Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 3, 2009

and the subsequent acquisition sprees of companies like Google, Yahoo!, Do you really want to spent $100k building a product to discover through Customer Development that the market is too small? The COGS (costs of goods sold) tells me about how big your customer acquisition costs will be. portfolios.

Business Plan 334

Business Plan AJAX Venture Capital Technical Review 334

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 14, 2009

billion for a company with less than $50 million in sales. 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. billion.)

Silicon Valley 217

Silicon Valley IPO Technical Review Venture Capital 217

Steve Blank

MARCH 25, 2009

We knew from back-of-the-envelope calculations that I would need 3 times the combined marketing and sales budgets of the incumbents for a head-on assault. (I The 3:1 Lanchester Laws said I would need $60M in marketing and sales spending to win. If we tried to match them on their playing field we’d never catch up.

Silicon Valley 141

Silicon Valley Marketing RSS California 141

Steve Blank

MAY 28, 2009

But then, because there might be entrenched competitors and your concept is radically new, you still need to invest in the customer development process to learn how to get design wins from companies who may be happy with their existing vendors. Personally, I think that customer acquisition, brand, reputation, etc.,

Vertical 144

Vertical Silicon Valley Marketing Customer 144

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 2, 2013

We talk a lot about Customer Development, but there’s nothing like seeing it in action to understand its power. But the big payoff came when their discussions with medical device customers revealed an entirely new way to think about pricing —potentially tripling their revenue. the Customer Life Time (CLT)).

Customer 323

Customer Churn Rate Customer Development Lean 323

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 31, 2014

channel partners and Chinese manufacturers and customer acquisition and activation programs outside their home country. to understand distribution channel landscape, potential partners and rough cost of customer acquisition. sales office. Filed under: Business Model versus Business Plan , Customer Development.

Global 335

Global Australia Silicon Valley China 335

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 11, 2014

Most companies incrementally improved their products with process innovation (better materials, cheaper, product line extensions) and/or through acquisitions. The Lockheed Skunk Works led by Kelly Johnson was responsible for its Advanced Development Projects – everything from the P-80 , the first U.S. Lessons Learned.

Channel 286

Channel Customer Development Distribution Restful 286

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 22, 2010

An early indication that you’ve found the right business model is when you believe the cost of getting customers will be less than the revenues the customers will generate. For web startups, this is when the cost of customer acquisition is less than the lifetime value of that customer. Customer Acquisition.

Balance Sheet 298

Balance Sheet Startup Burn Rate Metrics 298

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 3, 2012

In turn, these new strategies drove the need for companies to be structured around functions (manufacturing, purchasing, sales, etc.). In the 1920’s companies restructured from monolithic functional organizations (sales, marketing, manufacturing, purchasing, etc.) This might include new products, markets or acquisitions.

Business Model 333

Business Model Customer Development United States Operations 333

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 14, 2009

For a startup, having great sales DNA is a wonderful asset. The problem stems from selling each customer a custom one-time product. This is the magic of sales: by learning about each customer in-depth, they can convince each of them that this product would solve serious problems. They are closing orders.

Customer 167

Customer San Francisco Lean Hockey Stick 167

David Teten

SEPTEMBER 6, 2015

We never seek any rights to give Amex preferential treatment at the time of a potential acquisition. There is a possibility that Amex may explore acquisitions within the Amex Ventures portfolio, but those discussions will be on market terms similar to those with other potential acquirers.”. Are they good sales people?

Venture Capital 60

Venture Capital Balance Sheet Technical Review Portfolio 60

Steve Blank

JULY 15, 2010

The size of the red bars (IPO’s) versus blue (mergers and acquisitions) illustrates that while venture-backed startups did get acquired, the IPO market was booming. But unlike an IPO where you sold stock to the public and got to run your company, in an acquisition your company is gone, and the odds are in a year or so you will be too.

