Version One Ventures

DECEMBER 18, 2018

Now as projects are developing, it is clear that blockchain technology is still in the early stages. Celo : An open platform for fast, secure, stable digital payments to any mobile number at a fraction of today’s cost. Some say that we are in “crypto winter.” Lolli : gives customers bitcoin when they shop online (n.b.

Technical Review 123

Technical Review North America Seattle Deal Flow 123

ReadWriteStart

MARCH 8, 2021

Are you going to grow vertically or horizontally? If you don’t have a researched, written strategy in place, you’re doing something wrong – and it might cost you. . In the early stages of your business’s development, you’re going to notice dead weight. How much growth is reasonable to achieve? Dead Weight.

Startup 127

Startup Retention Acquisition Agile 127

ConversionXL

MARCH 17, 2021

And while this was a good start, a significant position of these companies were early-stage startups. MQL cost significantly increased. Our research showed that LTV was much higher compared to other verticals we have worked in the past which made the decision to change our approach a no-brainer.

B2B 150

B2B Sales Cycle Belgium IP 150

VC Cafe

JANUARY 29, 2024

Spoiler alert: I believe that 2024-2025 will be an amazing time to invest in early stage startups. Many startups extended runway, cut costs and took on painful down rounds or expensive debt to avoid raising in 2023. It’s not just a cost consideration, but a desire for independence and neutrality.

Generative AI 171

Generative AI Global Venture Capital Valuation 171

Steve Blank

MAY 11, 2021

billion in early funding. Dozens of outreach programs across the military now offer quick revenue to early-stage companies. For example, “flying taxi” startup Joby Aviation aligned its electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft with the Air Force’s stated interest in advancing the market for air mobility vehicles.

Artificial Inteligence 365

Artificial Inteligence Marketing Startup Silicon Valley 365

Version One Ventures

SEPTEMBER 19, 2012

So most early-stage VCs have started to evaluate investment opportunities with an imaginary benchmark in mind: can this company become a $100 million opportunity? A great product is always the foundation but a clear distribution strategy becomes essential to cut through the noise.

Churn Rate 168

Churn Rate Viral Acquisition Cofounder 168

Austin Startup

NOVEMBER 30, 2017

It follows up on my posts discussing why early stage startups should — or should not — move to Silicon Valley. Should Early Stage Startups Move to Austin because of Competencies? The other restriction that startups should reckon with is the growing cost of talent.

Early Stage 48

Early Stage Austin Silicon Valley Intellectual Property 48

VC Cafe

JUNE 30, 2022

I love landscapes as they help organise the categories needed to define the vertical. We’re excited to partner with early stage founders who see the future in the same way, and are working on the technologies that will help bring this vision forward.

Cloud 200

Cloud Venture Capital Cofounder Non-Compete 200

SoCal CTO

MARCH 18, 2010

Our current focus is Actors and Actresses and we are moving into other verticals. I also serve as CEO of a small media companies that profile “Tomorrow’s Most Exciting People Today”.

Los Angeles 225

Los Angeles Revenue Southern California Social Network 225

David Teten

JANUARY 21, 2021

VI: Revenue-based financing: The next step for private equity and early-stage investment. —– Reformation Partners is a new investment firm founded by three partners who spun out of FirstMark Capital ($3B AUM firm which was an early investor in Shopify, Pinterest, and Riot Games). 20% initial ownership.

Equity 78

Equity Revenue Cofounder Colorado 78

ConversionXL

JANUARY 28, 2021

Worse yet, collecting all that data comes with a cost, and it’s not cheap. While early-stage companies may not see an immediate need for using a CDP, setting the groundwork before reaching accelerated growth can save time and frustration down the line. As one reviewer shared: “Cost can skyrocket pretty quickly.

Technical Review 86

Technical Review Software Review Analytics Technical Cofounder 86

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 14, 2021

Q: What is going to happen to the cost of capital? Q: What is the opportunity cost of not being in tech? For context, seed-stage pre-money valuations are up 24% from H1 2020 to H1 2021. Early-stage valuations are up 70%, and late-stage valuations are up 103% (source Pitchbook ). Source: AngelList.

Valuation 319

Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Distribution Early Stage 319

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 14, 2021

Q: What is going to happen to the cost of capital? Q: What is the opportunity cost of not being in tech? For context, seed-stage pre-money valuations are up 24% from H1 2020 to H1 2021. Early-stage valuations are up 70%, and late-stage valuations are up 103% (source Pitchbook ). Source: AngelList.

