Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 13, 2024

But the product/market fit of this first iteration is a swing and a miss. Marketing and capital expenses (new factory, high R&D expense) were predicated on consumer-scale sales. I got a preview of PhotoCD when I was the head of marketing at SuperMac , a supplier of hardware and software for graphics professionals.

Search 256

Search Marketing Forecast Burn Rate 256

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 17, 2020

Viral marketing costs real money, and your support staff and hosting systems cost even more. Even non-profits need a profitable business model to offset staff and operating costs. Assume passion level defines business opportunity. Not every great idea is a viable business.

Intellectual Property 436

Intellectual Property Angel Investor Viral Distribution 436

Up and Running

OCTOBER 13, 2021

During the last few years, marketers have turned toward more personalized experiences to win customers over. What is personalized marketing? Personalized marketing is when a business delivers individualized content to current and prospective customers. Why is personalized marketing effective? Segment your audience.

Customer 118

Customer Marketing Artificial Inteligence Technical Review 118

View from Seed

APRIL 14, 2020

For the last several years, the early stage investing market was driven largely by the F ear O f M issing O ut, AKA FOMO. VCs are always founder focused no matter the market environment. Business Models and Sectors. I think the level of signaling risk from series A VCs doing seeds will be higher in a FOLD world.

Early Stage 374

Early Stage Software Review Technical Review Due Diligence 374

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 30, 2020

Don’t forget to market yourself before, during, and after your initial idea, through social media, websites, and events. Customer feedback, including blog comments, usability reviews, and early user testimonials, build relationships and provide credible marketing to the broader customer community.

Merger 386

Merger Acquisition Software Review Social Media 386

YoungUpstarts

FEBRUARY 13, 2018

After that, you can upgrade it, based on the market feedback. Searching and Matching. Today, there are too many large players that are within the online dating market (Plenty of Fish, eHarmony, and Match.com among them) that its virtually impossible to gain traffic in the general dating marketplace. Create a Business Model.

Marketing 100

Marketing Web Development Campaign Audience 100

VC Cafe

MARCH 1, 2024

Eliminating middlemen in healthcare – from using AI to automate repetitive human jobs to exploring new and better business models for providing care. AI to make IRL matches – What if you could chat with a bot that learns about you on a deeper level and uses this information to make a curated set of matches?

Artificial Inteligence 176

Artificial Inteligence Technical Review Software Review Generative AI 176

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 11, 2010

The Customer Development process is the way startups quickly iterate and test each element of their business model , reducing customer and market risk. In Discovery startups take all their hypotheses about the business model: product, market, customers, channel, etc. It’s A Marketing Problem.

Burn Rate 248

Burn Rate Silicon Valley Marketing Boston 248

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 10, 2020

According to most definitions, an entrepreneur is one who envisions a new and different business, meaning one that is not a copy of an existing business model. Even fewer are able to grow the startup into a viable business. Market research and a business plan should be the focus at this stage.

Matching 317

Matching Seed Stage Angel Investor Business Model 317

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 24, 2014

Product/Market fit now has its own book. It has three parts: a business model canvas to frame hypotheses, customer development to get out of the building to test those hypotheses and agile engineering to build minimum viable products. Product/Market fit. Product/Market Fit. Alexander Osterwalder wrote it.

Business Model 335

Business Model Design Customer Development Lean 335

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 30, 2021

Of course, no business wants to be the next Blockbuster , which kept charging straight ahead despite subtle clues that the Internet was changing everything. Here are some key strategies that I recommend to prompt you when changes to your business may be required: Look for a changing customer sense of value.

Marketing 405

Marketing Flash Social Media Metrics 405

VC Cafe

JUNE 26, 2023

Sure, there is Bing, DuckDuckGo, Ask.com and a few others, but no one comes even near Google in terms of market share or mind share (90. Global search engine market share in May 2023 (source) However, since the introduction of ChatGPT in November 2022, user habits (and perhaps expectations) began to change.

Generative AI 174

Generative AI Search ChatGPT Technical Review 174

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 16, 2014

Surprisingly if you’ve filled out the business model canvas you already know who you need. She started by sketching her business model canvas on a napkin, but somehow the conversation quickly shifted to what was really on her mind. ——-. I told Radhika this is a perennial question for startups.

