Reid Hoffman

JULY 27, 2021

Notice that I didn’t say I wouldn’t invest in a founder with an MBA; there are many amazing entrepreneurs and investors with MBAs, such as my friend Aneel Bhusri of Workday. I was still unprepared; I had no idea that I also needed to learn about go-to-market strategy and distribution. VENTURE CAPITAL AND THE MBAS OF SILICON VALLEY.

Silicon Valley 69

Silicon Valley Venture Capital Balance Sheet Cofounder 69

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 16, 2009

Eric Ries in Times Square For any model to be useful it has to predict what happens in the real world – including the web. I realized the Customer Development model needs to be clearer in what exactly a startup is supposed to do, regardless of the business model. “What is the “Business Model” of your startup?&#

Customer Development 219

Customer Development Web Developer Customer 219

VC Cafe

NOVEMBER 17, 2022

Wired called a new Silicon Valley Gold Rush. Going back to where we started, as these Generative AI tools become more widely distributed, the effort required to create content will go down, and the quantity of content will significantly go up. Click on ‘source’ below to download a clickable PDF. Webcrawler.

Generative AI 117

Generative AI API Open Source Artificial Inteligence 117

Steve Blank

AUGUST 31, 2009

Startups don’t fail because they lack a product; they fail because they lack customers and a profitable business model. Look at the Product Development model and you might wonder, “Where are the customers?” customers aren’t buying it, the cost of distribution is too high, etc.) before you ship.

Customer Development 238

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 238

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 16, 2010

In the early days of Rocket Science I realized that we needed high-level advice on multiple fronts; technology, game development, video game distribution, etc. Even back then the advisor was a well-known name in Silicon Valley. I had acted like an employee, not as a founder and certainly not as the CEO of a startup.

Advisory Board 260

Advisory Board Part-Time VPE CTO Hire Stock 260

David Teten

MARCH 18, 2021

(co-written with Stephane Nasser , co-founder of OpenVC , an open-source initiative to collect and analyze all VC theses.). OpenVC is a new, open-source initiative to collect and analyze all publicly available VC theses, to help founders more efficiently find the right investors, and vice-versa. Technical founders .

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Cofounder Venture Capital Deal Flow 78

Reid Hoffman

OCTOBER 21, 2019

We argued extensively in our book, Blitzscaling , that these strategies and tactics describe why Silicon Valley Bay Area – which has a population of less than 4 million – generates such a massively disproportionate number of global technology companies. Distribution. Distribution. What makes a company Blitzscale-able?

Silicon Valley 53

Silicon Valley Software Review Technical Review United Kingdom 53

Austin Startup

MARCH 3, 2020

The LexSet Co-Founders (left to right) CEO Francis Bitonti , President Leslie Oliver Karpas , and COO Azam Khan won $250,000 in Verizon’s Built on 5G Challenge The Forrest Four-Cast: March 3, 2020 LexSet serves AI engineers, especially those with limited resources, with a better way to annotate photos.

Technical Review 63

Technical Review Los Angeles Cofounder Silicon Valley 63

crowdSPRING Blog

NOVEMBER 30, 2012

How Small Businesses Can Compete with Big Business – [link]. crowdSPRING’s Small Business Spotlight of the Week: mor.sl | crowdSPRING Blog – [link]. The Founders Lie About Comfort Zones – [link]. How To Choose A Market For Your Startup Or Small Business – [link]. – [link].

Social Media 100

Social Media Small Business Central African Republic Design 100

Hippoland

JULY 6, 2018

From that perspective, things have been mostly rosy in the Silicon Valley for startups! except for 2008-2009, which is another story) But, I think we’re in trouble, Silicon Valley. This will make it harder for SF to compete for startup founder talent. I went to college during the bust. Documentation?

Silicon Valley 48

Silicon Valley San Francisco Portugal Ireland 48

Hippoland

JULY 6, 2018

From that perspective, things have been mostly rosy in the Silicon Valley for startups! except for 2008-2009, which is another story) But, I think we’re in trouble, Silicon Valley. This will make it harder for SF to compete for startup founder talent. I went to college during the bust. Documentation?

Silicon Valley 48

Silicon Valley San Francisco Portugal Ireland 48

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 11, 2019

She’s also a founding member of All Raise, a non-profit committed to improving diversity in both funders and founders. What I was interested in seeing was that a lot of these founders believe that they’re not just creating technology, they're creating change and culture. We didn't have signage on the door front.

