Steve Blank

DECEMBER 11, 2020

We just held our seventeenth session of our new national security class Technology, Innovation and Modern War. Joe Felter , Raj Shah and I designed a class to examine the new military systems, operational concepts and doctrines that will emerge from 21st century technologies – Space, Cyber, AI & Machine Learning and Autonomy.

Technical Review 369

Technical Review Taiwan Technology Design 369

ConversionXL

JULY 22, 2021

The technical elements of your website’s SEO are crucial to search performance. In this article, you’ll learn how to conduct a technical SEO audit to find and fix issues in your website’s structure. Using a technical SEO audit to improve your SEO performance. Think of a technical SEO audit as a website health check.

Technical Review 162

Technical Review SEO Software Review XML 162

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 14, 2022

In his classic book, “ The Leadership Capital Index ,” Dave Ulrich, a best-selling author, business consultant, and business school professor, provides some real insights and metrics on what makes up the elements of goodwill in the minds of top valuation experts. I have paraphrased his key points here as follows: Leader personal impact.

Technical Review 323

Technical Review Due Diligence Valuation Leadership 323

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 23, 2021

For example, I commonly see metrics to keep track of revenue per employee, overtime, and absenteeism, but I don’t often see measures of overall customer satisfaction with individual employees. Incentives should be a combination of metrics and recognition to highlight results. Provide training, tools, and required decision authority.

Customer 369

Customer Technical Review Metrics Employee 369

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 27, 2021

Most of the entrepreneurs I meet as an investor and advisor have no shortage of right-brain thinking, showing vision and creativity, but often don’t realize that their potential is being limited by a balancing focus on results, metrics, and customer specifics. Every balanced leader does marketing early.

Technical Review 332

Technical Review Metrics Leadership Technology 332

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 15, 2020

In his classic book, “ The Leadership Capital Index ,” Dave Ulrich, a best-selling author, business consultant, and business school professor, provides some real insights and metrics on what makes up the elements of goodwill in the minds of top valuation experts. I have paraphrased his key points here as follows: Leader personal impact.

Valuation 311

Valuation Technical Review Due Diligence Leadership 311

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 28, 2021

If you are the hot-shot technical innovator that invented your solution, make sure you have an equally adept business and marketing expert to complement your skills. “If Bill Gates was the technical genius, but Steve Ballmer, from Procter & Gamble, ran the business side of the equation.

Technical Review 329

Technical Review Merger Software Review Acquisition 329

TechEmpower

JULY 24, 2023

At TechEmpower, we frequently talk to startup founders, CEOs, product leaders, and other innovators about their next big tech initiative. After all, that’s what tech innovation is all about. What are your key Startup Metrics ? Do you have a custom algorithm or other technology? Is anyone working with you on this?

Developer 520

Developer Technical Review Fractional CTO CTO Hire 520

Steve Blank

JANUARY 17, 2023

This post previously appeared in the Harvard Business Review. But these look for founders who have a technical or business model insight and a team. Accelerators provide these teams with technical and business expertise and connect them to a network of other founders and advisors. Carlos stirred his coffee.

Technical Cofounder 368

Technical Cofounder Intellectual Property Technical Review Incubator 368

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 13, 2019

Unit costs are important, but don’t forget about the cash flow hit, extra storage costs, and the probability of obsolete inventory due to necessary updates or pivots. It’s no secret that some people are more productive than others, due to skills, training, or commitment. Use multiple small orders at first.

Technical Review 306

Technical Review Metrics Social Media Channel 306

Steve Blank

AUGUST 21, 2013

In the real world a big pivot in life sciences far down the road of development is a very bad sign due to huge sunk costs. Other pivots involved moving from a platform technology to become a product supplier, moving from a therapeutic drug to a diagnostic or moving from a device that required a PMA to one that required a 510(k).

SBIR 321

SBIR Technical Review Lean Startup 321

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 23, 2012

I have been close to the tech & startup sectors for more than 20 years and I can’t think of a period in which I felt more optimistic about the innovation and value creation I see in front of us. This world of local meets retail meets digital advertising portends to technology disruption and with it VC opportunities.