Cofounder 335

Cofounder Founder Intellectual Property Business Model 335

Steve Blank

APRIL 23, 2014

Most large companies manage three types of innovation: process innovation (making existing products incrementally better), continuous innovation (building on the strength of the company’s current business model but creating new elements) and disruptive innovation (creating products or services that did not exist before.).

Acquisition 332

Acquisition Intellectual Property Silicon Valley Startup 332

ConversionXL

FEBRUARY 3, 2022

In this article, you’ll learn what growth hacking in marketing is and what it’s not. The goal of growth hacking as marketing is rapid growth, using strategies and tactics that leverage (and even exploit) technology, platforms, and behavior to reach an end goal. Why do people think growth hacking in marketing is controversial?

Retention 113

Retention Marketing Acquisition Channel 113

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 2, 2019

Constantly validate your solution fit, schedule, and business model with feedback from key customer advocates. Keep the motivation level high for all constituents through internal and external marketing, social media, and events. Notice that each of these steps has both a performance and a business health component.

Technical Review 226

Technical Review Leadership Portfolio Matching 226

View from Seed

FEBRUARY 24, 2021

Historically, the healthcare market has been regional, limited by the in-person nature of care delivery. Telemedicine is game-changing as it opens up the possibility of addressing a national market, so long as you have a network of providers licensed to practice in specific states. Scalable Go-To-Market . Affordability .

Vertical 156

Vertical Software Review Portfolio Demand 156

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 3, 2014

Dave was building a mobile app for matching college students who needed to move within a local area with potential local movers. As the farm fields flew by on the interstate I listened as Dave described how he translated his vision into a series of hypotheses and mapped them onto a business model canvas. Customer Discovery.

Cofounder 336

Cofounder Founder Technical Cofounder Coder 336

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 29, 2023

According to most definitions, anyone who starts a business is an entrepreneur , but most people don’t realize there are many startup types out there, and picking the wrong one can be just as disastrous as being stuck in a cubicle at work, or doing things with no interest and no skills. Aspire to be in control of your own domain.

Intellectual Property 243

Intellectual Property Matching Business Model Cofounder 243

View from Seed

MARCH 3, 2015

Ellie Mirman was the first marketer hired by the CMO of HubSpot, the Boston-based marketing software startup that IPOed in 2014. Below, she shares lessons learned from the earliest days of marketing the company and how this has translated to her second startup role as VP of Marketing at Toast. How did you address that?

Marketing 120

Marketing Sales Cycle Startup CTO Hire 120

The Startup Magazine

SEPTEMBER 16, 2021

They tend to overlook costs like renting an office space, marketing, or employee benefits, which can be expensive. You need to continue to pump money into your business or risk startup failure. When you’re entering a market, you have to know who your competitors are and how they will react to a potential threat to their business.

Startup 132

Startup Demand Business Model Founder 132

The Startup Magazine

MARCH 18, 2020

He can guide a client’s choice of portfolio and help them match their money to their retirement goals. Jason Vanclef is a good example of business executives with a deep interest in the welfare of their clients. How would you describe your business model? At Vanclef Financial Group, we profit from our clients’ success.

Business Model 90

Business Model Affiliate Stock Portfolio 90

ConversionXL

MARCH 19, 2020

“Rare is the business that has a formal disaster plan, let alone one that covers a global Black Swan event.” An article on growth and marketing in the middle of a crisis—the current one or any other—can seem tone deaf. Frameworks for businesses during a crisis. Tim Stewart, trsdigital. But nothing gets better if we stand still.

Marketing 121

Marketing Campaign Non-Compete Lean 121

Steve Blank

JANUARY 22, 2014

Success depends on finding startups that have identified acute customer pains in large markets where conditions are ripe for a new entrant. Few entrepreneurs find this scalable and repeatable business model because it’s not easy. This experience has provided me a whole new set of pattern matching filters as an investor.

Early Stage 286

Early Stage Silicon Valley Oregon Technical Review 286

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 16, 2012

Alexander Osterwalder and I spent last week in Salt Lake City, Utah as judges at the 2 nd Annual International Business Model Competition , hosted by Professor Nathan Furr , and his team at the BYU Center for Entrepreneurship. But for startups, business plans fail to match the chaotic reality they encounter in the real world.

