Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 9, 2013

By the time many big-company executives are ready to go out on their own as an entrepreneur, they have forgotten what it’s like to fly in coach class, buy their own health insurance, or having to deal with running out of money. The result is a startup with an exorbitant burn rate, and a very unhappy entrepreneur.

Entrepreneur 239

Entrepreneur Burn Rate Salary Lean 239

techcrunch.com

FEBRUARY 26, 2013

Personally, I think leading VC firms do a pretty good job of being supportive of their companies, and most entrepreneurs funded by good funds like their investors. In my view, many if not most of them haven’t done enough in their careers to earn the right to advise entrepreneurs, a job I consider laden with responsibility.

Burn Rate 87

Burn Rate Hiring Engineer Entrepreneur 87

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 30, 2009

Hire the absolute best and the brightest, true experts in their fields, who in turn can hire the smartest people possible to staff their departments. By hiring experts, conducting lots of focus groups, and executing to a detailed plan, the company became deluded that it knew what customers wanted.

San Francisco 150

San Francisco Lean Agile Continuous Deployment 150

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. Blame it On Marketing In the next 3-6 months, a new VP of Sales is hired. innovation.

Customer Development 224

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 224

Gust

DECEMBER 1, 2013

By the time many big-company executives are ready to go out on their own as an entrepreneur, they have forgotten what it’s like to fly in coach class, buy their own health insurance, or having to deal with running out of money. The result is a startup with an exorbitant burn rate, and a very unhappy entrepreneur.

Entrepreneur 182

Entrepreneur Burn Rate Salary Lean 182

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 27, 2009

In lean times, it’s most important to focus on cutting costs in ways that speed you up, not slow you down. To increase the number of iterations you have left, you can either increase cash on hand (by raising money or increasing revenues), reduce burn rate, or increase the speed of each iteration. Work in small batches.

San Francisco 117

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 117

Steve Blank

APRIL 20, 2009

And throughout my career as an entrepreneur I kept asking questions of my VC investors and friends; Where did entrepreneurship come from? They were all fun reads about plucky entrepreneurs who start from nothing and against all odds, build a successful company. Was it because entrepreneurs keep moving forward and rarely look back?

Silicon Valley 270

Silicon Valley RSS San Francisco Technical Review 270

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 4, 2010

I hear many executives and professionals in large corporations talking about their dream of jumping ship, and becoming an entrepreneur. The result is a startup with an exorbitant burn rate, and a very unhappy entrepreneur. So if you really want to be an entrepreneur, there is no time like the present.

Entrepreneur 230

Entrepreneur Burn Rate Salary Lean 230

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 25, 2012

By the time many big-company executives are ready to go out on their own as an entrepreneur, they have forgotten what it’s like to fly in coach class, buy their own health insurance, or having to deal with running out of money. The result is a startup with an exorbitant burn rate, and a very unhappy entrepreneur.

Burn Rate 233

Burn Rate Startup Salary Lean 233

Steve Blank

MAY 15, 2009

We hired an interior designer and a great facilities person to manage the process. Stay hungry, stay lean. I don’t want to be hungry and lean (nor do I want to be full and fat). It was an odd feeling at that time, we thought we have made it and fail to stay lean and hungry. Don’t let it happen to you.

Silicon Valley 205

Silicon Valley RSS Lean Agile 205

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 4, 2011

By the time many big-company executives are ready to go out on their own as an entrepreneur, they have forgotten what it’s like to fly in coach class, buy their own health insurance, or having to deal with running out of money. The result is a startup with an exorbitant burn rate, and a very unhappy entrepreneur.

Startup 258

Startup Burn Rate Salary Lean 258

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. Expo SF (May.

San Francisco 168

San Francisco PR Lean Early Stage 168

Mucker Lab

MARCH 8, 2016

In reality, we are scrappy founders, just like the entrepreneurs we serve. Just as entrepreneurs should aspire to raise capital from value-added, “smart money” investors, we, too, have focused on partnering with committed, long-term, institutional limited partners (LPs). Mucker III is for those quiet but indomitable entrepreneurs.

Burn Rate 60

Burn Rate Limited Partner Bootstrapping Portfolio 60

www.chubbybrain.com

SEPTEMBER 28, 2011

We love a good entrepreneurial success story – entrepreneur as protagonist overcomes obstacles and builds a thriving, successful company (and become wealthy while doing so). Post-Mortem Title : My eHarmony for Hiring Failure. – made compromises in early hiring decisions – choose expediency over talent/competency.

Software Review 79

Software Review Startup Technical Review Vesting 79

Up and Running

OCTOBER 1, 2014

Nelson has some tips: Know your burn rate. Nelson encourages up and coming entrepreneurs to get out to industry events, and strategically plan who they want to connect with. Hire and surround yourself with people who are hungry for the opportunity and super driven,” she advises. How do you balance it all?

Bootstrapping 107

Bootstrapping Cofounder Portland Burn Rate 107

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 15, 2020

It's never selfish to hire. I said, "Hire people. Hire them to do whatever you can find them to do." You really have to lean in and say, "Okay. So anything you can do to keep them hired, you just improved their sanity. It's never selfish to hire. Maybe it's this entrepreneur. You can't fall back.

Dallas 68

Dallas Employee Government Social Media 68