A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

JULY 23, 2013

Marketo filed for IPO with impressive 80% year-over-year growth in 2012, with almost $60m in revenue. of revenue, force-feeding sales pipelines with an unprofitable product. So no, this upside-down business model isn’t what a SaaS business should construct. SaaS companies earn their revenue over time.

Business Model 335

Business Model .Net Revenue IPO 335

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 11, 2023

Having enough revenue to finally give yourself a salary is an inspiring event, and one that you should savor. New business models that provide an ongoing revenue stream, or a secondary stream from advertising, raise your margins and can give you some additional satisfaction.

Sweat Equity 296

Sweat Equity Startup Salary Viral 296

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 16, 2020

Having enough revenue to finally give yourself a salary is an inspiring event, and one that you should savor. New business models that provide an ongoing revenue stream, or a secondary stream from advertising, raise your margins and can give you some additional satisfaction.

Sweat Equity 435

Sweat Equity Salary Viral Leadership 435

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 10, 2014

Some analysts argue that revenue drives growth, while others say user growth drives revenue. Both have worked.Google reached $1 billion in revenue within five years of incorporation, and now has a market capitalization of over $400 billion. A business only achieved critical mass by becoming cash-flow positive.

Revenue 246

Revenue Entrepreneur Valuation Viral 246

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. Plan includes a business model with good margins.

Technical Review 134

Technical Review Intellectual Property Due Diligence Angel Investor 134

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 26, 2020

There are two reasons to raise money: You have a killer idea that is only partially validated, that you think can get to $50M+ of revenue in 5 years with 80%+ gross margins (if margins are lower, you need a lot more revenue)and you need money to get to product-market fit, or. Team, Product, Traction, Business Model and Market.

Cofounder 429

Cofounder Seed Stage Valuation Metrics 429

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 26, 2016

Some analysts argue that revenue drives growth, while others say user growth drives revenue. Google reached $1B in revenue within five years of incorporation, and now has a market capitalization of over $400B. A business only achieved critical mass by becoming cash-flow positive. Both have worked.

Revenue 145

Revenue Valuation Startup Viral 145

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 16, 2009

In it, I got asked a question I often hear: “What if we have a web-based business that doesn’t have revenue or paying customers? And without revenue how do we know if we achieved product/market fit to exit Customer Validation?” However the Customer Development Model and the Lean Startup work equally well for startups on the web.

Customer Development 219

Customer Development Web Developer Customer 219

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

venturedig.com

NOVEMBER 1, 2009

The business models within the social media realm are much different than traditional businesses. In social networking, they’re ever-changing, backed by eye-opening revenue and have very little documentation. For this reason, this piece will be routinely updated with new models and new feedback from your comments.

Social Network 55

Social Network Business Model Networking CPA 55

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 23, 2012

In an over-funding environment companies are encouraged to eschew revenues in a land grab to acquire eyeballs, clicks, page views or whatever other vanity metrics give VCs the false comfort that they’re sitting on a gold mine. The opportunity to transact at the point of purchase increases the sheer number of revenue opportunities.

Venture Capital 347

Venture Capital Technical Review LP Mobile 347

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.

Metrics 141

Metrics Acquisition eCommerce Analytics 141

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

YoungUpstarts

FEBRUARY 14, 2017

Your revenues are declining or you don’t have any revenue at all! Revenues don’t appear overnight; even the greatest success stories had to work hard to start getting traction and growth. Yet if revenues start to decline, or after a few months customers are still leaving you for other solutions, then you may have an issue.

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

Hippoland

FEBRUARY 12, 2018

2) What is the business model and the potential unit economics? Certain investors tend to gravitate towards certain business models. At a high level, business is simple! :) You bring revenue in and your costs send money out the door. You want your revenue to be higher than your costs. Or in between?

Seed Stage 48

Seed Stage Business Model B2B Email 48

Hippoland

FEBRUARY 12, 2018

2) What is the business model and the potential unit economics? Certain investors tend to gravitate towards certain business models. At a high level, business is simple! :) You bring revenue in and your costs send money out the door. You want your revenue to be higher than your costs. Or in between?

Seed Stage 48

Seed Stage Business Model B2B Email 48

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 to optimize this search. to optimize this search.

Wiki 311

Wiki Lean Management Business Model 311

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. Which means it costs 20-100x as much on marketing campaigns to achieve the equivalent revenue.

Marketing 318

Marketing Viral Campaign Business Model 318

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. With Netscape’s IPO , there was suddenly a public market for companies with limited revenue and no profit. 1970 – 1995: The Golden Age. The New Exits.

Internet 334

Internet IPO Silicon Valley Agile 334

ReadWriteStart

JANUARY 27, 2011

I have discussed at length why revenue sharing channel deals may serve as perfectly fine alternatives to raising equity (or even complements) because of their non-dilutive nature. Persistent is breaking out of the mold of labor arbitrage, and looking at new and exciting business models. million in revenue. Brainscape.