Business Model 263

Business Model Customer Development Utah Business Plan 263

SoCal CTO

MARCH 13, 2007

skip to main | skip to sidebar SoCal CTO Tuesday, March 13, 2007 8 Ways the Internet has Changed Software Marketing Great post - 8 Ways The Internet Changed Software Marketing - is an interesting take on how different it is these days to market software. Early Stage Marketing and Branding – Farida Fotouh.

Technical Cofounder 150

Technical Cofounder Southern California Los Angeles Internet 150

Steve Blank

JANUARY 30, 2013

Doing so meant they would have to take risks for IP acquisition and customer/market risks outside their experience or comfort zone. Therefore a major error in setting up our corporate innovation program was our lack of understanding how disruptive it would be to the current innovation model and to the executives who ran the R&D Labs.

Programming 265

Programming Technical Review Incubator Intellectual Property 265

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 14, 2013

Entrepreneurs always work hard to create an innovative product or service, but often count on standard seller marketing for sales. Reports suggest that 90% of today’s shoppers skip marketing pitches, to research online before they buy, and over 50% check user reviews before making a decision. Their perception is your reality.

Revenue 263

Revenue Startup Technical Review Business Model 263

Steve Blank

APRIL 4, 2011

This week they were testing who the customer, user, payer for the product will be (and discovering if they have a multi-sided business model , one with both buyers and sellers.) Many of them had heard the phrase “product/market fit” before, but now they were living it. The Business Model Canvas is a great way to diagram it out.

Customer 234

Customer Business Model Nebraska Cloud 234

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 7, 2017

Entrepreneurs always work hard to create an innovative product or service, but often count on standard seller marketing for sales. Reports suggest that 90% of today’s shoppers skip marketing pitches, to research online before they buy, and over 50% check user reviews before making a decision. Their perception is your reality.

Small Business 147

Small Business Revenue Technical Review Business Model 147

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

MAY 10, 2010

In fact, 3 of the 10 selected companies from the past two years has followed this business model. It's a "marketplace" in that they "create a market" in which sellers connect with buyers because eBay provides a sufficient quantity of both. What are other advantages or pitfalls of marketplace-style businesses?

Business Model 310

Business Model Finder SEO Bootstrapping 310

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 24, 2017

The “product” value is difficult to quantify, the costs are nebulous, and entrepreneurs have to clone themselves to scale the business. Many are reluctant to really “market” themselves, and have trouble differentiating their offerings to clients, except by price. Be targeted in marketing and lead generation.

Differentiation 141

Differentiation SBA Social Media Dividend 141

Steve Blank

MAY 17, 2010

Business Plan Versus Business Models. Where did the idea that startups write business plans come from? A business plan is the execution document that large companies write when planning product-line extensions where customer, market and product features are known. initial business model hypotheses).

Business Plan 312

Business Plan Business Model Customer Development Deal Flow 312

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 16, 2021

According to most definitions, anyone who starts a business is an entrepreneur , but most people don’t realize there are many startup types out there, and picking the wrong one can be just as disastrous as being stuck in a cubicle at work, or doing things with no interest and no skills. Aspire to be in control of your own domain.

Intellectual Property 328

Intellectual Property Matching Business Model Cofounder 328

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 21, 2012

The alternatives range from giving it away for free (like Twitter), to pricing based on costs, to charging what the market will bear (premium pricing). The implications of the decision you make are huge, defining your brand image, your funding requirements, and your long-term business viability. Freemium” model.

Business Model 282

Business Model Revenue Portfolio Differentiation 282

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 3, 2012

Entrepreneurs always work hard to create an innovative product or service, but often count on standard seller marketing for sales. Reports suggest that 90% of today’s shoppers skip marketing pitches, to research online before they buy, and over 50% check user reviews before making a decision. Their perception is your reality.

Technical Review 234

Technical Review Business Model Revenue Social Media 234

Steve Blank

MARCH 31, 2014

Think about this; 7 years ago Nokia owned 50% of the handset market. Fast-forward to today—Apple is the most profitable Smartphone company in the world and in Spain Android commands a market share of more than 90%. Its worldwide market share of Smartphones has dwindled to 5%. Apple owned 0%.

Private Equity 325

Private Equity Metrics China Intellectual Property 325