Valuation 295

Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Distribution Early Stage 295

Gregg Fraley, Author of Jack's Notebook

FEBRUARY 13, 2013

Some five years into an early stage technology company, I found myself, an experienced technology manager, as a CEO in search of competent manufacturing. It wasn’t like we were packaging software we were producing the highest performing vertical axis wind turbine. And after all it was in my background.

Technical Review 102

Technical Review Engineer United States Government 102

VC Cafe

JULY 7, 2023

Most of the companies that raised these mega rounds are relatively early stage in terms of product and monetisation (if at all) and about half of the companies that raised large sums, are developing LLMs, which generally requires deep pockets to cover 1) cloud costs, 2) expensive deep learning engineers 3) get the data to train the models.

Generative AI 88

Generative AI ChatGPT Startup 88

David Teten

JANUARY 9, 2018

Many VCs focus on specific verticals, usually based on the sector in which a VC initially made her reputation. That said, one limitation in early-stage investing particularly is that 2022’s growth sectors probably don’t fit neatly into a vertical we can define today. This model certainly makes sense.

Venture Capital 60

Venture Capital Private Equity Silicon Valley Differentiation 60

David Teten

JANUARY 9, 2018

Many VCs focus on specific verticals, usually based on the sector in which a VC initially made her reputation. That said, one limitation in early-stage investing particularly is that 2022’s growth sectors probably don’t fit neatly into a vertical we can define today. This model certainly makes sense.

Venture Capital 60

Venture Capital Private Equity Silicon Valley Differentiation 60

Steve Blank

JUNE 3, 2009

Simulation to Reduce Invention Risk If you’re in a vertical where “invention risk” is dominant, then you want to do everything you can to manage and reduce those risks. When I wrote the Four Steps to the Epiphany , the Customer Development text, I hadn’t yet thought about what vertical markets it might be appropriate for.)

Vertical 137

Vertical Silicon Valley Marketing RSS 137

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 2, 2009

In times when venture capital is hard to get, investors extract high costs for failure (down-rounds, cram downs , new management teams, shut down the company.) Sales people cost money, and when they’re not bringing in revenue, their wandering in the woods is time consuming, cash-draining and demoralizing. Who recommends a sale?

Lean 260

Lean Silicon Valley Startup RSS 260

David Teten

DECEMBER 3, 2019

Data companies focused on early-stage startups include Aingel , fundsUP , Preseries , PredictLeads , and Sploda. The Pocket Negotiator is very early-stage attempt to aid in the negotiating process itself. Capital has built a free online tool for founders to calculate their cost of capital.

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Software Review Analytics Private Equity 78

David Teten

SEPTEMBER 23, 2017

In venture capital in particular, early-stage companies are often operating in frontier industries, where the rules are unpredictable and conventional analytic frameworks may be misleading. Sources like Crunchbase , Angel List , and Seed Invest even give this data away for free or very low cost. are using AngelMob.co

Private Equity 60

Private Equity Venture Capital Equity Technical Review 60

ConversionXL

JANUARY 18, 2022

This is particularly true for complex verticals such as B2B SaaS products, where product marketing’s ability to pinpoint users with the most need and educate them on product features and benefits proves useful. It’s why sustainable fashion brand Another Tomorrow can charge $590 for a sweater that costs $30 from fast fashion brand The Gap.

Marketing 110

Marketing Product Audience Equity 110

Haystack

JANUARY 12, 2020

As valuations have gone up early, the cost of ownership has also risen, and in an early-stage fund where the loss ratio is likely to be much higher, high ownership has been increasingly important to these funds. 4/ Social Forces – As seed stage funds grow and mature, the GPs grow and mature too.

Seed Stage 106

Seed Stage Cram Down Early Stage Cofounder 106

VC Cafe

AUGUST 29, 2022

As an investor in early stage startups in gaming and metaverse/web3 at Remagine Ventures , I naturally consume a lot of content on this topic, and this post also helps me digest and separate signal from noise. Inworld AI (image credit: Techcrunch ). Industry reports.

IP 187

IP Strategic Investors Vertical Early Stage 187

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 14, 2021

Q: What is going to happen to the cost of capital? Q: What is the opportunity cost of not being in tech? For context, seed-stage pre-money valuations are up 24% from H1 2020 to H1 2021. Early-stage valuations are up 70%, and late-stage valuations are up 103% (source Pitchbook ). Source: AngelList.

