Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 30, 2017

In fact, I can condense the sum of my business experiences into eight key disciplines: Start with a total and ongoing customer focus. Don’t assume anything until you have done market research and listened to real customers. Then assume the customers will change over time, so never stop listening.

Bootstrapping 120

Bootstrapping Metrics Technical Review Entrepreneur 120

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 22, 2021

Even if you are bootstrapping your business, and you are the only investor, you should be asking yourself the same question. Proof of any business model starts with a finished product or solution, sold to a new customer for full price, with high satisfaction for the value received. Customer support is more than handling exceptions.

Business Model 414

Business Model Angel Investor Bootstrapping Revenue 414

YoungUpstarts

AUGUST 24, 2015

By bootstrapping, bartering, reducing overheads (rental and manpower), and leveraging technology (especially the web), one can start one’s own business almost on a dime without being beholden to creditors or venture capitalists. c) Selling more to existing customers. In other words, we should give them “the fish”. 4 Compelling offer.

Technical Review 100

Technical Review Software Review South Carolina Startup 100

Duct Tape Marketing

AUGUST 23, 2023

He is the co-founder of Boast.ai, where he leveraged the Community-Led Growth model to bootstrap the company. where he leveraged a community-led growth model to bootstrap the company. Then another time was when we were bootstrapping both. It's as simple as that, and that is what metrics are to me. We were expecting twins.

Community 53

Community Kuwait Cofounder Bootstrapping 53

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? This may sound crazy, coming as it does from an advocate of c harging customers for your product from day one. Every board meeting, the metrics of success change.

Customer 167

Customer San Francisco Lean Hockey Stick 167

Gust

APRIL 27, 2014

Even if you are doing the work yourself, you need to document requirements, features, metrics, and milestones. Unless you are bootstrapping everything, you need to have a clear plan on what networking and documents are required to get to friends and family, Angel investors, and institutional investors. Customer service and support.

Startup 187

Startup Institutional Investors Angel Investor Bootstrapping 187

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 22, 2021

Unfortunately, most of us don’t have enough resources to bootstrap our own startups, so we are completely dependent on investors to help turn great ideas into great businesses. These show a focus on the business elements required for success, and metrics for ensuring accountability, management control, and feedback along the way.

Intellectual Property 352

Intellectual Property Equity Bootstrapping Valuation 352

ReadWriteStart

JUNE 29, 2020

In other words, you must start bootstrapping an online startup , because the future of the global business world is online. Before we look at ways to bootstrap a startup, let’s consider a comprehensive definition of what a startup is. Ways to bootstrap a startup. What is a startup? Seek help from a mentor or advisor.

Bootstrapping 85

Bootstrapping Global Startup Hungary 85

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 16, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, March 16, 2009 Combining agile development with customer development Today I read an excellent blog post that I just had to share. The breakthrough idea of agile is that software should be built iteratively, with the pieces that customers value most created first. Enter Jims post.

Agile 111

Agile Customer Development Developer San Francisco 111

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 14, 2013

With bootstrapping, no business plan is expected by anyone. Yet I would suggest that creating one is still a valuable exercise, since you need the plan as the blueprint for your company, team communication, and progress metrics, unless your management style makes this a waste of time.

Business Plan 250

Business Plan Technical Review Entrepreneur Angel Investor 250

Hearpreneur

JANUARY 25, 2023

In addition to providing customer care and assistance, a virtual assistant may also develop web pages or compose blog entries, administer email newsletters, carry out sales and marketing chores, generate sales leads, and conduct a variety of other jobs. Thanks to Carter Seuthe, Credit Summit ! #4-

Software Review 114

Software Review Technical Review Artificial Inteligence Entrepreneur 114

The Next Web

SEPTEMBER 22, 2013

From a narrow niche of IT professionals who were our early target market, we now have a wide variety of customers.”. Bootstrapping can be fun, you get to iterate quickly, turn on dimes, invent new features on the fly. I think we’ve done a good job at this and it shines through in Simple’s product and customer experience.

Cofounder 164

Cofounder Founder Startup Bootstrapping 164

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 29, 2019

In the real world, evidence indicate the vast majority of new ventures are self-funded, or bootstrapped. Also evaluate the values of desired customers. This will incent earlier thinking outside the box, and help you get metrics in place to track progress, or lack of it, along the way. Great social entrepreneurs are rare.

