VC Cafe

MARCH 1, 2024

Most startups equate the process of fundraising to dating – founders have to typically kiss a lot of frogs until the find the right fit. AI to build enterprise software – In the future, every enterprise could have their own custom ERP, CRM or HRIS that is continually updating itself as the company itself is changing.

Artificial Inteligence 176

Artificial Inteligence Technical Review Software Review Generative AI 176

David Teten

AUGUST 19, 2019

So you’re interested in raising capital from a Revenue-Based Investor VC. A new wave of Revenue-Based Investors (“RBI”) are emerging. For background, see Revenue-Based Investing: A New Option for Founders who Care About Control. Rational burn profile, up to 50% of revenue at close, scaling down. Bigfoot Capital.

Revenue 60

Revenue Technical Review Software Review Equity 60

TechEmpower

JULY 31, 2023

When talking to startup founders or other innovators, we always ask questions to better understand their business as a core. How does it meet customers’ needs? One way to approach that last question is to use this simple model: Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) How will your business reach prospects? What does the business do?

Metrics 260

Metrics Startup Retention Acquisition 260

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 16, 2022

Supportive co-founder and executive positions. Often the Boomer is more willing to work for equity, and easily convinced to step aside when revenues reach that next threshold. Manage customer service. Marketing and sales to Gen-Y customers. Member of the Advisory Board. Personnel Manager.

Advisory Board 368

Advisory Board Dividend Angel Investor Cofounder 368

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 22, 2020

Every startup founder loves to prompt for questions from investors and potential key team members about their vision, and the huge opportunity that can be had with their disruptive technology. Most founders like to talk about their many months or years of sweat-equity , but cash invested is a stronger commitment.

Technical Review 436

Technical Review Due Diligence Sweat Equity Burn Rate 436

ConversionXL

JULY 21, 2022

Optimize each channel, and you’ll win new customers, enjoy higher order rates , and retain customers. In this post, we’ll explore lessons from brands that use omnichannel marketing to deliver a seamless customer experience. Omnichannel aligns branding, messaging , and customer service across every channel.

Customer 118

Customer Marketing Channel Audience 118

Duct Tape Marketing

NOVEMBER 8, 2023

Key Takeaway: In the world of customer experience, mishaps are inevitable. However, by approaching customer recovery with style, empathy, and exceptional ownership, businesses can turn these situations into opportunities to create raving fans. 15:10 What are the best strategies for fixing a poor customer experience? [17:56]

Customer 77

Customer Technical Review Employee Artificial Inteligence 77

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 21, 2023

How do you convince investors that your business model will really work, before you have a revenue stream that exceeds your expenses? Too many founders have learned that passion and free beta products do not imply a sustainable business. Of course, that has be a repeatable event, with enough revenue to sustain the business.

Business Model 273

Business Model Customer Angel Investor Bootstrapping 273

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 18, 2023

Every startup founder loves to prompt for questions from investors and potential key team members about their vision, and the huge opportunity that can be had with their disruptive technology. Most founders like to talk about their many months or years of sweat-equity , but cash invested is a stronger commitment.

Sweat Equity 207

Sweat Equity Burn Rate Technical Review Intellectual Property 207

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 16, 2023

But for founders who do their homework, the cost of entry is lower and the opportunity is higher than ever. Excellent detailed resources are everywhere, including a classic book, “ The Startup Checklist ,” by serial entrepreneur and founder of the New York Angels, David S. Building a minimum viable product, with customer validation.

Intellectual Property 261

Intellectual Property Entrepreneur Angel Groups Social Media 261

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 14, 2022

I see more and more entrepreneurs who seem to have everything going for them – vision, motivation, passion, even a good business plan, product, and money, and yet they can’t close customers. Great businesses begin with a customer problem that has a big and monetizable pain point. Nail the solution. Nail the go-to-market strategy.

Angel Investor 359

Angel Investor Technical Review Incubator Business Model 359

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 11, 2021

Photo by Vanna Phon on Unsplash Customer acquisition is the lifeblood of many startups from e-commerce to gaming to marketplace companies, among others. that’s where the customers are. But if you ask anyone in the ecosystem of customer acquisition?—?founders, founders, marketers, investors?—?and no surprise?—?that’s

Founder 424

Founder Product Cofounder Acquisition 424

YoungUpstarts

MARCH 14, 2017

by Eliot Burdett, co-founder and CEO of Peak Sales Recruiting , and author of “ Sales Recruiting 2.0: In working with them, we have identified the top 4 reasons a diverse sales team will boost revenue this quarter: 1. Connect Better with Customers. That is why it is critical to search beyond your usual network.

