Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 7, 2009

Instead of a Sales team and organized to sell with a consistent and successful sales roadmap generating revenue, it is a disorganized and unhappy organization burning lots of cash. Because the company based its headcount and expenses on the expectation that the Sales organization will bring in revenue according to plan. innovation.

Customer Development 232

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 232

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.) So what’s wrong the product development model?

Customer Development 244

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 244

ConversionXL

JULY 3, 2020

But, historically, they’ve undermined monetization—requiring crawler access that savvy users exploit and demanding free clicks for searchers. News is an especially challenging vertical since no site owns a newsworthy event. News sites have long been at the forefront, but plenty of speciality sites (e.g., But it’s not easy.

SEO 122

SEO HTML Technical Review Caching 122

David Teten

JANUARY 21, 2021

This essay is part of a series on alternative VC: I: Revenue-Based Investing: a new option for founders who care about control. II: Who are the major Revenue-Based Investing VCs? III: Why are Revenue-Based VCs investing in so many women and underrepresented founders? IV: Should your new VC fund use Revenue-Based Investing?

Equity 78

Equity Revenue Cofounder Colorado 78

ConversionXL

JUNE 5, 2014

It’s too bad, because a report by local & small business locator, Manta.com found that 61% of the small businesses surveyed indicated more than half of their revenue comes from repeat customers. Customer turnover was reduced by one third which translated into approximately $20 million recovered in annual revenue. communication.

Retention 115

Retention Customer Developer Programming 115

ConversionXL

JUNE 5, 2014

It’s too bad, because a report by local & small business locator, Manta.com found that 61% of the small businesses surveyed indicated more than half of their revenue comes from repeat customers. Customer turnover was reduced by one third which translated into approximately $20 million recovered in annual revenue. communication.

Retention 112

Retention Developer Customer Programming 112

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 3, 2009

For example, some startup sales execs believe hiring the core sales team is a key objective. Once the product begins to ship, startup sales execs use orders and revenue as its marker of progress in understanding customers. And if first customer ship is on this date over here, then I need to hire and staff a sales organization by then.”

Customer Development 228

Customer Development Developer Silicon Valley Customer 228

ConversionXL

JUNE 5, 2014

It’s too bad, because a report by local & small business locator, Manta.com found that 61% of the small businesses surveyed indicated more than half of their revenue comes from repeat customers. Customer turnover was reduced by one third which translated into approximately $20 million recovered in annual revenue. communication.

Retention 105

Retention Customer Developer Programming 105

ConversionXL

JUNE 5, 2014

It’s too bad, because a report by local & small business locator, Manta.com found that 61% of the small businesses surveyed indicated more than half of their revenue comes from repeat customers. Customer turnover was reduced by one third which translated into approximately $20 million recovered in annual revenue. communication.

Retention 98

Retention Customer Developer Programming 98

Steve Blank

JULY 30, 2009

Unfortunately most startups learn this by going through the “Fire the first Sales VP&# drill: You start your company with a list of potential customers reading like a “who’s who&# of whatever vertical market you’re in (or the Fortune 1000 list.) Your board nods sagely at your target customer list. What happened?

Silicon Valley 143

Silicon Valley RSS California Customer Development 143

Steve Blank

APRIL 30, 2009

Customers went into the store either looking for the SuperMac product by name (if our demand creation activities had been effective) or went in unsure of which brand of board to buy. Your design or ad agencies can impress you with their awards, but if you’re not moving product or creating demand, you’ve missed the point.

Sales 120

Sales Silicon Valley RSS Las Vegas 120

David Teten

SEPTEMBER 23, 2017

Satisfying LP demands and streamlining the valuation process are primary drivers in those clients’ adoption of Ipreo’s portfolio monitoring and valuation solutions, iLEVEL, iVAL, and Qval. . Over the past few years, ff Venture Capital hired two full-time engineers to build out its internal technology stack, called Totem.

