Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 15, 2010

It was the first company to do “paid search&# back when Larry & Sergey were saying they would never do it. They want to monetize the Twitter stream via contextual search matching. But Twitter.com (which will likely improve dramatically on UI, I’m guessing) will be the main event for Twitter search.

Venture Capital 271

Venture Capital Affiliate Valuation San Francisco 271

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 22, 2008

is an elegant way to model any service-oriented business: Acquisition Activation Retention Referral Revenue We used a very similar scheme at IMVU, although we werent lucky enough to have started with this framework, and so had to derive a lot of it ourselves via trial and error. The AARRR model (hence pirates, get it?)

San Francisco 167

San Francisco CPA SEM CTO Hire 167

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. A startup is a search for a repeatable and scalable business model. As a founder you are testing a series of hypotheses about all the pieces of the business model: Who are the customers/users?

Balance Sheet 298

Balance Sheet Startup Burn Rate Metrics 298

Steve Blank

JUNE 23, 2016

Capital is returned to these investors through liquidity events (originally public offerings, but today mostly acquisitions). Its acquisition of Android may have been the biggest bargain in corporate history. And for long-term survival – Horizon 3 – search for and create new/disruptive business model(s).

Architecture 227

Architecture IRR Balance Sheet Liquidity Event 227

David Teten

APRIL 1, 2021

First Round Search , Startupschool , and GSV Passport are examples of comprehensive founder resources from investors. I have developed a founder curriculum on my blog. Customer Development. A well-developed model is Andreessen Horowitz’s Executive Briefing Center. For negotiation with providers, consider Buyer.co.

Private Equity 78

Private Equity Venture Capital Portfolio Equity 78

Steve Blank

JANUARY 26, 2016

All while we’re still writing a Request for a Proposal from within the US Government procurement and acquisition channels. These acquisition and procurement “silos” of excellence are virtually impenetrable by new ideas and requirements. We’re Our Own Worst Enemy. Efficiently Being Inefficient.

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley North Korea Agile Lean 120

Steve Blank

APRIL 13, 2013

China has essentially closed its internal search, media and social network software market to foreign companies who wouldn’t play with the government rules on the Great Firewall. there are almost no mergers or acquisitions in this market segment. Filed under: China , Customer Development , Technology , Venture Capital.

Silicon Valley 267

Silicon Valley China Venture Capital Merger 267

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 3, 2012

This might include new products, markets or acquisitions. We propose that corporations equipped for the challenges of the 21st century think of innovation as a sliding scale between execution and search. It only emerges after an intense business model design and search activity based on the customer development process.

Business Model 333

Business Model Customer Development United States Operations 333

Steve Blank

MARCH 18, 2011

Tech IPOs were a receding memory, and mergers and acquisitions became the only path to liquidity for startups. VC’s went back to basics, to focus on building companies while their founders worked on building customers. Startups could now get a first version of a product out to customers in weeks/months rather than months/years.

Internet 334

Internet IPO Silicon Valley Agile 334

Duct Tape Marketing

AUGUST 29, 2014

Another useful report is Channels (Acquisition > Channels) with the “Mobile Traffic” segment applied. This functionality requires custom development to set up, which you can read more about here. Google Mobile Search Engines Small Business Mark Hansen' Channels Report.

Analytics 65

Analytics Mobile Channel Conversion 65

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 7, 2010

In contrast, startups search for a business model. (Or Or more accurately, startups are a temporary organization designed to search for a scalable and repeatable business model.) There are few courses which teach aspiring entrepreneurs the skills (business models, customer and agile development, design thinking, etc.)

Wiki 311

Wiki Lean Management Business Model 311

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

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.”. I suggested the best place to start the conversation is with the 21 st century definition of a startup: A startup is a temporary organization designed to search for a repeatable and scalable business model.

Widget 120

Widget Lean Business Model Metrics 120

Steve Blank

MARCH 31, 2015

When I first started teaching customer development (searching, validating and executing a business model), one of my students pointed out that customer development was similar to the theory of a military strategist, John Boyd. Customer Development Science and Industrial Policy Secret History of Silicon Valley'

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley Afghanistan Iraq Kuwait 120

Steve Blank

MARCH 11, 2010

Our goal is to teach students the key concepts of the startup process and help them understand that a startup is a search for a profitable business model. A Startup is a Search For A Business Model. As I’ve described in previous posts ; a startup is an organization formed to search for a repeatable and scalable business model.

Intellectual Property 226

Intellectual Property Business Model Customer Development Distribution 226

Steve Blank

APRIL 13, 2013

China has essentially closed its internal search, media and social network software market to foreign companies who wouldn’t play with the government rules on the Great Firewall. there are almost no mergers or acquisitions in this market segment. Filed under: China , Customer Development , Technology , Venture Capital.

Silicon Valley 159

Silicon Valley China Venture Capital Merger 159

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 2, 2008

Its the same with acquisitions. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? No one wants to buy you till someone else wants to buy you, and then everyone wants to buy you. The key to closing deals is never to stop pursuing alternatives.

