The Startup Magazine

JANUARY 16, 2024

Marked by their brevity and exclusivity, limited-time offers and flash sales are time-sensitive promotions that create a sense of urgency and excitement among customers. Here are strategies that will enable you to use them to effectively boost your sales and promote your enterprise’s brand and offerings.

Flash 121

Flash Sales Campaign Social Media 121

Up and Running

SEPTEMBER 14, 2021

Sales is all about how to get more customers, and relationship funnels prioritize establishing a genuine connection with your customers. Relationship funnel vs. sales funnel — What’s the difference? It’s easy to confuse relationship funnels with traditional sales or marketing funnels, however, they differ significantly.

Sales 152

Sales Audience Social Media Email 152

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 26, 2020

If possible, quantify these in non-technical business terms, such as dollars saved or replacement costs over time. Provide specifics on the customer business model. Include marketing, sales, and customer rollout plans. Professional investors and even customers invest in people, rather than just a product.

Business Plan 423

Business Plan Product Intellectual Property Elevator Pitch 423

VC Cafe

NOVEMBER 2, 2019

Benchmarks are typically specific to stage/business model/geo. In Rob Go’s words: For seed and Series A deals, investors will also need to see a high-potential team with founder/market fit , a large and attractive market opportunity , and a business model with increasing returns to scale.

B2C 141

B2C Technical Review Startup Retention 141

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 17, 2018

This can happen through early marketing, independent of whether you have yet delivered a single product, proven your business model, or have any real customers. Show validation data for business model key elements. Another term often mentioned is “momentum,” or growing visibility and advocacy within your customer set.

Advisory Board 199

Advisory Board Technical Review Metrics Business Model 199

Steve Blank

APRIL 1, 2020

Sales pipeline/forecast. I listened in on a board call with an enterprise software company this week, and when the CEO said, “Our VP of sales assured me our pipeline won’t be affected.” 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.”.

South Korea 333

South Korea Salary Business Model China 333

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 26, 2020

We have an acquisition arm and Congress is probably going to give us acquisition authority this year. Selling JAIC Like Enterprise Sales. This is where I brought in the thinking of how we build businesses here in Silicon Valley. We needed to be building leveraged business models in scale. Lessons Learned.

Artificial Inteligence 388

Artificial Inteligence Fractional CTO Technology CTO 388

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 5, 2023

Bill was relentless in his focus on getting the software PC DOS project delivered, while continually challenging us with new business models. Managing marketing metrics and the sales pipeline. Follow-up is required for every sales lead, a pipeline built, and a sales process documented, with training for new reps.

Cofounder 389

Cofounder Startup Term Sheet Acquisition 389

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

JULY 23, 2013

of revenue, force-feeding sales pipelines with an unprofitable product. I know the argument: The pay-back period on sales, marketing, and up-start costs is long, but there’s a profitable result at the end of the tunnel. So no, this upside-down business model isn’t what a SaaS business should construct.

Business Model 335

Business Model .Net Revenue IPO 335

crowdSPRING Blog

FEBRUARY 26, 2023

It’s easier to market and promote new products and services with a subscription business model as you’re already in contact with your customers. Leveraging this for new business promotions is more convenient and effective. Lesser spending for customer acquisition. Easier communication for future brand promotions.

United States 68

United States eCommerce Business Model Technical Review 68

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 24, 2017

This required a repeatable and scalable sales process, which required a professional sales staff and a product stable enough that customers wouldn’t return it. — all great things when you are executing and scaling a known business model. People had to actually pay you for your product. Hire a CEO to Go Public.

Founder 245

Founder Technical Review CTO Hire IPO 245

ConversionXL

FEBRUARY 3, 2022

The faster this process can be repeated, the more likely they’ll find scalable, repeatable ways to grow the business.”. Where campaigns to build brand awareness and generate top-of-funnel sales drive traditional marketing, data across the entire customer lifecycle drives growth hacking in marketing. Acquisition. Image source.

Retention 113

Retention Marketing Acquisition Channel 113

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 8, 2022

Don’t try to build the “ultimate” business model, for all possible alternatives, in multiple business domains. You need to quickly calculate the long-term impact on profitability of pricing and business model changes. What if your customer acquisition cost assumptions have to change?

