Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 11, 2023

Here are five key ones to celebrate: Enjoy the feedback from every satisfied customer. Talking to real customers is the best way to keep your inspiration alive, as well as the best way keep on track with changing trends and future innovation ideas. Increasing customer focus and loyalty.

Sweat Equity 296

Sweat Equity Startup Salary Viral 296

Startup Lessons Learned

DECEMBER 14, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, December 14, 2009 Business ecology and the four customer currencies Lately, I’ve been rethinking the concept of “business model&# for startups, in favor of something I call “business ecology.&# Let’s begin with the four customer currencies.

Customer 156

Customer San Francisco Viral Lean 156

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 21, 2012

Either way, the “hurdle” for successful, scalable startups is high, and it gets higher every day as customer acquisition challenges continue to increase. There’s just no other way but, as Steve Blank has said for a decade, to “get out of the building” and talk to the only folks who matter—your customers.

Startup 332

Startup Cofounder Customer Development Viral 332

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 25, 2023

Most modern investors still look for a business model that embodies a gross margin over 50%, and a net margin in the 20% range. A healthy business, ready to scale, has been doing this for a year or more, with an existing customer set generating a non-trivial and growing revenue stream. Martin Zwilling

Valuation 235

Valuation Revenue Viral Retention 235

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 21, 2020

Most modern investors still look for a business model that embodies a gross margin over 50%, and a net margin in the 20% range. A healthy business, ready to scale, has been doing this for a year or more, with an existing customer set generating a non-trivial and growing revenue stream. Martin Zwilling.

Revenue 434

Revenue Valuation Viral Retention 434

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 16, 2020

Here are five key ones to celebrate: Enjoy the feedback from every satisfied customer. Talking to real customers is the best way to keep your inspiration alive, as well as the best way keep on track with changing trends and future innovation ideas. Increasing customer focus and loyalty.

Sweat Equity 435

Sweat Equity Salary Viral Leadership 435

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 27, 2016

Beyond basic business and technical credentials, here are some of the key startup team attributes that every investor is looking for: Team shows an appreciation and plan for marketing. Similarly, mentioning viral marketing without specifics won’t assure fundability. Focus on customer needs.

Technical Review 134

Technical Review Intellectual Property Due Diligence Angel Investor 134

Steve Blank

APRIL 20, 2021

Shawn immediately said the name I had given the four steps was confusing – I had called it market development – he suggested that I call it Customer Development – and the name stuck. It bears repeating: an early-stage startup must focus on making one customer group excited by a mission-aligned product.

Product 436

Product Viral Channel San Francisco 436

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 22, 2008

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, September 22, 2008 The three drivers of growth for your business model. The AARRR model (hence pirates, get it?) He also has a discussion of how your choice of business model determines which of these metric areas you want to focus on. Choose one.

San Francisco 167

San Francisco CPA SEM CTO Hire 167

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 26, 2020

You (think) you have product-market fit with real customers and real revenue and need money to grow and expand. For a Series A round you want to prove you have built a repeatable and scalable sales/revenue model and understand all parts of the business model. Team, Product, Traction, Business Model and Market.

Cofounder 429

Cofounder Seed Stage Valuation Metrics 429

SoCal CTO

MARCH 11, 2013

As Steve Blank likes to say: A Startup Is a Temporary Organization Designed to Search for A Repeatable and Scalable Business Model The unfortunate reality is - an MVP is not the above! Now that You've Got MVP, It's Time to Think About MVC You can't raise money on achieving an MVP. Investors demand more than that.

Algorithm 264

Algorithm Metrics Viral Venture Capital 264

The Next Web

AUGUST 19, 2013

Step 1: Figure out the LTV (customer lifetime value). LTV is how much money you can make from an average customer during his or her purchasing lifetime with you. LTV is how much money you can make from an average customer during his or her purchasing lifetime with you. LTV ­ CAC = ROI. CAC is tricky.