Revenue 109

Revenue Sales Cofounder Technical Cofounder 109

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 15, 2014

Much has been written about when it is time to hire a “professional CEO” to run a startup company and of course that has long been a norm in Silicon Valley when founders find that their inexperience may be a limiting factor in company growth ( know as the Peter Principle ). I like technical founders so this wasn’t an issue.

Founder 309

Founder CTO Hire Silicon Valley Leadership 309

Steve Blank

JULY 30, 2014

Two methods, Design Thinking and Customer Development (the core of the Lean Startup) provide the tactical day-to-day process of how to turn ideas into products. . While they both emphasize getting out of the building and taking to customers, they’re not the same. Here’s why.

Customer Development 335

Customer Development Design Developer Customer 335

Steve Blank

JANUARY 17, 2023

But these look for founders who have a technical or business model insight and a team. Accelerators provide these teams with technical and business expertise and connect them to a network of other founders and advisors. Carlos stirred his coffee. Accelerators don’t sound like a fit for where I am at in my career,” he offered. “I

Technical Cofounder 346

Technical Cofounder Intellectual Property Technical Review Incubator 346

YoungUpstarts

OCTOBER 31, 2017

by Robbie Kellman Baxter, author of “ The Membership Economy: Find Your Super Users, Master the Forever Transaction, and Build Recurring Revenue “ In today’s competitive market, customer engagement (or lack thereof) could determine whether your company sinks or swims. Don’t confuse this with Customer Service.

Customer 148

Customer Retention Software Review Metrics 148

The Startup Magazine

MARCH 7, 2024

Guest Author: Danish Ahmed, Founder of startuptools.ai. Companies are turning to AI to streamline their operations, notably in areas like customer service, cybersecurity, and fraud prevention. AI tools help analyze vast amounts of data to provide insights into market trends and customer preferences.

Artificial Inteligence 125

Artificial Inteligence Entrepreneur Algorithm Cofounder 125

YoungUpstarts

DECEMBER 1, 2017

by Angela Leavitt, founder of Mojo Marketing. The end of the year is approaching but many businesses have yet to meet their end-of-year revenue goals. Ask your current customers for “introductions,” not “referrals.”. Create an upsell strategy for current customers. Angela Leavitt is the founder of Mojo Marketing.

Revenue 118

Revenue San Diego Technical Review Dividend 118

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 28, 2020

But for founders who do their homework, the cost of entry is lower and the opportunity is higher than ever. Excellent detailed resources are everywhere, including a classic book, “ The Startup Checklist ,” by serial entrepreneur and founder of the New York Angels, David S. Building a minimum viable product, with customer validation.

Intellectual Property 404

Intellectual Property Startup Angel Groups Social Media 404

The Next Web

SEPTEMBER 22, 2013

But have you ever had the opportunity to pick the brains of founders who created amazingly successful startups and companies like Envato , Backblaze , Simple , or Treehouse ? Few people like talking about their mistakes, but thankfully nine founders took some time to share some of their hard-earned knowledge with you. Find your niche.

Cofounder 164

Cofounder Founder Startup Bootstrapping 164

YoungUpstarts

FEBRUARY 13, 2019

by Robbie Kellman Baxter, author of “ The Membership Economy: Find Your Super Users, Master the Forever Transaction, and Build Recurring Revenue “ Everyone knows that retention is crucial for subscription-based companies. I get calls all the time from clients struggling to retain new customers.

Customer 154

Customer Technical Review Retention Acquisition 154

Up and Running

OCTOBER 7, 2019

However, as a founder of a small business or startup, you’re juggling many things. KPIs Every Founder Should Track. Customer churn rate: shows the percentage of customers lost in a given period (e.g., “What gets measured gets done.” . Managers should be able to form an actionable response based on the information.

Founder 71

Founder Retention Metrics Technical Review 71

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 17, 2021

Yet in this age when customers have a thousand alternatives, and are overwhelmed by a multitude of messages, sales efforts can make or break a business. In fact, I believe modern entrepreneurs need to be super sales people, in the most positive sense, to their team as well as customers. You and the customer have to be on the same side.

Sales 348

Sales Startup Bootstrapping Technical Review 348

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 20, 2023

Instead, they need to validate a customer problem and real market need first. Don’t create solutions looking for a problem , since investors ignore these, and customers other than early adopters will be hard to find. These founders all seem to be pushing their technology, rather than highlighting their solution to a painful need.

