Steve Blank

OCTOBER 24, 2017

Why do these founders get to stay around? Because the balance of power has dramatically shifted from investors to founders. VCs competing for unicorn investments have given founders control of the board. — all great things when you are executing and scaling a known business model. Board Control.

Founder 245

Founder Technical Review CTO Hire IPO 245

TechEmpower

JULY 31, 2023

When talking to startup founders or other innovators, we always ask questions to better understand their business as a core. What does the business do? How does it meet customers’ needs? Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) How much money will your business generate from each converted customer?

Metrics 260

Metrics Startup Retention Acquisition 260

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 7, 2015

Businesses require an equally elegant business model, with the right price, messaging and delivery channel to the right target customers to keep the dream alive and growing. Defining the right business model requires the same diligence as designing the right product, but the approach and skills required are different.

Business Model 120

Business Model Technical Review Advisory Board Software Review 120

Steve Blank

JANUARY 17, 2023

Venture Studios are an “idea factory” with their own employees searching for product/market fit and a repeatable and scalable business model. But these look for founders who have a technical or business model insight and a team. They do the most to de-risk the early stages of a startup. Carlos stirred his coffee.

Technical Cofounder 346

Technical Cofounder Intellectual Property Technical Review Incubator 346

Steve Blank

JANUARY 27, 2011

The most visible step was the first International Business Model Competition , hosted by the BYU Rollins Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology. We’ve been teaching that the difference between a startup and an existing company is that existing companies execute business models, while startups search for a business model.

Business Model 275

Business Model Utah Intellectual Property Agile 275

VC Cafe

AUGUST 4, 2022

This is an incredibly tough time to a lot of founders. Many founders have hard choices to make, and face big consequences to the macro trends like inflation, reduce spending, increased interest rates etc. I see founders that stopped sending investor updates. are you focusing on your customers? Keep the lines open.

Founder 158

Founder Aggregator Startup Valuation 158

Steve Blank

APRIL 12, 2010

Each sale requires us to handhold the customer and takes way too long to close. He took a deep breath, looked around the boardroom table and then proceeded to outline a radical reconfiguration of the product line (repackaging the products rather than reengineering them) and a change in sales strategy, focusing on a different customer segment.

Business Model 332

Business Model Agile Customer Development Startup 332

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 12, 2019

You find that you need to be near major customers, or employee transportation hubs, where rents are higher than you ever anticipated. These days, computer hardware also extends to smartphone subscriptions, iPads, and laptops as your employees and customers expect mobile operation. Ramp-up facilities and utilities required.

Cost 264

Cost Founder Software Review Startup 264

The Startup Magazine

MAY 31, 2022

As part of our Female Founder series , The Startup Magazine caught up with Claudia Freed, CEO of the Wheaton Illinois-based nonprofit EALgreen. Freed received the first scholarship created from a sustainable-business model by the collaboration of EALgreen, WW Grainger, Inc. As an immigrant student from Argentina, Ms.

Founder 118

Founder Argentina Chicago Switzerland 118

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 14, 2022

I see more and more entrepreneurs who seem to have everything going for them – vision, motivation, passion, even a good business plan, product, and money, and yet they can’t close customers. Great businesses begin with a customer problem that has a big and monetizable pain point. Nail the business model.

Angel Investor 359

Angel Investor Technical Review Incubator Business Model 359

SoCal CTO

OCTOBER 6, 2011

I’m going to take that thought out into the field and validate it with my customers." I’ve spoken to dozens of customers, I have a validated customer persona, built an MVP to test key behavioral hypotheses, and the data doesn’t back what you’re saying." Customer Validation 101. Either: "That’s interesting.

Customer 227

Customer Fractional CTO Viral Lean 227

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 1, 2013

Product development is stuck at that 90% mark, a key person leaves, and customers are talking but not buying. I challenge any startup to show me they have avoided all of these: One of the founders isn’t delivering. The team buys its own propaganda, and fully expects customers to be leaping tall buildings to get to your product.

Founder 250

Founder Startup Software Developers Software Development 250

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 4, 2013

The class has talked to 1,440 customers to date.). The teams present what they learned talking to 10-15 customer/week, and get comments, suggestions and critiques from their teaching team. We’ve recorded these panels for each part of the business model canvas. Therapeutics customer = pharma and biotech companies.

