OnlyOnce

DECEMBER 8, 2021

I divided my response into “early stage” and “later stage” founders. Here’s a summary of what I said about early stage founders. Lots of market traction is great — but is all that traction coming from the same type of customer? no next round).

Early Stage 62

Early Stage Founder Later Stage B2C 62

YoungUpstarts

MAY 21, 2020

It not only validates your idea, but it helps to identify features, options and adjustments to your idea received from advice from third parties, including potential customers, that you may not have initially considered. For a B2B product, this means figuring out what kinds of businesses are suited for your product. How is it done?

Product 264

Product Cofounder Audience Product Development 264

YoungUpstarts

JANUARY 4, 2019

Startups usually enjoy a high level of enthusiasm especially during the early stages of working on an innovative idea. What’s critical to understand is that looking beyond the walls of your business may bring the answers to the most glaring problems involving your customers. Challenges in communication are inevitable.

B2B 114

B2B Customer Early Stage Partner 114

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 4, 2018

It occurred to me that although we mentioned our new thematic approach when we raised our last fund in 2017, we haven’t really shared a broader manifesto about how we are approaching the early stage market. It’s been an interesting several years in the early stage venture eco-system, and the sands have shifted considerably.

North America 120

North America Seed Stage Early Stage Lead Investor 120

The Next Web

JUNE 8, 2014

The keys are maintaining capital efficiency, launching early versions to the SMB market and constantly applying customer development methods. However, we argue that in the long run, B2B companies can be more capital efficient than B2C companies, achieving maximum traction at minimal investment.

B2C 132

B2C B2B IP Technical Review 132

Version One Ventures

MAY 3, 2023

E-commerce (DTC and infrastructure), fin tech (lending, payments), healthcare and B2B marketplaces are some of the verticals that have seen tremendous growth. India for the world” has traditionally focused on outsourcing and leveraging cost advantages, from customer service to product development.

India 87

India LP Silicon Valley Vertical 87

View from Seed

APRIL 8, 2020

He has experience in B2B, supply chain, robotics, SaaS, and IoT spaces. He helps early-stage startups with sales, marketing, and general “go to market” topics. Understand Your Customer and Their Timelines. If you’re early enough, you’ve still got options and you haven’t quite placed your bets yet.

B2B 156

B2B Angel Investor Vertical Early Stage 156

Steve Blank

MAY 29, 2011

Max and his partners interviewed and analyzed over 650 early-stage Internet startups. Today they released the first Startup Genome Report — a 67 page in-depth analysis on what makes early-stage Internet startups successful. They tend to lose the battle early on by getting ahead of themselves. Congratulations.

Technical Cofounder 333

Technical Cofounder Early Stage Startup Silicon Valley 333

VC Cafe

JANUARY 22, 2021

AWS Marketplace Startup Program – the ‘app store’ for B2B startups who are interested to sell their product to AWS customers. AWS Connections – A program that facilitates relationships between AWS enterprise customers and startups to solve enterprises’ needs and, in turn, help to grow startups.

Technical Review 174

Technical Review Startup Venture Capital Incubator 174

David Teten

MARCH 18, 2021

A typical VC thesis: “we invest in tech startups in Europe at an early stage” However, our experience shows that in many cases: . “Tech” means B2B Saas/Fintech or Consumer apps. For example, Point Nine Capital focuses on B2B SaaS and marketplaces at the seed stage, across many industries.

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Cofounder Venture Capital B2B 78

The Next Web

JANUARY 6, 2013

As a B2B company, I am personally excited about this, but I am here to tell my fellow early-stage (seed-funded or unfunded) enterprise startup entrepreneurs that acquiring enterprise customers is no joke. Good luck hunting for more customers! Here are some of the things that are working for us.

Early Stage 141

Early Stage Customer Startup B2B 141

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 22, 2021

Dispense is a B2B software company, focused on transaction software specifically designed for the cannabis industry. Dispense’s software helps large, multi-state cannabis operators manage online and offline ordering by granting these businesses greater control over customer interactions, in addition to streamlining their operations.