Venture Capital 347

Venture Capital Technical Review LP Mobile 347

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 11, 2022

And then in the late 90’s money crept in, swept in to town by public markets, instant wealth and an absurd sky-rocketing of valuations based on no reasonable metrics. Almost no financings, many VCs and tech startups cratered for the second time in less than a decade following the dot com bursting.

Valuation 466

Valuation San Francisco Ratchet Liquidation Preference 466

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 7, 2020

In my experience, even in startups, longer-term strategy often gets pushed off the agenda due to current challenges. It’s your job as a leader to be the model high performer, quantify the team view with metrics, and expand awareness to the best outside competition and new tools. Connect operations today with long-term goals.

Technical Review 312

Technical Review Due Diligence Merger Social Media 312

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 30, 2022

As a potential investor, I always think of the high rate of failure of disruptive technologies, due to the longer learning curve of customers, infrastructure change consistently required, and higher marketing costs. Define realistic metrics to keep track of progress. You need metrics to incentivize the right team behaviors.

Technical Review 252

Technical Review Silicon Valley Software Review Metrics 252

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 13, 2022

On the other hand, if you are into solar technologies, there is probably an advantage to being in Arizona or a similar location. Maxwell Wessel, in a classic article in the Harvard Business Review on this subject, points out the exception successes of Zappos in Las Vegas, Sendgrid’s massive growth in Colorado, and RightNow’s $1.5

Las Vegas 309

Las Vegas Silicon Valley Arizona Montana 309

Steve Blank

JANUARY 22, 2014

Dino Vendetti a VC at Bay Partners, moved up to Bend, Oregon on a mission to engineer Bend into a regional technology cluster. Today with every city, state and country trying to build out a technology cluster, following Dino’s progress can provide others with a roadmap of what’s worked and what has not. Tech investing is risky.

Early Stage 295

Early Stage Silicon Valley Oregon Technical Review 295

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 22, 2023

Even here, Elon Musk faced this issue with Tesla, needing a support ecosystem as well as new technology. With a singular focus on building unicorns, very rapid growth has been a key metric. Facebook’s market value tumbled many billions in 2018 due to users’ decreased confidence in the platform.

Global 345

Global Silicon Valley Marketing Indonesia 345

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 24, 2017

A version of this article is in the Harvard Business Review. Technology cycles have become a treadmill, and for startups to survive they need to be on a continuous innovation cycle. 20th Century Tech Liquidity = Initial Public Offering. Technology Cycles Measured in Years. This seems to be occurring more and more.

Founder 281

Founder Technical Review CTO Hire IPO 281

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 26, 2016

There has been a lot of public debate over the past several weeks about whether it’s a good thing to be “gross margin positive” or not and commentary always reminds me that some people at startups don’t quite understand financial metrics or even how to think about which ones are healthy. I’m guessing much of this was 101 to many readers.

Metrics 150

Metrics Cost Acquisition Startup 150

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 24, 2020

For example, if your idea is so new and different that it implies real social or technological change is necessary before widespread acceptance, investors will define your market as nascent or unproven, and be very reluctant to fund you, no matter how convincing your projections may be.

Artificial Inteligence 436

Artificial Inteligence Marketing Valuation Startup 436

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 6, 2021

Words alone, like “improved efficiency”, “paradigm shift,” and “breakthrough technology” won’t convince people to follow you. For example, early adopters may be easily sold, but new technology product success really hinges on adoption by certain demographics, perhaps more influenced by celebrities or mommy bloggers.

Metrics 387

Metrics Technical Review Leadership Framework 387

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 4, 2013

But when you create a product for a large segment of users who previously couldn’t afford products due to price or complexity and if that product can work at “Internet scale” you have the chance to do something truly amazing. The team has stated it and has built metrics around key goals for future success.

Technical Review 401

Technical Review Startup Business Model Non-Compete 401

ReadWriteStart

OCTOBER 20, 2023

With so many startups facing a tough journey right from their inception, the pressing question becomes: How does one successfully navigate the tech industry? The key lies in having a groundbreaking idea and understanding the broader tech landscape and the forces shaping it. Focus on Customer Satisfaction Word of mouth travels fast.

Technical Review 137

Technical Review Startup Silicon Valley Agile 137

View from Seed

MARCH 29, 2016

This desperate need for employees often leads to an equally desperate, ad-hoc approach to recruiting without any relevant recruiting metrics being tracked. The resume-to-interview metric is simply a measurement of how many resumes startups review for each person interviewed. Applicant source quality: Resumes-to-interviews.

