YoungUpstarts

AUGUST 5, 2015

We were not any different, we had corporate bylaws, which my partner and I both reviewed and signed. Our company was essentially going to be 50/50, but since my partner at the time was Indian, we decided that we would apply for HUB status as a business. Unfortunately, a formal advisory board was something we never fully formed.

CTO Hire 100

CTO Hire Fractional CTO Advisory Board Software Review 100

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 31, 2012

Make sure your plan answers every relevant question that you could possibly imagine from your business partners, spouse, and potential investors. Don’t expect them to believe your $100M revenue projection, if you are still waiting for the first revenue dollar. Build qualified advisory board.

Intellectual Property 260

Intellectual Property Sweat Equity CTO Hire Fractional CTO 260

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 16, 2009

I was in New York last week with my class at Columbia University and several events made me realize that the Customer Development model needs to better describe its fit with web-based businesses. In it, I got asked a question I often hear: “What if we have a web-based business that doesn’t have revenue or paying customers?

Customer Development 219

Customer Development Web Developer Customer 219

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 17, 2011

Make sure your plan answers every relevant question that you could possibly imagine from your business partners, spouse, and potential investors. Don’t expect them to believe your $100M revenue projection, if you are still waiting for the first revenue dollar. Build qualified advisory board.

Intellectual Property 253

Intellectual Property Sweat Equity CTO Hire Fractional CTO 253

www.instigatorblog.com

MARCH 2, 2010

The Importance of Advisory Boards for Startup CEOs Tweet When a startup receives financing it will need to setup a Board of Directors. The Board probably existed beforehand, but was made up only of the founders. Mark Macleod spells it out beautifully in his post on Advisory Boards. Why wouldn’t you?

Advisory Board 40

Advisory Board Startup Cofounder Equity 40

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 22, 2010

Make sure your plan answers every relevant question that you could possibly imagine from your business partners, spouse, and potential investors. Don’t expect them to believe your $100M revenue projection, if you are still waiting for the first revenue dollar. Build qualified advisory board.

Intellectual Property 222

Intellectual Property Sweat Equity CTO Hire Fractional CTO 222

BeyondVC

JANUARY 3, 2019

We had another solid year filled with learning, growth, laughter, and new projects and partners. Thanks to all of the amazing founders, advisors, co-investors, corporate partners, and others that helped make 2018 an amazing year. The 10 year bull market where every company’s revenue chart is up and to the right is over.

Stealth 79

Stealth Advisory Board Cloud Virginia 79

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 6, 2021

Every new business I know dreams of building momentum in their business, where growth continues to increase, customers become your best advocates, and employee motivation is high. Unfortunately, with limited resources, this isn’t possible, and it frustrates customers and the team. Focus first on finding more of the right customers.

Technical Review 400

Technical Review Technical Cofounder Advisory Board Cofounder 400

ConversionXL

AUGUST 11, 2021

To uncover audience problems and motivations, call on your brand market research or customer service data. The more you know about your audience, the better you can customize your offer to appeal to the right kind of sponsors. Next, look at any companies or suppliers you already partner with. Asset valuation.

Audience 139

Audience Social Media Email Ruby 139

Up and Running

AUGUST 30, 2017

This description should basically be an elevator pitch for potential partners and business investors to get excited about what you’re offering and your unique location, philosophy, and approach. Like it or not, this will likely affect your revenue and enrollment, especially if you are offering part-time care. Reach your target market.

Business Plan 93

Business Plan SBA Software Review Advisory Board 93

David Teten

SEPTEMBER 5, 2014

I’ve written on the expert network industry a fair amount in the past: see How to Earn More Consulting Revenue from Expert Networks and How Executives Can Work with Private Equity and Venture Capital Portfolio Companies. We’re backed by Bessemer Venture Partners, Silver Lake Partners, and individual investors like Ron Conway, among others.

New York 114

New York Technical Review Networking Advisory Board 114

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 28, 2017

As a new business advisor and angel investor, I have assembled my own favorite list of shortcuts to avoid, in the hope of saving you from learning these lessons the hard way: Be satisfied with verbal or handshake partner agreements. Focus on products and customers, and trust your accountant.

Cost 180

Cost Advisory Board Entrepreneur Angel Investor 180

Duct Tape Marketing

APRIL 11, 2022

Running a business is hard But with a good referral program it doesn't have to be As a small business owner you are probably thinking about helping your current customer or trying to figure out how to increase sales. As a business owner myself, I know you just want your customers to be happy with their purchases.

