YoungUpstarts

JANUARY 27, 2015

by Jack Narcotta, Devices Analyst at Technology Business Research. The impacts of increased traffic acquisition costs and investments to bolster its online infrastructure on Microsoft’s gross and operating margins will be offset as the company accelerates its transition to more lucrative cloud-based services.

Cloud 100

Cloud Mobile Software Review Technical Review 100

Up and Running

MAY 10, 2021

Simply research the company with its portfolio. You can start by researching your competitors to gain an understanding of cost structure, revenue generation, and the business model for your app. What is your customer acquisition cost? Your development team is the key to your success. How can you choose the right one?

Artificial Inteligence 150

Artificial Inteligence Developer Development Team Review United Kingdom 150

Board Effect

DECEMBER 19, 2019

Another vein of thought is that boards should primarily be involved in strategic planning when there is a major event such as a change in the CEO, a major investment opportunity, a looming acquisition, a decline in sales, or an unsolicited takeover bid. Takeovers, mergers, and acquisitions are sometimes an integral part of corporate strategy.

Management 64

Management Software Review Acquisition Merger 64

Up and Running

JANUARY 15, 2018

Once you’ve decided that you’re ready to start a small web design firm, you’ll need to develop a host of skills to help you run a successful business, including time management, sales and promotional strategies, and client acquisition. Create a Lean Business Plan. Showcase your work.

Web 86

Web Design Software Review Elevator Pitch 86

YoungUpstarts

DECEMBER 5, 2018

by Walker Deibel , Managing Director of Centra and author of “ Buy Then Build: How Acquisition Entrepreneurs Outsmart the Startup Game “ If I asked you to name a business success story, what would you think of? The VC game is one of portfolio management. This is why, as of 2008, the average VC fund is $350 million.

Startup 182

Startup Acquisition Portfolio Venture Capital 182

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. Tech acquisitions went crazy at the same time the IPO market did. What Do VC’s Do? And some companies didn’t even have to go public to get liquid. billion.)

Silicon Valley 223

Silicon Valley IPO Technical Review Venture Capital 223

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 16, 2009

They’re putting money into web services/business – most without early revenue. It’s an impressive portfolio. By the time the meeting was over I left wondering whether the Customer Development model would help or hinder their companies. What we concluded is that the Customer Development model needs an additional overlay.

Customer Development 223

Customer Development Web Developer Customer 223

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 3, 2012

Enter the Business Model Canvas. With the business model canvas in hand, we can now approach rethinking corporate innovation strategy and structure. Existing companies and their operating divisions implement known business models. Operating divisions execute the known business model.

Business Model 333

Business Model Customer Development United States Operations 333

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 25, 2016

After a year in the market, MakeSpace was growing rapidly and our biggest issue was CAC (customer acquisition costs) relative to payback period (when we get our marketing investment back) and relative to LTV (lifetime value). As they see you grow the become intrigued and probably analyze your business model and potential.

Startup 150

Startup Seed Money DC Software Review 150

Austin Startup

APRIL 27, 2019

Recently one of the startups in our portfolio, eRelevance, failed, as the Austin American-Statesman documented. As I wrote about in my post on Seven critical lessons learned in angel investing , this is painful and you must have a diversified portfolio to practice angel investing and actually make money. No matter the name?—?the

B2C 51

B2C Austin Cofounder IPO 51

David Teten

AUGUST 19, 2019

I’ve been a traditional equity VC for 8 years, and I’m now researching new business models in venture capital. We’re also regularly following-on for existing portfolio companies.”. Feenix Venture Partners : Feenix Venture Partners has a unique investment model that couples investment capital with payment processing services.

Revenue 60

Revenue Technical Review Software Review Equity 60

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 11, 2019

Pre-launch customer development data is another way, sometimes in the form of user surveys for consumer companies or interviews with potential beta customers for B2B businesses. One of our portfolio investments, a B2B SaaS company, was a pre-product startup at the time of the seed round.

Seed Stage 149

Seed Stage B2B Seed Capital Revenue 149

K9 Ventures

SEPTEMBER 8, 2015

After the acquisition of SneakerLabs, he served as the Vice-President of Interactive Technologies for E.piphany. 2) New market (less common form, examples are Lyft and eShares) and 3) New business model (least common, non-K9 portfolio examples are PriceLine and SolarCity). We don’t have categories of interest.

