View from Seed

OCTOBER 24, 2019

The reason is that b2b fundraising is largely driven by data and metrics, and pre-seed dollars usually don’t get you to many meaningful data points. Unlike in B2B, you don’t necessarily want to use a second-seed round to get to metrics that every investor will appreciate. Experienced founders: B2B. Experienced founders: Consumer.

Dilution 149

Dilution B2B Burn Rate Early Stage 149

Steve Blank

MAY 29, 2011

Founders that learn are more successful : Startups that have helpful mentors, track metrics effectively, and learn from startup thought leaders raise 7x more money and have 3.5x Filed under: Customer Development , Teaching , Venture Capital. Startup Genome Report. Some of their key findings : 1. Congratulations.

Technical Cofounder 333

Technical Cofounder Early Stage Startup Silicon Valley 333

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 14, 2009

Over the same 30 years, Venture Capital firms have honed their skills and strategies to match Wall Streets needs to achieve liquidity for their portfolio companies. One of the biggest mistakes entrepreneurs make is misunderstanding the role of venture capital investors. What Do VC’s Do?

Silicon Valley 217

Silicon Valley IPO Technical Review Venture Capital 217

SoCal CTO

JUNE 9, 2010

Draw Your Ideas - A VC : Venture Capital and Technology , May 16, 2010 I saw Jack Dorsey give this talk at The 99% Conference last month. The Yin and Yang of Product and Engineering - A VC : Venture Capital and Technology , May 22, 2010 For a tech company, product and engineering are the heart and soul of the business.

Fractional CTO 248

Fractional CTO Startup Venture Capital Cofounder 248

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 8, 2013

In this case the basis of competition on the X/Y axes are metrics defined by the users in the existing market. The competitive diagram is how develop your first hypotheses about who your customers are. Filed under: Customer Development , Teaching , Venture Capital.

Venture Capital 335

Venture Capital Customer Development Business Model Lean 335

Steve Blank

JULY 1, 2014

Investors sitting through Incubator or Accelerator demo days have three metrics to judge fledgling startups – 1) great looking product demos, 2) compelling PowerPoint slides, and 3) a world-class team. Entrepreneurs should always communicate their business’ very latest stage of customer development as part of their investor presentation.

Sacramento 306

Sacramento Framework Customer Development Lean 306

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 10, 2009

In future posts I’ll describe how Eric Ries and the Lean Startup concept provided the equivalent model for product development activities inside the building and neatly integrates customer and agile development. shoes in order to deduce possible competitors’ moves and anticipate customer needs. What do you think?

Customer Development 196

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 196

Steve Blank

MAY 27, 2011

8:05 – Metrics for Success. Filed under: Customer Development , Lean LaunchPad , Teaching , Venture Capital. We covered a wide range of topics. 0:22 – the Entrepreneurial explosion. 1:45 – Are we in a Bubble? 3:20 - The Last Bubble. 6:30 – Rules for the New Bubble.

Silicon Valley 287

Silicon Valley Venture Capital Lean Social Network 287

Up and Running

MAY 23, 2016

Ryan Chan, founder at UpKeep said, “We created an LLC at first, but after realizing that we wanted to take on venture capital, we decided to move to a Delaware C corp.”. venture capital. Seek out venture capital funding. 17 Venture Capital Blogs You Should Be Reading. or even be a U.S.

Software Review 74

Software Review Software Delaware Forecast 74

Steve Blank

APRIL 2, 2009

Metrics – Mine is Bigger Than Yours The first thing SuperMac needed to do was to change how our potential color desktop publishing customers viewed our products versus our competitors’ products. As hokey as it is, when confronted with uncertainty or unknowns, human beings like to be reassured by comparative metrics.

Silicon Valley 124

Silicon Valley Technical Review RSS Software Review 124

Steve Blank

JUNE 1, 2011

The combination of Venture Capital and technology startups is only about 50 years old. Rather than invent a new form of corporate governance, venture investors adopted the traditional board meeting structure from large corporations. The Wrong Metrics. What do those numbers/metrics look like? Here’s how.

Silicon Valley 290

Silicon Valley Business Model Venture Capital Balance Sheet 290

Steve Blank

JUNE 23, 2016

As a consequence, corporations used metrics like return on net assets (RONA), return on capital deployed, and internal rate of return (IRR) to measure efficiency. These metrics make it difficult for a company that wants to invest in long-term innovation. Risk capital has provided financing for new ideas in the form of startups.

