Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 3, 2014

I was driving home from the BIO conference in San Diego last month and had lots of time for a phone call with Dave, an ex student and now a founder who wanted to update me on his Customer Discovery progress. Customer Discovery. He worked hard to deeply understand the customer problems of these two customer segments.

Cofounder 336

Cofounder Founder Technical Cofounder Coder 336

YoungUpstarts

JUNE 20, 2019

Specifically, there are five challenges that emerging business typically put on the backburner between funding rounds: Seed to Series A: Customer Testing. Hypotheses should be tested extensively and disproven, which is where customer testing plays a central role for seed-stage startups. Series B: Hiring and Developing Managers.

Technical Cofounder 101

Technical Cofounder Burn Rate Seed Stage Cofounder 101

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 11, 2010

The Customer Development process is the way startups quickly iterate and test each element of their business model , reducing customer and market risk. The first step of Customer Development is called Customer Discovery. outside the building and test them in front of customers. Six is a Proxy for Burn Rate.

Burn Rate 249

Burn Rate Silicon Valley Marketing Boston 249

Steve Blank

MARCH 17, 2020

If you’re running a startup or small business, your first priority (after your family) is keeping your employees and customers safe. The questions every startup or small business CEO needs to ask now are: What’s my Burn Rate and Runway? Burn Rate and Runway. Are your customers closing for the next few weeks?

Burn Rate 436

Burn Rate Startup Valuation Sales Cycle 436

Mucker Lab

MAY 28, 2020

These lost startups land higher valuations, have larger teams, outsource more product development and spend more money on customer acquisition than their peers. Hire the wrong people. Hire the wrong people. Bad hiring decisions are often a symptom of premature scaling. Be trigger shy about hiring. Lose focus.

Startup 78

Startup Cofounder Burn Rate Technical Review 78

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 7, 2009

Finally, I’ll write about how Eric Ries and the Lean Startup concept provided the equivalent model for product development activities inside the building and neatly integrates customer and agile development. Three to six months after first customer ship, if Sales starts missing its numbers, the board gets concerned.

Customer Development 228

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 228

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 10, 2016

From my perspective as an investor, I recommend that every founder needs to know the answers to these questions, be open and honest in answering them thoughtfully, and without making excuses: What is the current runway and burn rate? Is there a real customer willing to give a testimonial?

Burn Rate 120

Burn Rate Sweat Equity Technical Review Intellectual Property 120

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 27, 2022

Too often they are also hesitant, inexperienced, and fearful of hiring people or finding a mentor to be the partner they need. Your business is not all about what is best for you, but what is best for your customers. They let the burn rate go up too fast, and the business burns down before it really starts.

Burn Rate 329

Burn Rate Differentiation Salary Entrepreneur 329

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 8, 2015

From my perspective as an investor, I recommend that every founder needs to know the answers to these questions, be open and honest in answering them thoughtfully, and without making excuses: What is the current runway and burn rate? Is there a real customer willing to give a testimonial?

Technical Review 120

Technical Review Due Diligence Sweat Equity Burn Rate 120

Feld Thoughts

NOVEMBER 18, 2013

They close on the $750k, hire a buddy or two, buy some Macs, and get to work. Things start to get a little fuzzy in terms of priorities, but not to fret, the new office is coming along really well with all of the hiring! Early customer development talks are going great which keeps the team really excited.

Burn Rate 152

Burn Rate Equity Software Review Early Stage 152

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 3, 2009

It should talk about how many customers you think you will acquire and how much you’ll charge for your product. Do you really want to spent $100k building a product to discover through Customer Development that the market is too small? I care about the thought that you’ve given to the customer problem.

Business Plan 334

Business Plan AJAX Venture Capital Technical Review 334

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 21, 2019

Too often they are also hesitant, inexperienced, and fearful of hiring people or finding a mentor to be the partner they need. Your business is not all about what is best for you, but what is best for your customers. They let the burn rate go up too fast, and the business burns down before it really starts.

Burn Rate 249

Burn Rate Entrepreneur Salary Differentiation 249

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 2, 2015

I love the enthusiasm, the boundless energy and the sense of possibility that comes from having an idea that hasn’t yet been beat up in the marketplace of competing ideas, customer contracts, VC skepticism, jaded journalists or fickle consumers who are on the The New, New Thing. It literally can put you out of business.

