Steve Blank

MARCH 18, 2011

Dot.com Bubble ( 1995-2000): “ Anything goes” as public markets clamor for ideas, vague promises of future growth, and IPOs happen absent regard for history or profitability. With Netscape’s IPO , there was suddenly a public market for companies with limited revenue and no profit. The New Bubble : (2011 – 2014): Here we go again…. (If

Internet 334

Internet IPO Silicon Valley Agile 334

Pascal's View

MARCH 18, 2010

Susan Mangiero , CEO of Investment Governance’s Fiduciary X , asked me the following: Question: Do you think than anemic IPO market will remain a deterrent to VC investing? I believe that an entire generation of American innovation is at risk as a result of the lack of IPO’s. Yes I do.

IPO 28

IPO Government SEC Venture Capital 28

ReadWriteStart

JULY 18, 2011

Jeff Clavier was the first tech investor I ever met; he was introduced to me years ago by some hip engineers in a bar as "one of the few cool VCs." Kedrosky: "In the 90's I was an analyst through all this [tech investment and IPO] madness. You want to build your own IPO and exit. Think about when LinkedIn went public.

Investment Bankers 153

Investment Bankers Technical Review Cofounder Due Diligence 153

Haystack

NOVEMBER 24, 2018

It’s been a few years now since BlackBerry made phones, and this represents its largest purchase to date (by a factor of 3) since its 2015 acquisition of Good Technology. PlanGrid, on the other hand, realized the complexity of construction workflows — captured nicely in this Tweetstorm by ex-PlanGrid engineer and current Gatsby.js

Acquisition 62

Acquisition Artificial Inteligence Balance Sheet Cofounder 62

Rob Go

DECEMBER 28, 2011

IPO’s/Exits. Kayak: Registered for an IPO but on hold. Raised $174M in its IPO in April, current market cap ~$550M. in its IPO, current market cap of $282M. Ebay’s third largest acquisition in the last 3 years. Tripadvisor: An amazing entrepreneurial story. market cap. 61M in Q3 revenue, up 28% YoY.

Technical Review 54

Technical Review Boston Software Review IPO 54

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

Austin Startup

APRIL 27, 2019

HomeAway is another one of our five tech IPOs in the last five years. Michael and Mark are business savants, just like Michelangelo was an art and engineering savant (by the way, I’m pretty sure Michelangelo would have made a damn good entrepreneur in this day and age). As of today, RetailMeNot is worth $1.33 It is worth $3.4

B2C 51

B2C Austin Cofounder IPO 51

Austin Startup

NOVEMBER 16, 2010

Over a 25 year career, Baughman has gained experience in leading worldwide sales organizations, brings expertise in full life cycle product management, proven revenue creation and growth management including taking a start up from zero to $1.6B, and shepherding companies through all phases from start up launch to IPO to acquisition.

Naming 59

Naming Hiring Technical Review Virginia 59

prosperati.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

As a result, local universities here churn out thousands of new graduates each year who can spell Microsoft but understand nothing about proper software engineering. There must be a healthy acquisition or IPO pipeline in the market. Malaysia unfortunately does not have a good technology IPO pipeline.

Offshore 40

Offshore Malaysia Developer Stock Options 40

Hunter Walker

NOVEMBER 23, 2015

Now as SVP of Engineering at Box, he’s had the chance to scale their engineering team and help take the cloud collaboration company public. Earlier this month, I was at an event where Sam mentioned he writes a letter to his Box engineering team every Sunday. What do you look for in a “Box engineer?”

Engineer 48

Engineer Liquidation Preference AJAX IPO 48

David Teten

JANUARY 19, 2021

The value ascribed by subsequent investors (in a secondary); buyers (acquisition); or the public markets (IPO). Early-stage: Cofounder with engineering/ product background from top-tier university or major technology company. Yes, typically preferred equity. 15-20% sold per round. Volatile, uncapped. Cash collateral.

Cofounder 78

Cofounder Technical Review Equity Dividend 78

The Next Web

OCTOBER 7, 2013

“It kinda sucks to be engineer #1.”. That’s what a couple of my friends – engineers at Google and Bloomberg who have been following the rise of startup culture with intrigue – told me recently. They were referring to non-founder engineers, most commonly the first hire for technology businesses. Engineer #1?

Engineer 129

Engineer Dilution Option Pool Vesting 129

Mucker Lab

APRIL 6, 2023

It's very hard for PLG to be the only or main motion with infrastructure products because it's not something one engineer will just test and buy. A lot of times as founders–especially technical founders, engineers, product people–believe if we build this awesome feature that solves your pain point, you should come and use it.

