Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 1, 2019

Of course, that means a new level of risk, giving up some control, and a new business plan. Most entrepreneurs are mavericks, and their passion drove their new business. Switch your attention from product development to sales. Managing business growth is more than metrics.

Mezzanine 244

Mezzanine Private Equity Startup Bandwidth 244

Steve Blank

MAY 14, 2012

These founders specify, design, and build a fully featured product using classic product development methods without ever leaving their building. Traditionally, engineering, sales, and marketing have all focused on the immovable launch date. Writing a business plan that doesn’t allow for trial and error.

Balance Sheet 335

Balance Sheet Business Model Customer Development Metrics 335

Steve Blank

MARCH 4, 2014

But now, as the business model is repeatable and scalable, most employees take the business model as a given, and instead focus on the execution of the model – what is it they are supposed to do every day when they come to work. They measure their success on metrics that reflect success in execution, and they reward execution.

IRR 335

IRR Startup Business Model Agile 335

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 13, 2017

Of course, that means a new level of risk, giving up some control, and a new business plan. Most entrepreneurs are mavericks, and their passion drove their new business. Switch your attention from product development to sales. Managing business growth is more than metrics.

Mezzanine 141

Mezzanine Private Equity Startup Bandwidth 141

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 3, 2013

Of course, that means a new level of risk, giving up some control, and a new business plan. Most entrepreneurs are mavericks, and their passion drove their new business. Switch your attention from product development to sales. Managing business growth is more than metrics.

Mezzanine 240

Mezzanine Private Equity Bandwidth Metrics 240

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 4, 2014

Develop your business plan. Write down the key elements of your business plan very early, and keep it current as things evolve. Product development process. Product development process. If you are contracting or outsourcing, this is even more important. Funding process.

Startup 268

Startup Institutional Investors Angel Investor Bootstrapping 268

Steve Blank

MARCH 11, 2015

And worse, even if someone does manage to start something new, our management structure has so many financial, legal and HR hurdles that every initiative needs to match our existing business financial metrics, processes and procedures. They’ve figured out the revenue model (subscription, license, direct sale, etc.)

Widget 120

Widget Lean Business Model Metrics 120

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 4, 2015

Of course, that means a new level of risk, giving up some control, and a new business plan. Most entrepreneurs are mavericks, and their passion drove their new business. Switch your attention from product development to sales. Managing business growth is more than metrics.

Mezzanine 120

Mezzanine Private Equity Startup Bandwidth 120

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 31, 2013

Develop your business plan. Write down the key elements of your business plan very early, and keep it current as things evolve. Product development process. Product development process. If you are contracting or outsourcing, this is even more important. Funding process.

Institutional Investors 230

Institutional Investors Angel Investor Bootstrapping Database 230

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 7, 2011

Develop your business plan. Write down the key elements of your business plan very early, and keep it current as things evolve. Product development process. Product development process. If you are contracting or outsourcing, this is even more important. Funding process.

Startup 255

Startup Institutional Investors Angel Investor Bootstrapping 255

Startup Lessons Learned

NOVEMBER 8, 2008

Most likely, your business plan is loaded with opinions and guesses, sprinkled with a dash of vision and hope. Customer development is a parallel process to product development, which means that you dont have to give up on your dream. Focus is on the business fundamentals that you need to get right.

Customer Development 168

Customer Development Developer San Francisco Customer 168

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 12, 2010

It’s human nature to prioritize the metrics that get measured, so the simple act of keeping track is often enough to have a significant positive impact. You can also use this space to keep track of innovators (R&D personnel) and rainmakers (sales & marketing personnel). His website is [link].

Intellectual Property 223

Intellectual Property .Net Valuation Distribution 223

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 1, 2010

Develop your business plan. Write down the key elements of your business plan very early, and keep it current as things evolve. Product development process. Product development process. If you are contracting or outsourcing, this is even more important. Funding process.

Startup 239

Startup Institutional Investors Angel Investor Bootstrapping 239

Steve Blank

MARCH 1, 2010

Most competitive analyses are: 1) sales documents for investors and/or 2) an attempt to rationalize the founders assumptions. It’s Part of the Plan. While most investors don’t actually read your business plan for a first meeting, a summary of your competitive analysis usually ends up as a slide or two in your PowerPoint presentation.

Customer Development 262

Customer Development Metrics Differentiation Engineer 262

Steve Blank

JANUARY 10, 2011

The VP of an operating division had run into trouble in product development; the product was late and getting later. The revenue plan had the new product baked into the numbers and it was clear that this division General Manager was going to crater his forecast (happens all the time, nothing new here.)