Programming 87

Programming Small Business Advisory Board B2B 87

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 13, 2012

Terms like “every customer needs this” and “next generation platform” are far too soft, and should be avoided. This is not the place for a detailed product specification, but an explanation of how and why it works, including a customer-centric quantification of the benefits. Marketing, sales, and partners. Solution and benefits.

Business Plan 283

Business Plan Sweat Equity Exit Strategy Intellectual Property 283

Steve Blank

AUGUST 27, 2012

It was great to watch him embrace the spirit and practice of customer development. He was constantly in front of customers, listening, selling, installing and learning. It seemed like once a week Yuri would come back from a customer meeting brimming with new insights. And that’s where the problem was. A Pivot a Week.

Founder 316

Founder Cofounder Advisory Board Burn Rate 316

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 13, 2011

Terms like “every customer needs this” and “next generation platform” are far too soft, and should be avoided. This is not the place for a detailed product specification, but an explanation of how and why it works, including a customer-centric quantification of the benefits. Marketing, sales, and partners. Solution and benefits.

Business Plan 290

Business Plan Sweat Equity Exit Strategy Intellectual Property 290

Small Business Force

SEPTEMBER 9, 2011

You have some actual customers, driving real revenue and maybe even have an employee or two. And now here you are, all alone, trying to figure out how to take that concept, those few customers, that couple of employees and create a sustaining, scalable business. Second, be totally market and customer-focused.

Early Stage 32

Early Stage Advisory Board Technical Review Web Development 32

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 13, 2016

Investors want to hear about customers with money who have a painful problem that you can solve now. Investors are looking for a concise description of your product or service without technical jargon or fuzzy marketing terms with value quantified in customer terms. What are your forecasts for revenue, expenses and cash flow?

Sweat Equity 120

Sweat Equity Advisory Board Liquidity Event Startup 120

Gust

AUGUST 5, 2012

Terms like “every customer needs this” and “next generation platform” are far too soft, and should be avoided. This is not the place for a detailed product specification, but an explanation of how and why it works, including a customer-centric quantification of the benefits. Marketing, sales, and partners. Solution and benefits.

Business Plan 182

Business Plan Sweat Equity Exit Strategy Intellectual Property 182

crowdSPRING Blog

FEBRUARY 28, 2019

Make sure you build your business to meet the needs of a specific niche to avoid overspending and underwhelming all of your potential customers. That passion will come through in everything you do, and your customers will appreciate and embrace the authenticity of your brand. How to identfy your brand's audience, and more! Real Estate.

Business Plan 64

Business Plan Small Business Administration Hiring Social Media 64

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 17, 2018

According to most investors I know, traction is some clear evidence that the “dogs are eating the dog food” – usually meaning that you have at least one customer paying full price for your solution. 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

The Startup Magazine

JUNE 19, 2018

We enjoy visionary leadership, dedicated engineers working on their life ambitions, exceptional operational leadership, the A list of advisory board members, highly skilled assembly technicians, and energetic marketing and product team members. We have been revenue positive since day one. What is your secret sauce? Our people!

Texas 73

Texas Advisory Board Startup Angel Investor 73

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 22, 2010

Terms like “every customer needs this” and “next generation platform” are far too soft, and should be avoided. This is not the place for a detailed product specification, but an explanation of how and why it works, including a customer-centric quantification of the benefits. Marketing, sales, and partners. Solution and benefits.

Business Plan 186

Business Plan Exit Strategy Sweat Equity Intellectual Property 186

Small Business Force

SEPTEMBER 9, 2011

You have some actual customers, driving real revenue and maybe even have an employee or two. And now here you are, all alone, trying to figure out how to take that concept, those few customers, that couple of employees and create a sustaining, scalable business. Second, be totally market and customer-focused.

Early Stage 20

Early Stage Advisory Board Technical Review Employee 20

Steve Blank

JUNE 15, 2010

Do they “get&# Customer Development ? And some larger funds that specialize in later stage deals may have a partner or two who likes to invest at this stage. Do They Get Customer Development? Have they heard about Customer Development ? Is Your VC Founder Friendly? Here are five questions to consider.

