Steve Blank

JUNE 25, 2009

If you hire a VP of Sales with the idea that they can do customer discovery you violated the first principle of Customer Development – this isn’t a step the can be outsourced to a non-founder. Hiring a VP of Sales in customer discovery typically sets a startup back. However, your product itself will be doing a lot of the selling.

Technology 138

Technology Silicon Valley Fractional VPE Part-Time VPE 138

Steve Blank

MAY 28, 2009

The implications for entrepreneurs is that each of these (market risk versus invention risk,) require radically different financing models, a different type of venture investor, different timing for hiring sales and marketing, etc. are much softer and much, much harder to measure (or believe) in a very early stage startup.

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Vertical Silicon Valley Marketing Customer 144

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 1, 2016

They hire their initial co-founders and early employees and everybody has a sense of “mission.” We want to invest in early-stage technology enabled startup businesses – upfront in the funding cycle. In fact, 50% of our investments are in Southern California, from Santa Barbara to San Diego.

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Leadership Southern California San Diego Hiring 150

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 13, 2013

00:00:06] DEREK: Tell us about growing up in Northern California, tell us about what your dad did, what your mom did, and your family a little bit. [00:00:52] I grew up in Northern California. You’ve got entrepreneurs and founders who are really – a lot of them are in the very early stage of their startup.

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Cofounder Technical Cofounder San Diego Startup 337

ReadWriteStart

APRIL 14, 2011

after a 24-hour journey from California. a group of entrepreneurs from TiE Chennai gathered at the Indian Institute of Technology-Madras (IIT-M) Research Park campus, and we spent the next four hours discussing strategy and tactics of early-stage entrepreneurship. On Saturday, April 9, 2011, I arrived in Chennai at 3 a.m.

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India Technical Review Entrepreneur Silicon Valley 126

BeyondVC

JANUARY 3, 2019

In 2019, we’ll be doubling down on this effort as we are hiring a GM for our CXO Advisory Board & Network ( job description here ). Large enterprises are also complaining about keeping up with so many different regulations like GDPR and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA).

Stealth 79

Stealth Advisory Board Cloud Virginia 79

techcrunch.com

JUNE 22, 2012

Having to invent ad hoc terms to work together, negotiating terms, and throwing money into hiring lawyers can really hamstring the formation of productive founder-advisor relationships — something that can really make or break a startup in its early stages. San Francisco, California. Contact TechCrunch. Gift Guide.

Equity 94

Equity San Francisco Startup Silicon Valley 94

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 17, 2010

so I feel I have an unbiased appreciation for BOTH Californias. It’s not uncommon for incredibly smart and talented Phd’s or CS majors from Stanford to raise $10 million on an early-stage “platform&# that if it succeeds it will be huge. Go on, have a bit of fun down memory lane!). You don’t. Get over it.

Silicon Valley 290

Silicon Valley Technology Los Angeles Southern California 290

Up and Running

FEBRUARY 19, 2014

To learn some common legal pitfalls we’d all be better off avoiding, we asked nine founders from the Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) what unexpected things they found themselves needing lawyers for in the early stages of their startups. Here’s what they had to say: 1. Immigration. When it comes to the U.S. Term Sheets.

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Non-disclosure Agreement NDA Term Sheet Early Stage 97

Scalable Startup

AUGUST 18, 2013

In the birthplace of Java, BSD, SQL and many other critical software technologies, Drupal and PHP are spreading like a California wildfire. Drupal is prevalent in the Silicon Valley ecosystem? Drupal has recently permeated places like Stanford ; there are over 1,000 sites on campus now.

Software Developers 22

Software Developers Software Development PHP Silicon Valley 22

crowdSPRING Blog

NOVEMBER 8, 2018

William Hurley, the co-founder of Honest Dollar, an Austin-based provider of retirement plans to small businesses, says creative talent is abundant : It’s got the music, the university scene, the hippies and the rule-breakers… It’s very easy to hire people who want to push the limits. Sound good? We think so.

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Steve Blank

MAY 22, 2009

If your don’t have enough employees on the payroll, hire relatives, friends, or part-timers and train them. When I was at Intel, we hired the Hill Group to come in a train the entire team of sales and marketing people who were slated to staff any trade show booth throughout the year. You’ll never have to do it again.)

