Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 14, 2009

On top of all this it was considered very bad form not to have at least four additional consecutive quarters of profits after an IPO.) What this meant for entrepreneurs and VC’s was simple, profound and unappreciated today: VC’s worked with entrepreneurs to build profitable and scalable businesses.

Silicon Valley 217

Silicon Valley IPO Technical Review Venture Capital 217

Mucker Lab

APRIL 6, 2023

Are there types of companies, market segments, industries, or business models where PLG does not make sense? You engage the marketing team and you do a lot of acquisition and people are coming. Before you scale the acquisition like crazy, really figure out how to activate new users, how to convert them.

Product 78

Product CTO Hire Startup Fractional CTO 78

NZ Entrepreneur

SEPTEMBER 29, 2021

experiments to build a product, find customers, test business models and hire amazing people. Creating this value is anchored in finding a repeatable, scalable business model. pivot the business. Generating liquidity usually entails either selling the venture or an IPO. Risk and reward. change the CEO.

Technical Review 88

Technical Review Software Review New Zealand Due Diligence 88

Growthink Blog

DECEMBER 27, 2017

Company Analysis Goal of the company analysis section: Educate the investor about your company’s history and explain why your team is perfect to execute on the business opportunity. Provide the background on the company, including date of formation, office location, legal structure, and stage of development. Give some history.

Venture Capital 129

Venture Capital Business Plan Technical Review Private Placement 129

Steve Blank

MARCH 18, 2011

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. The Business Plan (Concept- Alpha-Beta - FCS ) became the playbook for startups. The IPO offering document became the playbook for startups.

Internet 334

Internet IPO Silicon Valley Agile 334

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

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 31, 2019

It’s meant to support and grow a business until an “exit” in the form of an IPO, a merger or acquisition, or in less than ideal scenarios, a company shutdown. But, I am fascinated by the new “cloud kitchens” type models that are being formed and am hopeful that maybe they will crack the code on this.

Lean 108

Lean Venture Capital Conversion IPO 108

Steve Blank

JULY 15, 2010

The collapse of the IPO market and dysfunctional math in the venture capital community has stacked the odds against you. Most of the startups they invested in either died by running out of money before they found a scalable business model or ended up in the “land of the living dead” by never growing (failing to Pivot.).

Venture Capital 297

Venture Capital IPO Liquidity Event Entrepreneur 297

Austin Startup

MAY 10, 2021

three companies he previously worked for had successful exits including two acquisitions and one IPO. Georgoff’s has extensive experience and expertise with developing and launching software as a service (SaaS) products and scaling a variety of business models. We’re thrilled to welcome Mike to our team.

Hiring 104

Hiring Product United States Startup 104

Up and Running

JULY 10, 2019

Meanwhile, Soulcycle, the spinning obsession of every trendy New Yorker, filed for IPO in 2018 only to withdraw at the last minute. Developing a buyer or user persona is a good way to think it through. However, good old fashioned word of mouth marketing will always be the most powerful acquisition strategy as you grow. .

Retention 70

Retention Social Media Software Review Acquisition 70

View from Seed

MARCH 3, 2015

Ellie Mirman was the first marketer hired by the CMO of HubSpot, the Boston-based marketing software startup that IPOed in 2014. NextView Ventures: Thinking back to before anyone knew HubSpot or the company was headed towards an IPO, where did you even start to market the company?

Marketing 120

Marketing Sales Cycle Startup CTO Hire 120

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 5, 2015

Seed-stage, meanwhil e, is technically that critical period when you need funding to do solution- and business-model development, to prove that your new product or service works, before you try to sell it to customers. Many municipalities offer these to facilitate local new business development.

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage Finance Early Stage Startup 120

David Teten

JANUARY 19, 2021

The value ascribed by subsequent investors (in a secondary); buyers (acquisition); or the public markets (IPO). which they co-developed with Fenwick & West. . Typical business stage. An already proven business model and its already valuable assets. Typical business model. Venture Debt.