Valuation 156

Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Distribution Early Stage 156

ReadWriteStart

JANUARY 6, 2011

This curriculum is based on the various questions entrepreneurs have asked me over these 64 sessions, spanning financing, positioning, customer acquisition, marketing, sales, channel, and various other early stage, startup-related issues. As usual, then, I worked with three entrepreneurs working on specific businesses. Mava Consulting.

Vertical 115

Vertical Web San Francisco Entrepreneur 115

abovethecrowd.com

NOVEMBER 13, 2012

Facilitating work-flow reduces work for the participants, as well as increasing switching costs. But in the early stages, this friction slows your roll-out and increases the costs associated with supplier aggregation. The marketplace is also a work-flow system that enhances the overall experience for all parties.

Aggregator 101

Aggregator Marketing Software Review North America 101

VC Cafe

APRIL 20, 2022

Six months ago I published a post on VC Cafe titled, the state of creative automation , diving into vertical applications of AI on content creation of all sorts; from text (GPT-3 and the likes) to Synthetic video (powered by companies like HourOne). We can be reached at info@remagineventures.com.

Audio 185

Audio Algorithm Advertising Video 185

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 12, 2009

Reply Dan Hodgins , on November 13, 2009 at 1:12 am Said: Hi Steve, Just listened to your “Retooling Early Stage Development&# for about the 10th time tonight as I was cleaning my room. The primary goal of customer development is to reduce the cost of mistakes. This is my new favorite post on your blog.

Venture Capital 239

Venture Capital Silicon Valley RSS Hockey Stick 239

Version One Ventures

JULY 11, 2013

For example, at version one ventures, we’re focused on early-stage (seed and Series A) opportunities in e-commerce, SaaS, and marketplaces/platforms across North America. Vertical SaaS (investments: Frontdesk , Jobber ): In the new era of enterprise software, the winners will be purpose-built, vertically sliced tools.

North America 146

North America Vertical Venture Capital Early Stage 146

Steve Blank

APRIL 10, 2009

Filed under: Customer Development , Technology | Tagged: Customer Development , Early Stage Startup , Entrepreneurs , Startups , Steve Blank « SuperMac War Story 6: Building The Killer Team – Mission, Intent and Values Story Behind “The Secret History” Part IV: Library Hours at an Undisclosed Location » 17 Responses Michael F.

Silicon Valley 307

Silicon Valley RSS Startup Agile 307

Up and Running

JULY 26, 2016

Your customer acquisition cost and lifetime value are the two magical numbers you need to calculate for each one of your campaigns. Cost of Acquisition (CAC): The total cost of acquiring a user through a given channel. This includes ads, team costs (fraction of your weekly work hours invested), and any other effort required.

Revenue 60

Revenue Acquisition Channel Campaign 60

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 7, 2009

The Startup Death Spiral: The Cost of Getting Product Launch Wrong By the time of first customer ship, if a startup does not understand its market and customers, failure unfolds in a stylized ritual, almost like a Japanese Noh play.

Customer Development 232

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 232

Hunter Walker

FEBRUARY 20, 2018

“Early stage” has been coopted by billion-dollar VCs who try to shoehorn a $10m ARR SaaS company into their idea of risk capital. Of course a CEO should be thoughtful and disciplined when it comes to their cash and early stage startups don’t usually die because of lack of funding but rather lack of ideas and output.

Forecast 108

Forecast Early Stage Dilution Later Stage 108

Berkonomics

APRIL 25, 2019

And most often, the companies supplying those services are much more efficient at doing so than we could be because of their experience and advantages of scale, and the cost to us of such services is lower than performing them ourselves. So – what is your core offering? How about non-core resources?

Philippines 48

Philippines Vertical IP India 48

David Teten

AUGUST 19, 2019

Repaid 12-36 months with ability to prepay at reduced cost. Feenix focuses on companies in the consumer space across a number of industry verticals including: multi-unit Food & Beverage operators, hospitality, managed workspace (office or food halls), location based entertainment venues, and various direct to consumer online companies.

Revenue 60

Revenue Technical Review Software Review Equity 60

Steve Blank

JULY 2, 2009

Thanks for sharing the lessons you’ve learned, especially the ones where the cost is measured in years. If you are entrepreneur with a solid business that actually makes money you would know that VC has the highest cost of capital imaginable and would find better options.

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley Technical Review RSS Software Review 120