Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 10, 2020

As a business investor, I look for investments where I see founders really holding their people accountable for their actions. More importantly, I look for entrepreneurs and owners like you who are not afraid to hold themselves accountable for the success of the business. Unclear, misaligned, or overlapping job responsibilities.

Advisory Board 283

Advisory Board Due Diligence Retention Agile 283

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 17, 2009

I called the founder and noted that there are SAT tests that are shorter than the survey. Customer Development suggests that founders have continual and timely customer, channel and market information. Founders need three views of information to truly understand what is going on: First-hand knowledge. Continual Data Flow.

Metrics 239

Metrics Customer Customer Development Lean 239

Steve Blank

JUNE 1, 2011

As customer and agile development reinvent the Startup, it’s time to ask why startup board governance has not kept up with the pace of innovation. Reinventing the board meeting may offer venture-backed startups a more efficient, productive way to direct and measure their search for a profitable business model. The Wrong Metrics.

Silicon Valley 290

Silicon Valley Business Model Venture Capital Balance Sheet 290

Steve Blank

MARCH 29, 2012

for A Repeatable and Scalable Business Model. Pair Customer Development with Agile Development. Failure is an Integral Part of the Search for the Business Model. Success Begins with Buy-In from Investors and Co-Founders. No Business Plan Survives First Contact with Customers.

Customer Development 328

Customer Development Developer Customer Cofounder 328

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 15, 2008

But by taking advantage of open source, agile software, and iterative development, lean startups can operate with much less waste. So far, I have found "lean startup" works better with the entrepreneurs Ive talked to than "agile startup" or even "extreme startup.") Of course, many startups are capital efficient and generally frugal.

Lean 168

Lean San Francisco Startup Continuous Deployment 168

Steve Blank

JUNE 1, 2011

As customer and agile development reinvent the Startup, it’s time to ask why startup board governance has not kept up with the pace of innovation. Reinventing the board meeting may offer venture-backed startups a more efficient, productive way to direct and measure their search for a profitable business model. The Wrong Metrics.

Silicon Valley 258

Silicon Valley Business Model Venture Capital Balance Sheet 258

Steve Blank

JANUARY 25, 2010

In this post we’re going to offer a new definition of why startups exist : a startup is an organization formed to search for a repeatable and scalable business model. A Business Model. Ok, but what is a business model ? A business model describes how your company creates, delivers and captures value.

Agile 335

Agile Startup Silicon Valley Business Model 335

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 24, 2017

Why do these founders get to stay around? Because the balance of power has dramatically shifted from investors to founders. VCs competing for unicorn investments have given founders control of the board. — all great things when you are executing and scaling a known business model. Board Control.

Founder 245

Founder Technical Review CTO Hire IPO 245

Steve Blank

MARCH 11, 2015

And worse, even if someone does manage to start something new, our management structure has so many financial, legal and HR hurdles that every initiative needs to match our existing business financial metrics, processes and procedures. Bob looked wistful, “Our founders built a company known for taking risks and moving fast.

Widget 120

Widget Lean Business Model Metrics 120

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 14, 2009

What matters is proving the viability of the company’s business model, what investors call “traction.&# It should be even more important to the founders themselves, because it demonstrates that their business hypothesis is grounded in reality. Every board meeting, the metrics of success change.

Customer 167

Customer San Francisco Lean Hockey Stick 167

Up and Running

JUNE 23, 2015

Meg Wirth and Allyson Cote, founders of Maternova. The business model is innovative and unique, and the business itself serves as a fantastic “how to” example for entrepreneurs looking to start a social, mission-driven business. See Also Robot Paper: What It Takes to Start a Comic Book Business.

Cofounder 60

Cofounder Sweat Equity Social Media Business Model 60

SoCal CTO

JULY 13, 2011

This site aggregates and filters content from thought leaders who talk about topics such as Marketing , Sales , Design , Revenue , Hiring , Social Media , Business Models , Metrics , PR , Venture Capital , Angel Investors , Bootstrapping , Incubators , Agile and many others.

Intellectual Property 175

Intellectual Property Aggregator Startup IP 175

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 30, 2008

So what does CTO mean, besides just "technical founder who really cant manage anyone?" If youre trying to design an architecture to maximize agility, how can that work if some people are working in TDD and others not? However, they insisted on using a platform that totally contradicted their business model. Expo SF (May.