Cofounder 78

Cofounder Technical Review Equity Dividend 78

YoungUpstarts

NOVEMBER 13, 2012

Not surprisingly, they developed a loyal following and grew rapidly. Google reportedly turned down buyout offers from Microsoft shortly before the 2004 IPO. Google’s value has grown from $23 billion at the time of the IPO to over $200 billion today. Questionable business model. Highly profitable.

IPO 162

IPO Exit Strategy San Francisco Startup 162

Up and Running

JUNE 16, 2014

According to business development consultant, Wyn Lydecker , both investors and venture capitalists are looking to invest in businesses and industries that they can understand. Make no mistake, you will need to have a business model or a business plan that shows just where you sit in relation to your competitors.

Exit Strategy 91

Exit Strategy Advisory Board Business Plan Portfolio 91

Steve Blank

AUGUST 5, 2010

I think you can blame Customer and Agile Development for a small part of it. Fairchild Semiconductor became the progenitor of a flood of Silicon Valley chip companies and at the same time the adoption of the limited partnership as the model for Venture Firms gave VC’s their own profitable business model. Here’s why.

Lean 258

Lean Internet Silicon Valley Venture Capital 258

YoungUpstarts

MARCH 30, 2017

Mycoskie founded TOMS the same year and established a “buy one, give one” model. For every pair of shoes sold, TOMS would provide a new pair of shoes to children in Argentina and other developing countries. This mission should be considered when developing a business plan, planning to raise capital and implementing a strategy.

Global 100

Global Argentina Elevator Pitch Business Model 100

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 13, 2016

Entrepreneurs who are looking to attract investors need to develop and pitch a plan -- preferably written -- that answers every potential investor question about your startup before it is asked. How does your business model make money? I ask for five-year projections, since that’s the average time before investors can cash out.

Sweat Equity 120

Sweat Equity Advisory Board Liquidity Event Startup 120

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.&# Constructing a working business model is a form of ecosystem design.

Customer 156

Customer San Francisco Viral Lean 156

thebarefootvc

JANUARY 15, 2020

acquisition of Plaid by Visa, in a highly competitive deal, shows how even the largest incumbents are feeling pressure to innovate and need to think outside of their current business models. Along those lines, I have been spending time thinking of the the continued digitization of the financial services sector.

Disintermediation 69

Disintermediation Aggregator China API 69

Tim Keane

MARCH 9, 2011

.  Cash flow levels inadequate as in #2 and #3 but desire to sell the business: Junior debt with a variable repayment schedule based on available cash (i.e., Example two:  Explosive market share growth and revenue in an expanding market with acquisitive players available. five years.). five years.).

Finance 83

Finance Bootstrapping Startup Equity 83

Growthink Blog

APRIL 15, 2015

Now given that the company has yet to even come close to breaking even, this can be viewed as either a great validation of Domo''s business model, or as more evidence of the “Bubble Mania” of the current technology financing landscape and a screaming signal to get out while you still can.

Valuation 48

Valuation Venture Capital Finance Acquisition 48

Cracking the Code

OCTOBER 10, 2008

Save Asia for post-IPO Single instance, multi-tenant, single datacenter - Have only one version of the code in production. You validated our business model and added huge value to our efforts. Only after reaching $1M in CMRR should you consider hiring European sales and services execs behind customer demand. Michael Kassing.

Software Review 48

Software Review North America Europe Metrics 48

ReadWriteStart

MAY 30, 2011

As an entrepreneur it can be dizzying to watch Groupon and Living Social grow so quickly, raising huge venture rounds at massive valuations while contemplating multiple billion dollar acquisitions and IPOs. eBay certainly has enabled purchases and built a very large business doing this. Trends Enabling this Change. Discuss.

Advertising 116

Advertising Business Model Revenue Mobile 116

Reid Hoffman

JANUARY 13, 2021

You know, “I have profit loss statements and cost of customer acquisition and long-term value and cohort analysis and all of these things,” (all of which of course super important for understanding and valuing businesses appropriately), and what they’re growing to, and what the growth stage, and what is the future. I was wrong.”

Incubator 36

Incubator IPO Networking Cofounder 36

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 14, 2009

What matters is proving the viability of the company’s business model, what investors call “traction.&# Of course this is not at all true of many profitable small businesses, but they are not what I mean by startups.) And what of the product development team? Every board meeting, the metrics of success change.

