Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 26, 2020

So mostly we just had to listen to customer feedback from founders, VCs and LPs. Venture capital is about backing the leaders of tomorrow who imagine the world as it should be and aren’t constrained by what it is today. He launched our scout program as an example.

Partner 361

Partner Management Cofounder San Francisco 361

Steve Blank

JANUARY 22, 2014

Success depends on finding startups that have identified acute customer pains in large markets where conditions are ripe for a new entrant. This means that those winning deals have to make a ~30x return to provide the venture capital fund that 20% compound return (the 6x). Part 3: Engineering a Regional Tech Cluster.

Early Stage 290

Early Stage Silicon Valley Oregon Technical Review 290

Steve Blank

APRIL 12, 2013

The previous post described how the Torch program built China’s innovation clusters. This post is about the rise of Chinese venture capital and how it helped build the countries entrepreneurial ecosystem. The Rise of Chinese Venture Capital. Like the U.S. It went bankrupt in 1997.). Investing in China Today.

Venture Capital 275

Venture Capital China Offshore SBIR 275

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 7, 2011

—— I was invited to Finland as part of Stanford’s Engineering Technology Venture Program partnership with Aalto University. Startup Accelerators: Startup Sauna and Vigo which includes Lifeline Ventures , KoppiCatch , and Veturi. 9-to-5 Venture Capital. Startup Blog: Arctic Startup.

Finland 327

Finland Venture Capital Government Russia 327

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 1, 2011

None of that can compare with being the CEO of a startup facing a rapidly diminishing bank account, your best engineer quitting, working until 10pm and rushing to the airport and catching a redeye for a “ Hail Mary ” close of a customer, with your board demanding you do it faster. venture/operating partners to get them into new industries.

Venture Capital 333

Venture Capital Early Stage Technical Review Startup 333

Steve Blank

APRIL 12, 2013

The previous post described how the Torch program built China’s innovation clusters. This post is about the rise of Chinese venture capital and how it helped build the countries entrepreneurial ecosystem. The Rise of Chinese Venture Capital. Like the U.S. It went bankrupt in 1997.). Investing in China Today.

Venture Capital 167

Venture Capital China Offshore SBIR 167

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 16, 2009

I was in New York last week with my class at Columbia University and several events made me realize that the Customer Development model needs to better describe its fit with web-based businesses. In it, I got asked a question I often hear: “What if we have a web-based business that doesn’t have revenue or paying customers?

Customer Development 226

Customer Development Web Developer Customer 226

Hunter Walker

DECEMBER 11, 2023

Originally backed by venture capital, in 2021 Daniel worked with TPG , a large private equity firm, to make them the majority investor. As I sat there I was overhearing the secretaries complain about this new computer program they had (WordPerfect, my guess is it was 5.1 for DOS), which they were struggling to use.

Private Equity 78

Private Equity Equity DC Leveraged Buyout 78

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 19, 2011

Matt was one of my inspirations behind Launchpad LA (yes, we’re going to have a program in 2011 – news very, very soon). I figured if Matt was on the verge of bankruptcy and one mentor changed his trajectory, what if we had a formalized, community-wide program? Here’s a summary of our interview. .

Acquisition 304

Acquisition Warrant Customer Term Sheet 304

Steve Blank

AUGUST 31, 2009

The first hint lies in its name; this is a product development model, not a marketing model, not a sales hiring model, not a customer acquisition model, not even a financing model (and we’ll also find that in most cases it’s even a poor model to use to develop a product.) Where Are the Customers? Product Development Diagram 1.

Customer Development 243

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 243

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 19, 2009

It included one firm who I asked not to call Salesforce.com as a reference (they were our largest pilot customer) and in their kindness they called Marc Benioff (the CEO) and asked his opinion. On December 3rd Brad Feld wrote a one paragraph blog post titled “ Raising Venture Capital &# in which he linked to my blog.

Venture Capital 274

Venture Capital Term Sheet San Diego Viral 274

Steve Blank

JANUARY 21, 2015

We had 130 students in 30 teams who got out of the classroom and did 2154 customer interviews in 5 days – a remarkable effort for 120 hours. When I mentioned this to my friends running the NYU and Columbia entrepreneurship programs, they looked at me like I just discovered that it gets dark at night.

