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Is the Lean Startup Dead?

Steve Blank

These bubble startups were actually guessing at their business model and did premature and aggressive hype and early company launches and had extremely high burn rates – all predicated on an IPO to raise more cash. Startups with huge burn rates – building leases, staff, PR and advertising – ran out of money.

Lean 335
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It Must Be A Marketing Problem

Steve Blank

The Customer Development process is the way startups quickly iterate and test each element of their business model , reducing customer and market risk. In Discovery startups take all their hypotheses about the business model: product, market, customers, channel, etc. Six is a Proxy for Burn Rate.

Burn Rate 248
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Crisis Management by Firing Executives – There’s A Better Way

Steve Blank

A business plan has a set of assumptions (who’s the customer, what’s the price, what’s the channel, what are the product features that matter, etc.) that make up a business model. Yet by first customer ship most of the business model hasn’t been validated or tested. Pivots Versus Crises.

Burn Rate 247
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Vision versus Hallucination – Founders and Pivots

Steve Blank

Tossing their agile development process and at times their entire business model in the air, the company would go into fire-drill mode and engineering would start working on whatever his latest insight was. ” “A pivot is a substantive change to one or more of components to your business model.

Founder 316
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No Accounting For Startups

Steve Blank

Startups that are searching for a business model need to keep score differently than large companies that are executing a known business model. Yet most entrepreneurs and their VC’s make startups use financial models and spreadsheets that actually hinder their success. Managing the Business. Here’s why.

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9 Metrics Every Entrepreneur Should Know About Their Business Offhand

Up and Running

ROI per Marketing Channel. It’s crucial to keep a handle of ROI per marketing channel in order to optimize marketing spending. After all, a sustainable business model requires repeat customers! It’s not enough to check this every quarter. You should check it monthly or weekly. – Josh Weiss , Bluegala.

Metrics 146
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8 Ways An Investor Pitch Differs From A Product Pitch

Startup Professionals Musings

How the solution and business model work to fund the business. Investors will impatiently expect a winning business model, customer segment definitions and volume projections. Investors will impatiently expect a winning business model, customer segment definitions and volume projections.

Product 120