Metrics 120

Metrics Founder CTO Hire Technical Review 120

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. So it makes me laugh to this day when I talk with a journalist or potential investor in the company and they ask flippantly, “How is MakeSpace a technology company?”

Operations 286

Operations New York City Technical Review Startup 286

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 1, 2020

Even here, Elon Musk faced this issue with Tesla, needing a support ecosystem as well as new technology. With a singular focus on building unicorns, very rapid growth has been a key metric. Facebook’s market value tumbled many billions in 2018 due to users’ decreased confidence in the platform.

Silicon Valley 312

Silicon Valley Indonesia Venture Capital Global 312

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 15, 2019

This article previously appeared in the Harvard Business Review. Disruption today is more than just changes in technology, or channel, or competitors – it’s all of them, all at once. Metrics are used to manage process rather than creation of new capabilities, outcomes and speed to deployment. are obstacles for innovation.

Government 322

Government Technical Review Acquisition Metrics 322

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 27, 2011

Exec Summary: Most companies (98+%) in the world (even tech startups) should be very profit focused. If you spent the 3 years perfecting some hugely differentiated technology IP that may also be different. Fast early growth in a market is often eroded when competition gets fierce and prices are forced down due to competition.

Startup 418

Startup Revenue Technical Review Flash 418

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 16, 2013

It is what is commonly referred to as “vanity metrics” as in, “Look at how many more followers I got us! But until recently we had not made these tools available to non-technical people – namely marketers who want to control their campaigns without necessarily wanting to call in the IT team to implement tools.

Technical Review 307

Technical Review Marketing SEM Campaign 307

VC Cafe

SEPTEMBER 2, 2022

The time spent on reviewing decks went down compared to 2021. Going back to the Docsend research, which includes a survey of 300 founders and VCs in addition to their anonymous data collection on thousands of decks shared and reviewed, they found the top components/slides on successful pre-seed decks. Weeks to launch? Biggest obstacle?

Technical Review 166

Technical Review Early Stage Cofounder Portfolio 166

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 7, 2013

On the other hand, if you are into solar technologies, there is probably an advantage to being in Phoenix or a similar location. Maxwell Wessel, in a recent article in the Harvard Business Review on this subject, points out the exception successes of Zappos in Las Vegas, Sendgrid’s massive growth in Colorado, and RightNow’s $1.5

Silicon Valley 256

Silicon Valley Las Vegas Phoenix Montana 256

The Startup Magazine

OCTOBER 18, 2024

Focusing on specific metrics can help you gain insights into the stability, growth potential, and security of DeFi platforms. This metric shows its popularity and usage. This metric divides a protocol’s market cap by its TVL, indicating whether its market price aligns with its actual liquidity.

Metrics 144

Metrics Valuation API Distribution 144

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 3, 2016

Sets goals and milestones, with metrics to track progress. They define metrics for each goal, and diligently track themselves against these metrics. I still hear too much focus on disruptive technologies, making more money, and working less. Tie executive titles and organizations to business roles.

Entrepreneur 266

Entrepreneur Technical Review Metrics Restful 266

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 9, 2019

On the other hand, if you are into solar technologies, there is probably an advantage to being in Arizona or a similar location. Maxwell Wessel, in a classic article in the Harvard Business Review on this subject, points out the exception successes of Zappos in Las Vegas, Sendgrid’s massive growth in Colorado, and RightNow’s $1.5

Las Vegas 243

Las Vegas Silicon Valley Arizona Montana 243

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 8, 2020

As a long-time mentor to entrepreneurs, here is my collection of smart risks that investors and I look for in new startups: Focus on a tough customer problem rather than a fun technology. Investors hate technology solutions looking for a problem, due to the high risk of no customers. Customers like leaders, not followers.

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Management Entrepreneur Forecast Stock Options 322

VC Cafe

MARCH 1, 2024

In addition, founders thinking about starting a company can be overwhelmed by choice, as there are so many problems to tackle with technology, but it could be comforting to know that investors are interested in those areas in the first place.

Artificial Inteligence 176

Artificial Inteligence Technical Review Software Review Generative AI 176