Reid Hoffman

JULY 27, 2021

This week, we discuss how a philosophy degree compares to a much more conventional business background: the masters in business administration or MBA. Nothing gets in the way of their pursuit of startup success. A lot of MBA students tell me that they’d like to found a startup, but aren’t sure if they’re ready.

Silicon Valley 69

Silicon Valley Venture Capital Balance Sheet Cofounder 69

Reid Hoffman

JULY 27, 2021

This week, we discuss how a philosophy degree compares to a much more conventional business background: the masters in business administration or MBA. Nothing gets in the way of their pursuit of startup success. A lot of MBA students tell me that they’d like to found a startup, but aren’t sure if they’re ready.

Silicon Valley 69

Silicon Valley Venture Capital Balance Sheet Cofounder 69

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 24, 2017

. — Unremarked and unheralded, the balance of power between startup CEOs and their investors has radically changed: IPOs/M&A without a profit (or at times revenue) have become the norm. The startup process has become demystified – information is everywhere. Board Control. And while new markets were created (i.e.

Founder 252

Founder Technical Review CTO Hire IPO 252

Steve Blank

APRIL 23, 2018

A version of this article appeared in the Harvard Business Review. The entrepreneur who founded and grew the largest startup in the world to $10 billion in revenue and got fired is someone you have probably never heard of. Sloan kept the corporate staff small and focused on policymaking, corporate finance, and planning.

Michigan 275

Michigan Cofounder Stock Forecast 275

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 5, 2009

Unfortunately in early stage startups the drive for financing hijacks the corporate DNA and becomes the raison d’etre of the company. Chasing funding versus chasing customers and a repeatable and scalable business model, is one reason startups fail. The goal of their startup in this stage becomes “getting funded.”

Customer Development 264

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 264

Mucker Lab

AUGUST 27, 2014

As an entrepreneur himself, founding and operating printed circuit board factories in Taiwan, my father was debating between two places to immigrate to and build his next new venture: Los Angeles (“The Valley” aka San Fernando Valley) and Santa Clara (“Silicon Valley”).

Los Angeles 138

Los Angeles Southern California Silicon Valley Technical Review 138

philipsmith.typepad.com

SEPTEMBER 24, 2011

Silicon Valley Frontlines. In-the-Trenches Consulting to Startup and Emerging-Growth Companies. Working for equity only is, realistically, the way most startups have to get going. The company description makes it crystal clear that this is for the VERY SAME STARTUP looking to pay nothing to the sucker CFO.

Silicon Valley 40

Silicon Valley Equity Technical Review Recapitalization 40

ReadWriteStart

NOVEMBER 19, 2010

First is that there are, perhaps, a thousand people in the world of entrepreneurship who know what they are doing when it comes to dealing with issues like financing, positioning, market sizing, customer validation, customer acquisition and other seemingly obvious topics that all entrepreneurs need to deal with. Please try to understand why.

Silicon Valley 114

Silicon Valley Technical Review Startup Early Stage 114

Up and Running

SEPTEMBER 19, 2017

Capital investments are like gasoline on a startup business’s metaphorical fire. They allow you to hire more people, purchase new technology, and establish new business connections, among many other benefits. If you’re like most startup CEOs, your startup has been your personal fiefdom and baby.

Private Equity 94

Private Equity Pre-Money Valuation Equity Startup 94

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.

Customer Development 241

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 241

The Startup Magazine

JUNE 1, 2023

By Daniel Sokolovksy, Co-Founder and CEO, WARP and Troy Lester, Co-Founder and CRO, WARP The dissolution of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) was more than just a bank collapse, it was a reality check for both startups and the VCs that fund them. Working for a startup is a unique experience and it’s not for everyone.

Early Stage 112

Early Stage Los Angeles Silicon Valley Cofounder 112

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 10, 2011

This week, the startup tribe from Harvard Business School is making their annual trek to Silicon Valley. They’ll hear from a variety of experts and get to see many startups firsthand. It’s a common refrain around Silicon Valley to disparage the role of MBA’s in entrepreneurship.

Silicon Valley 167

Silicon Valley San Francisco Lean Investment Bankers 167

Steve Blank

JULY 13, 2009

Which at this stage of the company was marketing and financing. Our “Hollywood meets Silicon Valley” story played great in Silicon Valley, they ate it up in Hollywood, and the business press tripped over themselves to talk to us. The story had universal appeal, and we spun the tale and keep the buzz going.