San Francisco 48

San Francisco Early Stage Portfolio Software Engineering 48

Up and Running

JUNE 16, 2014

A simple online search should reveal your investors interests as well as the portfolio of companies that he/she has invested in. 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. Send only a portion of your business plan.

Exit Strategy 91

Exit Strategy Advisory Board Business Plan Portfolio 91

David Teten

JANUARY 19, 2021

The value ascribed by subsequent investors (in a secondary); buyers (acquisition); or the public markets (IPO). Seed-stage compatible: Like traditional equity VC investors, Flexible VCs accomodate early-stage investment risk within their portfolios better than a traditional RBI funder. Typical business stage. Venture Debt.

Cofounder 78

Cofounder Technical Review Equity Dividend 78

ConversionXL

OCTOBER 30, 2014

It was also found that “Engaged” customers received 3-4 (or more) reviews of their portfolios and were taking part of on-going conversations where their advisor was soliciting feedback and asking for actual input. Read the full case study here.). That’s the key to figuring out a good incentive, really.

Programming 107

Programming Marketing Analytics Portfolio 107

View from Seed

APRIL 24, 2019

Couple that noise with the flurry of AI/messaging startups from a few years back (set off by Facebook’s WhatsApp acquisition), in conjunction with app developers’ notification euphoria… all of which have resulted in a state on our mobile phones where “ our brains being overloaded with push notifications about nothing.”.

SMS 207

SMS San Francisco Channel Dilution 207

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. Most investors won’t touch a first-time entrepreneur at this stage. A seed-stage “super angel.”

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage Finance Early Stage Startup 120

David Teten

AUGUST 6, 2015

To help me, I interviewed the two most knowledgeable people I know about financial modeling. My colleague Paul Bianco serves as interim CFO for a number of ff Venture Capital ’s portfolio companies, and has built and reviewed hundreds of financial models. Use an appropriate number of significant digits.

Balance Sheet 60

Balance Sheet Software Review Forecast Acquisition 60

The Equity Kicker

FEBRUARY 14, 2013

Subscription ecommerce has become quite a hot business model over the past couple of years, perhaps reaching peak hotness 6-12 months ago. A customer acquisition model that makes customers comfortable with taking on the commitment of a subscription (e.g. free first month, option to purchase before subscribing).

eCommerce 133

eCommerce Curation Acquisition Portfolio 133

ConversionXL

MARCH 19, 2020

The best drivers apply the brakes just ahead of the curve (they take out excess costs), turn hard toward the apex of the curve (identify the short list of projects that will form the next business model), and accelerate hard out of the curve (spend and hire before markets have rebounded). Progressive. Image source ). are moot.”.

Marketing 121

Marketing Campaign Non-Compete Lean 121

The Startup Toolkit

SEPTEMBER 28, 2014

The company becomes valuable and someone buys the whole thing (acquisition). Within the second category, there are 3 types of acquisitions which each behave quite differently: The company has failed, but manages to sell off something of value (patents, team, etc) on the way out (asset sale or talent acquisition).

Dividend 50

Dividend Acquisition Founder Bootstrapping 50

Version One Ventures

OCTOBER 7, 2014

Rick Perreault of my portfolio company Unbounce recently called my attention to an interesting comparison between two SaaS models: Hubspot & Moz – A Tale of Two (Very Different) SaaS Business Models. Hubspot made $161.8 million from 2009-2013. Moz made $72.5 million from 2009-2013. So, is one company right?

Initial Public Offering 148

Initial Public Offering IPO SEC Valuation 148

Seeing Both Sides

JULY 11, 2013

Across our portfolio and in my own entrepreneurial experience, I have seen three main sales models work successfully in scaling B2B sales: 1) Enterprise; 2) Telephone; and 3) Developer-driven. The typical quota for a sales rep varies by type of business model (SaaS vs. perpetual), product gross margin (e.g.,

Sales 50

Sales Technical Review Software Review B2B 50

Steve Blank

JULY 15, 2010

VC’s invested their limited partners’ “risk capital” in a portfolio of startups in exchange for illiquid stock. 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.). Source: NVCA.).