Intellectual Property 317

Intellectual Property Entrepreneur Bootstrapping Salary 317

Up and Running

OCTOBER 1, 2014

Statdragon is a Saas platform that allows businesses to access and analyze metrics about their existing videos and optimize their video marketing strategy. What about bootstrapping? Keep customers at the forefront, and listen to them. ” The post Dragons, Bootstrapping and Women in Tech appeared first on Bplans Blog.

Bootstrapping 107

Bootstrapping Cofounder Portland Burn Rate 107

Up and Running

JULY 10, 2017

To determine whether freemium is right for you, do the simple math: Figure out how many paying customers you need to run the company. If you charge every user $50 and spend $10K to pay the business bills, you need at least 200 customers to break even. In our example, it’s 20K non-paying customers. Duolingo lingot store.

Startup 110

Startup Non-Compete Viral Software Review 110

crowdSPRING Blog

JUNE 20, 2014

Why Lead Velocity Rate (LVR) Is The Most Important Metric in SaaS | saastr – crowdspring.co/U3ZbaM. The Optimal Average Customer Value for SaaS Startups – crowdspring.co/1ib05xm. 50 Extensions and Plugins for Extending Bootstrap – crowdspring.co/1nj8dJm. After Failure, What’s Next? | 1q1SPpy.

Social Media 93

Social Media Small Business Design Media 93

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

MAY 1, 2012

Company A has 1,000 customers each paying $10/mo. Company B has 10 customers each paying $1,000/mo. Why the obsession with raising money, what if you don’t want a huge company, what if you want to bootstrap, don’t you know raising money isn’t a measure of correctness or success, … I agree!

Customer 320

Customer Revenue Acquisition Cofounder 320

SoCal CTO

APRIL 8, 2010

Death By Competitive Analysis - Steve Blank , March 1, 2010 Trading emails with a startup CEO building an iPhone app, I asked him why potential customers would buy his product. You might be surprised why this is the case. In response he sent me a competitive analysis. The study is featured in the March issue of the Harvard Business Review.

Software Review 150

Software Review Startup PR Exit Strategy 150

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 10, 2021

We can’t wait for customers to use the product for 12–18 months and do customer interviews or look at purchase cohorts. In 2001 companies IPO’d very quickly if they were working, by 2011 IPOs had slowed down to the point that in 2013 Aileen Lee of Cowboy Ventures astutely called billion-dollar outcomes “unicorns.”

Pre-Money Valuation 471

Pre-Money Valuation Valuation Venture Capital Early Stage 471

ReadWriteStart

JULY 18, 2011

The first stage is bootstrapping, where you raise between $50k and $100k and you try to make that money last as long as you can. feedback from early users/customers (qualitative and quantitative) that's meaningful and in the target demographic. Clavier recommends the book Do More Faster: Techstars Lessons to Accelerate Your Startup.

Investment Bankers 153

Investment Bankers Technical Review Cofounder Due Diligence 153

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 26, 2018

The intent is to indicate that founder passion is not a substitute for real customers buying the product. The challenge is to convince investors that your business will attract real customers, before you have a revenue stream that exceeds your expenses. Pivoting early, based on real customer feedback, is always cheaper than later.

Angel Investor 147

Angel Investor Distribution Bootstrapping Viral 147

Austin Startup

FEBRUARY 24, 2018

Much of the writing on startups focuses on two elements: finding product-market fit scaling the company once #1 is accomplished For product-market fit, we have a lot of source material to work with from the last decade: Steve Blank’s leadership on Customer Development , and Eric Ries’ on the Lean Startup ?—?along Stanford’s CS183c?—?Blitzscaling

Warrant 48

Warrant Bootstrapping Framework Hiring 48

ConversionXL

JANUARY 9, 2019

Organize existing data into an idealized customer journey. Those interactions occur across teams (marketing, sales, customer support) and platforms (analytics, CRM, email). It starts with a survey of all known customer data. Step 2: Organize existing data into an idealized customer journey. Analyze and act on that data.

Sales Cycle 127

Sales Cycle Bootstrapping Conversion Web 127

OnlyOnce

JULY 9, 2013

The book is part of the Startup Revolution series that Brad has been working on for a couple years now, including Do More (Even) Faster , Venture Deals , Startup Communities , and Startup Life (with two more to come, Startup Boards and Startup Metrics). Writing a book is a LOT harder than I expected!