Architecture 227

Architecture IRR Balance Sheet Liquidity Event 227

Steve Blank

MARCH 25, 2009

When we looked at the color graphics board market, our competitors had defined the market as one measured by technical metrics: screen resolution, number of bits of color, screen refresh rates, acceleration, etc. It didn’t take much imagination to realize that what we had to do was to tell our story around one key metric performance ?

Silicon Valley 141

Silicon Valley Marketing RSS California 141

Steve Blank

APRIL 9, 2009

And the results weren’t the traditional PR metrics of number of articles or inches of ink. We were constantly creating metrics to see the effects of different PR messages, channels and audiences on end-user purchases. It wasn’t measured by how busy you were, it was measured by results. I couldn’t care less about those.

Silicon Valley 259

Silicon Valley Technical Review RSS PR 259

Steve Blank

JUNE 1, 2011

The combination of Venture Capital and technology startups is only about 50 years old. Rather than invent a new form of corporate governance, venture investors adopted the traditional board meeting structure from large corporations. The Wrong Metrics. What do those numbers/metrics look like? Here’s how.

Silicon Valley 258

Silicon Valley Business Model Venture Capital Balance Sheet 258

Steve Blank

JULY 30, 2009

And other startups are in a New Market — creating a market from scratch (like Apple with the iPhone, or iPod/iTunes.) (“Market Type&# radically changes how you sell and market at each step in Customer Development. It’s one of the subtle distinctions that at times gets lost in the process.

Silicon Valley 131

Silicon Valley RSS California Customer Development 131

SoCal CTO

JULY 13, 2011

This site aggregates and filters content from thought leaders who talk about topics such as Marketing , Sales , Design , Revenue , Hiring , Social Media , Business Models , Metrics , PR , Venture Capital , Angel Investors , Bootstrapping , Incubators , Agile and many others.

Intellectual Property 175

Intellectual Property Aggregator Startup IP 175

Steve Blank

JUNE 15, 2010

Do they “get&# Customer Development ? Do They Get Customer Development? Do they have metrics and a methodology they use for early stage companies that differs from companies that have already found a business model? Have they heard about Customer Development ? Is Your VC Founder Friendly?

Founder 231

Founder Vesting Later Stage Early Stage 231

Steve Blank

MAY 26, 2009

Reply conversationalistOU812 , on November 9, 2009 at 10:31 am Said: Dmitriy is right – we should ban the use of industry buzzwords like “verticals&# , “metrics&# and “horizontals&# altogether. What is it that’s unique about the market I’m in?

Vertical 149

Vertical Silicon Valley Intellectual Property RSS 149

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 7, 2013

in developing these new models. We believe that using the customer development process to monetize these assets through new business models can create huge competitive advantage and more speed to market for us and other big companies. Using an alternative process including different systems and metrics is key.

Lean 326

Lean Nepal Cofounder Customer Development 326

Steve Blank

APRIL 30, 2009

And the final lesson was that we were keeping score on our packaging with the wrong metrics – it wasn’t about awards, it was about sales in the retail channel. Hopefully you and your co-founders are experts in one or two parts (agile development, SEO/SEM, etc.)

Sales 120

Sales Silicon Valley RSS Las Vegas 120

www.vccafe.com

MARCH 11, 2013

Venture Capital Cafe > Startup Resources (Updated Mar 2013). Steve Blank on Lean Customer Development. Startup Metrics for Pirates â?? SaaS Metrics Tutorial â?? Boilerplate Venture Funding Documents. National Venture Capital Association â?? Raising Venture Capital.

Software Review 53

Software Review Technical Review Startup 53

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 4, 2008

He serves on the advisory board of a number of technology startups, and has worked as a consultant to a number of startups, companies, and venture capital firms. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? No departments The Five Whys for Startups (for Harvard Business R.

San Francisco 155

San Francisco Technical Cofounder Fractional CTO CTO 155

Steve Blank

JANUARY 21, 2013

Jim Hornthal splits his time between venture capital, entrepreneurship and education. I think you will see the work of some talented and determined entrepreneurs who have honed their customer discovery and customer development skills to an impressive level. Align and train mentors to embrace customer development.