Venture Capital 299

Venture Capital IPO Liquidity Event Entrepreneur 299

Steve Blank

AUGUST 31, 2009

So what’s wrong the product development model? The first hint lies in its name; this is a product development model, not a marketing model, not a sales hiring model, not a customer acquisition model, not even a financing model (and we’ll also find that in most cases it’s even a poor model to use to develop a product.)

Customer Development 241

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 241

The Equity Kicker

AUGUST 28, 2012

IBM has just announced the acquisition of social recruitment business Kenexa for $1.3bn, the latest of a string of ‘social’ enterprise software businesses to be acquired this year. The first major acquisition of a social business was Salesforce’s acquisition of Radian6 for $326m nearly 18 months ago.

Vertical 94

Vertical Acquisition eCommerce Flash 94

Austin Startup

DECEMBER 3, 2019

Techstars provides their accelerator portfolio companies with access to financial, human and intellectual capital to fuel the success of their business. Homebuyer (Cincinnati, OH) Dan Green, CEO Homebuyer is a lead nurture system for mortgage lenders that reduces customer acquisition costs and increases per-loan profits.

Austin 62

Austin Curation Startup Dallas 62

View from Seed

JANUARY 24, 2018

When we create new platform initiatives, our team tries to think about how we can be the most impactful with our portfolio companies. Today, we’re thrilled to announce a new program that we hope will help our portfolio companies with two of these bullets. Building a great product. We want to talk to you! by Tapjoy).

Operations 176

Operations Cofounder Technical Review Angel Investor 176

Austin Startup

NOVEMBER 12, 2017

A frequent metaphor I use in customer acquisition, fundraising, or any kind of deal making is that you as the founder and promoter should present the finished meal on the dining table and not drag your counterparts into the kitchen. Those are investments they can easily add to their portfolios.

Term Sheet 48

Term Sheet Technical Review Due Diligence Merger 48

Steve Blank

APRIL 1, 2020

Remember, a year from now no one wants to be the CEO of a company out of business whose lament is, “I did what the board told me to do.”. This plan has three parts: Pivots to your new business model, changes to your operating plan, and what initiatives you save for the recovery. What does your board suggest?

South Korea 333

South Korea Salary Business Model China 333

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 17, 2015

These partnerships may take the form of Proof of Concept projects with startups, getting to know VC firms and their portfolios, and familiarizing themselves with university groups doing research in the established strategic problems. (It In exchange, the startups provide companies with their disruptive ideas, technologies and business models.

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley Incubator Acquisition Business Model 120

Version One Ventures

OCTOBER 7, 2014

Rick Perreault of my portfolio company Unbounce recently called my attention to an interesting comparison between two SaaS models: Hubspot & Moz – A Tale of Two (Very Different) SaaS Business Models. Hubspot made $161.8 million from 2009-2013. Moz made $72.5 million from 2009-2013. So, is one company right?

Initial Public Offering 78

Initial Public Offering IPO SEC Valuation 78

David Teten

MARCH 3, 2015

That is what I’ve seen happen with the “ Lean Startup ” philosophy of viewing your startup as a scientific experiment in search of a business model. And I definitely am one of those people who regularly advises our portfolio companies at ffVC to think creatively about how to experiment on their operating assumptions.

Startup 60

Startup Private Equity Lean Portfolio 60

David Teten

DECEMBER 3, 2019

However, in private markets, there is more room to optimize across all 11 steps of the investing process: firm management , marketing, fundraising , origination , manage relationships, due diligence, negotiation, monitoring, portfolio acceleration , reporting, and.

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Software Review Analytics Private Equity 78

Hippoland

AUGUST 8, 2018

One thing I’ve noticed is that almost every repeat, previously-successful-founder focuses on the same thing for their respective startups: customer acquisition. In other words, if you can get 1000 people to come to your website consistently for under $5, then this business model works for you.

Founder 48

Founder Sales Cycle Affiliate Retention 48

Hippoland

AUGUST 8, 2018

One thing I’ve noticed is that almost every repeat, previously-successful-founder focuses on the same thing for their respective startups: customer acquisition. In other words, if you can get 1000 people to come to your website consistently for under $5, then this business model works for you.

Founder 48

Founder Sales Cycle Affiliate Retention 48