Private Equity 60

Private Equity Venture Capital Equity Technical Review 60

ConversionXL

JUNE 3, 2019

Because a Manta report found that 61% of small businesses surveyed indicated that more than half of their revenue came from repeat customers. I can safely say that about three-quarters of my clients did not have a formal strategy to retain and cultivate their current customers prior to hiring us. million customers spread across 47 U.S.

Retention 82

Retention Developer Customer Programming 82

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 24, 2009

The other revels in the world as we all know it will be someday: limitless distribution enabled by new technologies, the importance of collaborative filters, and on-demand availability of all content for end-users. What is the right revenue model? Gatekeepers are overloaded. In other words, what is the minimum viable product ?

San Francisco 113

San Francisco Lean Technical Review Distribution 113

Cracking the Code

NOVEMBER 13, 2008

Fifteen CFOs participated - about half of them from Bessemer portfolio SaaS companies (Cornerstone On Demand, Intacct. It is time to fix your key SaaS metrics: P&L: MRR = MRE: you control your destiny when your monthly revenue equals your monthly expenses Sales & Marketing: Your cost of capital doubled, so if a CAC ratio > 0.5

Software Review 48

Software Review Technical Review Valuation Portfolio 48

Hearpreneur

FEBRUARY 19, 2023

No-code and low-code platforms are making it easier to develop an app, build a platform, or build digital businesses that were once saved for people with in-depth technical knowledge or deep enough pockets to hire them. Thanks to Sharon Tahar, Papaya Global ! #12- Thanks to Aaron Green, Essential Home & Garden ! #14-

Artificial Inteligence 108

Artificial Inteligence Technical Review Entrepreneur Global 108

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 2, 2009

The key contributors to an out-of-control burn rate is 1) hiring a sales force too early, 2) turning on the demand creation activities too early, 3) developing something other than the minimum feature set for first customer ship. And I can even imagine cases where it might burn more cash than a traditional startup. Lets see why.

Lean 260

Lean Silicon Valley Startup RSS 260

ConversionXL

NOVEMBER 5, 2020

The goal was simple: validate demand or move on. For example, after looking at the broader market, we saw that a service that helps marketers scale their video content was in demand. Choose to expand vertically or horizontally. For ambitious agencies, taking an MVP approach can unlock incredibly lucrative revenue streams.

PR 120

PR B2B Lean Audience 120

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 10, 2009

With that implicit assumption, startups hire a VP of Sales with a great rolodex and call on established mainstream companies while marketing creates a brand and buzz to create demand and drive it into the sales channel (web, direct salesforce, etc.) After twelve months Handspring’s revenue was $170 million. End result?

Customer Development 220

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 220

abovethecrowd.com

FEBRUARY 27, 2019

In many cases, a deeper focus on a particular category or vertical allows these marketplaces to distinguish themselves from broader marketplaces like eBay. In November of this year, the company announced that it had achieved “substantially” more than $1B in revenue in the third quarter. billion of GSV (gross services revenue) across 2.0

Internet 88

Internet Matching Vertical Hosting 88

abovethecrowd.com

APRIL 17, 2013

With each hand, a small percentage of the pot is scraped off by the dealer, which in essence becomes the “revenue” for the casino. While casinos use the term “rake,” a plethora of interesting word choices exist which all describe the same thing – keeping a little bit of the revenue for the company that is running the service.

Europe 101

Europe Social Network Technical Review IPO 101

crowdSPRING Blog

DECEMBER 13, 2018

But if you want to accelerate growth and improve your revenues and profits, you need to up your game. It is a key factor in the success and prosperity of all businesses and nonprofits, regardless of their revenues. It directly affects your ability to sell, to fundraise, to hire the best employees, and to grow. Unique visitors?

Marketing 162

Marketing Charlotte Naming Design 162

VC Cafe

APRIL 29, 2020

According to the Covid-19 impact report by research firm Beauhurst: 5,070 UK companies are at a ‘severe’ or ‘critical’ risk 615K startup and scaleup jobs are at risk Later stage startups are at the most risk Across the board, tech sectors and verticals are the most likely to experience a positive or low impact.

SBA 124

SBA Technical Review Startup 124

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. Engineering focuses on building the product; it designs the product, specifies the first release and hires a staff to build the product.

