A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

JULY 19, 2010

Anything you read on popular blogs is also read by everyone else. 37signals' ranting platform — a blog with 131k followers and a best-selling book — is nearly impossible to build even with a full-time army of insightful writers. But how does authority convert to revenue? The Dream Team.

Software Review 325

Software Review Technical Review Development Team Review Bolivia 325

ReadWriteStart

SEPTEMBER 23, 2010

First up was Brad Barrett presenting GrillGrate , a grill accessory with which Brad has built a year-to-date revenue of $400,000. Her upcoming campaign of reaching out to 100,000 moms will be one of the first concerted efforts to actually test her business model. GrillGrate. She wants to sell these products on her site.

India 114

India Silicon Valley Incubator Bootstrapping 114

ReadWriteStart

SEPTEMBER 10, 2010

They already have several customers including some telcos, and are at about $350,000 in revenues. And EVEN if you ARE an experienced entrepreneur, all but just a few VCs still want to see customer validation, business model validation and traction, before they will invest. Because customer financing equals revenue, not equity.

Cloud 115

Cloud Silicon Valley Incubator Finance 115

ReadWriteStart

SEPTEMBER 16, 2010

Today, the telecom industry charges customers based on fixed price business models for data services. I pointed Zubair to a couple of case studies of bootstrapping using services to get more of his core product built; in parallel, I will help him pursue institutional funding. Cion has 18 customers and is considering funding.

Cloud 117

Cloud Fractional CTO Entrepreneur Bandwidth 117

ReadWriteStart

DECEMBER 2, 2010

Well, 1M/1M is focused on helping businesses generate $1M in annual revenue, whatever be the nature of the business. We see a lot of businesses that can be characterized as social enterprises, ranging from education to rural development businesses. Also, the business model for the business is unclear.

India 116

India Green Silicon Valley Massachusetts 116

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

Tim Keane

MARCH 9, 2011

Can you bootstrap your way to positive cash flow?   If the answer is relatively soon, then bootstrapping is a very serious consideration.    Even if it isn’t soon, early bootstrapping can reduce risk and increase chances for success, resulting in more aligned interests for entrepreneurs and investors.

Finance 83

Finance Bootstrapping Startup Equity 83

Austin Startup

AUGUST 3, 2017

If your answers starts with, “We have multiple revenue streams…” that’s a bad thing. What I really hear is, “ We have no idea what the most significant revenue driver will be. “ Is this a big enough market to support a venture funded business? Do your homework Reading this blog post is a good start!

Technical Review 69

Technical Review Startup Texas Email 69

Up and Running

MAY 23, 2016

In fact, SaaS industry revenue is projected to grow from $49 billion in 2015 to $67 billion in 2018, a compound annual growth rate of approximately eight percent. The one-page pitch format is also more suitable for SaaS businesses that are constantly testing new ideas. The business model. Domain Names and Trademark Law.

Software Review 74

Software Review Software Delaware Forecast 74

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 14, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Tuesday, April 14, 2009 Validated learning about customers Would you rather have $30,000 or $1 million in revenues for your startup? All things being equal, of course, you’d rather have more revenue rather than less. And yet revenue alone is not a sufficient goal. More on that in a moment.

Customer 167

Customer San Francisco Lean Hockey Stick 167

Up and Running

JULY 10, 2017

Different sources define freemium as a business model or a pricing strategy. Another friend of mine, multipreneur and CEO at Ritekit Saul Fleischman, has actually found the freemium model beneficial for some of his SaaS products: “With forever free users, they blog about us, and we get to market to them.

Startup 110

Startup Non-Compete Viral Software Review 110

Hippoland

FEBRUARY 12, 2018

One of the reasons I started this blog in the first place is that I think the process of raising money is a black box. 2) What is the business model and the potential unit economics? Certain investors tend to gravitate towards certain business models. You want your revenue to be higher than your costs.

Seed Stage 48

Seed Stage Business Model B2B Email 48

Hippoland

FEBRUARY 12, 2018

One of the reasons I started this blog in the first place is that I think the process of raising money is a black box. 2) What is the business model and the potential unit economics? Certain investors tend to gravitate towards certain business models. You want your revenue to be higher than your costs.