Customer 167

Customer San Francisco Lean Hockey Stick 167

Agile VC

APRIL 13, 2012

And going even further back there have been a few random ones have been built before like Salesforce.com and e-tailer RedEnvelope (IPO’d in 2003 though now defunct as a company). If my memory serves me, <10% of our pre-IPO employees at PayPal lived in SF and literally 1 of the first 40-50 folks at LinkedIn were city-dwellers.

Silicon Valley 185

Silicon Valley San Francisco San Jose Startup 185

online.wsj.com

SEPTEMBER 23, 2012

In early 2011 an acquisition by a Fortune 500 company fell apart. based companies initially funded by venture capital between 2006 and 2011, 84% now are closely held and operating independently, 11% were acquired or made initial public offerings of stock and 4% went out of business, according to Dow Jones VentureSource. 15 hrs ago.

Venture Capital 107

Venture Capital Software Review Rhode Island North Dakota 107

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 23, 2012

IPO markets had burned an entire cycle of retail stock investors and many institutional investors to boot. 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. Bottom of the sales funnel. And the future?

Venture Capital 347

Venture Capital Technical Review LP Mobile 347

Seeing Both Sides

NOVEMBER 26, 2012

Raising capital is a core part of building a valuable business. Whether you are raising a $250K seed round or navigating a $100M IPO, the capital markets - in all of its various forms - are a fundamental constituent in the business-building journey. But that's not entirely true.

Balance Sheet 42

Balance Sheet Entrepreneur Dilution Portfolio 42

www.vccafe.com

MARCH 11, 2013

Steve Blank on Lean Customer Development. s helpful to find an developer tool that allows you to write html/css and renders the view in real time, so you donâ??t Firebase : Are all your developers front-end engineers? s easier to use/develop with. Mobile Tools: If you are a web developer, you donâ??t Codeacademy.

Software Review 53

Software Review Technical Review Startup 53

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 21, 2010

To see proof of this, simply observe the results of the large majorities of corporate acquisitions of startups. Most businesses – large and small alike – are typically excluded by this context. To see proof of this, simply observe the results of the large majorities of corporate acquisitions of startups.

San Francisco 168

San Francisco Startup Lean Continuous Deployment 168

infochachkie.com

DECEMBER 5, 2011

Other than a second-rate musician, “Cisco” is descriptive of nothing, offering no hint as to the company’s initial core competency in router design and development. Microsoft – Initially descriptive of the company’s software developed for the “micro” computer market, which eventually evolved into the “personal” computer market.

Naming 40

Naming Technical Review Product Product Name 40

Professor VC

FEBRUARY 18, 2011

The LinkedIn acquisition of CardMunch a few weeks ago caught my attention. Techcrunch called it one of the " most like-minded and forward-thinking acquisitions I’ve ever seen " I met with the founders of CardMunch several months ago when they were out raising their Series Seed round. The last blogger in Silicon Valley.

Acquisition 31

Acquisition San Jose Angel Investor IPO 31

Austin Startup

MAY 3, 2017

Buyout companies  — In a low interest rate and the slow-growth environments of recent years, companies like Apple, Facebook, and Google focus on acquisitions instead of focusing on capital expenditures and development of internal investment projects. Imagine that. They can just go back to their investors for more capital.

Texas 48

Texas Startup Silicon Valley Bootstrapping 48

infochachkie.com

SEPTEMBER 24, 2011

There is an inherent conflict in a consultant’s business model and the needs of a startup. Such positions include: PR, Sales, Product Development, Lead Generation, Strategic Planning, Fund Raising, etc. Yet, it does nothing to help you execute your business model. Startups cannot afford such scapegoat luxuries.

Equity 40

Equity Silicon Valley Cofounder Technical Review 40

Seeing Both Sides

JANUARY 13, 2015

People: founder-run and trying to recruit amazing technical talent (the product development team is a huge priority at this stage) and integrate a few senior managers to help prepare the company for scale - which leads to cultural clashes and communication challenges. Do we have an IPO management team in place? 50-100 million.

Mezzanine 20

Mezzanine IPO Finance Business Model 20