Lean 258

Lean Customer Business Model Customer Development 258

View from Seed

APRIL 14, 2020

VCs are always founder focused no matter the market environment. But in a FOMO world, more investors are willing to take a chance on a founder that they don’t know, but seems to match some of the heuristics of other high quality founders. Business Models and Sectors. In a FOLD world, this is going to continue.

Early Stage 374

Early Stage Software Review Technical Review Due Diligence 374

VC Cafe

FEBRUARY 27, 2024

A founder asked me what makes a $2M round “pre-seed”? Not only the bar for seed rounds has gotten higher (as less seed rounds get done) but also the founders prefer to build their company based on milestones. Therefore, software startups (it depends of course) need less money than ever before to build an MVP and get to first customers.

Valuation 186

Valuation Software Review Generative AI Technical Review 186

Hearpreneur

OCTOBER 13, 2023

A well-constructed business model is a foundational element of a business plan and strategy. It provides clarity on how a company plans to succeed in the marketplace and is essential for attracting investors, partners, and customers. Thanks to Jordan Adair, ShirtMax ! #2- Our primary profit driver is the margin on labor.

Business Model 129

Business Model Affiliate Jordan B2C 129

VC Cafe

MARCH 1, 2024

Most startups equate the process of fundraising to dating – founders have to typically kiss a lot of frogs until the find the right fit. AI to build enterprise software – In the future, every enterprise could have their own custom ERP, CRM or HRIS that is continually updating itself as the company itself is changing.

Artificial Inteligence 176

Artificial Inteligence Technical Review Software Review Generative AI 176

SoCal CTO

MARCH 5, 2007

There are quite a few other Software Development Companies in Southern California working on open source and/or freemium business models. Common revenue streams are consulting, training, support, customization, upgraded versions for corporate applications, etc. Attorney and Startup Business Advisor – Aaron Shec.

Open Source 150

Open Source Business Model Technical Cofounder Southern California 150

VC Cafe

FEBRUARY 21, 2023

This is a question startup founders ask themselves multiple times a week. It’s not just the competition against the incumbents and the large tech platforms that founders has to worry about, but most importantly is the company’s performance and product market fit. How are we doing?

Retention 109

Retention Conversion Churn Rate B2C 109

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 25, 2010

Customer Development is a technique startups use to quickly iterate and test each part of their business model. How you execute Customer Development varies, depending on your type of business. In my book, “ The Four Steps to the Epiphany ” I use enterprise software as the business model example.

Customer Development 266

Customer Development Web Developer Customer 266

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 8, 2022

Today more than ever, the evidence is clear that business people need to find and communicate a purpose that goes beyond making a profit, in order to ensure customer engagement, as well as your own, and drive results in the marketplace. As you grow, so will your team and customers.

Technical Review 357

Technical Review Green Social Media Lean 357

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

OCTOBER 17, 2011

.”) So although it’s a single number combining several factors, and we know that averaging can obfuscate , I think cancellation rate is a good overall measure of how well the company is servicing its customers, and with tools like our detailed log you can still break apart the single number into concrete, actionable influences.

Business Model 245

Business Model Metrics Engineer Technical Review 245

ReadWriteStart

AUGUST 30, 2022

Most investors want to finance a project that targets a large market to allow the business to scale. To do this, startup founders need to analyze how many potential customers the product has, how much they can pay, and how their number changes over time. Drawing Up a Financial Business Model. Business model.

Software Review 183

Software Review Technical Review Cofounder United States 183

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 13, 2014

This rather crude expression weighs heavily on the mind of all good startup founders, no matter how confident they appear. The real milestone, proving the business model, is that first product sold for full price to a total stranger, leaving him happy. Customers don’t buy the impossible dream. That should be you.

Business Model 248

Business Model Sales Customer Distribution 248

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 5, 2018

A version of this article first appeared in the Harvard Business Review. Jeff Katzenberg has a great track record – head of the studio at Paramount, chairman of Disney Studios, co-founder of DreamWorks and now chairman of NewTV. They needed to be sure that what they were building was what customers wanted and needed.