Operations 150

Operations Metrics Early Stage Non-Compete 150

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 16, 2009

.&# They know instinctually how customers buy and how to excite them. Because they’re street smart, most great entrepreneurs tend to prefer getting out and talking with real customers rather than sitting in a cubicle all day doing beautiful PowerPoint slides. They have a sixth sense for the competitors’ weaknesses.

Entrepreneur 306

Entrepreneur Burn Rate Cofounder Sales 306

crowdSPRING Blog

SEPTEMBER 19, 2014

Are startup burn rates out of control? This Invaluable Lesson Will Keep You From Making Catastrophic Hiring Mistakes - crowdspring.co/XeV4JS. Hiring startup engineers? Voice of the Customer: The Secret of Great Landing Page Copy | WordStream – crowdspring.co/1rgMIOC. They seem to be | AVC – crowdspring.co/1rbM5FT.

Social Media 94

Social Media Small Business Design Media 94

Up and Running

JULY 27, 2020

This is due to the simple fact that most businesses need to wait for customers to pay while at the same time needing to purchase more inventory, pay payroll, or fulfill other obligations. Your forecast will also help you figure out when it might be the right time to expand, buy a new piece of equipment, or hire more employees.

Forecast 83

Forecast Management Cash Position Software Review 83

The Next Web

DECEMBER 2, 2013

Therefore, if you want to bring an MVP ( Minimum Viable Product ) to market, Werdelin approximates that you’ll need $50,000 to $250,000 , depending on the skill sets of the developers and designers you hire. Of course, if you’re hiring an agency, you’re probably looking at 1.5 4) WhatsApp. 8) Angry Birds. million plus overhead.

Cost 168

Cost San Francisco New York City Ruby 168

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 13, 2013

And for every time I’ve felt hugely stressed that our burn rate was getting too high, and I didn’t know who else was going to fund the company, and I’m all in on this company, right?” Because I’m going to say no to you, and the guys you want to hire from Facebook are going to say no to you.

Cofounder 337

Cofounder Technical Cofounder Startup San Diego 337

Up and Running

SEPTEMBER 9, 2020

This means that your cash spending is less than the amount of cash you received from your customers, new loans or investment in your business, or sales of assets that you owned. There are a lot of initial expenses with new businesses and it can take time to attract customers and build a viable business.

Burn Rate 83

Burn Rate Forecast Cash Position Employee 83

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 4, 2021

Waste in a startup is any activity that burns resources, but creates no value or competitive advantage in the eyes of customers. Hire real help and learn to delegate. Then always measure customer results, not work. Poor quality products and poor customer service are doubly deadly wastes. Lack of communication.

Startup 404

Startup Lean Metrics Matching 404

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 18, 2010

In an existing company with existing customers you 1) understand the customers problem and 2) since you do, you can specify the entire feature set on day one. In fact, for decades if you drew this diagram on day one of a startup VC’s would nod sagely and everyone would get to work heading to first customer ship.

Burn Rate 248

Burn Rate Management Business Model Customer Development 248

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 31, 2013

Too often they are also hesitant, inexperienced, and fearful of hiring people or a mentor to be the partner they need. Your business is not all about what is best for you, but what is best for your customers. They let the burn rate go up too fast, and the business burns down before it really starts.

Burn Rate 275

Burn Rate Entrepreneur Differentiation Salary 275

Hunter Walker

FEBRUARY 20, 2022

Maybe you’ve spoken with the previous companies customers or investors or employees and learned from that — maybe you’re even now taking their customers, hiring their best team members, whatever. Take it head on at the 50,000 foot level and drop one or two insight gems regarding why your company is better positioned.

Marketing 119

Marketing Burn Rate Angel Investor Early Stage 119

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 4, 2017

Too often they are also hesitant, inexperienced, and fearful of hiring people or finding a mentor to be the partner they need. Your business is not all about what is best for you, but what is best for your customers. They let the burn rate go up too fast, and the business burns down before it really starts.

Burn Rate 139

Burn Rate Differentiation Salary Entrepreneur 139

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 2, 2012

My advice to founders out there is to not volunteer too much, but be open and honest in the face of direct questions like the following: What is your burn rate and runway today? They should be asking to speak to you if you are a potential investor or a superstar hire. Who is a real customer that I can talk to?

