David Teten

AUGUST 19, 2019

So you’re interested in raising capital from a Revenue-Based Investor VC. A new wave of Revenue-Based Investors (“RBI”) are emerging. I’ve been a traditional equity VC for 8 years, and I’m now researching new business models in venture capital. Bigfoot Capital. Capital need of up to $1.5M

Revenue 60

Revenue Technical Review Software Review Equity 60

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 19, 2013

The “valley of death” is a common term in the startup world, referring to the difficulty of covering the negative cash flow in the early stages of a startup, before their new product or service is bringing in revenue from real customers. It always reduces risk to plan your business first. Joint venture with distributor or beneficiary.

Intellectual Property 309

Intellectual Property Technical Review Venture Capital Startup 309

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 14, 2014

The “valley of death” is a common term in the startup world, referring to the difficulty of covering the negative cash flow in the early stages of a startup, before their new product or service is bringing in revenue from real customers. It always reduces risk to plan your business first. Joint venture with distributor or beneficiary.

Entrepreneur 283

Entrepreneur Intellectual Property Technical Review Incubator 283

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 12, 2018

The “valley of death” is a common term in the startup world, referring to the difficulty of covering the negative cash flow in the early stages of a startup, before their new product or service is bringing in revenue from real customers. It always reduces risk to plan your business first. Joint venture with distributor or beneficiary.

Intellectual Property 134

Intellectual Property Technical Review Startup Incubator 134

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 1, 2017

The “valley of death” is a common term in the startup world, referring to the difficulty of covering the negative cash flow in the early stages of a startup, before their new product or service is bringing in revenue from real customers. It always reduces risk to plan your business first. Joint venture with distributor or beneficiary.

Product Development 177

Product Development Cost Developer Product 177

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. Of the Inc. 5000 companies, only 6.5% raised from angels.

Cofounder 78

Cofounder Technical Review Equity Dividend 78

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. What does this have to do with missing your sales plan?

Burn Rate 248

Burn Rate Silicon Valley Marketing Boston 248

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 8, 2015

The “valley of death” is a common term in the startup world, referring to the difficulty of covering the negative cash flow in the early stages of a startup, before their new product or service is bringing in revenue from real customers. It always reduces risk to plan your business first. Joint venture with distributor or beneficiary.

Entrepreneur 120

Entrepreneur Intellectual Property Technical Review Incubator 120

Steve Blank

MARCH 16, 2016

Founders can now access the largest pool of risk capital that ever existed –in the form of Private Equity (Angel Investors, family offices , Venture Capitalists (VC’s) and Hedge Funds.). At its core Venture Capital is nothing more than a small portion of the Private Equity financial asset class. FDA approvals?

Liquidity Event 120

Liquidity Event Founder Liquidation Preference Venture Capital 120

ReadWriteStart

APRIL 8, 2023

Keeping up with trends is the reality show of the e-commerce world, which is constantly developing, gaining a significant market share, and driving online sales. According to the Adjust and Sensor Tower report, in 2021, m-commerce accumulated 54% of all e-commerce sales worldwide, whose market exceeds $3.5 Only in 2021, 72.9%

eCommerce 185

eCommerce Technical Review Software Review Analytics 185

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 23, 2012

Many observers of the venture capital industry have questioned whether its best days are behind it. Looking ahead at the next decade I am excited by what I believe will be viewed as one of the best and most rational investment periods for venture capital due to seven discrete factors: 1. This never existed a decade ago.

Venture Capital 347

Venture Capital Technical Review LP Mobile 347

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 14, 2012

I expect that should seem intuitive to all entrepreneurs, but every investor I know has many stories about startup funding requests with major business model elements missing. I support her assertion that a business model consists of at least the first seven of the following ten basic elements: Value proposition.

Business Model 242

Business Model Distribution Viral Green 242

The Startup Magazine

JULY 1, 2022

A business is an organization that produces goods or services for profit. The three main components of a company are production or service, marketing and sales, and finance. Production or service is the business’s core activity, which generates revenue. How To Create A Business Model And Identify Your Target Market.

Technology 137

Technology Venture Capital Finance Startup 137

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 29, 2011

I expect that should seem intuitive to all entrepreneurs, but every investor I know has many stories about startup funding requests with major business model elements missing. I support her assertion that a business model consists of at least the first seven of the following ten basic elements: Value proposition.

Business Model 246

Business Model Distribution Viral Green 246

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?” However the Customer Development Model and the Lean Startup work equally well for startups on the web.

Customer Development 219

Customer Development Web Developer Customer 219

Steve Blank

MARCH 17, 2020

But next the question is, ‘What happens to my business?”. The questions every startup or small business CEO needs to ask now are: What’s my Burn Rate and Runway? What does your new business model look like? Next, take a look at your actual revenue each month – not forecast, but real revenue coming in each month.

Burn Rate 436

Burn Rate Startup Valuation Sales Cycle 436

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. The Business Plan ?- And your revenue plan is something more than a hallucination.

Business Model 263

Business Model Customer Development Utah Business Plan 263

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. Royalty based investment.

Startup 150

Startup Entrepreneur Elevator Pitch Seed Stage 150

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 13, 2012

The book has been shepherded and edited by a great Japanese VC at Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Venture Capital, Takashi Tsutsumi, with help from Masato Iino. After many sales calls, early prospects showed little rush to buy it! Maysee now enjoys hockey stick revenue growth. ————-.