Product 78

Product CTO Hire Startup Fractional CTO 78

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 26, 2020

As a hardware engineer, you already know the value, importance, and layout of a spec to keep you focused, but you may not be so familiar with the key elements of a business plan, and the way to use it to support and add credibility to your hardware solution. Most investors don’t want long-term commitments.

Business Plan 423

Business Plan Product Intellectual Property Elevator Pitch 423

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 24, 2017

— Unremarked and unheralded, the balance of power between startup CEOs and their investors has radically changed: IPOs/M&A without a profit (or at times revenue) have become the norm. In the 20th century tech companies and their investors made money through an Initial Public Offering (IPO).

Founder 245

Founder Technical Review CTO Hire IPO 245

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 2, 2008

Its the same with acquisitions. ► August (2) SXSW Case Study: SlideShare goes freemium ► July (4) Case Study: kaChing, Anatomy of a Pivot Some IPO speculation Founder personalities and the “first-class man&# th. No one wants to buy you till someone else wants to buy you, and then everyone wants to buy you.

San Francisco 125

San Francisco Software Review Technical Review Continuous Deployment 125

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 12, 2015

Sales (and/or customer acquisition in a multi-sided market) becomes achievable by a sales force (or network effect or virality) without heroic efforts from the founders. Customer acquisition and activation are understood and Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) and Life Time Value (LTV) can be estimated for the next 18 months.

Startup 120

Startup Lean Venture Capital Advisory Board 120

Reid Hoffman

OCTOBER 5, 2020

One of the hottest topics in the technology and finance world right now is an old idea that has suddenly found new life, the special purpose acquisition company or “SPAC.” The reason I think SPACs are hot right now is the lack of innovation in the IPO process. But an IPO isn’t the end of a company’s story.

Venture Capital 28

Venture Capital IPO Cofounder Institutional Investors 28

Pascal's View

AUGUST 22, 2009

On Monday, August 10, Barron’s ran a story “Does the IPO Market Shun Smaller Companies?”, This practice has created “ a near oligopolistic hold on tech IPOs ” by these large investment banks. The IPO chasm that exists today is the result of the death of the sub $50 million IPO. jobs today.

IPO 40

IPO Merger Institutional Investors Venture Capital 40

Hunter Walker

NOVEMBER 20, 2013

20 hardware engineers getting together to form a Syndicate. Institutional VCs rely a model which optimizes for billion dollar outcomes via an acquisition or IPO. Or have different liquidity assumptions beyond acquire or IPO. 2) The Bundled Expertise Syndicate. Now that would be interesting.

Syndicate 98

Syndicate Syndication South America Seed Stage 98

Duct Tape Marketing

SEPTEMBER 29, 2022

Questions I ask Mike Evans: [1:46] Could you give us a high-level overview of the startup of Grubhub to IPO to what you’re doing now? 7:52] Was there competition that you had to buy up, and/or what type of acquisitions did you feel like you had to make? [9:19] What type of acquisitions did you feel like you had to make.

Founder 82

Founder Chicago Kansas Startup 82

K9 Ventures

APRIL 9, 2014

Threshold for an IPO is higher Ten years ago, if you had $20M in revenue you were ready to go public. Top engineering talent today has a bimodal distribution. 6M-$15M used to scale customer acquisition and revenue) Series B is the new Series C. Today, you need almost 5x or 10x that number to even be eligible.

Mezzanine 134

Mezzanine Seed Stage Early Stage IPO 134

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 2, 2008

In a subscription business, maybe your attrition starts matching your acquisition, balancing like magic. Or your cost of customer acquisition just magically floats up to match your customer lifetime value. Nothing seems to matter. In an eyeballs business, you just cant seem to acquire or activate that next step-up of customers.

San Francisco 60

San Francisco Continuous Deployment Lean DC 60

Austin Startup

JUNE 27, 2017

There are many contributors to local funding source growth; the number of startups with ideas worth funding, successful exits (either through IPOs or M&A events), locally based, growing public companies, the availability of capital for other type of investments, and the availability of experienced management.

Venture Capital 54

Venture Capital Austin Texas Private Equity 54

David Teten

MAY 16, 2011

Kevin Barhydt, Head of Acquisitions, RPX. Geleerd acquired the stadium out of highly publicized bankruptcy and turned around its financial position and ultimately engineered the sale back to the Toronto Blue Jays in 2005. Kevin Barhydt, Head of Acquisitions, RPX. Panelists: Jeff Kupietzky MBA 98, CEO, Oversee.net.