Forecast 267

Forecast Agile Revenue Founder 267

Up and Running

MAY 23, 2016

Step 1: Start with a lean plan. Instead of sitting down to write a 40-page business plan, start with a one-page pitch. It’s the fastest way to get your idea onto paper, and it’s the very first step in the lean planning process, which is much easier and more iterative than traditional business planning methods.

Software Review 74

Software Review Software Delaware Forecast 74

Hearpreneur

OCTOBER 20, 2017

Businesses that clearly define their short-term and long-term goals tend to achieve their goals faster and more efficiently than those without any plan. During 2017, my major focus was to increase my amount of outbound sales efforts. 10- Redefining the space of business plan consultancy. Photo Credit: Jaimyn Chang.

Forecast 58

Forecast Artificial Inteligence Entrepreneur SEO 58

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 6, 2011

Inspired by lessons from lean manufacturing, it relies on “validated learning,” rapid scientific experimentation, as well as a number of counter-intuitive practices that shorten product development cycles, measure actual progress without resorting to vanity metrics, and learn what customers really want.

Lean 167

Lean Startup Metrics Private Equity 167

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 5, 2009

It should go without saying that this post is not advice, nor is it recommendation of what you should do, it’s simply my observation of how companies using Customer Development positioned themselves to successfully raise money from venture investors. Is there a profitable business model? What are Early Stage VC’s Really Asking?

Customer Development 266

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 266

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 19, 2009

But instead of spending the time and money to develop products on spec, TPGTEX creates mocked-up webpages that list the features of a potential new product -- such as a system for making radio-frequency identification, or RFID, labels -- along with its price. Read the rest. Read the rest.

San Francisco 137

San Francisco Product Lean Continuous Deployment 137

The Next Web

AUGUST 26, 2012

For this reason you should find out as quickly as possible if the product is indeed offering real value to your customers by looking at real data. The metrics that matter the most are returning customers (user retention), turnover per customer and viral growth (k-factor). Develop a strong backbone.

Bankruptcy 121

Bankruptcy Technical Review Intellectual Property Due Diligence 121

Tim Keane

JUNE 13, 2006

In general, the first part of the discussion runs to whether or not your numbers are tied to metrics with an underlying set of assumptions, or if they are simply a function of a mathematically applied growth rate. John Mullins: Getting to Plan B: Breaking Through to a Better Business Model. What can possibly go wrong; 3.

Wisconsin 60

Wisconsin Entrepreneur Startup Angel Investor 60

maplebutter.com

JANUARY 8, 2013

Written By Dan Martell on February 2nd, 2012 | Category: Hiring LeanStartup Marketing Metrics Startup Life | 6 Comments. Building Product 2. Building Metrics / Usage Reports / KPI 3. Product/Metrics (70%/30% time) * Get your product activation (sign-up + meaningful action) to 60% * then, Get your product retention to 20% weekly.

Technical Review 44

Technical Review Startup Cofounder Software Review 44

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 13, 2009

In particular, a marketing launch can help you do three things (courtesy, as is most of my marketing advice, of The Four Steps to the Epiphany ): Drive customers into your sales pipeline. The problem is that customers dont read your business plan. Know what the success metrics are for the launch.

San Francisco 168

San Francisco PR Lean Early Stage 168

Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 12, 2009

Without a basis for comparison, you first have to drive home the need, then you will have an easy time making the sale (after all, youre the person who they trust to bring it to their attention). Toughest part of the sale is to get agreement that you really can deliver benefits that they didnt previously know were possible.

San Francisco 89

San Francisco Continuous Deployment Ruby Lean 89

steveblank.com

JULY 8, 2011

AgileZen – project management visually see and interact with your work Kanbanery – Simple online team or personal kanban board LeanKit Kanban – Great for visualizing work of product development Kanban Pad – “Nice and lean” and free online Kanban tool Banana Scrum – A tool simple as Scrum itself.

Software Review 110

Software Review Startup Silicon Valley Analytics 110

www.vccafe.com

MARCH 11, 2013

Small Business tools list. Startup Metrics for Pirates â?? SaaS Metrics Tutorial â?? turn customer feedback into sales and relationships. Great for visualizing work of product development. SaaS Sales Team Compensation â?? BPS : Business Plan Servicesâ?? Startup Foundry tools list.

Software Review 53

Software Review Technical Review Startup 53