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley New York City New York Venture Capital 120

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 13, 2011

Yeah, that was when I changed for me…” “…there was so much positive feedback on demystifying this one element of venture capital. 2. .“… “Then we engage with the product and the entrepreneur and because we know these areas very well we don’t have to spend a lot of time understanding the market or understanding the customer.”.

Technical Review 288

Technical Review Venture Capital Silicon Valley Software Review 288

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 24, 2009

Pattern Recognition One of the great things about being an entrepreneur is that you are constantly running a pattern recognition algorithm against a continual collection of customer and market data. Let’s Fire Our Customers Part of the DNA of great entrepreneurs is a bias towards decisive and immediate action. Get it done, now.

Customer 210

Customer Silicon Valley RSS California 210

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 10, 2011

I was invited to Finland as part of Stanford’s Engineering Technology Venture Program partnership with Aalto University. The country needs to figure out a long term privatization strategy for Venture investing. Filed under: Business Model versus Business Plan , Customer Development , Teaching , Venture Capital.

Finland 330

Finland Naming Russia Government 330

SoCal CTO

JUNE 9, 2010

Kathy Sierra at Business of Software 2009 - Business of Software Blog , May 4, 2010 "In the old days, getting customers was easy. Putting customers first. Legendary customer support. 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.

Fractional CTO 248

Fractional CTO Startup Venture Capital Cofounder 248

YoungUpstarts

OCTOBER 22, 2018

Entrepreneurs are understandably gratified to hear customer success stories. Build their own – the firm had substantial internal development resources and decided that if our solution couldn’t address most or all of their needs, they would custom build their own solution. There are sound arguments to be made for both approaches.

Iowa 113

Iowa Investment Bankers Cloud Software Review 113

Steve Blank

MAY 30, 2016

Now with over 917 interviews of beneficiaries (users, program managers, stakeholders, etc.), Using the Lean LaunchPad methodology our teams do much more than just build a product or understand customer problems/needs. We just held our eighth and ninth weeks of the Hacking for Defense class. This post is a continuation of the series.

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley San Diego Technical Review Incubator 120

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 20, 2011

63 scientists and engineers in 21 teams made 2,000 customer calls in 8 weeks , turning laboratory ideas into formidable startups. In July I got a call from Errol Arkilic , a program manager at the National Science Foundation (NSF), the $6.8-billion The I-Corps Incubator Program. This week we saw the results. billion U.S.

Incubator 306

Incubator Government Silicon Valley Lean 306

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 21, 2010

Investors: FirstMark Capital (Amish Jani)(lead), with existing investors: Accel Partners, Bessemer Venture Partners, First Round Capital, Reid Hoffman. Assistly “Multi-channel customer support and management service&# – this is another industry I love and I specifically love the team at Assistly.

Venture Capital 265

Venture Capital Social Network Angel Investor Chad 265

David Teten

AUGUST 15, 2013

The most common ways in which the Fortune 500 are working with the startup community at scale is through corporate VC arms, contests, packages of benefits geared to startups, and accelerator programs. 1) Corporate Venture Capital. 4) Accelerators.

Startup 114

Startup Technical Support Venture Capital Balance Sheet 114

crowdSPRING Blog

NOVEMBER 8, 2018

Boulder’s entrepreneurial system is bolstered by a number of local venture capital firms, including Foundry Group. With its concentrated mix of start-ups, established businesses, and venture capital, Boulder has all of the elements to fuel sustainable economic growth. Las Vegas, NV.

United States 113

United States Las Vegas San Francisco Denver 113

Bryce Dot VC

DECEMBER 30, 2016

Venture Capital is a hell of a drug. Step 5- Admitted to our team, to ourselves, and to our customers the changes needed for the viability and long term independence of our business. Seeking only for knowledge of features and holes in our products for which customers would be willing to pay.

Venture Capital 45

Venture Capital Programming Metrics Valuation 45

ReadWriteStart

JUNE 1, 2020

The primary source of your funds should be your paying customers, i.e., your business should generate enough revenues and profits to fund the growth and expansion. Any custom manufactured IoT device would require software development as well as hardware customization. Government programs. Equity investors. Debt investors.

Startup 150

Startup Entrepreneur Elevator Pitch Seed Stage 150

David Teten

JULY 12, 2012

For startup companies trying to build buzz around their brand, but without the capital to launch a full-fledged PR campaign, there are a lot of ways to hack the PR game. To begin with, the best PR you can build is through satisfied customers with high Net Promoter scores. Thanks to Joan Xie for her help drafting this post.