Conversion Ratio 368

Conversion Ratio Startup Business Model eCommerce 368

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 9, 2017

An effective tool I see used more and more, as a prelude to a more detailed business plan, is the Business Model Canvas , first introduced by Alexander Osterwalder back in 2008. In my experience as a new business advisor, a business is nothing until people are aligned and work in sync. Key activities. Try this one.

Business Model 143

Business Model Intellectual Property Startup Angel Investor 143

YoungUpstarts

MARCH 27, 2019

Innovation not only impacts global economies and business models, but the quality of life of people. Innovation has changed the way people live, work and do business. Businesses can focus on two types of innovation: sustaining innovation and disruptive innovation. Disruptive Innovation Defined.

Technical Review 127

Technical Review Business Model Non-Compete Software Review 127

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 21, 2023

A technical champion may drive a specific innovation, but the business leader has to own the result, in order to drive an appropriate business model, customer acquisition, support, and a growth strategy. Business risks are not just development risks. Set milestones and meet them. Ownership. Value creation.

Intellectual Property 343

Intellectual Property Metrics .Net Social Network 343

YoungUpstarts

MARCH 4, 2020

For example, do you fly out to a big indus­try conference to close some sales, or do you stay home to attend your daughter’s high school graduation? In the short term, skipping the conference may mean losing some deals, but in the long run, you and your business will be more successful. Is your business idea disruptive?

Entrepreneur 205

Entrepreneur Venture Capital Silicon Valley Bandwidth 205

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 17, 2022

Every entrepreneur thinks he can relax a bit after his business model is proven, funding is in place, and revenues are scaling as projected up that hockey-stick curve. Unfortunately, the market is changing so fast these days that any upward climb can level off quickly, as the core business growth begins to stall.

Hockey Stick 265

Hockey Stick Guerilla Acquisition Startup 265

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 5, 2013

Over the last three years our Lean LaunchPad / NSF Innovation Corps classes have been teaching hundreds of entrepreneurial teams a year how to build their startups by getting out of the building and testing their hypotheses behind their business model. Technology in search of a market.

Lean 315

Lean Customer Development Sales Cycle Business Model 315

Steve Blank

MARCH 16, 2016

As the company goes from searching for a business model to growth , only then will they bring in a new “professional” management team to scale the company (along with a business development executive to search for an acquirer) or prepare for an IPO. Unfortunately, it’s the rare VC who has already built an acquisition roadmap.

Liquidity Event 120

Liquidity Event Founder Liquidation Preference Venture Capital 120

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 26, 2021

Of course, you can find these elements embodied in many of the business plan templates and tools out there, such as the Business Model Canvas. Free” is not an exciting business model for investor interest. Specify a primary customer channel for sales. Provide initial and long-term sources of revenue.

Intellectual Property 332

Intellectual Property Angel Investor Business Model Channel 332

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 26, 2020

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. Series B is about proving your net revenue model (can you be profitable?). Team, Product, Traction, Business Model and Market. Business Model.

Cofounder 429

Cofounder Seed Stage Valuation Metrics 429

Steve Blank

APRIL 8, 2010

They collected information that justified their assumptions about the problem, opportunity, market size, their solution and competitors and the their team, They rolled up a 5-year sales forecast with assumptions about their revenue model, pricing, sales, marketing, customer acquisition cost, etc. It’s static.

Business Model 328

Business Model Business Plan Customer Cap Table 328

Steve Blank

APRIL 23, 2018

When Sloan arrived at GM in 1920 he realized that the traditional centralized management structures organized by function (sales, manufacturing, distribution, and marketing) were a poor fit for managing GM’s diverse product lines. billion in sales in today’s dollars). What Does GM Have to Do with Tesla And Elon Musk?

Michigan 268

Michigan Cofounder Stock Forecast 268

Up and Running

MARCH 14, 2018

Your revenue or business model. Impress the investors with what you and your team have accomplished to date (sales, contracts, key hires, product launches, and so on). Customer acquisition: Marketing and sales strategy. This is usually one of the most skipped sections of an investor pitch and a full business plan.