Japan 292

Japan Customer Development Developer Customer 292

Up and Running

NOVEMBER 15, 2017

Even if you already know what a SWOT analysis is and what it’s used for, it can be tough to translate that information and examine your own business with a critical eye. Reading an example SWOT analysis for a business that is either in your industry or based on a comparable business model can help get you started.

Botswana 148

Botswana Business Plan Oregon Distribution 148

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. One of the biggest mistakes entrepreneurs make is misunderstanding the role of venture capital investors. What Do VC’s Do?

Silicon Valley 217

Silicon Valley IPO Technical Review Venture Capital 217

SoCal CTO

FEBRUARY 2, 2011

There's a lot out there around Customer Development - read Steve Blank : Entrepreneurship as a Science – The Business Model/Customer Development Stack - Steve Blank , October 25, 2010 Checklists for Chaos, The Path to Success - Steve Blank , October 28, 2010 and reading about Lean, MVPs, etc. is a requirement. It's required reading.

Valuation 198

Valuation Revenue Pre-Money Valuation Early Stage 198

Up and Running

MARCH 14, 2018

Your revenue or business model. Impress the investors with what you and your team have accomplished to date (sales, contracts, key hires, product launches, and so on). Customer acquisition: Marketing and sales strategy. This is usually one of the most skipped sections of an investor pitch and a full business plan.

Hockey Stick 164

Hockey Stick Exit Strategy Technical Review Angel Investor 164

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. How much ad revenue does TripAdvisor make?

Startup 150

Startup Seed Money DC Software Review 150

Steve Blank

APRIL 30, 2009

SuperMac sold our graphic boards for the Macintosh through multiple distribution channels: direct sales to major accounts, national chains, independent rep firms, etc. But the computer retail channel was a large part of our sales. He had teamed up with a former product manager at P&G to deliver seminars on just this subject.

Sales 120

Sales Silicon Valley RSS Las Vegas 120

YoungUpstarts

JANUARY 6, 2014

Once I had a few under my belt, I realized I was a start-up junkie, and founded Five Mill Ventures in San Francisco before I was 30. From restaurants to tech companies, I’ve seeded a number of new ventures with my own marketing know-how instead of just cash. But as an avowed startup junkie, I’m always looking forward to the next thing.

San Francisco 154

San Francisco Business Model Silicon Valley Coder 154

Cracking the Code

OCTOBER 1, 2020

Here’s a short summary of the discussion: Guy, you launched Snyk in 2015, and a large part of your success was driven by your freemium model. With COVID, we’re getting into a world with tighter budgets and likely longer sales cycles. It took us longer to get into revenue, but the freemium was a real accelerator for us.

Early Stage 62

Early Stage Open Source Development Team Review Security 62

ReadWriteStart

SEPTEMBER 10, 2010

They already have several customers including some telcos, and are at about $350,000 in revenues. Gio expects to get to about $500,000 by the end of this year and asked me for advice on venture funding. Because customer financing equals revenue, not equity. Yes, venture capital is very good for scaling businesses rapidly.

Cloud 115

Cloud Silicon Valley Incubator Finance 115

Austin Startup

OCTOBER 15, 2017

Will his digital presence measurably affect sales of his newest book What Unites Us ? What seems to be the best way to create customers and revenue may result in a business model that is out of vogue with the investment world and shortchanges you on enterprise valuation. A good example is the marketing technology sector.

Technical Review 48

Technical Review Software Review Nevada Silicon Valley 48

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

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 238

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 238

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 22, 2011

Ah, but today’s Internet companies have real revenue! Huge structural under-employment in much of the country and full employment in some niche tech markets where it’s impossible to hire developers, designers or sales professionals. Those with strong business models suddenly stand out when the tide goes out.

Saudi Arabia 309

Saudi Arabia Valuation IPO Technical Review 309

Up and Running

SEPTEMBER 19, 2017

For a business that anticipates needing, for example, $500,000 in startup capital, that means that best-case scenario Klemm can expect to give up half of his business’s common stock (and an even larger percentage of control of the business once the deal’s fine print provisions are considered).

Private Equity 94

Private Equity Pre-Money Valuation Equity Startup 94

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 3, 2012

In turn, these new strategies drove the need for companies to be structured around functions (manufacturing, purchasing, sales, etc.). In the 1920’s companies restructured from monolithic functional organizations (sales, marketing, manufacturing, purchasing, etc.) Enter the Business Model Canvas. In the U.S.

Business Model 333

Business Model Customer Development United States Operations 333

SoCal CTO

MARCH 12, 2007

Maybe its because Im 66", but I think most clothes shopping really stinks and when was the last time that a sales person was actually helpful. Kevin Federline Search Engine Realistic Entrprenuer's Guide to Venture Capital Time Rich, Time Poor and Apple F2F Still Matters 8 Ways the Internet has Changed Software Marketing.

Technical Cofounder 150

Technical Cofounder Southern California Los Angeles CTO Hire 150

www.forentrepreneurs.com

FEBRUARY 2, 2010

Business Model I would like to propose that in addition to team, product, and market, there is actually a fourth, equally important, core element of startups, which is the need for a viable business model. However there is a lot of value in looking at these same metrics for all other businesses.

Acquisition 103

Acquisition Cost Customer Entrepreneur 103

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 24, 2009

The Founder’s New Insight Smart founders are never satisfied with simply executing their current business model, they are constantly observing, orienting and deciding whether their current business model can be made better. It’s a natural part of learning about your customers and business model.)

Customer 195

Customer Silicon Valley RSS California 195