Seed Stage 48

Seed Stage Business Model B2B Email 48

Steve Blank

MAY 26, 2009

The best entrepreneurship textbooks and blogs assume that advice to startups is generalizable. Bootstrap for years! You can bootstrap without VC money. Reply Bowling Balls , on June 21, 2009 at 8:29 am Said: I found your blog on google and read a few of your other posts. on May 26, 2009 at 6:18 am Said: [.]

Vertical 149

Vertical Silicon Valley Intellectual Property RSS 149

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 7, 2013

We had some radical thoughts how companies were going to have change to remain competitive in the 21 st century in a blog post. What CEOs, management teams and shareholders care about is growth —revenue growth, greater user adoption, increased market share, bigger margins, etc. in developing these new models.

Lean 326

Lean Nepal Cofounder Customer Development 326

Hearpreneur

DECEMBER 8, 2019

What makes me really proud though is we’ve been 100% bootstrapped for our 3.5 Entering our 4th year of business, we doubled our headcount, became a certified B Corporation, and released our revenue model which aligned with our becoming a 1% for the Planet member. 16- Made my blog a profitable business.

Entrepreneur 117

Entrepreneur Technical Review Vertical Las Vegas 117

ReadWriteStart

AUGUST 4, 2011

One of the discussions that ensued was about how to bootstrap a freemium venture. Irit, however, needs to think through some of the details of the business model, pricing model, and positioning. She writes the blog Sramana Mitra On Strategy and is author of the Entrepreneur Journeys book series and Vision India 2020.

Bootstrapping 124

Bootstrapping San Jose Entrepreneur Silicon Valley 124

ReadWriteStart

JANUARY 27, 2011

And, oh by the way, we also really like the idea of the 1M/1M entrepreneurs building valuation and negotiating leverage through these business development efforts, instead of signing off large chunks of their company in form of equity early on. It certainly will be a better way to bootstrap the company. million in revenue.

Dilution 114

Dilution Revenue Finance Entrepreneur 114

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

OCTOBER 23, 2012

After I sold Smart Bear, that division has increased revenue and profit every year, for five years, even through the 2008/2009 economic disaster. GroupOn’s engine that turned capital into revenue growth was a form of force-feeding rather than building a product). But really, are all those acquirers so stupid? Surely not.

IPO 240

IPO Flash Bootstrapping Private Equity 240

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 5, 2009

And so the spreadsheet is built with conservative assumptions, including a final revenue target. No matter how low we make the revenue projections for this new product, it’s extremely unlikely that they are achievable. That’s because the model is based on assumptions about customers that are totally unproven.

San Francisco 102

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment Startup 102

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

MARCH 11, 2014

Edwin: Oh sorry, so the business model. Edwin: The business model is that the organizer has to pay. And standing out to a company that got $10 million dollars in funding even before they started Asana is going to be very hard if you bootstrap it with your savings. Jason: That’s called bootstrapping, right.

Technical Cofounder 220

Technical Cofounder Cofounder Software Review Management 220

Tim Keane

OCTOBER 19, 2006

Of course, everyone understands that somewhere in the equation theres revenue, whether directly or indirectly. Of course, everyone understands that somewhere in the equation theres revenue, whether directly or indirectly. Bootstrapping. Subscribe to this blogs feed. Thinking about pricing. Here are two examples.

Software Review 60

Software Review Wisconsin Technical Review Angel Investor 60

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

MAY 1, 2012

The results of a serendipitous live experiment were recently published as guest posts on this blog. Sacha demonstrated the benefits of selling many copies of an eBook at a low price, while Jarrod pointed out the advantages of higher prices, bringing in more revenue with 1/6th the number of units sold. Which is better?

Customer 320

Customer Revenue Acquisition Cofounder 320

Tim Keane

OCTOBER 2, 2007

Is Business Model Analysis Important To You? Investors love entrepreneurs who understand their business model, and can describe it accurately. In my mind, a "business model" reveals the structure of the profit engine that underlies the venture. Is Business Model Analysis Important To You?

Business Model 60

Business Model Wisconsin Angel Investor Bootstrapping 60

Rob Go

MARCH 20, 2013

As an uncreative VC, I figure I’d find a way to outsource idea generation for my blog. What are some common-sense tips for startups as they seek to avoid the “ Trough of Sorrow ” that Brian Balfour has blogged about? Third, when you have PMF and growth, and you find yourself needing to really build a repeatable business model.