Silicon Valley 269

Silicon Valley Product Startup Product Development 269

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. Lighter Capital, a Revenue Based Investing VC, offers a Cost of Capital Calculator. 3) Raise capital. See their blog post on multiples.).

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Software Review Analytics Private Equity 78

Cracking the Code

MARCH 28, 2022

While the average forward revenue multiple has declined slightly since its February 2020 peak (19x), it’s still higher today than last year at 17x vs 15.8x We’ll also see the emergence of more low code / no code platforms that address specific vertical needs. The Index added another $0.9T in Sept 2020.

Global 62

Global Europe Software Review 62

ConversionXL

JUNE 2, 2022

Snowflake decides which channels to use according to industry verticals and where their buyers are likely to be. Dreamforce is such a crowded, high-energy conference that we knew we had to tailor our offer to stand out.” – Julia Stead, Director of Demand Generation at Invoca. Results from SE’s ABM efforts.

Marketing 105

Marketing Campaign Artificial Inteligence Sales Cycle 105

ConversionXL

JUNE 2, 2022

How LiveRamp drove over $50M in annual revenue from 15 target accounts. For a reasonable return on investment, target higher-value accounts than you would with more conventional demand generation plays. To experience explosive growth, implement an account-based marketing strategy rooted in proven, demonstrable success. via 6sense ].

Marketing 100

Marketing Campaign Email Sales 100

Hearpreneur

NOVEMBER 20, 2022

Once the business is established, running relatively smoothly, and gaining clients and revenue, hiring people and giving someone a job is very important. It allows them to control their short-term and long-term goals, which makes them crystal clear about their demands with the people they are dealing with.

Entrepreneur 70

Entrepreneur Asia LLC Community 70

Hearpreneur

JUNE 4, 2016

And it isn’t just because that gives me revenue, rather, it allows my recruiting pitch to become reality. We have established clients in some of the world’s largest companies, across multiple interesting verticals such as telecom, banking, travel and entertainment, and commerce.

Entrepreneur 48

Entrepreneur Haiti Artificial Inteligence PR 48

Hearpreneur

AUGUST 19, 2015

So we opened the goFlow platform from surfing-only to 10 new verticals: Paddle-boarding, Diving, Fishing, Skateboarding, Cycling, Golfing, Snow sports, Boating, Kitesurfing and more to come. — in a class so high in demand that I had to wait several quarters to take it? It’s a problem that all weather driven sports have.

Entrepreneur 48

Entrepreneur Australia Technical Review Community 48

VC Cafe

APRIL 17, 2020

In this post, I cover the rise of why this is the case, and offer lots of examples of verticals and applications as well as opportunities for startups and streamers. Some business schools have had students make demands for refunds while others have announced that they may not reopen until Jan 2021. In conclusion.

Taiwan 148

Taiwan Non-Compete Vietnam Bankruptcy 148

www.chubbybrain.com

SEPTEMBER 28, 2011

spent $20 million to get back to the same revenue that I had when I was CEO. created a vastly higher cost structure; I had 80 people mostly on base salaries under $100,000 and was bringing in revenue at the rate of $20 million annually. .”). Post-Mortem Title : My eHarmony for Hiring Failure. During this year they.

Software Review 79

Software Review Startup Technical Review Vesting 79

Steve Blank

MAY 4, 2009

Every marketing communication hire couldn’t wait to produce the next great ad or PR program. But without sales there is no revenue, and without revenue there is no company. All the strategic thinking in the world won’t make up for a missed revenue plan. Sales was the Sharp End of the Stick, and Marketing was the Stick

Silicon Valley 132

Silicon Valley RSS Non-Compete California 132

Occam's Razor

MAY 27, 2015

I've suffered enough bruises on the front-lines from trying to re-imagine the current and revolutionize the future across multiple industry verticals, countries, opportunity sizes. Today's primary use of the word programmatic refers to the use of ad exchanges, real-time bidding (RTB), Demand-side Platforms (DSPs) etc.

Analytics 60

Analytics Marketing Mobile Audience 60