Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 7, 2009

This post describes how following the traditional product development can lead to a “startup death spiral.&# In the next posts that follow, I’ll describe how this model’s failures led to the Customer Development Model – offering a new way to approach startup sales and marketing activities.

Customer Development 224

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 224

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 2, 2022

Both risks and opportunities in this area can arise from many aspects of your startup, before and after product development. 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

OCTOBER 12, 2010

If you’re interested in recruiting sales people, I wrote on the topic of startup sales people: who to hire & when – understanding the roles of Journeymen, Mavericks & Superstars. Evangelical sales – Understanding startup sales people and process. Reminds me of Eats, Shoots & Leaves. You learn by asking.

Hiring 346

Hiring Sales Startup Early Stage 346

crowdSPRING Blog

SEPTEMBER 19, 2014

These posts and videos are about logo design , web design , startups, entrepreneurship, small business, leadership, social media, marketing, and more! Are startup burn rates out of control? Hiring startup engineers? Busting the Lean-Startup Myth – crowdspring.co/1ozOXHA.

Social Media 94

Social Media Small Business Design Media 94

The Next Web

DECEMBER 2, 2013

We interviewed the heads of the top Web and mobile development companies, incubators, agencies and labs to understand what it takes to design and develop the most successful apps of our generation. Here are their breakdowns of the costs and time investments to create 10 of the world’s hottest startups. 1) Twitter. 4) WhatsApp.

Cost 168

Cost San Francisco New York City Ruby 168

Feld Thoughts

SEPTEMBER 16, 2011

A company at this stage could also face product development costs from consultants if they decided to outsource product development. However, Praveena has committed to personally get the first version of the product up and launched without outside consultants, so there is no expense here either.

Balance Sheet 125

Balance Sheet Fractional CTO Burn Rate Salary 125

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 30, 2019

Both risks and opportunities in this area can arise from many aspects of your startup, before and after product development. 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

Feld Thoughts

NOVEMBER 18, 2013

One of them used to be a lead developer at [insert hot consumer tech company here]. They need to raise money before building anything substantial after determining that they needed a little dough to follow the Lean Startup methodology. In startup time, that feels like forever. The plan would have to get way tighter, way faster.

Burn Rate 152

Burn Rate Equity Software Review Early Stage 152

YoungUpstarts

JUNE 17, 2019

But for small businesses, like startups, carrying out an effective marketing strategy is critical to their very survival. It is a sobering truth that nine out of ten startups will fail , and marketing success can often be the key element for any startup’s viability. Marketing: startup style. Quiz me this.

Marketing 147

Marketing Startup Burn Rate Advertising 147

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 16, 2009

Well obviously that’s meaningless if your startup idea sucks. He was at a startup that was in a super hot sector. They realized that they were selling a bunch of cool products but none that had enough economic value. I advocated LOUDLY at the board that we needed to cut our burn rate.

Entrepreneur 306

Entrepreneur Burn Rate Cofounder Sales 306

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 30, 2015

Both risks and opportunities in this area can arise from many aspects of your startup, before and after product development. Then you walk the delicate balance between burn rates, revenue flows versus expenses, investment in marketing, and employees. balance business dreams entrepreneur risk startup'

Entrepreneur 120

Entrepreneur Burn Rate Startup Angel Investor 120

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 22, 2017

Both risks and opportunities in this area can arise from many aspects of your startup, before and after product development. 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

JANUARY 17, 2014

Both risks and opportunities in this area can arise from many aspects of your startup, before and after product development. Then you walk the delicate balance between burn rates, revenue flows versus expenses, investment in marketing, and employees. business entrepreneur opportunity risk startup Tom Panaggio'

Burn Rate 234

Burn Rate Angel Investor Entrepreneur Operations 234

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 18, 2010

For decades startups were managed by pretending the company would follow a predictable path (revenue plan, scale, etc.) Luckily most startups now realize there is a better way. Startups Are Not Small Versions of Large Companies. The revenue numbers and revenue model came from a startups original Business Plan.

Burn Rate 247

Burn Rate Management Business Model Customer Development 247

View from Seed

OCTOBER 15, 2014

Over the summer, based on feedback from our portfolio and the broader startup community, NextView created pre-formatted board deck templates for seed-stage startups — part of our Growth Guides series. A seed-stage mobile startup’s housekeeping section might look something like this: Section 3: Core Metrics.

Seed Stage 331

Seed Stage Cap Table Metrics Burn Rate 331

Steve Blank

AUGUST 27, 2012

Knowing how to sort between vision and hallucination can avoid chaos inside your startup. He turned his PhD thesis into a killer product, got it funded and now was CEO of a company of 30. Other weeks Yuri would be buffeted by the realities of his burn rate, declining bank account and depressing comments from customers.

Founder 316

Founder Cofounder Advisory Board Burn Rate 316

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. Over its lifetime a Lean Startup may spend less money than a traditional startup. Lets see why.

Lean 244

Lean Silicon Valley Startup RSS 244

BeyondVC

DECEMBER 10, 2009

Financial models for startups are important from a big picture perspective, but I never like to get mired in the full details as things always change in the early stages. While many SAAS companies may collect cash monthly or quarterly, some collect annual fees by offering discounts by paying upfront.

Churn Rate 112

Churn Rate Burn Rate Startup Metrics 112

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.

Customer Development 242

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 242

The Equity Kicker

JULY 16, 2015

What follows is a generalised model for startup team building. 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. Every company is, of course, different, but using this model as a starting point will, I hope, be helpful.

eCommerce 60

eCommerce Burn Rate Early Stage Hiring 60

The Equity Kicker

JANUARY 10, 2020

It’s got a big burn rate, it’s too big to pivot, and it goes bust. But it’s by no means the only option, especially at the startup stage. We have been crucial in getting the product to market. They find a niche in the market where they can grow some revenues and then they raise some more money.

Partner 68

Partner Early Stage Portfolio Metrics 68

ReadWriteStart

JANUARY 27, 2011

And, oh by the way, we also really like the idea of the 1M/1M entrepreneurs building valuation and negotiating leverage through these business development efforts, instead of signing off large chunks of their company in form of equity early on. I would never take investment in a startup from a hedge fund.

Dilution 114

Dilution Revenue Finance Entrepreneur 114

ithacaVC

MARCH 14, 2011

At the early stages of a startup, the founding team is probably the most important variable of success. The company’s burn rate is only currently $15,000 a month (and expected to increase over time), so that $250,000 will last, say, 12 months. In essence, at this stage, product development defines the company.

Early Stage 45

Early Stage Founder Burn Rate Cofounder 45

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 27, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Friday, March 27, 2009 Cash is not king Cash on hand is just one important variable in a startup’s life, but it’s not necessarily the most important. These successful startups managed to have enough tries to get it right. What matters most is the number of iterations the company has left.

San Francisco 117

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 117

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 13, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Friday, March 13, 2009 Dont launch Heres a common question I get from startups, especially in the early stages: when should we launch? Marketing launch) Make a new product available to customers in the general public. In fact, in most situations its a bad idea for startups to synchronize these events.

San Francisco 168

San Francisco PR Lean Early Stage 168

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 30, 2009

Bring in an expert CEO with outstanding business credentials and startup experience to focus on relentless execution. Build a truly mainstream product. Build the product in stealth mode to build buzz for the eventual launch. This is why agility is such a prized quality in product development. Focus on quality.

San Francisco 150

San Francisco Lean Agile Continuous Deployment 150