Lean 335

Lean Burn Rate Startup IPO 335

Steve Blank

APRIL 7, 2020

The classes are built on the Lean Startup methodology: Customer Discovery, Agile Engineering and the Business/Mission Model Canvas. So how do our students get out of the building to talk to customers to do Customer Discovery when they can’t get out of the building? How do should startups do it? You certainly do!

Customer 413

Customer Business Model Restful Video 413

Steve Blank

APRIL 26, 2022

Most existing investors (those still in business) hoarded their money and stopped doing follow-on rounds until the rubble had cleared. Except, that is, for the bottom feeders of the Venture Capital business – investors who “ cram down ” their companies. W hy would any founder agree to this? You Have a Choice.

Cram Down 404

Cram Down Founder Venture Capital Recapitalization 404

The Next Web

SEPTEMBER 22, 2013

While you are working away on your business plan, looking for ways to raise capital, finding the right people to hire, etc., But have you ever had the opportunity to pick the brains of founders who created amazingly successful startups and companies like Envato , Backblaze , Simple , or Treehouse ? Things snowballed from there.”.

Cofounder 164

Cofounder Founder Startup Bootstrapping 164

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

OCTOBER 31, 2011

I was totally product focused for the last year and now it’s live, so I need to start thinking about finding some customers. ” So instead finding out who and where those potential customers are , which is hard, he just made a product, which is easy (for him). So I think the ideal customer is: SaaS, ISV, Web Products.

Customer 279

Customer Software Review SEM Technical Review 279

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 16, 2009

I was in New York last week with my class at Columbia University and several events made me realize that the Customer Development model needs to better describe its fit with web-based businesses. In it, I got asked a question I often hear: “What if we have a web-based business that doesn’t have revenue or paying customers?

Customer Development 219

Customer Development Web Developer Customer 219

Steve Blank

AUGUST 31, 2009

So what’s wrong the product development model? The first hint lies in its name; this is a product development model, not a marketing model, not a sales hiring model, not a customer acquisition model, not even a financing model (and we’ll also find that in most cases it’s even a poor model to use to develop a product.)

Customer Development 238

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 238

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 15, 2019

Steve Blank via Flickr by jdlasica I see more and more entrepreneurs who seem to have everything going for them – vision, motivation, passion, even a good business plan, product, and money, and yet they can’t close customers. Great businesses begin with a customer problem that has a big and monetizable pain point.

Startup 245

Startup Angel Investor Technical Review Incubator 245

Steve Blank

APRIL 23, 2014

Most large companies manage three types of innovation: process innovation (making existing products incrementally better), continuous innovation (building on the strength of the company’s current business model but creating new elements) and disruptive innovation (creating products or services that did not exist before.).

Acquisition 332

Acquisition Intellectual Property Silicon Valley Startup 332

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 5, 2009

Chasing funding versus chasing customers and a repeatable and scalable business model, is one reason startups fail. Chasing funding versus chasing customers and a repeatable and scalable business model, is one reason startups fail. Are there customers for what you are building? How many are there?

Customer Development 262

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 262

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 7, 2023

It’s the antithesis of how founders want to build a business. Rent seekers are individuals or organizations with successful existing business models who use government regulation and lawsuits to keep out new entrants that might threaten their business models. Bill Gurley’s point.) Who influences who?

Washington 271

Washington Government Marketing Silicon Valley 271

Steve Blank

MARCH 16, 2016

To most founders a startup is not a job, but a calling. Founders can now access the largest pool of risk capital that ever existed –in the form of Private Equity (Angel Investors, family offices , Venture Capitalists (VC’s) and Hedge Funds.). (BTW, What does this mean for startup founders? Here’s the thing most founders miss.

Liquidity Event 120

Liquidity Event Founder Liquidation Preference Venture Capital 120

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 15, 2010

In previous posts I’ve talked about what the combination of Business Model Design, Customer Development and Agile Methodologies mean to startups and intrapreneurs in large companies; it’s the beginning of entrepreneurship as a science with its own rules and methodologies. Teaching In the Big Apple.

Customer Development 270

Customer Development Business Model Developer Design 270