Founder 231

Founder Vesting Later Stage Early Stage 231

Hearpreneur

MARCH 15, 2016

Your company produces solid revenue – what advice do you have for companies struggling to keep things even revenue-wise? Once we started to grow, getting distributors etc, we had to succumb to terms, but for the first couple of years, we were able to grow the company on the revenue stream. The answer isn’t always VC’s or angels.

Advisory Board 48

Advisory Board Michigan SBIR Revenue 48

David Teten

NOVEMBER 17, 2011

It’s very powerful to have a model that you can email to everyone in the firm, because then everyone sees clearly that you’re communicating the exact same message to the whole team (including outside consultants and the advisory board, if any). Vinicius Vacanti and Jim Moran of Yipit had the same experience.

Employee 155

Employee IRR Startup Mexico 155

Steve Blank

JUNE 22, 2009

Army Signal Corps advisory board, and the Army was going to acquire their first computer for research. We Changed Our Mind In 1966, 10 years after Hewlett’s memo, Hewlett Packard’s revenue and headcount had grown ten fold; $200 million and 11,000 employees – all from test and measurement equipment.

Silicon Valley 164

Silicon Valley RSS California Agile 164

BeyondVC

DECEMBER 15, 2005

As for startups, not many were mentioned, and most of the technology buyers said your best bet was coming in through a larger partner whether it be a Sun, Cisco, HP, or IBM. So lesson #1 is while it is always hard to land your first financial services customer, remember not to screw it up because if you do everyone will know.

Advisory Board 60

Advisory Board New York Dividend Sales Cycle 60

crowdSPRING Blog

MARCH 14, 2019

Make sure you set up your real estate business to meet the needs of a specific niche to avoid overspending and underwhelming all of your potential customers. That passion will come through in everything you do, and your customers will appreciate and embrace the authenticity of your brand. NOT SATISFIED WITH THE GROWTH OF YOUR BUSINESS?

Business Plan 79

Business Plan Limited Liability Company Small Business Sales 79

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 8, 2013

In addition to being startup founders, like Richard Branson , founder of more than 400 companies and still going strong, there are several other key roles that I see Boomers taking more often these days to drive successful startups: Advisory Board. Customer service. Executive Assistant (aka Secretary).

Advisory Board 247

Advisory Board Angel Investor Startup Equity 247

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 20, 2011

In addition to being startup founders, there are several other key roles that I see Boomers taking more often these days to drive successful startups: Advisory Board. What you need is an experienced executive, who is willing to work for equity, and will happily step aside in a couple of years when your revenues exceed $20M.

Advisory Board 268

Advisory Board Angel Investor Entrepreneur Equity 268

Gust

DECEMBER 31, 2012

In addition to being startup founders, like Richard Branson , founder of more than 400 companies and still going strong, there are several other key roles that I see Boomers taking more often these days to drive successful startups: Advisory Board. Customer service. Executive Assistant (aka Secretary).

Advisory Board 177

Advisory Board Angel Investor Startup Equity 177

betashop.com

OCTOBER 8, 2012

This past week while I was in Tokyo for meetings with potential partners for Fab, I was invited to participate in a panel discussion on startups. million registered users, 7500 supplier partners, 600 team members, and a run-rate of more than $150M in sales in just 15 months. It’s not about you, it’s about your customers.

Technical Review 108

Technical Review Technology Software Review Valuation 108

ReadWriteStart

JUNE 20, 2012

In this excerpt, authors Steve Blank and Bob Dorf continue to explain the Customer Discovery Philosophy (see Part One, " Is Your Startup a Valid Vision or Just a Hallucination? "). Customer discovery turns founders’ initial hypotheses about their market and customers into facts. We call these early adopters earlyvangelists.

Customer 119

Customer Advisory Board Engineer Cofounder 119

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 26, 2010

Advisory Board. What you need is an experienced executive, who is willing to work for equity, and will happily step aside in a couple of years when your revenues exceed $20M. Customer Service. They have the maturity and sophistication to deal with your demanding executives and partners.

Advisory Board 189

Advisory Board Angel Investor Equity Salary 189

Hunter Walker

MAY 2, 2016

Advisory Board lunch w our largest investors followed by a State of Homebrew, State of the Market, State of our Portfolio presentation. On paper Homebrew’s first fund is shaping up very nicely, with, to date, significant appreciation in the portfolio and a healthy number of companies growing real revenues.

Advisory Board 48

Advisory Board LP Institutional Investors Portfolio 48