Venture Capital 297

Venture Capital IPO Liquidity Event Entrepreneur 297

Steve Blank

APRIL 13, 2013

Car sales in China went from 1 million in 2001 to 14 million in 2011. there are almost no mergers or acquisitions in this market segment. on NASDAQ or the NYSE or on ChiNext, China’s equivalent of NASDAQ) compared to the 90% of exits in US via mergers or acquisitions. China Customer Development Technology Venture Capital'

Silicon Valley 267

Silicon Valley China Venture Capital Merger 267

Austin Startup

FEBRUARY 24, 2018

Much of the writing on startups focuses on two elements: finding product-market fit scaling the company once #1 is accomplished For product-market fit, we have a lot of source material to work with from the last decade: Steve Blank’s leadership on Customer Development , and Eric Ries’ on the Lean Startup ?—?along and they will.

Warrant 48

Warrant Bootstrapping Framework Hiring 48

Steve Blank

MARCH 4, 2014

These groups are adapting or adopting the practices of startups and accelerators – disruption and innovation rather than direct competition, customer development versus more product features, agility and speed versus lowest cost. existing enterprises are establishing corporate innovation groups. What Does this Mean?

IRR 335

IRR Startup Business Model Agile 335

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 7, 2010

We’ll build the class around the business model / customer development / agile development solution stack. Instead you will be getting your hands dirty talking to customers, partners, competitors, as you encounter the chaos and uncertainty of how a startup actually works. General Marketing, Sales Funnel, etc.

Wiki 311

Wiki Lean Management Business Model 311

Steve Blank

AUGUST 5, 2010

But scaling customer acquisition may take the same amount of dollars as a traditional software startup. ). Previous experience of investing in software companies that hire direct sales organizations and take years to build the product using waterfall development doesn’t translate to expertise in Consumer Internet startups.

Lean 258

Lean Internet Silicon Valley Venture Capital 258

Steve Blank

MARCH 11, 2015

And when we do make bets, they’re small bets on incremental products or acquisitions that simply add to the bottom line.”. They’ve found product/market fit (what products customers want to buy). They’ve learned the best distribution channel to get the product from their company to the customer. and how to price the product.

Widget 120

Widget Lean Business Model Metrics 120

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 23, 2016

As a formal method, the Lean Startup consists of three parts: The Business Model Canvas – to frame hypotheses, Customer Development – to test those hypotheses in front of customers, and Agile Engineering – to build Minimum Viable Products to maximize learning. Change Customer Relationships to Buy-in/Support.

Business Model 120

Business Model Revenue Channel Community 120

Steve Blank

APRIL 13, 2013

Car sales in China went from 1 million in 2001 to 14 million in 2011. there are almost no mergers or acquisitions in this market segment. on NASDAQ or the NYSE or on ChiNext, China’s equivalent of NASDAQ) compared to the 90% of exits in US via mergers or acquisitions. China Customer Development Technology Venture Capital'

Silicon Valley 159

Silicon Valley China Venture Capital Merger 159

Steve Blank

APRIL 7, 2016

” They said, “It’s OK, I’m going to buy it once it’s for sale so I’ll be your first customer.” Steve : So while raising money, you were running a branding and a customer-acquisition campaign. Meanwhile, our customers cared that Cirrus was down. … Jack : Right!

Cofounder 120

Cofounder Entrepreneur Morocco Arkansas 120

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 2, 2009

For those of you who have been following the discussion, a Lean Startup is Eric Ries ’s description of the intersection of Customer Development , Agile Development and if available, open platforms and open source. And most startup code and features end up on the floor as customers never really wanted them.

Lean 244

Lean Silicon Valley Startup RSS 244

ConversionXL

DECEMBER 2, 2020

Like many young SaaS startups, we had no shortage of marketing and sales data, but it wasn’t easy to comprehend. It wasn’t until we began creating custom dashboards to visualize our data that everything started to click. . The stage in which a customer makes a purchase. Defining your funnel.

Churn Rate 78

Churn Rate Analytics Retention SQL 78

www.ashmaurya.com

AUGUST 29, 2012

You research the market and develop some materials that will improve their standing, sales, or prospects. This can be really effective, and I was best introduced to the idea in Chet Holmes ‘ The Ultimate Sales Machine. It is very common for my insight into a market to improve as I do customer development.

Email 52

Email Customer Tennessee Software Review 52

A Crowded Space

AUGUST 20, 2015

They will need to do tons of customer development. The sales and marketing channels will be complete guesses - trying lots of different things to see what works. Once the product / market fit is established and acquisition channels are better understood, the startup can enter the next phase.