Naming 122

Naming Government Intellectual Property LLC 122

Hippoland

SEPTEMBER 28, 2018

The interesting thing about the US market is that customer acquisition these days is actually fairly straightforward online now for most customer audiences. This makes it easier to do customer acquisition for a consumer-based company. In the 90s, in the US, going IPO was a common liquidity path. Or will these companies go IPO?

Asia 48

Asia Indonesia B2B Singapore 48

Hippoland

SEPTEMBER 28, 2018

The interesting thing about the US market is that customer acquisition these days is actually fairly straightforward online now for most customer audiences. This makes it easier to do customer acquisition for a consumer-based company. In the 90s, in the US, going IPO was a common liquidity path. Or will these companies go IPO?

Asia 48

Asia Indonesia B2B Singapore 48

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 1, 2010

Scott left the company, which eventually IPO’d and became Internet Brands. Rumored to have turned down acquisition offers from Yahoo and Facebook. Spread through word-of-mouth as the company has no sales team, all engineers. Foursquare. -A A location based service which incorporates social and gaming elements.

San Francisco 248

San Francisco Venture Capital Analytics Government 248

Seeing Both Sides

OCTOBER 28, 2010

I now want to transform the online and mobile grocery coupon business.” Dave’s Series A round was way over-subscribed by folks like First Round, Ron Conway, Roger Ehrenberg, Founder Collective and I think it’s in no small part because his background and delivery were so crisp and relevant.

Arkansas 40

Arkansas Due Diligence Cofounder Angel Investor 40

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 21, 2010

By now we all know that the largest part of the online spend has been SEM (search engine marketing) where people buy CPC (cost per click) links to display alongside the “organic&# search results in the search engine. This no doubt led to the acquisition of AdMob by Google and Quattro by Apple. Perfect.

Advertising 284

Advertising Las Vegas Affiliate RSS 284

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 14, 2009

This is an incredible skill, one that most engineers overlook. So heres the question that I pose to you - our startup helps software companies develop a scalable revenue engine in the form of software-specific hardware devices. In my consulting practice, I sometimes have the opportunity to work with companies like this.

Customer 167

Customer San Francisco Lean Hockey Stick 167

ConversionXL

NOVEMBER 29, 2018

If freemium still seems like a barrier to acquisition, you’ve got plenty of money in the bank, and you’re crossing your fingers for a buyout by Google or Facebook, a fully free product may make the most sense. Nonetheless, sharpening targeting for user acquisition or offering a trial only to some users (e.g. Free-trial models.

Customer 119

Customer Conversion Acquisition B2B 119

Occam's Razor

OCTOBER 14, 2014

Any big changes in your marketing/customer acquisition strategy over the last time period (more money doing Search, less money in Email, elimination Facebook as it does not work, etc., Leaders (company is leaving China, our IPO is next week, 1,800 new stores are being opened in 180 days, our new IRR is 8%). or Weightwatchers.co.uk

Analytics 133

Analytics Vertical Metrics Web 133

K9 Ventures

OCTOBER 10, 2017

6M-$15M used to scale customer acquisition and revenue). Engineering Capital. Seed is the new Series A. (~$2M used get for building product, establishing product-market fit and early revenue). Series A is the new Series B. (~6M-$15M Series B is the new Series C. Series C/D is the new Mezzanine. Precursor Ventures. Notation Capital.

Seed Stage 82

Seed Stage Finance Later Stage Equity 82

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. If your app has incredibly strong retention, you will probably do very well with the current PR/new app system of acquisition. So what can you do?

San Francisco 68

San Francisco Lean Retention SEM 68

Pascal's View

MAY 13, 2011

We should all be concerned about this because small companies are the engines for job growth and new job creation in America. The NVCA has developed research going back forty years showing that over 90% of the job growth created by venture-backed companies occurs AFTER their IPO.

Equity 31

Equity Securities and Exchange Commission IPO Marketing 31

Scalable Startup

SEPTEMBER 11, 2013

Stanford - Not sure this even needs explaining, but Stanford has been a wole new entity in the past 20 years, beyond anyones imagination in wealth creation, funding, computer science, a recruiting engine into SV then on to local companies, pride, confidence, location. That’s OK if you plan for it, “engineer” for it.

Silicon Valley 22

Silicon Valley San Francisco Angel Investor Hawaii 22