Steve Blank

MARCH 19, 2009

Yet two smart VC firms, Sigma and Matrix Partners, realized that somewhere in this mess there was value. They sold their product through the computer retail channel, something I knew nothing about. They had an existing distribution channel and their dealers and customers thought they knew who the company was and what it stood for.

Silicon Valley 146

Silicon Valley Software Review Technical Review RSS 146

Steve Blank

JUNE 26, 2015

Companies pursuing innovation can Buy, Build, Partner or use Open Innovation. The first time a few brave corporate innovators tried to overlay the Lean tools and techniques that work in early-stage startups in an existing corporation, the result was chaos, confusion, frustration and ultimately, failure.

Lean 120

Lean Management Business Model Incubator 120

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 12, 2010

Trusted partners quit, personal friends become enemies, and staff management becomes a huge burden. Stretch” goals in early-stage are not advised. Too many startups simply follow the standard distribution channels, use standard pricing, and count on their one extra feature to give them the market.

Advisory Board 125

Advisory Board Startup Forecast Early Stage 125

The Equity Kicker

JANUARY 30, 2018

Believe that channel partners will accelerate sales. Here’s how they put it: I see this play out in new markets again and again: Pre-chasm enterprise startups throw time and resources at indirect sales channels (including OEMs, etc.) Nine times out of ten (or more) direct sales is the only way for early stage startups.

Software 106

Software Startup Channel Early Stage 106

David Teten

DECEMBER 12, 2017

(written by Philipp von dem Knesebeck , Managing Partner, Blue Future Partners (bluefp.com, @bluefutureteam ), and David Teten ). Based on this paper, Blue Future Partners and PEVCTech recently completed a large-scale survey to find out which tools are most commonly used by venture capital firms.

Early Stage 60

Early Stage Technical Review Software Review Venture Capital 60

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 19, 2013

Funding sources are still the same as stage one. Now we are ready for demonstration tests conducted on first-time or early-stage products. The demonstration stage usually implies substantial redesign and debugging until final robustness can be established. Prototype development. All is definitely fundable now.

Developer 243

Developer Warrant Angel Investor Early Stage 243

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 5, 2012

Funding sources are still the same as stage one. Now we are ready for demonstration tests conducted on first-time or early-stage products. The demonstration stage usually implies substantial redesign and debugging until final robustness can be established. Prototype development. All is definitely fundable now.

Warrant 224

Warrant Angel Investor Early Stage Distribution 224

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 26, 2013

Part 6: Distribution channels in Life Sciences. After talking to 74 surgeons, insurance companies and partners appeared that no one – insurance companies or surgeons – owned the problem. Part 3: described what we’re going to do about it. Part 4: This Will Save us Years – Customer Discovery in Medical Devices.

Lean 237

Lean Customer Development Video Early Stage 237

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 5, 2011

Funding sources are still the same as stage one. Now we are ready for demonstration tests conducted on first-time or early-stage products. The demonstration stage usually implies substantial redesign and debugging until final robustness can be established. Prototype development. All is definitely fundable now.

Developer 233

Developer Warrant Angel Investor Early Stage 233

Steve Blank

JULY 29, 2010

My teaching partner Ann Miura-Ko and I both love the concept of Business Model Generation. However we find using the book to teach and in early stage venture problematic. It has the notion that any business model can be drawn with just 9 separate boxes. It’s a great idea. The Real World.

Customer Development 211

Customer Development Business Model Early Stage Channel 211

The Next Web

JANUARY 26, 2014

He mentors young startups at Singapore Management University and True Incube Thailand , a 500 Startups Partner. If a big corporation is pushing a new product, you might expect them to take out TV ads, online ads, maybe hire a PR agency and set up big distribution partnerships. Why does it work? Why do I know this? Why does it work?

Thailand 167

Thailand Social Network PPC Singapore 167

Up and Running

JULY 22, 2019

A telling success factor for new businesses looking to make an impact in their industries is whether they can attract investment at an early stage of development. . Attracting investors in the early stages helps bring in new partners that are committed to your business. Build your profile.

Canada 78

Canada Early Stage Valuation Finance 78

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 23, 2011

Yes an online video startup in ‘99 that helped large media companies encode and distribute their videos through portals. The idea was right but the timing was early and required a pivot into being a software company. Richard De Silva is based in Menlo Park with three other partners, there and 5 partners in Boston.