Silicon Valley 122

Silicon Valley Product RSS California 122

Start Up Blog

OCTOBER 11, 2018

There are few things any established industrial economy needs more of than new businesses, but I’m here to say that ‘startups’ might not be the answer. Firstly, there are a lot of businesses calling themselves a startups , when in reality, they’re really just new, small businesses.

Startup 144

Startup Silicon Valley Cofounder Distribution 144

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 21, 2015

I first met Evangelos Simoudis when he ran IBM’s Business Intelligence Solutions Division and then as CEO of his first startup Customer Analytics. During the last three years he’s worked with over 100 companies, many of which established Innovation Outposts in Silicon Valley. See here for background on horizons.).

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley Venture Capital United States Technical Review 120

David Teten

MARCH 18, 2021

A typical VC thesis: “we invest in tech startups in Europe at an early stage” However, our experience shows that in many cases: . Thirty-four VC firms in OpenVC call themselves “early-stage” Yet, 30% of those don’t actually invest in pre-revenue startups. 2) Business model-defined funds.

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Cofounder Venture Capital Deal Flow 78

ReadWriteStart

DECEMBER 2, 2010

This is a segment that is well beyond traditional micro-finance, but also somewhat below the scope of the regular financial institutions. Hardika intends to build a financial institution focused on this segment with financing from social entrepreneurship oriented venture funds like Unitus. million financing round for.

India 116

India Green Silicon Valley Massachusetts 116

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 14, 2009

Five Quarters of Profitability During the 1980’s and through the mid 1990’s startups going public had to do something that most companies today never heard of – they had to show a track record of increasing revenue and consistent profitability. They taught you about customers, markets and profits.

Silicon Valley 223

Silicon Valley IPO Technical Review Venture Capital 223

ReadWriteStart

JUNE 16, 2011

During today's roundtable, we had four Microsoft BizSpark Startup India Challenge grant finalists present. Freshdesk First, Girish Mathrubootham from Chennai, India, pitched Freshdesk , a SaaS company that provides small and medium businesses with on-demand customer support software that offers multi-channel social support.

India 123

India Bootstrapping Non-Compete Entrepreneur 123

ReadWriteStart

MAY 5, 2011

The smart home business is still in the very early stages in India, and it will take some time before Evolutech ramps up. In addition, I asked him to do a competitive analysis on the pricing models of the various mobile app platforms and come back to me with both sets of market data, namely, customer research and competitive analysis.

Costa Rica 115

Costa Rica Incubator Silicon Valley India 115

steveblank.com

JULY 8, 2011

Useful blogs and links for startups Click Here ————– 2.

Software Review 110

Software Review Startup Silicon Valley Analytics 110

ReadWriteStart

AUGUST 11, 2011

This week, I've had several meetings with venture funds, incubators, corporate accelerators and other significant players in the startup eco-system. One theme seems to come up over and again, especially from geographies outside Silicon Valley: lack of a reliable pipeline of deals.

Silicon Valley 105

Silicon Valley Columbus Ohio Incubator 105

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 26, 2020

Not all startups need outside investment to grow. What most founders don’t realize is: Every stage of a startup requires a different set of metrics and milestones and founder skills. Here’s the first 2½ years of a startup journey. The Startup Investment Landscape. Team, Product, Traction, Business Model and Market.

Cofounder 429

Cofounder Seed Stage Valuation Metrics 429

crowdSPRING Blog

APRIL 26, 2013

These posts and videos are about logo design , web design , startups, entrepreneurship, small business, leadership, social media, marketing, and more! If there’s one video 1st time founders should watch to understand VC financing it’s this one – [link]. Downfalls of Distributed Startups – [link].

Social Media 90

Social Media Small Business Design Media 90

Steve Blank

MAY 18, 2009

It’s why all of you operated so well in the unpredictable environment that all startups face.” What makes an individual a great startup founder (versus an employee) has been something I had been thinking about since I retired. I couldn’t figure out if I was more perturbed about how casual the comment was or how insightful it was.

