Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 16, 2009

Eric Ries in Times Square For any model to be useful it has to predict what happens in the real world – including the web. I realized the Customer Development model needs to be clearer in what exactly a startup is supposed to do, regardless of the business model. “What is the “Business Model” of your startup?&#

Customer Development 219

Customer Development Web Developer Customer 219

Seeing Both Sides

AUGUST 16, 2012

TripAdvisor may be one of the most fascinating companies I know and so I was excited to dig into their business model as part of my series on scaling. TripAdvisor is more of a classic consumer Internet success story, but with even more powerful network effects and an amazing business model. Henry Harteveldt, Forrester.

Part-Time VPE 54

Part-Time VPE Software Review Costa Rica Technical Review 54

Hearpreneur

DECEMBER 8, 2019

On the heels of seeing the 10% influencer base increase the referrals process yielded, the team at Intellifluence pushed to create a brand-to-brand referral program as well, intent on creating user acquisition flywheels wherever possible. Thanks to Mac Fadra, MAXiM Hair Restoration ! #12- 12- Officially Incorporated and more.

Entrepreneur 117

Entrepreneur Technical Review Vertical Las Vegas 117

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 14, 2009

Tech acquisitions went crazy at the same time the IPO market did. The Rise of Mergers and Acquisitions -– March 2003 -2008 After the dot.com bubble collapsed, the IPO market (and most tech M&A deals) shutdown for technology companies. And some companies didn’t even have to go public to get liquid. billion.) So what’s left?

Silicon Valley 217

Silicon Valley IPO Technical Review Venture Capital 217

Version One Ventures

SEPTEMBER 24, 2014

We want to see traction – specifically, how quickly you can capture the initial market or vertical** that you are targeting, and how engaged these early users are. After you demonstrate your strong sense of product design and development, we want to know how you will build a real business beyond just features. How can you expand TAM**?

Vertical 167

Vertical Distribution Business Model Framework 167

VC Cafe

FEBRUARY 7, 2011

Today, eCommerce companies can scale up faster than almost any other consumer business model. This is due in part to the relatively simple and immediate validation of business models that are not fully dependent on advertising. VC dollars can create true value in eCommerce!

eCommerce 94

eCommerce Open Source SEM Technical Review 94

Version One Ventures

SEPTEMBER 24, 2014

We want to see traction – specifically, how quickly you can capture the initial market or vertical** that you are targeting, and how engaged these early users are. After you demonstrate your strong sense of product design and development, we want to know how you will build a real business beyond just features. How can you expand TAM**?

Vertical 153

Vertical Distribution Business Model Framework 153

YoungUpstarts

AUGUST 14, 2019

Plangrid and Building Connected have made headway penetrating the market, and their recent acquisitions by Autodesk means they will be taken more mainstream with such a strong backer. However, there continues to be trepidation to such change in the majority of the industry, and the reality differs across verticals and regions.

Global 189

Global Vertical Agile Engineer 189

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

Version One Ventures

APRIL 23, 2013

Vertical markets: Expanding from books to other media verticals seemed unrealistic, considering both the music and movie verticals had a rapidly shrinking share of physical goods. Most importantly, we felt that we had optimized our business model to extract as much value out of the marketplace as we could.

Vertical 130

Vertical Non-Compete Asia Europe 130

YoungUpstarts

OCTOBER 24, 2017

When a customer is willing to share their business model, their pain points, and their needs with you, they are demonstrating trust that you will be able to help them ease their pain and reach their desired outcomes. These practices have formed the foundation of Bolstra’s platform and assurance service offerings.

Sales 104

Sales Customer Sales Cycle Vertical 104

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 238

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 238

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

FEBRUARY 11, 2014

But it’s surprising to me how many companies with recurring/subscription revenue don’t understand the interactions between the elements that make up customer acquisition cost (CAC), churn and lifetime value (LTV). The black horizontal line represents time and the unlabeled vertical access represents relative profit.

Churn Rate 288

Churn Rate .Net Metrics Hosting 288

Steve Blank

APRIL 15, 2011

This week they were testing one of the most confusing sections of a company’s business model – Customer Relationships - the activities used to “Get, Keep and Grow” customers in a physical or virtual (web or mobile) channel. But the big project for the week was testing and analyzing Customer Acquisition Costs. Can the D.C.

Customer 247

Customer Cloud EC2 Channel 247

crowdSPRING Blog

APRIL 13, 2010

Why Startups are Agile and Opportunistic – Pivoting the Business Model – [link]. Good analysis by @msuster about Twitter’s acquisition of Tweetie & what Twitter should do at Chirp – [link]. Good question: Where are the ‘vertical’ social media specialists? – [link].

Social Media 95

Social Media Small Business Design Media 95

crowdSPRING Blog

APRIL 13, 2010

Why Startups are Agile and Opportunistic – Pivoting the Business Model – [link]. Good analysis by @msuster about Twitter’s acquisition of Tweetie & what Twitter should do at Chirp – [link]. Good question: Where are the ‘vertical’ social media specialists? – [link].

Social Media 95

Social Media Small Business Design Media 95

View from Seed

AUGUST 2, 2017

Others take bets on certain verticals or business models, such as marketplaces, SaaS, or enterprise technology. Sunrise , a calendar app we invested in from our first fund, was used every single day by millions of consumers prior to their acquisition by Microsoft.

Seed Stage 273

Seed Stage Portfolio Cofounder B2B 273

www.pakman.com

SEPTEMBER 27, 2012

And I believe, even at their scale, their ad load will need to further increase (along with their targeting abilities) in order to signficantly grow the business. But if your service attracts particular verticals of content engagement, not all content is created equal, and some is much more valuable than others. Andres Moran.

