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Is the Lean Startup Dead?

Steve Blank

Most entrepreneurs today don’t remember the Dot-Com bubble of 1995 or the Dot-Com crash that followed in 2000. Massive liquidity awaited the first movers to the IPO’s, and that’s how they managed their portfolios. The idea of the Lean Startup was built on top of the rubble of the 2000 Dot-Com crash. And it may work.

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Why Tim Cook is Steve Ballmer and Why He Still Has His Job at Apple

Steve Blank

After running Microsoft for 25 years, Bill Gates handed the reins of CEO to Steve Ballmer in January 2000. If the Microsoft board was managing for quarter to quarter or even year to year revenue growth, Ballmer was as good as it gets as a CEO. Between 2001 to 2008, Jobs reinvented the company three times. The result?

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Why Tim Cook is Steve Ballmer and Why He Still Has His Job at Apple

Steve Blank

After running Microsoft for 25 years, Bill Gates handed the reins of CEO to Steve Ballmer in January 2000. If the Microsoft board was managing for quarter to quarter or even year to year revenue growth, Ballmer was as good as it gets as a CEO. Between 2001 to 2008, Jobs reinvented the company three times. The result?

Azure 120
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Do Your Employees Think Like Owners? 10 Tips For Building An Entrepreneurial Culture.

YoungUpstarts

Here’s an example of how they made performance-based compensation work: If someone sold 100 cases in April 2000, and 100 cases in April 2001 (these numbers are unrealistically small for simplicity), their commission would be the same in both years.

Employee 178
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Venture Capital Q&A Session

Both Sides of the Table

The A round was done in February 2000 (end of the bull market) and my B round was done in April 2001 (bear market). People buy companies for 3 primary reasons: 1) they want the management team / talent 2) they want the technology or 3) they want the market traction (revenue, customer base, profits, etc).

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Lessons From The Internet Bubble: Growth vs. Profitability

Feld Thoughts

Between the spring of 2000 and the end of 2001, I had the worst, most stressful, and most painful business period of my life. I remember the trigger point being a 3/20/2000 article in Barron’s titled Burning Up: Warning: Internet companies are running out of cash — fast. They are both worth reading right now.

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The Great VC Ice Age is Thawing (for now) – Part 1 of 3

Both Sides of the Table

Just ask anybody who was trying to close funding the fateful week of September 11, 2001 or even March 2000. The company had a huge burn rate but investors and management brought that under control by late 2008. VC’s fund their salaries and operations through management fees, which typically equal 2% per year.

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