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

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 5, 2009

Chasing funding versus chasing customers and a repeatable and scalable business model, is one reason startups fail. Entrepreneurs put together their funding presentation by extracting the key ideas from their business plan, putting them on PowerPoint/Keynote and pitching the company – until they get funded or exhausted.

Customer Development 262

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 262

Steve Blank

JULY 2, 2009

Entrepreneur-in-Residence After SuperMac I had been approached by one of our venture investors to be an entrepreneur in residence (EIR), a Silicon Valley phrase which says one thing but means another. Depending on the size of the venture firm they may have one to three EIR’s who stay an average of a year or so.

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley Technical Review RSS Software Review 120

David Teten

DECEMBER 3, 2019

Private equity and venture capital investors are copying our sisters in the hedge fund world: we’re trying to automate more of our job. . Small investment firms often have interns and entrepreneurs in residence passing through, each of which is a security risk. ff Venture Capital hired two full-time engineers to build out Totem.

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Software Review Analytics Private Equity 78

Steve Blank

APRIL 10, 2009

Filed under: Customer Development , Technology | Tagged: Customer Development , Early Stage Startup , Entrepreneurs , Startups , Steve Blank « SuperMac War Story 6: Building The Killer Team – Mission, Intent and Values Story Behind “The Secret History” Part IV: Library Hours at an Undisclosed Location » 17 Responses Michael F.

Silicon Valley 300

Silicon Valley RSS Startup Agile 300

VC Cafe

FEBRUARY 7, 2011

Today, eCommerce companies can scale up faster than almost any other consumer business model. This is due in part to the relatively simple and immediate validation of business models that are not fully dependent on advertising. That marketing, however, is dependent on capital, and that capital means Venture Capital.

eCommerce 94

eCommerce Open Source SEM Technical Review 94

Version One Ventures

JULY 21, 2020

No matter the vertical, geography, business model, macro or micro trends, entrepreneurs form the nucleus of a generational company. To us, these are entrepreneurs who will stop at nothing to solve a deep pain point that they know well. But ultimately, as our interests change, the one constant has been the founder.

Founder 213

Founder Vertical Differentiation Portfolio 213

Steve Blank

JUNE 11, 2009

And I remind them that they should be bringing some type of domain expertise (technical or business) to the table. Other Roles in a Startup Generic advice given to entrepreneurs assumes that everyone is going to be the founder/co-founder. By now the company may have found and settled on a repeatable business model.

Cofounder 219

Cofounder Founder Silicon Valley Technical Cofounder 219

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 24, 2009

Pattern Recognition One of the great things about being an entrepreneur is that you are constantly running a pattern recognition algorithm against a continual collection of customer and market data. But at times it’s why entrepreneurs can sink their own companies. More on this in later posts.)

Customer 195

Customer Silicon Valley RSS California 195

VC Cafe

JUNE 19, 2020

“As big businesses begin to measure their impact, they begin to show it is fundamental to their future business models.” Social impact investments first emerged in the UK around entrepreneurs such as Cohen during the early 2000s, with innovations like social impact bonds. Sir Ronald Cohen.

Venture Capital 174

Venture Capital Global South Africa 174

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

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.

Vertical 122

Vertical Silicon Valley RSS Marketing 122

abovethecrowd.com

APRIL 17, 2013

eBay recently launched an aggressive campaign attacking Amazon’s rate table on a vertical-by-vertical basis ( those percentages can be found here ). When evaluating new marketplace investments, we are naturally biased towards entrepreneurs who understand the strategic rationale behind the argument for a lower rake.

Europe 101

Europe Social Network Technical Review IPO 101

Version One Ventures

OCTOBER 17, 2018

But a thesis centered around network effects isn’t static – and isn’t limited to any particular sector, business model, or platform. And we also look at companies that are creating the best product for a specific vertical – including bio/healthcare and other emerging tech.