Founder 68

Founder Lean Venture Capital Cofounder 68

Lightspeed Venture Partners

SEPTEMBER 16, 2012

The first pitch was for Coat Chex, a company using a tablet app to make coat checks (and other “bailment” businesses such as valet parking, dry cleaning etc.) Looking past the cheesy theatre of the guys pitch, this company was the one most likely to actually pitch a real Silicon Valley VC, given its technology angle.

Silicon Valley 167

Silicon Valley Salary Dilution Indiana 167

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 26, 2020

What most founders don’t realize is: Every stage of a startup requires a different set of metrics and milestones and founder skills. Knowing these will help a founder position her pitch to get investors’ attention. Founders need to keep their eye on the prize — not just the next funding round. Business Model.

Cofounder 429

Cofounder Seed Stage Valuation Metrics 429

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 31, 2014

However, in meeting some of the sports startups one of the things that struck me is that most of the founders who said they wanted to grow big hadn’t given much thought about how they would go about building size and scale. For example, many of the Australian sports tech business models shared common elements.

Global 335

Global Australia Silicon Valley China 335

Steve Blank

JANUARY 21, 2016

If you’re a technical startup founder, one of the painful lessons is that it’s not enough just to build a great product. You must also understand the value the product provides customers (along with the rest of your business model.). Clay Hebert , founder of Crowdfunding Hacks. Clay Hebert.

Detroit 120

Detroit Baltimore Entrepreneur Cofounder 120

ConversionXL

FEBRUARY 3, 2022

GrowthHackers founder and former Head of Growth at Dropbox, Sean Ellis , coined the term: “A growth hacker is a person whose true north is growth. In his course on Growth Mindset (part of CXL’s Growth Marketing Minidegree ), WeTheFuture.org founder John McBride describes three key components of a successful growth marketer: 1.

Retention 113

Retention Marketing Acquisition Channel 113

The Startup Magazine

AUGUST 6, 2021

The pre-pandemic economy was characterized by a mysterious, decades-long decline in business formation. Although the media has been full of inspiring stories about start-ups in Silicon Valley, the reality is that the rate at which Americans have been starting companies has been in decline for a long time.

Limited Liability Company 163

Limited Liability Company Silicon Valley Business Model Stock Options 163

Steve Blank

MAY 7, 2009

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. I love business plan competitions (and with my valley-centric bias, I think Berkeley and Stanford have two of the best.) I now think that was a mistake.

Business Plan 140

Business Plan Silicon Valley RSS Venture Capital 140

ReadWriteStart

APRIL 1, 2011

As for business model, Jigar wants to sell services like refilling cards. The company has distribution through about 50 retailers in Chennai, and is looking for ways to market their product through online channels. We discussed guerilla p.r., product reviews through blogs, as well as SEO, blogs, and social media marketing.

India 119

India Guerilla Entrepreneur New Zealand 119

Lightspeed Venture Partners

OCTOBER 7, 2012

I’ve been writing up reviews of this season’s Shark Tank pitches from a silicon valley VCs perspective. The first company started as a BBQ catering business, and eventually focused in on their most popular product, a dip made of blended up chicken plus various sauces. BACK 9 DIPS.

Technical Review 110

Technical Review Technical Cofounder Valuation Pre-Money Valuation 110

Start Up Blog

OCTOBER 11, 2018

Firstly, there are a lot of businesses calling themselves a startups , when in reality, they’re really just new, small businesses. Startup = A new type of business trying to uncover a business model which doesn’t exist yet. The Silicon Valley ethic now runs deep – despite the current tech-lash.

Startup 144

Startup Silicon Valley Cofounder Distribution 144

Gust

AUGUST 22, 2012

One commonly used approach is to identify widely felt “pain points” in the target market; build a workable solution to address them using particularly effective or efficient means; and if the business model pencils out, work like crazy to execute, execute, execute. Silicon Arabia has engineers in Russia as well as Egypt.)

Technical Review 172

Technical Review Egypt Morocco Russia 172

Austin Startup

OCTOBER 15, 2017

What seems to be the best way to create customers and revenue may result in a business model that is out of vogue with the investment world and shortchanges you on enterprise valuation. In the long ago I spent a brief period of time assisting Pertec, the San Fernando Valley company that bought MITS and its Altair product line.

