Steve Blank

JUNE 27, 2017

Initially, a startup has no business model and no market share to defend. Its employees and investors don’t depend on an existing revenue stream. If they select a business model that targets industry incumbents, they don’t have to worry about upsetting existing customers, partners or distribution channels.

Startup 282

Startup New York City Valuation Distribution 282

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 5, 2018

Reading the NY Times article “ Jeffrey Katzenberg Raises $1 Billion for Short-Form Video Venture, ” I realized it was time for a new startup heuristic: the amount of customer discovery and product-market fit you need to find is inversely proportional to the amount and availability of risk capital. ” Fire, Ready, Aim.

Lean 335

Lean Burn Rate Startup IPO 335

YoungUpstarts

FEBRUARY 23, 2020

For a business to survive, it needs to be profitable. It needs to maintain a positive cash flow , taking in revenue in excess of expenses, and reliably enough that it can continue to sustain your business model. One of the best steps you can take is establishing multiple streams of revenue. Affiliate marketing.

Revenue 232

Revenue Affiliate Portfolio Advertising 232

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 249

Burn Rate Silicon Valley Marketing Boston 249

Agile VC

FEBRUARY 5, 2014

This is a logical thing to do… when we started LinkedIn, my mentor Reid Hoffman instilled a mantra of Growth –> Usage –> Revenue which still holds for many consumer companies. This is especially true for those with a media / ad based business model (e.g.

Revenue 234

Revenue Product B2B Marketing 234

ReadWriteStart

JUNE 1, 2020

Funding might be a need in some cases — but it’s not an absolute necessity. ? The business should be self-sustainable. The primary source of your funds should be your paying customers, i.e., your business should generate enough revenues and profits to fund the growth and expansion. Incubators and Accelerators.

Startup 150

Startup Entrepreneur Elevator Pitch Seed Stage 150

Steve Blank

MAY 7, 2019

Modern entrepreneurship began at the turn of this century with the observation that startups aren’t smaller versions of large companies – large companies at their core execute known business models, while startups search for scalable business models. This new framework can act as the front-end of Customer Development.

Lean 333

Lean Marketing Agile Customer Development 333

Up and Running

MAY 10, 2021

The mobile app development market is evolving at a rapid speed. To compete in the market, you need to keep up with trends. The engineers can produce various models in a matter of seconds. According to Statista , the market size for AR and VR technology will rise close to 300 billion U.S. dollars by 2024. Trillion by 2025.

Artificial Inteligence 150

Artificial Inteligence Developer Development Team Review United Kingdom 150

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 31, 2014

The alternatives range from giving it away for free, 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. The customer advantage is a lower entry cost.

Revenue 287

Revenue Startup Business Model Retention 287

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. With a portfolio of at least 20 investments, or you are at risk of the adverse selection problem.)

Early Stage 287

Early Stage Silicon Valley Oregon Technical Review 287

YoungUpstarts

JANUARY 27, 2015

A unified Microsoft has set the stage for sustained revenue growth. Expenses related to supporting Microsoft’s growing devices businesses will offset overall profit growth and search revenue gains through 2015. year-to-year revenue gain in calendar 4Q14, to $26.5 While Microsoft’s 7.9% year-to-year in 4Q14 to $16.3

Cloud 100

Cloud Mobile Software Review Technical Review 100

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

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 326

Private Equity Metrics China Intellectual Property 326

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 16, 2009

In it, I got asked a question I often hear: “What if we have a web-based business that doesn’t have revenue or paying customers? And without revenue how do we know if we achieved product/market fit to exit Customer Validation?” They’re putting money into web services/business – most without early revenue.

Customer Development 223

Customer Development Web Developer Customer 223

YoungUpstarts

JANUARY 28, 2015

With the release of each new version of the iPhone, Apple’s grip on the most lucrative segments of the mobile device market becomes even stronger, and with the success of the iPhone 6 during Apple’s calendar 4Q14 it is clear that Apple’s dominance of the premium smartphone market is uncontested. billion, accounting for 68.7%

China 100

China Technical Review Mobile Revenue 100

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 25, 2016

It turns out that to build a successful company you ultimately need this strange thing called “revenue” that people don’t just hand you: You need to earn it. And there’s this other thing called “gross margin,” which shows the quality of your revenue. Market Size. Let me be very direct.

Startup 150

Startup Seed Money DC Software Review 150

David Teten

JANUARY 19, 2021

More and more startups are pursuing Revenue-Based VCs , but “RBI” doesn’t fit everyone. Flexible VC 101: Equity Meets Revenue Share. By tying payments to actual revenues, founders and investors remain aligned around the company’s real-time performance, good or bad. Flexible VC: Revenue -based. Of the Inc.

Cofounder 78

Cofounder Technical Review Equity Dividend 78

YoungUpstarts

SEPTEMBER 10, 2018

However, it is important to check the portfolio of the program and see how many companies from your industry have participated. If there are none, that should raise some doubts, as they may not have the correct resources or relevant contacts for your business. The market strategy made complete sense to me and my team members.

Programming 124

Programming Chile B2B B2C 124

Steve Blank

MARCH 16, 2016

VC’s raise money from their investors (limited partners like pension funds) and then spread their risk by investing in a number of startups (called a portfolio). For the first few years, your VCs want you to keep your head down, build the product, find product/market fit and ship to get to some inflection point (revenue, users, etc.).

