Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 5, 2018

Reading the NY Times article “ Jeffrey Katzenberg Raises $1 Billion for Short-Form Video Venture, ” I realized it was time for a new startup heuristic: the amount of customer discovery and product-market fit you need to find is inversely proportional to the amount and availability of risk capital. ” Fire, Ready, Aim. IPOs dried up.

Lean 335

Lean Burn Rate Startup IPO 335

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

Up and Running

JULY 27, 2020

In fact, you can use your financial forecast to actively manage your business and improve your chances of success and growth. A key benefit of using your forecast as a management tool is that you’ll be able to significantly improve how you manage your cash and cash flow. Why is cash flow management important?

Forecast 83

Forecast Management Cash Position Software Review 83

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 113

Technical Cofounder Burn Rate Seed Stage Cofounder 113

Steve Blank

MARCH 17, 2020

They have fewer cash reserves and less margin of error for managing sudden downturns. 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 436

Burn Rate Startup Valuation Sales Cycle 436

YoungUpstarts

JULY 31, 2019

Cunningham’s term was coined to identify a specific problem in the tech industry, but the fundamental concept is universal — Ben Horowitz, for example, took Cunningham’s concept and applied it to management structures. . Many would argue that even the most theoretically scalable products in healthcare, i.e

Cofounder 127

Cofounder Burn Rate Technical Cofounder Seed Capital 127

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 2, 2022

Great entrepreneurs have learned how to realistically assess and manage both sides of the coin in the following business opportunity and risk categories: Strategic. Then you walk the delicate balance between burn rates, revenue flows versus expenses, investment in marketing, and employees. Operational.

Burn Rate 382

Burn Rate Angel Investor Operations Demand 382

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 29, 2009

High burn-rates fueled by over investment – One of the most damning things that happened to the start-up markets in 97-00 and 05-08 was the overfunding of technology companies. Bu when you start to worry that the world is ending (as it seemed it was in late 2008 / early 2009) you tend to get worried about large burn rates.

Burn Rate 263

Burn Rate Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Private Equity 263

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? How complex is the capitalization table?

Sweat Equity 120

Sweat Equity Burn Rate Technical Review Intellectual Property 120

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? How complex is the capitalization table?

Technical Review 120

Technical Review Due Diligence Sweat Equity Burn Rate 120

Up and Running

FEBRUARY 20, 2015

However, there are a number of metrics that every business owner should know, including cash flow, accounts payable, accounts receivable, direct costs, operating margin, net profit, and cash burn rate. It’s important to track this metric so that you can manage your cash flow. What Is Cash Burn Rate?

Metrics 60

Metrics Burn Rate .Net Churn Rate 60

ReadWriteStart

APRIL 30, 2020

Many fail because they fail to keep their burn rate in check and then run out of investors who are willing to fund their operations. They treat their startup’s burn rate like it’s etched in stone. To help, here’s a look at what the two extremes of startup cash management look like.

Burn Rate 107

Burn Rate Management Startup Early Stage 107

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

Mucker Lab

MAY 28, 2020

This post originally appeared in TechCrunch back in 2015, written by our co-founder and managing partner Erik Rannala. These lost startups land higher valuations, have larger teams, outsource more product development and spend more money on customer acquisition than their peers. How do you know you have it? Lose focus.

Startup 78

Startup Cofounder Burn Rate Technical Review 78

Feld Thoughts

NOVEMBER 18, 2013

This second kind of seed financing can be a double-edged sword for the entrepreneur and company if not very carefully managed. Early customer development talks are going great which keeps the team really excited. Three months in, the burn is now at $70k/month. Soundbites from potential customers are encouraging.

Burn Rate 152

Burn Rate Equity Software Review Early Stage 152

YoungUpstarts

AUGUST 19, 2016

by Shawn Overcast , managing director at gothamCulture. While you absolutely need to keep an eye on earnings and burn rate, human capital is ultimately the fuel that makes the machine run. Shawn Overcast is managing director at gothamCulture. You have a million things to consider when investing your startup’s money.

Startup 100

Startup Burn Rate Cofounder Salary 100

Up and Running

MARCH 26, 2020

For small businesses, cash flow management in a crisis is absolutely vital. 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.

Management 152

Management Forecast SBA Burn Rate 152

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 12, 2010

I see way too many startup founders who don’t have experience in selling and probably don’t feel that comfortable going to customers and asking for orders. Spending time selling to customers is the best way to find out what their problems are and how good your solution currently is at mapping to their needs.

Hiring 346

Hiring Sales Startup Early Stage 346

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 18, 2010

For decades startups were managed by pretending the company would follow a predictable path (revenue plan, scale, etc.) As we described in previous posts , startups fail on the day they’re founded if they are organized and managed like they are a small version of a large company. Albert Einstein. That’s the definition of insanity.

