Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 26, 2013

90 days later, I found out our games are terrible, no one is buying them, our best engineers started leaving, and with 120 people and a huge burn rate, we’re running out of money and about to crash. This can’t be happening to me. Stage 2: Deny any of it was your fault.

Redemption 222

Redemption Cofounder Silicon Valley Burn Rate 222

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 25, 2010

The next step in the Customer Development process is Customer Validation – making sure that there really is a repeatable and scalable revenue and business model before you turn up your cash burn rate. My version of Customer Validation for an enterprise software company looked liked this: Customer Validation for Web Startups.

Customer Development 266

Customer Development Web Developer Customer 266

Steve Blank

APRIL 26, 2022

At the turn of the century after the dotcom crash, startup valuations plummeted, burn rates were unsustainable, and startups were quickly running out of cash. This article previously appeared in TechCrunch. Cram downs are back – and I’m keeping a list.

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Cram Down Founder Venture Capital Recapitalization 404

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 24, 2015

This video describes how “Market Type” affects your revenue and your burn rate. The next video described what happens to startups who don’t understand they are in a new market. If you can’t see the video click here Filed under: 2 Minute Lessons , Market Types. 2 Minute Lessons Market Types'

Revenue 120

Revenue Burn Rate Marketing Video 120

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 18, 2010

Instead keep the burn rate low during Customer Discovery and Validation while you are searching for a business model.” This low burn rate allows you to take several swings at the bat (or shots on the goal, depending on your country.) Each pivot gets you smarter but doesn’t put you out of business. No one gets fired.

Burn Rate 247

Burn Rate Management Business Model Customer Development 247

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 22, 2010

Regardless of your type of business model you should be tracking cash burn rate, months of cash left, time to cash flow breakeven. Retained 90+/Total Actives %. Paying Customers (How many customers made $ purchases that month). Paying/(Activations + Retained 30+). Financials. Contribution Margin. Months of cash left. Web Metrics.

Balance Sheet 298

Balance Sheet Startup Burn Rate Metrics 298

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 16, 2010

raised their voices in a annoyed investor tone) that the headcount and its attendant burn rate combined with the lack of revenue meant the company would run out of money much sooner than anyone planned. The VC’s were very concerned that the revenue the financial plan called for wasn’t being delivered by the sales team.

Revenue 230

Revenue Balance Sheet Hockey Stick Burn Rate 230

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 7, 2009

O problema é que, devido à grande estrutura criada por antecipação e o consequente nível das despesas (burn rate), a Startup fica com pouco tempo e agilidade para iterar e descobrir o que estava de errado no plano. Isso sem mencionar que, dependendo do problema, em alguns casos fica bastante difícil “voltar atrás&#.

Customer Development 224

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 224

Steve Blank

AUGUST 27, 2012

Other weeks Yuri would be buffeted by the realities of his burn rate, declining bank account and depressing comments from customers. This time he’d be back in the building declaring “We’re going to be out of business in 3 months if we don’t get our act together.”

Founder 316

Founder Cofounder Advisory Board Burn Rate 316

Steve Blank

JUNE 1, 2011

The only numbers in those documents that are important in the first year of a startup’s life are burn rate and cash balance. Traditional startup board meetings spend an insane amount of wasted time using Fortune 100 company metrics like income statements, cash flow, balance sheet, waterfall charts.

Silicon Valley 290

Silicon Valley Venture Capital Business Model Balance Sheet 290

Steve Blank

JUNE 1, 2011

The only numbers in those documents that are important in the first year of a startup’s life are burn rate and cash balance. Traditional startup board meetings spend an insane amount of wasted time using Fortune 100 company metrics like income statements, cash flow, balance sheet, waterfall charts.

Silicon Valley 258

Silicon Valley Business Model Venture Capital Balance Sheet 258

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 2, 2009

The key contributors to an out-of-control burn rate is 1) hiring a sales force too early, 2) turning on the demand creation activities too early, 3) developing something other than the minimum feature set for first customer ship. And most startup code and features end up on the floor as customers never really wanted them.

Lean 244

Lean Silicon Valley Startup RSS 244

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 17, 2009

Customer Development is Low Burn by Design The Customer Development process keeps a startup at a low cash burn rate until the company has validated its business model by finding paying customers.

Customer Development 242

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 242

Steve Blank

APRIL 20, 2009

But in fact, most startups need to keep their burn rate low more [.] Reply DodaPedia » Blog Archive » How to decide where to live , on June 21, 2009 at 7:18 am Said: [.] to do that. You might think you need to be in Silicon Valley since the people there never shut up about their startup culture.

Silicon Valley 270

Silicon Valley RSS San Francisco Technical Review 270

Steve Blank

MAY 15, 2009

The startup guys should have taken the hint that their burn rate was likely inappropriate (read: out of control). A VERY nice office. I was there one day when Mike Maples happened to drop and he said, “This looks like a C-round office!” Six months later, the startup hit a rough patch and ran out of cash.

Silicon Valley 205

Silicon Valley RSS Lean Agile 205