Hockey Stick 164

Hockey Stick Exit Strategy Technical Review Angel Investor 164

Seeing Both Sides

JULY 11, 2013

I''ve been thinking a lot lately about scaling sales. . Before this occurs, the sales process is a craft or an art - custom-made by the founder or evangelist sales VP. How do I build a repeatable, scalable sales process that is like an industrial machine - not a crafts project? 1) Enterprise Sales.

Sales 50

Sales Technical Review Software Review B2B 50

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 24, 2016

If you think the job of a CEO is to increase sales, then Ballmer did a spectacular job. He tripled Microsoft’s sales to $78 billion and profits more than doubled from $9 billion to $22 billion. The launch of the Xbox and Kinect, and the acquisitions of Skype and Yammer happened on his shift. What’s Missing?

Azure 120

Azure Business Model Cloud Artificial Inteligence 120

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 24, 2016

If you think the job of a CEO is to increase sales, then Ballmer did a spectacular job. He tripled Microsoft’s sales to $78 billion and profits more than doubled from $9 billion to $22 billion. The launch of the Xbox and Kinect, and the acquisitions of Skype and Yammer happened on his shift. What’s Missing?

Azure 120

Azure Business Model Cloud Artificial Inteligence 120

Up and Running

MAY 17, 2017

The sad reality is that many business acquisitions do not work out as hoped. Either the person selling their business gets significantly less than they planned, or they are not able to find a buyer at all. To make your business ripe for acquisition, make your business appealing to potential buyers.

Acquisition 92

Acquisition Technical Review Revenue Exit Strategy 92

YoungUpstarts

JANUARY 27, 2015

by Jack Narcotta, Devices Analyst at Technology Business Research. billion, illustrates Nadella’s software- and services-driven strategies area gaining traction and sales of Xbox gaming consoles and Lumia smartphones were brisk during the holiday quarter, total gross profit climbed just 0.8% While Microsoft’s 7.9%

Cloud 100

Cloud Mobile Software Review Technical Review 100

YoungUpstarts

OCTOBER 11, 2018

Depending on your business model and niche, some details may be more important than others. e-commerce sales. The quality of customer experiences brands can offer customers can mean the difference between acquisition and a bounce, loyalty and a one-time purchase. 1 Offer a Convenient Checkout Experience.

Technical Review 170

Technical Review Mobile Social Media Acquisition 170

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 11, 2020

Every business owner needs to plan to reinvent their business regularly, or their competitors and their customers will make them obsolete. They were successful with business computers and technology, but didn’t see the change. Expand into key new sales and delivery channels.

Customer 359

Customer Institutional Investors Channel Acquisition 359

YoungUpstarts

JANUARY 7, 2018

The digital revolution is disrupting the traditional business model for small and medium businesses (SMBs). This means finance, operations, sales, and marketing departments as well as leadership can all access the same data. by Humberto Farias, CEO and co-founder at Concepta.

Artificial Inteligence 164

Artificial Inteligence Analytics SCRUM Cofounder 164

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 26, 2010

Non-organic growth would include OEM relationships, finding strategic partners, “coopetition,” as well as acquisitions. Even mergers and acquisitions (M&A) came early. In many cases business opportunities with competitors (coopetition) will open up a new marketing channel, and definitely give you the cost advantages of scale.

Acquisition 214

Acquisition Merger Startup Bandwidth 214

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 20, 2020

Every entrepreneur thinks he can relax a bit after his business model is proven, funding is in place, and revenues are scaling as projected up that hockey-stick curve. Unfortunately, the market is changing so fast these days that any upward climb can level off quickly, as the core business growth begins to stall.

Hockey Stick 307

Hockey Stick Guerilla Acquisition Revenue 307

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 10, 2016

Resist the channel sales pitch for exclusivity. Avoid direct sales forces and wholly owned channels initially. Use them only when no other alternatives exist, or business success has given you the means to take full control, and make your channel a competitive advantage. Set marketing plans accordingly.

Channel 120

Channel Distribution Partner Acquisition 120

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. This requires the board to oversee the implementation of the strategic plan.

Management 64

Management Software Review Acquisition Merger 64