Burn Rate 247

Burn Rate Management Business Model Customer Development 247

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 2, 2009

For those of you who have been following the discussion, a Lean Startup is Eric Ries ’s description of the intersection of Customer Development , Agile Development and if available, open platforms and open source. 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

Up and Running

APRIL 22, 2020

If you lack an obvious history of responsible debt management, try to start building that up by applying for smaller lines of credit and assuring that you regularly pay it off. Cash flow management is important at any time, and basically provides a snapshot of the health of your business. Poor cash flow. Risky industry.

SBA 139

SBA Forecast Software Review Business Plan 139

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 30, 2019

Great entrepreneurs have learned how to realistically assess and manage both sides of the coin in the following business opportunity and risk categories: Strategic. Then you walk the delicate balance between burn rates, revenue flows versus expenses, investment in marketing, and employees. Operational.

Entrepreneur 267

Entrepreneur Burn Rate Angel Investor Operations 267

Up and Running

OCTOBER 7, 2019

Get input from analysts, department heads, managers, and other team members that need to act on the information. . For example, leadership can use high-level KPIs to measure the overall performance of the company, and managers can use granular KPIs to gauge the effectiveness of processes, such as sales, marketing, or procurement.

Founder 71

Founder Retention Metrics Technical Review 71

Up and Running

APRIL 27, 2020

Current businesses are finding ways to pivot their business models, revisiting their budgets, and developing new forecasts to minimize their burn rate and maximize their available cash runway. That combination puts you in a great position to provide an inexpensive solution and win over customers. More room for competition.

Software Review 113

Software Review Lean Forecast Business Plan 113

Up and Running

SEPTEMBER 9, 2020

Understanding these two concepts and what they mean for your business will make your cash flow forecast an indispensable tool for business management and will help keep your business healthy. 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

YoungUpstarts

SEPTEMBER 30, 2014

Here are five things I learned (and was forced to learn) on how to manage a fast growing company. But as we grew and piled on customers, reports about those once-a-month bugs became weekly, then daily, until suddenly we were getting hundreds of reports a day. Watch your burn rate — the amount of capital you use up every month.

Burn Rate 248

Burn Rate Startup Cloud Management 248

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

The Next Web

DECEMBER 2, 2013

Henrik Werdelin , the Managing Partner of Prehype , a venture development firm based in New York City that has helped build companies like Tradable , Barkbox , FancyHands , Basno and Path , says recreating Twitter isn’t necessarily difficult, but the layered features will take time to get right. 1) Twitter. 4) WhatsApp. 8) Angry Birds.

Cost 168

Cost San Francisco New York City Ruby 168

techcrunch.com

FEBRUARY 26, 2013

He knows how to advise entrepreneurs on hiring/firing, running teams, managing funding, when/how to control burn rate, and making other tough management decisions in the real environment of startups. Those advisors don’t make decisions for management. We have not done our job.

Burn Rate 87

Burn Rate Hiring Engineer Entrepreneur 87

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 25, 2019

I work hard to create working relationships with my fellow non-management board members in the same way that every investor ultimately works to develop strong working relationships with founders. What should the cash burn rate of the company be and how long of a cash runway should the company maintain?

LP 269

LP Startup Burn Rate Stock Options 269

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 22, 2017

Great entrepreneurs have learned how to realistically assess and manage both sides of the coin in the following business opportunity and risk categories: Strategic. Then you walk the delicate balance between burn rates, revenue flows versus expenses, investment in marketing, and employees. Operational.

Burn Rate 170

Burn Rate Angel Investor Operations Demand 170

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. More recently, the concepts have been applied to the general business management context, in a classic book by Certified Turnaround Professional, Thomas H. Defective products and services.

Startup 404

Startup Lean Metrics Matching 404

Tim Keane

DECEMBER 14, 2009

   We worked all day building market strategies for customers while we tried to embody our expertise on software that would expand the company's reach.    A low burn rate is a pearl of great price.    It provides lots of options that high burn rates take away. 

Burn Rate 60

Burn Rate Angel Groups Seed Stage Startup 60

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 15, 2014

At least wait until later, when you ready to scale, and have some “leverage” based on a proven business model, some real customers, and real revenue. Focusing on the burn rate and prioritizing every possible expense will keep overhead down, help you stay lean, and achieve a higher profit earlier.

Bootstrapping 276

Bootstrapping Entrepreneur Startup Burn Rate 276

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

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. They can help you with pricing. Board Preparation.

Operations 150

Operations Metrics Early Stage Non-Compete 150

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? Who is a real customer that I can talk to? If there are no customers yet, when will the product ship, and how many times has the date been set?

Due Diligence 244

Due Diligence Sweat Equity Burn Rate Intellectual Property 244