Customer 276

Customer Sales Cycle Social Media Viral 276

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 5, 2018

Reading the NY Times article “ Jeffrey Katzenberg Raises $1 Billion for Short-Form Video Venture, ” I realized it was time for a new startup heuristic: the amount of customer discovery and product-market fit you need to find is inversely proportional to the amount and availability of risk capital. ” Fire, Ready, Aim.

Lean 335

Lean Burn Rate Startup IPO 335

Steve Blank

APRIL 26, 2022

They offered desperate founders more cash but insisted on new terms, rewriting all the old stock agreements that previous investors and employees had. Startups that can’t find product/market fit and/or generate sufficient revenue and/or lacked patient capital are scrambling for dollars – and the bottom feeders are happy to help.

Cram Down 404

Cram Down Founder Venture Capital Recapitalization 404

ReadWriteStart

DECEMBER 16, 2021

For those of you who don’t know: Conversation Intelligence software integrates with your customer engagement platform to record, transcribe, and analyze sales calls, giving businesses access to crucial deal information, CRM data entry automation, faster sales reps review, and sales coaching. Customer demands . Market trends, etc.

Conversion 162

Conversion Technical Review Startup Software Review 162

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 25, 2010

Customer Development is a technique startups use to quickly iterate and test each part of their business model. How you execute Customer Development varies, depending on your type of business. Ash Maurya , the CEO of WiredReach, has extended my work by building a model of Customer Development for Web Startups.

Customer Development 266

Customer Development Web Developer Customer 266

VC Cafe

FEBRUARY 21, 2023

This is a question startup founders ask themselves multiple times a week. It’s not just the competition against the incumbents and the large tech platforms that founders has to worry about, but most importantly is the company’s performance and product market fit. How are we doing?

Retention 109

Retention Conversion Churn Rate B2C 109

This is going to be BIG.

AUGUST 21, 2014

No one wants to be *that* founder--the non-technical founder poking around developer meetups asking for a unicorn with a Github account. What may wind up happening is that they can help get that first developer in, potentially mentor them a bit and join your company when you get enough revenue or funding to be a little more de-risked.

Founder 120

Founder Software Developers Software Development Venture Capital 120

Steve Blank

MARCH 16, 2016

To most founders a startup is not a job, but a calling. Founders can now access the largest pool of risk capital that ever existed –in the form of Private Equity (Angel Investors, family offices , Venture Capitalists (VC’s) and Hedge Funds.). (BTW, What does this mean for startup founders? Here’s the thing most founders miss.

Liquidity Event 120

Liquidity Event Founder Liquidation Preference Venture Capital 120

YoungUpstarts

JANUARY 11, 2021

by Swapnil Shinde, Co-Founder and CEO of Zeni. Don’t rely on spreadsheets to track revenue and expenses; start using accounting tools as soon as possible. Do you categorize your revenue and costs using departments and classes? Don’t use cash basis accounting; track revenue and costs on an accrual basis.

Small Business 180

Small Business Startup Cofounder Vertical 180

The Next Web

NOVEMBER 6, 2013

Rick Boerebach is a co-founder of ZEEF.com , a curated link directory built by passionate experts. If your startup’s goal is to sell a product or service but you’re having a hard time with your revenue model, affiliate marketing might be the perfect match to give you that much-needed boost. What is affiliate marketing?

Affiliate 134

Affiliate Revenue Internet Marketing 134

The Startup Magazine

NOVEMBER 28, 2022

With his passion for technology coupled with his desire to help others, Mitul graduated with a First Class in BSc in Computer Information Systems and embarked on his journey to help organisations better serve their customers. Mitul’s passion to excel and customer focus have been built into the core values and mission of Citius Partners.

Founder 135

Founder B2B Private Equity India 135

The Startup Magazine

MARCH 30, 2022

Investing in startups doesn’t have to be as much of a gamble as you might think; it’s all about ignoring the hype and instead letting the underpinnings of the organization, and any performance figures and projections for future revenues, do the talking. Timing is crucial. Rigorous research is your responsibility.

Technical Review 142

Technical Review Due Diligence Angel Investor Startup 142

ConversionXL

JUNE 8, 2017

According to the same study, 80% of its customers’ video plays comes from its personalized recommendation engine. Potentially, every interaction with the customer or the prospect can be personalized to a point. Copy-pasting examples from case studies is a doomed endeavor as your company and your customers are specific and different.

Programming 97

Programming Revenue Analytics Software Review 97