Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 16, 2009

This is part of my new series on what makes an entrepreneur successful. I originally posted it on VentureHacks , one of my favorite websites for entrepreneurs. They spot opportunities that aren’t being met and the design products to meet these needs. I advocated LOUDLY at the board that we needed to cut our burn rate.

Entrepreneur 306

Entrepreneur Burn Rate Cofounder Sales 306

Feld Thoughts

NOVEMBER 18, 2013

Ari Newman is an entrepreneur, mentor, investor, and a friend. He works at Techstars where his responsibility is to ensure that the connections between alumni, mentors, and staff are as robust as they can be – helping entrepreneurs “ do more faster ” day in and day out. Heads down on product, they say.

Burn Rate 152

Burn Rate Equity Software Review Early Stage 152

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. The Customer Development process (and the Lean Startup) is one way to do that. How do we raise the big bucks?”

Lean 250

Lean Silicon Valley Startup RSS 250

crowdSPRING Blog

SEPTEMBER 19, 2014

Inside the Mind of a Technical Founder | OpenView Blog by Larry Kim – crowdspring.co/1u7Fz1b. The Paradoxical Traits of an Entrepreneur | by Jody Porowski – crowdspring.co/1piN6X6. 5 Signs You’ve Got the Wrong Co-Founder – crowdspring.co/1u17ovZ. Are startup burn rates out of control?

Social Media 94

Social Media Small Business Design Media 94

The Next Web

DECEMBER 2, 2013

However, you could still build an Instagram-like product inexpensively, in the $100,000 to $300,000 range over a three-to-six-month period,” says Werdelin. Founder Kevin Systrom launched Instagram with 25,000 beta users on October 6, 2010; two years later, the app continues to see massive growth, recently reporting 150 million active users.

Cost 168

Cost San Francisco New York City Ruby 168

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. Moreover, since the first CEO was likely to have been one of the founders, the trauma of CEO removal begins.

Customer Development 228

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 228

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. This is probably because many founders are product or technology people. I often hear early stage founders telling me about their initial sales successes.

Hiring 346

Hiring Sales Startup Early Stage 346

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 30, 2009

Without conscious process design, product development teams turn lines of code written into momentum in a certain direction. This is why agility is such a prized quality in product development. As far as I know, there are no products that are immune from the technology life cycle adoption curve.

San Francisco 150

San Francisco Lean Agile Continuous Deployment 150

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 27, 2009

The full formula works like this: runway = cash on hand / burn rate # iterations = runway / speed of each iteration Very few successful companies ended up in the same exact business that the founders thought theyd be in (see Founders at Work for dozens of examples). Two Ways to Hold Entrepreneurs Accountable (for Ha.

San Francisco 117

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 117

ReadWriteStart

JANUARY 27, 2011

This partnership speaks to a core philosophy of the program where we encourage entrepreneurs to get as much customer validation as possible before raising too much money, use other people's channels if you can get to them, don't burn too much cash, and all that good fiscal conservative stuff. LetsGiftIt. Photo by nosheep. Discuss.

Dilution 114

Dilution Revenue Finance Entrepreneur 114

The Equity Kicker

JANUARY 10, 2020

The logic goes that in the early days, you haven’t really got anything else: the product isn’t ready, the market can change, but the team is what you have. Sometimes you get great founders with an average idea; but because they’re so good, they make it work to a degree. It’s got a big burn rate, it’s too big to pivot, and it goes bust.

Partner 68

Partner Early Stage Portfolio Metrics 68

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 17, 2009

This post describes a solution – the Customer Development Model. In future posts I’ll describe how Eric Ries and the Lean Startup concept provide the equivalent model for product development activities inside the building and neatly integrates customer and agile development. This post describes such a model.

Customer Development 246

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 246

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 13, 2009

Figuring this out takes time, and few entrepreneurs have the patience to wait it out, because the business plan does such a good job of explaining what customers are going to think. And even worse, wed cranked up the burn rate in order to be ready to handle all those millions of mainstream customers we anticipated.

San Francisco 168

San Francisco PR Lean Early Stage 168