Dilution 114

Dilution Revenue Finance Entrepreneur 114

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 12, 2012

Then came the advent of social media companies like Facebook and Twitter that declared a critical mass with no revenue, counting on their user base of millions of people to get them market values in the billions of dollars. Should they focus on revenues and profitability, or focus on growing their customer base at all costs?

Social Media 242

Social Media Revenue Viral Acquisition 242

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

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 2, 2016

Having enough revenue to finally give yourself a salary is an inspiring event, and one that you should savor. New business models that provide an ongoing revenue stream, or a secondary stream from advertising, raise your margins and can give you some additional satisfaction.

Sweat Equity 120

Sweat Equity Salary Startup Viral 120

Hearpreneur

JANUARY 5, 2022

Specifically, I plan on putting out one study per quarter that I'll send out to reporters and hopefully get viral coverage on social media. I’ve devised a sustainable business model where we will contribute to the ecological welfare of our environment. Thanks to Elisa Bender, Revenue Geeks ! #29- 5- Go green.

Entrepreneur 109

Entrepreneur Affiliate Green Cloud 109

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. The following table shows some examples of an OMTM based on stage and model: Many Mores The book goes into detail about how founders can move the needle a different stages of growth.

Analytics 167

Analytics Lean Metrics Churn Rate 167

View from Seed

APRIL 23, 2015

Their business models are, in many cases, focused on outlier exits within the portfolio. Additionally, if you’re talking to VCs, it’s implied that you’re thinking big and thinking about a large acquisition or IPO, as well as generating hundreds of millions in revenue. You can find those here. ).

Founder 120

Founder Distribution Viral Seed Stage 120

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 6, 2011

Then came the advent of social media companies like Facebook and Twitter that declared a critical mass with no revenue, counting on their user base of millions of people to get them market values in the billions of dollars. Should they focus on revenues and profitability, or focus on growing their customer base at all costs?

Startup 229

Startup Social Media Revenue Viral 229

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

APRIL 9, 2013

It turns out that the cost of customer acquisition for consumers was too high compared to the revenue being generated. “In Most consumer apps get around the high acquisition costs with some sort of virality, but backup isn’t viral. So we had to pivot [from consumer sales] to go after businesses.”

Lean 284

Lean Analytics Metrics Viral 284

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 16, 2015

Having enough revenue to finally give yourself a salary is an inspiring event, and one that you should savor. New business models that provide an ongoing revenue stream, or a secondary stream from advertising, raise your margins and can give you some additional satisfaction.

Sweat Equity 120

Sweat Equity Salary Viral Leadership 120

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 23, 2013

In the Udemy course, Alistair and Ben expand these basics into a description of how to create empathy, stickiness, virality, revenue, and scale. LSC: What''s an example of one metric, other than revenue, that you might look at for a non-tech product? It''s a good measurement because it captures both satisfaction and virality.

Analytics 167

Analytics Lean Widget Metrics 167

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 12, 2015

We’re at 70 people, and we’ll do $40 million in revenue this year and should get to cash flow breakeven this quarter. ” In this first step, the goal of a startup is to search for a repeatable and scalable business model. It sounded like he was living the dream. I was trying to figure out why we were meeting.

Startup 120

Startup Lean Venture Capital Advisory Board 120

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? All things being equal, of course, you’d rather have more revenue rather than less. And yet revenue alone is not a sufficient goal. More on that in a moment.

Customer 167

Customer San Francisco Lean Hockey Stick 167

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. A typical ad-based revenue stream on a media website is around $5 per 1000 eyeballs ($5m CPM and give or take $1-$20ish CPMs). Marketing first. Product second.

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. A typical ad-based revenue stream on a media website is around $5 per 1000 eyeballs ($5m CPM and give or take $1-$20ish CPMs). Marketing first. Product second.

Founder 48

Founder Sales Cycle Affiliate Retention 48

David Teten

DECEMBER 3, 2019

Technographics vendors such as Builtwith , Datanyze , HG Data , Stackshare, and Stacklist help CEOs identify the right tech platform on which to build their business; they’re also helpful for investors to due diligence a company’s tech stack choices. Lighter Capital, a Revenue Based Investing VC, offers a Cost of Capital Calculator.

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Software Review Analytics Private Equity 78

Ben's Blog

MAY 30, 2013

He founded and ran SuccessFactors and led them to $364 million in annual revenue ultimately resulting in a $3.5 billion acquisition by SAP in 2011. This was by far the largest and most important acquisition in the history of the SaaS category. Those things are important, but they are not what building a company is about.

Denmark 78

Denmark Acquisition Viral Green 78