CTO 168

CTO Fractional CTO CTO Hire Technical Review 168

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 5, 2009

In a startup context, numbers like gross revenue are actually vanity metrics, not actionable metrics. One way to conceive of our goal in an early-stage venture is to incrementally “fill in the blanks&# for the business model that we think will one day power our startup. June 8, 2009 1:16 AM Colin said. Expo SF (May.

San Francisco 102

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment Startup 102

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 27, 2009

It uses principles of agile software development, open source and web 2.0, and lean manufacturing to guide the creation of technology businesses that create disruptive innovation. This presentation will empower entrepreneurs and managers to: -Identify a profitable business model faster and cheaper than your competitors.

Lean 60

Lean Austin San Francisco Continuous Deployment 60

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 29, 2009

I hope to show why lean and agile techniques actually reduce the negative impacts of technical debt and increase our ability to take advantage of its positive effects. Just as a business incurs some debt to take advantage of a market opportunity developers may incur technical debt to hit an important deadline.

Technical Review 168

Technical Review Software Review San Francisco Lean 168

ReadWriteStart

JUNE 13, 2011

As customer and agile development reinvent the startup, it's time to ask why startup board governance has not kept up with the pace of innovation. Reinventing the board meeting may offer venture-backed startups a more efficient, productive way to direct and measure their search for a profitable business model. Here's how.

Silicon Valley 117

Silicon Valley Balance Sheet Metrics Early Stage 117

Steve Blank

JANUARY 10, 2011

In a startup founders and the board need to do exact the opposite of a large company – failures need to be shared, discussed and dissected to extract “lessons learned” so a new direction can be set. As a founder I quickly learned how open I could be with my board. Founders lead by example in sharing Lessons Learned.

Forecast 264

Forecast Agile Revenue Founder 264

Ben's Blog

MAY 15, 2020

In normal times, every company operates against some hypothetical growth model—a data-driven framework that describes how your product grows and how you acquire new users. In normal times, every company operates against some hypothetical growth model—a data-driven framework that describes how your product grows and how you acquire new users.

Founder 36

Founder Conversion Technical Review Cash Position 36

The Next Web

FEBRUARY 7, 2014

Ilya Pozin is the founder of Open Me and Ciplex. Most entrepreneurs think it can’t happen to them, but in fact recent research from Harvard Business School lecturer Shikhar Ghosh finds approximately 75 percent of all startups go under. It also makes it OK to fail since mistakes are much less expensive in this model.

Forecast 136

Forecast Startup Metrics Agile 136

Steve Blank

APRIL 30, 2009

And the final lesson was that we were keeping score on our packaging with the wrong metrics – it wasn’t about awards, it was about sales in the retail channel. Initially your job is to understand each of the parts of your business model before you hire someone to do it.

Sales 120

Sales Silicon Valley RSS Las Vegas 120

ReadWriteStart

JUNE 29, 2020

Wikipedia.com defines a “startup company (startup or startup) is an entrepreneurial venture which is typically a newly emerged, fast-growing business that aims to meet a marketplace need by developing a viable business model around an innovative product, service, process, or a platform.”. Implement the “lean startup” philosophy.

Bootstrapping 85

Bootstrapping Global Startup Hungary 85

The Next Web

AUGUST 6, 2013

They didn’t validate their business model before investing so much in it and under-estimated the “last mile” problem. But instead, Zappos founder Nick Swinmurn first wanted to test the hypothesis that customers were ready and willing to buy shoes online. Contrast this to Zappos. Lean startup engineering.

Lean 132

Lean Startup Continuous Deployment Open Source 132

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 18, 2010

What differentiates them is their disciplined approach to determining when to spend money: after the fundamental elements of the business model have been empirically validated. No departments The Five Whys for Startups (for Harvard Business R. Many lean startups are ambitious and are able to deploy large amounts of capital.

Lean 167

Lean San Francisco Continuous Deployment Startup 167

Up and Running

MAY 23, 2016

The one-page pitch format is also more suitable for SaaS businesses that are constantly testing new ideas. Your pitch is going to cover your strategy (what you’re going to do), your tactics (how you’re going to do it), your business model (how you will make money), and your schedule (who is doing what and when).