Lean 282

Lean Cofounder Dividend Business Model 282

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

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 7, 2010

We’ll build the class around the business model / customer development / agile development solution stack. Instead you will be getting your hands dirty talking to customers, partners, competitors, as you encounter the chaos and uncertainty of how a startup actually works. What are the 9 parts of a business model?

Wiki 311

Wiki Lean Management Business Model 311

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

MARCH 11, 2014

They have many, many man-years of development and customer development in them. But assuming it’s a fair exit, a venture capitalist, and I’m explicitly not saying angel because we could talk about angel and they’re sort of special so that might work out. For venture capital, right?

Technical Cofounder 220

Technical Cofounder Cofounder Software Review Management 220

Up and Running

NOVEMBER 10, 2015

It’s structured around a model that Steve has become famous for—the Customer Development Process. Our self-guided tool will also help you forecast financials and manage your business metrics once you’re up and running. . It’s particularly good if you’re interested in venture capital funding and angel investment.

Curation 60

Curation Lean Software Review Finder 60

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 24, 2009

Unfortunately, this content-less decision-making process is inhibiting the ability of media companies to develop interesting new content at the very time when this supposed expertise should serve as their one true competitive advantage. When I reviewed a recent product development book, it immediately shot up to Amazon sales rank 300.

San Francisco 113

San Francisco Lean Technical Review Distribution 113

Steve Blank

MAY 16, 2016

They have to change the metrics across the entire organization. If not, then the effectiveness of the Horizon 3 effort will be graded using Horizon 1 metrics. But in the military success has different metrics. In those case revenue will become an additional metric. Now back to the class. . Team Presentations: Week 7.

San Diego 142

San Diego Metrics Indonesia Silicon Valley 142

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 18, 2010

Truth: There’s nothing wrong with raising venture capital. Many lean startups are ambitious and are able to deploy large amounts of capital. Myth: Lean Startups replace vision with data or customer feedback. But they do not blindly do what customers tell them , nor do they mechanically attempt to optimize numbers.

Lean 167

Lean San Francisco Continuous Deployment Startup 167

ReadWriteStart

JUNE 13, 2011

Steve Blank is a retired serial entrepreneur, educator, thought leader and creator of the rigorous "Customer Development" methodology that helps startups optimize their chances for success while reducing risk. The combination of Venture Capital and technology startups is only about 50 years old. Silicon Valley, New York).

Silicon Valley 117

Silicon Valley Balance Sheet Metrics Early Stage 117

Steve Blank

APRIL 22, 2009

Customer Development.) Having a valid metric of when corner cases become truly important is a great way of avoiding people destroying ideas before they have a chance to come to fruition, simply because of corner cases that may or may not have major impact. They are about forward motion, momentum and feedback loops (i.e.

Silicon Valley 176

Silicon Valley RSS California Customer Development 176

www.women2.org

MARCH 8, 2012

After quitting my job and starting Sorced , I spent a few months validating my business concept by creating the product mockups and doing customer development. Prior to Sorced, Elizabeth worked in business development at SecondMarket. Prior to that, she worked in venture capital at OpenView Venture Partners.

Cofounder 47

Cofounder Technical Review San Francisco Founder 47

Hunter Walker

DECEMBER 19, 2013

The only way to succeed in venture capital is backing wonderful entrepreneurs and working hard on their behalf. However, measuring the outcome of a fund has a long time horizon so there are several other metrics we keep on our dashboard. Add some good fortune and Homebrew will return sizable gobs money to our investors.

Cofounder 105

Cofounder Term Sheet Seed Stage Portfolio 105

Version One Ventures

MAY 22, 2018

Are you looking for help and expertise in hiring, product strategy, customer development, fundraising, coaching, therapy, etc.? If you find yourself in the fortunate position of being oversubscribed, you’ll likely look to build the best investor base and find the right partners for your journey. What is important to you?

Cap Table 60

Cap Table Cofounder Syndicate Syndication 60

SoCal CTO

AUGUST 3, 2010

Welcome to the Lost Decade (for Entrepreneurs, IPO’s and VC’s) - Steve Blank , July 15, 2010 If you take funding from a venture capital firm or angel investor and want to build a large, enduring company (rather than sell it to the highest bidder), this isn’t the decade to do it. Metrics availability. Here’s why. Not so bad.

Software Review 217

Software Review Startup Venture Capital Technical Review 217