Vertical 265

Vertical Curation Boston Burn Rate 265

Gust

NOVEMBER 10, 2013

Funding sources are still the same as stage one. Now we are ready for demonstration tests conducted on first-time or early-stage products. The demonstration stage usually implies substantial redesign and debugging until final robustness can be established. Prototype development. All is definitely fundable now.

Developer 148

Developer Warrant Angel Investor Early Stage 148

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 20, 2010

Funding sources are still the same as stage one. Now we are ready for demonstration tests conducted on first-time or early-stage products. The demonstration stage usually implies substantial redesign and debugging until final robustness can be established. Prototype development. All is definitely fundable now.

Warrant 205

Warrant Angel Investor Early Stage Distribution 205

The Equity Kicker

MAY 14, 2012

demonstrating a repeatable sales model (typically telephone sales, direct sales, or channel sales). identifying a scalable customer acquisition channel. signing distribution deals. demonstrating that signed distribution deals are working. identifying a scalable customer acquisition channel.

Finance 118

Finance Valuation Venture Capital Dilution 118

Steve Blank

MAY 22, 2009

While one could argue that a trade show is just another demand creation activity akin to advertising or PR, trade shows are the closest eyeball-to-eyeball contact you’re company is going to have with customers, competitors and partners. You are correct all channels, web or otherwise, need to generate awareness and leads.

Silicon Valley 128

Silicon Valley RSS California Customer Development 128

www.forentrepreneurs.com

FEBRUARY 2, 2010

Far more common is a need to acquire customers through a series of steps like SEO, SEM, PR, Social Marketing, direct sales, channel sales, etc. In addition to distribution power, these kinds of relationships solve the “safe choice” concern of many buyers, and can transform your business.

Acquisition 103

Acquisition Cost Customer Entrepreneur 103

nikcub.appspot.com

MARCH 8, 2012

Freenode is the network most popular with developers today, especially with open source projects (channels such as #python, #rubyonrails, ##php etc. Is there a similar product that already exists that perhaps you can partner with? (ie. Just be upfront to your potential partners about the state that the product is in at the moment (ie.

Cofounder 40

Cofounder Web Founder South Korea 40

Austin Startup

OCTOBER 13, 2010

The financing round, led by PerformanceEdge Partners and existing lead investor S3 Ventures, provides the company with the funds needed to extend its marketing and sales initiatives and grow new partnerships. Most recently he served as vice president within the global strategic partner and channel sales organizations for Symantec.

Vertical 59

Vertical Early Stage Cofounder Channel 59

View from Seed

JANUARY 24, 2018

But whether you are trying to build daily, habitual products for business users like Slack or InVision or trying to reach truly mass market consumers like Wayfair, Jet, or Chewy, there is someone in the Guild who has faced this challenge at the early stages of a business and at scale.

Operations 176

Operations Cofounder Technical Review Angel Investor 176

David Teten

DECEMBER 3, 2019

But in business, you want a lot of partners. In the private equity universe, most Partners have primary training as deal-makers, not as managers. See Bessemer Venture Partners’ A comprehensive guide to security for startups. A tool like Quuu identifies relevant, shareable content to keep your social media channels active. .

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Software Review Analytics Private Equity 78

Up and Running

DECEMBER 20, 2017

On top of all of that, banks still refuse to work with businesses that grow or distribute marijuana because it is still illegal under federal law. As the legal use of marijuana continues to grow across the U.S., the price of weed will continue to go down, leaving those with grow-ops and dispensaries with fewer profits as time goes on.

Las Vegas 144

Las Vegas District of Columbia Colorado North America 144

Austin Startup

MARCH 7, 2021

These are all potential customers and strategic partners for startups. In short, the first wave of internet companies were widely distributed and brought people online (AOL in Virginia, Microsoft in Albuquerque and Seattle, Dell in Austin, etc.) More than 50 Fortune 500 companies are headquartered in Texas and six of the Fortune 50.

Texas 90

Texas San Antonio Houston Dallas 90

Steve Blank

JUNE 5, 2009

You make several first order approximations about your business model, distribution channels, demand creation, and customer acceptance. You leave the comfort of your existing job, convince a few partners to join you and you jump off the bridge together. There is no certainty about a startup on day-one.

