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6 Reasons Your Hockey Stick Growth Curve Can Go Flat

Startup Professionals Musings

Every entrepreneur thinks he can relax a bit after his business model is proven, funding is in place, and revenues are scaling as projected up that hockey-stick curve. Initially, all companies sell to customers who are the easiest to reach and most excited about the new product. Prices begin to decline quickly.

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Customer Development in Japan: a History Lesson

Steve Blank

I asked Tsutsumi-san to write a guest post for my blog to describe his experience with Customer Development in Japan. But customers didn’t agree. This made me believe deeply in the extreme importance of talking to customers before investing time and money, something I took to my next startup. ————-.

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8 Keys To Starting A Venture With Minimal Equity Loss

Startup Professionals Musings

It’s equally easy to go online and incorporate your new entity, register some intellectual property and have some fun with social media for marketing and interacting with customers. Most new teams are geographically dispersed these days anyway, so paying rent for an office should be differed to later stages when revenue is plentiful.

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7 Ways To Preclude The Most Common Investor Rejection

Startup Professionals Musings

Traction is evidence that your product or service has started that “hockey- stick” adoption rate which implies a large market, a valid business model, and sustainable growth. A graph that shows a hockey-stick “up and to the right” curve with at least three data points per key indicator is a great visual assist.

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6 Growth Challenges That Every Good Startup Will Face

Startup Professionals Musings

Every entrepreneur thinks he can relax a bit after his business model is proven, funding is in place, and revenues are scaling as projected up that hockey-stick curve. Initially, all companies sell to customers who are the easiest to reach and most excited about the new product. Prices begin to decline quickly.

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10 Tips To Ensure That Your New Venture Is Investable

Startup Professionals Musings

Simply stated, it means that your business has the potential to multiply revenue with minimal incremental cost. I see too many business plans that are really product plans for customers, touting free services and long feature lists. But what does that really mean? These are more likely scalable and investable. Automate to the max.

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8 Ways To Get Your Business Going Without Investors

Startup Professionals Musings

It’s equally easy to go online and incorporate your new entity, register some intellectual property and have some fun with social media for marketing and interacting with customers. Most new teams are geographically dispersed these days anyway, so paying rent for an office should be differed to later stages when revenue is plentiful.