Social Media 47

Social Media Vertical Advertising Distribution 47

Austin Startup

DECEMBER 3, 2019

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. Techstars funds all types of startups, working across all verticals, applying all types of business models.

Austin 62

Austin Curation Startup Dallas 62

Ben's Blog

AUGUST 31, 2020

But the resulting shift is correcting long-standing issues in small business lending around distribution and risk selection. First off, by embedding lending within a software product like Jobber or with payment processing like Lightspeed, it removes the cost of acquisition completely.

IPO 36

IPO Stock Software Review API 36

Occam's Razor

OCTOBER 14, 2014

This recommendation also valuable for companies that have very unique business models, or face other unusual circumstances (geographic, size, amount of innovation, and many others). With that, let's look at the first rich source of benchmarking data in CI tools, the industry and sub-vertical reports. See Page 269. :).

Analytics 133

Analytics Vertical Metrics Web 133

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. Pied Piper Inc needs funding to accelerate customer acquisition for its SaaS solution. GSD Capital loans $250,000 to Pied Piper taking no ownership or control of the business.

Revenue 60

Revenue Technical Review Software Review Equity 60

Mucker Lab

MAY 1, 2013

From the outside, they are vertically integrated challengers to decades if not hundred-years old incumbents. Turns out, for whatever reason – cultural, business model, leadership, even bad luck – many incumbents have yet to figure out what to do with software, always on connectivity, and technology.

Software 107

Software Silicon Valley Los Angeles Columbus 107

The Startup Toolkit

JULY 13, 2013

However, you can also see it broken out in Microsoft’s own words: A business model based on partner and first-party devices with both consumer and enterprise services. These are going to be big, strategic acquisitions too, well beyond the startup’s revenues and traction. Colour me skeptical.

Engineer 41

Engineer Vertical Framework Acquisition 41

The Next Web

OCTOBER 2, 2013

That’s why the free business model is so popular in China. You figure out a way to compete with them, not on the surface but in a different direction… Make a vertical (niche) so good that you own a large market share. billion acquisition of app store 91 Wireless is a classic example.

China 122

China Developer Intellectual Property Mobile 122

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. Marketing first.

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. Marketing first.

Founder 48

Founder Sales Cycle Affiliate Retention 48

Hunter Walker

MARCH 3, 2016

So, technically we were an MCN, but that was more a function of the landscape when we started than a business model. After the acquisition, AwesomenessTV empowered us to go back to our core DNA of management and shed the MCN moniker. Do you think vertical content (Multi-Channel Networks) MCNs are the future?

Vertical 48

Vertical Channel Curation Community 48

Rob Go

JULY 11, 2013

Here are a couple examples from our portfolio: Vertical Communities: One of the exciting attributes of GrabCAD in the early days was its rapidly growing, engaged community of mechanical engineers. As a vertical community, the business of GrabCAD was never going to look like that of a social network or social media company.

Distribution 66

Distribution Vertical Viral B2B 66

Hippoland

OCTOBER 16, 2016

But, you need to be growing FAST. (But you should at least be able to articulate a high level plan around the future monetization.) So, you’ll want to show that you are making progress on optimizing your free customer acquisition funnel (e.g. growing quickly) and that you are also improving stickiness over time. I mean REALLY HARD.

Startup 48

Startup Vertical Early Stage Bootstrapping 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. Harvard Business School Current Research Sources for Private Equity.

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Software Review Analytics Private Equity 78

steveblank.com

JULY 8, 2011

– Mike [link] Reply Jeff Skinner , on May 24, 2010 at 9:28 am said: Steve, you don’t know me though I use your ‘Customer Development process’ video in my classes (Entrepreneurship at London Business School). Jeff skinner Faculty, London Business School. Can we touch base on this.

Software Review 110

Software Review Startup Silicon Valley Analytics 110

Austin Startup

DECEMBER 3, 2017

Accelerator programs are becoming more and more vertical and pulling together corporate and institutional support that provides investment, purchasing power, and validation. You will gain a major advantage by watching peers in your space develop their business models, and you’ll be able to commiserate with those who speak your language.

Atlanta 48

Atlanta Albuquerque Incubator Austin 48

Venture Chronicles

AUGUST 28, 2012

Freemium is not magical pixel dust, it is a way to deliver a multi-channel business model that intersects customer segments regardless of size, complexity, and revenue opportunity. It does require you to rethink your business from top to bottom, beginning with how you meter your pricing model and ending with how you use your website.

Software 43

Software Vertical Acquisition Channel 43

Seeing Both Sides

FEBRUARY 9, 2015

Conventional wisdom suggests that the most important metrics for a startup - such as unit economics, cost of acquisition, lifetime value, churn rates - typically get better with time. I hear this asserted frequently by entrepreneurs who confidently project their businesses with increasingly improving metrics as they scale into the future.

Metrics 20

Metrics Churn Rate Acquisition SEM 20

andrewchenblog.com

JANUARY 28, 2010

To become profitable using a freemium business model, this simple equation must hold true: Lifetime value > Cost per acquisition + Cost of service (paying & free) Said in plain english, the lifetime value of your paying customers needs to be greater than the cost it took to acquire them, plus, the cost servicing all users (free or paying).

CPA 51

CPA Retention Viral Acquisition 51

ConversionXL

APRIL 7, 2021

Sorry, but ABM is not B2B, nor is it right for all markets, business models, or companies (just like every company should not be running freemium aka PLG for acquisition.) Is ABM right for your business? In most cases, ABM should not be a standard go-to-market (GTM) strategy. Which brings us to our next question: .

IP 98

IP Marketing Technical Review Software Review 98