Silicon Valley 212

Silicon Valley RSS Vertical California 212

Duct Tape Marketing

JANUARY 25, 2023

Um, he and his partner took Red Hat to an IPO early days, and Bob found himself with a lot of time and a lot of money, and a lot of people wanted to hear his story. And again, for a lot of people, that's what they were concerned with was distribution. Most of your listeners probably know what it is.

Audience 88

Audience Revenue Distribution Differentiation 88

Steve Blank

JULY 9, 2009

So I got out out of the building to meet and understand our customers and distribution partners. I remember after a month or two of talking to 14-22 year old male gamers (our potential target market,) I realized that for the first time in my career I had no emotional connection to my customers or channel partners.

Silicon Valley 139

Silicon Valley RSS California Video 139

Cracking the Code

DECEMBER 11, 2015

Mastering your pitch to a VC, prospective customers, new hires or partners is part art and part science. I like to understand for these models how many sales people are quota carrying, what is the distribution of quota attainment, and what is the profile of an ideal sales person Inbound model (e.g.,

San Francisco 48

San Francisco Churn Rate Silicon Valley Engineer 48

Up and Running

MAY 23, 2016

In the tactics section, list your sales channels and describe how you will be selling your products. List key partners and resources you will need, and then list your core team as well as their roles. List key partners and resources you will need, and then list your core team as well as their roles. The business model.

Software Review 74

Software Review Software Delaware Forecast 74

Gust

OCTOBER 20, 2011

million, indicating a somewhat normal distribution. Marketing/Sales Channels/Partnerships 0-10%. Looking at the strength of the competition in the market, the target is weaker (75% of norm) but early customer feedback on the product is excellent (Other = 100%). Marketing/Sales/Partners.

Valuation 146

Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Intellectual Property Technical Review 146

VC Cafe

SEPTEMBER 5, 2012

1) It all starts from the Growth Hacking Funnel - in the early stages, startups should not just focus on top/bottom line metric like unique users and revenue. In a nutshell: Acquisition - Get people to hear about your product from press, blogs and social channels. Distribution Hacks. Dropbox – Startup Lessons Learned.

API 167

API Viral Startup Retention 167

VC Cafe

SEPTEMBER 15, 2011

As app startups are growing in numbers and in popularity (taking Israeli startup Shaker who was crowned the winner of TechCrunch Disrupt yesterday), I was especially interested in the early stage challenges of launching an app and driving adoption. Did one channel work more than others so far? for both partners.

Mobile 99

Mobile Software Review Bootstrapping 99

Steve Blank

JULY 2, 2009

The CDROM content business in the early 1990’s was one of the many of the long line of venture capital fads. You can be an Independent studio or do “work for hire&# (either a revenue share or buy-out model) - If you’re an independent studio you have a set of choices for distribution channel and marketing models. -

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley Technical Review RSS Software Review 120

BeyondVC

DECEMBER 8, 2004

Hiring the wrong person, particularly in an early stage company, can cost you dearly. For example, if you have a network security startup, the obvious players will be other security companies that sell similar products at similar price points with a similar distribution channel.

Detroit 60

Detroit Hiring Distribution Search 60

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 26, 2020

Luckily, I teach with two great VCs, Mar Hershenson of Pear Ventures and Jeff Epstein of Bessemer Venture Partners who both put together presentations unraveling the mysteries of how and why startups raise money. For startups the early stage funding landscape looks like this: Step 1: The Pre-seed round – you raise $100-$750K.

Cofounder 429

Cofounder Seed Stage Valuation Metrics 429

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 8, 2015

Do we believe “startup-driven” innovation (innovation that comes from relationships with external, early-stage companies) should be part of the corporate innovation portfolio? Acquiring a growth-stage private startup can provide a faster ROI at lower risk than the acquisition of an early- stage startup.

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley Acquisition Boston Early Stage 120

Steve Blank

JULY 16, 2009

Meanwhile my partner was in heaven working with his newly hired group of game designers directing and producing our first games. No, not really, but my partner owns the studio and tells me it’s spectacular and everyone will love it. Go spend some time outside the building talking to potential distribution partners.

Silicon Valley 207

Silicon Valley RSS Video San Diego 207