Steve Blank

AUGUST 31, 2009

After 20 years of working in startups, I decided to take a step back and look at the product development model I had been following and see why it usually failed to provide useful guidance in activities outside the building – sales, marketing and business development. Product Development Diagram 1.

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Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 238

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 12, 2018

The problem is that professional investors (angels and venture capital) want a proven business model before they invest, ready to scale, rather than early projections and product development. Apply for contests and business grants. Commit to a major customer.

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Intellectual Property Technical Review Startup Incubator 134

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 13, 2015

Angel investors and venture capitalists are looking for startups with real products and a proven business model, ready to scale. Yet I still get too many business plans that clearly are looking for money to do research and development (R&D) on a new and unproven technology. Commercial product prototypes.

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Product Development Developer Product Angel Investor 120

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 2, 2023

Angel investors and venture capitalists are looking for startups with real products and a proven business model, ready to scale. Yet I still get too many business plans that clearly are looking for money to do research and development (R&D) on a new and unproven technology. Commercial product prototypes.

Angel Investor 256

Angel Investor Early Stage Incubator Government 256

Women Entrepreneurs Can

NOVEMBER 19, 2022

A Venture Capital Firm is a firm that invests in startups and early-stage companies. However, not all firms are venture capital firms. One of the most common ways of investing in a startup is by leveraging the expertise of a venture capital firm. Early-Stage Investments vs. Mid-Stage Investments.

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Venture Capital Early Stage Liquidity Event SEC 52

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 1, 2021

Try innovating inside a large company where 99% of the company is executing the current business model, while you’re trying to figure out and build what comes next. Do they have better sales, marketing, or product development groups? So they prepare for future markets by exploring new ventures.

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Incubator Lean Agile Business Model 402

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 18, 2021

Angel investors and venture capitalists are looking for startups with real products and a proven business model, ready to scale. Yet I still get too many business plans that clearly are looking for money to do research and development (R&D) on a new and unproven technology. Commercial product prototypes.

Early Stage 412

Early Stage Angel Investor Incubator Government 412

Steve Blank

MARCH 16, 2016

But startups require money upfront for product development and later to scale. Luckily in the last quarter of the 20 th century a new source of money called risk capital emerged. At its core Venture Capital is nothing more than a small portion of the Private Equity financial asset class. ——-.

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Liquidity Event Founder Liquidation Preference Venture Capital 120

David Teten

AUGUST 19, 2019

I’ve been a traditional equity VC for 8 years, and I’m now researching new business models in venture capital. RBI normally requires founders to pay back their investors with a fixed percentage of revenue until they have finished providing the investor with a fixed return on capital, which they agree upon in advance.

Revenue 60

Revenue Technical Review Software Review Equity 60

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 24, 2009

The Founder’s New Insight Smart founders are never satisfied with simply executing their current business model, they are constantly observing, orienting and deciding whether their current business model can be made better. It’s a natural part of learning about your customers and business model.)

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Customer Silicon Valley RSS California 195

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.

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Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 242

ReadWriteStart

FEBRUARY 13, 2020

Increased venture funding has been helping to develop a robust tech ecosystem with major hubs in Vancouver, Ottawa, Montreal, and Toronto. Here’s how public venture funding can help build Canada’s tech talent. These workers are recruited to work in international development offices.

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Canada Government Venture Capital Early Stage 127

Cracking the Code

OCTOBER 1, 2020

Snyk was founded with the mission to help developers make their code secure, providing a platform to automatically assess and remediate open source vulnerabilities. The company’s success has been largely driven by its developer-led freemium model, going from Series A funding to a valuation of $2.6B in just 30 months.

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Early Stage Open Source Development Team Review Security 62

Up and Running

JULY 2, 2014

Picking the right attorney in your startup is as important as picking the right business partner. You can’t underestimate the importance of selecting an attorney who “gets” your business model, your market opportunity, and most importantly, your fundraising and exit strategy. Best of luck to you in your startup venture!

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Technical Review Angel Investor Due Diligence Dilution 118

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. Is there a profitable business model? How many are there? Can it scale?”

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Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 262

Steve Blank

JUNE 25, 2009

They couldn’t keep up with the fast product development times that were enabled by using standard microprocessors. So their management teams were insisting that they OEM (buy from someone else) these products. The answer depends on your answer to two questions: which step in the Customer Development process are you on?

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Technology Silicon Valley Fractional VPE Part-Time VPE 138

ReadWriteStart

JUNE 29, 2020

Wikipedia.com defines a “startup company (startup or startup) is an entrepreneurial venture which is typically a newly emerged, fast-growing business that aims to meet a marketplace need by developing a viable business model around an innovative product, service, process, or a platform.”.

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VC Cafe

FEBRUARY 27, 2024

Pre-seed tends to be about developing an MVP and generating early traction. Seed is about showing initial product market fit. We’d like to see that the relevant functions are covered (who’s writing code?

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Valuation Software Review Generative AI Technical Review 186

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 18, 2010

Lean, when used in the context of lean startup, refers to a process of building companies and products using lean manufacturing principles applied to innovation. That process involves rapid hypothesis testing, validated learning about customers , and a disciplined approach to product development.

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YoungUpstarts

MAY 10, 2012

Getting to Plan B: Breaking Through to a Better Business Model. Getting to Plan B encourages startups to realize that business plans often change, and in fact, your success as a startup depends on your ability to do just that. Mastering the VC Game: A Venture Capital Insider Reveals How to Get from Start-Up to IPO on Your Terms.

