Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 5, 2018

Reading the NY Times article “ Jeffrey Katzenberg Raises $1 Billion for Short-Form Video Venture, ” I realized it was time for a new startup heuristic: the amount of customer discovery and product-market fit you need to find is inversely proportional to the amount and availability of risk capital. ” Fire, Ready, Aim.

Lean 335

Lean Burn Rate Startup IPO 335

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 14, 2009

Over the same 30 years, Venture Capital firms have honed their skills and strategies to match Wall Streets needs to achieve liquidity for their portfolio companies. One of the biggest mistakes entrepreneurs make is misunderstanding the role of venture capital investors. What Do VC’s Do?

Silicon Valley 235

Silicon Valley IPO Technical Review Venture Capital 235

Reid Hoffman

MAY 16, 2020

The biggest happened much earlier in my career, in 1995.”. I’m sure it sounds unbelievable today, but in 1995, Fujitsu was a much bigger company than Apple in those days. Because of the Internet — and especially because of the World Wide Web — things were starting to move very quickly in Silicon Valley in 1995.

Silicon Valley 69

Silicon Valley Internet Networking Salary 69

Steve Blank

MARCH 18, 2011

The Golden Age (1970 – 1995): Build a growing business with a consistently profitable track record (after at least 5 quarters,) and go public when it’s time. Dot.com Bubble ( 1995-2000): “ Anything goes” as public markets clamor for ideas, vague promises of future growth, and IPOs happen absent regard for history or profitability.

Internet 335

Internet IPO Silicon Valley Agile 335

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 7, 2011

He grew up in Connecticut attended Yale undergrad and worked for IBM after graduation doing M&A, strategy and venture capital. In 1995, while in high school, Seth wanted to start a business scanning paper documents for companies, but realized it was a non-starter when he learned that a scanner costs $4k. For Meebo 1.3%

Connecticut 286

Connecticut Cofounder Silicon Valley Web 286

Steve Blank

AUGUST 5, 2010

Consumer Internet investing seems to have split off from traditional Venture Capital, and is creating a new category of VC’s: Lean VC’s. Electron-based Venture Capital. When I first came to Silicon Valley the world of Venture Capital looked pretty simple. Here’s why.

Lean 263

Lean Internet Silicon Valley Venture Capital 263

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 19, 2019

Andy Rachleff co-founded the venture capital firm Benchmark Capital in 1995. Probably the biggest change that I've noticed in the Valley is the transition from startups focusing on hardware, to startups built on software, and what that implies about the venture model as well. The question was, did anyone want it?

Silicon Valley 159

Silicon Valley Lean Venture Capital Pre-Money Valuation 159