Silicon Valley 128

Silicon Valley RSS California Customer Development 128

crowdSPRING Blog

JULY 30, 2017

William Hurley, co-founder of Honest Dollar , an Austin-based provider of retirement plans to small businesses, says creative talent is abundant : It’s got the music, the university scene, the hippies and the rule-breakers… It’s very easy to hire people who want to push the limits. It’s an incredibly innovative city.

United States 82

United States Las Vegas San Francisco Denver 82

Austin Startup

APRIL 7, 2017

Two weeks before my scheduled start date (and a week after I put down a deposit for a downtown lease), HR called to let me know that the company over-hired for their Austin office and that I could re-interview in Mountain View, CA. And yes, I would be on the hook for breaking the lease! But as is usually the case, things worked out.

Austin 54

Austin San Francisco New York City Texas 54

The Next Web

DECEMBER 30, 2013

percent, typical tech worker income tax in Denver is half of that in California (9.3 The result is a rapidly-growing local tech economy: tech hiring is among the highest in the nation at 1.7 city), restaurants and nightlife. percent, handily outpacing Silicon Valley’s 0.45 percent.

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Denver Silicon Valley San Jose Colorado 166

The Next Web

JUNE 20, 2013

Cornerstone also benefitted from having less competition when hiring talent. Miller did, however, note that Cornerstone had to adapt to hiring based on potential, rather than experience, because it was hard to find candidates with B2B software experience in LA. The company has managed 95 percent retention of clients. Miller noted.

Cloud 118

Cloud Southern California Los Angeles New York City 118

Austin Startup

DECEMBER 20, 2020

Austin has been one the fastest growing cities in the country for the past 20 years that I’ve been here, but it feels like COVID-19 and California wildfires broke the floodgates already under pressure from high taxes and expensive real estate in landlocked coastal cities.

Austin 110

Austin Texas Cofounder Los Angeles 110

Early Growth Financial Services

APRIL 4, 2013

(PRWEB) April 04, 2013 Early Growth Financial Services (EGFS), an accounting and financial services firm that specializes in providing outsourced support to early-stage companies, announced today the hires of Katherine Gaffney and Tim Maher as new Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) for the company’s Los Angeles office.

Los Angeles 41

Los Angeles Southern California San Diego Silicon Valley 41

infochachkie.com

SEPTEMBER 24, 2011

At the early stages of your company’s life, you cannot rely on disinterested, hired guns to define your company’s key tasks. John is currently a partner at Rincon Venture Partners , a venture capital firm investing in early stage web-based businesses, and is a Co-Founder of RevUpNet , a performance-based online marketing agency.

Equity 40

Equity Silicon Valley Cofounder Technical Review 40

crowdSPRING Blog

JULY 30, 2017

William Hurley, co-founder of Honest Dollar , an Austin-based provider of retirement plans to small businesses, says creative talent is abundant : It’s got the music, the university scene, the hippies and the rule-breakers… It’s very easy to hire people who want to push the limits. It’s an incredibly innovative city.

United States 48

United States Las Vegas San Francisco Denver 48

keen.io

FEBRUARY 5, 2013

These were the best resources I found: Equity for Early Employees in Early Stage Startups. Startup Equity for Early Employees. On the other hand, this was new territory for the founders as well; they had zero experience making offers to new startup hires. Paul Graham’s Equity Equation.

Salary 50

Salary Equity Startup San Francisco 50

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 23, 2009

Yet the processes that early-stage companies were using were identical to that of large corporations. Through trial and error, hiring and firing, successful startups all invented a parallel process to product development. Its basic propositions are the antithesis of common wisdom yet they are followed by those who succeed.

Silicon Valley 127

Silicon Valley RSS Venture Capital California 127

Steve Blank

APRIL 23, 2009

Filed under: Customer Development , SuperMac | Tagged: Steve Blank , Entrepreneurs , Early Stage Startup « Killing Innovation with Corner Cases and Consensus The Secret History of Silicon Valley Part VI: Every World War II Movie was Wrong » 7 Responses David , on April 23, 2009 at 8:58 am Said: Excellent!

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Reid Hoffman

JANUARY 26, 2021

Finally, the independent board member slot can be a way to “hire” an essential skillset into the company that wouldn’t otherwise be possible. In the state of California, SB979 is requiring every public company with a principal executive office in the state to have at least one board member from an underrepresented group by the end of 2021.

Startup 36

Startup Equity Early Stage Green 36

The Next Web

SEPTEMBER 17, 2012

The privately held company is headquartered in Los Altos, California and is backed by venture capital firms Andreessen Horowitz, Bessemer Venture Partners, Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ), Emergence Capital Partners, General Atlantic, Meritech Capital Partners, NEA, Scale Venture Partners, and U.S. Strength in experience. Rapid expansion.