Belarus 137

Belarus Viral Channel Startup 137

Occam's Razor

MAY 2, 2017

#tearsofpain One way of removing silos and focusing on the entire business is to leverage Acquisition, Behavior and Outcome metrics. This will allow our senior business leaders to see the complete picture, see more of cause and effect, and create incentives for the disparate teams to work together. If you want to play along.

Metrics 141

Metrics Acquisition eCommerce Analytics 141

YoungUpstarts

FEBRUARY 14, 2017

We do this because we want our product to the best it can be and, most of all, used by the customers we built it for. It’s not always hard to get feedback, particularly when dealing with early adopters, you’ll find that customers are often very willing to share their thoughts. Your customers don’t use your product. Is it clear?

Technical Review 157

Technical Review Architecture Revenue Channel 157

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 22, 2010

Startups that are searching for a business model need to keep score differently than large companies that are executing a known business model. Yet most entrepreneurs and their VC’s make startups use financial models and spreadsheets that actually hinder their success. Managing the Business. Here’s why.

Balance Sheet 298

Balance Sheet Startup Burn Rate Metrics 298

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? This may sound crazy, coming as it does from an advocate of c harging customers for your product from day one. They are gaining valuable customer data.

Customer 167

Customer San Francisco Lean Hockey Stick 167

Hearpreneur

JANUARY 5, 2022

In order to better understand your customer's journey, technology can be utilized. In addition, you'll be able to provide your consumers with highly customized service as a result of this. In some cases, you may even be able to provide customers with products that are uniquely tailored to their specific needs. .

Entrepreneur 109

Entrepreneur Affiliate Green Cloud 109

Hippoland

FEBRUARY 12, 2018

I’ll give you an example with my own startup LaunchBit and how our understanding of the problem and the customer became more refined over time: V1: Helping online marketers get customers profitably. V2: Helping online marketers who have previously bought ads in email lists get customers profitably. Or in between?

Seed Stage 48

Seed Stage Business Model B2B Email 48

Hippoland

FEBRUARY 12, 2018

I’ll give you an example with my own startup LaunchBit and how our understanding of the problem and the customer became more refined over time: V1: Helping online marketers get customers profitably. V2: Helping online marketers who have previously bought ads in email lists get customers profitably. Or in between?

Seed Stage 48

Seed Stage Business Model B2B Email 48

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 23, 2012

Try charging customers for your product when you have 12 competitors giving the product away free finances by $20 million of VC. The numbers of potential buyers had decreased dramatically both because large companies were shedding jobs and because many past buyers simply lacked resources to make acquisitions. The Exit Problem.

Venture Capital 347

Venture Capital Technical Review LP Mobile 347

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 7, 2010

Business schools teach aspiring executives a variety of courses around the execution of known business models, (accounting, organizational behavior, managerial skills, marketing, operations, etc.). In contrast, startups search for a business model. (Or Their objective is to get users, orders, customers, etc.

Wiki 311

Wiki Lean Management Business Model 311

ConversionXL

FEBRUARY 11, 2020

You’ll understand their weak points and even win those customers to your side by suggesting your better solution. On a higher-level, it’s a good way to understand your niche and target customers. I prefer this approach for two main reasons: With video courses, you can engage your customers in a meaningful way (e.g.,

Conversion 68

Conversion Social Media Search Campaign 68

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 10, 2014

Most modern investors still look for a business model that embodies a gross margin over 50 percent and a net margin in the 20 percent range. A healthy business, ready to scale, has been doing this for a year or more, with an existing customer set generating a non-trivial and growing revenue stream.

Revenue 246

Revenue Entrepreneur Valuation Viral 246

ConversionXL

MAY 19, 2016

Linear funnels are conducive to the traditional customer lifecycle you’re used to hearing about. All of these questions lead to pages like this… Josh suggests that actual customer journeys are much more complex than a linear funnel would indicate. Like any model it has its pros and cons. Tweet It!].

Analytics 78

Analytics Metrics Channel Software Review 78

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

APRIL 16, 2013

Seems like every third startup nowadays is using the “Freemium” business model: The lowest service tier is free, and the business is designed to get those users hooked and then upgrade to a paid plan. to democratic product development (voting on which features customers would like to see next?). Why is that?

