Steve Blank

MARCH 17, 2020

The questions every startup or small business CEO needs to ask now are: What’s my Burn Rate and Runway? Burn Rate and Runway. To answer the first question, take stock of your current gross burn rate i.e. how much cash are you spending each month. What are the new financial metrics? How do you know?

Burn Rate 436

Burn Rate Startup Valuation Sales Cycle 436

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 2, 2015

For a well-funded seed company I have controversially recommended hiring a great office manager that doubles as an administrative assistant. This happens because many CEOs are passionate, market-driven people who are constantly trying to launch new products, win contracts, get press, hire staff and woo VCs. Hire a great CFO.

Operations 150

Operations Metrics Early Stage Non-Compete 150

Up and Running

SEPTEMBER 17, 2014

That’s why we asked nine members from Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) what metrics all founders should be aware of — always. This impacts every decision related to your business, from hiring more staff to expanding product offerings to investing in marketing. – Ben Rubenstein , Yodle. No Specific Metric.

Metrics 146

Metrics Burn Rate Entrepreneur Forecast 146

ReadWriteStart

JULY 9, 2023

They impact fundraising, hiring, intellectual property rights and patents, and many more things around starting and running a business. You can hire a lawyer or consult with one from time to time, but knowing the legal side of venture investment and running a company is essential. Metrics A business should be measurable.

Intellectual Property 122

Intellectual Property Startup Burn Rate Metrics 122

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! Three months in, the burn is now at $70k/month. It’s too early for that s**t.

Burn Rate 152

Burn Rate Equity Software Review Early Stage 152

crowdSPRING Blog

OCTOBER 24, 2014

Benchmarking SaaS Startup Efficiency with Revenue per Employee Metrics | by @ttunguz – crowdspring.co/1sRVdjm. What is the Right Burn Rate at a Startup Company? | Hire the Right Type of VP Marketing ?Or How to Ruin Your Company with One Bad Process | by @bhorowitz – crowdspring.co/11FYS9R. 1vOh10w.

Social Media 95

Social Media Small Business Design Media 95

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 4, 2021

Hire real help and learn to delegate. Productive processes start with a plan, and end with metrics that measure value delivered. Many entrepreneurs insist on making every decision, and spend too much time working in the business, rather than on the business. The result is lower productivity all around. Lack of communication.

Startup 404

Startup Lean Metrics Matching 404

View from Seed

OCTOBER 15, 2014

Examples of housekeeping include the following list, though not every item will appear every time: Finance: Cash out date, burn rate, 409A valuation, cap table, common/preferred stock dashboard. Team: Hires, fires, departures, responsibility changes, major promotions, and your org chart. The seed stage is all about traction.

Seed Stage 331

Seed Stage Cap Table Metrics Preferred Stock 331

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

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). Were talking PayPal -sized variations.

San Francisco 117

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 117

Mucker Lab

MARCH 8, 2016

Every week, we speak with entrepreneurs who feel like they have solid metrics and growth, but they see other founders effortlessly raise millions of dollars with nothing more than an impressive PowerPoint deck. The ones who would rather hire a sales guy than spend money on flavored morning lattes. We understand. The underdogs.

Burn Rate 60

Burn Rate Limited Partner Portfolio Bootstrapping 60

The Equity Kicker

JULY 16, 2015

Companies with lots of cash sometimes add people more quickly, but that drives the burn rate up, often without a compensating increase in the chance of success. Start tracking key metrics and build a company dashboard. Also, early hires should be capable of dealing with ambiguity and fuzzy role definitions.

eCommerce 60

eCommerce Burn Rate Early Stage Hiring 60

abovethecrowd.com

APRIL 20, 2016

The pressures of lofty paper valuations, massive burn rates (and the subsequent need for more cash), and unprecedented low levels of IPOs and M&A, have created a complex and unique circumstance which many Unicorn CEOs and investors are ill-prepared to navigate. Layoffs have also become more prevalent.

IPO 40

IPO Term Sheet Valuation Silicon Valley 40

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 13, 2009

And even worse, wed cranked up the burn rate in order to be ready to handle all those millions of mainstream customers we anticipated. Know what the success metrics are for the launch. Worse, we tricked ourselves into thinking that what the press said about our success was actually true.

San Francisco 168

San Francisco PR Lean Early Stage 168

Up and Running

OCTOBER 1, 2014

Statdragon is a Saas platform that allows businesses to access and analyze metrics about their existing videos and optimize their video marketing strategy. Nelson has some tips: Know your burn rate. Hire and surround yourself with people who are hungry for the opportunity and super driven,” she advises.

Bootstrapping 107

Bootstrapping Cofounder Portland Burn Rate 107

K9 Ventures

MAY 28, 2015

And in order to do that they need to either raise capital to be able to hire a team by paying them real dollars or recruit co-founders who are willing to share the journey based on the equity stake and bootstrap the company. By carefully managing your burn rate and steadily growing revenue, you can now survive — almost forever.

Revenue 48

Revenue Startup Burn Rate Cofounder 48