YoungUpstarts

OCTOBER 24, 2012

Nearly four in five CEOs complained that CMOs can’t explain how brand equity can be linked to recognized financial measures such as firm equity. Build strong customer communities. Consider Harley-Davidson’s success in creating a sense of community around its bikes.

Marketing 234

Marketing Software Review Technical Review Social Network 234

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 27, 2012

customer development. Some general customer development slides click here. Called “ How to Build a Startup: The Lean LaunchPad ,” it walks you through the Business Model Canvas and an overview of the customer development process. agile engineering. Berkeley presentations, lectures and syllabus here.

Open Source 335

Open Source Silicon Valley Lean Customer Development 335

blog.aparttimecto.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

Flexibility - You won’t need to commit to something, either cash, equity or involving other people, upfront. Cons: Money - Unless you have cash to pay, the pool of developers willing to work for equity is small. Access - Good developers are tough to find. Cons: Cost - Most development shops work on a cash basis.

CTO Hire 40

CTO Hire Fractional CTO Equity Vesting 40

Steve Blank

MARCH 4, 2014

These groups are adapting or adopting the practices of startups and accelerators – disruption and innovation rather than direct competition, customer development versus more product features, agility and speed versus lowest cost. Corporate KPI’s, Policy and Procedures: Innovation Killers.

IRR 335

IRR Startup Business Model Agile 335

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

OCTOBER 23, 2012

After all, before the house of cards inevitably tumbles, private equity investors get a tidy return. In other words, they’re back to seeking product/market fit, and only an immense market (and excellent fit) will counterbalance their crushing costs and pay back past investments. And it is magic.

IPO 240

IPO Flash Bootstrapping Private Equity 240

David Teten

OCTOBER 1, 2015

Not surprisingly, the list above also is ranked from least to most equity stake in an investment for the investor, relative to the cash they invest. How would one set up such a startup to eventually raise capital from outside VCs, who will be wary of ‘dead equity’ (i.e., equity that belongs to departed cofounders)? The cliffs?

Software Developers 60

Software Developers Software Development Software Review Technical Cofounder 60

Steve Blank

APRIL 11, 2013

Set up in 1999, Innofund offers grants ($150 – $250K), loan interest subsidies and equity investment. Filed under: China , Customer Development , Technology , Venture Capital. China Customer Development Technology Venture Capital' The best analog for China’s InnoFund is the U.S.

Programming 280

Programming Technical Review SBIR China 280

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 5, 2010

Also included is the incredible Venture Hacks Bible, which is worth the price of admission on its own, and The Entrepreneurs Guide to Customer Development (which I previously reviewed here). But," you are sure to ask, "how much will all this bundling cost me?" But," you are sure to ask, "how much will all this bundling cost me?"

Lean 153

Lean San Francisco Startup Continuous Deployment 153

viniciusvacanti.com

SEPTEMBER 7, 2010

This will cost you some real cash- at least $5K for your first version. It won’t cost you real money other than your living expenses. I do believe the only reason the developers were willing to work for some equity is because they became friends with us at Hackers and Founders, so that part worked.

Cofounder 43

Cofounder Technical Cofounder Founder Ruby 43

The Equity Kicker

MARCH 13, 2014

As regular readers of this blog will know I’m a big fan of methodologies like lean, design thinking, and customer development. That’s because they increase the speed of learning, reduce the cost of failure and will ultimately increase the success rate of startups.

Lean 122

Lean Portfolio Design Customer Development 122

Steve Blank

APRIL 11, 2013

Set up in 1999, Innofund offers grants ($150 – $250K), loan interest subsidies and equity investment. Filed under: China , Customer Development , Technology , Venture Capital. China Customer Development Technology Venture Capital' The best analog for China’s InnoFund is the U.S.

Programming 172

Programming Technical Review SBIR China 172

The Equity Kicker

JULY 29, 2013

Here at Forward we look for great products with a compelling customer value proposition (a compelling value proposition is one where the customer benefits are significantly greater than the cost). If the product is great and the value proposition strong distribution problems can be solved. The reverse is rarely true.

Product 108

Product Cofounder Lean Distribution 108

The Startup Toolkit

JANUARY 12, 2017

Learning in advance that you don’t need to build a feature is one of the highest-impact (and most common) results of good customer development. It’s why talking to customers is able to speed you up, even though it feels like it’s slowing you down at the time (“But we could be coooooodiiiiiiiing!”).

Stealth 20

Stealth Bootstrapping Valuation Equity 20

SoCal CTO

DECEMBER 1, 2010

Equity-Only CTO and Equity-Only Developers - SoCal CTO , November 1, 2010 I had a recent email dialog with the founder of a company looking for a CTO for their startup. D&O insurance is a “cost of respect” for board members. The United States is now a debtor nation to China and that the bill is about to come due.

Technical Review 175

Technical Review Technology Product CTO Hire 175

The Equity Kicker

NOVEMBER 28, 2012

My first thought was that falling costs and rising quality would unlock opportunities in the consumer space, but none of the opportunities we have looked at worked out, mostly because the use cases weren’t compelling enough or were too niche. the spend to be displaced is money given to custom developers and systems integrators.