Silicon Valley 127

Silicon Valley North America San Francisco LP 127

Steve Blank

MAY 7, 2009

For those of you who don’t know, business plan competitions are held by universities who get their students to enter and compete to see who has the best business idea. Local venture investors and/or companies offer cash prizes for the winners. to compete.

Business Plan 140

Business Plan Silicon Valley RSS Venture Capital 140

View from Seed

MARCH 29, 2018

For many years, NextView has looked at many health-related businesses but invested in relatively few. We wanted to learn more about the nuanced industry market forces before applying the same hands-on investing model we do with tech startups in other verticals. They can be surprisingly capital efficient.

Vertical 120

Vertical Stealth Portfolio Seed Capital 120

Version One Ventures

NOVEMBER 6, 2013

This makes it laboriously difficult to identify rising stars and make comparisons within a specific vertical. We are often asked what industries we invest in, but it is more important to have theses on business models that serve as strong filters. Vertical SaaS.

Vertical 153

Vertical B2B B2C Venture Capital 153

Steve Blank

JANUARY 6, 2011

Third, to share both thinking and practice as I learned how to teach entrepreneurs (the way one teaches artists and musicians.). An innovative entrepreneur put his company to work delivering the podcasts with his compliments. To add your email to the free podcast alert service, click here.

Silicon Valley 195

Silicon Valley California Vertical Customer Development 195

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?” As entrepreneurs we must never settle for allowing our hypothesis to go unchecked. before you ship.

Customer Development 238

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 238

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 7, 2009

Our business model changed as we realized that to become a large company, we needed to automate more than just a few marketers. We had validated our new assumptions by a set of orders, and we had pivoted on our business model. As a young entrepreneur in his first startup, this post hits our current situation spot on.

Silicon Valley 225

Silicon Valley Non-disclosure Agreement NDA Startup 225

Steve Blank

JULY 13, 2009

Believing Your Own BS is Toxic Lots of noise and smoke before a product ships seems to be a toxic byproduct of enthusiastic entrepreneurs. Hype before shipping any product is an obvious flaw, but what about hyping products that have shipped but have zero business model? Rocket Science seems to be a bit of an extreme case though.

Silicon Valley 122

Silicon Valley Product RSS California 122

www.chubbybrain.com

SEPTEMBER 28, 2011

We love a good entrepreneurial success story – entrepreneur as protagonist overcomes obstacles and builds a thriving, successful company (and become wealthy while doing so). We had the wrong business model. Also worth a read after you review these startup failure post-mortems. It’s free. Get started here.

Software Review 79

Software Review Startup Technical Review Vesting 79

Steve Blank

JUNE 25, 2009

If you’ve tried to slog your way through my book on Customer Development you know that I’m insistent that the founders need to be the ones getting outside the building (physically or virtually) to validate all the initial hypotheses of the business model and product. were the first computer entrepreneurs here.

Technology 138

Technology Silicon Valley Fractional VPE Part-Time VPE 138

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 30, 2009

You know you have achieved product/market fit when you start getting orders (or users, eyeballs or whatever your criteria for success was in your business model.) At best it is a way to inform an entrepreneurs instinct and reduce risk. Is our solution compelling enough that they want to buy it or use it today? It’s an art.

Customer Development 278

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 278

Mucker Lab

DECEMBER 2, 2015

Most brilliant “Internet of Things” ideas are quicksand for capital unless you have the branding, vertical integration and customer lock-in that Apple achieved. The iPod model will separate IoT platforms from fads. 20 years ago, a majority of “Sand Hill” venture capital went into enterprise-focused startups.

Vertical 60

Vertical Widget Distribution China 60

steveblank.com

JULY 8, 2011

Home Books for Startups Guide Secret History-Bibliography Steve Blank Startup Tools Steve Blank Entries RSS | Comments RSS Email Subscription Get Steve Blank via your RSS Feed RSS - Posts RSS - Comments Categories Air Force (12) Ardent (10) Audubon (1) Big Companies versus Startups: Durant versus Sloan (39) Business Model versus Business Plan (..)