Venture Capital 122

Venture Capital PR Technical Review Startup 122

ReadWriteStart

OCTOBER 13, 2011

I was invited to Finland as part of Stanford's Engineering Technology Venture Program partnership with Aalto University. Steve Blank is a retired serial entrepreneur, educator, thought leader and creator of the rigorous "Customer Development" methodology detailed in his book, "The Four Steps to the Epiphany."

Finland 158

Finland Venture Capital Government Russia 158

David Teten

AUGUST 19, 2019

I’ve been a traditional equity VC for 8 years, and I’m now researching new business models in venture capital. RBI normally requires founders to pay back their investors with a fixed percentage of revenue until they have finished providing the investor with a fixed return on capital, which they agree upon in advance.

Revenue 60

Revenue Technical Review Software Review Equity 60

Steve Blank

APRIL 23, 2014

In response, venture capital firms like Sequoia and Andreessen/Horowitz are hiring new partners just to work with their portfolio companies and match them to corporations. A business model is all the parts of a strategy necessary to deliver a product to a customer and make money from it.

Acquisition 333

Acquisition Intellectual Property Silicon Valley Startup 333

Austin Startup

AUGUST 2, 2018

In the venture capital world, it’s similarly staggering, with 4.2% of deal-making partners in venture capital and 3% of venture-backed company CEOs being women.” - Letter from the Founding General Partner, 09/1/2015. The Boss Babes ATX WORK Conference was held on July 14th with the UT MBA & MSTC Programs.

Austin 57

Austin Software Review Technical Review Entrepreneur 57

YoungUpstarts

AUGUST 28, 2014

Even Apple has decided to move closer to many of its techie customers and brand loyalists and set up camp in the lonestar state. It has invested $500 million in capital since its inception. The government supports small business owners with popular incentive programs and offers many training and networking programs.

North Carolina 176

North Carolina America Utah Idaho 176

Austin Startup

AUGUST 30, 2019

On August 14–15, the Air Force, through AFWERX , hosted a two-day Spark Collider event at Capital Factory to bring newly awarded 19.2 SBIR Phase I companies together with relevant Air Force and venture capital stakeholders. Jason made a familiar point about how hard it is to find customers when you’re left to your own devices.

SBIR 48

SBIR Government Venture Capital Startup 48

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 21, 2023

Negotiate an advance from a strategic partner or customer. Find a major customer, or a complimentary business, who sees such value in your idea that they are willing to give you an advance on royalty payments to complete your development. Solicit venture capital investors. Pitch your needs to friends and family.

Equity 266

Equity Startup Small Business Administration SBA 266

Steve Blank

APRIL 10, 2013

China has embraced state capitalism in a way Wall Street can only dream about. Startups, Venture Capital and the Communist Party: how did this happen in China? The majority of the science and technology programs are driven by MOST (Ministry of Science and Technology ) and NSFC (National Natural Science Foundation).

China 319

China Taiwan Silicon Valley Guam 319

YoungUpstarts

OCTOBER 26, 2016

This includes a number of international venture capital groups which have set up offices in the country, local family offices , and sovereign investment funds. In the end, the key to success is getting the right team together, building a great product, and connecting with your customer base. Access to customers and investors.

UAE 100

UAE Silicon Valley Startup Incubator 100

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 29, 2020

Negotiate an advance from a strategic partner or customer. Find a major customer, or a complimentary business, who sees such value in your idea that they are willing to give you an advance on royalty payments to complete your development. Solicit venture capital investors. Pitch your needs to friends and family.

Equity 436

Equity Small Business Administration SBA Syndicate 436

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 12, 2010

Many of the growth equity firms have had outbound dialing programs for years. Perhaps outbound dialing / emailing programs worked well for growth equity firms in their core business. What disrespect they show founders / CEOs with these programs. Why do VCs send generic outbound emails like this?

Programming 294

Programming Entrepreneur Private Equity Equity 294

www.forentrepreneurs.com

FEBRUARY 2, 2010

SolidWorks 2: The best VAR management program in the world? SolidWorks 3: The best VAR management program in the world? In pure web businesses where the headcount doesn’t need to grow as customer acquisition scales, it is also very useful to look customer acquisition costs without the headcount costs.)

Acquisition 103

Acquisition Cost Customer Entrepreneur 103