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

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 23, 2012

Many observers of the venture capital industry have questioned whether its best days are behind it. I have been close to the tech & startup sectors for more than 20 years and I can’t think of a period in which I felt more optimistic about the innovation and value creation I see in front of us.

Venture Capital 347

Venture Capital Technical Review LP Mobile 347

Austin Startup

AUGUST 3, 2017

Is it an Texas-based tech startup company or is it doing something in the email space? For me, that’s any tech startup company in Texas or any email related company in the world. Is this a big enough market to support a venture funded business? What will it take for your tech startup to raise $500,000 in Austin in 2017?

Technical Review 69

Technical Review Startup Texas Email 69

www.forentrepreneurs.com

FEBRUARY 2, 2010

Blog About Log in Register Startup Killer: the Cost of Customer Acquisition In the many thousands of articles advising entrepreneurs on what they have to focus on to build successful startups, much has been written about three key factors: team, product and market, with particular focus on the importance of product/market fit.

Acquisition 103

Acquisition Cost Customer Entrepreneur 103

This is going to be BIG.

FEBRUARY 17, 2020

They think that if they just had enough money to market something, it would take off, yet whenever they pitch the app in front of a crowd of 100 people, the conversion and virality rate isn’t proven out at all. 7) Does such a model get you to a long term size that makes sense for venture capital investors (north of $100mm in revenues)?

Startup 117

Startup Viral Venture Capital .Net 117

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 12, 2015

Over breakfast he got me up to date on his life since school (two non-CEO roles in startups,) but he wanted to talk about his third startup – the one he and two co-founders had started. In this first step, the goal of a startup is to search for a repeatable and scalable business model. Most startups die here.

Startup 120

Startup Lean Venture Capital Advisory Board 120

YoungUpstarts

NOVEMBER 7, 2014

Automating processes with APIs, creating a large e-mail subscriber base, SEO and viral strategies are of course extremely valuable to any start-up. Having a business with four people working for you is easy to oversee. Find out how ‘light’ you can start your business model. But how do you ‘growth hack’ people?

SEM 244

SEM Lean PR Startup 244

ReadWriteStart

JUNE 29, 2020

There has never been a viral outbreak of such magnitude before. In other words, you must start bootstrapping an online startup , because the future of the global business world is online. What is a startup? Before we look at ways to bootstrap a startup, let’s consider a comprehensive definition of what a startup is.

Bootstrapping 85

Bootstrapping Global Startup Hungary 85

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 7, 2010

I’ve introduced a new class at Stanford to teach engineers, scientists and other professionals how startups really get built. Jon Feiber of Mohr Davidow Ventures and Ann Miura-Ko of Floodgate are co-teaching the class with me (and Alexander Osterwalder is a guest lecturer.) In contrast, startups search for a business model. (Or

Wiki 316

Wiki Lean Management Business Model 316

Steve Blank

MARCH 18, 2011

What are they, how do they differ and what can startup do to take advantage of them? Paths to Liquidity: a quick history of the four waves of startup investing. The Golden Age (1970 – 1995): Build a growing business with a consistently profitable track record (after at least 5 quarters,) and go public when it’s time.

Internet 335

Internet IPO Silicon Valley Agile 335

www.forentrepreneurs.com

FEBRUARY 2, 2010

Blog About Log in Register Designing startup metrics to drive successful behavior Great companies are almost always run by great management teams. Follow up blog post Watch out for my follow up blog post on SaaS Metrics and Levers to see what happens when I drill down on the key metrics for a SaaS business.

Metrics 55

Metrics Design Entrepreneur Startup 55

BeyondVC

FEBRUARY 12, 2014

With a focus on seed investing in the mobile, agile, and smart enterprise and business models that harness the power of network effects, our entrepreneurs have successfully been able to raise over $200 million of financing following our initial seed investment. finally, this theme is also applicable for b2b.

Seed Stage 110

Seed Stage Agile Viral API 110

Reid Hoffman

MARCH 19, 2019

What makes this tricky is that markets evolve, and an innovative technology or business model can transform a normal market into a Glengarry Glen Ross market. In it we explicitly state: “The real value creation comes when innovative technology enables innovative products and services with innovative business models….What

Cofounder 28

Cofounder Business Model IPO Non-Compete 28

Reid Hoffman

SEPTEMBER 8, 2020

The myth about pivots is that they are an exception: something undesirable that happens because a startup went seriously awry, and which you should strive to avoid. Actually, startups, like all businesses, work because of a cycle of invention and reinvention. Business model evolution is the rule, not the exception.