Marketing 318

Marketing Viral Campaign Business Model 318

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 26, 2016

Most modern investors still look for a business model that embodies a gross margin over 50%, and a net margin in the 20% range. A healthy business, ready to scale, has been doing this for a year or more, with an existing customer set generating a non-trivial and growing revenue stream. Martin Zwilling.

Revenue 145

Revenue Valuation Startup Viral 145

SoCal CTO

OCTOBER 8, 2009

In many cases, I can break it down into: Customer Acquisition Cost – how will you reach prospects, how will you convert them and how much will it cost to convert them Customer Lifetime Value – how much will you make off of each converted customer This very simple model works for a surprising number of business models.

Metrics 225

Metrics Startup Retention Acquisition 225

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

APRIL 9, 2013

We have to go into the world and convince others of the same thing–customers, investors, partners, employees and so on. It turns out that the cost of customer acquisition for consumers was too high compared to the revenue being generated. “In So we had to pivot [from consumer sales] to go after businesses.”

Lean 284

Lean Analytics Metrics Viral 284

Steve Blank

MARCH 18, 2011

VC’s worked with entrepreneurs to build profitable and scalable businesses, with increasing revenue and consistent profitability – quarter after quarter. They taught you about customers, markets and profits. Startups needed millions of dollars of funding just to get their first product out the door to customers.

Internet 334

Internet IPO Silicon Valley Agile 334

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 2, 2016

Here are five key ones to celebrate: Enjoy the feedback from every satisfied customer. Talking to real customers is the best way to keep your inspiration alive, as well as the best way keep on track with changing trends and future innovation ideas. Increasing customer focus and loyalty.

Sweat Equity 120

Sweat Equity Salary Startup Viral 120

View from Seed

APRIL 23, 2015

This is doing right by both your company and your customers. Their business models are, in many cases, focused on outlier exits within the portfolio. It’s an insufficient approach to gaining customer or user traction, which is the more important thing, but it’s also insufficient in most VC pitches.

Founder 120

Founder Distribution Viral Seed Stage 120

ReadWriteStart

JUNE 20, 2012

In this excerpt, authors Steve Blank and Bob Dorf continue to explain the Customer Discovery Philosophy (see Part One, " Is Your Startup a Valid Vision or Just a Hallucination? "). Customer discovery turns founders’ initial hypotheses about their market and customers into facts. We call these early adopters earlyvangelists.

Customer 119

Customer Advisory Board Engineer Cofounder 119

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 12, 2012

Should they focus on revenues and profitability, or focus on growing their customer base at all costs? Exact margins depend on the business model, but most companies at critical mass must generate a gross profit margin of at least 55%, and an operating profit margin of at least 20%, and have been doing it for a year.

Social Media 242

Social Media Revenue Viral Acquisition 242

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 12, 2015

In this first step, the goal of a startup is to search for a repeatable and scalable business model. You’ll realize you’re ready to exit the Search step when you have customer validation: You’ve found a sales channel that matches how the customer wants to buy and the costs of using that channel are understood.

Startup 120

Startup Lean Venture Capital Advisory Board 120

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 16, 2015

Here are five key ones to celebrate: Enjoy the feedback from every satisfied customer. Talking to real customers is the best way to keep your inspiration alive, as well as the best way keep on track with changing trends and future innovation ideas. Increasing customer focus and loyalty.

Sweat Equity 120

Sweat Equity Salary Viral Leadership 120

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 21, 2013

If you're working on the Sticky Engine of Growth , you're focused on very different metrics from those that you care about in the Viral Engine of Growth. Let’s say you lose 3% of your customers every month. When you only have a hundred customers, losing three of them is not that terrible.

Analytics 167

Analytics Lean Metrics Churn Rate 167

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 6, 2011

Should they focus on revenues and profitability, or focus on growing their customer base at all costs? Exact margins depend on the business model, but most companies at critical mass must generate a gross profit margin of at least 55%, and an operating profit margin of at least 20%, and have been doing it for a year.

Startup 229

Startup Social Media Revenue Viral 229