Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 13, 2012

Leveraging my marketing skills, I successfully made what Steve calls an “onslaught launch”, generating a lot of press coverage and apparent early success. In 2004, Googling terms like “high tech marketing” and “startup” I discovered “ The Four Steps to The Epiphany ” at Cafépress.com. Maysee now enjoys hockey stick revenue growth.

Japan 292

Japan Customer Development Developer Customer 292

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 26, 2013

Traction is evidence that your product or service has started that “hockey- stick” adoption rate which implies a large market, a valid business model, and sustainable growth. A graph that shows a hockey-stick “up and to the right” curve with at least three data points per key indicator is a great visual assist.

Hockey Stick 266

Hockey Stick Early Stage Metrics Acquisition 266

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 26, 2014

Every entrepreneur thinks he can relax a bit after his business model is proven, funding is in place, and revenues are scaling as projected up that hockey-stick curve. Unfortunately, the market is changing so fast these days that any upward climb can level off quickly, as the core business growth begins to stall.

Hockey Stick 263

Hockey Stick Guerilla Acquisition Revenue 263

David Teten

JANUARY 19, 2021

The value ascribed by subsequent investors (in a secondary); buyers (acquisition); or the public markets (IPO). As a result, unfounded hockey-stick graphs and unicorn promises give way to financial fluency, realistic expectations, frank conversations about what a business can credibly achieve, and transparency. .

Cofounder 78

Cofounder Technical Review Equity Dividend 78

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 7, 2013

Ready to scale is when you have a proven product and a proven business model, about to expand to new geographies and markets. Most consulting services, like marketing, are not scalable, since they must be delivered by experts, and cloning experts is slow and expensive. These are more likely scalable and investable.

Hockey Stick 278

Hockey Stick Intellectual Property Startup Non-Compete 278

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 3, 2018

Every entrepreneur thinks he can relax a bit after his business model is proven, funding is in place, and revenues are scaling as projected up that hockey-stick curve. Unfortunately, the market is changing so fast these days that any upward climb can level off quickly, as the core business growth begins to stall.

Hockey Stick 130

Hockey Stick Guerilla Acquisition Revenue 130

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 14, 2016

Ready to scale is when you have a proven product and a proven business model, about to expand to new geographies and markets. Most consulting services, like marketing, are not scalable, since they must be delivered by experts, and cloning experts is slow and expensive. These are more likely scalable and investable.

Hockey Stick 120

Hockey Stick Intellectual Property Non-Compete Business Model 120

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 1, 2015

Every entrepreneur thinks he can relax a bit after his business model is proven, funding is in place, and revenues are scaling as projected up that hockey-stick curve. Unfortunately, the market is changing so fast these days that any upward climb can level off quickly, as the core business growth begins to stall.

Hockey Stick 120

Hockey Stick Guerilla Startup Acquisition 120

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 11, 2015

Ready to scale is when you have a proven product and a proven business model, about to expand to new geographies and markets. Most consulting services, like marketing, are not scalable, since they must be delivered by experts, and cloning experts is slow and expensive. These are more likely scalable and investable.

Hockey Stick 120

Hockey Stick Intellectual Property Non-Compete Business Model 120

Steve Blank

JANUARY 4, 2010

Not only did their sales curve look like a textbook case of a VC-friendly hockey stick, but their Lessons Learned funding presentation was an eye-opener.). They envisioned that their tiny startup was to going to be a $100 million/year company by creating an entirely new market – selling virtual goods. Size of the target market.

Hockey Stick 276

Hockey Stick Venture Capital Startup Cofounder 276

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 14, 2009

What matters is proving the viability of the company’s business model, what investors call “traction.&# Of course this is not at all true of many profitable small businesses, but they are not what I mean by startups.) Most importantly, they have lots of data about the unit economics of their business.

Customer 167

Customer San Francisco Lean Hockey Stick 167

Hippoland

AUGUST 8, 2018

Forget about traction and hockey stick growth. In other words, if you can get 1000 people to come to your website consistently for under $5, then this business model works for you. Marketing first. Unit economics are something I’ve found most entrepreneurs (and investors!) don’t think about at all.

Founder 48

Founder Sales Cycle Affiliate Retention 48

Hippoland

AUGUST 8, 2018

Forget about traction and hockey stick growth. In other words, if you can get 1000 people to come to your website consistently for under $5, then this business model works for you. Marketing first. Unit economics are something I’ve found most entrepreneurs (and investors!) don’t think about at all.

Founder 48

Founder Sales Cycle Affiliate Retention 48

Up and Running

APRIL 28, 2015

Your business model has to truly be similar to the company you are referencing. If you aren’t solving some problem in the world, you are going to have a long uphill climb with your business. The more you can make the problem as real as possible, the more your investors will understand your business and your goals.

Forecast 60

Forecast Hockey Stick Exit Strategy Intellectual Property 60

Professor VC

AUGUST 26, 2011

The objections range from "its hard", "nobody believes them" to "all hockey sticks look alike". To that last one, there is certainly some truth as the standard time vs. revenue chart in most business plans looks like this: Im not teaching Entrepreneurial Finance this semester for the first time since Fall 2007.

Silicon Valley 35

Silicon Valley San Jose Hockey Stick Venture Capital 35

ConversionXL

APRIL 10, 2020

Hockey-stick growth requires being ahead of, not in line with, conventional wisdom: The most impactful ideas won’t be found in “best practices.” But picking the business model and building a product for user-driven growth is very difficult to do intentionally.”. Mailchimp’s Willie Tran agrees. explains Lofgren.

Hockey Stick 68

Hockey Stick Analytics Channel Sales Cycle 68

Up and Running

MARCH 11, 2015

Another assumption is that you’ve actually conducted due diligence on your own business, and these are the areas of your team, financials, your competition, your IP, market trends, because the best pitches I’ve ever delivered were when investors were raising their hands and asking me questions about, “How is your IP protected?”

Technical Review 60

Technical Review Software Review Due Diligence Exit Strategy 60

ConversionXL

APRIL 3, 2019

digital analytics, market research). What to do with AI: Predict churn ; Identify which offers to send to an individual; Accelerate innovation; Personalize content; Account-based marketing ; Algorithmic attribution; Forecast future lift; Predict blame. Product and marketing teams should be involved. Tell Don’t Sell.

Artificial Inteligence 114

Artificial Inteligence Technical Review Metrics SEO 114