Bootstrapping 46

Bootstrapping Finance Dividend Vesting 46

ReadWriteStart

SEPTEMBER 3, 2010

As a result, the expectation is that you have to figure out a way to get to some level of momentum on your own (by bootstrapping) or with small doses of angel money - "drip financing" so to speak. Such OEM deals may cost him 50% of his product revenue, but would be the fastest way to reach a large number of customers, nonetheless.

Channel 115

Channel India Bootstrapping Silicon Valley 115

ReadWriteStart

AUGUST 11, 2011

On the topic of business models, Spencer proposed building traffic and then selling the company, which I pushed back on. We spent considerable time exploring ways to verticalize the app and creating an ad-supported business model instead, which would also broaden his exit options considerably. could be your companion.

Silicon Valley 105

Silicon Valley Columbus Ohio Incubator 105

ReadWriteStart

AUGUST 25, 2011

To give you a flavor, we're running a high volume, high quality, high authority micro-blogging campaign through Twitter whereby we put out 200 messages a day, and showcase our rich blog content , as well as core 1M/1M messages through it. You can follow @sramana and @1mby1m to see the Twitter stream for yourselves.

Lead Generation 118

Lead Generation Connecticut HTML Bootstrapping 118

Hippoland

OCTOBER 16, 2016

But, most early stage investors probably think along similar lines: 1) Super high tech companies 2) High infrastructure companies 3) Free consumer apps 4) Everything else — aka companies that can make money immediately Also, there is a lot to say in each category, but there isn’t enough space in this blog post to do so here.

Startup 48

Startup Vertical Early Stage Bootstrapping 48

Professor VC

JULY 31, 2008

Its been a while since my last blog post.It This whole process got me thinking about the textbook business model. Similar to the textbook business, the music business BN (before Napster) was controlled by the labels. The artists received very little of album sales, but kept concert and merchandise revenue.

San Jose 28

San Jose Software Review Angel Investor Silicon Valley 28

Up and Running

MAY 28, 2015

There’s a lot of questions about what do you actually need in terms of information, if you’re going to do your forecasting, and how does one put together a revenue forecast if you’ve never started a business or your business is brand new. It is a very difficult proposition. There seems to be a lot of questions.

Lean 60

Lean Business Plan Video Software Review 60

Up and Running

NOVEMBER 27, 2017

To avoid these extremes, there are several questions which we use at Subbly whenever someone is either considering a subscription business model or just getting started. Is your business idea focused mainly on product promotion, or the service through careful experience design? So, the planning stage can feel high stakes.

Curation 68

Curation Business Model SEO Social Media 68

techcrunch.com

FEBRUARY 19, 2010

That means the vast majority of privately held companies are still very dependent on venture money to stay in business. Respondents deemed between 12%-16% of companies generating revenues to be essentially “worthless” and deemed 20%-26% of their pre-revenue investments to be “worthless.” I read their damn blogs!

Venture Capital 62

Venture Capital Technical Review Sweat Equity Valuation 62

techcrunch.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

This is the first post in what’s going to be a series of blogs on how to go from nothing – no connections, no team, no money and no knowledge of how the startup industry really works – to operating a growing business. I mentioned to Mike that I was going to kick this series off over on the Meebo Blog , but he suggested I start it here.

Technical Review 84

Technical Review Cofounder Technical Cofounder Software Review 84

Tim Keane

JANUARY 12, 2010

3]   However, if they are built bottom up, they demonstrate and make explicit a range of business model assumptions the entrepreneur is using to think about his business and its revenue model.   Pre-bubble Siliicon Valley deals were popularly valued at multiples of revenue.

Term Sheet 68

Term Sheet Valuation Dividend Liquidation Preference 68

Tim Keane

JUNE 21, 2011

How to prepare a sales forecast for a business plan. First develop a business model.  By this time (in six months) we will be getting 20 orders per day from these two callers and our revenue will stabilize at that rate. How to prepare a sales forecast for a business plan. First develop a business model.

Forecast 68

Forecast Business Plan Sales Wisconsin 68

Tim Keane

JULY 16, 2007

I just talked to a business owner the other day who has grown her startup nicely - 15% a year or so - up to revenue of a bit over $2.5MM. Now, (in the service business,) the venture is at the point where she could accelerate its growth. in new revenue. On revenue of $2.5MM, thats a 24% increase just to pay the bank.).

Wisconsin 60

Wisconsin Angel Investor Bootstrapping Startup 60