Vertical 60

Vertical Channel Acquisition Metrics 60

The Startup Toolkit

NOVEMBER 15, 2012

Growth is acquisition plus retention. If you are a sales-driven company, this is where you figure out your roadmap. Acquisition and retention tend to be inseparable from the product. You shift from qualitative feedback (customer development) to quantitative feedback (metrics). Your offering gets more productised.

Startup 55

Startup Business Model Retention Acquisition 55

ConversionXL

JUNE 14, 2021

Let them know it’s not a thinly-veiled sales call. Invite your customer segments to an interview. We’re in the process of improving our landing page builder, and part of this is speaking with past customers to see what we can do better. Sign up for a demo and go through the sales process. Limit the call to 10 minutes.

Software Review 158

Software Review Audience Differentiation Framework 158

Steve Blank

APRIL 20, 2021

Shawn immediately said the name I had given the four steps was confusing – I had called it market development – he suggested that I call it Customer Development – and the name stuck. In the Roku case study we’ve chosen three execution branches: (1) delivery platforms, (2) sales channels, and (3) chip platforms.

Product 436

Product Viral Channel San Francisco 436

ConversionXL

SEPTEMBER 24, 2020

Dave McClure’s conversion metrics visualize where different conversion optimization opportunities lie—including those for acquisition. Acquisition focuses on how to grab attention in a very crowded content environment. This feedback can improve your acquisition strategies , your value proposition , and your processes on every level.

Acquisition 111

Acquisition Software Review PPC Analytics 111

ConversionXL

FEBRUARY 9, 2016

Ads drive awareness…to drive sales. PR and publicity drive attention…to drive sales. Social media drives communication…to drive sales. It is simply getting customers. And by the transitive property, anything that gets customers is marketing. […] Welcome to growth hacking. Conducted Customer Development.

Retention 48

Retention Metrics Acquisition Conversion 48

YoungUpstarts

AUGUST 15, 2017

When managed well, your superusers can take a lot of pressure off your sales and marketing teams, while also building a rabid ‘fan’ culture that gives you confidence in making future investments. But first, you have to nurture your existing superusers while also developing new ones.

Community 124

Community LLC Customer Developer 124

ConversionXL

JULY 3, 2014

With only 6% of senior executives believing that their companies understand their customers’ needs extremely well, it’s no wonder why customer acquisition and retention has become a substantial problem. The Case For Building Customer Personas Out Of Data-Driven Research. It was a disaster.

Customer 133

Customer Analytics Conversion Lead Generation 133

ConversionXL

NOVEMBER 5, 2020

I put together a one-page website, a list of 100 people to reach out to, and a cold email script that would make seasoned sales professionals cringe. I know this language sounds formal and stuffy, but high-ticket service sales cycles are long. For us, that priority was the sales pipeline. Most B2B buyers know this.

PR 120

PR B2B Lean Audience 120

Steve Blank

JULY 29, 2013

Its goal is to take the original idea and search for a repeatable and scalable business model - first by finding product/market fit, then by testing all the parts of the business model (pricing, channel, acquisition/activation, partners, costs, etc.). Filed under: Customer Development , Family/Career/Culture.

Cofounder 335

Cofounder Advisory Board Customer Development Leadership 335

ConversionXL

JUNE 12, 2014

Yes, it will probably make your user experience more persuasive, but your time will be much better spent focusing on identifying your target market , customer development , and data driven traffic acquisition. That being said…. hint: tweet this ). image source. Case Study 4 – 11% Increase For Mortgage Lead Generation.

Conversion 112

Conversion eCommerce Software Review Green 112

Steve Blank

AUGUST 5, 2013

Lean Start-up Connection: Customer Development. Thousands, then millions of new customers were coming to the site through SEO, just like we’d guessed with our customer acquisition hypothesis. Once we built out a sales team, revenue also started to grow nicely. Filed under: Customer Development.

Lean 293

Lean Agile Customer Development SEO 293

ConversionXL

JUNE 12, 2014

Yes, it will probably make your user experience more persuasive, but your time will be much better spent focusing on identifying your target market , customer development , and data driven traffic acquisition. That being said…. hint: tweet this ). image source. Case Study 4 – 11% Increase For Mortgage Lead Generation.

Conversion 105

Conversion eCommerce Software Review Green 105