Marketing 100

Marketing Demand Hosting Customer Development 100

grasshopperherder.com

SEPTEMBER 24, 2011

Piercing the Corporate Veil – Sweat Equity Consulting. But much like becoming a co-founder, getting paid sweat equity is essentially becoming an investor in the company. If you did, why would you be consulting for sweat equity instead of investing as a VC or for yourself? GrasshopperHerder.com. • ABOUT. Jan 20 -->.

Sweat Equity 41

Sweat Equity Equity Cofounder Non-Compete 41

ConversionXL

FEBRUARY 9, 2016

Startups don’t have access to the same resources or brand equity. On Sean’s GrowthHackers.com , categories include… So, essentially everything from customer development and onboarding to persuasion and social marketing fall under the umbrella of growth hacking. Conducted Customer Development.

Retention 48

Retention Metrics Acquisition Conversion 48

maplebutter.com

JANUARY 8, 2013

Near shoring development with your team (ex: your team is based in Canada / India) is cool, but not outsourcing. Outsourcing is something a big company, with a known customer / problem (that has revenue & traction) does to save cost. Has anyone found a referral program system that works great to generate new customers?

Technical Review 44

Technical Review Startup Cofounder Software Review 44

grasshopperherder.com

FEBRUARY 19, 2011

If you’re negotiating my equity percentage by nickels and dimes, I probably don’t want to work with you. If you offer me 1% of the equity, I’ll do 1% of the work. Problem is the practicality, cost and hassle of the microtransaction. " – [link] AdviceInvestors are great at dealing with equity.

Cofounder 47

Cofounder NDA Founder Sweat Equity 47

Up and Running

MAY 23, 2016

The software was sold based on installation cost running on local servers for enterprises—which was very, very expensive. You might also be giving investors too much equity early on, as the risk is extremely high for them in the beginning stages of growing a SaaS company.”. Estimating Realistic Startup Costs.

Software Review 74

Software Review Software Delaware Forecast 74

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

MARCH 11, 2014

They have many, many man-years of development and customer development in them. After that, I did it for a private equity firm then we became a part of a larger corporation. How do you split equity? Anything that adds complexity and complication or multiple things or anything and cost? ” Jason: So?

Technical Cofounder 220

Technical Cofounder Cofounder Software Review Management 220

Steve Blank

MAY 4, 2009

My way of explaining our support and service role to the marketing department was that: Sales is the sharp end of the stick, and marketing at best, is the stick. But while the sales team works for commission, the rest of the employees have equity (stock) in the company. Who’s on the Sharp End?

Silicon Valley 127

Silicon Valley RSS Non-Compete California 127

The Equity Kicker

MARCH 5, 2014

Just on Monday I blogged about The Mom Test a book which makes it easy for anyone with discipline and a bit of get up and go to do great customer development. My hope is that all great work I’ve listed will enable entrepreneurs (and their investors) to have lower failure rates, or at least lower the cost when failing.

Viral 92

Viral Lean SEO Software 92

techcrunch.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

The project was so low cost they did not even want to bother with it. Also if one has a portal that is massive in ideas such as Yahoo, Facebook, Google, Twitter, and YouTube combined like my own without third party back ends it cost a pretty penny to build a custom one if one did not know about clones etc.

Technical Review 84

Technical Review Cofounder Technical Cofounder Software Review 84

www.quora.com

JANUARY 16, 2011

" => I have not bothered to put up a landing page, survey to test customer demand, or done any customer development whatsoever. "Where is the best place to find a rockstar developer to bring it to life?" Just go to a meetup or post an ad promising equity. This person does not exist.

Developer 42

Developer Technical Review Cofounder Technical Cofounder 42

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 11, 2010

This means looking at what your buyer pays for similar products now, what the history of other people who have tried to monetize in this way have experienced, what your costs to acquire customers will be and what you believe you can make over the customers’ lifetimes. Validate that you can make money before starting.

Silicon Valley 308

Silicon Valley Bankruptcy Intellectual Property Reputation 308

YoungUpstarts

NOVEMBER 28, 2011

Customer development - along with acquisition and retention – is one of the primary firm activities that drive customer value. It describes the tactics that a firm employs to create the maximum value for its existing customers over the lifetime of their relationship. But this pattern is far from universal.

Customer 162

Customer Customer Development Acquisition Pennsylvania 162

steveblank.com

JULY 8, 2011

It’s more reference material. Thus, these pages. I’ll add more as time goes on.

Software Review 110

Software Review Startup Silicon Valley Analytics 110

www.vccafe.com

MARCH 11, 2013

Steve Blank on Lean Customer Development. tells you how much adwords cost. hire low-cost international engineering talent. YCombinator Series AA Equity Financing Documents. Founder Equity Issues. Venture Hacks equity section. Legal, Equity, etc. Codeacademy. Lean Methodology Sources.

Software Review 53

Software Review Technical Review Startup 53

www.quora.com

JANUARY 16, 2011

You can argue that the DNA created by Microsoft's over emphasis on distribution (Steve) and development (Bill), has ultimately cost it $50bn or more in lost revenue, market share and market capitalization. Developers have worn the crown for the last 30 or more years in the technology industry - rightly.

Technical Review 51

Technical Review Startup CTO Hire Cofounder 51