Cofounder 234

Cofounder B2B Early Stage Software 234

YoungUpstarts

AUGUST 23, 2019

Early-stage startups might want to consider local opportunities first before plunging into national awards! Dedicated to early-stage companies, there were over 15 categories to choose from in the 2018 edition, including, inter alia: B2B Business of the Year, Crowdfunded Business of the Year and Export Business of the Year.

Technical Review 117

Technical Review Startup Balance Sheet Cofounder 117

SoCal CTO

MAY 21, 2012

Many of the factors are not obvious and include building mystery to drive margin, why boring B2B companies often win but are challenging in other ways, how bootstrapping wins, integrating metrics from the start and many other similar lessons. What parts Agile addresses and the big problems with Agile for early-stage startups?

Fractional CTO 175

Fractional CTO CTO Hire Startup Metrics 175

YoungUpstarts

FEBRUARY 7, 2019

A crucial factor when completing the early stages of your strategy is to carry out enough research so that you have a deep understanding of your target audience. Potential customers – Identify exactly who your customers are, or will be, and establish what they want and need from your product or service.

Sales 101

Sales Argentina Technical Review B2B 101

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 22, 2021

Dispense is a B2B software company, focused on transaction software specifically designed for the cannabis industry. Dispense’s software helps large, multi-state cannabis operators manage online and offline ordering by granting these businesses greater control over customer interactions, in addition to streamlining their operations.

Cofounder 202

Cofounder B2B Early Stage Software 202

VC Cafe

SEPTEMBER 26, 2022

Before product-market fit… just care about speed of iteration according to your customer feedback. Put your users first: pretend that your customers have a seat at the table when you design your product roadmap. Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.” Bill Gates , founder of Microsoft.

Founder 187

Founder Startup Valuation Pre-Money Valuation 187

ConversionXL

APRIL 28, 2021

In many cases, customers are more willing to give out their info when rewards are at stake, like discounts or sales. Stefan Thomke of MIT’s Sloan Management Review recently wrote that memorable experiences can drive customer decisions as much as price and functionality. Gamification isn’t the domain of B2C or gaming sites alone.

Email 151

Email Product Marketing Cofounder 151

Reid Hoffman

AUGUST 6, 2020

The term “early-stage” covers a lot of territory in venture investing, from incubating a brand-new idea, to investing in a Series A. Reid Hoffman: “When evaluating technology at the seed stage, it’s much more often a case of evaluating the people building the technology, not the technology that’s currently there.

Technical Review 69

Technical Review Software Review Seed Stage Early Stage 69

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 22, 2021

Dispense is a B2B software company, focused on transaction software specifically designed for the cannabis industry. Dispense’s software helps large, multi-state cannabis operators manage online and offline ordering by granting these businesses greater control over customer interactions, in addition to streamlining their operations.

Cofounder 156

Cofounder Early Stage B2B Software 156

View from Seed

AUGUST 10, 2021

And early-stage VC investors have increasingly ventured beyond their backyards of SF, NYC, and Boston to more actively invest in (and in some cases relocate to) places like Miami, Austin, Chicago, Seattle, and other cities.

Chicago 177

Chicago Miami Cofounder B2B 177

ReadWriteStart

APRIL 10, 2020

For a startup in the B2B market, that means there’s a reasonably steep hill to climb right from the beginning. Here is a startup guide to creating an ideal customer profile. In almost every case, the data that’s most useful to a startup in its early days is the information needed to build complete customer profiles.

Customer 180

Customer Startup Analytics B2B 180

SoCal CTO

NOVEMBER 11, 2009

She is a go to person for me when I have questions around technology or early stage marketing and branding. We do a lot of B2B and also have an "Early Stage Branding" practice for technology startups. Oh, and I forget to mention in my introduction about B2B. I've known Farida for quite a while.

Early Stage 150

Early Stage Southern California Los Angeles Marketing 150

View from Seed

AUGUST 10, 2021

And early-stage VC investors have increasingly ventured beyond their backyards of SF, NYC, and Boston to more actively invest in (and in some cases relocate to) places like Miami, Austin, Chicago, Seattle, and other cities.

Chicago 156

Chicago Miami Cofounder B2B 156

David Teten

SEPTEMBER 6, 2018

HOF Capital has stitched together our workflow across Google Suite , Slack , Airtable , Asana , Copper , and some other tools (leveraging Zapier for basic 3rd party integration, in addition to custom development for certain other integrations). If you have thoughts on additional topics I should cover, please contact me. .