Technical Review 48

Technical Review Software Review Nevada Silicon Valley 48

Steve Blank

JANUARY 25, 2010

In this post we’re going to offer a new definition of why startups exist : a startup is an organization formed to search for a repeatable and scalable business model. A Business Model. Ok, but what is a business model ? A business model describes how your company creates, delivers and captures value.

Agile 335

Agile Startup Silicon Valley Business Model 335

Steve Blank

APRIL 30, 2009

SuperMac sold our graphic boards for the Macintosh through multiple distribution channels: direct sales to major accounts, national chains, independent rep firms, etc. Initially your job is to understand each of the parts of your business model before you hire someone to do it. Your mileage may vary, just my two cents.

Sales 120

Sales Silicon Valley RSS Las Vegas 120

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 27, 2017

Innovation doesn’t always make you a winner in business. In my role as an angel investor in startups, almost every pitch I see highlights some real innovation in technology, business model, or market opportunity. Yet only a few of these get funded, and even fewer become dominant players in their chosen space.

Silicon Valley 136

Silicon Valley Differentiation Angel Investor Incubator 136

crowdSPRING Blog

APRIL 26, 2013

If there’s one video 1st time founders should watch to understand VC financing it’s this one – [link]. Five Branding Mistakes That Will Cripple Your Small Business (and how to avoid making them) – [link]. . Downfalls of Distributed Startups – [link]. ” – [link]. ” – [link].

Social Media 90

Social Media Small Business Design Media 90

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 3, 2012

This reality has fostered a popular startup approach which dramatically improves the efficiency and speed of these corrections, pioneered by Silicon Valley entrepreneur and author Eric Ries. Many founders envision their solution as a platform for future products, but don’t have a single killer application just yet.

Silicon Valley 273

Silicon Valley Architecture Startup Channel 273

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 3, 2014

It’s now been over 3 years since the team has left my classroom and I thought I’d share with you what the two founders, Jorge Heraud and Lee Redden, learned then and what they’re doing now. Like all great Silicon Valley companies they started with a technology and guessed who the customers will be.

Lean 272

Lean Silicon Valley Customer Development Incubator 272

Up and Running

MAY 3, 2012

Entrepreneurship continues to be a sexy topic for governments, with every country worth its salt trying to create its own tech hub, mimicking Silicon Valley. We should remind them that, as Steve Blank said, “a startup is an organization formed to search for a repeatable and scalable business model.” The list goes on.

Entrepreneur 82

Entrepreneur Technical Review Silicon Valley Lean 82

Steve Blank

MARCH 18, 2011

The signals are loud and clear : seed and late stage valuations are getting frothy and wacky, and hiring talent in Silicon Valley is the toughest it has been since the dot.com bubble. VC’s went back to basics, to focus on building companies while their founders worked on building customers. Carpe Diem. Breathtaking Scale.

Internet 334

Internet IPO Silicon Valley Agile 334

YoungUpstarts

MAY 26, 2017

by Edmund Buckley , co-founder & CEO of CampusSafe. Your pitch deck is the most important assets your business will have, arguably more than the business plan itself. Think of your business as a house you’re building. Slide 3: Introduce your business model. To build a house, you need a blueprint.

Cofounder 185

Cofounder Silicon Valley Forecast Business Plan 185

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 16, 2011

This reality has fostered a popular new startup approach which dramatically improves the efficiency and speed of these corrections, pioneered by Silicon Valley entrepreneur and author Eric Ries. Many founders envision their solution as a platform for future products, but don’t have a single killer application just yet.

Lean 255

Lean Entrepreneur Silicon Valley Architecture 255

steveblank.com

JULY 8, 2011

Github - Free public repositories, collaborator management, issue tracking, wikis, downloads, code review, graphs Pivotal Tracker – Agile project management tool that enables real time collaboration.

Software Review 110

Software Review Startup Silicon Valley Analytics 110

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 19, 2009

Another called Parker Harris, the co-founder and CTO. Distributed version control model – first in the industry like ours and we are filing patents. Page 4: Business Model. There is really no other place in the world like Silicon Valley. Free product. Page 3: Competition. Page 5: Financials.

Venture Capital 274

Venture Capital Term Sheet San Diego Viral 274

Gust

NOVEMBER 25, 2012

This reality has fostered a popular startup approach which dramatically improves the efficiency and speed of these corrections, pioneered by Silicon Valley entrepreneur and author Eric Ries. Many founders envision their solution as a platform for future products, but don’t have a single killer application just yet.

Silicon Valley 187

Silicon Valley Architecture Startup Channel 187