Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 13, 2016

Investors want to hear about customers with money who have a painful problem that you can solve now. Investors are looking for a concise description of your product or service without technical jargon or fuzzy marketing terms with value quantified in customer terms. What are your specific marketing and sales plans?

Sweat Equity 120

Sweat Equity Advisory Board Liquidity Event Startup 120

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 13, 2011

Explain in terms your mother could understand, and quantify the “cost-of-pain” in dollars or time. Terms like “every customer needs this” and “next generation platform” are far too soft, and should be avoided. Clearly define the customer, channel, and revenue model associated with this solution. Marketing, sales, and partners.

Business Plan 290

Business Plan Sweat Equity Exit Strategy Intellectual Property 290

Gust

AUGUST 5, 2012

Explain in terms your mother could understand, and quantify the “cost-of-pain” in dollars or time. Terms like “every customer needs this” and “next generation platform” are far too soft, and should be avoided. Clearly define the customer, channel, and revenue model associated with this solution. Marketing, sales, and partners.

Business Plan 182

Business Plan Sweat Equity Exit Strategy Intellectual Property 182

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 22, 2010

Explain in terms your mother could understand, and quantify the “cost-of-pain” in dollars or time. Terms like “every customer needs this” and “next generation platform” are far too soft, and should be avoided. Clearly define the customer, channel, and revenue model associated with this solution. Marketing, sales, and partners.

Business Plan 186

Business Plan Exit Strategy Sweat Equity Intellectual Property 186

Berkonomics

JUNE 8, 2017

Some businesses require very little capital and the founder can self-finance the enterprise and retain 100% of its ownership and control from ignition through liquidity event (startup through sale). And even with the significant cost of credit card debt, many entrepreneurs aggressively use existing cards to finance a startup.

Private Equity 106

Private Equity Valuation Cap Table Accredited Investor 106

Steve Blank

APRIL 10, 2019

We slept under the tables, and pulled all-nighters to get to first customer ship, man the booths at trade shows or ship products to make quarterly revenue – all because it was “our” company. Essentially the company sells them the stock at zero cost, and they reverse vest. And the bet worked. Today that’s less true.

Stock Options 334

Stock Options Stock Vesting Common Stock 334

Berkonomics

NOVEMBER 4, 2011

Certainly, sales contracts usually call for a basket or amount of findings below which the buyer will absorb the costs. The problem comes when the buyer finds surprises that could have much greater effect, but whose cost will not be known for years.

Sales 59

Sales Bankruptcy Cost Employee 59

The Next Web

SEPTEMBER 29, 2013

You’re basically tinkering with everything at this stage – product, marketing, sales, partnerships, etc. You’re learning who your customers are and what they expect. You’re tinkering with your marketing and sales channels. This is in a way a reverse correlation to what you would expect: higher spending yields lower costs.

Metrics 136

Metrics Cofounder Cram Down Liquidity Event 136

Berkonomics

JANUARY 20, 2010

Some businesses require very little capital and the founder is able to self-finance the enterprise and retain 100% of its ownership and control from ignition through liquidity event (startup through sale). Venture capital comes with a cost, and there are no bargains for the company when taking such an investment.

Private Equity 69

Private Equity Valuation Cap Table Accredited Investor 69

Hearpreneur

OCTOBER 29, 2017

I loved what I did (sales) but I didn’t love doing it for somebody else. Now I run a website that helps homeowners estimate roof costs, find contractors, etc. The way I got into that unique position was that my career has been spent in field sales, and so I understood the challenges faced by field sales first hand.

Entrepreneur 78

Entrepreneur Social Media Liquidity Event Private Equity 78

Berkonomics

AUGUST 27, 2015

They financed their companies, to the extent possible, in a manner minimizing the cost of capital, planning for organic growth in the number of customers served and in associated revenues. The Flipper’s executives usually have significant equity holdings, either actually owned or reflected in stock options.

Intellectual Property 48

Intellectual Property Balance Sheet Stock Options Valuation 48

Steve Blank

JUNE 11, 2013

. • Repeatable: Startups may get orders that come from board members’ customer relationships or heroic, single-shot efforts of the CEO. These are great, but they are not repeatable by a sales organization. Does our product or service solve a customer problem (product-market fit)? How do we attract, keep and grow customers?

Venture Capital 334

Venture Capital IRR Liquidity Event Business Model 334

Steve Blank

JUNE 11, 2013

. • Repeatable: Startups may get orders that come from board members’ customer relationships or heroic, single-shot efforts of the CEO. These are great, but they are not repeatable by a sales organization. Does our product or service solve a customer problem (product-market fit)? How do we attract, keep and grow customers?

Venture Capital 226

Venture Capital IRR Liquidity Event Business Model 226

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. If you have an idea and either customers waiting for the product to be built, or a startup success under your belt already, skip to step 2. "I am a creative guy with a startup idea."

Developer 42

Developer Technical Review Cofounder Technical Cofounder 42

www.vccafe.com

MARCH 11, 2013

Steve Blank on Lean Customer Development. Customer service. Event platforms. Google Custom Search Engine. Customer Relationship Management. great web customer acquisition tutorials. tells you how much adwords cost. customer retention, churn reduction, lifetime value. Codeacademy. Steve Blank.

Software Review 53

Software Review Technical Review Startup 53