Startup 247

Startup Lean Silicon Valley Open Source 247

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 17, 2015

Successful Innovation Outposts typically develop over a period of time through three stages. In exchange, the startups provide companies with their disruptive ideas, technologies and business models. Therefore, the profile of the initial team to staff an Innovation Outpost should be a technology-savvy business development group.

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Silicon Valley Incubator Acquisition Business Model 120

www.informationarbitrage.com

FEBRUARY 24, 2010

This is not only sad but incredibly frustrating, because it is so easy to see how a great technology can be developed and commercialized if only - if only the CTO hadn't been impulsive and insecure and brought on a business partner too early in the game. I am a business person, not a technologist.

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Growthink Blog

MAY 10, 2012

If it's not your plan to get venture capital down the road, then you'll probably stop in Stage 2-receiving enough funding to boost your marketing, sales, and infrastructure to grow organically from there to the point where you are satisfied or ready to sell. Series B is the round that follows series A in early stage financing.

Equity 88

Equity Mezzanine Later Stage Venture Capital 88

Steve Blank

JUNE 8, 2009

In the last three posts, we drew the relationship of market risk and invention risk with vertical markets and pointed out verticals where customer development would be useful. In contrast to simply executing your business plan, the Customer Development process is built on low-cost and continuous learning and iterating.

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Vertical Silicon Valley RSS Marketing 122

SoCal CTO

DECEMBER 1, 2010

Equity-Only CTO and Equity-Only Developers - SoCal CTO , November 1, 2010 I had a recent email dialog with the founder of a company looking for a CTO for their startup. Was it a Startup Founder Developer Gap ? few years ago I also started following Alexander Osterwalder in his blog about his Business Model Generation -mantra.

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Technical Review Technology Product CTO Hire 175

Up and Running

JULY 24, 2015

On Bplans, you’ll find templates, free eBooks, and articles on how to plan and start your business. Business Model Generation. This website offers a downloadable worksheet called a business model canvas that helps you think through your business idea. Product development. Edison Nation.

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Entrepreneur Small Business Administration SBA Pennsylvania 60

Up and Running

MAY 23, 2016

The one-page pitch format is also more suitable for SaaS businesses that are constantly testing new ideas. Your pitch is going to cover your strategy (what you’re going to do), your tactics (how you’re going to do it), your business model (how you will make money), and your schedule (who is doing what and when). resident.

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Software Review Software Delaware Forecast 74

K9 Ventures

APRIL 28, 2010

Direct Revenue : The company must have a direct revenue model. No advertising, content or media businesses which may have a three-way business model, but rather companies which deliver direct value to paying customers. No distributed teams, and no outsourced product development. Twilio (Seed and Series A).

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Seed Stage San Francisco IP Portfolio 61

infochachkie.com

SEPTEMBER 24, 2011

There is an inherent conflict in a consultant’s business model and the needs of a startup. Such positions include: PR, Sales, Product Development, Lead Generation, Strategic Planning, Fund Raising, etc. Yet, it does nothing to help you execute your business model. Launching Venture (33). Sales (12).

Equity 40

Equity Silicon Valley Cofounder Technical Review 40

Growthink Blog

NOVEMBER 2, 2016

And more excitedly, through the development of a new product with a market potential many times greater than the company’s current core offering.

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Conversion Los Angeles Europe Acquisition 48

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

MARCH 11, 2014

We started with the product about three years ago, development, a year later we released it. So let’s say about a year and a half, the product has been out for real. They have many, many man-years of development and customer development in them. Edwin: Oh sorry, so the business model.

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Technical Cofounder Cofounder Software Review Management 220

Steve Blank

MAY 7, 2009

I finally understood how valuable these contests can be for students in cities or countries without a venture capital or entrepreneurial infrastructure. At a university business plan competition, for the first time they can swim in the sea of expertise that we/I take for granted in the middle of Silicon Valley. to compete.

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Business Plan Silicon Valley RSS Venture Capital 140

Tim Keane

JUNE 13, 2006

Then, on the expense side, I’d like to begin to understand how the growth in the business will drive costs as complexity increases. Growth involves, in many businesses, more customer service, product development, support, marketing and so forth – in addition to more R&D. Angel Capital Association website.

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Wisconsin Entrepreneur Startup Angel Investor 60

Steve Blank

MAY 18, 2009

Next, you have to deal with the daily crisis of product development and acquiring early customers. And here’s where life gets really interesting, as the reality of product development and customer input collide, the facts change so rapidly that the original well-thought-out business plan becomes irrelevant.

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Founder Silicon Valley RSS China 297

Tim Keane

APRIL 24, 2006

Last night, Bob Zieserl, Venture Capitalist, and general partner at Stratus Ventures, was the keynote speaker at the Marquette University Business Plan Competition. "Over the last twenty years, 11,000 companies have had Venture Capital investments. The product development cycle was excellent.

Wisconsin 60

Wisconsin Angel Investor Bootstrapping Venture Capital 60

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 26, 2014

Every startup needs access to capital, whether for funding product development, for initial rollout efforts, acquiring inventory, or paying that first employee. Note that we haven’t yet mentioned the more conventional and less creative finance approaches of Angel and venture capital investors.

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Entrepreneur Finance Equity Early Stage 254

bhargreaves.com

MARCH 7, 2010

Many capable founders aren’t developers, and I frequently meet with entrepreneurs that have taken a very different path. Most disturbingly, I’ve occasionally found myself agreeing with an entrepreneur’s decision to hire a development shop to build their product. Sometimes, it just makes sense.

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