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. digital collectibles) are only valuable if there’s an active market of supply < demand. Industry reports.

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IP Strategic Investors Vertical Early Stage 187

David Teten

DECEMBER 3, 2019

Tim Friedman, Founder, PE Stack , said, “If I could offer one piece of advice to today’s managers, it would be to take the time to understand the demands of the modern institutional LP. I previously posted a detailed presentation with sales technology tools useful for B2B sales. 3) Raise capital. She is a model for us all!

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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. I previously posted a detailed presentation with sales technology tools useful for B2B sales. Pitchbot.vc 3) Originate investments.

Private Equity 60

Private Equity Venture Capital Equity Technical Review 60

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 30, 2013

Relevancy for an early-stage company is the discovery and understanding of the real addressable market for a product or service. Selling too early triggers customer defenses and drives them away. This is not just sales traction, but a proper balance between resources, product, and customers.

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Startup Early Stage Vertical Sales 293

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 7, 2009

This post describes how following the traditional product development can lead to a “startup death spiral.&# In the next posts that follow, I’ll describe how this model’s failures led to the Customer Development Model – offering a new way to approach startup sales and marketing activities. The board raises a collective eyebrow.

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Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 5, 2009

Unfortunately in early stage startups the drive for financing hijacks the corporate DNA and becomes the raison d’etre of the company. What are Early Stage VC’s Really Asking? Your goal was to preserve your cash while you turned these guesses into facts and searched for a repeatable and scalable sales model.

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Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 267

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 28, 2012

Relevancy for an early-stage company is the discovery and understanding of the real addressable market for a product or service. Selling too early triggers customer defenses and drives them away. This is not just sales traction, but a proper balance between resources, product, and customers. A startup must gain traction.

Startup 247

Startup Early Stage Vertical Sales 247

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 17, 2016

Relevancy for an early-stage company is the discovery and understanding of the real addressable market for a product or service. Selling too early triggers customer defenses and drives them away. This is not just sales traction, but a proper balance between resources, product, and customers.

Startup 120

Startup Early Stage Vertical Sales 120

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). AI generated NFTs – NFT sales hit $17.6 Virtual goods.

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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. This is my new favorite post on your blog. 9 companies in 6 years… did any of those other ones catch on?

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Venture Capital Silicon Valley RSS Hockey Stick 239

Steve Blank

MAY 22, 2009

———— T o: Marketing Department From: Steve Subject: Going to Trade Shows Like it Matters Generating Leads Ownership If your company is going to a show to generate leads, then sales owns the show. This is worthy of an open and honest discussion with sales up front. And inviting to the booth/dinner/private demo.

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Silicon Valley RSS California Customer Development 136

A Crowded Space

OCTOBER 2, 2018

While a big incumbent is stuck working on their existing core business and platform, early stage startups can focus on new platforms or niche parts of the market to build up initial traction. 3) Niche Managed Marketplaces – Within many verticals, there are opportunities to significantly improve customer experience.

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Vertical B2B Early Stage Mobile 60

Steve Blank

JULY 13, 2009

The Customer Validation lesson of, “no formal launch until you have early sales validating the product and sales process&# was also born here. I can’t remember if they were in the Wired article or on the web site, but every once in a while I still go over to ebay and see if I can find any for sale. Order Here.

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Silicon Valley Product RSS California 122

Lightspeed Venture Partners

APRIL 13, 2015

One look at any of the market maps for marketing tech, sales productivity apps, HR tech or other functional areas within enterprises would tell you how crowded these traditional enterprise software landscapes have become… Is there another billion dollar company to be built in some of these areas? SaaS is no longer a new business model.

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Sales Cycle Government Demand Distribution 60

Steve Blank

AUGUST 20, 2009

Do you know how they create demand? Rule 1: In an existing market Customer Development means not only understanding potential customers, but your competitors in detail – their product features, their sales channels, their demand creation strategy, their business model, etc. Me – “Have you used Company x’s product?

Silicon Valley 206

Silicon Valley Startup RSS Customer Development 206

Austin Startup

OCTOBER 13, 2010

The financing round, led by PerformanceEdge Partners and existing lead investor S3 Ventures, provides the company with the funds needed to extend its marketing and sales initiatives and grow new partnerships. Most recently he served as vice president within the global strategic partner and channel sales organizations for Symantec.

Vertical 59

Vertical Early Stage Cofounder Channel 59

Steve Blank

MAY 21, 2009

As the company gets larger and a large professional sales organization kicks in, its second priority is to generate qualified leads. Before you go to a trade show sales and marketing need to agree to measurable goals. Then offer those budget dollars to the VP of Sales.

Silicon Valley 203

Silicon Valley RSS California Customer Development 203

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 17, 2009

The Customer Development model delineates all the customer-related activities in the early stage of a company into their own processes and groups them into four easy-to-understand steps: Customer Discovery , Customer Validation , Customer Creation , and Company Building. Its strength is its rigor and flexibility.

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Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 253

techcrunch.com

FEBRUARY 19, 2010

Yeah, you should get out more Just Because Google Exists Doesn’t Mean You Should Stop Asking People Things Skype Demands Mobile App Nimbuzz Remove Support, Effective October 31st Shunned By Apple, Adobe Embraces Android With AIR 2.5 Been there Done that This is very depressing for all future founders, or even currently early stage founders.

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Venture Capital Technical Review Sweat Equity Valuation 62

Steve Blank

MAY 4, 2009

It became clear to me that the mission of marketing in most companies has to be to support sales. While this may seem obvious to anyone not in sales and marketing, trust me, in a technology company this is a conceptual breakthrough. But without sales there is no revenue, and without revenue there is no company.

Silicon Valley 132

Silicon Valley RSS Non-Compete California 132

Steve Blank

AUGUST 27, 2009

Yet we used the product development model not only to manage product development, but as a road map for finding customers and to time our marketing launch and sales revenue plan. Marketing starts to build a sales demo, writes sales materials (presentations, data sheets), and hires a PR agency. Marketing is at its peak.

Silicon Valley 269

Silicon Valley Product Startup Product Development 269

Duct Tape Marketing

NOVEMBER 24, 2021

He is the founder of Premium Growth Solutions, a strategic planning consultancy for early-stage consumer packaged goods brands. Success story features Q & A sessions with successful business leaders, keynote presentations, conversations on sales marketing. It's one of the most useful podcasts in the world.

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Networking Early Stage Distribution Hosting 87