Software Review 74

Software Review Software Delaware Forecast 74

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 16, 2010

Rashmi Sinha, co-founder and CEO of SlideShare , describes an early version of the analytics package that’s part of the Pro accounts the company announced today. Between the metrics and the direct customer questions, SlideShare had what Sinha calls “minor learnings and then major shifts.&# Except it didn’t take off.

San Francisco 167

San Francisco Lean Analytics Continuous Deployment 167

Agile VC

MAY 16, 2019

Practically speaking this doesn’t mean that all of the shares owned by founders, investors, employees (RSUs), or others will be available to trade immediately as they will need to be converted and registered for public trading. But it does mean that traditional 180 day lock-up periods won’t generally apply to existing Slack shareholders.

Lock-up Period 100

Lock-up Period Retention Azure .Net 100

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 21, 2010

Many startups don’t innovate at all in the product dimension, but use other kinds of innovation: repurposing an existing technology for a new use, devising a new business model that unlocks value that was previously hidden, or even simply bringing a product or service to a new location or set of customers previously underserved.

San Francisco 168

San Francisco Startup Lean Continuous Deployment 168

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 15, 2010

We have to continually invent new categories of products, new platforms, and new business models – all extremely risky bets. When private capital is available in sufficient quantities to satisfy investor and founder liquidity needs, why go IPO? No departments The Five Whys for Startups (for Harvard Business R.

IPO 166

IPO San Francisco Lean Silicon Valley 166

crowdSPRING Blog

MAY 8, 2015

The Angel VC: Key Revenue Metrics for SaaS companies – buff.ly/1INSu29. Why a Billion Dollar Startup Just Sold for $15 Million (and What Founders Can Learn From It) buff.ly/1GMqXJO. Online Courses Accelerate Any Business Model bit.ly/1InOB3Z. – buff.ly/1EY9ktL. Why VCs Need Unicorns Just to Survive - buff.ly/1Re6VjN.

Small Business 48

Small Business Design Social Media Startup 48

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 8, 2009

In particular, we would cover customer development, continuous deployment, minimum viable product, and actionable metrics. I love the business model. "Lean Startups" just jumped the shark and became consultingware, like "agile" did. No departments The Five Whys for Startups (for Harvard Business R.

Lean 102

Lean Programming San Francisco Continuous Deployment 102

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 17, 2009

Eric Ries, a co-founder of IMVU, is a strong proponent of this process and very successfully used it at IMVU. Identify a profitable business model faster and cheaper than your competitors. No departments The Five Whys for Startups (for Harvard Business R. Expo SF (May. Conference streaming, sponsors, discounted tickets.

Lean 60

Lean San Francisco Continuous Deployment DC 60

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 5, 2009

Chasing funding versus chasing customers and a repeatable and scalable business model, is one reason startups fail. Is there a profitable business model? The Traditional VC Pitch Entrepreneurs who pursue the traditional product development model don’t have customer data to answer these questions. Can it scale?”

Customer Development 262

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 262

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 25, 2013

Investors sitting through Incubator or Accelerator demo days have three metrics to judge fledgling startups – 1) great looking product demos, 2) compelling PowerPoint slides, and 3) a world-class team. Teams can prove their competence and validate their ideas by showing investors evidence that there’s a repeatable and scalable business model.

Oakland 326

Oakland Incubator Lean Metrics 326

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 9, 2009

No business model, either. In fact, I remember sending him and his obscure-to-me co-founder (aka Reid Hoffman ) a bug report early-on, instead of taking them up on their offer of an in-person meeting. All my products and ideas focus on early cash and a business model that works from the first day. And Google?

San Francisco 94

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 94

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 13, 2009

You have to know your business model. Most startups launch before theyve figured out what business theyre in. Founders push for it. In some ways, founders are even worse. My experience is that many founders actually have a deep anxiety that maybe they are not succeeding. Most startups arent so fortunate.

San Francisco 168

San Francisco PR Lean Early Stage 168

Startup Lessons Learned

DECEMBER 14, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, December 14, 2009 Business ecology and the four customer currencies Lately, I’ve been rethinking the concept of “business model&# for startups, in favor of something I call “business ecology.&# Constructing a working business model is a form of ecosystem design.

Customer 156

Customer San Francisco Viral Lean 156