Liquidity Event 120

Liquidity Event Founder Liquidation Preference Venture Capital 120

Version One Ventures

OCTOBER 15, 2020

Other businesses are pushing mainstream Lightning adoption for shopping. Companies like Fold (and soon V1 portfolio company Lolli ) offer cashback rewards for shoppers via Lightning, a Trojan horse for many people to acquire their first bitcoin. And >40% of that revenue is coming from in-game purchases. At least not yet.

Networking 168

Networking Global OTC Security 168

Gust

AUGUST 24, 2014

The alternatives range from giving it away for free, 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. The customer advantage is a lower entry cost.

Revenue 184

Revenue Startup Retention Internet 184

crowdSPRING Blog

NOVEMBER 1, 2013

These posts and videos are about logo design , web design , startups, entrepreneurship, small business, leadership, social media, marketing, and more! Do you still use business cards for your business? The above video is a funny look at how some people feel about business cards. Failure Is Overrated – fi.co/posts/2441.

Social Media 94

Social Media Small Business Design Media 94

crowdSPRING Blog

OCTOBER 18, 2013

These posts and videos are about logo design , web design , startups, entrepreneurship, small business, leadership, social media, marketing, and more! Empower Your Small Business: 4 keys to success, 2014 trends, content marketing – crowdspring.co/19PV71E. A Startup’s Minimum Revenue Per Employee - crowdspring.co/GNlKua.

Social Media 92

Social Media Small Business Design Media 92

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 23, 2013

The alternatives range from giving it away for free, 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. The customer advantage is a lower entry cost.

Product 290

Product Revenue Business Model Retention 290

David Teten

AUGUST 21, 2019

Or should they look to one of the new wave of Revenue-Based Investors? Revenue-Based Investing (“RBI”) is a new form of VC financing, distinct from the preferred equity structure most VCs use. For more background, see Revenue-Based Investing: A New Option for Founders who Care About Control. But should they? Aligned incentives.

Revenue 60

Revenue Liquidation Preference Equity Cofounder 60

This is going to be BIG.

MAY 9, 2022

I’ve been asked by portfolio companies and plenty of others about how they should be changing their strategy given the stock market pullback and what they’ve been hearing on “VC twitter”. Ok, so if you’re a fundable company, you’re a fundable company—great big market, relevant team, solid plan. But, you know what?

Stock 97

Stock Marketing Valuation Later Stage 97

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 14, 2009

Over the same 30 years, Venture Capital firms have honed their skills and strategies to match Wall Streets needs to achieve liquidity for their portfolio companies. While there was an occasional bad apple, the public markets rewarded companies with revenue growth and sustainable profits. What Do VC’s Do?

Silicon Valley 223

Silicon Valley IPO Technical Review Venture Capital 223

Steve Blank

APRIL 26, 2022

Startups that can’t find product/market fit and/or generate sufficient revenue and/or lacked patient capital are scrambling for dollars – and the bottom feeders are happy to help. Your cram down investors will likely sell your technology for piece parts and/or use your company to benefit their other portfolio companies.

Cram Down 408

Cram Down Founder Venture Capital Recapitalization 408

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 22, 2009

Our portfolio company did so well that Google copied this approach and out executed Overture. When a content producer promotes an ad in-stream the revenue flows mostly to the person who published the content. Let innovation happen and the market decide - I don’t how all of this will end up. I’m hopeful that Ad.ly

Advertising 277

Advertising Technical Review Affiliate SEM 277

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 11, 2019

At NextView we invest across the spectrum of seed stage companies so roughly 1/3rd of the companies we invest in are pre-product, roughly 1/3rd are post-product but pre-revenue, and perhaps 1/3rd have some very early revenue. You’re obviously not showing charts of user growth, number of customers, or revenue.

Seed Stage 149

Seed Stage B2B Seed Capital Revenue 149

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 3, 2012

In the 1920’s companies restructured from monolithic functional organizations (sales, marketing, manufacturing, purchasing, etc.) Enter the Business Model Canvas. With the business model canvas in hand, we can now approach rethinking corporate innovation strategy and structure.

Business Model 333

Business Model Customer Development United States Operations 333

ReadWriteStart

MAY 5, 2011

Satya is evaluating various go-to-market models such as franchising, and I advised him to focus on direct selling to major builders and working with industry value-added resellers (VARs) that already operate in the smart home segment in India. We can derive GeoInvenio's business model and pricing model based on that.

Costa Rica 115

Costa Rica Incubator Silicon Valley India 115

David Teten

JANUARY 21, 2021

This essay is part of a series on alternative VC: I: Revenue-Based Investing: a new option for founders who care about control. II: Who are the major Revenue-Based Investing VCs? III: Why are Revenue-Based VCs investing in so many women and underrepresented founders? IV: Should your new VC fund use Revenue-Based Investing?

Equity 78

Equity Revenue Cofounder Colorado 78

Seeing Both Sides

JULY 21, 2014

But many years later, I began to appreciate that one of our core flaws was our business model. As a result, the full revenue for each deal was recognized in that quarter as soon as the software was shipped. This allowed our revenue to skyrocket from $1.8 I later came to realize that r ecurring revenue is magic.

Revenue 54

Revenue Valuation Churn Rate Portfolio 54

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. So what’s wrong the product development model?

Customer Development 241

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 241

VC Cafe

SEPTEMBER 16, 2021

Let’s start with a short definition: [the creator economy] is defined as the class of businesses built by over 50 million independent content creators, curators, and community builders including social media influencers, bloggers, and videographers, plus the software and finance tools designed to help them with growth and monetization.

Startup 207

Startup Social Media Venture Capital Audio 207