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Europe Entrepreneur United States San Francisco 114

Steve Blank

AUGUST 27, 2009

Engineering focuses on building the product; it designs the product, specifies the first release and hires a staff to build the product. Marketing starts to build a sales demo, writes sales materials (presentations, data sheets), and hires a PR agency. Coming next Part 2: What’s Wrong with Product Development as a Model?

Silicon Valley 260

Silicon Valley Product Startup Product Development 260

Steve Blank

MAY 21, 2009

Have a loud product demo; give away pieces of candy; hire a masseuse and offer free back rubs. Offer a free bestselling book in your industry (can you have the author there to autograph it?); Hold a contest, (If you’re giving away a big prize make sure your most valuable prospect wins.) Plus tips on overall trade show strategy.

Silicon Valley 178

Silicon Valley RSS California Customer Development 178

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 2, 2009

The key contributors to an out-of-control burn rate is 1) hiring a sales force too early, 2) turning on the demand creation activities too early, 3) developing something other than the minimum feature set for first customer ship.

Lean 244

Lean Silicon Valley Startup RSS 244

The Startup Magazine

FEBRUARY 8, 2022

— Sajan Pillai is the CEO and Managing Partner of Season Two Ventures, an early-stage venture fund based in Southern California. As Chairman of the Diversity Committee of STEM, Sajan introduced Step IT Up America to train and hire 5,000 women technologists, a program endorsed by political and industry leaders. ?He

Artificial Inteligence 147

Artificial Inteligence Technical Review Global Technology 147

Steve Blank

JULY 20, 2009

I was hired as a training instructor to teach microprocessor system design for the existing Z-80 family and to write a new course for Zilog’s soon to be launched 16-bit processor, the Z-8000. Two Jobs at Once When I was hired at Zilog part of the deal was that I could consult for the first six months for my last employer, ESL.

Silicon Valley 175

Silicon Valley Chad RSS San Francisco 175

Steve Blank

JUNE 22, 2009

It got bigger by inventing new test and measurement equipment and it hired people who knew how to execute that strategy. Elephant Graveyard Reinvention of large companies, while making for great case studies are rare. For the first 25 years HP’s business model was static.

Silicon Valley 164

Silicon Valley RSS California Agile 164

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 1, 2011

On the California coast where I live, we see lifestyle entrepreneurs like surfers and divers who own small surf or dive shop or teach surfing and diving lessons to pay the bills so they can surf and dive some more. They hire local employees or family. They hire the best and the brightest. Most are barely profitable.

Government 335

Government Silicon Valley Startup Venture Capital 335

Steve Blank

JULY 2, 2009

In reality I had been hired as CEO and the adult supervision and administrative overseer of one of the most creative talents in the valley. A month later, after raising $4 million dollars (we literally had VC’s fighting over who else would fund us), Peter and I started our video game company, Rocket Science Games. We understood none of this.

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley Technical Review RSS Software Review 120

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 15, 2011

In Silicon Valley you have mega venture capital funds who have a history of giving $20 million to early-stage technology companies hoping to swing for the fences and become the next Google, Facebook or Twitter. My fund – at $200 million – is the largest in Southern California. LA investors are more pragmatic.

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Silicon Valley Southern California Los Angeles Semantic 313

Steve Blank

JULY 16, 2009

Successful pinball companies didn’t hire Hollywood talent. Meanwhile our company was pouring an enormous amount of dollars into building tools and video compression technology, while also hiring a lot of high-priced Hollywood talent like art directors, and script and story editors. I know what’s great and what’s not.

Silicon Valley 207

Silicon Valley RSS Video San Diego 207

David Teten

FEBRUARY 2, 2012

By contrast, as a venture capitalist, I can report that almost all of our portfolio companies are desperate to hire talented software engineers, and eager to hire in a range of other roles. A team in California is already creating a offshore seastead for non-US citizens who want to build companies in the US.

Government 146

Government Technical Review New York Offshore 146

Steve Blank

APRIL 7, 2009

And it hires very smart people from the best schools. BTW, by the standards mentioned in the Times article, the following people would never have been interviewed or hired at Google. Google is looking to hire workers. I love Google. I think its one of the smartest companies out there. And founders don’t apply for jobs.

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Silicon Valley RSS California Customer Development 327