San Francisco 125

San Francisco Software Review Technical Review Continuous Deployment 125

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. Somewhere in the dim past of the company, it too was a startup searching for a business model.

IRR 335

IRR Startup Business Model Agile 335

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

ConversionXL

OCTOBER 30, 2014

One on one interviews, surveys, and other customer development techniques can help to reveal this. What they’re missing though, was that after many unsuccessful acquisition strategies , Dropbox took a step back and found that many of their existing customers found the platform because of referrals.

Programming 107

Programming Marketing Analytics Portfolio 107

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 2, 2008

In a subscription business, maybe your attrition starts matching your acquisition, balancing like magic. In an eyeballs business, you just cant seem to acquire or activate that next step-up of customers. Or your cost of customer acquisition just magically floats up to match your customer lifetime value.

San Francisco 60

San Francisco Continuous Deployment Lean DC 60

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 14, 2009

(For more on how this plays into the process of scaling up, see the Customer Creation stage of the customer development model.) But in the meantime, by iterating on their product with customers, they have a chance to get there on their own. Labels: agile , customer development 15comments: Scott Shapiro said.

Customer 167

Customer San Francisco Lean Hockey Stick 167

VC Cafe

SEPTEMBER 10, 2010

The Four Steps to the Epiphany (highly recommended book by Steve Blank) preaches for customer development before product development, advocating a quick launch with a minimal feature set rather than a full fledged product offering. I recently got to test a couple of new search products from startups: Bekko and Griplin.

Lean 120

Lean Customer Development Audience Viral 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. The Customer Development process (and the Lean Startup) is one way to do that.

Lean 244

Lean Silicon Valley Startup RSS 244

A Crowded Space

AUGUST 20, 2015

They will need to do tons of customer development. Once the product / market fit is established and acquisition channels are better understood, the startup can enter the next phase. It may make sense to divert some focus and attention to exploring other opportunities in search of a better business.

Vertical 60

Vertical Channel Acquisition Metrics 60

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 23, 2013

LSC: Tell us about the customer development you did for your book: Alistair: We''ve been thrilled at how Lean Analytics seemed to resonate with founders. We''ve joked that if a startup is an organization in search of a sustainable, repeatable business model, then a big company is an organization designed to perpetuate such a model.

Analytics 167

Analytics Lean Widget Metrics 167

www.ashmaurya.com

AUGUST 29, 2012

If you spend a few minutes searching the Internet for blogs and you click through to some high traffic ones, you ‘ll probably be given the chance to sign up for a newsletter. 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

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. Strategies span a range of methods, but we’re going to focus on PPC, social media, and search. Image source ).

Acquisition 111

Acquisition Software Review PPC Analytics 111

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 11, 2011

He invented the category of sponsored search. He created GoTo.com (later renamed Overture) out of a frustration with search. At the time when you did a search on Lycos, Alta Vista or similar for a category such as Cars you ended up getting 9 spam results and 1 proper website to meet your needs. Overture (Goto.com).

Product 350

Product Tuvalu Dilution Incubator 350

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 7, 2008

The App Store is a channel for customer acquisition. I think its helpful to think about two kinds of competition for distribution: acquisition competition and retention competition. Acqusition competition is how new apps get new customers. Labels: iPhone , search engine marketing 3comments: Th.Khangs said.

San Francisco 68

San Francisco Lean Retention SEM 68

Steve Blank

MARCH 22, 2009

And you’d like me to do my talk on Customer Development and startups?” “No, we’re the other CIA.” Years later, I searched Google for anything written on moth/bat radar and countermeasures , and while now there are quite a few papers, John had never published anything on the subject.

Silicon Valley 247

Silicon Valley Thailand RSS Venture Capital 247

Steve Blank

MARCH 28, 2009

He was constantly looking at the multiple lines on the ALR-20 display and could see the Soviet radar order of battle: ground to air communications, what radars were around (search, acquisition, tracking, etc.), Reply Ben C. ,

Silicon Valley 195

Silicon Valley Thailand RSS Michigan 195

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. Test This: Microcopy In Site Search. That being said…. hint: tweet this ). image source.

Conversion 112

Conversion eCommerce Software Review Green 112

ConversionXL

JUNE 14, 2021

Conduct Jobs-to-Be-Done research (JTBD) to uncover what job your customer wants to get done with your offering. Take the search for a hat as an example. The customer isn’t necessarily looking for a hat, but for a way to block out the sun or keep their hair out of their face. Who your customers are.

Software Review 158

Software Review Audience Differentiation Framework 158

viniciusvacanti.com

SEPTEMBER 7, 2010

I write this post to put you out of your miserable technical co-founder search and give you some realistic options. It’s actually pretty hard to find a good start-up job if you have no real engineering or user acquisition / product management skills. I was in this situation and we barely escaped.

Cofounder 43

Cofounder Technical Cofounder Founder Ruby 43

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. Test This: Microcopy In Site Search. That being said…. hint: tweet this ). image source.

Conversion 105

Conversion eCommerce Software Review Green 105

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. Test This: Microcopy In Site Search. That being said…. hint: tweet this ). image source.

Conversion 101

Conversion eCommerce Software Review Green 101