitalist at Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance and found myself talking to a lot of entrepreneurs who were proclaiming their great technology yet were struggling with little revenue, and claiming they were “crossing the chasm”. Maysee now enjoys hockey stick revenue growth.

Japan 305

Japan Customer Development Developer Customer 305

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 11, 2014

“Growth hacking perpetuates this myth that you can magically achieve hockey-stick growth by using short-term “hacks.” “ I have always encouraged teams to think about growth as daily blocking-and-tackling rather than a dark art. I laughed as I did at much of his rant. He even used some terminology near and dear to my heart.

Technical Review 384

Technical Review Hockey Stick SEM Channel 384

David Teten

JANUARY 19, 2021

More and more startups are pursuing Revenue-Based VCs , but “RBI” doesn’t fit everyone. Flexible VC 101: Equity Meets Revenue Share. By tying payments to actual revenues, founders and investors remain aligned around the company’s real-time performance, good or bad. Flexible VC: Revenue -based. Of the Inc.

Cofounder 78

Cofounder Technical Review Equity Dividend 78

Small Business Force

SEPTEMBER 7, 2013

Virtually, every business plan that's ever been presented to the investor community, invariably, has that fabled "hockey stick growth" period where suddenly revenue jumps exponentially. So, while "hockey stick growth" might be something you're chasing, it may not be something you can manage. is a journey.

Hockey Stick 42

Hockey Stick Bandwidth Entrepreneur Venture Capital 42

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 16, 2010

You would think that would be enough to get wrong, but entrepreneurs and investors compound this problem by assuming that all startups grow and scale by executing the Revenue Plan. All discussion focused on “missing the revenue plan.”. Revenue Plan Needs to Match Market Type. They don’t. What went wrong?

Revenue 232

Revenue Balance Sheet Hockey Stick Burn Rate 232

YoungUpstarts

SEPTEMBER 23, 2019

In the accounting business, your revenue chart basically looks like a hockey stick,” says Ernie Mayhorn, owner of Capital Tax Solutions in Carson City, Nev., To even out the “hockey stick” revenue cycles, Ernie finds money-making opportunities for slow periods. Add new services to stay busy all year. “In

Hockey Stick 113

Hockey Stick Small Business Private Equity Denver 113

Up and Running

JANUARY 2, 2013

Your Revenue Model : Investors tend to care about this slide the most. Your Financial Projections : Show what you’re projecting in revenue (per product) over the next three to five years. If your financial chart shows “hockey-stick growth,” be sure to explain what happens to cause those inflection points.

Hockey Stick 164

Hockey Stick Exit Strategy Technical Review Due Diligence 164

David Teten

AUGUST 20, 2019

I’ve been a traditional equity VC for 8 years, and I’m now researching Revenue-Based Investing and other new approaches to VC. The question I’m asking myself: should a new VC fund use Revenue-Based Investing, traditional equity VC, or possibly both (likely from two separate pools of capital)?

Revenue 60

Revenue SBIC Cofounder Venture Capital 60

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 15, 2010

Usually, they are delivering only a fraction of the revenue they promised. For a little while, the team can resort to the last defense of entrepreneurs in trouble: the promised hockey-stick. One thing that is often overlooked about the hockey-stick growth shape: its most distinctive characteristic is the long, flat part.

Hockey Stick 105

Hockey Stick San Francisco Entrepreneur Lean 105

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 26, 2013

Traction is evidence that your product or service has started that “hockey- stick” adoption rate which implies a large market, a valid business model, and sustainable growth. A graph that shows a hockey-stick “up and to the right” curve with at least three data points per key indicator is a great visual assist.

Hockey Stick 266

Hockey Stick Early Stage Metrics Acquisition 266

The Equity Kicker

MAY 3, 2016

As you can see from the chart below Amazon has delivered on the proverbial hockey stick that startups put in their business plans, and they’ve done it at serious scale. One of his mantras has been to re-invest profits to drive growth and the growth he has achieved is remarkable for it’s consistency over the last ten years.

Hockey Stick 60

Hockey Stick Revenue Stock Business Plan 60

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 26, 2014

Every entrepreneur thinks he can relax a bit after his business model is proven, funding is in place, and revenues are scaling as projected up that hockey-stick curve. Unfortunately, the mainstream customers who can really drive revenue care more about price. This S-Curve, with no correction, can quickly lead to disaster.

Hockey Stick 263

Hockey Stick Guerilla Acquisition Revenue 263

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 3, 2018

Every entrepreneur thinks he can relax a bit after his business model is proven, funding is in place, and revenues are scaling as projected up that hockey-stick curve. Unfortunately, the mainstream customers who can really drive revenue care more about price. This S-Curve, with no correction, can quickly lead to disaster.

Hockey Stick 130

Hockey Stick Guerilla Acquisition Revenue 130

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. More on that in a moment.