Founder 302

Founder Silicon Valley RSS China 302

Up and Running

DECEMBER 9, 2014

Bates: Good morning and welcome to our CEO panel, “How to Fine-Tune Your Small Business Finances From Funding to Growth” which I think is the direction that we would all like to be going. I’m here with some really phenomenal CEOs who are going to talk to us today about small business finances from funding to growth.

Small Business 95

Small Business Finance Forecast Metrics 95

Steve Blank

JANUARY 25, 2010

Everyone knows what a startup is for – don’t they? 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 ?

Agile 335

Agile Startup Silicon Valley Business Model 335

ReadWriteStart

SEPTEMBER 16, 2011

Siddhesh has already validated his business and is catering to home buyers, sellers, and brokers, generating revenues from advertising and sponsorships as well as brokerage revenue sharing. As I keep reiterating, 99% of the businesses that go out for financing get rejected. Overall, I saw several promising businesses.

Brazil 115

Brazil India Entrepreneur 115

Steve Blank

AUGUST 15, 2016

But to do it, you need to actually have a sustainable business model. Starting a business is too risky. Identifying a problem doesn’t mean you’ve automatically created a business. And building a startup is not for the faint of heart. The problem was had the wrong business model at the time.

Cofounder 143

Cofounder Entrepreneur Africa Sales Cycle 143

Austin Startup

MARCH 1, 2018

The biggest week of the year for tech and startups in Austin, Texas as South by Southwest (SXSW) descends upon the city from March 19–15. Capital Factory will be making a $100,000 investment on stage in a blockchain startup. SXSW Edu Intro to the Austin Startup Scene at Capital Factory. Did I miss something?

Technical Review 89

Technical Review Austin Texas Cofounder 89

Steve Blank

JUNE 1, 2011

As customer and agile development reinvent the Startup, it’s time to ask why startup board governance has not kept up with the pace of innovation. Board meetings that guide startups haven’t changed since the early 1900’s. Silicon Valley, New York). Once a startup gets going, it has asymmetric information.

Silicon Valley 292

Silicon Valley Business Model Venture Capital Balance Sheet 292

Steve Blank

JULY 25, 2011

Scientists and engineers as founders and startup CEOs is one of the least celebrated contributions of Silicon Valley. ESL, the first company I worked for in Silicon Valley , was founded by a PhD in Math and six other scientists and engineers. Why It’s “Silicon” Valley. It might be its most important.

Engineer 307

Engineer Silicon Valley United States Venture Capital 307

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 20, 2012

Tracy DiNunzio isn’t your typical Silicon Valley startup founder. She did her first tech startup after the age of 30. She started her business from a personal need. Tracy was an artist throughout her 20′s but she watched her then husband found a tech startup. She found non-traditional financing.

Silicon Valley 363

Silicon Valley Cofounder Entrepreneur Startup 363

View from Seed

JANUARY 11, 2023

Think partners coming together to tap their own networks for your follow-on rounds of financing. Our wrap-up day will be hosted in San Francisco and will focus on exposing our geographically diverse teams to the epicenter of venture capital within Silicon Valley. The Clarity of the Terms : how will your company be financed?

Programming 156

Programming Sacramento San Francisco Founder 156

Steve Blank

JUNE 1, 2011

As customer and agile development reinvent the Startup, it’s time to ask why startup board governance has not kept up with the pace of innovation. Board meetings that guide startups haven’t changed since the early 1900’s. Silicon Valley, New York). Once a startup gets going, it has asymmetric information.

Silicon Valley 263

Silicon Valley Business Model Venture Capital Balance Sheet 263

Steve Blank

AUGUST 15, 2016

But to do it, you need to actually have a sustainable business model. Starting a business is too risky. Identifying a problem doesn’t mean you’ve automatically created a business. And building a startup is not for the faint of heart. The problem was had the wrong business model at the time.

Cofounder 120

Cofounder Entrepreneur Africa Sales Cycle 120

Steve Blank

JUNE 10, 2010

It turns out that there are four distinct types of entrepreneurial organizations; s mall businesses , scalable startups , large companies and social entrepreneurs. When business was bad they figured out why, adapted and worked harder still. Scalable Startup Entrepreneurship. Who is an entrepreneur really?

Silicon Valley 329

Silicon Valley Entrepreneur United States New York City 329