Software Review 110

Software Review Startup Silicon Valley Analytics 110

Steve Blank

MAY 18, 2009

In this admittedly very unscientific survey I’ve found that between a quarter and half of the students I consider “hard-core&# entrepreneurs/founders (working passionately to found a company,) self-identified as coming from a less than benign upbringing. I’ve been surprised at the data. Comments and brickbats welcomed.

Founder 297

Founder Silicon Valley RSS China 297

techcrunch.com

FEBRUARY 19, 2010

Researchers polled experts in lending, mezzanine capital, private equity, venture capital and private businesses themselves. Not a big shock, but things don’t look pretty, especially in the venture capital world. The businesses, it seems, vastly over-estimate their ability to raise funds.

Venture Capital 62

Venture Capital Technical Review Sweat Equity Valuation 62

Steve Blank

JUNE 5, 2009

You make several first order approximations about your business model, distribution channels, demand creation, and customer acceptance. This is incisive and powerful and I hope many entrepreneurs or would-be entrepreneurs “get&# this eloquently stated point. There is no certainty about a startup on day-one.

Silicon Valley 212

Silicon Valley RSS Vertical California 212

The Equity Kicker

AUGUST 28, 2012

First the trailblazers define a new category and initially they are viewed with extreme scepticism and many people are convinced they will fail because their business model is unsustainable and/or people won’t want their products.

Vertical 94

Vertical Acquisition eCommerce Flash 94

Steve Blank

APRIL 30, 2009

Initially your job is to understand each of the parts of your business model before you hire someone to do it. Hopefully you and your co-founders are experts in one or two parts (agile development, SEO/SEM, etc.) so at least some parts are being run by people who know what they are doing.

Sales 120

Sales Silicon Valley RSS Las Vegas 120

Cracking the Code

NOVEMBER 13, 2008

It is time to fix your key SaaS metrics: P&L: MRR = MRE: you control your destiny when your monthly revenue equals your monthly expenses Sales & Marketing: Your cost of capital doubled, so if a CAC ratio > 0.5 Rethink vertical segmentation: Healthcare? Small and medium businesses. (2). Venture Capital. (3).

Software Review 48

Software Review Technical Review Valuation Portfolio 48

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 22, 2009

Getting Out of the Building Wasn’t Entertainment – Discovery and Validation Now that I was the master of the “facts” about customer needs in these specialized vertical markets , and with my team of vertical marketers , I thought I had achieved absolution and redemption. But there was one fatal flaw.

Silicon Valley 172

Silicon Valley RSS Vertical California 172

The Next Web

OCTOBER 2, 2013

That’s why the free business model is so popular in China. Jenny Lee, a partner at venture capital firm GGV Capital which has a presence in both the US and China, also observes that in the US, the willingness to pay for an app is pretty high — especially for a utility tool, which is what CooTek’s TouchPal X Keyboard essentially is.

China 122

China Developer Intellectual Property Mobile 122

Cracking the Code

DECEMBER 2, 2006

The time they spend with customers is usually limited to transactional core products sales, generating lower margins – The resource allocation is not always matching the opportunity (geography, customer segment, vertical.) – The rules of engagement for technical resources (solution or product specialists) are not clear.

Software Review 48

Software Review Technical Review Europe Software 48

Hunter Walker

MAY 20, 2018

Glossy focuses on the changing nature of the fashion and beauty industries as they collide with digital technology, new business models, and the need for sustainability and inclusivity. How should media entrepreneurs weigh funding options for their startups? We’ve built Digiday without venture capital.

PR 64

PR Media Differentiation Audience 64

www.informationarbitrage.com

FEBRUARY 24, 2010

Home About Press IA Capital Partners Archives After 17 years in M&A, Derivatives and Trading, Im spending my time with young entrepreneurs in and around financial technology and digital media. So why do inexperienced (as entrepreneurs), ultra-skilled CTOs fall into the trap of engaging a business partner too early?

CTO Hire 40

CTO Hire Founder Cap Table Vesting 40