Startup 36

Startup Silicon Valley Business Model Mobile 36

Austin Startup

MARCH 19, 2020

After talking to entrepreneurs over the past two weeks, it seems most businesses are imploding or exploding, depending on how well their business model can adapt to a post-corona virus world. There are five general things you can do now to make your business coronable: survive and thrive in a viral world.

Texas 62

Texas Viral eCommerce Equity 62

Reid Hoffman

JANUARY 26, 2021

Last week, we explored the topic of startup boards of directors. The primary goal of this conversation was to explain how and why a great startup board can be a powerful tool to help the CEO make the company successful. One of the things a financing round brings is an opportunity to strengthen the startup’s overall network.

Startup 36

Startup Equity Early Stage Green 36

David Teten

DECEMBER 3, 2019

Private equity and venture capital investors are copying our sisters in the hedge fund world: we’re trying to automate more of our job. . See Bessemer Venture Partners’ A comprehensive guide to security for startups. Tribe Capital has developed A Quantitative Approach to Product Market Fit. . 2) Market .

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Software Review Analytics Private Equity 78

reidhoffman.org

NOVEMBER 12, 2013

It has many stylistic errors — and a few substantive ones, too — that I would now change having learned more, but I realized that it still provides useful insights for entrepreneurs and startup participants outside of the Greylock network, particularly across three areas of interest: how entrepreneurs should approach the pitch process.

Entrepreneur 111

Entrepreneur Revenue Viral Networking 111

Cracking the Code

DECEMBER 16, 2006

However, I have to admit that Im somewhat excited by the fact that brilliant software execs like Tony (and I do think hes among the best in the business) still dont get that SaaS is here to stay and is changing the market in fundamental ways. Small and medium businesses. (2). Venture Capital. (3). Explore Venture Capital.

Software Review 48

Software Review Silicon Valley Technical Review Software 48

BeyondVC

JANUARY 12, 2009

  More importantly, will there be any grand slam venture capital opportunities in wireless?    From a business model perspective we had it nailed…or so we thought…buy the hardware device at cost and we would make money back by selling a monthly subscription service. 

Mobile 60

Mobile SMS Venture Capital Web 60

Up and Running

MAY 23, 2016

To give you a better idea of what entrepreneurs in this industry are thinking about during each phase of the startup process, I interviewed SaaS entrepreneurs from all over the world, including our own COO Noah Parsons. The one-page pitch format is also more suitable for SaaS businesses that are constantly testing new ideas.

Software Review 74

Software Review Software Delaware Forecast 74

Reid Hoffman

JANUARY 19, 2021

True, many boards are dysfunctional, but when you build a great startup board, it will be a powerful tool that can help the CEO make the company successful. This essay, which is based on Part 1 of a two-part episode of the Greymatter Podcast, will cover the fundamentals of building great startup boards.

Startup 36

Startup Cofounder Advertising Hiring 36

mashable.com

SEPTEMBER 14, 2011

There is something to allowing your business to grow organically and not to push expansion too rapidly. On the other hand, it’s important to consider the realities of today’s business environment. If you’re a startup entrepreneur, you risk facing a competitive disadvantage if you wait too long to expand your operations.

France 77

France Marketing Social Media Startup 77

www.jasonnazar.com

MARCH 22, 2011

Entrepreneurs that start companies in LA are often focused on revenue and business models. If you can create such a virally popular product that it reaches millions of people… yes, you can put off worrying about business models and revenue, but this isn’t the case for most of us.

Los Angeles 48

Los Angeles Silicon Valley Southern California San Francisco 48

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 431

Cofounder Seed Stage Valuation Metrics 431

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 3, 2011

We’ve hung out periodically over the past few years and I have enjoyed debating many startup topics. They realized for them this was dumb because people didn’t want to use up their credits so viral adoption wasn’t happening quickly enough. They switched to a flat rate model and sharing went up immediately.

Viral 303

Viral Investment Bankers Video Business Model 303

mashable.com

NOVEMBER 3, 2010

The Small Business Tips Series is supported by Bantam Live , a web-based collaboration workspace with “Social CRM&# for small business teams. Here’s an overview: Mitch Kapor: Kapor is founding partner of Kapor Capital , a firm that invests in seed and early stage startups. and Path Intelligence.

Angel Investor 80

Angel Investor Startup San Francisco Social Media 80

Cracking the Code

OCTOBER 10, 2008

You validated our business model and added huge value to our efforts. However, as we know from the cable industry, subscription businesses can be very profitable over time. For a direct, enterprise sales business model, these thresholds are likely to be around $80,000-100,000 CMRR (approx. $1-1.2M Michael Kassing.

Software Review 48

Software Review North America Europe Metrics 48