Due Diligence 244

Due Diligence Sweat Equity Burn Rate Intellectual Property 244

Up and Running

SEPTEMBER 17, 2014

Lifetime Customer Value. While everything having to do with your income and expenses is important for any entrepreneur to understand and monitor, the most important number to know by heart at any given time is your LTV: Lifetime Customer Value. How much do you earn per customer? . – James Simpson , GoldFire Studios.

Metrics 146

Metrics Burn Rate Entrepreneur Forecast 146

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 17, 2017

If you hire 6 senior sales reps in January at $120,000 / year salary then you’ve taken on an extra $60,000 per month in costs yet these sales people might not close new business 6 months. If you don’t have a strong balance sheet and can’t hire more people that’s fine — but understand this may lead to slower growth.

Stock Options 227

Stock Options Startup Dilution Venture Capital 227

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 16, 2013

My advice to founders out there is to not volunteer too much, but be open and honest in the face of direct questions like the following: What is your burn rate and runway today? They should be asking to speak to you if you are a potential investor or a superstar hire. Who is a real customer that I can talk to?

Due Diligence 253

Due Diligence Sweat Equity Intellectual Property Burn Rate 253

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 14, 2015

But like many companies over the past five years it hired aggressively and probably had some degree of straying off of a core strategy and some amount of excess jobs relative to its current revenue forecasts and opportunities. ” It goes like this: What is your net burn rate? What is your cash balance? Others will follow.

Burn Rate 150

Burn Rate San Francisco Private Equity LP 150

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 16, 2010

In my last post I described what happened when a company prematurely scales sales and marketing before adequately testing its hypotheses in Customer Discovery. But the VC’s kept coming back to the lack of adoption of the product, the floundering sales force, the burn rate – and “the plan.&#. They don’t.

Revenue 231

Revenue Balance Sheet Hockey Stick Burn Rate 231

YoungUpstarts

MAY 20, 2015

While certain processes and strategies may have worked for a business early on, a rapidly increasing customer base and the increased bandwidth needed in response will often bring those very same process to their natural breaking point. Burn rate: Seeing company grow fast is both exciting and overwhelming experience. Hire Talent.

Colombia 100

Colombia Burn Rate Startup Agile 100

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 7, 2014

Be quick to hire and slow to fire. Hiring after one interview is like hopping a red-eye to Vegas to get married after one date. On the other end of the process, don’t hesitate to pull the trigger fast when a new hire isn’t working, but don’t forget to be human and follow all the steps. Do not delegate this task.

Startup 265

Startup Intellectual Property LLC Burn Rate 265

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 15, 2015

Too often they are also hesitant, inexperienced, and fearful of hiring people or a mentor to be the partner they need. Your business is not all about what is best for you, but what is best for your customers. They let the burn rate go up too fast, and the business burns down before it really starts.

Burn Rate 120

Burn Rate Startup Salary Differentiation 120

Up and Running

MARCH 26, 2020

Here are five suggestions to immediately improve your cash flow: Monitor your accounts receivable carefully: Accounts Receivable is the list of customers that owe you money. In a downturn, some of your customers will delay paying you and some will default. Credit card customers may dispute charges. Cut all salaries by 20%.

Management 152

Management Forecast SBA Burn Rate 152

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 28, 2012

Quick to hire and slow to fire. Hiring after one interview is like hopping a red-eye to Vegas to get married after one date. On the other end of the process, don’t hesitate to pull the trigger fast when a new hire isn’t working, but don’t forget to be human and follow all the steps. Do not delegate this task.

Entrepreneur 274

Entrepreneur Intellectual Property LLC Burn Rate 274

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 28, 2016

While the CFO usually takes the lead in finding professional investors, everyone needs to look for ways to reduce the burn rate and maximize alternative funding sources, including bartering for services, finding partners willing to accept deferred payments and talking to friends and family. Finding creative ways to fund activities.

Entrepreneur 120

Entrepreneur Burn Rate Leadership Salary 120

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 5, 2011

My advice to founders out there is to not volunteer too much, but be open and honest in the face of direct questions like the following: What is your burn rate and runway today? They should be asking to speak to you if you are a potential investor or a superstar hire. Who is a real customer that I can talk to?

Due Diligence 237

Due Diligence Sweat Equity Intellectual Property Entrepreneur 237