Startup 95

Startup Advisory Board Elevator Pitch Forecast 95

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 30, 2016

Until a new brand has national recognition or high promotion, it won’t be found or used by local customers or out of town visitors. You need metrics to show dominant penetration of the relevant customer demographic, added value over existing media, and real customer testimonials of value.

New York City 158

New York City Kansas Advertising Cash Position 158

ConversionXL

MARCH 31, 2021

Customer interviews allow you to uncover: Why they decided to do business with you; Why they love working with you; What other challenges they have in their business; Where they go for new information. Your customers can provide you with pain-points to write about, as well as success stories to attract new clients.

Audience 127

Audience Non-Compete Distribution Channel 127

YoungUpstarts

AUGUST 10, 2020

You may have an intuitive website with flawless navigation but if the checkout process isn’t appealing to prospective customers, you’ll leave a lot of money on the table. At the minimum, get rid of unnecessary fields and steps along the checkout process that could get the customer changing their mind. Minimize Cart Abandonment.

eCommerce 147

eCommerce SMS Email Video 147

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 29, 2013

What if your company is concerned that emerging customer pressure and local laws will make disposable razors difficult, if not impossible, to sell in the U.S. If so, will customers be interested in the new ideas and able to incorporate those products into their daily routines? in ten years? Now you may be facing several kinds of risk.

Lean 165

Lean Technical Review Startup Software Review 165

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 4, 2014

Even if you are doing the work yourself, you need to document requirements, features, metrics, and milestones. Unless you are bootstrapping everything, you need to have a clear plan on what networking and documents are required to get to friends and family, Angel investors, and institutional investors. Customer service and support.

Startup 268

Startup Institutional Investors Angel Investor Bootstrapping 268

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

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

JANUARY 13, 2015

Often your best estimate of any metric or market behavior or business model component is at best accurate within a power of ten, for example “expected conversion rate between 0.5% and 5%” or “cost to acquire a customer between $50 and $500″ or “average monthly revenue per customer between $20 and $200.”

Business Model 120

Business Model Affiliate Startup Bootstrapping 120

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 29, 2010

Each part of the program is organized around one phase of the Build-Measure-Learn feedback loop and begins with a keynote address from a heavy hitter: Steve Blank on Customer Development, Randy Komisar on "Getting to Plan B" and - a third person, not-yet-announced-but-extremely-cool-trust-me. Were in pursuit of the truth, not orthodoxy.

San Francisco 120

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 120

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 5, 2009

That’s because the model is based on assumptions about customers that are totally unproven. If we already knew who the customer was, how they would behave, how much they would pay, and how to reach them, this wouldn’t be a disruptive innovation. The solution is to change our focus from outputs to inputs. If it costs $0.10

San Francisco 102

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment Startup 102

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 20, 2015

Even if you are bootstrapping your business, and you are the only investor, you should be asking yourself the same question. Proof of any business model starts with a finished product or solution, sold to a new customer for full price, with high satisfaction for the value received. Customer support is more than handling exceptions.

Business Model 120

Business Model Angel Investor Startup Bootstrapping 120

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 5, 2009

Chasing funding versus chasing customers and a repeatable and scalable business model, is one reason startups fail. Chasing funding versus chasing customers and a repeatable and scalable business model, is one reason startups fail. Are there customers for what you are building? How many are there? Can it scale?”

Customer Development 262

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 262

Version One Ventures

DECEMBER 11, 2013

Then, there’s the bootstrapping entrepreneur who hires carefully (sometimes too little, too late), trying to get as much runway with the current money as possible and build a “real” business. For example, as a SaaS company scales and targets larger enterprise customers, its initial product-market fit may no longer be as strong.

Early Stage 162

Early Stage Venture Capital Acquisition Bootstrapping 162

Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 9, 2009

The Lean Startup is a practical approach for creating and managing a new breed of company that excels in low-cost experimentation, rapid iteration, and true customer insight. If youre interested in being part of my "customer advisory board" for this presentation, please get in touch. And thats where the call for help comes in.

Lean 68

Lean San Francisco Web Advisory Board 68