Technical Review 60

Technical Review Private Equity Management Cap Table 60

David Teten

SEPTEMBER 6, 2018

HOF Capital has stitched together our workflow across Google Suite , Slack , Airtable , Asana , Copper , and some other tools (leveraging Zapier for basic 3rd party integration, in addition to custom development for certain other integrations). If you have thoughts on additional topics I should cover, please contact me. .

Technical Review 60

Technical Review Private Equity Management Cap Table 60

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 1, 2009

It affects even B2B companies because ultimately most must sell to companies who sell to consumers and if they suffer they cut back on suppliers. So I believe that now is the perfect time to build a company and the perfect time for early-stage investors to bet on innovation. Consumer spending is where I’m dubious.

Technical Review 269

Technical Review Stock Hawaii Early Stage 269

View from Seed

AUGUST 10, 2021

And early-stage VC investors have increasingly ventured beyond their backyards of SF, NYC, and Boston to more actively invest in (and in some cases relocate to) places like Miami, Austin, Chicago, Seattle, and other cities.

Chicago 136

Chicago Miami Cofounder B2B 136

ConversionXL

JANUARY 18, 2022

Muun found a market need but failed to compete with bigger names that provided customers with authoritative content and resources. One neglected its positioning by failing to target the biggest pain point, and the other failed to build a brand that its customers could trust above the other major players.

Marketing 110

Marketing Product Audience Equity 110

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 29, 2012

They were mostly a B2B platform enabling game publishers to deliver via Internet streaming their traditional games built for game consoles. By not forcing the publisher to go through a Gaikai portal where they tried to control customers, they engendered trust from the publishers. I agree with him.

Southern California 279

Southern California Detroit Los Angeles California 279

YoungUpstarts

SEPTEMBER 10, 2018

If this happens, the risk of having an unpleasant experience is much higher, as an early stage startup cannot afford 7 months off the correct path. More metrics need to be identified such as product testing, market validation, and/or customer validation in order to show that a market opportunity exists. It was all hypothetical.

Programming 102

Programming Chile B2B B2C 102

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 9, 2019

If your target customer is a business, rather than a consumer, I recommend you skip crowdfunding as poorly applicable. They don’t get excited by early stage research, development, or marketing hype. If your campaign is funded quickly and generously, this also sends a very positive message to customers.

Non-disclosure Agreement 299

Non-disclosure Agreement Angel Investor Bootstrapping SEC 299

David Teten

DECEMBER 3, 2019

Many tools designed for B2B marketing in general are also relevant to investors. This provides us more time to develop meaningful relationships with prospects and customers. I previously posted a detailed presentation with sales technology tools useful for B2B sales. 3) Raise capital.

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Software Review Analytics Private Equity 78

VC Cafe

MARCH 31, 2021

This can be really hard for early stage startups, but it means the difference between being good or being great. And running fast as an early stage start-up is so important. When I started at AppsFlyer I didn’t google ‘how to build a B2B marketing plan’. Be customer-obsessed. I focussed on small experiments.

Marketing 179

Marketing Early Stage Seed Stage 179

David Teten

SEPTEMBER 23, 2017

In venture capital in particular, early-stage companies are often operating in frontier industries, where the rules are unpredictable and conventional analytic frameworks may be misleading. Many tools designed for B2B marketing in general are also relevant to investors. 1) Market fund.

Private Equity 60

Private Equity Venture Capital Equity Technical Review 60

View from Seed

JANUARY 21, 2022

After graduation, I spent the next 9 years working at a bank, an early-stage b2b fintech startup, and a growth-stage mortgage startup. In other industries, customers may be able to skip milestones in a funnel. The customer has to go through every step to get to the final milestone. Quality control.

B2B 120

B2B Germany Stock Engineer 120

View from Seed

JULY 19, 2019

All early stage venture firms essentially look at some weighting of team, market, product, and traction. JDCC stands for “Jaw-Dropping customer value through a Competition-Crushing business model.”. Like other investors, we at NextView have a number of frameworks which we use to evaluate decisions on making new investments.

Boston 149

Boston Portfolio Early Stage B2B 149