Customer 167

Customer San Francisco Lean Hockey Stick 167

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 7, 2013

Simply stated, it means that your business has the potential to multiply revenue with minimal incremental cost. Organic growth (reinvesting profits only) will not allow you to build the “hockey stick” growth curve desired by premium buyers at exit, or financial analysts positioning you for public stock sale.

Hockey Stick 278

Hockey Stick Intellectual Property Startup Non-Compete 278

Up and Running

APRIL 24, 2014

So if your numbers are here, going up in a hockey stick—and let’s just say this is your hockey stick—and your marketing expenses go up, and how do I do? Yeah, it would be more like that, so that the expenses go up before the revenue and generates some revenue, and there is a deficit spend for a while.

Forecast 85

Forecast Hockey Stick Sales Business Plan 85

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 6, 2016

Most new teams are geographically dispersed these days anyway, so paying rent for an office should be differed to later stages when revenue is plentiful. Favor profitability over revenue and user growth. Investors have spread the word that you can’t get “hockey-stick” growth without a large cash infusion.

Bootstrapping 120

Bootstrapping Hockey Stick Sweat Equity Intellectual Property 120

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 1, 2015

Every entrepreneur thinks he can relax a bit after his business model is proven, funding is in place, and revenues are scaling as projected up that hockey-stick curve. Unfortunately, the mainstream customers who can really drive revenue care more about price. This S-Curve, with no correction, can quickly lead to disaster.

Hockey Stick 120

Hockey Stick Guerilla Startup Acquisition 120

Gust

NOVEMBER 15, 2012

And there are others that people think are teeny little wannabes with a dozen or so employees…that have $25 million in highly profitable revenues with hockey stick growth and zero debt!

Seed Stage 131

Seed Stage Hockey Stick Cap Table Liquidation Preference 131

SoCal CTO

MAY 19, 2010

For example, TCA’s evaluation criteria first bullet is: A market opportunity sufficiently large to create a business that can grow to at least $50 million in annual revenues. Remember my day job, I'm past Chairman of the Tech Coast Angels and I see a lot of pitches with revenue forecasts. These are so detached from reality.

Hockey Stick 205

Hockey Stick NPV IRR Valuation 205

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 14, 2016

Simply stated, it means that your business has the potential to multiply revenue with minimal incremental cost. Organic growth (reinvesting profits only) will not allow you to build the “hockey stick” growth curve desired by premium buyers at exit, or financial analysts positioning you for public stock sale.

Hockey Stick 120

Hockey Stick Intellectual Property Non-Compete Business Model 120

Berkonomics

MARCH 21, 2019

If you are a going business with a track record of revenues, then the importance of accurate current financial statements cannot be overstated. If there is no record of revenues, see the “The Berkus Method” available with any search query for valuing the business before revenues. Careful about “hockey stick” forecasts.

Hockey Stick 63

Hockey Stick Liquidity Event Valuation Balance Sheet 63

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 11, 2015

Simply stated, it means that your business has the potential to multiply revenue with minimal incremental cost. Organic growth (reinvesting profits only) will not allow you to build the “hockey stick” growth curve desired by premium buyers at exit, or financial analysts positioning you for public stock sale.

Hockey Stick 120

Hockey Stick Intellectual Property Non-Compete Business Model 120

Ben's Blog

JULY 20, 2011

When I ran Opsware, we had the non-linear quarter problem also known affectionately as the hockey stick. The hockey stick refers to the shape of the revenue graph over the course of a quarter. Our hockey stick was so bad that one quarter, we booked 90% of our new bookings on the last day of the quarter.

Hockey Stick 74

Hockey Stick Management Employee Retention 74

Up and Running

AUGUST 21, 2014

The other thing that they’re going to ask you is average revenue per account or per user or per customer. You need to understand how much money is brought in by each individual account or user when looking at the overall revenue. It’s what’s going to make you most attractive to an investor. If we increase our-.

Metrics 84

Metrics Startup Churn Rate Forecast 84

Steve Blank

JANUARY 4, 2010

Now with customers and early revenue, it was out raising its first round of venture money. Not only did their sales curve look like a textbook case of a VC-friendly hockey stick, but their Lessons Learned funding presentation was an eye-opener.). For its first year IMVU had funded itself with money from friends and family.

Hockey Stick 302

Hockey Stick Venture Capital Startup Cofounder 302

Up and Running

JUNE 26, 2013

If only we would: “Make feature X free” “Stop focussing on revenue, someone else will pay the bills” “Grow $VANITY_METRIC so you can show a hockey stick at demo day and look good” “Cut out that pesky client that generates 80% of your revenue, they’re a distraction on the road to executing $OUR_BIG_VISION” (..)

Hockey Stick 72

Hockey Stick Entrepreneur Startup Bootstrapping 72